Mark woke up thinking about all the things going on that needed to be considered. He could not get out of his mind the migration pressure going on. Many people were moving in, causing all kinds of issues. There was not enough housing for all those coming; food might soon be a concern. He thought about the issues that would come when expansion to the south truly opened. That would relieve some pressure here but add more there.
Then he thought about the locked regional options. What would that change? How could he unlock those options? Finally, what was the true progress on the Forgeworks? That would have to be his top priority today; it had been five days since he last got a progress report. Before doing anything else, though, he wanted to look at his class progress.
[Frontier Steward — Apprentice Rank]
Advancement Progress:
Maintain 3 functioning outposts: Complete
Establish an active regional trade network: Complete
Coordinate 3 regional operations: 2 of 3
Support a population of 50 or more: Complete
Develop 5 specialized professions: Complete
Expand influence to 3 connected regions: 2 of 3
Complete a permanent regional infrastructure project: Forgeworks, 8%
Potential Advancement: Journeyman Frontier Steward
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He was making good progress. He found it interesting that the hardest of them all was the regional infrastructure project that he was not directly participating in other than using the contribution points and items that the local settlements had made, which were not his anyway, but he just had control over.
He needed to get another connected region, and he planned to go west sometime soon and talk to Lakeside and survey the area there, similar to how he did the southern zone, but rather than control and build it, he would share advice from what they had found worked well here and in the south.
With that done, he went and ate breakfast. The tables were full, so he took a plate to go and ate it while walking to Cave Camp. He had arranged a meeting with John, who was in charge of the Forgeworks project, along with the group who were interested in metalworking and were reviewing the book he left them on Basic Metal Forming Principles.
On the way there, he ran into Cora; she was working with a crew expanding the trail in the current area, which was getting clogged up with too many people at the same time. She flagged down Mark. “Mark, the trails are out of control. We need to find a way to improve them. Someone needs to take charge and come up with a plan.”
Mark replied, “Yes, the place is growing faster than the trails can handle. I want you to lead this. Don’t try to do all the work yourself. Find the right people, form a group, and develop a plan we can turn into tasks.”
“But Mark, I don’t know where to start.”
Mark opened his inventory and pulled out a book and handed it to her. Trail Surveying and Route Planning was one of the books he received as part of the Rootmaw Alpha fight.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
She looked at the book and flipped through a few pages. Then she told him she would go right away and read the whole thing and figure out a plan and get together a group. Mark gave her rights on the Wayrest outpost, where she was now living, to create and manage system tasks to accomplish the plan she was going to make.
Mark then continued on to Cave Camp. Again, the camp had even more people. Tents were everywhere; construction projects were underway; there were foundations on six structures, a few longhouses, what must be a crafting hall, and a camp kitchen like the one Dale had. One had to be a storage location, and he was not sure about the other. That did not even include the Forgeworks, located a short distance south of the outpost center. Its foundation was about six times the size of any other building because Mark had placed it away from the settlement with room to grow.
Mark walked to the Forgeworks construction site; as busy as it was, it looked organized. There were piles of wood, charcoal storage, an ore sorting yard, clay processing pits, and many other things he could not quite identify.
The meeting began shortly after Mark arrived. John led it, first reviewing the areas ahead of schedule: charcoal, stone, lumber, and clay. Labor shortages remained the largest problem, followed by limited ore-processing knowledge, insufficient tools, logistics, and the furnace design no one fully understood.
Each of the ten assigned project members reported on their area. They especially needed professions the region did not yet have: smelters, charcoal burners, ore sorters, furnace workers, miners, and eventually smiths.
They talked over how the book Mark had given them was where a lot of the practical knowledge came from, but they realized if they worked on the high-priority items on the list of tasks the system gave, they were slowly developing skills and classes in the area they needed.
They reviewed the major supplies already delivered, including large quantities of stone and charcoal, along with water systems, drying racks, and construction work. Despite everything accomplished, Forgeworks remained only eight percent complete.
Mark then addressed the worker shortage and explained how there were 147 people in the area and more were coming every day. He offered incentives that could be used for recruiting new people to the workforce; they included free food and housing if they worked on the highly in-demand tasks and bonuses in contribution if they gained skills or classes in areas of most need. They continued for a couple hours going through all their needs and wants and put out ideas to get the people they needed. During the meeting, Mark received a system message.
[Regional Infrastructure Activity Increased]
Specialized labor activity recognized.
Future profession evolution chances increased within active project zones.
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Mark shared the message with the group, which excited many of them, as they were looking for evolutions of classes that they no longer wanted and classes that the area now needed.
When the meeting wrapped up, Mark headed back to Forest’s Rest. He took the long way and passed through Crossroads and was amazed at some of the completed buildings. He stepped into the inn. The building itself was complete, and people were now working on fixtures and staffing. One of the longhouses was complete as well as the firepit and gathering area. He even noticed that the inn had a well dug despite its short distance to the stream so that their guests would not have to go far for water and drawing baths.
When he finally reached Forest’s Rest, it was dinnertime. It had been a long day, and Mark needed food and a place to sit down and think. When he rounded the corner on the path, he saw a line of almost 20 people waiting for food. Dale’s food was so popular that people came from the other outposts to eat there for some of their meals. Dale had joked that he was going to have to double the price of food, and Mark was beginning to agree.
Mark went over to the back door of the cooking house, skipping the line and going to talk to Dale. “Hey, Dale, we need to talk for a minute.”
Dale replied, “Can’t talk now. It’s the dinner rush.”
“It will be quick.” Dale made his way through the other bodies in the room, helping with the cooking, and came to see what Mark wanted. When he got there, Mark handed him the last of the books he got from the Rootmaw Alpha fight. Advanced Food Preservation Methods.
As Mark handed him the book, Dale just shook his head. “You have been holding out on me, Mark; that could come in handy.” With that, he turned around and headed back to cooking. Mark then grabbed a plate of food and went to his A-frame to go eat. The region was growing faster than one person could guide it anymore.