Chương 19: Quests and Potatoes

Day 6 Ebril 15 (Tuesday) I woke up in my tractor yet again. Luckily, I still felt good. My UI said it was 6: 30 a. m. The sun was just peeking out over the horizon. I got out of my tractor and did some stretching and performed my morning ablutions. Emily and Colin weren't expecting me until 7: 30 for breakfast, so I had a bit of time to look at my quest tab before I drove back to the homestead. She and Colin would collect eggs and make sure the animals were all good before they made food.

Once I was living there, I would help out with those chores. I thought I'd enjoy my mornings with a traditional farm routine. Coffee would be nice, but I doubted it was a thing here. I hadn't been offered tea either. That was more likely an issue because Emily and Colin didn't have the money for it. Thoughts for later. I hadn't opened my quest tab at all since I'd taken my classes, so I popped it open now. Plant 50 acres of row crops (40/50) 1-XP per acre) – 50+XP Harvest 10 trees and process them into lumber.

(10/10, 0/100 boards) – 100XP per objective Plant an acre of garden(1/1-repeatable) – 10XP per acre planted Build or purchase a chicken coop(1/1) – 10XP Purchase 10 chickens and a rooster (10/10, 1/1) – 1XP per Chicken or Rooster Build or purchase a barn (0/1) – 100XP Build an outhouse (1/1) – 20XP Explore the perimeter of your property (1/1) – 10XP Congratulations. You have completed quests worth 201 XP. You now have --/--. You will receive additional XP after you evolve.

You currently have 4/20 quests for Homesteader, 0/10 for Alchemist, 0/10 for Militiaman. You have the following new quests available for each class.

Homesteader: Harvest Potatoes-(1XP per bushel) Harvest Wheat-(1XP per bushel) Note: 2 bonus points of XP will be awarded for every bushel above the historical average for each crop Any additional crops will be available for XP per bushel as they are planted Sell a goat to the Albion Trade Guild - (Repeatable) - 25XP Per Goat Sell a pig to the Albion Trade Guild - (Repeatable) - 25XP per pig Sell a goose to the Albion Trade Guild - (Repeatable) - 5XP per goose Sell a duck to the Albion Trade Guild - (Repeatable) - 5XP per duck Sell a chicken to the Albion Trade Guild - (Repeatable) - 2XP per chicken Note: Any additional animals you acquire will make associated quests available.

Build a secondary cabin- (100XP) Now on to Alchemist. Available quests for your Alchemy support class: Buy an Alchemy Table (0/1) - 50XP Buy a Still(1/1) - 25XP Purify a quart of any substance using a still or Alchemy Table (0/1 Repeatable) - 1XP per quart Extra quests will be available once you have purified any substance. You now have 25/100 XP needed to reach level 2. This one was pretty basic at this level. I needed to purify things using my still for now.

I could probably just heat water in the boiler and have that count. I had a general idea of how a still worked, but I would need to look at the almanac to actually figure it out. I hadn't exactly been a moonshiner back home.

Available Quests for your Militiaman combat class: Purchase a Rifle, or other appropriate weapon for use with a militia (1/1) - 100XP Successfully load, and hit a target with your weapon (Repeatable through level 3) - 1XP Train with a recognized militia (Repeatable) - 10XP/day up to 15 days per year. Fight in combat with a recognized militia (Repeatable) - 50XP per day of combat Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

Successfully defend home territory while an activated member of a militia (Repeatable) - 250XP for a victory as defined by the System. Congratulations, you have earned enough XP to achieve level 2! You now have 0/125 XP needed for level 3. This one was a bit better. I was going to have to train for a total of seventeen days each year. That was 150 XP. I don't know how often I'd be shooting, but Colin had informed me that the Empire provided ammunition during training, so I'd make sure to get plenty of practice in.

Honestly, I felt like there should be a lot more quests available. It felt like a disappointingly small number, especially considering the System said I could have up to twenty quests for my main class at level 20. I could think of a whole host of quests that would work for Homesteader: build a fence, preserve a certain amount of food, hunt. Those were just right off the top of my head. It almost felt like the number of quests was being held down artificially. Oh well, not like I could do anything about it.

If I were going to produce two hundred bushels of potatoes, and a hundred and eighty of those were bonus XP, I could end up with more than 7, 500 XP from my twenty acres of potatoes this year. Then an additional 3, 000 or so between corn and wheat. 10, 000 wasn't a crazy amount, but it felt like a good number. Next year, if the average bushel per acre isn't just totally blown up because of my numbers, then I would make a ton of XP if I had a couple hundred acres of potatoes.

I decided I'd spent enough time in the store interface already, so I fired up the tractor and gave it ten minutes to warm up. I limited myself to the ten minutes that was suggested for temperatures in the 40s to preserve fuel. My dad was one of those guys who thought equipment needed thirty minutes or more unless it was like 80 degrees out, so that was also my usual. Once I was sure I'd have a fuel supply, the tractor would get more warmup time.

Once all of my gauges were in the green, I headed towards the homestead. A quick ten minutes later, I pulled up behind the house. Colin rushed out and helped me hook up the potato planter. He had the hoses in the correct spot on the first try! The kid had a good memory. Emily had come out to watch us hook the hoses up, and when we were done, she asked me why I was putting the equipment back in the trees.

"Well," I replied.

"After Colin's explanation the other day about people being portaled in from other worlds, I decided I don't want those accusations thrown my way. I think we can all agree that it would be in all of our best interests for that not to happen here." I looked at both of them as I spoke. Emily was in her usual closed-off stance. Her arms were folded over her breasts and lips pursed, as she nodded while I spoke. Colin looked more dubious, but when Emily said, "Right, Colin?" her voice tight.

He nodded and said, "Yes, Ma." Emily didn't really believe her own explanation, but she knew that any trouble I had was going to lead to trouble for them.

"Ma, do you want to ride with John? You've never ridden in the tractor yet. It's great," Colin smiled at his mom while he spoke. I cut in here.

"Your mom can ride with me later if she'd like. I want to grab some more trees this time. I figure you'd be a bigger help there. No offense Emily." I looked her way. She had a small smile on her face.

"You are correct. But first, we shall have breakfast. It is finished, and we do not want it to get cold." I knew we would be eating the same meal as last night, but bacon was one food I was totally fine eating multiple days in a row. Still, I decided to see if everyone wanted to have a picnic later and then go fishing afterward.

"Emily, could we do another picnic on that beach this afternoon? Colin and I need to bring this lumber in, and then we need to dig some ditch, we will be pretty darned sweaty after. I know the water is going to be awfully cold, and it's only supposed to be 72 today, but I wouldn't mind washing off in the river, then doing some fishing." Colin looked like the idea appealed to him. He leaned into his mom and said, "Please Ma, please, please, please."

She didn't laugh outright, but she did show genuine warmth in response to her son's mock pleading look, "Alright, child of mine. I will kill one of the other two chickens that is not laying this morning. We can have another chicken soup dinner." She said she would make some bread with the flour we'd purchased. I was interested to know how she would do that in her potbellied stove.

She explained she had some yeast, and she would prepare the dough this morning, and then she would cook it in the cast-iron pot with a lid on it. I almost blurted out, "Oh you'll make it Dutch oven style!" Luckily, I restrained myself. I was honestly looking forward to tonight's dinner. I loved me some good bread and soup.

I had intended to use some of the thicker paper birch trees we had seen on our way to get the lodgepole pine to make my cabin, but after doing some almanac reading last night I discovered it was a horrible tree for making a cabin. As the tree dried, it was prone to twisting and shrinkage. I decided to ask Colin if he knew of any good trees to use.

"Hey, I know we were going to pull some birch trees down, but the almanac says under no circumstances should we use green paper birch to make this cabin. I've seen the darker spots to the north that should be fir, but how far do we need to go? I'd prefer not to burn too much fuel. We're down to about two hundred and fifty gallons at the moment." Colin thought for a moment, then smiled and pointed south.

"Hey, about three miles to the south is a stand of big fir trees. If we can find a way into it with the tractor there was a mud slide that knocked some trees down last year. There are at least a dozen trees that are still intact and would work." I nodded as I thought for a moment. I really didn't want to just drive down there without doing some research.

"How would you feel about putting this planter back, and then we can bring the tractor back to the homestead? Then we can grab our guns and walk down there to look things over. Maybe see if we can find something to shoot? We can dig ditch the rest of the day, go get the trees tomorrow if they look good?" Colin said that sounded like fun. From there, our conversation mostly died down while we ate. Once we were mostly done, I asked Emily more about her bread-making process.

She had a bit of dough that she used as a starter that she'd gotten from the neighbors just a few weeks ago. That would serve as her starter. From now on, she would keep it fed with more flour and water. Once she let the dough rise in the pot for a couple of hours, she'd throw it in the oven with the lid on and bake it for thirty minutes. After that she'd take the lid off and bake an additional thirty minutes to let the top brown.

Once we were done with breakfast, Emily went off to kill the chicken and prepare food for the evening while Colin and I got in the tractor and put the planter next to the rest of the equipment. We put everything well back in the tree line to keep it hidden. I was planning on pulling some more trees down soon to make an even better barrier. We drove back to the homestead, and Colin grabbed his Pa's gun and belt with pouches. He was down to a half dozen caps and bullets, so I gave him ten of mine for now.

He thanked me profusely. It was clear life had been tough for them the last few years, and resources had been tight. I was determined to make sure that wasn't the case moving forward.