Homestead Survival

<16 August 2024, GRAND MESA OF SUMMER , A+>
[Theo and Julia]
Theo and Julia woke to a blue box floating in front of them.

"How many of these did she place?" Julia said, rubbing her eyes and reading the box once more. "And what even is any of that?"

Theo grunted tiredly as he placed six gold in the glowing circles below the box. After the last one was placed, the items, two large crystal tokens, and a rolled-up scroll dropped to the ground.

Theo placed them in his pouch. "I don't know, but if these are anywhere near as powerful as this ring, we should wait to mess with them until we are alone."

"Agree," Julia yawned, "welp, let's get to it, shall we?"

They start to eat breakfast and are joined by an already chipper-looking Ordus. "Good morning. I have been chatting with the Dwarves, and they have agreed to help me create a tunnel into the cave where the water is."

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"'antastic!" Julia says around a mouthful of a System meal.

"Good work, Ordus," Theo says with an appreciative nod. "But I don't want them to feel overworked. Do you think that they will be upset at us about the amount we are asking for?"

Ordus laughed, "Theo, the Dwarves are a hard-working people. They may be willing to go up on the surface, but down below, where they prefer to dwell, the Dwarves live on a sixty-hour day that they call a cycle. Thirty-five hours for work, called the Worktide; fifteen for leisure, called the Hearthtide; and ten for sleep, called the Sleeptide. Last night, they decided to sleep when you did, only because they had marched the whole way up here. But they are ready and raring to go. I would recommend that you plan out some work for them to do when Julia is otherwise engaged, as she must lay the last of the stone pieces for it to count as her ward rune. They are eager and willing to work. They expect to spend seven cycles here, so about eighteen regular days."

Julia did some quick math, "So they are going to give us like six forty-hour weeks of work?"

Theo was a little shocked at that and let out a whistle. "And they will do it in less than three weeks. That is insane."

Ordus nodded, "I am not quite sure the significance of a forty-hour week, but yes, they should give you approximately two hundred and forty hours of work. But I am surprised at the duration they plan on."

Theo took a bite and shot a questioning eyebrow at Ordus, who smiled and continued. "The Dwarves are a superstitious people and regularly tell those of us up on the surface that our methods of time are erratic and meaningless. They have agreed to seven cycles, but the bare minimum that a Dwarf is willing to commit to is usually what they call a Forgeweek, which is ten cycles. Then they go into Stoneflows and Deepturns. A Deepturn is one of their years and lasts roughly five years up above."

Julia was about to dive into more questions when Harbek walked up. "TRAZK DURGIR THALD'MÛRN. ZÂRK RÛNAZ TRAZK'AH VALGOTH. GORIM'NOR GURNDIN MORGDRAK."

Ordus nodded, "VOKN. VRAG'AH NOR KARNÛRN."

Ordus then looked at Julia, "Lady Brahmin, they are awaiting you to begin work on the Ward runes. Lord Sorrenson, they have completed an entrance to the tunnel and will work on it more later."

Harbek headed off, and Julia took a drink of water. "Alright, well, let's go then, Ordus. Theo, do you need anything else from us?"

"Nope, I am good. I have a plan for my day." Theo said with a smile.

[Theo]
Theo had decided that the task of gathering berry bushes and trying to get them transplanted was something that should still be done so they would have some semblance of agriculture. So, he had rapidly moved around the Overlook to where his Measure of the Land skill had indicated crops of some variety and dug them up with his Master Tool. Then, he placed them into his Dimensional storage, which was now a twelve-foot cube with a door on one side, and moved on.

By the time he came jogging back to the Thronehold, he had roughly four of each kind of berry bush, as well as a good amount of wild carrots. He laid out several bricks in a loose perimeter a distance to the North of the Thronehold and began to till the earth with a hoe. He felt his Skills come into play as well as his title bonuses; long strokes with the hoe left neat furrows of a perfect depth. He felt his Bounty of the Earth skill sing as he worked the land.

Theo set out the berry bushes where he wanted them and then decided to call it a night as the sun was beginning to sink lower in the sky. He gave everything a once-over and made his way back to the Thronehold to eat dinner with Julia and Ordus.

[Theo and Julia]
"So, how was your day?" Theo asked as he walked into their makeshift camp.

"It was good; the Dwarves don't stop. They are working on the tunnel right now, and Ordus left them instructions to do as much prep work as they can if they finish the tunnel." Julia said, handing Theo a System Ration.

Theo nodded and told her about what he had done. She smiled, "It sounds like we are on our way to actually having a source of food. If this water source works out. That would be great."

Ordus walked up then, "Ah, Theo, you are back."

"Hey, Ordus," Theo said with a smile. "How was your day?"

"It was busy, as I am sure that Julia has already laid out. I will be heading to sleep, and I will sleep closer to where the Dwarves are working so that if they need me in the night, it will not disturb you." Ordus nodded and headed off.

He disappeared into the Earth, sinking away with his skill. Theo shrugged, and he and Julia finished their meal. Theo finally spoke, "Anything you want to ask the ring?"

"Hmm, no, not really." Julia said, "I am going to check out that thing that Aflara gave me; you should look into what Gurndin gave us for the damages. Then we can sleep."

Theo shrugged as she went over to a stump that she had made into her chair. He pulled out the small pouch that Gurndin had tossed him and poured it into his hand. What emerged were four crystalline orbs and a scattering of coins, totaling seven gold and forty silver. He quickly put the coin into his Hand of Gold. He was about to identify the orbs when Julia let out a squeal of joy.

She jumped up and rushed over to Theo; in her hands was a familiar cube. It looked like the crystals that had let them access the Dungeon and the Leveling Plane. But where they had been purple and blue, this one was white with blue and teal specs in it. Julia was jumping up and down excitedly.

She grabbed Theo by the shoulders. "It's a Bathhouse, Theo!"