Apinsig
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Chapter 203 Homesteading in a fantasy world
🕑 Added 2023-04-13 16:13:27 +0000 UTCI was going to need to run quite a lot and even today was accounted for in the training plan. I didn’t mind as I needed to run to the village anyways as I had people to inform and preparations to make.
This wasn’t going to be a quick run as I was supposed to slow down my energy circulation as much as possible. I also need to pick up some weights that I put into my tattoo storage to make this even worse.
When I made it out of my own lands, I was already sweating hard, but I kept up the quick pace that was required. I have trained a lot in this world but the current training I was doing was the hardest training I have yet done. Yet this was just the training wheels of what was to come. This time the thought didn't bring me anger or resentment, instead it brought me excitement and joy.
People have often asked me how I could be so decisive about changing my mind when just moments ago I thought or believed something different. To me, it has always been natural. You learn from the moment you are alive, and you don’t stop until you are dead but what most don't tell you is that most of the things you learn turn out to be incorrect.
I remember too many examples of people who wouldn’t accept the reality that they had previously been wrong. If you don’t change you slam the brakes on your ability to adapt to new situations.
Changing my mind too fast has also been a problem as the new things you hear might also not be true. It’s a constant game of adapting to new circumstances and new knowledge. It was one of the reasons that I was a good military strategist. If the strategy that had been working for years didn't work anymore, I didn’t just keep doing the same, I tried to understand what was different.
Luckily, I didn’t have to run all the way to the village today as I was able to cover the distance that I needed to run way before seeing the village. When I could finally stop, I puked. I pulled out my water skin to get the taste out of my mouth and finally drank the liquid of the gods. Why in the fuck was water so good when you were so desperate to get it. I couldn’t, however, relax as I needed to do stretches. When that was done, I could finally use my movement ability and quickly get into the village.
I then started to inform people about what was going to happen. I was going to be a lot less active and there would be long stretches where I wouldn’t be turning up at all. People didn’t like it, but they were accepting and even asked how they could help when I explained the full situation.
Into the jobs building, I added quite a few posts. There were almost three months until I needed to use a potion that was supposed to help a lot so I hope that there were people around who could complete this task. I also added a post to find a chef that could make meals that would contain the nutrition I needed.
I had quite a lot of credits to spend so hopefully I can get everything I need. I also tried to get in touch with the three people who took care of my farm when the war was going on. I would need them again but this time I would make them my apprentices if they were willing. When Goose finally made it back here, I instructed him to bring the wolves back which would take until tomorrow morning.
Thanks to my evening being free I was able to sit in on one of the late-evening architecture meetings. It was good timing because otherwise, I would have missed it but listening to them was quite enlightening. The way they took my apartment idea and ran with it was quite awesome to see. Of course, they could have made the design a lot better, but they needed to balance resource cost, build time and livability.
Those were hard things to juggle, especially where we were living but they were doing a better job than I ever could. The buildings were going to be three stories with two entrances and staircases. There will be eight apartments on every floor except the first where two central apartments will be a kitchen and the dining area.
It was not the perfect layout, but we didn't have central heating, so every apartment needed to have a wooden heating element which meant a chimney. There will be two smaller chimneys at the ends of the building and a bigger one at the centre.
We will need to build quite a lot of those buildings but every apartment can easily handle four people living in them so we should be able to build enough of them and if needed more people can live in one apartment during the winter if it was really needed. Today was a sleeping day which I was glad about as there was a lot to do in the following days.
When the wolves arrived, it was time for them to meet their new unit. I searched out the two suitable Vikings who were still in the village as the others had already left for their missions. They had abilities that helped them with animals and animal combat.
I wasn't going to be able to give the wolves orders as regularly as I had been, so they needed other people for guidance. I also believe that the wolves would help a lot with bringing more refugees safely out of the southern forest.
It took half a day before the wolves were comfortable enough that I felt they could be left in the care of the Vikings. Goose will also be hanging around with them but more of an emergency measure if someone needs to contact me and I was somewhere they can’t reach. Goose always knew where I was so no matter how far away I was he was always going to be able to contact me.
I was now sitting in my office and three young ladies were across from my table. “You might be wondering why you are here. You took such wonderful care of my farm, and I am in need of a similar service again. But this time I also wanted to offer you all an opportunity to become my apprentices.” They were a bit unsure about my offer and when thinking back on it, it might have been better if I had chosen my words a bit better.
“The apprenticeship that I’m offering is to teach a certain way of managing a farm called homesteading.” I then started to explain what that meant and the class that would come with it. The more I spoke the more excited they seemed to get. When I was finally done explaining and asked if there were any questions the youngest of the three girls spoke up.
“Did you offer us this opportunity because we took care of your farm during the war and will we be the only apprentices?” The others also seemed quite interested in the answer, so I didn’t keep them waiting.
“You taking care of my farm so diligently was the main reason for me giving you this opportunity. The other reason being that you seem to genuinely enjoy the work. And yes, there will be more apprentices and I also currently have three apprentices who will soon finish their training.” I answered them and after a few more questions they went to prepare their things so they could head back with me.
I went into the market and bought a few things that I needed but after that, we started to head back to my home. I was carrying quite a lot of stuff, so I wasn’t able to train until we made it back to my home.
When I took a break, I checked on them and how they were settling in. They already knew that I wasn’t going to be spending a lot of time around the farm, at least in the next few weeks. After that, I continued my exercises which took until midnight.
The rest of the night I prepared my gear as I was going to go and see the goblins and then hopefully find opponents that would be strong enough to gain me class experience. Originally, I was going to wait until the delegation came to the village to deal with my last obligation of listening to Stebs Soot, but I didn’t want to push it back when I had an opportunity to take care of it right now.
In the morning I started to head towards Hilfort village. Some of the way there I was training my endurance but luckily the goblins were far enough away that I was done before I even entered their lands.
At first, I scared the scouts that I ran into as I was wearing my full adventuring gear and looked quite intimidating in it. I was trying to get as much use out of my armour as possible as I didn’t know how much of it I would still be able to wear in the coming months.
I was expecting to be led into the village but that wasn't the case. I was taken towards the mountain before the scouts left me and told me that their leader would be coming soon. I didn’t mind because I still had some exercises to do that required me to stay in one place. Almost an hour later Stebs Soot finally arrived. He was alone but I kind of expected it since the scouts also left long ago.
I continue to do pushups while looking at him. He looked worried but currently, he was more confused. “Rich what are you doing?” he asked. “Just some exercises but don't worry about that. What is it that you wanted to talk to me about.” I asked and after a few more pushups I stopped as I finally understood how serious he was. Even during the Goblin War, he wasn’t this worried.
“Some of the smarter goblins have noticed the bad thing. Our population is in a serious decline, and we don’t have enough new goblins being born to make up the difference. If this keeps going, then we won't be able to hunt enough food or protect ourselves. We don’t want to go back to our old ways but the goblins who know are quite afraid for our future.” He finally confessed.
“I can see the problem. The goblins who saw this problem are completely correct, but I hope that you will not give up so easily. If you return to your old ways, I’m afraid the humans will annihilate you.” Before I could continue Stebs Soot spoke up, “So there’s truly nothing we can do. We fought so hard, yet we are going to achieve nothing.” His shoulders slumped and I could see he tried to hold back tears.
“You know it’s not polite to interrupt others,” I said. He looked up from the shock that my words caused him, but he was met with my gentle smile. “It might seem hopeless right now, but every problem has a solution. For your declining hunter population. That could be fixed if you started to focus on traps instead of goblins going out and hunting.”
“If the lower population means that you can't defend as well that means you need to build better defensive structures. The perfect example was the dam. A few goblins held off a superior force simply thanks to the defensive structure.”
“There are always hardships and sometimes they seem like they are inevitable. Now sometimes they are but you never know if you don't take a step back and start looking through your options. You could also increase trade with my nation. You have things that you could offer like tin and copper or tar. Learn what you can make better or faster and get what you need in return.” I could once again see resolve on his face.
We continued to talk but now things were a lot lighter. I resumed exercising according to my training plan. Our talks weren’t just about goblin problems or the problems my nation was facing. We talked about some jokes that we heard or some ridiculous stories that made us both laugh. For some time, he even joined me in the exercises I did.
