Homesteading in a fantasy world

This morning I got more eggs, I really hope that they will start laying them more often. The clay still needed to dry, but it looks like a sunny day was ahead for me.

Having a free morning was a bit of a weird experience. Everything currently hung on me being able to forge. The blower will be a permanent thing, the rest of the forge most certainly not. If I want to smith properly, I need to build a suitable structure.

I could try to plan out my future bigger builds. Like the sauna and the smithy, but they were long-term project that did not need immediate attention. After thinking for a bit, I think the best course of action for my current free time will be to start working on how to better understand and control stats and the energies they come with.

This was all new to me, but I hoped that some of the fantasy books got something correct, giving me a better starting point. I was always someone that did something with feeling when something was new to me or when I was so knowledgeable and practised in it.

At that point, it helps guide you better most of that time, especially during battle when you never have time to think, only to act.

Meditating and trying to control the energies felt similar to that. I know some basics on how to move the energy from all my practising, but now was time to push them even further. As I suspected, I had made some progress, but I was just scratching the surface on how deep this system really went.

To truly use your stats fully. You would need to know how to use them without thinking. It needs to be like breathing instinctual, yet you need to adapt it quickly when a new situation happens. This will be a long and difficult process getting everything so well-tuned and ready to act on a moment’s notices.

Hours went by and the tuning sounded like a better description than I could ever expect it to be. It was like a constant battle as some parts improved, others needed tuning to be adjusted for the increase. Then you need to tune everything connected to that. It was an endless cycle of tuning.

I was hoping that would be the extent of it. I was so wrong, as I was working hard even sweating, moving through certain actions there was like a minor breakthrough for my swinging action. First, I suddenly got a burst of energy inside of me where I was concentrating on my tuning efforts.

After that, energy moved faster and was stronger there. It felt like everything there was smoother and cleaner. It also messed up all my tuning on how every stats energy moved there. I had to start everything over for this movement.

My biggest understanding currently came after a bit of tuning and practicing. Yes, there are parts of my energy body that are a lot better thanks to training and tuning them, but that didn't matter as much because other parts couldn't keep up. It's like having a small pipe led into a big pipe and then into a small pipe again. The big pipe did absolutely nothing to improve anything.

This wasn't quite the same in my energy body as it did help, but not as much as it could. I was going to have to design a full-body workout for both of my bodies, because they weren’t as separate as I first thought.

They both supported each other, meaning I had to work out both. I guess this would be every gym rat's wet dream to be able do workout twice as much.

I didn’t have time to think about this any further, because finally everything was dry, and I can actually start forging or, more accurately, firstly smelting. I already knew what design the plow I was going to make will be. It will be the same my grandfather used and gave to me.

I went and got the shield, so that I could lay out everything I need and see what work I needed to do. The shield will be bent in half. I would need to shape the tip and the blades into the correct shape.

Thanks to the shield shape, it will make it easier. But I will not only need the plow that can make the furrows it needed to be able to cut fresher earth and turn it over.

I would need two extra pieces of metal that I could attach when needed to the main plow and make it so I could make uncultivated land into workable farmland. The blades will need to be forged. Casting them would make them too weak and I would want them to be as close to steel I can make them.

Luckily, I know how to make steel from iron, and I have the perfect ingredient to do it, charcoal. If I was casting the pieces, I would need to add the correct amount into the smelting mix. This is hard without knowing the base metal carbon amount, but I was going to use a different tactic.

I was going to cast 2 pieces of iron, which I was going to forge into the correct shape and constantly putting them into the charcoal fire turning it into steel.

This way also has problems. If I heat it up too many times, it will get too much carbon and it will make it too brittle and it will break under any work. And of course, forging it will make it stronger overall than casting it can ever do.

I dismantled the old plow and laid out my new design. I could use some of the reinforcements again, which would reduce my workload, but I also notice some new places that would require some strengthening.

For that, metal pieces can be cast into a sheet that I could later forge into the correct pieces, saving me some time. They will not need to be the strongest simply because they will not be in contact with earth and the stones in it.

Everything figured out about the plow. I started to assemble the blower. Finishing this will help me figure out the best configuration for the forge.

Measure out the inside, now that I could put the pieces together so I could make the correct size blades for it. After some work and looking at the current state of the blower, I felt quite happy.

Hardest was to get the blades to not hit the sides. It took a lot of fine tuning and adding some extra supports so the shaft will stay stable. After testing it, I did need to make a gear system otherwise, it moves air too slowly. The easiest solution will be to just build an extra piece onto the blower.

I carved out a small wood gear that I secured onto the shaft. Then built and secured a big gear that connected to the small one and will be where I turn the blower. This worked excellently and the air it can move was impressive.

Setting up the forge was annoying, making it the way I wanted will take way too much time, and I want this to be a temporary forge. I was left with leaving the forge on the ground and making a small pipe that directs the air from the blower to the edge of the heating area. I originally wanted the air to blow from underneath, but this will work.

The crucible was actually the first thing that went into the heating area. Next went some kindling and charcoal. Once the fire was going, I filled up the area with charcoal and started to crank the blower.

Instantly, everything started to fire up, and the heat got more intense. At this point I added the metal inside which. I was going to need to top it off constantly so I can get a full crucible of metal.

For the time being all, I needed to do was add charcoal and metal as needed. At the start, it took some time before the heat worked up. The fire was roaring now and soon it will be ready. I started to prepare the metal rods I need to move and pour the metal into the cast.

Now, for the hardest part, actually lifting the crucible out of the forge. I didn’t have proper tools, so to fix that problem, when making the crucible, I made a groove into it, so I could use what my grandfather called a crap pinch.

To use the crap pinch. Two pieces of straight metal is needed. They need to be tied together at one end and when you squeeze them together, the bars will bend and holding anything in between them extremely strongly.

I would never be able to do this without stats. If I didn’t get so many levels during the fight, I might not be able to accomplish this task. Even then, this was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done.

This crucible was the biggest I made and is meant for the small anvil. When the casting was finished my muscles were so sore that I collapsed from strain. Luckily, the mould holds, and I didn’t have to scramble out of the way of molten metal with my barely working body.

The anvil will need to cool overnight. If it was a full-sized anvil, it might be days before it would be fully set. Next, I was only going to smelt and cast the rest of the prepared moulds. One plate casting went wrong when a mould broke. Hopefully, I will not need it. I did make two extras just in case, so I was now down to one extra.

I still had time to make arrowheads from the chainmail, but I was not actually going to be able to forge today. Doing the arrowheads was an easy job. The moulds were a lot smaller and therefore a lot easier to handle.

I enjoyed making them so much I kept making into the dark, finishing everything with the forge fire. This helped me make and cast the entire chainmail into steel arrowheads, getting me almost 200 of them.

I checked my notifications while eating. I got a new skill, basic metal casting and a level in basic ceramist and basic wood crafting. Looking over my achievement page, I have collected 36 skills and 4 abilities a lot of progress. I wonder how I compare to other people.