The cart was tied to some goats and loaded to the brim with cargo: wood, stone, preserved food, snake venom and so on. All the human equipment we gathered were carried on the backs of the goblins. The goats were loosely tied together, forming a makeshift caravan. The women travelled lightly since one could see the bumps on their stomachs already forming, I did not want to strain them. Though that did mean the rest had to carry twice as much.

Slowly, we bumbled our way through the forest, kicking up piles of autumn leaves as we went. Zotnik was occupied keeping his frogs moving, while Rugum was leading the party in front. Olma was in the middle with all the workers, constantly making sure that our cargo was in check. I slowly rode behind everyone upon my steed, Dodge. I had little control over Dodge, he just followed the others. I remained at the back of the group to be able to observe everything in front of me. Voglo would carefully inspect his alchemy equipment every 10 minutes, it was not something we could replace easily.

Our journey was going to be at least a week long. We still had preserved food from the giant snake we killed, but it would be gone by the time we got there. Luckily, the goats had produced a lot of dairy, so milk and cheese supplemented our diets. If worse came to worst, we could always slaughter a few. Our group since were large in number and noisy, thus we scared the few animals that remained active in winter, our hunters couldn't do anything.

Upon taking a rest amidst a crop of boulders, my attention was taken by an odd-looking herb, growing upon some rotting logs. As I approached it, I realised it was a mushroom. Yet it was not like any mushroom I have ever seen or mentioned on Earth. It had a simple, purple dome hat with white spots, and its stem was twisted like spring or coil. It reminded me of a Fly Agaric, which was a poisonous sort of mushroom. I beckoned for Voglo to come over, to analyse the mushroom with his [Herbalism skill].

Voglo deftly plucked the mushroom and stared at it intently. He shook it, sniffed it, squished it and so on, before tossing it into his mouth and swallowing it. He licked his lips and smiled. "That is a Supple Springer. They are a delicious type of mushroom, and when they are ready to spread their spores, they coil up and launch themselves into the air."

I looked at the mushroom with great interest. I hesitated to taste it, but I eventually took a bite out of it. My eyes widened upon tasting the delicious plant. It had a slightly spicy and savoury flavour which stimulated one's senses. It had been the most delicious thing I had eaten since coming here.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"If you knew these mushrooms existed, how come you never told me about them?" I asked while holding myself back from stuffing my face with the delicious food.

"These mushrooms do not grow where the tribe lived previously. Not to mention they only appear around autumn and winter. I had only managed to recognise it through my memorisation of the scriptures left behind by the previous Shaman," he explained.

"Do you have these scriptures?"

Voglo's facial expression darkened slightly. "No, those scriptures were carved upon the walls of our caves. We lost the cave, and the old shaman to the Bloody Bones tribe."

I patted Voglo on his shoulder. "Do not worry, we will have our revenge someday. For now, we need to focus on our survival." I picked up the mushroom and twirled around. “This mushroom will be this tribe’s key to survival,” I said.

My sudden and audacious statement snapped Voglo out of his internal lament, and his gaze turned to the mushroom with curiosity. “How so?” He asked.

“We will farm it,” I declared confidently.

He was momentarily confused until realisation dawned upon him. “Indeed. I had not considered that. It is well known that Kobolds and Dwarves farm mushrooms, how are we goblins any inferior? We will naturally do it as well.”

I had no clue what a kobold is, but a dwarf was something even I was aware of. Our agricultural methods would not surpass these established producers, but we would try anyway. We had an incredible resource in the form of magical manure which would aid us.

“I will try to provide better equipment for you, so you can produce better research,” I promised. The shaman smiled, bowed down and thanked me.

Quickly I ordered the goblins to chop down trees and gather wood upon which the Supple Springer was growing on. We were now carrying stumps of trees with mushrooms, in hope of being able to transplant them into our new home. I would leave the mushroom farming to someone else, I was not a mycologist in my previous life. I had a whole team of people to do the gardening for me on my estate.

Our load was increased but our morale was higher since we now carried a potential food source on us. Soon days and nights passed quickly until we arrived at the flowing river. It was extremely wide, yet fast-flowing and turbulent. It would be hard for anyone to cross, we had no choice but to go around it, which delayed our journey by a few more days.

Upon arriving on the other side, the mine was actually visible. The foundation of the mining camp was dug into the ground. Essentially the area of a small hamlet was excavated. Around it was a broken wooden palisade and some trashed buildings. There were only two shafts dug into the side of a small mountain, they were deep but nowhere as deep as in a typical and operational mine.

The ground was stony and solid, a perfect foundation for building, yet not very useful for planting. What remained of life here was long gone, a few rusted metal pickaxes, ruined furnaces, faded campfires laid strewn about. Yet still, this place held lots of potentials, but work needed to be done to achieve it.