Homesteading in a fantasy world

Watching the finished foundation of the sauna, I wanted to make the support for the deck next. but I needed somehow to make them more secure than just digging them inside the ground and for that, I wanted to make clay and ash concrete to stabilize them better.

The first thing to do was get clay, but I didn’t always want to go into the river to get some, so I started to excavate near the shore where the brown clay deposit that I used for my makeshift forge was located.

Hopefully, the clay deposit extended under the shore and the ground beyond it. It did and looked to be big enough to finish my sauna's heater.

It was still quite damp because of the closeness to the river, so I laid some out for it to dry so I can later mix it with ash.

I also wanted to expose the other clear deposit, the white one, a bit further away. I wonder what the difference between the two was and whether one was better than the other.

For that purpose, I made some small bricks from both types of clay and left them out to dry. I then start to dig out the holes that I was going to fill with a log and concrete. For that, I had prepared in advance the logs in multiple coats of tar so they would survive better.

I also made a mixing pit that I surrounded with boards so the dirt would not be mixing in too much. A simple mix of ash and clay with a little bit of sand made me a primitive concrete.

At this moment, I know that construction sight would probably help me line up everything perfectly and easily, but now I had to mess around with string to get everything measured up, right and in line with everything else.

I left the concrete to harden, and hopefully, it will actually harden. It was time to build the base for the heater that I wanted to make. It would be a huge behemoth with a heating wall half the size of the inner wall so the resting room will stay warm even in winter.

In the heating room, there will be two fire chambers, one for the cauldron to heat up water and the other to heat up rocks so you could throw water onto them and make it a real sauna. For it all, I will need a lot of bricks that will take weeks to finish.

Francis helped me bring over more large rocks, but this time I started to cut them into stone blocks that I made grooves into. They will be connected with smaller blocks that will fit into the grooves so I could use merging joints to connect them into a solid piece, turning it into a huge block.

I am quite happy with my improved stats, otherwise, this job would have taken a week, but now by evening I was already 1/3 finished while spending the first half of the day securing the deck posts. The concrete was hardening and in a few days, will be rock solid.

The sun was hot today and the bricks that I made were good enough for test fire in the forge to see what would happen to them and how strong they will become.

I placed all four white ones and four brown ones into the burning charcoal and poured more charcoal over them and slowly started to crank the blower. I couldn’t crank it at full speed because if I made the fire too strong, it might crack or start to melt the bricks.

As time went on, something weird started to happen. I didn’t have to keep cranking the blower for the fire to be hot enough so to check what was happening. I brushed aside some of the coals on top. The white ones seemed quite ordinary, although they did have a beautiful colour.

But the brown ones had glowing cracks through them, similar to how the crucibles looked after I was done with them.

I used my tongs to take one out and it actually radiated heat that was stronger than the fire the charcoal provided. I took the brown brick out to the side and covered the white ones to continue to fire them.

Even when I put them to the side, the brown ones kept producing heat for a while longer. They held their shape well and didn’t start to crumble apart before they were cool.

It puzzled me a bit on how I was able to melt iron because I know I could get close to the temperature with my current setup, but I didn’t know if I could actually reach it, but I think the clay actually helped me reach the higher temperature need to do properly melted iron.

While I fired the white, I had all kinds of ideas running in my head on how to use this, but one thing is clear. Even if I could use it to make steel, I would never be able to make a furnace out of this because it would just simply burn down.

I hope that the white clay will work better as I pulled them out and let them cool down. While the bricks cooled, I did some needed jobs around the farm before coming back to test the bricks.

It came as no surprise that the brown ones couldn't even support their own weight and had crumbled into piles of dust.

The white bricks looked beautiful with swirls of bright red in different patterns, but otherwise similar to regular bricks. I now had what I needed to make the heater, now I just needed a few thousand of them.

Before I went to bed, I wanted to know more about the brown clay, so I used up the last of my energy reserves on my abilities to understand it better. It looked like it was imbued with energy in a certain way and something else that I was not able to identify.

The next day I finished making the base for the heater and at the same time I slowly worked on getting my brick making equipment done. The moulds and other things of need like a proper sand-covered area to dry them.

The next day I filled in the rest of the heating room's floor with sand but before that, I had to make the drainage and for that, I used merging joints again getting me a level in that after I finished the square pipe underneath the ground that drained into the river.

I then start making the stone flooring. It was a bit harder to make because I couldn’t just lay them on the sand. I needed to worry about drainage as well so that all the water would go out in the correct place and not underneath the foundation. This got me a level in masonry as well as construction.

My days after that went into a routine as in the morning hours, right after my chores, I made bricks for a few hours and then left them to dry in the sun. After that, I started to work on the wooden part of the sauna. For that, Francis also helped me bring over the logs that are now dry and ready to be used.

Making a log house is simple when you know the basics, but with expertise, you can make it a lot faster than I could, at least for now. I expect that only heavy equipment could match the speed at which I could move heavy logs.

At the start, it took the longest because I needed to try to fit them together and then cut in the needed joints, then redo it until the joints fit together perfectly.

The first layer of logs that were placed stayed completely round. Instead, I made the circle hollow in the foundation when I build it. I only needed to cover the joining area with tar and moss to help keep it airtight before using merging joints on them.

Because I wanted to keep the round look, I also needed to carve out one side of the logs that will stack on top with a circular hollow underneath so they would fit together perfectly. Like before, in between those I used tar and moss that I collected from the forest and while there I also picked up ingredients, I need to make the leather powder.

It was slow going but I suspect I made more progress than any man had any right to because after two weeks the sauna's first floor was done. Next will come the ceiling and the roof but before I could put those in, I wanted to finish the bricks for the heater.

I had more than enough dry bricks thanks to my ability for faster material preparation to help them dry faster. Unfortunately, it didn’t give the same speed I got with the logs, but it still cut down the drying process quite a lot.

During the two weeks, I also went and checked on the village. It looked fine, with only a few more zombies coming from the south. I did mess up one kill. The javelin didn’t kill one even though it was in the brain and it got a swipe at me. Thankfully, my armour protected me from the scratch and this attack gave me the basic armour skill.

Now my brick moulds are a bit special because I want to take advantage of my abilities so the top and the left side had tongues and the bottom end and the right side had grooves in them. This makes a joint, so when fitted together, I could use the merging joints to make them into a solid structure.

I was quite happy with the results, so I started to prepare them for the firing. For that, I started to dig out two trenches so they will form an X shape.

Then I start laying the bricks beside the trench and stack them high. The parts above the trench would stay open for a little while before I started to close them with bricks.

I was making a kiln that had 5 openings four on the side and one in the middle that will act like a chimney. Like this, I will not have to make any special building to fire the bricks, but if I wanted to make such a building, I would need the bricks in the first place, so it was a moot point.

Doing it this way would mean that the outer layers will not get hot enough to make good bricks, but they will also be the latest I made and the ones that had the lowest amount of time to cure.

The firing itself took one day. I had to cover the entire structure in sand and let it rest and slowly cool down for the next few days.

During that time, I try to figure out if there was a better way to get the logs on top of the building, but unfortunately, rope and two logs on either side so I could pull it up a slope was still the best choice.

I didn’t just want to do anything, so I figured I could still put in the ceiling crossbeams that will support that roof and help hold together the sides of the sauna.

For that, I had three of the biggest and meanest-looking logs that I had. To prepare them, I had to cut in multiple joints so that they would fit onto the logs already placed and the future upright logs that will support the roof.

When they were finally in, I could fit upright logs in that will extend upwards to support the roof. There were 3 of them that I then needed to connect, creating a solid triangle.

Then I had to do that 2 more times for the middle and the other ends. Then I needed to connect those triangles with crossbeams.

Luckily those didn't have to be so big, but still finishing the roof structure took three days as I took it slowly. Next will be the roof itself, but that would have to come after I finish making the heater.

Bricks turned out magnificently and because I didn’t have to worry about mortar, I was able to build them quite fast. I tested their heat tolerance and sighed out loud when it was good for wood burning. It took 5 days before I could put the finishing edge on the chimney finishing the entire build.

The resting room now looked better than before. It had a hole in its middle wall that was now covered in a solid brick wall. Hopefully, I remember all my uncle’s teachings on how to build a proper heating structure for a building.

I didn’t have a cauldron, so for now, I just covered the hole with a wet wood lid so I could test out if the chimney worked properly. It did work excellently and when I get a big iron caldron in, then I could heat up the water in a large quantity quite easily.

Now for the other fire chamber, the main one I brought in all the required stones to place on top and I could put the structure through a real test.

I opened the main damper and started the fire. I was pleased with how it pulled out the smoke with a good and strong flow.

I proceeded to put it through its paces and went through a full use cycle twice in one day to see if there were any faults, but there weren’t. Even the heating wall got hot so winter will not be any problem.

It was too late now to start with the roof, so I decided to make the wooden windows that I was later hopefully going to replace with glass ones, making it look a lot nicer.

Making the roof went fast and only took three days to cover it with boards, cover it with tar, and then lay on the rock shingles. I did have to make a lot of nails using up my supply of excess iron. After that, it took another day to tar the entire sauna's exterior.

Then I started to build the deck. That took another two days to finish because I also wanted a proper roof over it and a grilling area at the side made with the leftover bricks.

Since the ceiling was also done, all I had left was to make the wooden floor for the resting room and that only took half a day because I already have everything prepared and only needed to adjust and place them inside.

There were still some minor things that needed to be made, furniture and the seating for the heating room, but it was technically done. I looked at all I have gained over the weeks.

homesteader level 3 --> homesteader level 4

piercing cut level 17 --> piercing cut level 19

counterweight level 7 --> counterweight level 11

merging joints level 5 --> merging joints level 7

heavy training level 4 --> heavy training level 5

faster material preparation level 1 --> faster material preparation level 2

sharp blade level 5 --> sharp blade level 8

basic foraging level 1 --> basic foraging level 4

wood carving level 2 --> wood carving level 3

basic axe level 3 --> basic axe level 4

basic masonry level 6 --> basic masonry level 10

construction level 3 --> construction level 5

carpentry level 1 --> carpentry level 3

basic architecture level 1 --> basic architecture level 5

basic engineering level 3 --> basic engineering level 4

basic ceramist level 2 --> basic ceramist level 9

stats gained

strength +4

dexterity +4

vitality +4

endurance +2

empathy +2

intelligence +2

new trait gained

empathy reaches 20 new trait gained regal stature

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

Choose one of the following abilities

rock punch

quick drying mortar

light load

Well, that is an easy choice. Light load will help me so much. Quick drying mortar is literally useless for me and rock punch while sounding cool does not fit my fighting style. For some reason I felt my posture being better as I noted the trait, I let out a sigh.

You have gained a new ability light load level 1

POV Stebs Soot goblin chief

I was watching as one of the gatherers was giving his weekly report. Turns out that some berry bushes could produce multiple harvests per year and how excited they all were about that.

They wanted to have some forest space so they could plant more of those bushes to make an excellent food source for the future.

I suspect that in the future these meetings would become boring but currently, I was always excited about the new discoveries, about new skills unlocked and discover. Same with abilities.

During the breeder’s time, if a goblin encampment had an ability user it was an achievement to be recognized by all but now, we already had 15 goblins with abilities and some of them weren't even picked for combat but to further their chosen field.

It was at this moment a scout commander ran into the tent and gave a salute and asked for permission to give his report of urgent necessity. I nod for him to go ahead.

“Chief, we have trouble in the south. As we know, one of the encampments, there is pushing toward us. I believe our fears will come true about them wanting to attack us when they see our low numbers in our scouting parties.”

I did not like the sound of that. It’s the biggest fear that the council has. We noticed some of the forward scouts were coming towards the north and it was only a matter of time before they note us or start to question why our territory is empty of goblins.

“We run into a group of thieving goblins that were running away from the area of the expanding encampment and hoping that we would let them pass without trouble.”

“All was going well until they started to notice how few of us there were in the scouting party and they immediately thought that this encampment had fallen into hard times, and they could just walk past without giving any of the food or items they had as payment.”

“The fight was easy as we have trained hard and well using the human’s technique taught to us and we didn’t lose a single goblin thanks to our ability user and overall skilfulness.”

At that, a crafter goblin that was on the council rejoiced and congratulated the scouting party and wanted to throw them a welcoming back celebration.

Some of the others, however, expressed worry about our future runnings with the other encampment forces. We had discussed it for a little until we all heard some coughing to the side. He was still there, waiting.

“Is there something else you need?”

“Yes, chief. I actually wasn’t finished with the report. We have a problem that we didn't know how to address. You see that the thieving goblin group had captured three humans that they forced to grow crops for them, but now we have three live humans that we don’t know what to do with.”

“Before, we would have just killed them and fed them to the breeders, but now we are neither hungry nor do we really want to eat them so we don't know what to do, chief?”

We all looked at each other around the table. None of us had ever had such a question, nor did none of us ever have to think of an answer to a question like this.