I was heading home while pulling a cart that was full of glass panels. I was finally able to get my order so I can finally finish building my greenhouse. I wasn’t in a rush, so I was walking slowly. We couldn't go to the town before the caravan with the infiltrators arrived and that would most likely take a week or more. I was hoping that it was going to be an actual caravan of refugees and just a few infiltrators. That would be the best-case scenario.

Nobody liked the morning meeting that I had called when I informed them what we were up against. Two of the people actually had to go and vomit which was understandable. I certainly remember vomiting just before my first battle. Anxiety can be as deadly as anything else and I don’t know if it helps anyone else but after that, I was able to focus and survive.

The difference between the battle I have experienced here and the battles on earth has been a lot different. The violence and the brutality are the same and perhaps in this world it's even worse because so many used cold weapons meaning you have to get right up to the enemy but the difference in the atmosphere was large.

It's hard to explain but for some reason, it doesn’t feel so grim. Perhaps the problem is that I haven’t been in a long war here and if that’s the case then I certainly won’t know during this war. There won’t be multiple battles or holding a town for a long time we are either going to win this by a single large battle or we are going to lose it. Unfortunately, we have to be in a losing situation before the start to have a chance at winning.

If the enemy uses all its resources, we are doomed so we have to look like we are weak so fewer resources would be used to defeat us. One thing that’s excellent at doing so is our low population but honestly, that’s the one thing that I don’t like being our weakness. I have fought against superior numbers for all my life, and I know how to do it, but I also know the cost of it. That heavy cost is terrifying to think about not just on our side but on the enemies as well.

That’s why I’m thankful for how big this planet is. People often forget about distance, but it can be your biggest asset. In fact, I think for a defender it’s one of the most important things and if you use it correctly you can win where you never should have. If we want to use this as a defence, we will also need some specific training so we can train soldiers who can burn supplies and disrupt supply lines. But that will, unfortunately, have to be a future endeavour.

I was almost home when I started to feel our military start to expand. They had finally announced everything and started the mobilization. I will need to recruit my apprentices myself and it would seem that building their homes must be put on hold. Fortunately, they will still get a lot of experience dismantling the town so they would have an easier time making their home when the war is over. At least for this year.

I finally made it to my own land, and it felt good to be back. I looked at the dungeon and decided to delve into it. It was trivial to finish it, but I did expend a lot of energy just letting the dungeon absorb it. I was back out in 20 minutes and heading back towards the house.

When I got inside, I saw my apprentices preparing food. They were making some meat pies so they can take them to the house-building sites. It was a bit hard to have to tell them this, but their help was needed.

Emma shed a few tears when she found out what was coming for us. Arthur and George were quiet for quite some time. I helped them with the baking, and I decided to make myself a big meal. When I was finished, I was delighted to find out that I finally levelled up my cooking getting me to the next tier.

Skill increases basic cooking level 10 is upgraded to cooking level 1

I looked at the offered abilities while I was eating and answering some questions my apprentices had. I wasn’t in any hurry, so I took my time.

Choose one of the following abilities

gourmet cooking(E)

taste enhancement

temperature control

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I’d love to take the taste enhancement, but it really wasn’t necessary. Gourmet cooking(E) was tempting but I would have expected it to be a skill rather than an ability. Temperature control had a lot of implications for other skills as well. Most specifically for smithing. With it, I could have the exact temperature needed while quenching. But that E behind the gourmet cooking. That should mean that it’s something to do with energy.

This was actually difficult. Temperature control could be extremely powerful when it was levelled up enough, but I was kind of interested in what cooking with high-tier ingredients would mean in this world. This of course would mean a lot of experimentation and time that was needed to advance this ability, but I was too curious, so I picked it.

You have gained a new ability gourmet cooking(E) level 1

I then drafted my apprentices to the military, and they gave me the vow. We started our job by picking the correct lumber for the carts that we were going to build. I hoped that we were going to be able to get some of the horses to help pull the full carts back from the town. I did have hope our animal handlers were up to the job of training the horses. We built the carts big and sturdy. They were going to have to carry a lot of stone and large pieces of building wood back to the village.

Like that three days passed quite quickly before we were finished and satisfied enough with the result. During the night I didn’t build but helped my wolves hunt nearby monsters.

I had hoped that I could use the monster cores I got from the raid to boost their power, but it didn’t work how I expected it to work. While I was able to give them power with every core, I had to give them almost 200 before they got the same amount of advancement that they got from the boar that we killed.

So, unfortunately, it was a lot more efficient to just hunt with them. I also didn’t want to waste all our money when we can just hunt for the same result. As Goose was helping us, I also gave him some of the power from the monster cores. I was able to get the wind and water seeds, so I only needed fire to have the full avatar set but of course, in this world, there are a lot more affinities to collect.

During this time, I also worked with Goose so he could understand where to go if I showed him an image of the location of the monster. I wanted to use Goose as a guide for the wolves so they could hunt by themselves. I just hope that I have trained them enough that they don’t just eat the monster core but bring it back. Doing this will hopefully keep the wolves a secret from any prying eyes giving us some more hidden power.

We loaded up some extra weapons that I had laying around and the ballista. We hooked up all the carts so Francis can pull them all. His pulling power was ridiculous and would be needed in the coming months. I am also guessing that he will get a lot stronger during this month and I’m kind of afraid that we won’t have any satisfying work to give him if he just keeps getting strong.

I didn’t go myself I wanted to finish making my greenhouse and planting everything. Towards the evening three people are supposed to show up and they will be the ones to take care of the plants and animals left here. I don’t know when I will be coming back so I need some caretakers. They are also the reason why I want to finish the greenhouse. They can actually water it so I wouldn’t just be building it for no reason.

The building itself was so satisfying but it was easy. I hope that I could get my architectural skill to level up, but this wasn't a hard building to make. I started by making the wooden foundation. I then built out the boxes where the dirt went. Then I started building the frame.

The most time-consuming part was carving out the side channels into the wood where the glass panels were going to fit in. To secure them I was just going to use my merging joint ability and a piece of wood to cover all the edges of the glass panel.

While starting to place the glass panels I almost made a mistake. I started at the outer wall but when I was half done with the wall I luckily started to think about how I would cover the roof as I would need to place glass panels beyond my reach.

The solution was a simple one I just had to start at the highest position inside the greenhouse itself using a ladder to reach the roof. Placing the panels, I moved row by row downwards and for the last two rows, I was able to place them from the outside.

Building using abilities was so much easier and I was done with the build before the evening came. One unfortunate thing was that I couldn’t just take a deep breath inside the greenhouse and enjoy the fresh smell of wood construction as everything smelled like tar. As unfortunate as it was it was also necessary to have the wood be treated with tar even before I started building the greenhouse. This way it will last a lot longer.

I left the doors open so it can air out and I went and started to prepare the seeds that I will be planting. I was looking most forward to tomatoes as I quite enjoyed them back on earth. I decided to plant them together with the three people coming here. They were all quite young but that was understandable as everyone else was preparing for war.

We got to know each other during the planting while I explained all the seeds and how much they needed to water them. They were smart and it was a pleasure to teach them. After that, I showed them around the farm and the rest of their chores. I showed them the sauna and how it worked and told them that they could use it any time they wanted. When I finished dinner with them, I also headed out. It will be quite some time before I can see my home again.