Homesteading in a fantasy world

It took me three more trips into the forest before I was finally able to rank up my logging skills. To complete this task, it still took me over a week, as I truly had quite a lot of responsibilities, especially after what happened yesterday with my dungeon.

Yet, I had still not picked an ability from the three I was offered. This was the first time I was truly uncertain as to which one of the three offered I should pick.

Lumber Grading Eye, Energy Chain, Barkskin. Three choices, each had their merit in picking. Yet, all of the three abilities I could already accomplish, and not just decently enough, but proficiently.

Lumber Grading Eye was something that could give me perhaps better long-range capability for seeing unique trees. On my own land, it was a moot point because, through my map ability combined with many others, I could accomplish all of that while sitting in my living room.

Now, I didn’t know how precise this ability was, but I doubted it could give me more information than I could already get by placing my hand on a certain tree. Not to mention that I could also see uniquely changed materials, not from far away, but still at a decent distance, and while I wouldn’t have the details from range, I could still see them.

Energy Chain was interesting, as I could see the utility for them, not just for combat but for everyday tasks around the homestead as well. But I could already accomplish similar things with my current energy manipulation.

Of course, not as fast or precise, but for the needs around here, it certainly wasn't a requirement. For battle, it would make sense to get the ability, but I had so many combat-capable abilities that I simply couldn’t use in battle because I haven’t trained enough with them, and this would just add another one.

Barkskin was something I was familiar with because it was quite a common defensive ability. It would certainly boost my defenses even further, yet there was a downside of it making my skin harder, which would hamper flexibility. I could see situational uses for this ability, but overall, I have learned it’s better to dodge an attack, especially something rank two or above can dish out.

This left me with a difficult choice to make, as none of the abilities were bad in any way, especially if looked at in a vacuum, but for me, they actually weren't the best choices, any of them. I spent hours thinking about this, but eventually, the time came to meet up with Tim and Val.

The dinner service was quite busy in the inn, but we had our own table, and after dinner, we started to play a little bit of poker, just for copper coins. Not being able to make a choice finally drove me to desperation, so when Tim shuffled the cards, I decided to get this over with.

If Tim won, I was going to pick the Lumber Grading Eye; if Val won, I was going to pick bark skin; and if I won, I was going to pick energy chain. We were playing Texas hold'em, and the two cards that I got were both aces. Tim got a pair of nines. When both of us were left by the end of this hand, I won myself 20 coppers and a new ability, energy chain.

I felt myself unwind after that. Sometimes, it's best to leave decisions up to fate. And of course, I still had my two luck points from the rabbit foot drop I got from my own dungeon, which was currently connected to my hydra necklace.

Usually, adding stat point items together shouldn’t work like that; you couldn’t just add stuff to other items, but it was the most basic of basic drops, so I was still able to get the two luck points.

There was, of course, a reason why there were so many people on a random Wednesday in the inn. My dungeon had finally gotten a new floor. It wasn't anything special, and I certainly couldn’t use it as I had well outgrown the dungeon, but there were a lot of people quite happy about this, as this was the second strongest dungeon we currently had access to.

Well, that wasn't quite right; we could use the dungeons on our allied lands, and we did actually get a few more dungeons from the occupied land, but the best could only rival my dungeon, and overall, it was a bit weaker.

One of the reasons it took so long to grow was my fault. It didn't have many creatures to work with, and since we were extremely careful and no one had died, it also didn't have any other materials to use for traps and things like that.

That’s where I had been for the first half of today, in a meeting to discuss the expansion packages we were going to give dungeons. Of course, some parts of these packages would need to be tailored for a certain dungeon, as every one of them started to show their own quirks.

While currently it was still in its infancy. The dungeon management was going to grow into a branch of government all on its own. While continuing to play the game, it was nice to hear the excited voices of so many different people who had gone into the dungeon or would in the following days.

We had quite an open dungeon policy, but if you weren’t in the military or a part of the adventurers, you needed to go through evaluation to see if you could get permission to go to a dungeon, and if you did, you just had to reserve a time slot. If needed, people like that might have to hire a chaperone as well.

Of course, there was also an age limit, and anyone under the age of 12 who didn't have their achievement page open couldn’t go, nor could they join the military, although we did encourage them to go to the school.

There were talks about giving training lessons from the legionaries to younger people who wanted to get a head start in learning these kinds of things. Mainly, the training would consist of physical exercise, but also energy control and some weapon training.

This was a dangerous world, after all, and anyone who was willing should be given the best chance at succeeding. There was a deeper plan connected to this as well, but that was a longer-term plan that would need a lot more homesteaders, but eventually, it should change quite a lot.

What followed was quite a nice evening where I won almost 200 coppers. I pushed the coins towards Val to put on my tab. "I’m starting to get annoyed; if this keeps going, you won't ever have to pay for anything,” Val commented. And after a moment, all three of us laughed.

Now that my short-term goal was achieved with the logging skill, I opened my achievement page once again and started to look at what my next goal should be. There were a few skills on the edge, but many of them would require me to be able to use energy without hurting myself.

There were quite a few skills not like that, like animal care, but that was more of a long-term skill that would take a while. It wasn’t too hard to do. If I had more animals, it would go faster.

Finally, a long-forgotten skill jumped out at me. Basic bone carving was something I hadn’t done for quite a while. If I wanted to get past the basic rank fast, there would be a need to use energy, but the skill wasn't going to need anything special.

It only needed a little bit of dedication and time to get it to rank up. I started off simple, making some arrowheads, and it was quite nice to just work in a cozy room and chat with Tim while he practiced his own skills.

Time flew by quite fast, and before I knew it, I had achieved basic bone carving level 8, and there was just a week before the winter solstice. That meant it was time to put down my crafting, as I needed to be more present in the capital than before.

It was shaping up to be a tamer celebration, as many were still mourning, and we didn't have so much food to throw around. I still suspected it was going to be a nice day, and of course, at night, I was going to go back home and enjoy a lovely sauna with a few of my friends.