Homesteading in a fantasy world

I felt the water envelop my head, and I was underwater. Adjusting my eyes a bit, I managed to enhance my vision to see further in the water than normally possible. Still, I needed to swim deeper to get a clearer picture of what was happening.

Soon, I encountered large underwater plants with huge leaves that were at least 10 metres below the surface. The leaves and stems that had reached this far up looked healthy and vibrantly green. There was a lot of marine life around them, but nothing seemed big enough to threaten me, though I think I spotted a few larger fish in the distance that would be quite the catch.

Swimming deeper, I noticed it grew darker, and the same plants that seemed so vibrant above now appeared more sickly. It seemed there was a lifespan for them, and they needed enough sunlight to grow properly.

I was about 20 metres deep, and I still had another 10 before reaching the bottom, but it was incredibly dark now, almost like being in a forest with a canopy overhead. Honestly, I wasn't sure what I had expected, but I hadn't anticipated the entire bottom to be filled with the same water plants that surrounded me.

Getting even closer, I began to feel a faint current. It seemed that somehow these plants were preventing the water from rushing downwards, creating this lake. How that was supposed to work, I had no clue. And I was starting to run out of oxygen.

I hadn't brought my knife, but I used my energy to cut a few samples of the large leaves from the bottom. I wasn't concerned that removing one would cause a chain reaction destroying this lake, as this layer of plant matter should be multiple feet deep.

Just to be safe, I took a few more samples from the leaves higher up, and even the stem. Swimming up with so much dragging behind me was challenging, especially since some of the leaves were larger than me.

When my head broke the surface of the water, I took deep breaths, having pushed myself quite a lot, but I enjoyed the feeling. So, while I dragged my loot next to my clothes, I decided to go back in and practice holding my breath at the bottom of the lake.

There was some pressure that deep, so it was a slightly different environment, and I wanted to get used to it. As for the plants, I'll examine them later, and then I should post a job listing that will hopefully find someone more qualified to fully understand this plant.

With a smile on my face, I walked back underwater. This kind of new training and experience was quite distracting and also helped me work through my lingering problems of leading an army. How could it possibly be so calm down here?

I didn’t want to just stand still to practice holding my breath because if I needed to hold my breath, I'd probably be doing that while exerting myself. So, for fun, I started chasing fish around. Most didn’t appreciate it, except for one peculiar-looking fish whose scales almost resembled zebra stripes.

POV ????

I was staring at our war table, darkness creeping in at the corners of my vision. Nothing had worked, and I was furious. How could things not work out? We were the servants of a god of luck and fortune; everything should work out for us.

I held out my hand for someone to refill my wine glass, but the servant fumbled the bottle, and it crashed to the ground. I stared at the spilled wine and the shattered glass. Before I knew it, the wine glass I was holding joined the wine bottle on the floor, breaking spectacularly with shards flying everywhere.

I looked around, grabbed another item, and smashed it too. I continued this rampage until I was breathing heavily, seeing the terrified looks on the servants' faces, while my loyal followers remained expressionless. "Kill them," I ordered. Instantly, the servants fell, each dispatched in various ways by my followers. "Fix this place up and don't disturb me until I call for you."

After that, I returned to my seat of power. The alliance between the three countries closest to us shouldn't have happened. We had assassins ready, but the security was so heightened that we couldn't risk being discovered. That was the excuse those incompetent fools gave me. Yet they failed me a second time when we convinced remnants of the city-states to band together and crush the alliance's army led by that vile man.

I had been so confident that we would be more ruthless than him, thinking that would give us a huge advantage. I had been wrong. He could match my generals in ruthlessness. He was a decent general, but nothing special, especially against my people who had faith and luck on their side.

We didn't see him fight directly, but we know he's quite formidable. I'm even more worried about his individual fighting power than the combined might of the alliance's armies, who currently outnumber us.

Another problem was his perceived strength. He was nearing rank 3, and my victory was no longer guaranteed. My biggest worry is that he'll survive the first conflict, where we should be able to surprise and kill him. After that, I fear he'll find a way to reach rank 3.

This means I must also make my own preparations, which I'm reluctant to do as it would set us back significantly. But what can one do against such an unholy abomination?

The soldiers need preparation, and so do the citizens. The current plan of merely labeling them as villains won't suffice. I need the populace to be deathly afraid of him, yet willing to sacrifice their lives in hopes of saving their loved ones.

It shouldn't be hard to paint him as an unholy monster, an affront to our God. We need to crush them completely and prepare for contingencies, especially if my fears are confirmed that we can't defeat them in the first battle.

I wanted to destroy things again, but more than anything, I wanted my hands wrapped around his throat squeezing the life out of him myself. He has caused me so many headaches. Just thinking about it brings relief. He shouldn't expect what we're planning to throw at him. With me leading the charge, we should overwhelm him quickly or be able to decimate his armies while he's fleeing from us.

I can already see the two armies about to clash: him and his elites about to collide with mine. Then we reveal that most of us are rank 2. While some of us will die, his elites will soon perish, leaving him overwhelmed and easily killed.

There are a few futures where he stands alone and puts up a decent fight before we kill him, but the most likely future is that he would run away. After which, we will sweep through and rout his army. It's fantastic to know that it’s only a matter of time before we hunt him down and kill him. Knowing the future helped me relax, and I was ready to continue with the preparations.

****

In early winter, during a cold yet clear evening, a beautiful sunset made an undisturbed lake with clear water sparkle. The only thing that marred this beautiful image was a bundle of clothing and armor next to large leaves from an underwater plant. The lake surface hadn’t been disturbed for over half an hour before, slowly and almost gently, a head started to emerge from the surface.

It didn't take long for more and more of this man to be revealed. He took deep breaths while walking calmly out of the water. He was a tall man, over 8 feet, and looked as if he was chiseled from marble.

Yet, that image was instantly broken by the many scars on his body, the largest being on the right side of his head that reached down to his right hand. It looked like a lightning strike had left deep scars, yet those didn’t seem to affect his movements.

As you continued to look at him, your eyes would be fixated on his eyes as they seemed unnatural, even scary. They would draw you in, and the deeper you looked, the more they would suffocate you.

If those eyes were to look at you, you would feel exposed, as if they could see what you were made of. Yet, those eyes weren’t dangerous by themselves. Whether you lived or died depended on the kind of smile you saw on the face of this terrifying yet beautiful creature.