Homesteading in a fantasy world

I left the village quite a while ago but with the slow pace I’m guessing that I’m about only halfway back home. I will need to make my way back to the village in three days. Then I will get more information about what they will plan to do but I am pretty sure that they will send at least some people to the village. They all seemed good enough people so let's hope that they will be good neighbours.

Pulling the wagon was a lot harder than I imagined mostly because of the snow. The wind had blown snow into thick furrows that were unevenly in my way, so I had to take some time and clear those if I wanted to keep pulling the wagon.

Otherwise, it was quite a good workout. In about half a day I made it to the border of my own land and as soon as I crossed it, I got my second wind so I could pull the wagon all the way back.

My apprentices weren’t worried because I already told them that I might stay overnight in the village, but they were excited to see everything that I had brought. They were even more excited when I told them what had happened.

The possibility of a proper village with people being so close to us made them feel a lot better. I told stories that the villagers told me and about how I cleared the village during which we were able to bring everything into the house. Some things went into the cellar while others stayed in the kitchen.

We parked the wagon in the workshop. Then I looked at the sky and figured, with their help, that we just had enough time to make the window frames that I wanted and to install them. So, I quickly explained the plan to everyone, and we started to work so we could finally put windows into the sauna. While we were quite close to finishing installing them, we also fired up the sauna so we could enjoy it today.

During our second rest cycle, Arthur gathered his courage and finally asked to be able to go into the dungeon again. I had nothing against that but that brought up another possible issue.

They were all already level 13 and if we kept doing dungeons, they will most likely get to 20 and their class will develop into a proper homesteader like myself. That meant that we would need to build them homes and claim their land.

As I relayed that to them, I also explained that the class will not upgrade unless that was done. There was a pause as I just contradicted myself. Why did my explanation change as I kept talking?

I was quite surprised to find out that the explanation was is correct. Somehow it seems the class fed me the information as I talked which was a really weird experience. I had to silence their questions because I didn’t want that connection to disappear. I focused on the class and my need to help my apprentices and further information became clear.

Turns out the way that I claimed land was extremely inefficient but for small areas, I guess still quite good. But in order to claim the large lands that my apprentices needed we needed to make something called border rocks.

Again, the information on how to make them sort of appeared inside my head. Any regular rock the size of a basketball or larger would suffice. Certain runes needed to be carved into it and then placed at the edge of the desired area and if enough of them were used they will help the homesteader claim land.

Those could also be used to expand my land although it would not be as easy as claiming the first land and would require a lot of willpower and you would actually need to believe that you need it for it to work.

I was kind of shocked about my class just giving me this kind of information. I tried to get more information but all I got was the need for a home and the border rocks for a brand-new homesteader to claim land.

I took some more time to digest the information and then explained what I had learned to my apprentices. They weren’t as happy as I thought they would be but after some prodding, I learned it was because they were a bit scared. I then tried to alleviate that fear simply by stating that the earliest they could possibly claim their own home was not the coming year but the following one.

It will take the entire spring to scout the locations that they felt suited for their future needs and then we would need to start building their houses and other buildings that they wanted. Then prepare some fields for the next year when they could finally start to live there by themselves. That did help alleviate their worries. Young people have always thought that anything that wasn't coming up in the following year was far in the future.

But our discussion didn’t stop there this meant that this winter would not be just spent at home doing some craft work we also needed to start gathering a lot of building lumber because apparently there was a lot of building to do next year.

I was quite excited. I originally want to focus on building my own buildings like a smithy and the bow workshop. However, they weren’t something I needed right away and honestly, they would not be quite as exciting compared to starting a brand-new homestead or three.

My head was spinning with all the ideas going through it and I was probably more excited than the future homesteaders.

While Rich was the most excited the second most excited was George as he started to explain hurriedly and excitedly. “I want something similar to what you have here Rich, but I want to be closer to the river with the main house and I want it to be a big house at least later on where my entire family could live.”

“And I want to have a big family. I will have a beautiful wife and at least a dozen children.” After he finished saying that he gave a large and boisterous laugh.

Emma and Arthur rolled their eyes, but Rich looked at him like he was interested in hearing more. When he saw Rich’s look, he continued. “I want to have lots of farmland, but I think even more I would like animals, lots of them.” There was a small pause like he was confirming his statement to himself before he nodded and sat back in satisfaction while looking up and dreaming of his future.

Rich looked at him in a melancholic mood but then he turned towards Emma asking. “What about you.” Emma was a bit startled but collected herself quickly. “I don’t really know but I guess mostly farming although some animal products would be extremely useful for my crafting.”

“For farming mostly plants that I could use in my crafting so not much food.” She looked at Rich and asked. “Is that fine not to grow so much food? I mean we are supposed to be farmers and farmers supply the Kingdom with food.”

Rich looked at her for a few moments and then tilted his head a bit. “Who said we were farmers and for what Kingdom are you producing that food?” There was a moment of heavy silence that brought even George back from his daydreaming to think about this.

Emma eventually said. “This is weird we would be living for ourselves. I wouldn’t need that much food to feed myself or perhaps my future family so only a small part could be used for food growing rest for my crafting. “There was another small silence before she continued. “I could even get away with a lower amount of land if I perhaps traded with George.”

To that, George nodded and spoke. “From you, I could get some clothes and other necessary items made from fabric and leather.” They both nodded to that.

But Arthur was still the most sceptical and he expressed it. “It’s all well and good for you guys but what am I supposed to do with a big piece of land? I have literally no interest in farming or raising animals. Perhaps some weapon crafting but even that would be a side project I would just want to fight.”

Both Emma and George wanted to persuade Arthur to see their point of view but just before they wanted to start arguing Rich spoke up. “Do you want to fight humans or monsters?” Arthur’s head snapped up in surprise. He had not expected a question and especially not that kind.

As he started to think about it his siblings glared at Rich. They clearly did not want Arthur out there fighting but Rich ignored them as it was not their life they were currently discussing.

“Humans are fine, but I guess I would want to fight monsters more, like in the dungeons and I have enjoyed the rabbit hunting quite a lot. Even that was quite different from the dungeon. But I don’t know what exactly made it different.” He looked quite confused at the end.

Rich just nodded and told him. “It's the sense of danger, the rush of a life and death fight. Some people are built differently they crave the fight but there is nothing wrong with that. But you are correct; it will make your homestead a bit different from ours.”

No one understood what Rich meant and they just kept looking at him expectantly, but he just kept quiet as one corner of his mouth started to pull up into a smile. The first one to crack was Arthur as he yelled. “Dammit just tell us.”

Rich smiled at that and explained. “Well I would still recommend you to do some farming perhaps a vegetable garden, maybe fruit trees or something like that would be better for you.”

“But I think your homestead might need to be built inside a forest and you would be something like a Ranger of that area.” Arthur became a lot more excited as he thought about those words, but Rich quickly added to that.

“It would be even more perfect if it had a dungeon on it that you could run similar to what I have.” Now that short-circuited Arthur's brain for a second and then it started to spin even faster thinking about all the possibilities. After a bit, he smiled and started to dream as George did. Rich nodded to himself and after a bit, they went in for another session.