Homesteading in a fantasy world

There was, of course, a pleasant birthday back at my homestead as well. We also used this time to do a small celebration for the apprentices, as most had reached the maximum level of 20 they could achieve.

Now they just needed to claim land, and they could become real homesteaders. Some of them had already picked out the land they were going to get; many were still searching. Afterwards, when we had all eaten, it was time for the sauna. Yet, not for the first time, it felt that I would need a bigger one.

After that, it was time to get back to work, but I was quite pleased with my day helping Francis, so I continued to do that for a few weeks. It even surprised me how much we were going to expand the fields near the capital, but we were expanding in many different ways.

Already, scouts had picked out or were still looking for the correct places for the many outposts that we were going to build. These would turn into villages that would start harvesting different kinds of resources near them.

Quite a few teams also went to the different compounds we had in larger cities to inquire about the animals we would want to get and the water-based crops that we could possibly use in the large flooded area we caused because of the dam.

We also started to make further plans to bring in even more refugees and were currently holding a lot of interviews with people who would be interested in moving to the soon-to-be-established outposts.

Running a nation was truly a time-consuming occupation. The more I observed, the happier I was that I didn’t choose to rule directly. If I did, I would have never been able to spend so much time helping Frances.

Still, I was a bit disappointed that it would probably take me until the next winter before I was completely healed and could really start pushing myself once again.

I did receive a letter from Arabella. Apparently, she had been approved for her citizenship in the United Freeholds, but it will still take her two years before her current contract to fight in the arenas is done.

Before that, the United Freeholds wouldn't fully accept her as a citizen because the contract she currently had could force her to reveal some of our secrets to her current employers, and we couldn't have that.

I was still quite surprised that she would actually accept this, but I guess she was kicked out of her own country, and I’m guessing that she thinks that we have an iron oak, which for some reason she is really adamant about seeing. There could be a few reasons why she’s chasing one so much. I guess it will only take some time before we figure things out.

Mirhit had been doing a good job as our spymaster. His ability to control the bugs he makes was truly something else. We now have a lot more information about the queen and her country, and every other country surrounding us, including towards the West past the mountains and the grassland.

There used to be a few kingdoms there, and I guess there still are, except they're filled with the undead, some of which seem like the intelligent kind, but it's hard to get proper information.

It was smart for us to not push too far towards that direction because we couldn't defend it properly if the undead started to attack us with the numbers they had. Other countries to the South of us, beyond our allies, are in many different states of stability.

We were pretty sure that at least two of them would have rebellions this year. Now, the Queen’s country, while it wasn't going to have a rebellion, definitely had some who weren't happy with the quality of life and how many soldiers the queen was asking for.

There was an opportunity there, and to my surprise, Richard, the adventurer who came to visit me with Meredith so long ago, had somehow found himself in a leadership position of a small rebel group.

Apparently, he had been quite upset that Meredith had left him behind after they were kicked out of the adventurers' guild. Now it seems that he had found purpose, and I was perfectly fine with the current plan to support his group without him knowing who was supporting them, so they could continue to grow and hopefully destabilize the country even more.

While I wasn’t the biggest fan of such tactics, they were quite effective if done correctly, and she had tried to mess with us a couple of times now, and I really didn’t appreciate that. It was time to make her life hard, and we still had 19 years before she could do anything to us.

We also received a request from our two allied nations to help them reshape their military to be more like ours. I needed to show up about a month from now in Aldermarch, which has become a trade center between our three nations.

It was on a Monday afternoon when I had finished my classes and was already back on my own land, moving towards the lake. While what was underneath the lake was interesting, currently I was more focused on the interesting vine-like trees that grew inside the delta of the river.

After jumping the river, I started to examine the plants. First of all, it seemed that they were extremely fast-growing, and the only reason they hadn't continued to spread without stopping was because of the soil there.

It was extremely unsuitable for them, and I was surprised that they had even grown so much. Now, it would be extremely dangerous to bring them and plant them on more fertile soil, but I did collect seeds.

That I was going to modify so I could limit their spread but keep their accelerated growth. They weren't any tougher than regular trees, but that wasn't going to be a problem. I was going to use them to make living fences for the animals I wanted to get.

I could imagine it now: tall wooden walls grown from this vine-like tree, blocking access to the hills so the animals could be relatively safe inside and not wander away from where I wanted them to be.

This was once again going to be a long project, but I felt it would be a nice addition to my lands. However, I would need to be careful how I modified the seeds, as I wouldn’t want them to start spreading uncontrollably.

As I continued to examine and understand these plants more, I was exceedingly surprised at how suitable they would be for my purpose. Their root system was also extremely thick and strong, so they would stop burrowing creatures because the roots would easily reach the gravelly layer, making it harder for different animals to dig through.

Of course, this wasn’t something that could protect them from everything, but it would certainly help against anything under the silver rank.

Unfortunately, this needs to be a project for next year, as I would need to use too much energy too fast to properly change the seeds how I want them to be. Of course, as I understand it, it will probably also take another year before we start to get animals from further away back to our nation, as the numbers we were looking for simply weren’t available currently.

Absolutely, the whole world was suffering from the lack of population to grow food. It seems that the disaster that was the plague will continue to be felt for quite a while, and of course, the constant wars didn't help.