The very next day, I went to the forest to look for a few new Wilting Roses with my usual group, but sadly, it took me 3 days to find one.

And that was... the only one I could find.

Maybe they had gone out of season or something? Or had the animals in the forest eaten all of them?

I was not sure, but after another 4 days of searching the forest for any other roses, I could not find any, and gave up.

But all was not bad as the construction on the log barracks had begun!

But that meant that I had to pull all of members of the construction group from their other duties around the village, so my production of metal, wood, arrows, and expansion of the farms had slowed down.

But, thanks to the new bloomeries and the smelting group, we had made a few wheelbarrows which should help quite a bit with the works of all of the groups!

And, as I said, the construction group had started working on the barracks, and if we assume 5 people take up a single unit, and a unit for those 5 people take around a week to make, they should be able to make enough wooden houses in 20 weeks!

Or... 5 months. They had started their construction on day 121, so nearly the start of my 4th month in the new world. And seeing as it is still summer, and as the weather doesn’t show signs of cooling right now, I can safely assume that the next month is going to be summer too!

So, assuming my first 2 months were in the spring, and the next 3, including this one, where in summer, I should be able to finish constructing enough houses for everyone by the... first month of winter.

Which is... not good.

The current mud huts were already going to have problems in autumn, with all the rain and cold and such, but in winter?

No way in hell they were going to be enough for winter. Just, no way.

Maybe with some weird magics, but I happen to be lacking such magics as of now, so the only way for me to be able to realistically house this many people, I’d either need to summon more Homunculi, or take people away from other groups which was... not happening.

“...Haaahhh... I didn’t want my first year in the new world to be a lean year, but here I go I guess...” I muttered to myself and did some calculations off of my head to find out how many more people would be needed to make enough houses, and after a few moments of thinking, I started leaving the log wall, and glanced at the first wooden house that was nearly completed already, as it was my 127th day in the new world, and it would be done tomorrow.

Walking up to the trees the lumberjacks had felled, I outstretched my hand, and created 15 more Homunculi, all of whom would be directly joining the construction group.

Was this many more Homunculi necessary? Yes and no.

I could’ve completed the barracks with 10 more Homunculi working in construction before winter, but only before winter.

So, a lot of people would be subjected to the rain and cold from fall, and they may even have been subjected to some snow before they could move into proper wooden houses.

And some probably would’ve died because of the weather conditions, and eating a bit less was way more favourable than dying my opinion, so 15 new workers here you go!

With this many workers, we should be able to construct a unit for 5 Homunculi every 3-4 days, so we should be done with all the construction in the next 3.5 months.

Some would still have to bear with cold, and rain of fall, but it’d be more... manageable.

And hopefully no one would die... or get too sick as Opal Berries were only good with injuries, not illness.

And now that the housing crisis is... sorted, I need to try and tame some animals because, even though I’ve completed Nurture Over Nature and have made some short of pseudo-wheat, I need more experience and research points to develop my empire further.

And, no, I am not planting the “wheat” I’ve made right now, as its still July, and planting it right now would just kill them.

Instead, I am just keeping the grains wrapped up in hides and underground, where its colder than above ground and safer.

And I am actually considering just... removing the dark onions that the farmers have planted as... well, they are just taking up space that can be taken by the wheat crops, and if I am not wrong wheat is just a better crop than onions.

But they’ve already been planted in a couple of hectares so... I guess I’ll just leave them be for now, and harvest them in a few months, just before I need to plant the wheat as they should’ve grown a bit by early to mid-fall.

It would’ve been better if I could leave them there until early to mid-winter, but wheat is the way to go!

The next day, I took 3 people from the hunting group with which I explored the forest, made the rest unite with the other 2 groups, and then set off with my “exploration group” to catch a few animals that lived in the grasslands in order to tame them.

Like I said before, I had seen quite a few different species in the grasslands, but to be useful as a beast of burden, they needed to strong animals with great endurance, and they needed to not be too aggressive.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

After all, a knight couldn’t get on its steed and ride to the sun set if its steed was trying to escape or was actively trying to kill the knight.

So, an easy to control animal would be the best! But they couldn’t be too small as the animal I was going to start taming today was going to become the animal that was going to pull carriages in the future.

I mean... I could, of course, go with a smaller animal, but I’d need to domesticate a whole new species in the future for better efficiency, as goats and small animals like them aren’t known to be able to pull carriages filled with goods.

So, for the next few days, I looked around the grasslands near the village with my exploration group and found a species that looked like they’d make good beasts of burden.

They, of course, were an herbivorous species, as I wasn’t sure how many people would die if I brought those 2 tailed wolves from the forest into the village.

But unlike any other herbivorous animal I had seen before, they were feline-like in nature.

They could easily reach 140-150 centimetres in height, their legs were long and were easily a meter long with paws at the end instead of hooves, but I had seldom seen their claws, even when they were fighting with other animals and each other, and whenever I saw them, I saw claws that had devolved into mere stubs.

Their face structure and eyes resembled that of a horse or a deer, but their nose and ears were cat-like.

Tough, instead of jumping at each other like cats, and ambushing small animals, they instead clashed their heads against one another and ate grass all day... though they liked relaxed in the sun too.

Though them loosing, or just never having, the instincts to jump at each other and try to ambush small animals and each other was normal as these creatures had taken a whole another path than the felines of my world.

“Well then, let’s give this a shot...” I muttered to myself and took out some hay from a bag I brough with me.

All 4 of us had bags filled with hay, hay that had been removed of any grains whatsoever. So, I wasn’t necessarily losing anything.

Grasping onto the hay in my hand, I moved into the view of the herd, and the male of the herd immediately saw me, and I started approaching them slowly until the male started hissing at me, and after that, I just put down the hay I had on my hands to the ground and slowly retreated back.

I would’ve loved to steal some kittens—or calves or whatever the young of these things are called and domesticate them that way.

Sadly though, if I tried to do that, I’d have a really bad time with flock.

Even though they didn’t have any sharp teeth and claws, they were still wild animals and could be more than dangerous.

As I watched them from afar, I lamented, knowing that the domestication process would take a long, long time.

If I was lucky, I’d be able to tame them by next year, though I didn’t dare hope.

And I said tame, not domesticate. Maybe the quest would accept taming as domestication, but the actual domestication process would take a century at least.

I just hoped that Rae would tell me of a cheat or something that I could use to tame these animals faster, but that probably was not happening.

Then, for the next few days I just came back to the herd of cat-horses or cat-deer, and gave them hay, and watched from afar, trying to get them used to my presence, and presence of other Homunculi.

But after a few days, Rae suddenly appeared.

“I am back!” She screamed from my back while I was just using Weapon Mastery and wasting mana.

“Ahhh!” I let out a short scream of surprise as I hadn’t seen her for the past few weeks and didn’t expect her to reappear so suddenly.

“Oh... it’s just you.”

“...What do you mean “its just you”? Are you disappointed by my return?”

“Just didn’t expect you to make my ears bleed the moment you returned. Where were you anyways?” I asked her, and she just looked confused for a moment.

“Didn’t I tell you mommy called me?”

“...Do you really expect me to believe that?” I said, knowing fully that she went away just to escape the conversation we were going to have.

“What? Why not though? I have not done anything to make you not trust me now, have I?” She asked, seemingly confused. Though, like I said I didn’t believe her a bit.

“...Whatever.” I said, rolling my eyes, and she looked like she was going to say something, but I started talking before her.

“By the way Rae, is there a faster way to domesticate animals? I don’t really want to spend a few decades on just a single species.”

“Well, you could always just use a spell to tame them.”

“Oh? And when is the earliest I could get such a spell?”

“Hmm... the earliest I can do is level 4 or 5, but I feel like that’d be... too early. So, maybe level 7 or later, but definitely before level 10.”

“...Are you serious? Do you really expect me to domesticate an entire species?”

“Not really, just taming would be enough for me. And if you want, I can give you a special quest that would give you something like a 1-time blessing that allows you to tame the heard you are currently working on. How’s that sound?”

“That’s... actually great. I really could use them on the fields. But what quest would that be? The quests you’ve given me so far have only been pushing me forwards and setting up goals for me to reach. So, something like that?”

“Hmm... no. Definitely not. If anything, the special, or the rather the divine quest, should be somewhat superficial and unnecessary, if not outright detrimental to your empire.”

“...You could’ve not said that part out loud, you know right?”

“Yes but... why?”

“...Forget it... Can I choose to accept or reject that quest?”

“For the divine quests I give out to you because you ask for something, sure. But for the ones I give normally? No. You have to do them to appease me.”

“...Haaahh... it seems like I have no way to escape now, do I?” I muttered under my breath.

“When will you give me that quest then?” I asked her after a few seconds.

“After you built a church of course! I see that you’ve started making barracks, diverting some resources for a church shouldn’t be that hard!”

“Later, I need all the construction workers to focus on the houses for now as we need them done before winter.”

“I see... also, what are you doing here?” She asked me and looked around to express that we were just in a grass field, a bit away from the village proper.

“Oh, just wasting mana with Weapon Mastery... Talking about weapon mastery and wasting mana, how much mana do I need to become a tier 3 being?” I asked, wondering how long it’d take me to become a true superhuman.

“Around a million-mana capacity or so. So, not that much.” She said nonchalantly, as if a million mana wasn’t even that much.

In a daze, I looked up my mana capacity to see how far away I was from that mark and...

System Window:

Name: Damian Tier: 2

Mp: 360/404 MpR: 12

“...How long will it—”

“A bit more than 200 years if you only improve your mana stone by simply using Weapon Mastery. But don’t worry, there are a plethora of ways to improve your mana stone, and the quantity and quality of mana in it.

“So, if I had to guess, it will take you at max 100-150 years to become a tier 3. Though, other tier 2 and 3 homunculi will probably appear before you reach tier 3.”

“...Is there a reason why other tier 3 Homunculi might appear before I turn tier 3?”

“Not really. I just assume that you will not be going out of your way to live in more dangerous and mana rich environments, while other people will. Of course, eating a lot of mana rich food and mana herbs will help you gain a lot of mana, but even then, the process will be slow as you will most likely be sitting on your throne instead of always training and trying to improve your mana stone.”

“...I see...” I muttered and after a bit more of talking with Rae, I returned to working out.

Afterall, I was technically immortal. A century or two wouldn’t even make a dent in my lifetime, so there was no reason to lament my slow progress.