A whole week passed and I can finally start living my life in my own home now.
"Thanks for the hard work Head Carpenter. Also, Thank you for letting me stay at your guest room."
"Don't mind it, you paid for it after all. If there is a problem in your new home just come back here and tell me. If its the fault of my group we will fix it for free."
"Then, Goodbye"
3 days wandering the forest, 3 days of prison transport, 10 years of prison, 5 days of travelling, and 1 week of building. It took a while but this noon on Hero Year 483 my house, my base and my place in this world is finally in existence.
So this is my home now, they built it splendidly. The patio at the top of the barn also looks good. For now I'll spend a couple of hours relaxing in my grand rocking chair. After that? I wonder, I should really start planting. Do trees grow even during winter? Too bad I couldn't ask questions during the princess' lessons.
The barn is as wide as I imagined it to be. The stairway and walkway around the 2nd floor is nice too. The railing design looks really nice too. They really went all out, my gold coins didn't get wasted. They net I wanted across the open floor of the second floor was even made from braided metal wires. They are sturdy enough for me to jump on. I only need it to hang the fragile harvest but I won't say no to a sturdier structure.
Finally the roof patio, the view is as fantastic as I thought it would be. I can overlook the forest in the south, The village to the west is also visible too even if its only the tall watchtowers and merchant building's roof.
I still have some preserved foods but as expected a few weeks have passed so they might be spoiled now. I should start hunting and foraging in the forest. I need to take care of this problem soon but before that I should enjoy this new house feeling a bit more by relaxing in my new chair looking at my new view.
The rocking chair is the greatest invention ever made, I don't know who invented this but you are one amazing person. This is what life is all about, swaying in a rocking chair while feeling the breeze of the wind, overlooking a giant forest. If only I have iced tea, too bad I didn't learn ice magic. I wanted to learn it but the head maid wanted to monopolize the cool and easy jobs. She only gave me the how and sweaty jobs like making tea and carrying the luggage.
Hm, looks like I fell asleep, around 8 hours according to my skill. It looks like I relaxed a lot since this is now my home. I can't start my field preparations this late at night. Maybe I can go for some night hunting? I still don't know how to gut animals though, the princess didn't want to learn such a messy task and she didn't care for it either. After catching them from her usual hunting, she leaves the preparations to the soldiers and only want to see the meat cooked by dinner so she can show her work to her majesty the queen.
For now I should look around the forest near my land. Now that the noise from construction is over the animals who got scared and left their territory should come back. It's the perfect time to see what kind of creatures live near my house. It's important to know what kind of countermeasures I have to prepare.
No point locking the doors since the only locks available are the wooden beams, like the one in castle doors, used to block the door from inside or magic barriers. I can't do the latter and the former is useless since I'm going out. The heroes didn't invent any kind of locking mechanism, is it because they live in the castle with guards at every door? This is also why every door opens outwards, for now a small rock will suffice so small creatures don't enter my house. The barn can be locked from both sides so I won't have to worry about that.
Rock door blocker - check
Barn locked - check
Easy to move in clothes that blend in the forest background - check
First aid supply - the health potion and healing paste is almost used up, I still have some bandages too. anyway check!
weapons - steel wire, 2 dozen daggers, bow and 50 arrows, tower shield, spear, short sword and a long sword check
Hehe, lots of these items went 'missing' in the castle but this should have been rightfully included in my compensation, I had to tell stories or sing lullaby until she fell asleep so this should be part of my bonus. Time to scout a bit.
My house is west of the village and its practically surrounded by the forest. The front of my house is facing south where the main body of the forest is, at the north is still a forest but after a day of walking you can escape the forest and an open plain will come into view. After a couple of hours walking you will reach the main roads.
At most the northern forest only has small animals like rabbits, boars, bears and wolves but down south is where most monsters reside. That is my destination today since the north animals typically won't leave their homes and even if they did I can dispose of them even without a weapon now. I just hope there won't be much poisonous monsters that live down south because antidotes cost money. I only have around 100+ gold coins left.
*ssssssss*
A giant snake lives after a 5 minute walk from my house. Its family should also live nearby. They don't really have much of a territory so they wander a huge span of area. Their poisonous but not the strong kind since they prefer physical attacks, its okay my skill can still cope with it.
East of here should have a small lake. Which aquatic monster lives there. slowly, softly, while minimizing my presence. I thought it was dumb of me to forcefully learn this when the kind of hunting the princess did is rigged but I'm glad it became useful.
Hello old friend, looks like there is a whole community of giant frogs here. No wonder the snakes live this far in the outer layer of the forest. This place is ok to ignore, they won't leave far from the water source. Now to continue deeper into the forest.
This is a bit problematic, a colony of goblins. They multiply fast so if I want to prevent a stampede in the future I have to cull them from time to time. I could annihilate them now but they must be the ones hunting the snakes. They are wearing snake skins and using there fangs as weapon after all.
I should look around here for other groups maybe the goblins have their own predator. There they are a group of kobolds almost an hour walk east from the goblins nest. They're in the same power level so they should be warring clans. It would be a problem if one of them wins so no matter what I still need to check on them from time to time.
Hm, is that an orc? is that the only one? No they should also be a group. I can solo an orc but it would take time, I would have no choice but to escape if another one appears. Escaping would also be hard since they make too much noise, it would only attract the other monsters to me. Heading deeper into the forest should mean more monsters at the same level as the orc. Sneaking in and escaping alive is doubtful. I'm a trained butler who specialized in defense. I won't take this risk, It's time to leave.
There is still balance in the forest for now. I don't need to carelessly interfere with the ecosystem here. For orcs I need to prepare some pitfalls just outside the forest. I need to make it sturdy enough to withstand a group of goblins and only give in under the weight of orcs. For the goblins they attack using numbers but weak individually. Some buried spikes should work fine for them. I cut down some trees and make spikes from them.
The goblins will push their own into the spear and crush the others in between. The kobolds are more agile so some steel wires are needed to entrap them. I should place it after the spikes so the goblins won't clog it, the height should be around the ankle.
Alright my defense layers are prepared now. Orc pitfall | goblin spike | kobold wires. That should be enough, the snakes could appear but since they attack alone I can take it out without the traps. I have a lot of work to do.
Thanks for writing.
Blob Neutral
+1