Homesteading in a fantasy world

As I followed them, I needed some sort of plan of action. I could try to ambush them on the way, but I think this will give too many opportunities to run away and then reporting what has happened.

But when they reached back to the bridge and saw the goblin that was watching and its dead body, I don’t know what they will do then.

As we moved forward, I know that this will be a problem for tomorrow because when night started to come, and they started to camp, we were only about halfway there, I think.

I found another tree that I could monitor them but where I can also sleep. Had to go a bit forward of them to find it, so hopefully I will wake up before them this time as well.

Their camp was the same as before. Basically, they just made a fire and cooked some meat with some wooden skewers and slept in the open.

I made myself as comfortable as possible and went to sleep. But during the night, something made me open my eyes.

The moon was quite full, so I could see somewhat. It only took me a moment to notice the eyes watching me from two trees over.

As I stared into its eyes, it’s stared back. It was a big black puma like creature and as I watched it, I knew that he could kill me, and it knew that it could kill me.

I slowly pulled out my knife while still looking into its eyes, trying to make him understand that I knew that he could kill me, but he wouldn’t make it out without getting seriously hurt.

Now, for predators, getting hurt is basically the same as dying and after a few minutes of a stare down I saw it turn around and leave.

For a moment I thought that it will attack the goblins, but I’m guessing there’s too many of them for it to feel safe attacking them as well.

I woke up again, but this time it was the correct time and the sleep helped me figure out my next move.

I didn’t have to follow them back to where they were going because I already knew where they will go. Moving ahead of them will give me a chance to lay an ambush.

So, when most of them were going towards the bridge to try to get across, I could kill the ones behind and cut off the others retreat options.

The goblins were moving at a good pace, but nothing that I could not manage. It will take them about half a day to get to my bridge. It took me only a few hours.

When I made it to the edge of the forest, I picked up the dead goblin that was there and proceeded towards the river to throw it in.

I did throw its metal armor pieces and his weapon over the bridge to the other side. But I left the goblins that were on the traps there. That way, it would seem that anyone that was living on the farm wasn’t responsible for the watching goblin being missing.

I also erased all my footprints, and I had to do some backwards walking to get rid of them all. I set up my watch quite far away because I didn’t know the exact location they were coming from.

I was watching the edge of the forest at such an angle that wherever they were going to approaching the bridge, I could see them.

I finished off the last of my food and water while I was waiting for them, and I hope that they will make it here soon, but I know from the time, I will still need to wait a few hours.

I know when they finally arrived, I could hear some of their voices when they were most likely trying to find the watcher and arguing what to do.

But as I expected, five of them started to approach the bridge. When they did, I started to sneak further into the forest to come from the backside of the two goblins that were waiting.

The goblin that looked in charge was actually wearing back armor, obviously knowing it was their weak spot but there wasn’t anything covering its head.

The other one had normal armor for goblins, a few mismatched pieces of armor in places they will fit the best.

By the time I was in place, the goblins were almost at the bridge. I didn’t want to wait and let them destroy any of the traps, so I prepared my arrows and got ready to kill. My first volley of three arrows was all aimed at the goblin in charge.

One went for the head and two for the legs. The one I aimed for the head I shot at his current location, but the leg ones went a bit to the sides. If he tries to dodge to either side, one will hit.

It was an excellent choice and turned out to be a needed strategy because even with silent arrow it did have some way to understand that it was under attack.

It tucked and tried to move to the left, and that gave it an arrow through its leg. By that time, two other arrows were flying towards the other one, this time just aiming for the back and the little movement he did didn’t make me miss.

Pained screams from the boss alert that other goblins, but I already drew out my sword and ran towards the goblin, screaming in pain. I quickly decapitated him with one piercing cut strike.

Dropping the sword and starting to shoot at the goblins that were running towards here. I actually had to wait a bit for them to get closer before I could fire at them accurately.

I killed them one at a time. One goblin survived thanks to the arrow going through its leg. The last one got quite close, but the bow wasn't less effective close up.

They were all killed or downed trying to rush me and all I had to do was go forward and finish off one of them with an arrow through its head.

I brought them all back to the bridge, striped them off anything metal and threw them into the river. I then assembled and placed the walkway beside the bridge and brought everything useful back to the other side.

I reassembled the walkway, cleaned up the traps and reset them, and finally I was able to do my chores and look at my notifications.

Level up frontier farmer

frontier farmer now level 11

strength +2

dexterity +1

vitality +2

endurance +1

Level up animal husbandry

Animal husbandry now level 6

Strength +1

Dexterity +1

Vitality +1

Empathy +1

Skill increases basic stealth level 5

Skill increases basic combat strategy level 3

Skill increases archery level 5

Skill increases basic sword level 4

Ability increases silent arrow level 3

Ability increases piercing cut level 7

Some good level ups from killing them and I’m expecting this to continue as I kill more. During the chores, I was trying to figure out my next moves.

The female goblins that were creating the new goblins must be killed. My first instinct is to do it with explosives, but I don’t have any and I can’t make any.

I don’t have the materials for anything currently I can think of. Seems the bull missed me while I was gone, and I had to give him some quality time.

Maybe poison, but for some reason, I think they test everything they feed the female goblins. Fire could work but I don’t have anything that will make that work, but could I make something?

I don’t have alcohol and I can’t make it currently. “Think, come on, think. Got it tar that could work” I’d need to make a proper structure to get it in large enough quantities and I need it in constructions later on as well.

I wish I remembered tar before I built the bridge. Coating it in tar will make it survive a lot longer, but I guess I can do that later as well.

It is flammable enough and when it burns, it will expand but nowhere close to the requirement to fill that entire place and make certain everything died inside the hill.

But combining it with poison that will burn and make smoke could work. Making a barrel full of tar and then mixing in poisonous plants that will produce toxic smoke when burned that will kill everything inside.

Fire and poison, now that’s a plan. Maybe I could also make some tar Molotov cocktails that I could throw on the tent to make them burn.

But this plan also meant I would need to sneak in through the entrance off the hill. I need to get deep into the goblin encampment for this plan to work.

I will also need to prepare for what happens next. They will be coming for me sooner or later. It will be a good idea to try to point to someone else doing the attacking on the encampment.

When they are chasing me, I need to lead them away from the farm, perhaps disguised as a goblin. That could also help me get inside better.

Let’s make a list of what I need. I need a structure to make tar from wood, I will need a delivery method for that, I will need poisonous plants, I will need better weapons and I will need to make a disguise.

Quite a list of things to do, but there’s no time to waste. For the delivery method, I have to sacrifice one of my water barrels that collect rainwater. It's the only thing big enough and waterproof to make an effective tar and poison delivery method.

For the tar Molotov cocktails, I will need to gather some clay and make vessels that when thrown will break and set fire to anything it touches.

For poison plants, I have seen some around the forest. Most likely hill forest would work well to find a large quantity needed. I will just need to make certain I will not go too deep and find that spooky place again.

The weapon I will need to make are the ballista and the English longbow. I will also need some bolts for the ballista and some ammunition that I could use that gives a similar effect as a grapeshot.

For the English longbow, I will also need thicker arrows because my current ones will not be able to handle the extra strength of the bow and will simply snap when fired. That means I will need to hunt some birds for feathers.

For the disguise, I could use some fabric I made earlier and dye it green and sort of make it look like I’m a goblin.

I will need to try to stay low, but I think if I do it at night, I will not be that noticeable or if I am, I should use one of the goblins spears I have so hopefully I will not be bothered.

I know that I have at least today safe from goblins, so the best thing to do would be to go and gather some poison plants and then go and hunt for some feathers.

Then everything else I can do around the farm and can be here when the goblins will return. I will most likely need multiple days of preparations.

I hope that they don’t have any more axes that would make my life a lot easier if I could keep myself hidden for at least until I get the encampment attack done.

I took the cloth backpack I made to transport low weight stuff, and I brought along my usual gear, but I also brought the sickle just in case I needed to cut a lot of plants in one place.

I also took some wood sticks that I could use, sort of like chopsticks, so I would not have to touch the plants.

I started to jog towards the hill forest, using my usual running route. I needed to go quite deep in until I finally found some excellent poison sumac plants to use. They will most certainly kill anything that breathes in enough of the smoke.

I will need to burn the bag and use fire on the sickle to make it safe to use after this. The sticks I could just leave them here and make other ones when I get back, can’t be too safe.

This all took me about few hours to gather and get back to the farm. I put them out in the open where I laid rocks onto the bag and the opening so nothing will spill out.

I would use the shovel to throw the rocks into the river afterwards. You can't be too careful with this stuff.

Next, I used the fire to clean the sickle and then put on my hunting and trapping equipment. I went to the grasslands to hunt birds and while there, get some more rabbit meat.

I also brought along an extra piece of rope and a large wooden stake. I was going to use the sickle to clean out the small area of grass, then driving the stake in and tie a living rabbit there.

Then the birds will see and try to get an easy kill, but I will be waiting close hidden in the grass and then shoot them while they are diving for the rabbit.

I spent a few hours catching rabbits. I killed 8 of them and left one alive to take with me into the grassland. Setting up the rabbit trap was easy, thanks to the sickle.

I actually didn’t have to wait long until a hawk like bird tried to catch the rabbit. I waited for long enough to make certain that the bird will only be focused on the rabbit, making it an easy kill.

But one will not be enough unfortunately and before it started to get dark, I got three more. One a different species most likely more towards the eagle side because it was a lot bigger.

Hopefully, this gave me enough feathers for the time being. It was so late that I had to finish butchering using a torch.

I will also need to make a torch when I go on the mission to the goblin encampment. I must make it extremely easy to fire up so that wouldn’t be a problem with the plan.

After the butchering, I left the meat to sit there until morning. I didn’t have time to smoke it and cut it into smaller pieces now. I really just wanted to get some good sleep in my own bed.