Homesteading in a fantasy world

While getting a skill level wasn’t as impactful as it used to be, it still felt good. I had just leveled my basic tin smithing to level 3 after finishing the 10 bee smokers. I was running the test on the final one to see if it was working as it should.

It wasn't the perfect design because the metal parts got quite hot. And for the first time, it actually melted a hole through the bottom. To fix that, I needed to make the bottom, which was already meant to be taken apart so you could put in the burning material, out of iron, and that fixed the problem.

I noticed that Tim was approaching, so I looked towards him to see a puzzled look on his face. "That looks like a curious device. What's it for?" he asked. I smiled at him and started to explain.

"I realized that we didn’t have much honey while I was making mead," I said. To that, Tim nodded frantically. He quite liked the drink. "After doing some research, I found out that we didn’t have a lot of beekeepers because a lot of people didn’t have the abilities associated with this job."

"However, I know of ways of beekeeping that wouldn’t involve having abilities. This device helps calm the bees down so you wouldn't be swarmed when you go to collect honey," I explained. To my words, Tim looked at the device with new appreciation.

I could see gears turning in his head. "Well then, we will obviously need to get some beehives of our own. Should I get other beekeepers to help in getting bees and other necessary stuff?" I liked how eager Tim looked, but his question brought up some interesting points.

It wasn't hard for me to find wild beehives; it was actually something I could do while being at home and eating dinner, thanks to the ability I had. But seeking more information wouldn't be bad. Also, testing out this device might also be quite unnecessary, as perhaps the bees here are not the same as back on Earth.

"Well, we can’t really test it during the winter, but would you be interested in working together on this project?" After my question, Tim immediately agreed.

"It actually isn’t all about the mead. I have always liked bees, but caring for them seemed a difficult job and something I didn’t even know how to do. Now, however, you say that it should be possible to do it without any additional abilities with the help of that device. So, I can only say, should we get started right now?"

It was nice to see someone as excited as me about this project. The rest of the day, we basically spent discussing and planning. Tim wasn’t discouraged at all when I said that perhaps it wouldn’t work on the bees as I expected.

He was able to convince me that if regular smoke didn't work, there was certainly some kind of smoke that would. He also quite liked the idea of us doing this mostly on our own but definitely agreed that the smokers, at least most of the prototypes, should be given to the current beekeepers so they could also test things out.

Honey was quite an expensive luxury otherwise, but Tim was quite certain that in the future, every home would have a jar of it. Apparently, Tim’s favorite baked goods during the winter festival were the ones that had honey.

It seems that I underestimated his love for it. I might actually need to fight a bit so I could actually do some beekeeping myself. Tim also volunteered, more like didn't give me even the chance, of getting into contact with the other beekeepers.

I did draw out the designs for the beehives I knew, but Tim was quite adamant in also finding out what kinds of beehives were used by the official beekeepers. "There is always something to learn from how others do things," he said to me, echoing back my own words I had once said to him.

The smile he had after he said that made me want to give him unreasonable jobs, but he wasn't my apprentice any longer; he was a part of my clan, and I really shouldn’t do something like that to a clan member.

The next day was also quite exciting, as I was able to finish another batch of vodka that allowed me to rank up my alchemy skill. The three abilities offered were unfortunate, as only one was something I couldn’t do without a lot of effort; the other two were simply not necessary for me.

Efficient extraction was an ability that I could use not only for alchemy but basically everything else crafting-related. While I could mimic this ability with my other stronger and more comprehensive abilities, it was one of the most recommended abilities to get if you did crafting. It would not only keep your costs down, but it would also help make your final product stronger.

Unfortunately, again, I couldn’t truly test this ability out, and I was really getting annoyed that it was taking so long to heal my energy body. This was something I needed to solve because if I kept putting stat points into my energy storage, I would have even more available energy to use which would make this situation even more likely.

If something like that happened once again where I needed to use so much, even using potions to restore energy for a long period of time. It will cripple me fully even this time I came really close and I had a feeling that there would be times when I would need to do something like that again.

So now, during nights when I didn’t need to sleep, as I was slowly getting back to my previous sleeping schedule where I could stay awake for multiple days before I needed to sleep, I meditated.

During those nights, I tried to use my true nature connection and my understanding of energy to figure out the solution. There were a few things I already wanted to test, but once again, I needed to wait until I could once again use everything I had.

Like this, time passed. The weather slowly started to get warmer; eventually, it wasn't below freezing, and the snow started to melt. That caused many problems, fortunately not for me, as my entire farm was on a gentler slope, and we only needed to make a few ditches to get the water towards the river.

The rest of the nation was faring worse, but Francis was always there to help us. He was growing stronger and stronger and now could pull quite large devices that could make ditches that were quite big in one go.

While we didn’t see each other constantly any longer, Francis was quite enjoying his new life. There were always people around him helping him out. The jobs he did usually required a lot of people to help finish the job, like with the current job he was doing; there was a lot of relocating of dirt that needed to be done.

From what some of the caretakers have told me, Francis will have a few more children coming this year. They're hoping that some of his children would turn out like him, and I could honestly see the advantage in it. Yet, I thought that most of what he had been able to achieve was not because of his abilities or traits; it was because of who he was. Someone who truly likes to push himself and work hard.

It was honestly quite lovely to see Francis be so respected. Of course, the wolves I helped raise were doing well enough, many having found their bonded people. If things continued like that, we would probably need to start making proper laws for smart animals, as I didn’t just want creatures of this intelligence to not have representation.

Of course, in this world, creatures who could help you survive were respected immensely. It was one of the things that I truly liked about this world; most of the time, animals were treated as part of the family, not like unfeeling servants.