Chương 37: Back Home

Day 23, Mai 2nd The morning after Bhealtaine, we stopped and grabbed the perishables that we'd already prepaid for, chiefly bacon and butter, and then we got an early start. It would take us nearly eight hours to get back to our homestead, so the early start was welcome. Aiden and Colin excitedly talked about their trip, while Brendan and I were more subdued. The two of us were old enough that a quick trip to town was fun but exhausting.

When we were a couple of hours away from home, Brendan eyed me as he held the reins.

"So then, I know you're level twenty an' all, but you wouldn't fancy tellin' me how you managed that, would you?" I laughed.

"It's not too exciting there. I did a lot of farming. I can't tell you where right now, but it's definitely a story." Brendan smiled ruefully.

"Aye, one day you'll have t'tell me that story, see. I'm sure it's a proper grand one. But I get it, like. I hit level fifteen wi' the spring calvin' an' lammin' season, I did. Think it's safe t'say I got myself another Herd Leader goat — a female an' all! Can't say for sure till they hit breedin' age, mind. Female Herd Leaders are rare, they are. All in all, not as good as havin' a billy, but her young've got about one-in-four odds o' bein' Herd Leaders." He smiled happily, then realized he'd gotten off track.

""But anyway now, I'm feelin' a lot better meself too, see. I was only a level nine Farmhand before we got our ticket, mind. I did pick up five levels o' Homesteader right off the bat though, from helpin' out on the bigger family farms growin' up, like." He looked away from me, as if to give me a little space on the cramped wagon bench, then said.

"I know you'll likely hit level twenty-one this fall wi' those potatoes, next year at the latest, like. But I got real hopes o' doin' it myself one day too. I've got a Herd Leader billy, a boar, an' now a second goat. If I'm even a bit lucky, that should give me three or four more Herd Leaders in the next four or five years, see. An' then, if I could just get myself a bull…" He trailed off for a minute before continuing on.

"I know it don't make much sense, but I feel it in me bones like I'm close, I do. Like I just gotta keep on doin' what I'm doin' an' it'll happen."

"System willing," I said. I wasn't exactly sure that the System was an entity to be praying to or anything, but it seemed to be the thing to do. That was the only substantial conversation Brendan and I had the entire trip, but it felt like we spent it in companionable silence. I hoped I was already close to being able to call him a friend. That was the one thing I missed from my old world. I'd had a best friend who I'd known since we were children.

We'd both gone to the University of Idaho together and had been in the same fraternity. He'd moved back down to the valley after college. He and his wife lived in Boise, so I still saw him a fair amount right until I'd been portaled over. At least right now, I missed him more than I missed my dad and brothers. While my mom wasn't directly involved in anything, she had to have known and didn't tell me, so she was on my shit list as well.

Once we got to the homestead, Brendan and Aiden helped us unload our goods, then they too took off for their own homestead after a short conversation with Emily, who said she and his wife had a good Bhealtaine and got their blessings as well. The rabbits were happy to see us back, and I made sure to thank them for keeping an eye on things while we were gone. Once they got their pets in, they hopped off to do whatever it was they did during the day.

"Well," Emily said, "how was your first time in Weston?" Colin smiled mischievously and said, "John got real drunk."

"Hey!" I yelled.

"Not on purpose!"

"John." Emily said, with more than a little disappointment in her voice.

"I did not mark you as a man who drank to excess, especially when you should have been making a good first impression on the townsfolk." Colin put his hands up to forestall any more words from his mother.

"Ma, I'm just messing around with John. He did great. Everybody liked him. The guys just initiated John into the militia with a little shooting contest. If he'da been a better shot, he wouldn't have drank so much." It dawned on Emily what had happened, but now she just looked angry on my behalf.

"They made you drink!? That is simply not acceptable. There is nothing I can do, but I will say something to Brendan the next time I see him." I sighed and said, "It's alright Emily. Listen, it's nowhere near the worst I've ever been hazed." That was certainly true. I'd been in a fraternity in college, at a college that really embraced Greek life. The University of Idaho had close to forty fraternities and sororities when I'd attended.

I couldn't exactly say that the hazing was wise, or in the best taste, but I had enjoyed both pledging and being a member of a fraternity. Making me drink a few beers wasn't the worst thing in the world. At least they hadn't been Keystone Light like in college…

"It was alright," I said.

"Heck, I didn't even have a hangover. Level 20 has its perks." I tried smiling at Emily at the end but was met with that pursed-look frown I was seeing less of lately.

"If you say so," Emily said.

"But I still find it to be an entirely juvenile display. I would have expected the officers to put a stop to that behavior."

"Ma," Colin said.

"Lieutenant Woolsy was the one who conducted the shooting drill."

"Well, I…" Emily began before shaking her head and turning towards the cabin.

"Well, let us get some food into you both. There is nothing fancy, since I had no idea how late you would be, but there are beans and cornbread. It will fill you up." Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

"I've always been a fan of simple beans and cornbread. My Grandmother made the best honey cornbread." I said wistfully. Emily looked back at me from the doorway and asked, "Is there any chance you have the recipe? I've never made honeyed cornbread." I shook my head.

"Sorry, I never made it myself. Are there any honeybees here? They aren't native to these shores are they?" I was fishing a little with that last sentence.

"Yes. Honeybees were brought over with the first colonists." Emily said as she began ladling beans into the tin bowls. I asked, "Could we get them from the store? And are they available with hives that we don't need to break open?" I couldn't remember when modern beehives were created, or if they had been here even.

"Yes, they come with box hives. They are not a new invention." Emily said. Colin, who had gotten himself a bowl of beans, perked up and said, "Bee boxes have been around for over a hundred years, what rock were you living under?" I flushed and said, "I didn't ask for sass. How much are the bee boxes? Maybe we could get some this summer. I've never had bees myself, but I can't imagine it's too difficult?" Colin gave me a look of utter bewilderment.

"You have the skill? I don't even think you could raise them without it. They'll just swarm and attack anyone who tries to take their honey if you don't have the beekeeper skill." Damnit! I thought to myself. I walked right into that one. I could understand why skills would make things easier, but sometimes it just didn't make sense when you couldn't do something.

"No, I don't." I said with a resigned tone.

"Is that from a skill tree, or can I buy it?" Colin shrugged and looked at Emily, "You know Ma?"

"It is a skill you can buy," Emily said.

"It is open to any Homesteader subclass, as well as a few others. There is usually only a single scroll for the Beekeeper skill each year. It costs 800 gold and requires you to buy queens, and bee boxes from the guild store. I do know that it gives out several quests that have excellent XP for the Homesteader class." Pure horse manure, I thought. Oh well, that was life on Talamh. We lapsed into silence while we all ate. I thought about my time in town and analyzed how it went.

Everyone I'd met had been willing to be friendly. Even the priest had been a decent enough fellow. It looked like he would be willing to give Colin his skills, and he wasn't using the bishop's initial thoughts against me. The bishop was a little bit more of an enigma than I'd initially assumed. He hadn't had good things to say about me, but it wasn't like he'd gone in all scorched earth and told everyone to avoid me either.

It seemed like he'd informed everyone to keep an eye on me and let them come to their own conclusions. Once we were done with beans and cornbread, I walked outside with Colin and washed my upper body. I really felt like I needed a good bath; luckily, we'd picked up more bathtubs while we were in town. I hated only taking one full bath a week though. I smiled over at Colin and said, "Maybe we can get your Ma to heat up some water for baths tomorrow?" Colin groaned out, "Ugh, why? I'm washing myself up."

I was still amused at his reluctance to take a good bath, but I wasn't letting it go.

"Now listen, I know it's been a pain with only one bathtub these last couple of weeks. But, since you were the one who picked them up, you know as well as I do that there were two more bathtubs in the goods we ordered. Bathtubs for all!" I happily exclaimed. Emily stuck her head out the door at that and said, "You are absolutely correct John. I took a nice leisurely bath earlier today, since I didn't have to worry about my modesty." She smiled mischievously at me as she spoke.

I realized I was shirtless and said, "Hey! I'm just trying to make sure there are no rumors flying about. Stop looking at my chiseled abs and pecs!" Emily snorted loudly at that.

"You know, you have trimmed up a measurable amount this last month. That tractor of yours lets you live too much of a sedentary lifestyle. It is not healthy." I looked down. Emily was correct. I still wasn't svelte. But I'd easily lost ten pounds so far. I felt like my arms might have gotten a little bigger too, so I'd probably lost closer to fifteen pounds of fat, and gained five pounds of muscle.

Looking over at a shirtless Colin, I noticed he had put some weight back on and promptly blurted out, "You guys have put on a little weight…" I immediately went pale and looked at Emily in panic. I wasn't sure if that comment was appropriate here, but on Earth, I wouldn't have said that to a woman, even one who needed to gain weight. She saw the look on my face and burst out laughing.

When she got herself under control, she wiped a tear of laughter off of her cheek with her apron and said, "You should have seen your face Mr Jacobson. Those were certainly dangerous words, but you are correct. Colin and I did need to gain some weight. I have lost nearly twenty-five pounds over the last two years. No one would have said I was overweight before." She smiled at Colin again and said, "System willing, Colin and I both will be doing much better moving forward."

I wholeheartedly agreed with that sentiment. We puttered around the homestead for the rest of the day, but otherwise treated it as a bit of a rest day. Tomorrow I planned to build a cabin with the help of that nice stat boost!

There are no records of how skills came to replace learned experience on Talamh, but it seems that it has gotten harder over the years to learn new skills through practice alone. Once you have attained a skill scroll and absorbed its knowledge, the practical knowledge and experience is believed to be implanted into your very soul. Even less is understood about how passive skills, such as Row Cropping, allow the Farmer and Homestead classes to need less water than their neighbors who don't have the ability.

The best guess of scholars is that since the System recognized ownership of plots of land, it simply uses its own essence to give passive bonuses to a plot of land. Further lending credence to this theory is that land mostly taken care of by farmhands who do not possess the same abilities as a Farmer, still gain the Farmer's bonuses as long as the farmer actually plants the seed.

In the Early, and Middle Eras of the Empire, much more research was done and published on the effects and mechanics of the System for wide dissemination. However, the instability during the years before the Great Impediment led to the loss of many of these records. As power became more centralized, and many of the great scholars of the day died off, new research has since been closely held by the Albion System Church and the Emperors.

The Church and the Empire enforce strict access controls on their archives, granting entry to almost no one except members of the clergy or career bureaucrats. Excerpt from Musings on the Nature of Skills, by Roger the Unwise. Note, this book is not available on the Albion Guild Store.