I took off a few hours after sunset. This would let me reach Serrington soon after dawn. Flying over the nightly forest hills, I went through the last months. My life in this world had been without any real goal at first. My family was not sapient if loving. The first people I met taught me some things but not much I actually cared about. Other than the friendships and the [Mingling] Skill, nothing really tied me to the goblins. Still, they had welcomed me despite the differences. And even if they had not taught me, I was able to learn more about myself in the safety they provided. I was grateful and this farm project was my way of repaying the goodwill.

From there, I was lost in ork lands. I went back to my instincts, killing where I felt threatened, only to grant misguided trust to the first that showed even a slightly amicable attitude. Orks were brutish and I wanted little to do with them. Ugark and Sra, however, were rather friendly. Maybe I could learn from them how to deal with their kind?

The real place I had only found after meeting Vivi and later the dwarves. My first real friends grounded me. Even though my instincts still prevailed and sometimes dominated my behaviour, I could honestly say they made me a person. Vivi was less animal than I, first we met. Living with her and then Safrah gave me that home I needed. I still had little in the sense of direction at this time but I was just one year old. Well, with my previous life that was an inaccurate number but I did not remember how old I was before. And most of what I did remember was just vegetating in the hospital bed. Even if there was a method to regain all of it, I would likely not want it. I wanted to have my own life, here in this world.

Helping the goblins and helping Nymph was just for my own satisfaction. They were friends and making them happy made me happy as well. I wanted to do some things for myself as well. There was a lot of research I could do. There was a lot of world to see. There were a lot of secrets to uncover and peoples to meet. I did not even need to push for much more power at this point in time. With my current capabilities, the human lands should be traversable without much danger. There also was that race south of the ork lands. The aequor? They were living on cliffs reaching out far into the ocean as far as I remembered. Maybe Vivi would want to come along to see them?

A real purpose or profession was something I still lacked. If I asked my human side, that was a problem. I would easily fall into laziness, boredom and maybe even depression. My owl side, though? It saw no problem with having no goals beyond continued survival. Simply hunting and resting was enough. And… No. I did not want to think about that. Not with a non-sapient being. Not with what would most likely be non-sapient offspring. I wanted none of that. Never.

The sun peeking out from the horizon ripped me out of my musings. Serrington was still a little way so I simply enjoyed the fresh morning air for another hour.

When I finally arrived, I rushed through my business. First was the smith. He had the tools all done. At least dwarven pickaxes were small. I could easily fit all one-hundred of them without putting a noticeable dent in my storage. I paid the five gold and went over my funds. There was another 85 gold in my storage right now. Even looking at money, I had very little to worry about. I never had to buy food since I always hunted for myself. And rent was free as well. Safrah and Vivi did not pay rent either, by the way. They had a debt with the town of Borsdown they had to pay off but with it being the Guardian’s home, the Comraich, so to speak, it was not a lot of money. They only needed to pay for the materials used and half the workforce. There was not even interest. The dwarven society was truly wonderful.

While I had no need to buy food for myself, the goblins still needed my supply runs for a bit. I filled up with food that could keep for a month, only taking a few rations of fresh greens and meat. I made a detour to a material trader, getting some brass and gold as well. Stone was not hard to come by in the mountains so I did not worry about buying any. Everything was in storage an hour after noon and I considered paying Nymph a visit for a moment. In the end, getting back quickly was more important right now. Just as I was about to leave, I spotted the white fox and beaver duo I had met at the festival walking down the street. We made some small talk before I excused myself. I promised to visit them when I was back in town proper. They were looking forward to it, it seemed. Maybe I should bring Nymph over for a visit? They probably knew the city better than me and could show her around all the nice places.

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The return flight was as fast as I could go. I reached Borsdown late in the evening and took a rest there. After some more breakfast tea, I was on my way to the village again. I took no break for this flight and reached the goblins in the early afternoon of the second day. The whole trip had taken a little longer than five days with a sizeable break in between. I was quite proud of myself. My status even represented it with a level in [Sgiathan Dorcha]. My flight Skill was at six now. I was unsure when I had gotten the level but it had to have been sometime after my birthday.

I found my way into the cave, already feeling the drain from Alex who could tell I was close and was moving again. The goblins had noticed, obviously, and the leader group with big brother from the new goblins welcomed me at the entrance.

“Hey, everyone, I’m back!”, I sent after establishing communication.

“Welcome back”, Roguk said, “That was a really quick trip. Is that how fast you can really go?”

“If I push myself I can probably be even quicker. I still took some breaks, after all. Still, it’s mostly because I do not want to leave Alex behind for too long.”

“That’s fair. Let’s get to it, then. What do you have for us this time?”

“I got a hundred pickaxes and a whole lot of food. There’s also some crafting stuff we’re gonna need for the farm and for making Alex independent.”

“Let’s start with the food. Chef?”

The village’s cook nodded and led the way to the storehouse. I dropped everything I had, starting with the non-perishables. The nearly empty hut was soon filled to the brim with all kinds of provisions. The goblins were elated, especially big brother. I still could not remember his name.

“How much do we owe you?”, Ira asked.

“This is still covered. There’s another batch like this from the first set of crystals I took if you need it. That’s all your money I still hold. The rest is these pickaxes.”

I only pulled out one, for now, letting them see the tool. The most interested was big brother. He held the polished shaft in his hands as if caressing a baby and in his eyes gleamed the reflection of the steel spike on the tool’s head.

“Wonderful…”, he breathed.

“Looks like we got a miner”, Alex commented, eliciting a round of laughter.

“Go on, Horg. Ya can crack the tunnel whene’er ya want”, Chef said.

“I will!”, the goblin answered and was gone in a flash.

Roguk turned back to me with a headshake.

“How long will he be able to dig with that?”

“No idea. Depends on how he maintains the tool. The smith gave me some tips for that. I also read up on mining techniques. Not just tunnel construction but also how and where to swing a pick. I’ll keep an eye on him, for now. Send over anyone that wants to help. They can join the lessons and once the tunnel is ready, help build the actual farm.”

“Alright. I’ll let you get to it, then. Have fun!”

The group disbanded, Alex and I finding our way to where I started the tunnel. Horg, the big brother, was already heavy at work and a few others looked on, interested. Little brother was there as well.

I pulled him out of the tunnel and started explaining how to dig. The few that were only there to watch still stuck around and even tried some practice swings. After an hour, I had my plan for the farming cave all laid out and the goblins got to work. I could accelerate this quite a bit by finishing the tunnel with my excavation focus but decided to take the time to go through the other things I needed.

First was a node. I had marked one on my map by now. It was herba, aqua and ignis. An interesting combination to be sure. I would put it in a jar and move it here. The stabilizer was the next big project. From there, I wanted to make a lamp of growth to make the farm actually work without sunlight. If that was not enough, a lux node might be necessary, even though I had found not a single one of those, yet. After that, I could hopefully find a way to power Alex with the node as well.

I went through the plan with her and she found it very reasonable. Even if it meant a little more sitting around for the golem, she could deal thanks to the high possibility of freedom in the future. Especially since thaumium golems basically did not age.

We worked on having her absorb vis crystals while watching the goblins hack at the stone. It was honestly a quite relaxing afternoon. When it was time for dinner, the tunnel was basically finished. Tomorrow the real work would begin. I spent another fifteen minutes cleaning up the ground to make it easier to walk on. The walls would be worked after everything was done. We might even expand the tunnel simply to make transporting things through it easier.

I found the goblins had a mostly normal sleep schedule now. That made me happy. It looked like their days of living in constant fear were over.