In the early morning, Thaddeus stepped out of the yurt holding Betsy’s reins. He walked her outside and looked at the new church, gristmill, sawmill, and carpentry shop. His settlement was starting to take shape. He left her free and went back inside to get the rest of the animals out of the house. With the animals out, quickly cleaned up the house. By now the goats had eaten all the rugs inside the yurt. Truthfully, he actually preferred the wood floors to the rugs. He was fine if the furniture scratched the floor, as the shelter was only temporary.
When he finished his chores, he took his shovel and walked about a half mile north from his farmhouse to build his farm. Facing eastward, toward the forest, from the main road, he cast [Erosion] creating a 20,460-foot perimeter, around 600 square acres of prairie. He did the same on the west side of the plot, and twice more just below the first two plots. Altogether, his field was 2,400 acres. However, before he could plow the field, he had to burn the existing plants.
Using his flint stones, he set fire to the plots of land and watched as plots burned. Prairie Burns were common in the American Midwest during spring. Farmers used controlled burns to kill grass and weeds. Burning the vegetation put nutrients back into the soil and revitalizes the land. The fire breaks down that plant matter and helps future plant growth.
Seeds also grew better in warm soil. Many seeds have a thick outer shell that brakes before the seed can germinate. Fire helps to break the shells and allows the seed to spend more time soaking in the nutrient-rich soil.
Thaddeus watched as the fire burned and slowly meandered, before starting to blaze. It didn’t take long for the four fields to become ablaze as four large plums of blackish-gray smoke rose into the air. Thaddeus remained observant. He always made sure to quickly stomped out the embers that jumped over the ditch. Alfred also warned him if he missed sparks. After about three hours the blaze died down into a smolder. From the books, he read the smoldering would last anywhere between one day to three.
When the smoldering stopped, he’d be okay to plow the field. Thaddeus reviewed his plans. On the first field, he’d plant wheat and barley. The second field would be planted with carrots, potatoes, onions, and green beans. Cabbage, lettuce, and corn would be planted on the third field. And on the fourth field, he’d plant tomatoes, squash, and peppers.
Overall, a 2,400-acre farm was a large farm. One acre was roughly equivalent to an American football field. That was more than enough to feed himself, but seven months from now, during harvest, he’d be responsible for feeding a minimum of 70 residents and their families. To him, that was a lot of mouths to feed, and he wanted to be prepared, especially for the winter.
But he wasn’t worried, with such a large field and Demeter’s blessing doubling the yield, he expected to harvest enough crops for his settlement with enough to sell to Cassian.
Thaddeus left the smoldering field behind and returned to his yurt. Standing next to the yurt, he looked at the plot of land next to him. This was where he planned to build his home. He activated his Architectural skill and confirmed the location. Soon a green translucent 3D hologram of the farmhouse came into place.
The farmhouse had a stone cellar and a wraparound porch. A short staircase led to the porch. Walking past the front door there was a small foyer with a small coat closet. To left was a large great house with a stone fireplace. To the right of the foyer was an open kitchen with an island and dining area. Behind the kitchen was a half bathroom that was only accessible by the hallway. Next to the bathroom was the laundry and storage area. Behind the great room was the master bedroom with an on-suite master bathroom and walk-in closet.
On the second floor, facing the church across the dirt road, there was a full bathroom on the left. Behind the bathroom was an office that faced the river, and in front of the bathroom was a bedroom. To the right of the stairs were two other bedrooms.
Looking at the blueprints, Thaddeus counted how many oak planks and beams he needed to finish the house. In general, most homes required 6.3 boards for every square foot. Since the first and second floors were 1,000 square feet each, he’d need 12,600 boards of lumber, not including the cellar and porch. Which meant he’d need to cut 63 excellent trees or 126 good oak trees.
After he finished his count, he walked over to the main road. Using his architectural skill again, he designed 10 basic homes. A basic home was a one-story, two-bedroom, one-bath, rectangular 800-square-foot box with a roof on top. There was also a small kitchenette with a dining area, and a small family room. Ten houses equaled another 50,400 boards of lumber or another 252 excellent trees or 504 good oak trees. When he finished, he received a notification
System Message
Congratulations your skill Architecture has reached Level 7. You have 2 Skill Points to allocate.
The trees needed to be felled, cut, and dried, before he could use them for construction. It was definitely a challenge, but Thaddeus was prepared. He grabbed his axe and walked into the forest.
When Thaddeus walked into the forest a prompt appeared.
System Message
You have left your territory. Now entering the Forest of Wrath. Please be careful!
“Sir, please be careful. Monsters and beasts killed inside the forest can respawn,” Alfred warned.
“Thanks, Alfred, but I’ll be fine,” Thaddeus replied.
“Since players resurrect at the nearest church, you are correct. But may I remind you, sir, resurrection isn’t instantaneous. If you die, you will be sent to an individual waiting room for five minutes. The first death for many is…traumatic,” Alfred warned.
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Thaddeus thought the comment was a tad passive-aggressive, but let it slide.
‘But maybe he was right. The system had never issued him a warning before. Was it because he was too under level?’ he thought.
“That is correct, sir” Alfred confirmed.
Instead of going in, he stayed along the boundary looking for signs of excellent-quality trees. But all he could was good quality. He walked up and down the forest boundary and found nothing but good-quality trees, it was disappointing. If he used good trees, the construction process would take twice as long and cut into his construction time.
He closed his eyes and activated his Surveyor skill and could see 500 feet into the forest. Inside the forest, he saw a pack of seven coyotes, 28 Timberwolves, and a bear. The bear was out marking its territory when it whipped its head around. It felt something, familiar but Thaddeus deactivated the skill.
The skill had proved successful, he found a large grove of excellent oak trees near the wolf den. But getting in and out of both locations alive would be a problem, the average level for the wolves was 30. He had to weigh the pros and cons of cutting down the good quality trees versus risking his life deeper inside the forest. In the end, it made the more sensible choice to cut down the good-quality oak trees along the boundary.
For the rest of the day, Thaddeus felled oak trees. Slowly he chopped back the forest, expanding his territory. He’d cut 10 trees and then individually carry them to the sawmill. Then he’d chopped so more, the whole while his notifications flashed. His Lumberjack skill was no doubt subtly climbing.
By nightfall, he had 57 logs. Based on his calculations, he needed to cut a total of 630 good-quality oak trees. If he continued to cut roughly 60 trees a day, then it would take him just over ten days. There was too much to do and not enough time. He had to cut as much timber as fast as could while the farm smoldered. He set a goal to chop 60 or more trees in the next two days.
The next day he felled 66 trees and the day after 71. Each evening, after putting the animals up, he brought the logs to the sawmill. He loaded the logs onto the track and watched as the band saw take off the top cuts, removing the bark. After each cut, he manually rotated the logs to remove the bark and keep the log square. Slowly the timber was cut into planks and beams.
Thaddeus didn’t know why, but he enjoyed watching the blade rhythmically move up and down through the logs. It was slow work. Putting a log on the track, sawing, manually rotating it after each cut, then moving the boards to the kiln, and then the process started over 193 times.
When he put the last boards in the kiln, he used dried scraped lumber to light the kiln’s furnace. He grabbed the bellow from the forge and stoked the fire until it was nice and hot. Fire, no, a controlled, was a homesteader’s best friend. With the fire lit, it was time for bed.
Patience was the key. Nothing went fast, slow, and steady was his mantra. It took him two weeks to finish the sawmill. He had to wait three days for the prairie burn to end. It take another 10 days to have the lumber he needed for all the houses, and it take two weeks to plow his field. Fourteen hours workdays were not enough time to get everything done. If he wanted to get everything done, he needed to take advantage of every moment of sunlight. He had much to do, and so little time to get it all done.
Moreover, he was so busy that he hadn’t even had time to place the traps out. He needed a steady supply of meat and pelts. At the moment, meat was his only food source. He already tanned the coyote hides he killed when he arrived. The pelts from two nights ago were still soaking in water, they needed another day of soaking before he could tan them. He also needed to build a pen for goats, a chicken coop, and a barn. But his focus right now had to be farming and logging.
In the morning, he walked out to the field to see if the fire had died down. Where the prairie once stood, there were now four nutrient-rich fields. He smiled proudly. He walked back to grab the horses. He hitched them to the wagon and drove the wagon out to the fields. When he arrived, he unhitched the horses to the wagon and instead hitched them to the plowshare. Working as a team, they slowly brought the long, heavy, plowshare off the wagon bed and onto the ground.
Before he started plowing, he took out the farming books Roy gave him from his bag of holding.
System Message
Would you like to read [Farmsteading for the Feeble] and [Husbandry for the Hapless]? Y/N
This time, he selected yes. An encyclopedia of farming and animal husbandry knowledge entered his brain, along with a headache and new notification.
System Message
New Active Skill: Farming. At higher levels, crops may gain attributes.
Stat Increase: +1 to VIT, +1 to INT, +100 EXP
Level 1: Novice Level 1
Effect: Increased crop yield and animal fertility
Cost: 10 CON/second
Unlike real life where seeds needed to be planted at different times of the year, the rules for planting in Heaven’s Gates were simple: plant in April and harvest in June, September, and November. In November the crops doubled in output so players could be prepared for winter. The developers mostly likely suspected most players would farm mobs, not crops. So, the developers didn’t spend much time coding the rules for farming and animal husbandry.
There were basic instructions for feeding animals, milking cows, and goats, and plowing, seeding, weeding, fertilizing, and harvesting. The game took care of the rest. It wasn’t that difficult, but with Demeter’s blessing, it was certainly easier. With Demeter’s blessing, the seeds would grow twice as fast, and he didn’t have to worry about birds swooping down to eat the seeds.
The trouble for Thaddeus was he had to plow and plant a 2,400-acre field. That was a large job and he only had two weeks until the end of April. That meant his back was against the clock. Before he started plowing, used his skill Surveyor to view the prairie roots and rocks under his new field and cast [Erosion]. The weeds and rocks below the ground disappeared, leaving only pristine farmland above and below the ground.
Guiding the horses to the first plot. He walked beside the horses and gently slapped the reins. The horses walked northward towards the Arcadian Empire, then southward towards the river, dragging the plow behind them. Thaddeus held the reins steering them to walk in a straight line. As they plowed the soil, Thaddeus dropped the seeds down at intervals. After dropping the seeds, he kicked the tilled dirt over enveloping them in the warm soil.
As he plowed, received constant flashing notifications. He checked one at random.
System Message
Congratulations your skill Farming has reached Level 3. You have 2 Skill Points to allocate.
From what he learned team draft horses like Carl and Betsy could till about 10 acres a day before they wore down. But thanks to Demeter’s blessing they could work longer hours without getting tired. Ever since the blessing, he noticed Carl and Betsy looked younger, stronger, and more vigor. Since he was rushed for time, he decided to trust his horse and let them plow until they got tired. By nightfall, the horses plowed a third of the first plot. To reward the horses, Thaddeus washed and pampered them. He feed them well, dried them, and brought them back inside.