As I exited the cave I was greeted by the afternoon sun. Judging from its position I had spent 3 or 4 hours underground. As the sun was descending behind the crest of the mountains It cast a ray of color onto the eggs, within my arms.

In the light of the Sun. I tried to look at them more closely. Unfortunately, I still couldn't truly tell that they were living beings. To my eyes, they looked like gemstones. Well-carved, perfectly smooth gemstones but, gemstones nonetheless.

I retraced my steps. This time the stairs didn't collapse underneath my feet. After I reached the top and exited the cathedral I found another tunnel leading out of the city. This tunnel led to a large network of caves. Looking around the tunnel I found a hidden button and pressed it. This slid the massive slab open. Revealing yet another cave. As I stepped through the opening the slab slid back into its former position. When I looked back much like the door behind the waterfall it made a seamless connection to the wall. If I hadn't just stepped through it I would have sworn it was just a part of the cave wall.

Then after wandering through the cave consistently turning left like any sane person, I found the surface. Within the cave, I found the stone that had originally brought me to the waterfalls. This made me quite content. When I finally found the exit of the cave I was at the base of the cliffs. I was faintly able to make out the lake through the trees. I estimated it was around half a mile away.

As I walked back to my campsite I thought about what I would do with the eggs. I couldn't leave them, or hide them; their Mana at signature was significantly too prominent for that to work. I also didn't want to just leave them, after all, they had already been left for what was likely thousands of years in the dark.

I didn't want to sell them either. Right now I think just storing them somewhere dry and safe and waiting is the best option, and was totally not the only option I could think of.

With the problem of the eggs finished I thought about my farm. Seeing as I had no equipment like a plow or a thing to pull said plow I would be limited to how big of a field I could maintain. I also had to consider harvesting, I was only one man after all. I decided I would aim for two to three acres. I wasn't worried about the physical labor. I was more worried about appearances. If a man with seemingly little to no cultivation appeared and was able to miraculously maintain even more Acres than people who had cultivated the land for Generations. Questions would start to be asked.

Thus I decided to downscale, unfortunately, I had no idea what the average farmer in this region could handle. Frankly, I had no idea what an average farmer could handle in general. When I arrived back at camp I placed the eggs next to my pack. I made sure that they were secured and wouldn't roll away before walking over to the forest. I decided I wanted a bit of distance between my house and my future fields. I would leave the hill that my house would sit upon empty. Maybe I would eventually put in a garden for personal use but that was a decision for the future.

For the time being, I stepped down the hill and began to chop. The trees beyond just serving as an obstacle for my fields also provided the needed lumber for the home. Any other wood besides that nice dark one. Would be useful as firewood in the days to come.

I stood in front of a large oak tree. I reached for my core. My activation of my skills was rusty, after spending more than 4 months traveling and not practicing, or even cycling my cultivation. Nonetheless, my Armory of ancient skill came to me easily enough. Regrettably, throughout my life, I had never touched a woodcutter's ax. So the simplest battle ax would have to do. I conjured the axe which due to its simplicity and the Rank of the weapon barely cost me any Mana. With my Ill-fitting tool, I began to chop down the trees around me.

By the time night had fallen, I had cleared all the trees and other foliage where my fields would be placed. When I was done with the clearing I had begun to process the dark Timber which I still didn't know the name of. The other trees were stacked at the bottom of the hill. After the long day of exploration and then followed by a long afternoon of chopping trees I was starting to become quite tired. I prepared dinner and headed to bed.

In the morning I woke up and once again did my morning routine of stretches and katas, before sitting down on a stump that I had pulled up the day before. My first order of business was establishing the house. Once I had a roof over my head I could go into town to purchase seeds and tilling equipment. Maybe if I was lucky I could also purchase some animals. Ideally, I could purchase a draft horse or an oxen or some other sort of Beast to pull a plow. This would then allow me to have bigger fields. But considering the size of the village, and the Limited number of animals I saw there, I wasn't feeling hopeful.

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I began by digging out and creating a foundation. Unlike yesterday I had the proper tools for the job. I’d used mining equipment in the past when dungeon delving.

This meant I had shovels and other equipment that would help me create a foundation, saved within my skill. It took me the better part of the morning to dig out a deep enough hole for the foundation. The next step was to gather the stone. I gathered large bricks of stone in the cave. To move the massive blocks I used wooden skids. I moved about a cubic yard each time and then shaved it down to the sizes I needed. This method worked well as I was able to finish the foundation by the end of day two.

I was ready to begin the construction of the house but on the morning of the third day, it rained. Beyond making me cold, wet, and miserable. I immediately had to move all the wood that I would burn, as well as lumber for construction, into the cave so it would not become soiled by the rain. I didn't move fast enough. By the time I had finished moving half the lumber into the cave, the other half was thoroughly soaked. I was smart enough to move all the lumber needed for the home. Because of this decision, I was now out of firewood. But instead of cutting more trees in the pouring rain I instead spent the remainder of the third day processing logs into boards. Within the dryness of the cave while waiting for the rainstorm to pass.

On the morning of day 4, The rain had dissipated. In its wake, the rain had washed away the rest of the snow. The removal of the valley's white blanket brought life running back. As I erected the wooden frame of the house I heard birds chirping in the trees. When it was almost sunset and I was putting in the stone walls I spotted a deer on the neighboring hill.

On day 5 I'd finished the basic structure of the house and now all I needed was to add a roof. I kept it simple. Making it out of wood boards. I made sure that the boards were tight enough to not let rain get through. After all, I was sick of the water by this point. Additionally, it would be cold for the first few weeks so I wanted my heat to remain within the building. The roof didn't have to last all that long. I would replace the roof with a more proper one and hopefully make stone or clay shingles.

With the house complete, I moved in my meager belongings, mainly my pack, and cleaned up my campsite. When I moved my pack I remembered the eggs I had left next to them. In the days of building the home, I had completely forgotten their presence. I moved them inside and into the basement of the house making sure that they were secure. I wasn't sure if I was hallucinating. For when I move the eggs they felt heavier. When I had got them secured I once again passed my Mana through them.

Something was going on with them. I wasn't fully sure but I had an Inkling of a guess. I spent another day making some furniture and watching the eggs. I finally realized what my subconscious had been telling me as I remembered something similar from my childhood. I slap my hand against my head.

I was an idiot to be fair, I had only seen them once before but dragon eggs were iconic. I realized that I was likely in some serious shit. No scratch that, when the dragons hatched I would be in a mountain of the stuff. Without a properly bonded rider, they would run a muck and either cause havoc or if I was able to contain them they would require a lot of attention, which at the current moment I didn't possess. All of my attention had to be on preparing my fields. As well as all manner of other things to get ready for the harvest by the end of the season. The eggs left me in a sticky situation. I couldn't abandon them especially now that I knew there were wormlings inside of the eggs. After a long debated internal argument, I eventually came to a solution.

I decided to send him a letter. If I remember correctly he was now a lieutenant within the draconic order. He should have the proper knowledge and know-how to transport the eggs. Then the order will have a new clutch of dragons, which was always needed. The problem then was the expediency. The letter would need to arrive before the eggs would hatch. Otherwise, it would be significantly harder to move them.

I wasn't too worried about the arrival of the letter due to the existence of the teleportation network. The problem was once again my appearance. If I walked into town and shelled out four to five smolders Gilbert would start asking more questions as to who I was. He probably already had an inkling of an idea but the large expenditure would further his suspicions. But in the end, I had no choice as even Gilbert knowing who I truly was would be a better outcome than a bunch of wormlings running around my farm.

I now had several reasons for heading into the village. The first was of course to send the letter. The second was I hoped the blacksmith could fix the pendant. Finally to purchase The needed seeds, animals, and tools.

I started by writing and placing the letter into an envelope. I would give it to Gilbert in the town hall and hopefully, it could get to Whitecrest within a few days. Once there the letter would be connected to the portal network and could quickly reach whatever Outpost he was stationed at. I estimated the time the letter would take to reach him was around 2 weeks. then he would likely arrive within a similar time frame.

When I finished writing the letter on my new desk I walked over to one of my freshly installed Shelfs. I reached up and grabbed a red candle and a small box sitting next to it. I had to use at least blue flames to heat the Lexium candle, otherwise it wouldn't melt. Then while the wax was still running I stamped my Signet ring onto it.

it its wake left my crest, a rising sun. I tucked the letter into my coat and began to make preparations for my likely, mentally arduous journey into Rendfire.