Homesteading in a fantasy world

The next week, I slowly got back into my routine, but I could feel my strained energy pathways. I had pushed myself a little too hard during the battle. Fortunately, I was able to hold myself back enough that it shouldn’t affect my recovery time. Just in case, I took it extra easy during the butchering and with my current interest.

Mashing up the potatoes was an interesting experience because if I could use energy, I would have been able to do it instantly. But now, I was cranking the shredder's crank to slowly make the potatoes small for the first process of making vodka.

The mead station, unfortunately, sat empty because there wasn’t much honey to be had. There were only a few people who had abilities that helped with beekeeping, and it seems that because of that, in this world, they hadn't developed smokers that would help calm the bees down like I was used to.

It was also why our honey production was so low. To solve that problem, I already ordered some raw materials that I could use to start making the required tools and then the items for beekeeping so anyone could do it without having to have the abilities to do so.

This was just the second batch of potatoes I was preparing. I had started one already and was ready for the next process. Distilling was quite simple, and I eagerly watched as the vodka slowly dripped out.

It wasn’t the best I’ve ever made, as the setup I used to have on earth was a lot more sophisticated, but it was good enough to get me to another level. Now, it was once again time to wait as the potato mash I made got ready.

In the smithy, we still had air pressure because the water wheel still worked. It was a hard job keeping the surrounding water from freezing, but every one of us – Tim, my apprentices, even me – chopped the ice near the water wheel to keep it from getting too close.

The movement of the water wheel helped keep the ice from forming, and the movement of the river itself, but it still needed help. To not make this an empty job, my apprentice spent long hours in the smithy, practicing their skills and learning how to make and fix tools.

Now, I joined them not just to teach but also to make my own tools, as I needed to make quite a few of them. Tin smithing used to be quite an important skill back on Earth; you could easily make a lot of shapes from it and have it be quite strong.

From what I learned in this world, there were tin smiths here as well, but they weren't that common. You also needed quite a lot of different tools for this, but I had the time to make them, and I didn’t need to use my energy for this, as I would be mainly making items out of tin to help with farming, mainly gardening, and of course, beekeeping.

The process of making the tools was quite peaceful, even when there were a few apprentices always around me, whom I directed a little bit, but mostly we were just doing our work in silence or talking to each other, as they already knew what they were doing.

For the metal of the tools and the anvils, I would be using the iron form the last harvest of the iron oak, mixing the different metal bars from the different sources of the tree to get the mix of steel I wanted.

I did briefly think that perhaps I should try to make these tools into rank one tools, but that would require me to use energy, and a lot of it, and would mean that I would want to make rank one stuff with those tools, which I really didn’t.

Mainly, I would be making watering cans so we didn’t need to use the wooden ones, and of course, for the main structure of the smoker that would help calm the bees down, I would also need some leather that was malleable so you could puff the smoke into the beehives.

The weather outside was cold and getting colder, which meant that it wouldn't be too long before it would start to get warmer once again, and it wouldn’t be too long before spring would start. It would also mean that I would be once again a year older, and I didn’t know what to think of it.

I could feel how the time passed faster, and while I knew that it didn’t, it certainly felt like it. I remember back on Earth when I started to just notice the time passing when it was time to celebrate Christmas or the summer solstice; otherwise, only birthdays made a small blip, otherwise time just flashed by.

I didn’t know what my current life expectancy was, but it was certainly in the centuries. What life would be like, I didn’t know, but there was always a hope that I would be defeated in battle. The idea brought a proud smile to my face, although it seemed like my apprentices didn't like that.

I guess they had come to recognize this smile of mine; it probably signals another bad assignment for them was coming. Fortunately, this time they were lucky as I really didn’t have anything truly heinous to give them.

That made me feel a bit disappointed. How could I already be out of ideas? Fortunately, these apprentices would be graduating in a few months and starting their own homesteads, and that meant a new batch of apprentices that I could use the same tricks on was coming. Hopefully, in the coming years, I will collect enough of those ideas that I will never run into this problem again.

Today, I had only finished five of the tools needed. It seems that without energy and my abilities, I could only work at a more normal pace, and my extra strength didn't give me a lot of advantages as you couldn’t hit with all your strength; otherwise, you would ruin the piece you were working on.

A month flashed by fast. One side of this smithy that was previously empty was now filled with racks of different hammers. I had 12 of them meant for tin smithing, with 7 different small anvils that had a spiked end to fit into a bigger anvil, so I didn’t need to use too much metal.

I even made a few benders to make folding tin easier and extremely precise. I even made proper metal shears to cut the tin. When I will be able to use my energy properly, I will make new first-rank metal shears so I could cut even easier.

Of course, these tools could also be used with silver and gold, and one of my apprentices did seem to like smithing with silver, so I wasn’t the only one to use the new tools. It took me a few tries before I made a proper watering can, but when I finally finished one that was sturdy and waterproof, I received a new skill: tin smithing.

Fortunately, this one also started at the basic rank, but I guess I did have some knowledge, although I never really did that back on Earth.

Unfortunately, none of my other apprentices was interested in tin smithing. They already knew what they wanted to do, and perhaps in the future, another one of my apprentices would like to learn this skill.

David liked the skill a lot, but not because he wanted to learn it. It was because otherwise, tin wasn’t that useful of a metal for the nation, but now it might turn into an industry, which he was quite excited about.

The only problem was we would need to find people who would be interested in that. Luckily for David, my next batch of apprentice slots were completely open, so if he found and I was compatible with the person, I would be willing to take on someone who would also be interested in tin smithing.