Homesteading in a fantasy world

POV Tom

It’s almost 9 o’clock and we are all waiting for the portal to be opened again. Our 2 remaining druids are currently here and will attempt to complete Bert’s plan which will grant us access to a huge stockpile of food and a safe place where our families can go.

I have yet to sleep during these three days so much needed to be completed. All our plans needed to be changed but everyone was brimming with energy as we figured out how good this actually was for us.

I am still amazed at how much our future prognosis changed with this development. Before this, we would barely be able to hang on with the fighting that will most likely happen towards the end of the winter when everyone was starving. It would have cut down our membership a lot and a lot of our families would suffer.

The only reason this situation was accepted by our leadership was that absolutely everyone would have suffered the same and there was no escape from this fate.

Now we can get all our non-combat personnel and families away from the overcrowded pockets of civilization making it quite easy for us to protect our interests and even attack when needed.

No one would be able to cripple us or kidnap family members to try to get secrets or turn our members against us. We have already needed to deal with one such problem but luckily this will fix everything.

If nothing changes, we will become one of the strongest companies and powers left in this region and if we can keep ourselves away from politics with all the new powers that have arisen we could become the sole trade power in this region.

This of course is easier said than done as many of the small powers that currently are just city-state run by powerful adventurers or remnants of the aristocrats were a bit power-hungry and, in some cases, quite mad.

Things would get even worse if the adventuring guild pulls out. There is no certainty in this, but rumours say that they are stretched so thin that they can barely do anything and like us, they might need to consolidate their power.

This might mean that they will leave this area or choose to strengthen it, either way is not the best for us. One would bring stability but that would cut down our future development or when they leave, they will create a power vacuum that would quickly be filled by the smaller powers that have arisen. This brings opportunity yet danger.

Thanks to this Rich Dirt we have a possibility of reaching a greater stage and truly becoming a power which, we can use to protect the people we love.

Currently, two teams are waiting. One that will open the portal from this side and one that will go through that can open the portal from that side. This way we will always have a connection both ways strengthening our hold and if necessary, bringing fresh people back here when needed.

Besides the portal team in this first wave is a holding force that will go through with some more families that have skills that will make running a village possible even downright easy.

One of the biggest questions in the last three days was if we were going to use a village-binding contract. But it was determined best not to claim any land in our name as the adventuring guild will find out and then everyone else will as well. It's best to keep this secret as long as possible.

Also, there does not seem to be any village-binding contract for sale anywhere even on the black market. We were a bit late as the markets are cleaned out of any item that can give you ownership of land.

The small portal finally opened exactly on time and our team got to work wrenching control from Bert. Soon our druid changed it and made it into a big portal so we can go through.

The ingredients for this spell cost a lot but the food in that village is easily worth 10 times more in the current market and in a month or two it would be worth 100 times and after that priceless as it will be something that doesn't exist and how can you put a price on something you can’t get.

I wanted to go through it myself to check it out, but it just wasn’t efficient. I was always needed here. Perhaps when things calm down and true winter settles in and before the fighting breaks out, I can go and visit but most likely it will happen in the spring.

Then we will have to see if we will even keep our presence in that village or move everyone back, but this we will not know before the winter ends.

People were now moving quickly and one by one they disappeared into the tree transported a long distance away. With one second two months’ worth of travel. Thank you, Bert, for showing us how important druids can be.

The portal closed and the courtyard seemed so empty. Hopefully, the message we will get back at the end of the day will be good news and we can start to bring more people through and get Michael back here to deal with our trade as our current traders are swamped.

I finally felt the exhaustion of the last days and quickly made my way to my bedroom so I could sleep a few hours and then get back to work.

POV Falyr Hrasnel

I had just finished talking with Tom and waited with the other members of our company that were going to go through the portal. This village was going to need work. The defences needed to be hardened and buildings repaired.

But the most difficult job of all is managing all the teenagers that will be there in a few weeks. It made my head hurt thinking about them and even more that I needed to train them. I have seen war, monsters that will break gold ranks and looked into the eyes of assassins and yet nothing scared me more than a group of teenagers that didn't have a purpose.

Everyone agreed to that which is why I was sent there to teach them fighting. Running the village was a secondary concern and something I can do even if dead drunk.

I was able to get some more instructors in different areas so hopefully, they won't have time to get in too much trouble but who knows you can never use logic with them.

Otherwise, the place is quite good with not too much danger. The biggest threat in the area by the last account was goblins and we will need to scout them out to see their numbers. Don’t want a horde too close to our families. For meat the grass sea the village was named after was perfect. As I understand there is a huge number of rabbits there.

From our last report, the Count of the area was quite strict on what resources people could gather and with quite bad punishments for anyone who disobeyed those rules. Because of that, I understand that it was quite a poor region at least currently.

It is at the edge of the northern civilization so it's kind of weird that they would try to limit people’s expansion towards that region. If there was a reason for that it is now lost as many of the nobles that would know it are dead.

Lastly, I was notified about a certain person I needed to keep an eye out for and try to find out all I can about him. If they only let me capture him, I could have answers to their questions in a few hours, but no we needed to stay civilized.

The portal finally opened, and I quickly got ready to give the order to go through the portal. It didn't take long for the druid to complete her task, and I quickly gave orders to the first group to start to move in.

I felt the ring get hot around my right-hand finger notifying me that the scout confirmed that everything was as it should be, and it was safe to go through.

Why couldn't we see through this portal? That was the most vexing part that I haven’t figured out. With a Wizard’s portal you can see the other side so we wouldn't have this problem of not knowing exactly what waited for us. Hopefully, they will be able to fix that in time. I moved in with the second group and gave orders just before I left for the final group to follow us in 5 seconds.

Going through a portal is a pain in the ass and I felt my stomach lurch as it always does. But I have done this so many times that it was only a momentary discomfort. I quickly looked around to see if everything goes alright.

The first person I noticed was Bert as he was hard to not detect. He looked to be in quite good health although I could see he is still a bit tired and a bit too skinny from what I remember. The weather here was a bit colder than down south and there was more snow, but otherwise, it seemed quite satisfactory.

I quickly moved away from the portal edge so that no one would run into me and quickly observed the rest of the village. It was quite standard although the buildings were a bit more damaged than I thought. I guess there was quite a lot of undead here.

I could see the burnt piles of what I assume were the undead as the stink still linger a bit although in a few days it should be gone. I quickly gave some orders for the supplies to be taken inside and Michael quickly showed the way. Merchants were all efficient like that.

The next thing that caught my eye was a person in full armour although his helmet was removed. He was a bit further back leaning against a building staying away from the commotion and observing everything.

He looked relaxed yet ready to move if needed. I could instantly tell that he was a fighter no, a warrior even. I rapidly used the different abilities that help me estimate an enemy’s strength, but I got quite a weird set of responses.

His stats seemed to be that of middle silver, yet his energy strength seemed to be close to gold. But his energy didn’t look like it was at that level, perhaps he is hiding its strength from sight. A good policy but it will not work with me.

Despite that his overall danger level was higher than it should have been. I wish that this ability of mine would get to the next tier faster, that way I could get a clearer picture of why he seemed more dangerous than his energy strength and stat points showed.

If I had to guess it had to do with his experience level. I can confirm that he is 12 but I guess his true age must be a lot older than that. You can't get that level of experience with only that little time.

As I looked and measured him, I noticed that he did the same to me and I could have sworn that I saw his eyes change but it was too brief for me to confirm. He gave me a small smirk and I knew that he had figured out how strong I am, yet he was not afraid.

Why is he that confident when he can barely challenge a high silver? But after a moment I figured it out that he is just 12. Who knows where he will reach in just a year, not to mention after that?

Next, I saw Michael going towards him and they exchanged a few words and then started to walk towards me. I had lost track of time the portal had already closed, and I quickly hurried to give a few more orders before Michael reached me and introduced me to this interesting stranger. If only he was a part of our company, I could turn him into someone no one wanted to mess with.

As we shook hands, I could feel the strength that he had. As our eyes met, I noticed he was only a bit shorter than me. Those eyes looked old and intelligent, a scary combination and for some reason beautiful. It doesn’t seem that he had any ill intent towards us.

Perhaps it would be best to kill him but if we could get him to our side nothing could stop our rise. But I needed to play this extremely carefully so after a few pleasantries I excused myself giving an excuse that I needed to check on everyone but I needed a few moments to centre myself and think of a proper plan of action so this future monster would be on our side.