When I got into the town, I found it to be quite bustling. So many seemed to be moving with purpose, but what I enjoyed the most was how everyone looked. They weren't miserable or worn down; they looked happy and healthy.

It will still take a few days until the main force of the army makes it back here, but the injured were already being treated. We seem to have many more professional healers, probably from Verdia. I asked one of the nurses about the seriously injured people from our previous battles, and I was glad to hear that already half of them were fully restored, or as good as it was possible to get them, and slowly they were working through the rest of them.

After that, however, I really needed to hurry as I had another appointment with one of my apprentices. The village hall didn’t look like it used to. To the sides and possibly the back, there were extensions built to the building, expanding its capacity by quite a lot.

It made sense as we were starting to run out of space, but I was glad to see they were able to finish it before the winter truly set in. I looked up towards the sky and saw that the winds were bringing huge storm clouds. It looks like it will start to rain quite soon.

Inside the building, I headed upstairs but was stopped by the receptionist. "Rich, good afternoon, but if you’re heading towards your office, then I’m afraid it’s no longer where it used to be. Would you like me to take you to where your new office is?" I looked towards the receptionist and nodded.

"Good afternoon to you as well, and yes, please show me the way." We headed to the back of the building, and I was glad that I was correct. There seemed to be an extension towards there as well, just as I expected.

My office was now quite large, but the thing that I didn’t like was the table with a lot of paperwork on it. The receptionist looked apologetic, but before she could start apologizing, I waved her off. "It's not your fault, and thank you for showing me the way." She still apologized but then quickly left as she was probably the only receptionist currently working.

At first, I didn’t notice this, but I was pleasantly surprised as everything from the table, chair, and even the writing utensils were meant for a person my size. Sitting in the chair made me forget how good it is to sit in a chair made for your size.

It seems that I would need to come here more often to get through this paperwork, or perhaps I should come here at night. Currently, I was recovering and helping my apprentices, so I basically had the nights free; it might be a good idea.

Planning my immediate future made my shoulder blades itch, reminding me that I was still carrying a lot of storage devices that I got from that party I killed. There was no hurry; nothing will happen to them, but there was also the need to look over the items that I personally got from the delve. Once again, I wasn’t in a hurry but there was so much to do.

I started to look through the paperwork for the thing that I was here for, and about halfway through the third pile, I finally found the bundle of papers about homesteading. In this paperwork were written down the rules for the class 'homesteader', its responsibilities, and the benefits that you received from the nation. I sat back, found a comfortable position, and started to read through them. I agreed with most of what was written, but there still were some changes that needed to be made.

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Homesteaders were one of three entities that could own land in the United Freeholds. The first was the nation itself, the second was guilds, and the third was the homesteader. There were good reasons why only those three could own land, but mainly it was because of the class 'homesteader'.

Every person with that class will help elevate a piece of land in a way that would cost an enormous amount of resources or a stupid amount of time. Not only that, but every homesteader could have a dungeon connected to that land, which would mean that you could make clusters of dungeons that border different homesteader lands, making it easy to manage those dungeons.

There was quite a lot written about resources and how they would be handled both for production and procurement. Production was the easy part: if you made something, you could put it on the local market where someone can buy it or even the nation could buy it at an appropriate appraisal price.

Procurement is a little bit more difficult. While lower rank and plentiful resources will be handled like I'm used to back on Earth, for more limited resources, a waiting list approach is being used. Apparently, you could sign up for a certain type of resource, and when it becomes available and you're next on the list, you will be able to buy it. Of course, it was a lot more complicated than that, but those were the basics of it, and I didn’t really want to delve deeper into it right now, though I noticed a bundle of paperwork on my table about the full system.

Being a homesteader gave you quite a few benefits, but mostly it was the fact that you could own land that allowed you to access those benefits. I was glad to see that they were trying not to turn homesteaders into nobility, but we will see how well they can accomplish that.

The problem that needed to be addressed was in the responsibilities. There were currently certain areas in our nation marked as possible land for homesteaders, but there was also special land marked for homesteaders that would require someone willing to deal with the special requirements.

Currently, however, it would be mandatory for homesteaders to pick the special requirements areas, but this will need to be changed to 'highly recommended' instead of 'mandatory'. The special requirements were quite varied, but mostly they had to do with the resources in that area. For example, the vast areas of rabbits in the grasslands.

There was a provision where a homesteader could get huge pieces of land, like 10 times my land size, but the catch would be that you needed to manage that area. You would be responsible for the rabbit population, give out permissions about how many rabbits could be hunted, and so on. I found the idea interesting from the first moment I thought of it but making it mandatory was a significant oversight because not everyone would be equipped to handle such a responsibility.

It was also a requirement for a homesteader who had established his or her homestead to start taking apprentices. There was also a lot of information about how that would work, what the requirements were, and so on.

But it basically boiled down to: if you're an established homesteader, you must teach the class to others. Quite straightforward. There was even an entire branch of the government planned that would eventually handle everything to do with homesteaders, but currently, it seems that there were only three people employed.

Now, at least I know what information to give to my apprentices and where to send them after I was done with getting a better idea of what they wanted for their future. I also liked that there was no requirement for someone who has the homesteader class to claim land and start building their home. It was mainly added because of more adventurous people who might want to go and gain strength before they start their home. I also loved how there was a clause that the homesteader could always find a home in the United Freeholds, even if they have adventured for years and years.

I added the changes to the paperwork with my thoughts and comments. Then I put them into the outbox outside my office, and then I hurried back home as another one of my apprentices would soon be waiting for me.

I was quite excited to learn about how he had advanced and what he might want for his future. I don’t know why, but it was incredibly satisfying seeing people achieve their dreams. Just before I started to run back, it finally started to rain. Usually, the cold rain was something I hated, but now it just felt great. If this rain would have come a week or two later, it would have been snow, and we would have had our first snowstorm.