Homesteading in a fantasy world

Rich waited with his apprentices at the entrance of the dungeon. The snow was cleared out from this area leaving high walls to surround them. Rich could hear the coming people long before they could see them. He was a bit anxious about what was going to happen but his resolution was firm. There would be no going back, and he just had to hope that the first people he will pick will not betray him.

It didn't take long for the people to reach the dungeon. Usually, only the apprentices were there so a few of the trainers were a bit confused when they saw Rich but after Rich greeted them all as he walked to the back of the group. There he gave a handshake to David which cleared up other people’s confusion.

“Good morning, David. Would you like to look around here or shall we proceed to the farm?” Asked Rich in a cordial tone he got a pleasant response in return. “A good morning to you too Rich and I have seen enough dungeons to know what they look like on the outside. Let's go to the farm.”

There was silence for quite a while as the two men walked for a while before Rich started to talk. “Would you be wanting to go back to the village today? If not, you could stay here for a night at least that way I could show you an interesting building that I have and its function.” Rich said it in a casual tone, but David was already quite interested. “A building with an interesting function. How could I say no to that? I can’t remember the last time someone said those words to me.”

After a short pause, David continued. “You know Rich at the start numbers didn't pay the bills and I had to be an architect for quite a while so I would be judging that building with all the expertise that I have.” To that Rich smirked. “Don't be too harsh now I’m no expert, but I think you’re still going to like it.”

They continue to talk about unimportant matters until they finally reached the farm. Rich and his apprentices have been keeping the snow back and the whole courtyard was clear giving access to every building.

David looked around in quite an interest and pointed at the guard tower. “Is that the building? I would be quite interested in knowing why you would need a guard tower here. While the location is interesting the tower itself doesn't seem to be.”

Rich gave a hearty laugh to that and answered. “No no that’s not the building I meant. It's currently just a watchtower but this summer I will be making it into something that can help protect against flying monsters and I guess other threats as well.”

“I guess I could understand the need to protect against flying monsters they are a menace after all especially if they have a couple of evolutions. But now I’m even more interested in this building that you want to show me.” Said David with a bit more excitement in his voice.

“Say David how afraid are you of animals that could kill you?” Said Rich now in a little bit more of a serious tone. David was a bit taken aback by the change of topic, but he has started to get used to this aspect of Rich. “I would say more than the average citizen. I don’t have a combat class, but I still have a lot of stats. But the experience on how to use them is not really there. Why do you ask?”

“Well, I guess we can leave that for a later date. No need to worry about it. Let's go and head inside so we can talk in a more pleasant environment.” Said Rich while leading the way for David to follow.

“Yeah it's kind of getting cold outside but I’ve never seen you complain before.” Mentioned David which made Rich burst out a few hearty chuckles. “Winter has always been one of my favourite seasons and I guess I have quite a good cold tolerance to help me find the current weather quite pleasing.”

It was David's turn to give a hearty chuckle. “Well can’t say I’m not jealous. I have heard that this winter might be a long one at least that’s what the rumours say. “To that Rich gave a quick reply as he opened the door to allow David to go in first. “Well sorry to inform you but unfortunately that rumour is correct. Don't look at me like that if everything goes to plan today you will find out how I know about that.”

David was now a bit more guarded as his suspicions of Rich wanting to discuss something more serious came true. The house was warm some would even call it toasty. While David was getting comfortable around the table Rich started to prepare tea for both of them. There was silence the entire time Rich prepared the tea. But when both had a steaming cup in front of them Rich finally began.

“So, David what are your future plans?” There was a bit of silence as David looked at Rich trying to understand. “Well unfortunately I’m not dying quite yet that means I need a job, but my kind of job would not be found anywhere near here so I might need to go to the capital or perhaps even further to a different area. I would be happy if I could just work as an architect but I don’t think with the current population there will be any need for building stuff. There would be a lot of free houses.”

“I think you might be wrong about the building part. You are correct that there will be no need for new buildings in some parts, but the population will shift around quite a lot following the new centre of powers that will arise.” Said Rich in a heavy tone.

He let out a sigh before he continued, “you told me before about how you helped a guild with their merit system. Tell me, do you think this sort of a system could work at a national scale?”

Once again David was taken aback but he was getting more and more used to Rich saying things that shouldn't make sense or no one should think about. “It would be a difficult problem to solve, but I can’t see why it couldn’t work. Assuming that being just a theoretical question because even if it might work on a national scale it wouldn't work in the world itself as the country would need to interact with others that wouldn't be using this kind of a system.”

Rich nodded to that understanding the problem, but he already had thought of that. “Well let's say that the traders will work with coins and even some smaller things could be bought with coins but the important deals and tasks would be in this merit system.”

David was confused and let it show on his face. “I mean I guess but there would be problems like that as well but why wouldn’t you just use coins for it all and what do you mean by tasks?”

Rich took a few moments before answering. “Well let’s say that you have a small nation where people are extremely good at what they do even the farmers. All the resources that would be made and collected by those people. They will decide they want to sell a portion of that.”

“They would get merit points for that, and other people could get those items with merit points. Then of course there are tasks that need to be done to run a nation and then those tasks will give merit points. And if you want a task done, like perhaps let’s say building a well you could get help by using your merit points.”

Rich took a small pause to drink a sip of tea and then continued. “The reason to not use coin is too tie people together for a common goal. I also believe that the system could be a bit more flexible for people not just on the top but at the bottom as well. There are few more reasons but those are currently not important.” Rich finished his explanation and looked at David to try to understand what David was thinking.

David was quite interested in what he heard. He still thought that just coins might be simpler for a nation to use but he couldn't deny the effect it would have on unifying people. The question remained why people would want to live in this kind of a nation. “I think this kind of a merit system could be made with enough resources and manpower. Would it be better, only time would tell. But tell me Rich why would people want to live in that kind of a nation?”

Rich smiled at that, “the living conditions would be quite good. I would have to say better than at least this Kingdom would have ever achieved at least for the majority. There would be no real nobles with power over someone else in that kind of nation so I would presume quite a lot of people would want to live in that kind of a place.”

David shook his head to that, “I’m afraid you are wrong Rich there is a reason why nobles run the majority of the countries. You need a lot of people to pour resources into a few people so those people could protect them against this unforgiving world where a single rat could tear you apart if it got a few evolutions.”

“You might be correct David, but I think you are missing one part. While living in this nation there would be people that would be elevated by the collective. The collective itself would be quite powerful I think.” David started to shake his head again but stopped as he heard the next sentence. “What if every person had an epic class that was both combat and resource production based?”

This time David narrowed his eyes and said in a clipped tone. “There is no class like that, that you could give to everyone, it doesn't exist. If it did it would be kept secret and shared with only a small group of people so they would be more powerful than the rest. And then of course there are people who would not want this kind of a nation to arise and there would be a lot of them. Why did you give that example?”

Rich let out another heavy sigh, took a sip of tea and fully looked at David. David had gone from narrowed slits to wide open eyes even before Rich spoke out. “Well David I am sorry to say this to you, but I have that kind of a class.”

“It’s good at fighting and resource production, this fuckery is even good at crafting. Not to mention all the other things. It's a scary powerful class that can be given quite easily to other people. At first, I was quite happy to just leave it as you said to only to a few people. But how amazing would it be if an entire nation full of people had it?”

David was completely dumbstruck and could only swallow a clump of fear. A nation like that could become an extremely powerful nation. Now David understood why Rich asked those kinds of questions before. His fear slowly resided as his imagination started to give him a glimpse of the future. The fearful look slowly disappeared and changed into one of wonder. “Now that would be something these old bones would like to see.” Stated David.