When we got to Georges's place, I could already see an area that was marked and some of it was dug up. He still had a lot of work to do but after we discussed his building design some more, I recommended that he make a bigger basement and how we should support the first floor. He will have a lot of work to do and it will take him more than a week to dig everything out that was needed before he could start with the foundation.

I had guided them on how to get the merging joints ability and luckily, they all had it which made building with stone a lot easier. We left George to do his work and then went to see Emma’s building site which wasn’t too far away. She had already set up a small living area with a tent so she could stay there overnight.

Emma’s building’s footprint was a lot smaller, and she wouldn’t need such a big basement, but she would still have a lot of work to do. Her building was going to be a lot more standard to what the farmhouses in this area looked like. It was kind of going to be like mine except with two side rooms from the main room instead of the four that I have. After looking everything over and giving a few final tips I left with Arthur, leaving her to work alone.

His place was a lot further away and when we reached a river, I saw how he used a rope to get over it that he had tied between two trees. He finally stopped moving towards his building site when he figured out that I hadn’t followed him across the river. The river here was a bit wider than the river where my bridge went over.

I walked a few meters back then accelerated to jump over the river practising my landing. Arthur looked at me like I was a ghost, but I beckoned him to follow. I pushed his running capabilities and he tried to keep up with me. We quickly arrived at the building site. He had marked where he wanted to build his building, but I had some questions.

“Arthur, do you have a sketch of the building with the information about the dimensions of your house?” I asked him and he quickly took out a notebook and showed me his house’s dimensions. It was going to be a small cabin and for one person it was big enough. It had a decent cooking set-up and enough room to work on crafting but that was it. “I think you made your house too small,” I told him. He took the notebook and quickly started thinking about my statement.

“Rich I do not know what you’re talking about. I think I left plenty of room for myself. There shouldn’t be any problem, or do you think that perhaps I need something else built inside.” He asked me. I looked at him for a moment before I answered him. “You are correct that the house is big enough if you only account for yourself, but you probably won’t be by yourself.” He started to shake his head, but I continued.

“I will give you some life advice. You never know when you're going to find that one person you want to spend it with. It could happen even at the worst moment when you simply shouldn't spend time on these things, but you can't stop your heart I’m afraid. That is just a possibility.”

“The more important thing is where are you going to house your own apprentice or possibly multiple ones. Every homesteader will be required to take an apprentice that suits them and if you think you would be the only one who would want to live in a forest and be a ranger then I’m afraid to tell you that you are wrong.”

Arthur took a good few minutes to walk around and think. I didn't interrupt or help him, letting him work out whatever he needed to work out. Eventually, he approached me with a bit of a crestfallen face.

“So, is it better to make a house like Emma's.” I placed my hand on his shoulder and chuckled a little bit. “You don’t have to worry. We can still keep your one-room house we just have to make it a bit larger. Even extending it a bit you will gain a lot of room and whoever your apprentice would be would prefer to live in such a place as well.”

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He smiled at my words, giving me, a nod and we started to modify the plans that he had in his notebook. It didn’t take as long as we didn’t need to change a lot but now he should have enough room for a double bed for himself and a few other beds if necessary. He was eager to start digging but I stopped him. “Arthur I’m afraid your first job wouldn’t be to dig. First, we need to build a bridge and make a rudimentary road here.”

The face he made when I mentioned the road was a bit funny as he knew how much work it would take. I wasn’t going to tell him right away, but I was going to handle most of it myself. But the bridge would be mostly up to him. I will just help him bring the lumber here and place the support into the river. We headed back to my farm. I wanted him to pick out the wood needed to make the bridge.

We were going to use the same design as my bridge so you could lift it just in case it was necessary. The biggest difference was that we were going to be able to coat the wood with tar before we started to build it over the river. He was a lot more experienced now and I barely had to help him at all with picking the correct lumber. I left him to start cutting out all the pieces needed and then coating them with tar to find Francis.

Francis had been working on making new fields but currently, he was just near the village eating some grass. On my way to him, I checked on Emma and George, but they were doing well enough. They just needed a bit of encouragement. Starting a huge project that will take a long time is always hard when you have so much still left to do.

Francis was happy enough to follow me but just in case I did notify a receptionist at the jobs building that I was taking him. I also took one of the strong carts and connected it to Francis so we could use it to move everything that we needed to move.

The journey back was a lot slower but a pleasant one. Goose was flying around us and messing around with the air, and I helped Francis with his energy circulation. I felt that I was close to levelling animal handling and care. Just a bit more and I will get to pick abilities.

When we made it back it was starting to get late, but Arthur was still working and I wasn’t going to disturb him. I let Francis back into the pasture and he quickly ran to greet the cows. I grabbed my axe and length of chain and ran towards the forest. I had already figured out the road placement I wanted so as soon as I reached the first obstacle I stopped and readied my axe to cut down the first tree.

I wasn’t going to mess around, so I used my strength and abilities to cut through the base of the tree with one swing and then used my strength to push it where I wanted it to land. I then cut the branches off and cut the tree into the correct lengths.

When that was done, I wrapped the chain around the stump and started to pull. I had to wrap the chain around my chest and pull it as Francis would. I was able to pull the stump out after a lot of effort. I chopped that stump up and used it to fill up the hole as much as possible but still leaving room to cover it with dirt.

This wasn't going to be a perfect road and who knows if it was ever going to be any better than this. Perhaps the mountains at the edge of Arthur’s land will have some important resources. Then a proper road and an even better bridge will be necessary. For right now this was going to be good enough. Francis was going to help me bring the gravel and dirt needed to properly patch these holes and then he would use the device I made to make a bit more of a solid road.

Everyone else was long asleep but I was still working. Every tree took about 10 to 15 minutes depending on how stubborn the stump wanted to be. Sometimes I needed to chop into the roots to get the stump out.

When morning came, I put Francis to work on making a road up to the forest from the dungeon. He was so strong now that he had no trouble pulling the device, I had made from the huge fallen tree to pack the dirt tight.

Eventually, I will need to make a heavier version, but it will do for now. I continued to clear the way so we could make a proper road but I was being careful so I wouldn’t disturb nature around us too much. Because of this, the road ended up being winding and almost 50% longer than just a straight line. For me, nature mattered more than convenience. By the third day of working constantly, I finally made it to the river.

I started to run back and when I made it out of the forest there was now a proper road that led to the dungeon. Today Francis wasn’t working as he was able to finish the section of the road within two days.

It was good that he was so smart now as I only needed to unhitch the device and he made his own way back to the barn. It was starting to get late, but I still visited George and Emma to see their progress.

They were doing well enough as Emma had finished almost half of the required digging while George still had a lot left.