The next morning, after finishing my routine and having breakfast, I went back to my room saying that I was going to be playing with Kaede for a change of pace. After shutting the door and putting a barrier on it to prevent my mom from walking in and seeing what I was doing, I pulled out the materials and tools I purchased yesterday and got to work.

The beginning parts were easy, I simply had to shave down the Rebound wood using my new carving knife enchanted with wind edge. I managed to learn enchantment magic after figuring out the knack for barrier magic, and wondering if I could use a similar process to coat an object in magic. It turned out to be a bit more difficult than that, but I was able to figure it out after about a week of experimenting.

After trimming the wood into a rough ball shape, I used plant magic to fine-detail the shape slowly using magic power. I then realized that to use it as a football, I would have to increase its weight. Thinking about it, I cut the ball in half using wind magic and hollowed out a spherical section in the center. I then created a rock using earth magic to fit the hollowed-out section perfectly, and slowly expanded the hollow and rock until the weight felt right. I then put the ball back together, once again using plant magic to cleanly join the pieces together.

Next, I marked out the shape I needed to cut the Swamp Lizard leather into, and cut it out the pieces using the mithril alloy scissors. The scissors were very strong and sharp, they made cutting the material quite easy, so I was looking forward to trying it on the Naga leather. I then had to set up a sound barrier to prevent any loud noises from leaking out and being heard by my mom. After setting up the barrier, I used a punch to make small holes in the leather before sewing them together around the ball with the cord I had purchased.

Looking at the final product, I was quite pleased with my work, glad that I had raised my dexterity stat by practicing other crafts and fighting techniques. The ball seemed to be about the right size and weight, but I realized that this world having levels could make the game unfair among adults. It should still work for children and adults that don't have jobs that involve killing monsters. I then cleaned up, putting everything away, before pulling out a hardwood board and the chisel set.

Using the hammer and chisels, I slowly shaped the board into a square shape, and engraved grooves on it, creating an 8 by 8 square board with a half-inch or so border around it. Getting into it, I used the smallest chisel to engrave a vine pattern around the entire border. Once again, I used plant magic to clean up any rough areas that I couldn't get with the tools I had.

Kaede mentioned that it was about lunchtime, so, realizing that I had lost track of time, I quickly cleaned up and put away everything in my item box. Then erasing the barrier magic, I left my room just in time to see my mom coming to call me for lunch. After eating, I left the house to look around for enough rocks to make 32 figurines, 16 in a light shade, and 16 in a dark shade. It took about an hour and a half to find enough rocks and make the figurines using magic, there was no way I was going to attempt chiseling them out by hand.

After finishing that project, I decided it was time to work on something that has been bothering me since my Earthly knowledge was unlocked. I told my mom that I was going to go see if there were any new stalls in the market and was told to see if they had any pepper since we were running low. My mom gave me a couple of coppers and I set off to the market. I was able to get the pepper that my mom asked for and found a stand selling berries.

It took me a while to decide on which berries to get, I ended up paying to try nearly two-thirds of them before deciding on a sweet grape-like berry. When I got home, I gave my mom the pepper she asked for, along with her change, before immediately heading back outside. Once I was outside, I made a bowl and two jars using earth magic, washed both of them out, and then used the bowl to wash the berries, removing any stems I found during the process.

Once the berries were clean, I used purification magic to make sure the jars were completely clean, before splitting the berries between the two jars equally. I then crushed some of the berries, adding some water and mixing it, before covering both jars with a cloth and tying a string around the lip to make sure the cloth doesn't come off. I also used purification magic on the completed mixture to make sure that any bad bacteria had been dealt with. I then hid one of the jars in the pantry, and tested a time acceleration spell on the other, stopping to stir it regularly.

The natural yeast fermented properly, so I prepared a loaf pan using magic and took that and the bowl I made inside the house with me to make some bread. I prepared a basic bread dough guessing at the recipe a bit, trying to recreate soft bread with this world's ingredients. Fortunately, my mom was doing laundry, so I was able to prepare the dough and clean up after myself before she came back in. Once again, I used magic to accelerate the rising process and then made a cut along the top, and carefully brushed a little melted butter around the cut I made.

Outside, I made an earth magic version of a brick oven to bake my bread in. Aside from the loaf pan, I also made a few dough rounds, planning to put the excess in my item box while it is still warm with the hope that the bread turns out well. I had to use 2 mana potions to get to this point because accelerating time, even in such a small area, uses up a lot of mana, not to mention all the other magic I have been using today.

Using fire magic to adjust the temperature in my bread oven, I made a paddle out of hardwood to be able to put the bread in and get it back out without burning myself. I also found a long stick and made a hook on the end of it to be able to slide the loaf pan out when it was done, if I had tried to get it out with the paddle, I probably would have shattered the pan.

I kept an eye on the temperature of the oven, as well as continued to check to make sure I didn't burn the bread, turning it with the paddle every so often. Once the bread looked done, I pulled it out of the oven and set it on a small table to cool off before tossing most of the bread into my item box. I left out the loaf pan, two small bread rounds about the size of dinner rolls, and one larger bread round. Tasting the bread, it had a rather basic bread flavor, though the berries I used gave the bread a slight orange tint, which was a bit of a surprise.

I then took the remaining bread inside and showed it to my mom, having her taste it as well. I then explained that the loaf was made to slice for sandwiches, and also explained that it would go bad faster than hard bread. She was very shocked but the bread, and even more shocked when I showed her the natural yeast I was making in the pantry. I of course explained the process of making the yeast and how to mix it into the dough in place of some of the water and also told her about letting the dough rise. It took a while to explain everything and show her the bread oven I made using magic and explain how to use it, including the normal way to use it with firewood.

At dinner that day, dad was raving about how good the soft bread was, and how he didn't want to eat hard bread ever again. I had to burst my dad's bubble, explaining how the soft bread would only last a few days at most, so it couldn't completely replace hard bread. I also explained how long it took to make the yeast used to make the bread fluffy, saying that it wasn't practical to be making it continuously. Plus I still wasn't sure if there would be appropriate berries to use in making yeast in other seasons.

The next day, I continued with my toy creation project, by first making a baseball, a bat, two kinds of mitts, and a leather helmet. Just making those took up the entire day. Even though making the ball itself went smoothly with the experience I had from making the football the day before, and making the bat was also simple, the process of making the mitts and helmet was quite complicated. I ended up making the helmet and mitts able to adjust in size a bit because I wasn't sure exactly how large they needed to be. I also made child-size versions of the bat, mitts, and helmet, so that I could enjoy them myself.

On the third day, I went and purchased some cheap wood from a company that mostly deals with craftsmen, selling in bulk. Fortunately, they were willing to sell me a bunch of scraps for 480L, which brought my total funds to about 300L. I then took everything back home, but instead of continuing my projects, I took care of my garden and made some more potions. Making extra mana potions, because I was sure I was going to be forced to make more bread again soon.

The fourth day came around, and I continued my game-making project. Today I made a ping pong ball and table by using Plant Magic to put together a bunch of the scrap wood I purchased the day before, and scraps from when I hollowed out the football. The paddles I made out of hardwood and covered in Swamp Lizard leather that I thinned down by scraping the back side of it with my carving knife. I made the net through a combination of scrap pieces of leather and weaving the cord material I had between the posts I made on either side of the table.

Because using plant magic to make the table used up so much of my mana, I used the rest of the day to write out game instructions and rules for each of the games I made items for: baseball, football (soccer), ping pong (which I renamed table ball), and chess. Once I finished that, I wrote out the instructions on how to make yeast, and which kind of berries I used. I planned to test using different berries to make the yeast and write the results down on the recipe.

The next day, I made some small wooden discs to be used for playing checkers. I also crushed up some dark leaves, added some water, stirred, and used the concoction to paint every other square on my chessboard. After it dried, I liked how it turned out, so I painted the perimeter with it as well. I also used some leftover scrap wood and cord to make a Kendama toy (the one that looks like an upside-down hand bell, with a ball attached to the bottom of the handle via string, that you try to swing into the cup part on top), as well as some dice, which took up the remainder of the day.

It was on the 6h day that I went to see Jay at the Montgomery trading company after breakfast, with all of the game and toy items I made sitting in my item box. Because I arrived earlier in the morning than before, Jay was the first to spot me when I walked in. "Well if it isn't Cero, what brings you by today? Did you finish the items you were thinking about before?" Even though he phrased it as a question, I could see that he was confident that I had.

"Ah, I'm running low on money, so I brought more potions, and yes, I did manage to finish that project I was working on," I replied like we were discussing the weather, betraying nothing in my tone of voice or actions. After which he led me to the usual room, telling a nearby employee to bring tea. We talked about the weather, food stalls, and other mundane things until the tea was delivered and the employee left, shutting the door behind her.

Taking a single sip of tea as a formality, Jay set down his cup saying "let's get the boring stuff out of the way. Take out the potions so I can quickly finish the assessment."

Deciding not to waste time, I took out ten of each potion, once again lining them up by type. Jay quickly assessed 3 of each kind randomly, then had an employee take them away and prepare my payment. We drank tea again until the employee came back and handed Jay my payment, which he then handed directly to me. I put it away in my item box after quickly counting it, apparently, if you don't count the money, it makes it seem like you don't value what you sold highly enough to make sure you were paid properly, I learned that from Jay last time.

With a gleam in his eye, Jay looked at me and said "so, are you going to show me or not?" To which I could only sigh. I then cast a sound barrier to prevent and sound from leaking out, before taking out the chess board, chess pieces, and checkers, setting them on the table. Followed by the Kendama, football, and baseball equipment. Lastly, I pulled out the rules and instructions I wrote, matching them to each of the items I had taken out.

I first let him read through the rules and instructions before explaining to him the Kendama while showing him how it works since that was the only item that didn't have any documents with it. I then asked him if he had any questions, to which he started asking question after question, as soon I answered one, he would immediately ask the next, barely giving me any time to breathe. He asked about every little thing, not satisfied until he had learned all there was to learn about the games, he didn't ask about the production method though.

After I finished answering all of his questions, I informed him that there was one more item, but it was too large to pull out of my item box in this room. The room wasn't small by any means, but it was mostly filled with couches, a table, and some decorations. I ended up putting away the items I took out, and following Jay out of the room, up to the third floor which had a large open floor space with some doors leading to other rooms. I first made sure there was no one else around before pulling out the 'Table ball' table as I was calling it, paddles, and ball, handing the rules and instructions over to him.

He read through the instructions and asked me a few questions before I suggested playing a game to learn it firsthand. After he agreed, I explained the game as I played against him, I obviously won the game, but he was pretty good considering it was his first time playing. I put away the table and equipment before we went back down to the private room.

Once we had sat down, Jay let out a long sigh. "Hah… that was a lot more than I expected. I'll say this now, I want to sell everything you showed me, but there are a few problems with that. The first would be about that baseball game, while I think it would become very popular, it would take something major happening to popularize it. Frankly, my company doesn't have what it takes to start that, it would likely take an influential noble taking action in order to spread the word about it, causing it to gain popularity. Second is setting up the groundwork in order to start mass production of the items, there's a lot here so it would take a while."

"I agree with you about baseball, I believe it can easily become one of the most popular games and events if it is done right. Even if you can't sell baseball in its entirety though, you can sell two mitts and the ball as a set for parents and children to play 'catch' with. Aside from that, I believe making the Kendama and Table Ball items would be best to start with since they are relatively easier to produce. Though Table Ball would probably have to be a made-to-order product, with maybe keeping a few already produced tables in storage for people who have to have it right away. You should be able to sell it to places with taverns quite easily though, I've noticed people tend to get more competitive when they drink. The football while seeming like it would be the easiest has a fairly tricky production method, I had to use earth, wind, and plant magic to complete it. The plant magic may not have been strictly necessary though. These are the production methods for the football, Kendama, and table ball items." I said, handing him the production methods I have already written. "The baseball has a similar production method, only making it smaller, lighter, and exchanging Naga leather for the wrap. I think it would be easier to show a leather worker the finished mitt than to use a written production method."

After giving him some time to look through the production methods, I once again spoke up. "I am willing to sell the rights to everything except baseball, and table ball to you for a lump sum, but I want a percentage of all sales of baseball goods, and it would probably be easier on you to have a similar deal for table ball since that is an item that has to be made to order by local craftsmen. What do you think?"

"I don't have a problem doing it that way, but we will need to sign some contracts at the merchant guild. I could probably have the contracts ready tomorrow if that is alright?" He asked me, not missing a beat.

"Will my age be a problem for signing the contracts?" I asked, honestly not knowing if he had forgotten that I'm only 7.

"It's no problem, we just have to register you as an apprentice merchant first, which is quite common for kids your age. So, does tomorrow mid-morning work for you?" He answered and again asked if tomorrow works for me. I guess he was extremely interested in these items.

"Sure, how much are you offering for the lump sum? How much for the other two?" I replied, moving the conversation along.

"I'll give you 3 small mithril as the lump sum, and 40 percent of the table ball and baseball sales. How does that sound?" He asked, sounding like there was no way I would refuse.

"Let's make it 20 percent, and add a stipulation that children's sizes have to be sold for minimum profit, and future merchandise related to baseball sold by you falls under the same guidelines. I agree with the 3 small mithril lump sum as it is." I replied, causing his eyes to go wide.

"Normally people will try to get the most money they can during negotiations.. unless.. no, don't tell me, have you already thought of other things that might be sold for baseball?" He was practically whispering at the end, but I was able to catch it all.

"It all depends on how well baseball is introduced to the public, but I'll say this much, it's a game played by teams, not individuals." Then I just smiled. Jay is an intelligent merchant, so I have no doubt he will figure it out.

After we finished the discussion, Jay handed me back the production method documents, and we ended our meeting. Reconfirming the plan for tomorrow, I said goodbye and headed home.