Homesteading in a fantasy world

More time went by, and I continued to follow a similar schedule to before until it was time to get started with preparing the fields for sowing. Tim and I were sitting and eating breakfast, and I took a few moments to just think about how he's doing. He still had plenty to do to finish his home, and he really seems to be enjoying that. Perhaps I should deal with the fields alone this time.

"Tim, it's time to start preparing the fields, but I think this year you can just continue building your home. I will do the field preparations myself, and no, there's no need to start disagreeing with me. I also want to use this as a training opportunity."

He still protested for a little while, but I could tell that his heart wasn’t in it, especially after I said I was going to use this as a training opportunity. Perhaps he knows me better than I thought, but that’s to be expected since we have worked together for more or less a year. When breakfast was over and everything was cleaned, I spent a little time helping Tim with some heavy lifting and then went to inspect the equipment I was going to need for farming.

This year, there won’t be any extra fields, but I also wasn’t going to reduce the size of them. There was still going to be 12 apprentices that I was going to take after my current ones, let's call it, graduated.

I kind of wanted to take this year off, but I couldn’t justify it as it was crucial to get as many homesteaders as possible to start teaching other homesteaders and then them teaching the next once and so on. The start is always the slowest, and I couldn’t crippler my nations growth.

There were already 6 candidates who have been picked out and whom I actually agreed to take on. Another six will need to also be found, but I will be using the same method I did the last time for them. Having checked up on everything, it was time to get started.

The potato fields were going to be the harder ones to do, so I started there. Once again, I had to pick up stones that were being pushed up from deep underground, the same way as back on earth. I guess I will forever not escape this task, but at least my body makes this a lot easier this time around.

When that was finished, I harrowed the field to break up the large clumps of dirt. Now, it was time for the hardest part, something that could not be done alone with my current equipment. My solution for that was the kinetic energy skill that I was slowly training, and which I hoped I would be able to get to the basic rank with today’s training.

My plan was to be the puller or do the job Francis usually did. To hold the plough steady, I was going to have to use kinetic force barriers like hands. That meant a lot of fine control to keep them steady and, at the same time, move at the same pace I was pulling.

This training was crucial if I wanted to use these kinds of barriers to keep myself protected during a fight where I constantly needed to move. While I could already use static barriers, they were a lot less useful. And of course, I needed to train them to be stronger because currently, even a regular human's punch could shatter them, but it would stop one of those punches, so that was already progress.

This wasn't going to be easy, but I never expected to be sweating after doing the first row. My barriers shattered three times because you actually need quite a lot of strength to keep the plough steady. And after I turned around and looked at my work, I internally cringed so hard that my stomach started to hurt.

I think a blind dog would have done a better job than I did. Taking a deep breath to refocus myself, I positioned everything for a second row and started once again. This was better, but it was going to be a lot of work to continue like this, but I couldn’t help but keep the smile off my face.

When was the last time that I struggled like this? Wiping the sweat off my forehead, I positioned the plough for another row and just revelled in how hard this was. Halfway down the row, I got the notification that my skill, ‘Beginner Kinetic Energy,’ ranked up to ‘Basic Kinetic Energy.’ Just 10 more levels, and I would get myself a new ability.

POV Tim

It was lunchtime, and I marvelled at how much work I had been able to do. This body of mine was now so much stronger than it used to be; it was laughable to think I could ever do anything back then.

I didn't at first notice how Rich was struggling. When I first saw it, I almost jumped down from the wall I was building to go help, but then I saw that smile of his. Yeah, no way I was going to get close to him if he was smiling like that. It made my body shiver to think about the last time someone interrupted him while he was smiling like that. I still remembered how my muscles hurt after the training we all got from that incident.

I was walking towards Val’s inn and to my surprise, I saw Val sitting outside on his new porch where there were multiple tables for people to eat at. I still remember the conversation we had when we had dinner in the inn.

Val had brought up that the weather was getting nice, but there wasn't really a good place to set tables outside. Rich agreed and said that he needed a good-sized porch. We, of course, discussed this quite a lot during the evening, and I believe Val was planning on hiring some people to make it, but the next morning Rich was already hard at work making it, and by lunchtime, he had finished it.

It wasn't anything special, just a porch that worked perfectly fine for the establishment and would probably not need replacing for a long time. I’m still impressed by how willing he is to work even now when he's rich enough to live in a big city in complete comfort. It’s one of the things that I truly admire about him. When I got closer, I saw Val get up, yell something into the inn, and then go back and sit down. He waved for me to join him.

"Good day to you, Val. Taking a break outside?" I asked him. He nodded before speaking. "A good day to you as well. Come join me; I told the wife to bring us two lunches and two beers." He smiled after saying that, and I smiled back. "Well, thank you for that," I said while joining him on the bench he was sitting at. When I sat down, I saw where Val was looking. He was watching Rich work.

"Someone who could be king, yet he still works in the dirt. I don’t think I’ve ever truly understood him," Val said after he had been quiet for a little while. I knew what he meant. "He could be a king, yes. He is the high general, but he will always be a farmer at heart.”

“He truly enjoys everything to do with farming, even more than me, and I’ve done a fair share of it without ever complaining." After my words, there was a longer silence, which was interrupted when Val brought out a pipe and some tobacco. "Want some?" he said.

My hand checked my shirt's back pocket on reflex, and I still felt the old pipe my grandfather gave me. I pulled it out, and there was no need for any words as he handed me some tobacco. "So, how good of a farmer were you?" Val asked.

It came as a little bit of a surprise because no one truly liked speaking about the recent past as there wasn’t anything nice to be said, but I guess this was just that kind of situation. "Level 40 expert farmer, but I didn’t specialise as I still hoped to advance my class."

My words somehow made Val choke on the tobacco smoke. I chuckled a bit at that. "Level 40? That's impressive, like really impressive. You must have been really successful." I took a deep pull of smoke before I let it out and answered him.

"Yeah, back then I was really proud, thought of myself as a proper farmer, someone that should be an example to others. What a fool I was." Val didn't say anything to my words; we just sat in silence until I started to speak again.

"I learned the true meaning of what it means to be a farmer from Rich and the trait 'Nature Connection' which came with the Apprentice class. You see, I used to take from the land all I could and only gave back as much as I needed so it could keep giving me everything it had. What an idiot I was.”

“My land would have still failed if I kept doing it, and I guess thinking back on it, the harvests already were diminishing. The bigger problem was that if I died, my older son, who was going to take over, wouldn't have even been able to get one harvest without my abilities that kept the land alive. Yet, I never thought of that."

There was a brief silence as we smoked and watched Rich work. The food came, and we finished eating before Val asked a question. "How were you able to get an apprenticeship if you had that high of a class level? I remember something about not being able to get it if you are too high-leveled."

I took a sip of beer before I explained. "I had a second class slot. Filled it with Herb Cultivation. I had picked it in hopes of getting more coin, but all it did was allow us to have better tasting food. It fit the requirements, so it was overridden by the Apprentice Homesteader class."

"Why the question? Do you perhaps want to take the class as well?" I asked Val, who shook his head. "No, I'm more asking for my children. From my understanding, the class should give them the best chance to do whatever they want to do in the future." I thought about that for a little bit, but I had to agree. "You are right. I honestly don’t know if there's any better class to establish this formidable of a base." Things were silent after that.

This Wednesday was quite quiet; there was scarcely anyone around, so all we could hear was the sound of nature and Rich working. "My older boy would have liked it here; he truly enjoyed farming." Why did I even say that? It was hard to think about them.

"Do you perhaps have some more of that tobacco?" I asked, and Val pulled out the pack and handed me some more. "You spoke about not wanting to start your own farm again, instead of staying here. Why?" He asked.

It took a while before I started speaking. "Yeah, I could start all over again, but the main reason I pushed myself so much was because of my family. I don’t want a new family; it just somehow feels wrong to start all over again. And besides that, I found a new way to be helpful." I pointed towards Rich, who was currently on his knees digging something up, completely covered in dirt.

Val looked where I was pointing, and I think he understood. Rich was the one who was holding this nation on his shoulders. He also needed support, and I am completely happy helping him maintain his home.

It was at this moment that we saw a group of adventurers walking towards the inn while pointing and laughing at Rich. "Hey, old-timers, you enjoying the show as well?" one of them asked. "Yes, but just don't be too loud. You don't want the high general to hear what you are saying," I answered them, which made them all shut up and immediately look towards the person who was now getting up from the dirt.

He continued to rise until he cast an imposing shadow. This image seemed to melt their brains and I wondered if any of them had died because one looked like he was about to faint. "But why?" I heard one of them say before they all sat down around the table and continued to watch how Rich worked.

Val went back to work and asked them what they wanted, but they all answered without paying any attention. They were solely focused on Rich, and I wondered if he could change someone’s worldview by simply farming.