Homesteading in a fantasy world

Next day I started off as any other, but I know that it won’t end like any other. I’m pretty sure that tonight Freya will give birth and before that I will give what I know to the goblins about them getting classes.

I have gotten a lot of progress done in getting wood and in my achievement page.

piercing cut level 11 --> piercing cut level 14

counterweight level 6 --> counterweight level 7

plant sight level 1 --> plant sight level 2

animal inspection level 1 --> animal inspection level 2

basic cooking level 3 --> basic cooking level 4

fitness enhancement level 7 --> fitness enhancement level 8

logging level 2 --> logging level 8

basic butchering level 6 --> basic butchering level 7

animal handling level 1 --> animal handling level 2

animal training level 1 --> animal training level 2

energy storage reaches 10 new trait gained better energy control

energy storage reaches 20 new trait gained stronger energy saturation

Every few days, I also needed to go and trap some rabbits for myself and Freya. But once that was done, I still had quite a lot of time as the goblin had yet to come into my land, but I hope that they will not be too late because no way in hell I was going to miss Freya giving birth.

Not wanting to waste the day, I started doing my training and while I was running back, I actually got a level in running getting me past the basic tier.

Skill increases basic running level 10 is upgraded to running level 1

Choose one of the following abilities

farmers step

enhanced speed

stamina surge

If farmers step is movement ability, there’s no way I can't pick it, right? The other ones seem good as well, but I really want a movement ability. They always seem super powerful.

You have gained a new ability farmers step

farmers step specialized by class homesteader

Ability farmers step change to homesteaders mile

So that’s what the last sentence meant with the epic classes. Any ability with a mile should always be better than one with a step but I guess we will see.

I tried to test it out, and it truly was a movement skill. With one step I covered the distance of five. It took a lot of energy, and it wouldn't be something that you could use all the time if I didn’t have that large energy pool that I have.

This will help me cover so much more distance, but I must do a lot more experimenting to see how it will work in the forest and other places. Could I step from one tree to another? All those questions must be answered, but not today.

After my weight training and stretching, I started to make the benches that I wanted to place around my farm. It didn’t take long for me to get my carpentry to tier up. I was disappointed in myself, I could have done that a weeks ago.

“Think better Rich Dirt.”

Skill increases basic carpentry level 10 is upgraded to carpentry level 1

Choose one of the following abilities

sharp drill

faster material preparation

construction sight

Shit, two things that I really want and the third one that is luckily not that important currently, I don’t have a drill.

I so loved the sights but given how little construction that I will do, I don’t think it would be that important but if I could dry materials faster. It seems like an extremely important ability, and I hope that it will work as needed.

It seems that the goblins were correct that the system works on intent. I got two skills that I really wanted and probably the third one would be useful in the future as well. I will need to think further ahead in the future so that I could influence the abilities that I’m offered.

You have gained a new ability faster material preparation

Getting this skill to tier up needed four benches to be finished. All I needed to do was now carve sometime onto them but it was already quite close to the evening and the goblins were already on my land, so I took some things to go and prepared.

I wanted to make a small campsite with a fire in the forest where they will walk past so we could talk there.

There are quite a lot more goblins. 12 of them were coming and they seem to be moving in three groups, so most likely all the top echelon of their current society.

It didn’t take me long to set everything up, and I was getting quite good at predicting where they were going to walk past.

It was still quite light out thanks to the sun being up so late but quickly dark clouds were coming in and most likely there will be rain in the night and soon the clouds will block out the sun making everything a lot darker so I was glad that I decided to make a fire.

Then I finally saw the goblins with my own eyes. They were a bit hesitant to approach, but that was only momentary, and soon I was on one side of the fire and the goblins on the other side. This time I started the conversation in Goubdar when everyone was settled in.

“Welcome everyone, before we start, I have some questions that I hope you will answer honestly. Answering these questions will help me help you better.”

I didn’t wait for any confirmations but just continue.

“If you didn’t use breeders, how often can your females give birth and get pregnant again?”

I could see the distrust and on unwillingness to answer, but eventually the leader did.

“Four months to give birth and about one or two months after that to get pregnant. Why do you want to know this?”

“No questions yet. Do you have any breeders or someone close to it currently?”

One of the other goblins from one of the side groups spoke up then.

“This is none of your business breeders are only for us to know and you can bet we'll keep them a lot safer from now on.”

I just kept waiting while they discussed with each other, and eventually, the leader turned and answered.

“We currently don't have any and while we have females that have some evolution, we are in a bad place with them currently.”

I smiled at that news. Absolutely no one likes that I did that, and the leader speaks up.

“That is not funny. If we don’t get the breeders soon, we will go into decline and will most likely disperse and join other groups. Now, why did you need to know this?”

“Quite simple actually, if you want to get the class you want you must abandon the breeders and never allow one amongst you again.”

Oh, they did not like that the leader looked shocked and appalled. The others were a lot more vocal and angry about that statement. Except for the old goblin that was with me and learned common, and he was the first one to speak out.

“You have listened to our stories and learned about our society. Why have you come to this decision, explain?”

“In all stories and folklore, there are elements of truth even if they are blown out of proportion or changed with time.”

“I listened to your stories and folklore and tried to piece together your history that would explain why there would be a problem of you getting classes and why you no longer had any.”

“Now this history that I pieced together might not be exactly what happened, but I am pretty sure I know the important points that matter to you.”

“Your first correct move was to notice a problem. Your leader here understood that they do not have any classes, yet some old stories told of classes among all goblins.”

“In solving any problem, the first step is to notice that there is a problem. Your leader then tried to find someone that might be able to help. Luckily, you chanced on to me and I was able to put together the pieces of truth and help you complete the second step, understanding what is wrong.”

“I believe that goblins once were like the human race or the other civilization where everyone had a class. Now why do I believe that it's quite simple, because you in your current form and your current society doesn’t fit into nature.”

One of the goblins tried to raise his weapon, but I motioned my hand for him to stop.

“This will be hard to hear, but it will be necessary. The way you currently are is not natural and what I mean by that you were not made this way by natural process, but by someone who needed a goal accomplished.”

“My best clue was your evolutions and more specifically the ones that grant longer life and change your body slightly to be a better version of a goblin but not mimicking a human or someone similar to that.”

“Those evolutions are what the system is trying to help you turn back to what you were because your current form, it’s meant for war, and more specifically, war of attrition.”

“Now I do not know exactly why you were made the way you were, but I know what the goal was. It was to fight someone that had larger numbers than you had at that time. You were meant to breed fast and have hundreds to thousands of breeders to gain numbers fast and swarm your enemy in numbers.”

“I believe currently why the breeders are so inefficient is because of time and natural evolution, not the system one. Simply when hordes started to fight each other, the horde that had more male fighters won and over time breeders started to produce more males, this change took a long time.”

“This is not the most important part but still interesting, and you will most likely not understand all that I currently said, but you must understand your current forms were meant for war and not to live as a civilization that you once were.”

“So, all you have to do to get a class is to change how your entire society works. Unfortunately, it will be hard.”

There was silence for a while. I stayed quiet and let them process what I told and I’m pretty sure that they also know what I meant as they started to compare themselves to other civilizations. Finally, the leader asked.

“Assuming you are correct, you have told us what was wrong, but not how to fix it.”

“You are correct. Most of that will be up to you, but I can give you the basics on how to start a civilization, but the rest will be up to you.”

“First evolutions, I recommend you tell all to pick the ones that grant longer life. You must learn to live with nature and not to destroy it as you have been. You must think of how you could survive in a place for 100 years or more and that place still being a good place for you to live.”

“You must change your leadership structure. That was another clue I had. Your leadership was one of military command, not administration. You seem like you currently would be in a tribal setting, so I recommend you call yourself the chief and go from there.”

“What I also recommend is that you find a way to record your history, your events. Will that be by song or by written word will be up to you. All civilizations need a way to keep history someway.”

“You will have a lot more free time so you can spend more time skilling up and gaining abilities. This I believe, will help you in combat and let you combat the lesser amount of goblins.”

“You must also change the way you hunt, as your current tactics will leave too many dead and you will soon be wiped out. Your bodies were never meant for a bow, but in the forest throwing spears is a good way for you to hunt or hide and thrust the spear when the prey is close.”

“Those are some of the basics, but you must learn to hunt successfully, and I believe that will be important for you. As well discovering lots of other skills.”

One of the other goblins, I believe the one that is closest to the leader's influence, asked.

“Can you teach us more about all of this?”

“I can for a price, but don’t worry, it will not be that high, but sitting here and discussing will not help anything and honestly, I don't know what you would need. It would be a long process and you can come here and ask for advice and if I know how, I will give it.”

I discussed with them a few more hours on the basics. It seems that the older goblin wanted to push for some sort of written down history. Would it be with pictures or written word I do not yet know, and I don’t know if even they know. But I gave them more direction when they asked some questions.

They were surprised when I said that the military will be important, and I wouldn’t care what they did with that military as long as it wasn’t pointed at me.

They also asked about houses and farming and metalwork, but I said that they needed to find their own ways and not to just copy others, but I also recommended them to test them out and see if it felt right. They were trying to rediscover what they had lost, not create something from nothing, so testing will hopefully help.

When I was walking back, it was starting to rain and the first place I went to was the barn. It will be a few more hours before Freya will give birth and I waited and comfort her as the rain picked up and I could hear distant lightning.

During that time, I wondered if I had done the right thing, but I believed all that I said about their history. They might have a chance at gaining some classes. Would that be a good thing or not will be left for the future to decide.