Mark woke early, already behind schedule. Today they had to finish their preparations to go and kill the forest alpha bear. He did not even get out of his A-frame before reports started coming in. The scouts had found the bear; it was a Rootmaw Alpha, Level 15, and from the descriptions, it matched what he had seen a few weeks back.
The scouts had found the Rootmaw Alpha’s trail and den. They also discovered at least two victims whose clothing suggested they were new arrivals. The bodies were two or three days old and might have triggered the alert.
One scout had not reported from the northeastern edge of the Rootmaw Alpha’s territory. Mark was instantly worried when he found out a scout was missing, as he had not seen Cora, Lena, or Ava, all of whom were out scouting. He finally learned the missing scout’s identity. The man was part of the cave group and originally came from the area around Lakeside, but he was not a Lakeside resident.
Mark opened the task board to see the status of all the tasks outstanding. More than half of the list had already been completed. They were still short on people to pack and move goods to the staging area, but they had enough labor for digging the pit and people to reinforce it with wood, and the wood to do so had already been delivered.
They had rope buckets for removing dirt, braces for the walls, sharpened stakes for the bottom, and carts to clear the excess soil. The pit was planned to be twenty feet deep and twenty feet across, large enough that anything falling inside would not climb out alive.
Mark planned to go over for an hour or so to make sure the work was going well before visiting the other sites to confirm that all preparations were in order. The plan was that the construction was going to start at first light, which would be in just minutes from now. Mark finally sat down and ate breakfast.
Tom and Dale filled him in about the crafters and the gear they had made. Much of it was rushed work but would fill gaps that everyone had. Tom also presented a set of leather gear to Mark, which he tried to refuse. Tom insisted it was for him and that he needed to be dressed for the part when everything went down instead of looking like a hillbilly.
Mark looked at the interface for both Forest’s Rest and Cave Camp and was surprised at the number of people on both lists that now had system credits for work done in both systems, and the number of completed jobs was just amazing. Everyone in the area had jumped in and was helping with this project.
Mark opened his class screen. Tom had already advanced his class once and was halfway to another advancement, while Dale had advanced twice. Mark suspected the regional operation would complete his own first advancement.
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[Frontier Steward — Novice Rank]
Advancement Requirements:Establish 2 functioning outposts (2 / 2)Organize 25 completed settlement tasks (25 / 25)Maintain active regional trade ✔Coordinate a successful regional operation (0 / 1)Expand controlled territory influence
Potential Advancement: Apprentice Frontier Steward◈ ◈ ◈
The settlement-task requirement had completed overnight. Only territory expansion and a successful regional operation remained. If defeating the Rootmaw Alpha did not count, he was not sure what would.
He had been surprised when talking to others about the complete difference in his class and many others. His class was about taking care of the land and helping others progress through outposts, settlement tasks, trade, and coordinating people to do operations to benefit others. Tom had to create armor; he had to direct and organize people and places.
When he left camp and headed to the designated trap site, he was impressed by the changes and improvements to trails. His map showed that almost ten trails now ran in different directions through the zone, and the one he was on led directly to the pit location. He passed a few roaming guards and many people hustling here or there, delivering goods.
The pit was already huge, though far from finished. Diggers, bucket haulers, cart crews, and people delivering food and water worked in an organized rhythm. They had accomplished more than Mark thought possible in so little time.
Mark checked on the crews, making sure their needs were met and their work was registered for system credits. Mark then grabbed a load of items that needed to be taken to Cave Camp and headed in that direction to follow up there.
At Cave Camp, he learned that all of the higher-level people had opted out of their scheduled runs to help prepare for tomorrow. They were only running the lowest-level people, with a higher-level guide helping those who planned to participate in tomorrow’s fight gain a few levels.
He noticed across the stream at the next prospective outpost more than a dozen tents set up where people who could no longer find a place to rest overnight had gone. They would need to create the two new outposts after the regional threat was gone just to handle the influx of people.
He spent the rest of the day going between places, setting up new tasks or updating them as needed and reassuring everyone that the plan was good and those that wanted to participate could and those that did not want to would be safely out of harm’s way.
He finally arrived back at the pit just before the sun went down. The pit was completed, and it had been loosely covered so it was not an obvious hole. The excess items had been cleared, and the people were all standing around talking about the plan for the morning.
Then the first scouting reports came in. The Rootmaw Alpha had figured out that it was being tracked. It was on a rampage. It had wounded a couple scouts, and there was one confirmed killed. Ava ran into the camp and let Mark know that Swoop had been tracking it and had let her know that it had changed directions and it was coming directly for them.
Mark looked at the sky as the last rays of the sun were setting, and a panic started running through the camp. Runners were sent, and all hands were called to immediately head to the pit, as it did not look like the Rootmaw Alpha wanted to follow their plans.