Chapter 11 Reward and recovery

We all packed into the guard’s living quarters, where there was a small room the four of us could barely fit into. He waited for us to sit down, and Silk tried to communicate something with her eyes to him, but he ignored it. We sat in silence for a few seconds before he asked. “Do you know what happened today?”

All of us looked confused as he continued. “What happened today was that no one died. When you first moved here, I wasn’t sure what difference it would make, but… Goblins are a very stupid race. Dungeon goblins even more so than that. We’re attacked about once every six months and this is the first time in five or six years where we didn’t have a crippling injury or death.”

Things started to click in my mind now. If most of the goblins had fought from the beginning, the guards outside the gate might have been overwhelmed. No, even if we managed to make it inside, a hundred goblins were rushing at us before we even noticed. They’d have scaled the walls and been inside the village before they could put up an actual defense.

He confirmed my thought process. “They will normally come at the men outside, and on a few rare occasions where they made it inside, it hasn’t ended well for us. They have managed to steal some women from the village before, and at that point, it would be better to die than end up where they do… That being said, just splitting their goal up even a single more time made them far more manageable than they have ever been in the past.”

He pulled out a pouch on his side and began rifling through it before he began to talk, while he pulled money out. “I have seen how sad you were from having your farm destroyed, but I’m happy it happened. The lives saved from having your farm destroyed… I’d pay that price every single time it comes up. I don’t know what it’s like to have to start over, but at the very least… You’ll be doing it with more than you originally had.”

He had been placing coins on the table as he spoke, and my eyes kept getting wider and wider. Five gold, five silver, and five copper coins sat on the table. That’s more than twice what I made so far. It was hard to hold back my smile and pretend like I was still upset at what happened. As bad as it looked, it was still recoverable. Most of what was crushed, I had seeds for already, and could just replant. There was still enough under the ground that maybe thirty percent of the profits this month could still be salvaged.

My mind immediately went to what to do with the money. Definitely more seeds. I think that’s enough to get some animals. The remaining chicken finally started laying again. It didn’t feel safe in its nest and needed to be coaxed into feeling safe before she finally released three in one day. Learning more, I think getting six chickens and a rooster was the first purchase.

The chickens, a bee hive, a cask for making wine, different varieties of seeds, two or three different trees, I needed to look into plants I could grow for alchemy, some new clothes, a washing basin, maybe a hand pull cart and plow, would be nice for an outhouse near the farm. If I were really lucky, I could get a baby dairy cow, but a fully grown one was ten gold. It made it that much less appealing to purchase. The mayor has been talking this entire time!

“-ust wanted to thank you again. I’m sorry for what happened, and I hope the payment is enough to make up for your losses.” He stood up and held his hand out. I shook his hand and hoped he didn’t ask any follow-up questions before he got up and left. I thought I got away with it before Silk leaned towards me. “How much of that were you paying attention for?”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. “Up until he pulled the money out. Then I was thinking about what to buy with it.” She laughed a dainty little laugh. With how strong she was, I hadn’t expected it, but we were comrades in arms now. We spilled blood together… What surprised me was how much I didn’t like killing. As much as I trained to be an adventurer, it’s one thing to swing a weapon. It’s a completely different thing for the weapon swing to end a life.

Silk shortened what he said. “He said he was glad you came to the village. You were a big part of the community. You made his daughter happy with your strawberries yadda yadda yadda.” I stopped her. “No! Not yadda yadda yadda. What did he say about Cherry exactly?” Silk just smirked like the cat that caught the canary. “Oh, he said she had been raving over your strawberries and jam since you started producing them. That’s it.”

I asked to make sure. “That’s it?” She shook her head up and down. “That’s it. Oh, and she also said how much she loved you and wanted to marry you and couldn’t anymore because you and Tems were together now.” For the first time since we came in, Tems answered. “Tems not mind. Tems not upset if second sister wife is pretty nice girl!” The teasing stopped immediately as what Tems said was fully processed by Silk. Her gaze went from playful to guarded as she responded. “Right then… I’ll be on my way then.”

With that done, I once again head out to the field to see what I can salvage. The few guards who were injured were already treated by the healers in the village and were back on duty. I didn’t get much, and by the time I sold off what I could, I ended up with another three silver coins. The biggest loss today was the crops not ready to harvest and were trampled.

Probably a gold worth of crops, along with the strawberries and a blueberry bush, were pulled from the ground. After replanting, the chances of them growing again were slim, but surprisingly, they already had runners. With everything sold for a much lower price, we were still left with more than two people could eat. I didn’t feel like storing it all, so we just had a feast between me and Tems before taking the rest to the guards.

That night, we broke in the new house. Tems could be as loud as she wanted to. Even from outside the village, we got a warning about our noise. The next morning was spent replanting and fixing what could still be fixed. Hunk was in bad shape after just touching the larger creature. I would put Hunk at the same threat level as a slime, even a goblin might beat him.

I knew that each type of material gave the golem a special property. Who knew that a straw golem would recover by killing enemies… No, even beyond that, the straw stomach looked shinier, and the wicker arms and legs were more tightly wound. As weak as the golem was, it looked like, because the materials it was made from were biological, it could still grow in some way.

Wooden golems didn’t grow, though. Wood golems could be healed with healing magic. I would have to see if my straw boy could also be healed in the same way, but I doubted it. It looked like self-repair/growth from liquids(blood this time) is what he can do. I inspected it, and he registers as a plant! How the fuck did no one stumble into this before? I could tell the changes to him were tied to my farming skills. If golems could be created and grown in strength, it made me wonder why it wasn’t a very well-known thing, it wasn’t a hidden skill, was it?