The Golden Lord has a perverted SSS-rank summoning system!-Chapter 65: When do I start?

Old John paused for a moment, his eyes fixed on the book Ethan was holding.

What could his Lord possibly want with him so early in the morning? And what was that book?

"Have you ever worked in winemaking?" Ethan asked, eyeing the man in front of him from head to toe.

An old man with a gentle smile, gray hair, and a sparse beard. He seemed like a pleasant person, overall.

"Well... I worked in that field when I was young and spent a few years in the capital," John replied, hesitating slightly. "But I never actually specialized in it."

"I see." Ethan nodded, scratching his chin thoughtfully. "This book contains recipes for producing a special type of wine. Do you think it would be possible to substitute the main ingredient with Lunar Green Grass Spirit?"

"Hm..." Old John picked up the book carefully.

He wasn’t much of a reader, but he still knew his way around words. When he finished flipping through the pages, he let out a sigh.

"Yes, sir. But, in all honesty, we don’t have the necessary tools for wine production. I can gather the other ingredients, but..."

"Don’t worry about that." Ethan gripped the old man’s shoulders firmly.

There were many empty houses in Goldenveil, and one of them was right next to Jhon’s house. As soon as they entered, Ethan opened his inventory and pulled out the complete wine fermentation and production system.

An intense glow flooded the room for a moment, and when it subsided, it revealed something that nearly made Jhon’s heart burst in his chest.

Fermenters, valves, siphons, containers for storing wine and ingredients, all arranged with perfect organization.

"M-my lord... is this...?"

"Yours. Well, technically yours." Ethan smiled. "I want you to work for me making wine. I’ll pay you five gold coins a year."

It was a huge salary for a commoner, who would normally struggle to earn a single gold coin in an entire year. Still, compared to the profit potential this represented, it was nothing more than a tiny sum.

"Five gold coins..." Jhon repeated softly, his eyes shining with growing excitement.

Five years. No. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Ten years.

If he worked there for ten years, he could retire alongside his wife and never have to worry about money for the rest of his life.

"My lord..." Jhon’s lips parted, trembling with pure excitement. He was old and wanted to stop working as soon as possible, and this could be exactly the way to do it.

"When do I start? I’ll call my son right now to help!"

There was no hesitation on John’s part. Immediately, he dove into studying the recipe and began organizing the ingredients, gathering everything he could find around the village.

In total, he had enough to fill fifty of the hundred wine bottles that came with the system Ethan had summoned, assuming there would be no losses in production.

Ethan could only hope that the two months until the merchant’s arrival would be enough to produce the wine and that the first batch would turn out to be high quality, or at least drinkable.

Two months was a very short timeframe to produce wine, and there was a real possibility that the substitute ingredients would fail completely, resulting in something horrible.

Even so, he placed his faith in John.

He might have been just a Rank D talent, but he was a man who had dedicated his entire life to alcohol and knew how to ferment a quality drink.

Shortly after leaving the house assigned to John, a sharp, metallic sound reached Ethan’s ears, and his eyes naturally fell upon the town’s blacksmith shop.

Smoke was already rising from the chimneys, and the steady rhythm of a hammer striking metal echoed through the streets.

Outside, carrying a bucket of water, stood the thirty-year-old daughter of one of the Goldenveil hunters.

With firm, round breasts, gentle eyes, and child-bearing hips, she was a woman who turned heads.

In terms of beauty, she was second only to Evelyn and Alice, making her one of the most sought-after women in the entire village.

Apparently, she hadn’t wasted any time throwing herself into the arms of the new blacksmith.

A smart choice, honestly.

Roderik was someone who would surely reach the third stage, and with his Rank A Talent and mastery of the forge, he would likely occupy a prominent position alongside Ethan.

Doran would also be a good match for her, but it was hard to compete with a Rank A Talent.

With a satisfied sigh, Ethan noted that Roderik’s loyalty had grown a little more after the townspeople’s celebrations and a night well spent alongside a beautiful woman.

Satisfied, he went to Doran, to whom he handed the Rank C Talent enhancement potion.

Despite his low base Talent, the captain of the guard was a man of firm character and loyalty, and in future opportunities, when something wasn’t useful to either Evelyn or Alice, he would be the first to receive it.

***

A few hours later...

While the people of Goldenveil worked with renewed vigor, a small group made their way through the dense forest on the outskirts.

There were five of them in all, and the equipment they carried made it clear they did not belong to Goldenveil.

Although they considered themselves hunters, they were more like adventurers from a human settlement on the western plains.

Good friends who, for many years, had harbored the plan to visit the realm of the burning ice.

Since they could not secure passage on any ship, a single alternative remained: to cross the forest.

It was almost ironic.

Adventurers from the rest of the continent planned to explore the seven forbidden zones in search of wealth, while those who lived within them tried to leave them for the same reason.

"Are you sure this is the right way?" One of the adventurers asked the group’s leader, a second-stage warrior.

"Of course! There must be a settlement around here. If we head east for another five days, we’ll reach the edge of the eternal forest and the burning ice kingdom!" the leader declared with conviction.

The strongest member of the group and their leader was also the youngest, just over twenty years old.

The son of a third-stage warrior, he was destined to succeed his father by serving the lord of the city where they lived.

But he didn’t want that.

He wanted more.

"Don’t worry, I’ve learned a lot from my father and even managed to get some maps from the lord. Together, we’ll make a fortun—"

The sentence died in his throat.

The young warrior’s eyes froze, and as he turned his face, he saw it.

Teeth sharp as razors and blood-red eyes, watching him with hunger.