Sarah had just finished teaching the students Arithmetic, one of the newest skills she had opened in the Basic Education tree. It was getting increasingly hard to get the children that were with her on the bus before she showed up here to want to take the basic classes even though they were really important to their education. They wanted to run off and visit the cave or just travel down the river, but they were not yet ready for what this world had in it, and she was determined that they get at least some of the Basic Education skills.
Sarah then left the inn to look around town. After looking out across the village square, her eyes passed the Frontier Gate and stopped and wondered how Mark and Garrick were doing. It had now been almost three full days since they left. She continued looking and stopped while looking at the freight yard that was being built. There was a line of wagons waiting at the gate to be checked in. It was still interesting that there was a line of anything.
Walking back into the inn, she brought up her school interface. In the last few days they had some huge upgrades to the school. They knew that each time five different students completed a skill, the next skill in that subject would unlock. But what they had not realized because she had not read all the details the first day was that every twenty-five skills taught in total would unlock another subject. Each time she was given a list of options, and she had picked two new subjects, as the school had already taught more than fifty skill levels.
[Animal Husbandry]
Unlocked
Animal Care Level 1Livestock Management Level 1
Locked
Selective BreedingDisease PreventionFeed ManagementBirthing Assistance
◈ ◈ ◈
[Trade]
Unlocked
Trade Basics Level 1Bartering Level 1
Locked
Market EvaluationContract NegotiationSupply ManagementMerchant Relations
◈ ◈ ◈
The village council had helped her pick the choices, and out of those offered, this would help their community to grow the most. Along with the two new subjects, they had unlocked a number of other skills, which added even more excitement from the community and the council on the use and value of the school. Sarah was now looking at the upgrade requirements to open the level two school.
The requirements to upgrade were two teachers assigned to the school, a dedicated learning space, and one hundred total skill levels taught. They needed one more teacher and about forty more skills taught. She laughed that she had already trained three teachers, but they had already left.
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Sarah walked into the room for the scheduled council meeting. They were meeting every other day now that they were getting to a busy spot on the Grainworks project. After Mark and Garrick left, they added three more people to the council. The three new people represented groups with a strong interest in the village and its operations. The first was the new manager of the River Mill Complex that they were building; the second was the Freight & Distribution yard, which also included all those who were running or driving wagons as part of the distribution process of goods; and the third was the manager of the Great Granary Complex, which also covered the threshing and drying field projects under it.
The meeting started with discussions on trade. They had added and expanded their reach of trade commitments. It was mostly in bread, flour, and other homegrown products but also included vegetables, dairy, and fruit, and they were investing heavily in the river trade and the new Rivergate Landing project that Mark and Garrick had started. It would become the major relay of goods heading north from Brightwater and goods heading south from Wheatfields, Forest, and Silvermere areas. They had found that the lumber that Silvermere had to offer and the ore and refined materials coming out of forgeworks were pretty well balanced trade going both north and south down the river.
Next, they talked about school growth and the things that they had learned and discovered with the schools. If used properly, they would be a tremendous influence on their area. They had already seen interest from Silvermere in the transportation offerings, with plans for them to send a few people down to the school to gain skills and then have them rotate out every couple weeks. Silvermere had not yet heard about Animal Husbandry but knew those skills would also interest them. Sarah also discussed the need to find a local that would want to join the school as a teacher so that in the next few weeks they could upgrade their school to level two and start offering Level 2 skills, which would be a huge jump up in their offerings.
Each member of the council gave updates about their area, including their progress and the things they were behind or ahead on. Elias talked about the fields that they had cleared of grain and the new fruits and vegetables they were adding to the new rye and barley they were growing along with corn and potatoes. They had found that all seemed to be going well.
Dale talked about food and housing when it came to having places for all to work and live. They had a steady stream of people after they had requested more workers and they were now working to get them all jobs and homes to live in. He also talked about possibly adding longhouses for long-term workers that did not intend to get their own place and did not want the expense of staying in the inn.
Megan talked about getting the trade contracts needed and that she was going to get those working under her to start taking the new Trade category skills to work on their skills to improve trade relations. Then finally the most interesting of conversations came up.
Megan said, “We need to talk about message trade some more. We have figured out large-scale trades, but simple things like a message seem to take longer to get places than a load of flour or wheat. I think it's time to consider starting a mail service. Think Pony Express, a group of people whose only job is to relay messages quickly.”
David said, "Won't that cost a lot to set up routes to all villages and outposts? They send messages but not on a daily basis.”
Dale said, “What if we did a spoke system? Mail route to one central or main village/outpost per zone. You could have a dedicated route between two zones; a rider could take messages to a central area, like for us maybe Southgate, and all the mail deliveries go out to their zone and back to Southgate. At the start you don't need a full-time system, but maybe once a day. Or once in the morning and once in the evening. Worst case, two days to get a message from any one hub to another zone's hub. People can either pick their mail up there, or each zone can set up runner service to drop off and pick up as needed throughout the zone.
The conversation on mail went on for about thirty minutes until Megan was assigned to come up with a budget and maybe set up a test run from, say, Beaver Crossing to Riverbend Trading Post. If it works out and their village council buys into it, they could possibly expand from there to another zone.
The council meeting finally ended, and Sarah walked out to stretch her legs. She looked again at the Frontier Gate and wondered if Mark was okay without them.