Homesteading in a fantasy world

It took me an entire day and a half to finish the potato field. It looked like something I would have done when I was 10 years old, doing my first potato row with the help of my grandfather. While it wasn’t perfect, it will still suffice.

What did weird me out a bit was that on the second day, I had quite a crowd of people watching me from the inn. I was a little curious, but I decided not to go and ask what was going on. Instead, I continued my work, planting all the vegetables and everything else in the span of two weeks, as some were a bit too early to plant sooner.

The longest amount of time I spent was on my plant evolution project, and it took quite a while to categorise and log every change for the seeds that I was going to plant so I could track them for the future. Not long after that, it was time to celebrate my apprentice graduating and achieving the homesteader class.

Of course, the first one was Tim, as he only needed to make a house that was in a convenient location and also had me to help him. He was only able to get the homesteader class because my land worked for him since he became a part of my clan.

There wasn’t any special ritual or celebration; we just shook hands, and he became a part of my clan. He was quite overwhelmed after he received the true nature connection, but I was able to guide him through it.

I also gained a level from his graduation and wondered if I was going to gain one for every one of my apprentices. Things after that became a lot more peaceful, so to say, however, we did occasionally need to fight off encroaching dungeon monsters that came from broken dungeons.

Over the coming months, every one of my apprentices graduated. I postponed taking in a new apprentice until after the summer solstice. I did gain 12 levels just from my apprentices graduating. It was a huge boost, but conquering a few broken dungeons helped level up my other classes a few levels as well.

One of the things that I had focused on during this time was my kinetic energy skill, and just before the summer solstice, I finally ranked up from the basic rank, gaining a new ability called ‘kinetic ball.’

The other choices were a lot worse, but this one wasn’t the best either. Still, I could see some uses for it. What it basically allowed me to do was leave balls of kinetic force that would either repulse or attract anything nearby.

It couldn't do this for a long time, only for short bursts and one-time use. Terrible, but still, there's quite a lot of utility in that, especially because I could get quite far away from it, allowing it to act like a mine that, from my understanding, was quite hard to see even with energy vision.

A day before the summer solstice, we got a surprise visitor. Bert had arrived, bringing some bad news but also a nice opportunity. He needed to give the bad news officially, so a meeting was called so everyone could hear his words.

"I came here for two reasons. The first I bring from the Thorn Rose Company. They regretfully have to stop any interactions and the current deals in place by the order of the queen. This was not a decision that was taken lightly, but with the deepest regrets, the Thorn Rose Company can't continue to do business with you."

He then pulled out a stack of papers. "Here are all the nullification papers for the current deals." He placed them on the table and then breathed out a huge sigh of relief. Even I looked at him with a question, to which he straightened himself out once again.

"That was my last standing order from the Thorn Rose Company. With that, I am no longer employed by them and I’m free to speak my mind, and hopefully, my words will help build some goodwill towards my second reason for coming here."

"The Thorn Rose Company was bought out by the queen. I no longer have to keep that a secret. That’s why, during the last few months, you probably had a bad time dealing with them. Basically, everyone who could left, and there is no one left there whom you know Rich. I recommend that you don’t agree to the nullification agreements and take them for all they are worth. I bet some of those canceled deals came with quite huge penalties."

Everyone had been worried about what was happening with their relationship with the Thorn Rose Company. And most were still thinking of signing the papers because, before the troubles that happened during the last few months, they had been an excellent business partner.

But now, those worried expressions turned almost feral, and I didn’t know whether to be proud or worried about how they mirrored the military mindset: friends would be treated like brothers and enemies like bitter rivals.

Bert explained a little bit more about what had happened. It seems like the queen wanted to hurt us in the only way she had left to do so, but I was quite certain that the people here already knew how to make her hurt even more.

I honestly didn’t have any clue how or what they were going to use to punish her, but I was incredibly glad that I didn’t have to worry about any of this. Once again, I was incredibly glad that I didn’t go down the king route. Just thinking about that sent shivers down my back.

Finally, it was time to hear Bert's other reason for being here. "As you all know, I am a druid and was born in a Grove. Since the start of the plague, things have not gone well for them, and now there's even more pressure put on them, both politically and militarily, as the land they’re currently on is quite valuable and relatively safe.”

“This has happened many times before, but the difference is that this time they're making deals with others to stop us from relocating. The people who want the location also want the druids to keep living there so the land would prosper.”

It was- obviously hard for Bert to speak about his people's misfortune, but none of us urged him to continue as he needed a few moments to recover. "So, I come here today knowing that this will bring you political trouble, but could you please help me and my Grove by offering us a place to live the way druids need to live and to so inside the borders of your nation?" There was a moment of silence before Bert was answered.

"We will need to discuss this, but be certain that we will give it our entire focus, and indeed we will do this immediately. So, could you please wait outside while we work to give you the answer as soon as possible?"

Of course, Bert had hoped for an immediate 'yes', as anyone else would have as well. But I could see that he knew that we couldn't just immediately agree, so he steadied his shoulders and started to turn around to walk out. I was sitting on the edge of the table, so I turned my face a little so no one else could see that I winked at Bert.

It was kind of funny seeing him try not to react to me basically saying that we were going to agree. What followed was a rapid conversation. I didn’t speak up, but I was glad to see that from the very beginning, everyone was focused on not if we should do this, but how we were going to do it.

There were quite a few concerns, but one of the biggest was that the druids required their own land. And with the current laws, they couldn't own land. Of course, we could change that law, and it was brought up, but a more elegant solution was found.

We called Bert back in and gave him the news. One of the council members gave the verdict. "You and your grove are welcome in the United Freeholds. We will even help you bring everyone here. We have plenty of land and possible locations, so we will need to work together to find a suitable place for your people. However, there is a 'but'. You see, we have quite strict laws about who can own land, as landowners for us are quite important."

Bert looked worried for a moment. "Not to worry, Bert. We believe we have a solution for that. If you owned that land, would that be a problem for your grove, or would that suffice for your needs?" The council member asked, and Bert took a few moments to think about it. He seemed a little unsure but eventually gave an affirmative.

"Then that is excellent news. You coming here at such a time was quite fortuitous. You see, Rich here is supposed to take a new batch of apprentices who will all get the 'Homesteader' class. The people who have that class can become landowners in our nation."

No more words needed to be said for everyone to understand. Bert was going to need to take my apprenticeship. After that, he could claim the land his group had set up on, and they could have full access to the land after. There were a lot of things that needed to be taken care of, but a few people left with Bert as their situation was quite time-sensitive.

One of the council members spoke up before we all dispersed, "And I was beginning to think that perhaps we could take some time off after the summer solstice?" Everyone laughed at that comment because now everyone had even more work to do. But no one was mad at that fact because it was work that everyone believed in.