The piles of snow grew larger week after week, building up against our wooden palisade. But the goblins were taking care to keep the base free from debris. The farmers managed to grow some Supple Springer mushrooms on the wooden racks placed outside, but none indoors, which would be a problem once the winter reached its peak. The cold temperature would prevent any further outdoor growth too. The Supple Springers were growing, but their growth could be sped up with the goat manure. I ordered the farmers to experiment with growing the shrooms with differing amounts of manure, to better determine the exact quantity for optimal growth.

The fisher goblins crafted nets out of salvaged rope and cloth, improving their yield by about 2 fish each. During our hunts, Zotnik would sometimes accompany us with his 2 giant frogs. Hunting usually relied on stealth, but he commanded his frogs to flank the sides of the prey, leaving it nowhere to run. Eventually, he taught his beasts to hunt independently, and very occasionally they would bring back a stray moose or wolf.

A small indoor farm for the blue moss was built as well. This moss did not require much for its growth, a goblin would occasionally come to water the room a bit and throw a bit of leaf litter. The goats could not subsist solely on moss. Granted, if they ate nothing but this moss their bowels would be in extreme disarray. There wouldn't be any grass for them in the winter, so the mushrooms from the farm were going to them. A lot of work and resources were being poured into these silver-furred goats, but their fur, milk and cheese were well worth it.

In the little spare time I had, I would take my mount, Dodge, for training. Dodge slowly grew more comfortable around me. He wouldn't let me control him completely, but I could influence his direction. In an attempt to make him more battle-ready, I set up dummies made of wood for him to attack, but the goat gazed at me perplexedly. I had to attack the wooden dummy with my own head before Dodge got the idea. He charged at the dummy, and slammed it with his horns, breaking it in half. Whenever he attacked something correctly, I would reward him with a delicious piece of mushroom.

Interface You have raised your Animal Training (Beginner) to Animal Training (Novice)

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The women’s due dates were slowly approaching. Our activities had slowed down since nearly half the population was unable to work. We mainly focused on our internal projects. Despite our relative success so far, the pressure of the oncoming peak of winter was weighing heavily on everyone's minds. To alleviate this, I decided to work on a large centrepiece in the middle of our base. A statue dedicated to their god, Yantago. I had assembled a large pile of rubble and moulded it together into a large stone block. This was going to be a long-term project, as I was planning to make it as detailed as I could.

The image of Yantago was incredibly vivid in my mind, I saw him in person after all. I tried my best to capture the bright radiance of Yantago in stone. It took me a full week to complete the statue, the only inaccurate detail were the eyes, which I planned to replace in the future with actual gems. The statue was 6 metres tall and stood mightily in the centre of the mine. Upon completion, the whole tribe had gathered for a small ceremony.

As I stood in front of the statue, all the goblins of the tribe were knelt before me, prostrating themselves before their god and his champion. I had given speeches before, but I activated my [Orate] skill for the first time.

“We stand here today, under the watchful eye of the Great Gemmed One. May he watch over us survive, grow and prosper. And may the lustre of his gems light our lives. May he bear witness to the safety of the tribe and the birth of the new generation of Amber Skins.”

It was a short speech, but it was effective. I felt an extremely faint force flow through the people and into me, which afterwards faded away. Perhaps faith in this world has a more direct influence?

Interface You have raised your Orate (Beginner) to Orate (Novice) You have unlocked a new skill: [Preach (Beginner)]

The [Orate] skill improved easily, maybe it was because of my abilities in my previous life? I had to give a lot of speeches, to the Press, to my Board members, and so on. When I could afford the time, I would look into this more in-depth. Hopefully, the only challenge this winter would be the food.

The next day a hunter ran up to me, his face was filled with unease, “Holy Chief! We found human footprints in the snow!”