Homesteading in a fantasy world

“Son of a bitch, why is there light”. I was having the worst migraine of my life. The last thing I remember was dying. Don't tell me the stupid doctors tried to save me. Oh, please don't tell me that. I told them that I don't want to be rescued and how did they even get to me, I was at home alone.

My eyes were getting used to the light, so I started to look around. But nothing was familiar to me. The next thing to hit me was the god-awful smell. I've smelled that before, that’s rotting bodies. I started moving towards the window to open it, but before I got there, I noticed my body. There were no aches of old age.

Opening the window to get some fresh air, I notice that it smells like spring. But it wasn't my land, at least not the land I know. I was somewhere else.

Angling the window to get an image of me. I saw myself as I was when I was a teenager, but stronger and healthier than I ever was at that age. My head was spinning, and I didn't know what to do. I think I was frozen there for at least 30 minutes before I was jolted out of my stupor.

A small chiming sound out in my mind. I notice a small flashing symbol in the right corner of my eye. When looking at it, a window popped up, and a voice started to read what was written there.

Congratulations on surviving until the age of 12. The system is now fully unlocked.

Name: Rich Dirt

Species: Human

Gender: male

Age: 12

class slot open

class slot open

class slot open

stats:

Strength: 7

Dexterity: 5

Vitality: 8

Skills:

basic farming level 5

basic animal care level 6

basic fitness enhancement level 4

Memories from the void level max

You have gained a new skill memory of the dead level max

After I read the new skill gain, I quickly rushed to the other rooms only to find everyone else dead. They were not my family, but in a way, they were.

I've lost friends and loved ones before and it didn't feel any different when I saw his family. I could feel tears running down my face but I steadied myself and started to think to figure out what was going on. A god damn plague and worse than the black plague was sweeping through this, “holy shit it's a fantasy world, I am in a fantasy world”.

There's a lot to think about, but first I need to bury my family or his family, and then think about who I am. Burying 6 people in proper graves should have taken a long time, but from his memories, I know that the former occupant of this body already finished five graves before he got too sick to dig. A brave and dedicated one, he was.

It was past midnight when I finished burying them. I went to get some smoked meat to eat and went to bed. I was completely exhausted from all that has happened. The next morning, I found where they keep their woodworking tools. Making six grave markers from wood. I wrote their names and ages onto them and put them on their graves.

It was past noon when I was done with this small work and I was bone tired again. I went and found some more food hopefully it will make me feel better. My head was constantly spinning from all that has happened. I found myself sitting underneath a large oak tree watching my family's graves and slowly eating. Finally, I started to think again.

After a while, I tried to pull up my stats. Apparently, every person in this world has this achievement page, as they call it. Both of my skills, memories from the void and memories of the dead, were gone from the page. Why have they disappeared?

The three open class slots surprised me. Because from the memories, I know that this is a rare thing, not unique, but just unlikely to happen.

My stats were pretty good, especially because I'm apparently 12 years old. When I looked at my reflection I look like a 16-year-old teenager. Apparently, I'm not the same as back on earth there are differences in my appearance even if there are only a few. The biggest is that I am most likely going to still grow a lot.

This would be good if I wanted to go out and adventure. I probably make an excellent warrior when I was fully grown up. Still, being 5'7 and wider than most men at the age of 12 is weird and getting used to that is even weirder.

Do I want to go and be an adventurer? But I already know the answer. I lived for over 70 years on earth and during that time, I've been a warrior, so I know that I could be a good one here, but I have already found what I love to do the most. Homesteading for a lack of a better word was something that kept me going after the war and something I loved. I love the challenge of it, I love the freedom of it, and I just enjoy everything about it.

From the memories I know of this world and its fantasy elements, it's going to be even better here but harder. Which makes sense and might not be a bad thing.

Now about mine and his memory. The longer I am in this world, the less distinction I feel between us. So, I'm going to take the easy route. I’ll just accept that he is me and I am him. When I made that decision something clicked. It felt like a divide was healed. My head stopped hurting and I could feel my strength returning.

Now that I feel better and my choice to stay here and homestead and not go adventuring made. I can actually start to look around and see what I have to work with and what I need to do to survive until next spring.

First, I need to start with myself. Opening up my status again I looked for any extra information. The most interesting thing I notice is that I only have stats for strength, dexterity and vitality. My memories of this world seemed to indicate that this is correct, but my knowledge of RPGs is telling me that something is missing or not unlocked for some reason.

Not getting more information from my status, I decided to mentally push on the open class slot button. Doing that opened a list of classes for me to pick. There are common classes like labourer and farmer, uncommon ones like builder or warrior, and there are even some rare classes to choose from, which makes me happy.

The three rare classes that I can pick are veteran soldier, handgun expert and frontier farmer. Now the handgun expert is definitely out.

There is no technology for guns in this world and honestly, I don't know how good they will be against high-level people. Veteran soldier maybe, but frontier farmer sounds good. Just in case I tried to get more information about it.

Frontier farmer: This class lift restrictions on survival skills, farming skills, Identify and basic fighting skills. This class unlocks endurance stat. This class gives trait minor temperature resistance and minor physical boost.

“Well, shit” it didn't give me the exact information I was looking for, but some info is better than none. I can now guess a lot better how the system actually works.

There really are more stats. You just need to unlock them by either getting a class or I'm guessing there are different unlock conditions.

The first line about this class lifting restrictions on certain skills or skill subgroups is fascinating. It means without a class it's extremely hard to get skills which makes sense, I only had a few skills from 12 years of life.

Apparently, there are traits in this system too. I tried to focus more on the trait part, but I didn't get any more information. I needed to take a few minutes to relax, because of the system's inability to give more information. Not being able to do anything, I decided to check out the other classes. I started with common classes.

Farmer: This class lift restrictions on farming skills.

Labourer: This class left restrictions on hauling skill, lifting skill and digging skill.

Well, that left me speechless. The common class has so little to give. Next, I looked at the uncommon.

Warrior: This class lift restrictions on fighting skills. This class unlocks endurance stat.

Builder: This class lift restrictions on structured building. This class unlocks intelligence stat.

Interesting, so uncommon classes only give an extra stat but not a trait. Maybe I will have to pick the handgun expert, well let's see.

Handgun expert: This class lift restrictions on gun maintenance skill and gun fighting skills. This class unlocks perception stat. This class gives trait steady hands and eagle eyes.

Veteran soldier: This class lift restrictions on advanced fighting skills, army skills and armour skills. This class unlocks constitution stat. This class gives trait physical boost and tough skin.

This is going to be a difficult choice, deciding to check out all other available classes I have. I was down to two different builds by the end of the day.

The first build was frontier farmer, animal husbandry and handyman. The second build was frontier farmer, animal husbandry and veteran soldier.

The first build will ensure that I can survive by having food and a roof over my head and, more important that I can fix and build the things I need to survive.

The weakness of this build is my lack of fighting strength. In this fantasy world of beasts and monsters, fighting skills are quite important.

My problem is that I don't know how I get fighting skills. So, to fix that problem I will first pick my class frontier farmer. That will hopefully give me some more information.

My choice made I picked the frontier farmer. A new window opened up for me to confirm and without hesitation, I confirmed it. Suddenly I feel like all my adrenaline shot into my bloodstream.

The first thing I noticed after that was that it wasn't as cold outside anymore and I could feel strength coursing through me. I notice three flashing symbols, I chose the first one.

Level up frontier farmer

Frontier farmer now level 1

Strength +2

Dexterity +1

Vitality +2

Endurance +1

Skill changes

skill basic farmer level 5 connected to class frontier farmer

skill basic fitness enhancement connected to trait minor physical boost

New trait gained

vitality reaches 10 new trait gained better blood filtration.

Name: Rich Dirt

Species: Human

Gender: male

Age: 12

frontier farmer level 1

class slot open

class slot open

stats:

Strength: 9

Dexterity: 6

Vitality: 10

Endurance: 1

Skills:

basic farmer level 5

basic animal care level 6

basic fitness enhancement level 4

Traits:

Better blood filtration

Minor temperature resistant

Minor physical boost

Well, this is all interesting, but I need to continue before the daylight ends. First, let’s go and check out the three cows and the bull that supposedly live on the farm.

I went to the barn. Looking inside, I did not find any animals. But I noticed the back doors were open. I continue there to see a large field surrounded by a fence. It didn’t take me long to notice the three cows and the bull.

“Well, here goes nothing” I walked towards them. The bull was the first to notice me. I slowed down and beckoned him to me. The moment he started to move, I stopped and kept beckoning him.

He seemed to be the friendly kind. It didn’t take long for me to start scratching his head. Looks like he missed this. I quickly checked him over and asked ”Is everyone else okay”. The amuu I got in return made me think it was an affirmative answer.

I kept scratching him and thinking. I need to test out how to get XP for my classes and do I really need the handyman class to build stuff. Well, let’s just go and find me a hoe. Saying goodbye to the bull, I walked back to find the hoe.

The tool shed was a small building next to the barn. Luckily, they actually know how to make iron tools in this world. I took the hoe and walked to the place they usually planted their wheat. I started to work the land to find out if I get any XP or whatever it’s called here.

At first, I didn’t notice anything but when I tried to concentrate more on my skill. I started to feel something growing. My practised hands worked fast. It took about half an hour when a notification popped up.

Skill increases basic farming level 6

Concentrating on my class. I could feel it had gotten fuller. This confirmed I do not need to kill anything to level up, unlike most RPGs.

I returned the hoe and went to the workshop, where I made the grave markers. To test if I can craft or build without needing skills. I decided to make a simple wooden rectangle that I could use in raised bed gardening.

I needed to work outside because the light was disappearing. In my lifetime, I have hit nails and made wooden things so many times. That it took me so long now was mind-numbing. It was supposed to take me a simple 5 minutes, not 20.

Looking at the thing on the ground, I was speechless. I think I could have made a better box when I was seven years old. I guess I’m going to need that handyman class, no matter what.

Well, maybe I can get the skills without the class. But do I honestly have time for this? There’s so much to do to prepare and if this is the quality, I’m going to be fucked.

Just in case I will not pick the classes until tomorrow, maybe there will be a goblin attack or something and I will need to choose that soldier class.”Well, shit now I’m going to need to find that family heirloom sword and sleep with it.”

The sword wasn't hard to find. Before going to bed, I did a quick food search, and I was pleasantly surprised I was not going to go hungry anytime soon. But this will not take me to the next harvest. With that thought, I was off to bed and sleep land.