Chương 43: Expectations

Day 29 (Still) Once we parked the tractor, I got the tarps from where we'd stashed them on the back platform of the tractor and covered up each piece of equipment. Emily got involved and helped me pull tarps over everything. She had some levels too, so she wasn't weak by any means. I was probably going to need the tractor one more time to help move some boulders to bring water from the river to the irrigation ditch, but we tarped it up in case we didn't need it again. It was also a good safety precaution.

Once everything was tarped up, Emily spoke up.

"We should probably still bring some brush in to help conceal things, but it should do the job. As I mentioned already, there will be very few people who come this way." I nodded and looked around.

"Yeah, definitely. It really is too bad there isn't a good copse of trees closer to our homestead though. Some day people could buy this land right?" She nodded.

"Yes, but it will not happen until after the next round of the lottery at the earliest. If there is a third round then it could be as long as ten more years. I certainly doubt you will be hiding your tractor in these woods for ten years." I chuckled.

"True, I imagine I'll either be too powerful to mess with, or taken by the empire." Emily pursed her lips and frowned at my words, but she didn't refute them.

"How can this turn out if I'm found out?" I asked.

"I should make enough to buy at least two more plots, probably all four, but I won't buy that last one, we need buildings and capital for improvements. We will need more people at some point." Emily thought for a moment before responding.

"Well, at some point more people will find out. Like I've said, Brendan should keep his mouth shut. If we can limit the number of people who do find out, then hopefully it will be awhile before anyone in power knows. Do everything you can to ingratiate yourself with the community in the meantime. Luckily, the crown offers no rewards for turning someone in. In fact, from what I have heard, it can be very detrimental for those who do if they are not powerful enough themselves.

The empire is worried their ideas have infected those they interact with." I laughed.

"That sounds about right. People seem to say good things about Emperor Harold though."

"Obviously I have never personally met him." Emily smiled at me.

"He is supposed to be a decent enough man, but no one has ever accused him of being an agent of change. The System Church is in charge of dealing with much of the day-to-day lives of those in the empire. Their priests teach at the schools, and administer System related events. There are several noble families who can be problematic as well. Remember, Arthur sired thirteen male children. In the last thousand years, they have all interbred.

Most of the nobility can trace their lineage back to Arthur himself, often through more than one side of their family." I snorted, and Emily asked why. I told her.

"Sounds just like a royal family on earth who controlled a whole lot of one continent for a long period of history. They all interbred to keep their inheritances easier to deal with. By the end they were super inbred and had massive health problems because of that interbreeding."

"Like with animals?" Emily asked.

"Yeah, why?" I replied.

"Ah, well, the System only allows for healthy children to be born for all races as far as I'm aware. It can still happen for animals though."

"Ah. No System on my world. But we're getting sidetracked, a problem I have to admit I'm prone to." I smiled sheepishly. Emily also grinned.

"I have noticed. For now though, we will continue on as we are. Explain your new style of row crops as being a result of an experiment. If anyone asks where, or how, you tell them you have powerful backers you cannot name. That should work for the rest of this year at least."

"Sounds good," I said.

"Now let's start our walk back." We both looked out at our handiwork. The tractor and equipment was all tarped up for now. Colin and I would come back to put some more brush around everything to help conceal it even more, but we were a good way into a decent-sized little forest with no one who should be miles from it anytime soon. On our way back we talked more about what buildings we would need as we expanded.

I told her that without a System we had no requirements about what we'd build, aside from what might be needed just to make a farm run. In order to go up to two plots, you only needed two buildings. The first was a Level 1 Farmhouse. It cost 700 gold, and had to be built by an official team of Craftsmen as part of the Grand Quest. Luckily, their System skills would allow them to build all of these buildings extremely quickly. Stolen story; please report.

The second was a barn large enough to house all of your animals inside for the winter. Colin and I might build that ourselves. It did cost 10 gold for a Craftsman to come out and certify it, but otherwise we could go get the lumber ourselves. We'd already cut some of it. If we did choose to have it built, it would be 500 gold. Adding a third plot was where things got a lot more expensive. First off, it would cost us 10, 000 gold to buy the plot. Then, we would have to upgrade the Farmhouse for 1, 000 gold.

It would make it so that the living quarters for the Farmer and his family were fully upstairs. There would be four bedrooms, and a living room area up there. That would also add on an industrial-sized kitchen capable of feeding everyone needed to keep a 300-acre farm going and make it so there was a large dining area and more office space. Then, for our workers, we would have to have at least one bunkhouse for single workers and at least one cabin for a family. The cabins and bunkhouses all cost 150 gold each.

We would have to build silos for each crop we grew to be stored until the Trade Guild could pick it up. Each silo was 100 gold. They had to be built by a Craftsman as well, but that did guarantee that no vermin could get in. Hopefully, there would be a real potato cellar available, if not then my cabin would do for this year. Ranchers like Brendan had different buildings with their third plot.

They'd need a real dairy barn, and facilities to make cheese, cut wool, and butcher animals if they didn't plan on selling them live. We would also have to build or buy a stable for the draft animals we would be expected to have. That barn was separate from the one we could build ourselves for the rest of the animals. We could still build it ourselves and pay the 10 gold to have it certified. Then there was the equipment shed, cellars, and lastly, more food preservation buildings.

A larger farm would expect to hire someone to make butter and cheese. 13-15, 000 gold was a good estimate for the cost of adding that third plot. I would need to spend at least 25, 000 gold next year to get to three plots, and 45-50, 000 gold if I wanted to get to four plots. In addition to just being crazy expensive to add that fifth plot, you had to pay 5, 000 gold to remodel the farmhouse into a farm manor and administration building. There would no doubt be even more buildings, but those were the main ones.

We also talked a little more about some of the other System rules about gaining classes and skills. Emily wasn't able to enlighten me any more on why it was now harder to gain a class versus what the history books said were possible. I was left unsatisfied about why just learning a skill was so hard. It felt to me like if I worked hard on woodworking, and followed the guidelines put forth by the almanac, I should be able to be considered an apprentice crafter at the very least.

Without a skill book, it would take me four or five years though. I did get some valuable information on the System Church though. There were those who actually worshipped the System like a deity. They were a small percentage of the population, but held an outsized influence because upwards of a quarter of all official System clergymen were Deists. That made sense to me, those who most strongly believed were more likely to make it a life calling. They rarely climbed to the upper ranks of the clergy though.

The upper ranks, as well as most of the rest of the clergy were younger sons of the nobility. My favorite Bishop Smythe, was the fourth son of the Duke of Eire. His family was descended from Arthur's second son. Once the Western Territories were done with their second or third round of the lottery and made an official province, he would be elevated to the rank of Archbishop of Westland.

Church attendance wasn't required, and as long as you attended festivals, went to your first ceremony to get your class, and did anything important that required System prompts through the church, you were considered sufficiently devout. Emily said that Priest Lewys was the fifth son of a minor noble, but also a Deist, and that helped explain why he put less stock in Bishop Smythe's opinion. The odds of Lewys ever being promoted past parish priest level were fairly low because he was a Deist.

Being a parish priest was still a decent gig. It paid well, and was a lifetime appointment if one so desired. When we made it back to the homestead, Colin was waiting for us expectantly.

"Well?" he asked.

"You two figure things out? We gonna carry on like a happy family?" I laughed but Emily tilted her head to the side and pursed her lips.

"And what exactly do you mean by that?" Colin looked at the ground, then lightly scuffed the dirt with his boot as his response.

"Hey!" I said in a scolding tone.

"What do I say about scuffing the dirt with your boots?"

"Sorry," he mumbled out before looking back up at us.

"Everything is going to work out then?"

"Yeah. Hopefully," I said.

"I'm going to be smarter, and we're all going to work together. By this time next year we'll all be big time farmers. You can go off and hunt all you like. Maybe even take our two adorable murder bunnies out on hunting expeditions." He and Emily both laughed at that before Colin said, "You said you'd buy some hunting dogs. One of my paths as a Woodsman can be Hunt Master."

"We shall see," I replied.

"I'm only two months from getting my classes. I gotta think about this stuff." Colin reminded us. Emily smiled at the thought.

"Very true son. I believe we are still in agreement. You will choose Woodsman?" Colin looked at his mom, then me, as if trying to make sure I was okay with his plan, then said, "Yeah, I'd sure like to. I think one day I might want to join the army as a scout or a sniper. It would help me get some levels that way." Emily didn't look like she was happy about those plans, but she didn't say anything.

I spent the rest of the day getting my cabin set up the way I wanted it, then we had dinner and made sure the animals were rounded up in the evening. I had some trouble shutting my brain off so I decided to do some reading on the story I'd heard about why people who were brought to the System were apprehended by the authorities.