Mark woke up, ate at the inn, and checked out of his room. He had enjoyed the last couple of days, but he had commitments and needed to at least check in. He spoke with Hazel, and she promised to water his little plot while he was gone. Mark promised to check in at least weekly, if not more often. He gathered his belongings, mounted his horse, and headed back to Beaver Crossing.
Mark reviewed the skills he had chosen and looked at Riding again. He had almost completed it. A few more miles and ten mounts and dismounts, and it would be done. Looking at the other two, he thought about what he still needed to complete. He figured he could finish all three over the next week if he visited a few places. He was almost to Southgate when he received a System message unlike any he had seen before.
[World Announcement]Initial Survival Assessment CompleteCandidate Adaptation: Successful
Regional Civilization Assessment: Below Required ThresholdCurrent Occupied Regions: InsufficientProjected Long-Term Survival: Below Acceptable Parameters
Regional Expansion Phase One AuthorizedAdditional information will follow
◈ ◈ ◈
Mark stopped his horse, dismounted, and sat on a rock at the side of the road to read the message for the fourth time. It was nothing like anything he had seen or expected before. More importantly, what did it mean? Mark’s first thought was, Is this a report card? Had he just gotten his results for the survival assessment? The first two lines sounded good. Then it went downhill from there.
So the Initial Survival Assessment was complete. He could not decide whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. He still remembered the message he had received when he first arrived. Was that phase over now? What else did the System have planned for them? If this were a report card, he would get two A’s and three F’s. Was he the only one receiving it? No. It said "World Announcement." Then he looked over the last two lines again. Regional Expansion Phase One Authorized. He still was not sure whether that was good or bad.
But sitting there would not answer any questions. He finally got up and looked around. He was just past the ruined village. He was not sure why no one had ever rebuilt it; apparently, it was simply not a place anyone wanted to call home. He mounted again and headed toward Beaver Crossing. Knowing his luck, he was already late to a meeting about this.
As Mark rode on, he realized that traffic had come to a complete stop. Wagons were stopped, and groups of people were standing around talking. As he rode closer, he could see the crowd at the inn; there had to be fifty people already gathered. Mark stopped at the stables and unsaddled his horse and brushed it down. He had to think another minute before he walked through that crowd. Everyone always looked to him when the System started doing strange things. He needed an answer, and he had none.
When he finally headed to the inn, he came to a complete stop; there was something in the dead center of town. It had not been there a few days ago when he left. It was a massive stone arch about twenty feet tall, large enough to drive a wagon through. The surface was covered with glowing symbols that slowly drifted across the stone surface before fading away. No one had gotten close enough to touch it, but everyone was looking and pointing.
Sarah walked up to Mark and said, “Weirdest thing ever. It was not there ten minutes ago.” Before she could say more, another System message interrupted her.
[World Announcement]Nine Frontier Gates have been established throughout the occupied worldThree Frontier Regions have been designatedThirty Frontier Representatives have been selected
Selected Frontier Representatives will report to their nearest Frontier Gate in ten daysSafe passage has been authorizedFailure to report will result in termination
Additional Pioneer Candidates will arrive following the establishment of regional civilizationFurther assignment details will be provided to selected Frontier Representatives
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The entire square went silent as people read and reread the message. At least that explained what the thing was: a Frontier Gate. Before Mark had time to absorb it, he received yet another System message.
[System Notice]Frontier Representative ConfirmedPreparation Period Remaining: 10 DaysAdditional assignment details will be provided tomorrow
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Sarah finally turned to him again. "Mark, this is crazy. What’s going on? Has anything like this happened before?”
Mark just stood there rereading his message: "Frontier Representative Confirmed." What the heck was going on? Then he reread the previous announcement about the gate. Thirty Frontier Representatives had been selected. Apparently, he was one of them. What did that even mean? He was still thinking when Sarah tapped him on the shoulder.
“Earth to Mark. Are you there?” Sarah said.
Mark finally looked around and then toward Sarah. “Oh, sorry, I was reading over the second message again.”
Sarah said, "Yeah, about the gate, what does that even mean, and who are the Frontier Representatives?”
Before Mark could answer, Dale stepped out the front door of the inn and whistled as loud as he could; people started to look in his direction. Then he said, “Hey, everyone. We need to have a council meeting. Can we send runners to gather all the council members? In the meantime, well, I don't really know what you should do.”
A few people laughed and a few runners started heading out in different directions. Mark and Sarah headed toward the inn. Dale closed the inn and asked everyone to clear out so they could sit and discuss this without trying to answer a hundred questions. It took about an hour to finally get all the council together.
Mark was going to say something, but Garrick beat him to it.
Garrick said, “I just wanted to let you know that I got a System notice saying I am one of the thirty Frontier Representatives.”
Before anyone else could digest that, Mark said, "Congrats, I think, Garrick. I got the same System notice. I'm a Frontier Representative too.”
The group looked around, and then everyone started talking at once. A few people laughed. This was going to be a long meeting. David finally asked the question everyone wanted answered: what exactly had the notice said? Mark and Garrick shared their messages, which were identical. Frontier Representative confirmed, ten days to prepare, and not much else. Everyone else said they had received nothing, so as far as Mark knew, he and Garrick were the only two people from their group who were going.
David said, “What does this mean for the Grainworks project?"
Garrick answered, “Nothing changes. There is still a countdown. We have all the plans and schedules lined up; there are more than fifteen people over different projects going on. One of my assistants will step in my place.”
Sarah said, “We need to get out the word and ask if there are others in the area that were picked. See who else was picked and how that affected things.”
Mark said, “We have gone over the Grainworks project as a group multiple times. The System has not said anything changes there, so I assume we keep our focus on it. I am not sure what this notice means other than that Garrick and I will be doing something, and it clearly has something to do with that gate outside."
Megan said, "Yeah, what's the deal with the portal?”
No one had an answer. They spent the next two hours reviewing every major project already underway. Until they knew what the System expected of them, the only sensible choice was to keep moving forward. Rivergate was making good progress. They still needed another settlement in the zone, and they agreed to place it on the east side of the lake near the swamp. Sarah reported in on the progress of the school. They had already unlocked two new skills and were hoping to get a third soon. In a week they would be ready to upgrade to the next level of school.
Mark then explained what he had done over the last couple of days in Wayrest. Sarah was especially excited, since Mark had not had a chance to tell her anything when he arrived. As a group, they discussed people they could send to both schools to earn useful skills. Those skills should make several projects easier, giving them another reason to look forward to the schools' growth.
Dale finally decided that it was time for food and dismissed himself to the kitchen as people would show up in droves to talk over these new messages. Mark and Garrick finally left the group and talked as they walked toward Mark’s cabin.
Garrick said, “So you're a Frontier Representative too, huh? I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing. What are your thoughts?”
Mark said, “Well, that list of failures was not the best start to this. I feel like I just failed half my classes at school and I'm afraid to show the report card to my parents.”
Garrick laughed. “I have read and reread the three messages about twenty times now. I don't know what this means. But I guess it will be a long night wondering and worrying about it.”
The two of them parted ways at Mark’s cabin. He first went around back and looked at the area behind the cabin. He had never paid attention to it before. When he got up this morning, his plan was to find someone to plow the area and help build planter boxes so that he could set up some herbs and other items to grow like he did in Wayrest.
But now he just looked at it and dreamed. He pictured a large garden with planter boxes full of herbs and other things. Off to one side, he pictured a small orchard with two or three of each type of tree they grew in Orchard Grove in Brightwater Valley. For now, though, those plans seemed to be on hold. Tomorrow's assignment details would tell him what came next.