Homesteading in a fantasy world

First thing I registered was the pain in my fingers. I tried to look down, but everything was hazy. I quickly wipe my eyes and that made it’s better. Looking at my fingers, I saw they were bleeding and I recognise those cuts.

When I first started with bow shooting, those were always the places that got hurt the most. Overtime you will get calluses and that problem is fixed but I have never shot with this body.

Then it all came back to me in a huge rush. How I was ambushed, how I killed the sneaky goblin, how I eventually shot them all down and how I broke afterwards.

This wouldn’t be my first time breaking. It wasn't quite the same as before. It was easier to accept and to understand somehow. I still did the exercises I was taught.

There are two possibilities and they both might be true, because otherwise this would have broken me way harder back on earth. Either my young body and brain is better equipped to handle traumatic experience, or the system somehow supports the killing.

So, it wouldn't make people psychotic or broke them having to kill all the time. Speaking of the system, there was a whole bunch of notifications for me to see.

combat results

frontier farmer level 4 --> frontier farmer level 8

animal husbandry level 2 --> animal husbandry level 3

handyman level 4 --> handyman level 5

basic archery level 1 --> archery level 2

basic axe level 1 --> basic axe level 3

basic identification level 2 --> basic identification level 3

basic fitness enhancement level 5 --> basic fitness enhancement level 7

new skills gained

basic running level 4

basic combat strategy level 2

beginner mental fortitude level 2

stats gained

Strength + 12

Dexterity + 8

Vitality + 10

Endurance + 5

Empathy + 1

Intelligence + 1

New trait gained

dexterity reaches 20 new trait gained stronger coordination

endurance reaches 10 new trait gained improved vascular system

So much new information. I was correct that all classes can be leveled up through combat, but look at that difference in leveling speed if your class doesn’t have anything to do with combat. Skill level gains are large: 3 new skills and 2 old skills leveled that I have forgotten existed.

As I looked at the archery, I felt confused I should be able to pick a new ability. Confusion left me as soon as I noticed a notification waiting for me the whole time.

Skill increases basic archery level 10 is upgraded to archery level 2

Choose one of the following abilities

piercing shot

accurate shot

silent arrow

Two good choices, although I was not going to pick accurate shot. I wonder how similar piercing shot and piercing cut are. Maybe I can work out how to modify piercing cut to work as piercing shot. Letting go of that idea was hard, so I picked silent arrow.

You have gained a new ability silent arrow level 1

After some calculations, I noticed not all my stats came from level ups. I must have gotten some from the physical exertion. Next interesting thing I learn was from my new skills there was a beginner in front of a skill.

So all the skills I have gotten are not the first tier of skill you can get. I am guessing I have gotten better skill tiers because of my knowledge. This will make learning fantasy stuff of this world even harder. My strength and vitality went over 30 and I did not get a new trait, meaning the 10 and 20 are milestones. I am guessing the next milestone is at 40.

Climbed down from the tower, I start to lower the bridge to go to the other side. The first goblin was the biggest. Because I was probably going to have to kill more of those, I decided to examine the bodies. Skinny arms and legs, but the muscles there seemed strong.

I had to take a small break before getting closer. I had to get it into my head this wasn’t going to be how it was in the war. I don’t even think there are so many creatures capable of fighting in this entire kingdom, maybe even the continent, than there was during that war.

This will not be killing on a massive scale day in and day out. This would be better, smaller scale, more personal. Not the meat grinder, but more of an honourable battle. It helped me a lot by putting that into words.

I could feel all my anxiety and fear flowing out, “I could do this”. I always said back on earth that I would have better fit into a medieval world than a modern one. Let’s just hope I’m a good fit for a fantasy medieval one as well.

The goblin's head was wider, kind of like a sideways egg with long ears coming out of the sides and are pointed backwards. Their neck was thin and long and extremely vulnerable in my opinion.

Extremely large belly, but not from being fat. The chest area looked normal, but short. I would say if their hands were a bit shorter, I think that they would just die out. I dragged the goblin off the bridge so that I wouldn’t make a mess on the bridge.

This work was going to suck, but it needed to be done. I know the human body extremely well and everything that it could survive and not. This creature’s body was completely new and that meant I did not know its strengths and weaknesses. By the end of the awful work, I know a lot better how I needed to fight them.

There was a good reason why they have a round and big belly. They have multiple stomachs and they needed the extra room a big belly can give. Most likely, they could eat anything. They even had a similar system as camels where they can store fat for nourishment.

Muscles were extremely lean and strong. I would say they have the strength of a weak, fully grown man. Their ribs were actually quite excellent at protecting their heart and lungs. Except from the back, where I would say they are the weakest overall. Multiple large arteries run very close to the skin and one slash with a sword is a guaranteed death.

Shooting the legs will most likely guarantee a slow bleed out and take out any movement capabilities. Slicing the neck is an easy way to kill it. While their head is wider than humans, otherwise it's quite similar and as weak as any other creature’s head.

Just in case I repeated everything with one more goblin and the results were quite similar. Only differences were that first one’s muscles were biggest and skin was a bit tougher. I didn’t want to bury or burn them, so I collected anything metal off of them, got my arrows and threw them into the river.

Thanks to that I figured out why they hadn’t swum across. Their bellies acted like life vests, but not in a good way it would tip the head underwater. They will float forever, but they will drown doing so.

I got quite a lot of metal off them. They were wearing pieces of mismatched metal armour, most likely taken off humans or something similar. Weapon metal was barely usable, most of it rusted and barely sharp. But I could still make other things from them when I finally got the forge built.

It wasn’t that long ago when I killed them, so I quickly prepare my gear for fighting. After that, I went into the forest not to hunt them or hopefully not even see them if there was any more of them, but I needed to take the traps down.

I didn’t want to come out here and have a place they would know I was coming to. After I dealt with all the farming stuff, I will come to scout and to hunt with a bow. I was not going to place traps, at least not until I can be safe or at least as safe as I can be in this world.

Luckily, everything went well. I got all the traps and even the deer was untouched, and I was able to bring it back and finish butcher it at home. While I was raising the bridge, it was a bit of a sad moment because it will most likely be over a week or two before I would lower this again.

Finished butchering, I fired up the smoke. This time I didn’t cut the meat into very small pieces, I wanted to just smoke them so I can use them to make meals instead of travelling food. I won’t need travel food for some time, and I already had quite a lot of that ready.

The rest of the day I just spent near the animals. I was getting better. I think my anxiety was gone, but it was still a life and death moment and I wanted to unwind some more. Thankfully cows and the bull liked scratches. Even the rabbits were starting to get more docile.

The chickens were chickens I always found looking at them comforting. They are stupid and brainless but still somehow lovable creatures with the ability to always take my mind off anything shitty. During my worst days, I sometimes wished I could be so simple.

Decided to make the best meal I currently can. Deer meat roast with onions and carrots. The potatoes I used with lard and cooked them with the pan to make them extra crispy.

I even used the few pinches of salt there was just to make this even better. It turned out incredible I would still like some more spices and herbs, but it was still the greatest dinner I had in this world. I was really going to need to find salt.

After dinner I was feeling so full, I ate over half of everything. Only thing that was missing was some new tv show to put on and watch while I ate. But it was getting late, so I went to bed with an extremely full stomach but feeling a lot better.