Homesteading in a fantasy world

They are finally off my land, those fucking assholes. Did they really think that I couldn’t feel that they were probing me from the start?

“You three have a free day, to do whatever you want just don't bother me.”

I walked to the sauna deck and sat on one of the benches. I mean technically they weren’t assholes. Stop it Rich, there’s no need to make excuses for them. Walking onto my land and acting as if they owned it.

It was like I was visited in my shop by men that openly carried guns and point them around while at the same time being friendly and asking for my secret recipe on how to make the best beer.

Man, it was exhausting trying to stay ahead of the conversation, so I could bend the truth as much as possible. I tried not to lie, and I think I succeeded quite well. Being friendly and outgoing was difficult and soul-draining.

I got myself an acting skill but not lying or something like that. I also don’t have a language skill so perhaps getting those are a lot more difficult or they just don’t exist.

The situation around here is bad, so many people are dead or have left the area basically leaving it unoccupied except for some pockets of communities. But those are more like raiders than farmers.

They should be far enough away that there should not be any concern at least for a while and definitely not this year unless something drastic happens to them.

I don’t know why the adventuring guild thinks that they have some kind of dominion over me. They just come and ask how I was able to do the things I did without offering anything in return.

I was lucky with the two people that I got. I believe that they are actually decent people and at least gave me information in return.

But they were also so clueless about the power they had. The mission the adventurer’s guild gave them, going around and checking on the surviving communities and making contact makes them the sheriffs because of the power they have.

I don’t think they actually know that. I bet they think they have a shit posting or something like that but actually, they project the power and control of the adventurer's guild. They are truly blind if that’s the case.

This world is basically fucked thanks to the plague. It’s not just with the human race but the others as well, it even crossbred to infect many animal species decimating populations. It seemed lucky all the plants have remained safe, at least for now.

There are only two remaining organizations that operate worldwide and from the hundreds of kingdoms and empires only dozens still stand but even their outlook is not that good.

I didn’t get any straight answers, but I believe the second organization to survive is the shadow guild that used to be rivals of the adventurer’s guild. Now they seem to be tentatively working together to help keep the world together.

The adventurer guild's main focus is on the dungeons and preventing dungeon breaks from happening while the shadow guild deals more with people and politics.

Turns out the dungeons can have a break if it’s overflowing with monsters. They can rush out which is not good for the surrounding areas.

The dungeons here are not complete murder machines, but they are not completely safe either so luckily a good balance of reward vs danger. The monsters in there are spawned and if they are killed are absorbed.

There is a possibility of a drop. The drop you can get is dependent on the dungeon but is an extremely rare event. The dungeons are more used to gain XP and skill levels than used to actually farm items.

I also got some history of the adventurer’s guild. They didn’t state anything directly but from a few different stories, I think I have the full picture.

Adventuring orb is actually a drop that happens in the dungeon. You don’t need it to get an adventurer’s class. What they are used for is recording a path so others might follow.

Back in the day, there were hundreds of adventuring guilds and other guilds that collected those paths. The guilds with the best paths eventually swallowed up the others until there was only one adventuring guild and a few other guilds with more specialized adventuring classes like the shadow guild.

To get a blank adventuring class, all you have to do is delve deep enough into a dungeon and you will get it. But then you will have to make your own path in it which I think is quite difficult if I understand it correctly.

There are two options for me, wait and look for a trustworthy person that can help guide me with the class or risk it and try doing it myself. Unfortunately, I don’t think I have time to just wait and find that person because the undead are a problem that's growing harder by the day.

Turns out the undead can get stronger and even evolve by just standing in place. It’s a slow process, but it still happens so in a few months there might be a few evolved zombies.

Who knows what they would be able to do, but I still think waiting is the best option because Richard confirmed that cold weather does slow them down quite a bit. So, if I delve into the dungeon and perhaps hunt some monsters getting my levels up to combat the stronger undead. I might actually get ahead quite well, it’s basically like I’m growing XP in the village.

The dungeon here starts out like a cave, but it will start to open up quite a lot the further down you get. There are floor bosses, elite monsters and unique ones. If you get deep enough, you might actually find a treasure chest you just need to be careful that it’s not a mimic with questionable taste.

I was actually quite excited about the dungeon, but I couldn’t just rush in. I wanted to properly prepare and that meant I need to make some armour, fix some armour and perhaps make a weapon.

That weapon would be more meant for the undead killing I will be doing later on. That meant I need to make iron, a trip to the tree is needed, and also to check if there’s an actual iron vein which I believe there must be.

But for that, I will need the hand cart that I wanted to build. My frustrations over, at least somewhat, so I went and started to build. I also made some iron reinforcements for it so I could bring back a bigger load.

I didn’t have a reference this time so I did have to redo some things but by the end of the day I was ready and tomorrow I will go and bring some more iron.

I left Emma to teach her brothers how to process the bundles of processed celn into a string that can be made into fabric. We need fabric for a lot of things, and I also need some for the armour I wanted to make.

The trip to the iron oak was quick and without trouble. Before I start to gather the leaves and acorns, I started to look around the hill to see if I could see any sign of an iron vein.

This hill was cut in two by the river and thanks to that I was able to clear some loose dirt from the sheer parts to reveal an iron vein. There were multiple ones on this side of the river meaning this place was full of it.

I will have no problem getting some iron for regular things like nails and barrel rings, so I will not have to use the good steel I’m getting from the tree for mundane things. But for now, I will stick with the tree. I want to use the best quality steel I have for the next items I will be making.

It was a good idea to make a pulling handcart and not a pushing one because otherwise, I think I would not be able to bring it over at least not in a reasonable time. In one day, I was able to make two trips bringing over enough to make the armour and the other things I was planning to make. This got me 2 levels in basic foraging.

During the evening I started a plan that I hope will work. I first carved out a modern anvil design from wood, shaping it in a way I was used to and liked. It took a bit to get all the holes in it that I wanted.

I also made a wood version of a wire-pulling block and a square anvil filled with different shapes and sizes of holes. Getting the holes in the correct shape and as thin as I wanted took a bit of creative thinking and ability usage to achieve.

I first started with the wire pulling block and made sure all the holes were filled. The smallest being 5 mm and then I covered the rest only leaving the top side open.

I planned to use this mould as a crucible. Place it into the coal fire, the clay will start to burn and like it always has kept its shape when it was hot. Then I can start adding all the acorns and leaves keeping the top lid on as much as possible so it would stay as steel.

I would repeat the same process with the square anvil and the modern anvil. For the modern one, I will be making it upside down so the flat striking surface will be completely flat thanks to the mould.

But for the mould itself I did some testing and found that if I mix the brown clay with some sand, it will stay much smoother. If I did the same with the white clay it seemed to limit its ability to produce heat.

So, I made the mould closest to the surface with the sand and clay mixture and add some more clay on top to make sure it will heat up more making sure the steel is actually melting properly.

It was a lot of experimenting and perfecting and it was already dark outside when I went to sleep. The next day I did another two cart loads getting basic foraging to level 8. I have now gathered almost half of the acorns and leaves that were collected underneath the tree.

During the day it was luckily quite warm and had plenty of sun to dry the clay enough for me to start. Days were getting colder and colder, but it was hard to tell, and I needed to be consciously observing to be aware of it.

The first one I tried was the square anvil and the mould/crucible was able to burn the wood away leaving me a clear crucible where the structure for the holes was intact.

It was a long process of constantly feeding the crucible, adding charcoals or cranking the blower. When it was done I took it out and placed it to the side and started with the wire pulling block.

Just in case I made every hole size multiple times, and it seemed like it was a good choice because for the 5mm ones two hole structures had collapsed and most likely one will collapse when I start to add metal. It looked damaged and a few other sizes looked to have damage as well, but as the diameter got bigger the less damage there was.

As I put it to the side, I had no idea if I had succeeded or not but I hope that I will have at least one or two 5 mm pulling holes that will be usable. It was now time for the modern anvil. For that, I had to make a bigger forge area making it curve in a bit, so I could put a lot of charcoal around it.

I even made some clay bricks from the brown clay that I loosely placed around it to help get it even hotter.

It was a tough job getting enough airflow, but my tireless cranking helped me finish well past midnight. For the square anvil and wire pulling block, I will have to wait for tomorrow but for the modern anvil, it will take days for it to cool down properly. I just left it in the forge because I have no safe way to transport it.

The next day I was quite pleased to find I had three 5 mm holes that came out as I wanted, but one was extremely lucky because it held up, but at some points was only about 2 mm wide. This was a complete surprise and a pleasant one even though I didn’t have any plans on using it anytime soon. So, from 15 holes 3 turned out the way I wanted a close call.

The square anvil came out excellently with only one hole being damaged, but with some creative ability usage I was able to smooth it down, so it was workable. For the big anvil the clay was still glowing a bit meaning it was still completely hot so I guess 200+ kg of steel will take a long time to cool down, I hope it will turn out well.