Homesteading in a fantasy world

POV Stebs Soot goblin chief

The chief’s tent, my tent was full of goblins. The human's plan worked quite well, and we were able to keep the southern encampment from trying to expand any further thanks to the incredible efforts of the scouts and warriors, but our ambitions undid their hard work.

The idea to get new female goblins from the other tribes and encampment was a brilliant idea yet we should have heeded the warnings of the human.

We were able to get a lot of female goblins and some male goblins as well, but we tried to expand too quickly and were too good at it. Now we are facing 4 tribes and 3 encampments including the southern one. They all want our deaths and their females back and to accomplish that a coalition was formed to crush us.

Our first few engagements went well but as more goblins showed up, we simply didn’t have the numbers even with the tactics the human told us about. The mood was sombre as we contemplate solutions. Currently, the best choice seemed to be to run away.

“Chief we have yet some time before their forces gathered completely and start marching towards us, we have time to get the human’s input. Perhaps he might have a solution?”

Chief, “What input could he possibly have? It is something that even he can’t help us with. We simply don't have the numbers.”

“Correction chief. We don't have the fighting power to combat them. Even with our low numbers, we could currently fight against two engagements thanks to our ability users. So why not ask the human to join our fight?

Chief, “What do you mean to join our fight you mean to fight with us against other goblins?”

The idea was interesting, I saw him nod in answer. I looked around and saw interest in the other goblins as well. This might be an interesting choice and perhaps the best one we could make besides leaving but there are problems with that also.

Chief, “He will not fight unless we have something to offer him. If he will fight at all is still a big what if.”

Multiple things were offered like food, leather, goblins or wood but all were rejected. He does not need things we can offer. We simply have nothing to give. I felt the sombre mood return. We saw a glimpse of hope but soon it was snuffed again.

“Chief, what about the different coloured rocks from the mountains? Would he be interested in some of those? We have four different kinds, perhaps he values at least one.”

And just like that the glimmer of hope was once again sparked. "An expedition will be formed to visit the human I myself must go. We must also set up in case he does accept and also prepare to leave in case he doesn’t."

It took a few hours to set everything up and I could leave the rest of the preparations to my tribe. Goblins smarter than me will make the battle plans and where to go if we must run. I must convince Rich to help us.

POV Rich Dirt

I left my apprentices to their work with arrows. It was time to prepare everything for the dungeon delve. My gambeson is already quite tight as I had grown a bit since I made it, but it will still work fine just had to stretch it a bit with some movement.

When I was armoured up it was time to equip my weapons. The sword, dagger, knife and bow will be my backup weapons. My main will be a javelin and round shield.

I will use the javelin as a short spear. It will be useful in the cave-like structure at least at the beginning of the dungeon. If I feel like it’s not working out, I can always retreat. Finally, the backpack with a waterskin went on my back and I was ready.

Before going I went to say goodbye to my apprentices and animals just in case this didn't turn out the way I hoped. It’s always a good idea to say goodbye, you may never know when it will be your last time seeing someone.

The trip to the dungeon was quite short. Using homesteader mile made it like going to the shop. Standing in front of the cave entrance was quite eerie as you could not see inside. I even tried with all my sights, but nothing could pierce the darkness beyond. With my shield ready and javelin prepared I walked in.

As I pass through there was a feeling of coldness but not the bad kind, it felt like a refreshing shower, but I was not wet. Inside was dark but thanks to my abilities and traits I was able to see like I was outside.

Something here gave light even though I couldn’t see what. In complete darkness like this, I shouldn’t be able to see. I tested it in the root cellar and if there was no light, I was not able to see unless it was energy.

Perhaps that’s the answer, I breathed in deeply not just with my lungs, but with my energy body as well and yes there was a lot more energy in my inhale than in the outside.

This was very interesting, but I decided to push on. There was a short cave corridor that turned slightly right. As I followed it the sides of the corridor opened up a bit forming a small room where a rabbit was.

I hadn’t tried to sneak so the rabbit noticed me as I noticed it. It wasn’t a normal rabbit, it had a plate-like structure on its head most likely to use as a ramming device. It quickly started to run towards me and if I was a beginner fighter, I might have used my javelin's tip to try to hit it in the forehead.

That would most likely cause my weapon to slide off its protected forehead leaving me unbalanced and giving it a chance to hit me.

This rabbit didn’t get that chance as I purposely aimed and strike just behind the plated forehead killing the rabbit instantly. There was a rush of energy towards me like with every kill although it did feel less than with living rabbits outside, but I wasn’t focused on that.

My focus was on the body and how it died. This didn't feel like killing a living creature although I could see the moment of pain in its eyes. The wound and the blood all looked real but somehow felt not real.

It felt the pain, it flinched, but it wasn’t real. Somehow it wasn’t real for the creature. The rabbit looked real and lived like a real rabbit yet something was missing. I did not know what was wrong but it kind of spooked me.

A few moments later the rabbit started to disappear into motes of light and a moment later I could see only with my energy vision how it dispersed into the surroundings.

I continued on and saw the next room opened up just as before, there was also only one rabbit inside. I killed it the same way, yet it didn't feel like killing. I looked as the creature disappeared the same way the first one did.

“Are they real? They were supposed to be real. What’s going on?”

I didn’t know how to feel. It was so weird. I gathered myself together, at this moment I needed to stay focused. It was a good thing that I did because in the next hallway there was a trip wire. It didn’t seem that it was connected to anything, so I backed off a bit and cut it with the javelin, yet nothing happened.

I had an idea and struck the ground behind the now cut trip wire and soon it gave away revealing a pit trap. It wasn't very deep and there were no spikes, but you could still hurt yourself quite badly and in a very bad case even die.

So, the dungeons had traps. I was not a fan of that. Never liked dungeon stories that deployed traps, but I guess I could understand how they would be useful. Trying to find them, get past or disarm them would be quite good for skills.

Only a small section of the hallway was a pit trap so getting past it was quite easy. I could even jump it if I wanted to quite easily. This time I sneaked close to the next room and was able to observe two rabbits inside the room eating some moss.

I slowly removed my knife, used my abilities and threw it toward the rabbit hitting it in the back and killing it. The second rabbit quickly noticed what happened and start to rush me, but I was already ready, killing it quite quickly.

Collecting my knife, I made a mental note to make some throwing knives for any future delves to make clearing out the rabbit rooms even easier.

After that, the hallway split and I followed the right one. After three more rooms and one more trap, I made it to a room that now held three rabbits. The opening was the same, killing one with the knife but for the second and third ones I did some positioning so they couldn’t attack me at the same time, and I was able to kill them one at a time.

Class XP gain was less than I hoped for, but the skill gain seemed to be the same as outside. After two more rooms, I was now able to notice the weak ground without having to tap on it, making my movement easier and raising my travel speed.

After two more rooms, there was a room with 4 rabbits, but I didn’t have any trouble killing them also. Multiple hallways leading from this room, 4 seemed to be similar to the one that I came from so most likely the split hallways merging.

The obvious way forward was the bigger hallway. I sneaked in to see what was waiting for me on the other end. It was a big room with 5 rabbits, but one was about twice the size of a normal rabbit, and it didn’t have a bone plate protecting its forehead. It had a sharp horn obviously meant for an attack.

Oh, I so much wanted to have more throwing weapons, but a change was needed. So, I sneaked back and took out the bow and strung it.

I sneaked back prepared a silent arrow, and shot it at the horned rabbit. It didn’t die from one shot but its movement was hampered enough that I was able to kill off the rest with my bow before it was able to get near me and a second shot finished it off.

There were no fireworks or congratulations, I could just see a rock stairway on the other side of the room. It was a round staircase that descended down. If I had to say, I went down two stories before it opened up again.

There was a hallway again but this time there was a pressure plate trap. I cut a big rock from the wall to throw it on it to see what would happen.

As soon as the rock landed and pushed the plate down a spike drove through the rock and I shivered from the visualization of what would have happened to my foot. Most definitely a harder floor than the first one.