Homesteading in a fantasy world

Everyone in the village was currently looking at me. Falyr was having a village meeting during which he invited me next to him towards the end of it. He explained who I was and that I was their neighbour.

It was quite awkward, so I think no one expected this to happen but I think I gave a good performance and I guess the system agreed because I got my acting skill to level up.

I would have wanted to leave a while ago, but when I learned that Michael would certainly have to leave in a few days and that Bert might also do that, I decided to stay longer.

I had to make some more connections here so I would be welcomed and there wouldn't be an awkward situation as I just show up here, yet nobody wanted me here. For that, I had to thank the new village head for introducing me to everyone during the meeting and he seemed quite welcoming.

He was the most powerful person I have yet seen in this world. He felt similar to me, as person who has killed many of his own kind, but I guess his experience is a lot different than mine and I would have a lot to learn from him.

During the evening I got more familiar with the glass smith and the innkeeper. Towards the end of the evening I was able to talk to a lot more people in the inn making a lot of acquaintances. The easiest for me has always been connecting with fellow fighters and it was no different here.

I didn’t try to get any information or talk about the things that I wanted to know. We just had a good time. Although I did regret not bringing any coins as quite a few gambling games were going on.

It will be a good opportunity in the future and if you’re losing and someone else is winning they are more likely to open up and talk to you about things that they usually don’t. It seems that I might be lucky that I don’t know the games although the cards do seem similar and the dice seem to be exactly the same.

When I started to walk back it was already dark, but I didn't mind that at all as my vision was not impaired. I learned a lot about their plans, and it was quite good to hear that they will be bringing quite a lot of people here.

Even more exciting is that they will be training their young here. Now that would be quite interesting to see how they will do this. The only problem I can see is the excuse to come here. But my apprentices might solve that problem. I would just need time to get their running level high enough so we could all use our movement skills to get here in a reasonable time.

When I got back, I filled in my apprentices on what I learned, and they were quite excited about everything I told them. The next few days were quite pleasant as we seemed to have fallen into a routine. In the morning there was running which the wolves for some reason joined in, except of course Freya. She seemed to be quite content with the peace and quiet for the few hours we were training.

Next came our visit to the forest and slowly my apprentices were levelling up their skills so they could get some abilities to make this job easier and by doing so all their future tasks as well that require hitting something with combat ability.

In the evening we occupied ourselves with our own projects and energy control training. I was quite surprised by how hard they seemed to find it but with my explanations, they seem to be able to grasp everything a lot better.

I was constantly training energy control trying to make my energy more resistant to mana and it seemed to be an excellent way of gaining levels as my energy manipulation leveled three times and its leveling speed doesn't seem to be slowing down at all. But I can also understand why. What I am trying to achieve is extremely difficult and requires quite a lot of control.

At first, I start my training with the help of abilities to boost my control, but I slowly stop using them and try to control it just by myself. I found that this way is quite good to learn as I could feel myself getting better by the hour.

We decided that every four days will be a rest day because I could see that they needed the change. After all, our current schedule was affecting everyone’s mood. I think one of the reasons was the darkness as the daylight has gotten a lot shorter.

This is also why after another cycle and another rest day I brought up the possibility of us going into the dungeon so they can get some level up to their skills and get some more combat experience.

But before that, there was a big surprise as Goose finally started to fly. The feeling I got from our bond was amazing. It boosted my mood a lot as Goose finally felt like he was complete.

Our visit to the dungeon was quite smooth. I kept away from all the combat and let them handle everything. But I did correct them whenever they did something wrong or give them ideas about how to improve.

My biggest contribution was teaching them how to better notice the traps. It was quite hard for them to notice the traps as it was pitch dark without our torches. Even I had to learn how to spot the traps when not using energy sight.

I did let them come onto the second floor but this time I was the one that did the fighting and I let them watch. Everything seemed to be so easy now even when I focused on my energy training while fighting.

What surprised me the most was that there was actually light on this floor. There wasn’t any in the hallways only in the rooms with grass. The last time I hadn’t even noticed because I always used my energy sight so I could see everything brightly.

I could see that they were quite surprised at how easily I handled everything, and I could see the spark in Arthur’s eyes wanting to get stronger. I didn’t let them come with me onto the third floor as I could not guarantee their safety.

I told them that I might take quite a long time so they can leave and go back to the farm. While the fighting was a bit tougher on the third floor it was nothing compared to what I experienced the last time I was here. Mostly my armour enhancement made this quite trivial.

But I already knew all this as fighting experience was no longer my goal here. One of my goals was to get a bit more class experience. If my calculations were correct I had to do quite a few runs to get a full level which was a bit disappointing.

But my main goal was to observe the dungeon core and to learn more about how to control energy from it. As I sat there looking and trying to learn it still blew me away on how amateur I am compared to it. Still, I felt like I made great progress even though this wasn’t reflected in my achievement page.

One thing I noticed about the dungeon was that there were no extra mobs so my fear about connecting the dungeon to my land causing it to go out of control and start pumping out mobs faster than we could kill them didn’t happen.

Now came the question of how often can we delve and for that I need to keep an eye on it. If the innkeeper was correct, then it used to be available for a delve once a week to the adventures that used to be in the village. Let’s see if the frequency has increased.

We continued our normal routine after this and on the third day, the first room finally had a creature. If I understood correctly this was supposed to mean that the dungeon is ready to be delved again. I delved into it alone and finished it. It did seem to be fully ready in only three days.

This was quite a big change from a week to three days. Had my land's energy levels truly gone up that much? During the next cycle after we finished another dungeon run everyone finally got the running skill to tier up and fortunately everyone got to pick the homesteaders mile.

One thing I noticed after the dungeon run was how badly my apprentices were equipped, so this cycle we didn't focus on the forest but on making some simpler armour for everyone.

Arthur of course wanted armour similar to me, but we currently didn't have time for that. I was not against it but perhaps we could buy some pieces for him, or I can work on the armour when it gets too cold and the snow too deep for us to go into the forest.

Currently, all the lumber that we cut down was stacked at the edge of the forest. There was simply no reason to bring it closer to the farm as there was no way to dry them during the winter.