Apinsig
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Chapter 23 Homesteading in a fantasy world
🕑 Added 2022-08-10 10:59:03 +0000 UTCMorning arrived and I could feel a clock on me, so I did everything as fast as possible. When the chores were done, I started to finish off the foldable walkway.
I needed to make some changes from my original design for the foldable boxes. I needed to make slot connectors I couldn’t use that slit method.
It would be too slow and too much could go wrong if I needed to assemble it fast. The change shouldn’t change the assembly time too much.
The hinges that connect to the main boards also needed to be made so that they can move up and down a little, otherwise I couldn’t fold up the bridge.
It took me a bit longer than I wanted to, but when I was finished, I went to test it out. Not on the river, just in case it fails, and I fell in.
I placed two of my logs 6 meters from each other. I packed up the folding walkway into the backpack. It even had room leftover for some other stuff, maybe extra arrows.
Then I did the quick simulation. Running towards the logs as quickly as I can, then try to get the folding walkway out and assembled.
It took me over a minute to assemble it and get it in place. If I practised some more, I think I can get the time down by about half.
I start to walk over it slowly when I reach the middle. I tried to jump on it, and it held up. As I jumped again, the walkway moved underneath me and I slipped and fell to the ground.
I will need to fix that, probably some spikes at both ends, so they will dig into the dirt, and this wouldn't happen again. I tested it for a bit longer and then try to fold it up.
I put it into the backpack. It holed up surprisingly well and I expect to get a lot of uses out of this before something will give, and I needed to make a new one or fix this one.
I added some foldable wooden spikes I made them as long as possible. I also but a lock on them so they will really dig into the dirt and there wouldn’t be a possibility that one or both not going in and making me raise it and drop it again.
I didn’t immediately set out to cross onto the other side. This will not happen today. Instead, I made my way to the tower for another watch.
During my watch, I was also thinking about different defensive measures I could make. Maybe traps that I could build. Make some pit traps and some spike traps on the other side of the bridge.
But working there for so long will most likely not be the best idea. Now if I focused on making traps in the forest, setting them up with the resources there will be easier and quicker.
But then came the problem that I wanted to retake the forest and if I was building traps upon traps in there.
Even if I went through disassembling them later on, I would probably miss some and that wouldn't be the optimal choice for my survival.
You never want to trap area that you want to reclaim or live in. But maybe some more traps on this side, hidden behind the raised bridge.
I’ve noticed that every time someone tries to cross, someone stayed behind, so make some spike traps that shoot out where the others will stand when one of the traps is activated.
I wonder if I could make a sort of like a wall of spikes to shoot out and kill all waiting. I just need some more thinking about that.
I also hadn’t considered if they had anything bigger than themselves, like trolls or something like that. My bow power might not be enough if that happened. Making a ballista can be a good idea.
Maybe mounted onto the tower with my current strength I could pull back and incredibly strong one with some mechanical help.
Then I can shoot at anything that is too big for my bow to handle. I can even make something similar to grapeshot so I could take out clusters of smaller enemies. This is a really interesting idea worth considering.
But I currently don’t have the correct wood. I will need to find and cut down a tree I would need for a ballista. It will need to dry it at least a little while before I could use it for a ballista that will last for a bit.
When I get the next chance to go into a forest, I really should do that. For the flying spikes, I might have what I need with the short bow planks I have.
I have the basic knowledge, but I don’t know how effective it can actually be and how to make the launching mechanism, maybe like a sling type of release, with simple wood dart.
As lunchtime started, I was still thinking about the problems and eating my pies when I notice some movement. At the forest edge, there was another group, but this time they were all well equipped for goblins.
Even when they argued there about what I assume they will do next. They still stayed hidden a lot better than the rest of them previously. To my horror, two of them stayed behind and three moved towards the bridge.
I will never be able to hit the ones in the forest even if they didn't notice there was an arrow flying forwards them and move away, hitting so far is more about luck and the hope that the wind will carry the arrow a bit further.
They were outside my active range, but they could still see everything I did if I started to shoot like I had previously.
The question became, is it important to hide what I do and how? Perhaps, but they looked more well-trained than goblins before and I wanted to see how they will interact with my defences. So, I just sat there and watched, but still prepared to shoot at the moment’s notice.
I watched as they came closer and started do actively search around the bridge. Now I might have overestimated their intelligence, but better to do that than underestimate it.
Searching around for them meant hitting stuff with their weapons to test them. I don’t know what that gave them, but for me it was annoying that they were leaving weapon marks on the bridge.
It took them a while to look around. I think they discussed some plans on how to cross but eventually they did the same as the other ones.
One of the goblins started to cross using the main support. It was doing it on the other side of the tower so I didn’t see he’s progress while I was sitting down.
But I did hear a small shout, then the trap activated leading to a wet slap the goblin didn't even have time to scream in pain before he died.
The other goblins acted instantly, ready to defend themselves with their weapons in front of them. After a bit, they calm down and started arguing with each other.
I had to take off another notch in their intelligence as the second one went across the second main support, ending in the same result.
The third one that was left turned around and run back to the forest edge. After some time, two goblins came back and one stayed watching at the forest edge.
I just watched them come back, and the goblin that was here before started to cross. Luckily, he did it on this side so I could observe him.
When he made it to the trap, I expected him to pull off the dead goblin, but he didn’t. He just used him to climb over the trap.
When he was on top of the trap and clear of the spikes, he almost fell in, but was able to grab a hold of the edge of the raised bridge to prevent that. When he finally jumped to the other side, he started to talk with the other goblin and soon started to move forward.
At this time, my arrow was already knocked and drawn back. I was in an award sitting position, but I didn’t want to expose myself.
When he finally came into my arrows fight path, I released and hit him into the head. I used the silent arrow ability. It didn’t just make the arrow silent, but the bow released as well. It took a bit of training to achieve that added effect.
Thanks to the river, the noise that did happen didn’t make it to the goblin that was still alive. He tried calling a few times, but only silence greeted him.
Then he quickly moved back to the forest's edge. They didn’t return. I still watched for quite a long time before I was satisfied that they were gone.
It was now time for clean-up the goblins that were killed by the traps their weapons were dropped into the river, but I did get a two metal shoulder pieces before I show them off the spikes and into the river.
The one that got past the traps was carrying an iron dagger and had one piece of ill-fitting iron armor. After I took everything useful, I threw him in as well. I reset the traps, but some improvements were needed for them.
I need to make a slanted upper part for the trap, so climbing over it will not be simple. It was a good idea to be able to disarm the alarm when I was on top of the tower.
Rebuilding it every time would have been annoying, especially because I already knew the goblins were there.
But now I needed to make the upgrades to the spike trap. The spike board will be similar to the one before it will be just a bit smaller and will need to be at an angle.
I will also make some tongue and groove joint so could use my ability to connect them strongly, but I will also use some nails to make it even stronger.
This build was extremely easy and didn’t take that much time. But before I installed them, I spent some time watching to see if any goblins had returned.
If they had, I couldn’t see them. So, I decided to disarm and then upgrade the traps. Hopefully, this design will work better.
Afterwards, I walked towards the grassland forest with my logging equipment and some traps so I could get some rabbits while I was there.
After setting up the traps, I went and looked for a tree that I could make ballista out of. It needed to be larger than the trees for the bows, but hopefully, I will find something good.
Calling it a ballista is a bit wrong because I will be making it more in a crossbow style than the original roman way.
It didn’t take long when I got deeper into the forest to find and start to chop down the tree that will be good enough.
Now this was a large tree, and I wasn’t going to bring everything back. I only cut two pieces into the correct size and the attached them to the chain harness I used to pull out logs.
It was still a lot of hard work because the way was so much longer. I had set up as many traps as I could, getting me six rabbits for my troubles and keeping me well fed for the time being.
When I got back, the first thing I did was butcher the rabbits and cut them into smaller pieces to put them into the smoker. I also started to deal with the hides.
When both things were started, I used the waiting time to start splitting apart the wood into correct sizes, when done putting them to dry onto the rafters.
Dealing with the hides and meat after the splitting took until night and I went to bed quickly after a quick meal.
