Mark had called a zone-wide planning meeting. The population crisis needed to be resolved soon. Food shortages were becoming obvious, and even finding clear ground for a tent was difficult. Unless they planned to cut down the entire forest, they had simply run out of room.
They had decided to meet at Crossroads, as it had the largest area, and even it was not large enough for all who wanted to attend. When Mark arrived, he could already see that it was going to be out of hand; there were already arguments. He walked to the center of the group and cleared his throat in preparation to talk.
Mark started to talk. “Thank you to everyone who came. We are having a population crisis; there are over 300 people in the zone, and we are gaining more every day. We have housing for about 160 if everyone took a spot across the settlements. That means we have more than 140 people and growing each day that do not even have a bed available and no real space to build more.” Then Mark received a system message.
[Regional Development Milestone Recognized]
Large-scale settlement planning underway.
Contribution toward future class advancement increased.
◈ ◈ ◈
Dale then spoke, “The bigger issue, though, is the food and supplies issue we’re having. Local resources are being overused. The meat people bring in from the local forest has almost dried up. If we don’t stop overharvesting now, we will kill off all the wildlife, and then even if we had only the 160 people, they would starve from local resources.”
Mark said, “We know that not everyone wants to leave, nor do we want a mass exodus, but we need to find proper housing for everyone, and we need to make sure everyone has a job they can do and preferably one they want to do.”
Jarek then spoke, “I am part of the committee that helps organize and schedule those running the cave instances. We can only run five teams at a time, twice a day at most. That means only 50 people a day can go through the cave, and that is if they all do the Level 2 instances, which only run an hour or two. Most of the larger instances take about 8 to 12 hours, meaning only one team a day makes it through them rather than two. It is closer to 30 people a day that we can accommodate.”
Mark said, “We have been talking about the queue for the cave, and no matter where you live, either here in this zone or south of here, where there is more open available land, you will still get your turn in the cave. So the location of where you live will not affect your chance to visit.”
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John said, “I am concerned about worker shortages if everyone moves south. It’s too far to live there and work here.”
Sam, one of the miners, said, “We have just started mining; you can’t make us leave.”
Mark replied, “We are not asking everyone to move or even half, but we must start moving to a location that can support everyone.”
Elias said, “We need people with specific skills or those that want to gain those skills. We have more farmland than there is forest in this zone. We need people who would like to farm or work with livestock. We have horses, pigs, cows, sheep, goats, chickens, and the list goes on.”
Garrick said, “We need to build a village and build bridges over the rivers; we have plans for a water mill and lumber-cutting operation that need builders and workers. We need craftsmen and specialists of all trades to help build infrastructure and buildings, inns, houses, stores, warehouses, shops, restaurants, and businesses of all kinds.”
Cora said, “We need trails, roads, and infrastructure built so that travel and trade can be accomplished. We need scouts, and runners, and wagon drivers, and all kinds of other help with building a proper system to travel and trade.”
Tom said, “We need tradespeople. Even more people will end up in that area than here. We need leather workers, tailors, alchemists, and the list goes on to supply the goods and materials those people will need.”
Dale said, “I plan to go there and build the finest restaurant that anyone has ever seen.”
Someone in the crowd moaned, “There goes the food; we are sure to starve now,” which caused many to laugh.
Mark said, “The system here cannot support us all, and we are not abandoning it. We’re just diversifying our abilities. We will have better food production there and will be able to trade back to this zone and others. We have already signed trade deals to support the zone to the west that is having similar issues with food production. They are also sending people to farm and help with the animals. Just think if we moved enough south, then when you got your turn in the cave, there would be room to stay in the longhouses rather than sleep in a tent in a muddy field.”
People at that point started to talk over everyone; some said they planned to go, and others said they would never go. But those who were leaders knew that some had to leave so they could provide food and shelter for those who would stay to work.
Mark then brought up the system map showing the zone and their planned village and outposts along with proposed roads and trails. It finally silenced the crowd.
Someone in the crowd started to say, “The southern village…” but they got cut off by another. “Village? Maybe they are not planning a town. Maybe they are planning a city.”
The conversation continued for more than two hours as they debated how, why, and when the move would happen. In the end, the decision was unanimous. Even those who could not or would not move knew it was the right move to make, or none of them would survive. And they all remembered well the integration message: survive or die.
The meeting finally ended, and everyone went back to their normal activities. He could see that Cora was gathering workers and sending out runners; Garrick was doing the same. He knew that within hours the initial groups would be heading south even though they had never picked a date or time.
Mark slowly walked back to his cabin. Forest’s Rest had been where he survived. The south would become where they as a group would live.