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Published at 3rd of January 2019 08:04:29 PM


Chapter 24

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"I can see them!" Shouted someone.

"Hurry!" This time it was a little boy pulling his mom. "I want to see!"

"It's so large! There must be thousands of people!"

The camp was quite lively. Everyone had worked hard these past few days to prepare for the convoy's arrival, so of course, they wanted to see who it was for.

The convoy was now minutes away from the camp, and everyone could already hear the lively voices of the children happy that the trip was coming to an end.

Berg joined Chris at the edge of the camp. "Hoho, it's quite an impressive sight with all the carts."

Chris nodded with a wicked smile. "With this, we now have more than an extra thousand pairs of hands to develop Brine City. Huhuhu."

People on the convoy suddenly noticed Chris and shouted.

"The king!"

"Look over there!"

Chris answered their call by waving his hands wildly and shouting. "I missed you guys. Did you forget anything? Did anyone catch a cold? You are not too tired right?"

It was like a mother welcoming their child after a school trip.

[...] The shouts suddenly died down. And more than a thousand people thought. [So embarrassing...].

The convoy reached the camp a few minutes later with Cid leading the march.

"Lord." Said Cid as he bowed in front of Chris.

"Welcome back. You safely escorted everyone I see. Great work!" Praised Chris as he patted Cid's shoulder.

"Alright. Listen up everyone!" Shouted Chris.

"Good job on making it here safely! Just one last thing left to do, and you can rest." He continued.

"We'll divide you into groups of five hundred. Please follow the people assigned to you. They will lead you to your spot to set up camp. If you are missing a tent or other necessities, please tell them."

Everyone spread out evenly and followed their guide. People did not mind even if they were separated from friends, as they would be neighbors anyways. Brine City was still far from being a tiny village. It would be more appropriate to call it a camp as it had yet to have a single building.

Everything went smoothly due to Mia's preparations. Luckily there were enough spare tents for those that lost or damaged theirs during the trip. The cleared up area was big enough for everyone, and the cooks were preparing enough food for the new arrivals.

Every guide took the opportunity to make a quick census and gave it to Mia, who now had an updated list of their current workforce.

It took the rest of the day for everyone to settle in, unpack, raise their tents and receive their tasks for the next day. Everyone had to work if they wanted to survive after all.

That night, the first meeting with all of Chris' new and old subordinates was held. It was done in Mia's tent as it was the biggest and they had no building for it yet.

"Let's plan for this week's tasks now that everyone is acquainted." Said Chris. "Ferlin how are your hunters doing?"

"We found a sustainable amount of wildlife west near the mountains, and in the northern forest close to the river. Now that our numbers are full again we should not have to worry about food in the short term. But we should start preparing other sources of meat." He continued, "More urgently, my hunters have spotted several dangerous beasts in the valley. They haven't been hunted in years, and they have lost their fear of humans. Those include Iris Gnolls, Slaghounds, a few undead and pack of wolves in the proximity of our city. I believe we should clean out those threats as soon as possible as there have been some close calls with our gatherers already."

Chris frowned, he remembers Berg telling him that Iris Gnolls have low intelligence and hunt in small groups. But they are still intelligent enough to craft small tools and can be quite dangerous. Slaghounds are called as such because of the slag-like materials on their backs. Hunters hate them because of their speed and the fact that arrows can not pierce their backs. They are a lot easier to kill with swords and maces, so soldiers are usually the ones to take care of them.

"Thank you, Ferling. This means that our next item is security.

Cid, your job remains the same. We currently have 300 soldiers equipped with light armor. I will give you half to patrol and protect the city from beast attacks. You are also temporarily in charge of law enforcement." Said Chris.

"Yes, my Lord! I will not disappoint you!"

"Cat, you will take the other half and actively remove the beasts threatening our city. Work with the hunters when you need to. Don't forget to use their reports, if the danger is too high you can request help from Ferlin and his hunters. If this is still not enough for that hunt, you will need to request extra manpower from Mia or me."

"Sure." Answered Cat calmly.

"For now let's focus on the most visited areas, let's start with the nearby forests where the gatherers and lumberjacks work and move on to the northern area leading to the river." Added Chris.

It was Titus' turn "Sire. The next scout party should leave after tomorrow, according to their schedule. We are planning to ambush them here." Titus pointed to the map ( https://ibb.co/hcf84H ). "It's much closer to their camp than the previous ambush spot, so they should only take a single day to reach it."

"I would like to request 150 hunters for the ambush." Finished Titus.

"Is that enough?" Worried Chris.

"It should be. Our hunters have lost their hesitation after the previous battle. We have also received a lot of good iron arrowheads from Carmelo, our new blacksmith. They have better penetrating power so the poison will be embedded deeper and its effects will be increased."

"We also will borrow twenty horses to chase down any Kunalls that try to flee." Said Titus confidently.

"Very well, but do not fail! This is directly related to our survival. If the scout camp is alerted and attacks, everything is over!"Reminded Chris.

Titus nodded and said very seriously: "Yes, my Lord!"

It was Mia's turn. "I have divided the valley into four major areas. The north will be our industrial park. It is close to the river, and it will make it easier to load, unload and store goods once we built a harbor. "

"The current focus is to finish the blacksmith's forge as requested by Lord Chris. Currently, our blacksmiths under Carmelo's lead are only working with a portable furnace. This is fine for arrowheads and smaller tools, but we need iron weapons and tools as fast as possible."

Mia turned to a page in her leather notebook. "Our most urgent concerns are tools for the lumberjacks, miners, carpenters, and farmers. So far our soldiers have managed to arm themselves with unneeded sharp tools. This will do for now, but they really need proper weapons soon."

"Rinat the chief carpenter from Five Cave Village and Aden its chief mason will also need their own workshops now that they have arrived. I recommend redirecting the necessary workforce to start building them as soon as possible."

Everyone nodded.

"Very well, let's make those three workshops our priority." Decided Chris. "Let's make sure the essentials are ready in the next few days. They have a lot of work ahead of them."

Mia took notes and continued her briefing.

"The east will be farmlands. The area is relatively flat and close to the river for irrigation, luckily the convoy from Five Cave Village also brought us wheat and red caru seeds. The good news is that we still have time if we want one harvest this year. The bad news is that we do not have enough seeds for consumption. We will need to obtain or purchase more seed."

[Red caru? What's that?] Thought Chris.

Mia turned to another page of her notebook. "We are still prospecting the valley but so far the best results have come from the southern mountains. We have found coal, limestone, and copper. Our prospectors believe they will also find iron very soon. We should concentrate our mining efforts there.

And finally, the residential and commercial districts will be located in the west and south."

With this, the meeting ended, and everyone left Mia's tent except Chris.

"I heard there is a beautiful tree near the residential district, want to check it out?" Said Chris with a smile.

"Please don't joke around my Lord. We are all very busy." Answered Mia coldly.

Chris left with a dejected expression. His four adjutants noticed and came over to cheer him up. This was now a daily occurrence.

"Hang in there my Lord!" Said Berg

"I'm sure you'll wear her down! You just have to continue until you break her spirit!" continued Titus

"Please listen to him, my Lord. Titus took two years of begging to convince his wife. He knows his stuff!" Mocked Ferlin.

"I know! I heard Cat and Mia talking about how they were missing the tea and sweets time they had in the afternoons! I'm sure Miss Mia would be very happy if you found some tea leaves for her!" Exclaimed Cid.

"Cid..." Said Chris in tears. "What a good guy you are. Way better than Square Head and Mr.Good looks over there. Thank god you enjoy peeping!"

"P-peeping? I was just passing by when I heard it, my Lord."

Chris just added another task on top of his to-do list.

Unfortunately, tea leaves were currently such a luxury and were so hard to find they were worth more than their weight in gold.




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