Chapter 5
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Today Five Cave Village was quite noisy.
Everyone had something to do to help the battle preparations.
Berg just came from checking on Cid, his third lieutenant.
[Cid is doing better. He should be fully recovered very soon, but he still can't hold a sword. Hm?] He turned his attention to the crafting cave from where laughter could be heard. It was currently used by women and children. [Let's see how they are doing.]
"Hello everyone!"
His greeting was met by many cheerful "Hi!" from the children.
Berg stopped next to Rinat, a tall and buff woman sporting a ponytail, she is the group's carpenter, and she was overseeing the children in crafting arrows.
"How are the preparations going?" Asked Berg.
"Fifty arrows are ready so far. We should have a bit more than 500 of them ready in a few days." She pointed to the stack of arrows piled up in a corner. "Unfortunately, we have already run out of copper arrowheads. Therefore, we have replaced them with bone arrowheads. Is that fine?"
"Yes, my Lord said they only had to be able to pierce the skin. They do not have to inflict deadly damage by themselves. It seems he is looking into ways to complement our lack of firepower."
Berg looked at all the little serious faces working carefully. "I see everyone is working hard." Berg was reminded of Chris' surprise when he noticed that each arrow was handcrafted, from start to finish, by a single person. Chris initially wanted to modernize the crafting process, but he pushed it for later as they were short on time, and what they needed right now was a guaranteed output of at least 500 arrows, rather than efficiency.
[What was the technique called? A production line?] Mused Berg.
She smiled as she patted one of the children's head. "They sure are a big help, and no one is complaining."
"Oh? I see you even managed to have Titus' daughter helping out." Berg looked at a tomboyish child surrounded by the others as if she was their leader. She looked to be around ten years old.
"Haha. Petunia sure is a handful. But I think she is intimidated by my muscles." Laughed Rinat.
"Well, now that's quite something!" Berg was quite amused. He, however, turned serious as he addressed Rinat again. "I am sorry that we are wasting your skills on this."
"Do not worry. Even the kids who should be playing around are not complaining." She said with a slight smile. "This is like a nice holiday for me. And besides, from what I heard of our king's plan, I should have plenty of work soon!"
Rinat had yet to meet Chris, but word of mouth was a potent information sharing tool in such a small community. Particularly since there was almost always someone in earshot. So everyone knew what they were working hard for.
Berg nodded and left for the other group in the cave. There he checked on the women who were grinding medicinal herbs into a paste, crafting bandages and the like. The rest of the women were in the nearby forest gathering the herbs to grind, flax for their fiber, and branches for the arrows.
They did not go too deep in the forest as only the immediate surroundings of Five Cave Village were safe. Groups of four or five women regularly came into the cave to drop baskets full of supplies.
Berg left the cave after making sure everything was fine, as he had his own duties, but his mind was elsewhere. What Rinat had said was still on his mind.
[The king's plan... Building a new city for every human. It's the same as declaring war on the Kunalls. There is no way they will let it pass, not after what they did to us and the hatred that was born from it.]
Berg was worried, but then he remembered the children doing their best to craft arrows.
"Sigh..." He closed his eyes and made a short prayer. "My Lord, let's do our best."
****** ******
Ferlin was in the forest west of Five Cave Village and was accompanied by half of the hunters. The other half was training for combat and guerrilla tactics under Berg's care. The goal was to learn to coordinate themselves for hit and run tactics. They swapped roles every day.
The hunter's workload, just like everyone else's, was quite impressive.
They had to hunt enough to sustain the village for the few days they will be gone to battle, and they had to do this with only half their crew.
For this, they decided to adopt a new tactic, courtesy of their king.
"Is everyone ready?" Shouted Ferlin.
In answer, he heard 100 motivated shouts of "Yes!"
"Remember, we fan out in silence. Don't go farther than 300 meters west from this spot and don't go too far from the closest hunter, you must still be able to hear each other! When you hear someone shouting, do the same and close to this spot slowly, while making as much noise as possible!"
The spot they were standing in was in front of a large gorge that ended in a dead end. Any animals that fled to this place would have to go through the hunters standing at the exit. This was an efficient way to hunt from Chris' world. At least much more efficient than the usual "stalk and hunt" tactics used in this world.
****** ******
Titus was also very busy.
He first organized a small group of scouts to keep watch on the Kunall Scout Camp. Their job was to find a good vantage point and to alert the village with a relay smoke signal as soon as a patrol left. The schedule of each patrol was already known, but they could not afford to take any chances. Chris made the sensible decision to drop all their plans and directly warn the refugee camp if a patrol left early and the battle preparations were not done. This was Plan C, for the worst case.
The refugee camp was two days away from the Kunalls, but just one day away from Five Cave Village, so the refugee camp would have enough time to pack up in a hurry and flee.
Titus said goodbye to those scouts in the morning.
His next job was a direct request from Chris. The Kunalls capabilities were explained to him. And one thing was clear, they had very tough skin. Tough enough that they did not wear armor. This was terrible for the humans who mostly used copper weapons and arrowheads.
It was enough to wound the Kunalls, but it was very tough to pierce deep enough to mortally wound them unless the throat or eyes were hit.
"Everyone has their nets?" Asked Titus. "Make sure they have no holes in them!"
His men answered promptly. "Yes sir!"
Titus smiled as he looked at the dozens or so scouts accompanying him. They look quite silly with their butterfly nets. He thought back to what Chris said to him in yesterday's meeting. 'Well, if we can't kill them fairly, how about playing dirty? Titus, you seem the kind of guy for the job. Know of any deadly or powerful poisons that can be found around here?'
"Huhu." He laughed. [What kind of image do you have of me, my Lord?]
"Alright. Let's go!"
***** *****
Berg was finally able to breathe a little, it was now the middle of the afternoon and all his tasks were now done.
[The hunters' training is done for the day, and this should be all the information our lord needs.]
Berg went straight for Chris' quarters. There he found Chris posing and murmuring strange things.
"Is this more heroic?" Chris moved his feets a bit and raised one hand to his chest. "But this is more reserved. Should I go for flash or understated coolness?"
"M-my lord?" Berg wasn't sure what to do.
"Oh, there you are Berg!" Chris was back to his usual demeanor in a flash. "Did you collect all the information we needed?"
"Everything is here. Ahem." Berg cleared his voice and pulled out a leather parchment. "Five Cave Village has a total population of 2,520! We have 1,070 able adult males, 990 able adult females, 210 children, and 250 elderly and disabled people.
Of those people, 264 are hunters, 75 are scouts, 260 are soldiers protecting the village..."
To Chris' surprise, Berg just continued shouting numbers in a loud voice.
"Whoa. Slow down Bergy. I can't remember it all in one go." Chris looked at the leather parchment in Berg's hand and noticed that he had yet to see another one except for the map in the camp. [I guess paper is impossible for now, and leather parchments must be pricey and rare.]
"For now, just tell me, how long can our current stock of food last, how many copper arrows do we have, and is there any one that has a particular skill or job." Said Chris
Berg was a little disappointed as he could not show off all his hard work. However, he recuperated very fast.
"Currently, we have five days worths of food. This might seem like a lot, but I'd recommend keeping our current hunting efforts. As you know, our hunters will be unavailable for a few days, and many might be injured during the campaign... not to mention we might have new mouths to feed. I'd recommend stockpiling at least ten days worth of food. Hopefully, we'll get there in the next few days with your new hunting tactic, my Lord. We should know better tonight when they come back."
Chris nodded.
"We have 150 copper arrows left, 100 are already in use by the hunting squad, and we might have a few losses after today's hunt. Fifty more arrows were assembled today by the arrow crafting team. From now on, all new arrows will have bone arrowheads... Unless we find copper." Continued Berg.
"150... That's not a lot. Let's hope the bone arrows will work well. Make sure they are extra sharp, we are not going for damage but penetration."
"I will, my Lord!"
Berg now started listing the workforce skillset.
"We currently lack a lot of specialized workers. Most of our people worked in the fields or in the army before the war. But we do have thirteen cooks, one tailor and her two apprentices who are completely overworked..." Berg stopped there for a second and added. "They have to make clothes for 1,500 people, so they haven't had time to make things like pillows, my Lord."
"Hu-hu..."
"Ahem." Berg continued listing the workforce. "We also have three leatherworkers, one very talented carpenter and her five apprentices, seven masons, one herbalist and her three apprentices."
The list was rather long which surprised Chris. "How come I have seen almost none of these people?"
Berg scratched his nose as he answered: "I am embarrassed to say they probably had to abandon their craft for more pressing matters. We cannot build as we are forced to hide in caves and most crafts require tools and workshops which we cannot take with us when fleeing from the Kunalls. Even standard crafts will be left behind and will most likely profit our enemies as war loot. Their skills are currently useless... As long as we stay on the move."
"I see. Well hopefully, this will be fixed soon. Warn everyone to refresh their skills and prepare the tools they might need. The day we build our first city isn't far!"
"Yes, my Lord!"
"Hmm... We have a decent range of skillset. But we lack quite a few important ones. We have no blacksmiths, engineers, horse breeders, fishermen, accountants, or teachers?"
"I am afraid not. We might get lucky and find some of those if the refugee camp accepts our offers and joins us."
Chris nodded. "Let's hope so."
Berg stood up energetically and prepared to leave. "Then I'll take my leave and let you get back to... hm..." But just then he was stumped and livid. He didn't know how to end this sentence without sounding rude. "Hmm... posing?"
"What was that?"
"N-nothing my lord!" Berg quickly changed subjects. "I was just wondering if you found out what your divine power is?"
"Whut? Did you say divine power?!" Shouted Chris excitedly. [Is this my cheat? Is this my time?]
Please report us if you find any errors so we can fix it asap!
Today Five Cave Village was quite noisy.
Everyone had something to do to help the battle preparations.
Berg just came from checking on Cid, his third lieutenant.
[Cid is doing better. He should be fully recovered very soon, but he still can't hold a sword. Hm?] He turned his attention to the crafting cave from where laughter could be heard. It was currently used by women and children. [Let's see how they are doing.]
"Hello everyone!"
His greeting was met by many cheerful "Hi!" from the children.
Berg stopped next to Rinat, a tall and buff woman sporting a ponytail, she is the group's carpenter, and she was overseeing the children in crafting arrows.
"How are the preparations going?" Asked Berg.
"Fifty arrows are ready so far. We should have a bit more than 500 of them ready in a few days." She pointed to the stack of arrows piled up in a corner. "Unfortunately, we have already run out of copper arrowheads. Therefore, we have replaced them with bone arrowheads. Is that fine?"
"Yes, my Lord said they only had to be able to pierce the skin. They do not have to inflict deadly damage by themselves. It seems he is looking into ways to complement our lack of firepower."
Berg looked at all the little serious faces working carefully. "I see everyone is working hard." Berg was reminded of Chris' surprise when he noticed that each arrow was handcrafted, from start to finish, by a single person. Chris initially wanted to modernize the crafting process, but he pushed it for later as they were short on time, and what they needed right now was a guaranteed output of at least 500 arrows, rather than efficiency.
[What was the technique called? A production line?] Mused Berg.
She smiled as she patted one of the children's head. "They sure are a big help, and no one is complaining."
"Oh? I see you even managed to have Titus' daughter helping out." Berg looked at a tomboyish child surrounded by the others as if she was their leader. She looked to be around ten years old.
"Haha. Petunia sure is a handful. But I think she is intimidated by my muscles." Laughed Rinat.
"Well, now that's quite something!" Berg was quite amused. He, however, turned serious as he addressed Rinat again. "I am sorry that we are wasting your skills on this."
"Do not worry. Even the kids who should be playing around are not complaining." She said with a slight smile. "This is like a nice holiday for me. And besides, from what I heard of our king's plan, I should have plenty of work soon!"
Rinat had yet to meet Chris, but word of mouth was a potent information sharing tool in such a small community. Particularly since there was almost always someone in earshot. So everyone knew what they were working hard for.
Berg nodded and left for the other group in the cave. There he checked on the women who were grinding medicinal herbs into a paste, crafting bandages and the like. The rest of the women were in the nearby forest gathering the herbs to grind, flax for their fiber, and branches for the arrows.
They did not go too deep in the forest as only the immediate surroundings of Five Cave Village were safe. Groups of four or five women regularly came into the cave to drop baskets full of supplies.
Berg left the cave after making sure everything was fine, as he had his own duties, but his mind was elsewhere. What Rinat had said was still on his mind.
[The king's plan... Building a new city for every human. It's the same as declaring war on the Kunalls. There is no way they will let it pass, not after what they did to us and the hatred that was born from it.]
Berg was worried, but then he remembered the children doing their best to craft arrows.
"Sigh..." He closed his eyes and made a short prayer. "My Lord, let's do our best."
****** ******
Ferlin was in the forest west of Five Cave Village and was accompanied by half of the hunters. The other half was training for combat and guerrilla tactics under Berg's care. The goal was to learn to coordinate themselves for hit and run tactics. They swapped roles every day.
The hunter's workload, just like everyone else's, was quite impressive.
They had to hunt enough to sustain the village for the few days they will be gone to battle, and they had to do this with only half their crew.
For this, they decided to adopt a new tactic, courtesy of their king.
"Is everyone ready?" Shouted Ferlin.
In answer, he heard 100 motivated shouts of "Yes!"
"Remember, we fan out in silence. Don't go farther than 300 meters west from this spot and don't go too far from the closest hunter, you must still be able to hear each other! When you hear someone shouting, do the same and close to this spot slowly, while making as much noise as possible!"
The spot they were standing in was in front of a large gorge that ended in a dead end. Any animals that fled to this place would have to go through the hunters standing at the exit. This was an efficient way to hunt from Chris' world. At least much more efficient than the usual "stalk and hunt" tactics used in this world.
****** ******
Titus was also very busy.
He first organized a small group of scouts to keep watch on the Kunall Scout Camp. Their job was to find a good vantage point and to alert the village with a relay smoke signal as soon as a patrol left. The schedule of each patrol was already known, but they could not afford to take any chances. Chris made the sensible decision to drop all their plans and directly warn the refugee camp if a patrol left early and the battle preparations were not done. This was Plan C, for the worst case.
The refugee camp was two days away from the Kunalls, but just one day away from Five Cave Village, so the refugee camp would have enough time to pack up in a hurry and flee.
Titus said goodbye to those scouts in the morning.
His next job was a direct request from Chris. The Kunalls capabilities were explained to him. And one thing was clear, they had very tough skin. Tough enough that they did not wear armor. This was terrible for the humans who mostly used copper weapons and arrowheads.
It was enough to wound the Kunalls, but it was very tough to pierce deep enough to mortally wound them unless the throat or eyes were hit.
"Everyone has their nets?" Asked Titus. "Make sure they have no holes in them!"
His men answered promptly. "Yes sir!"
Titus smiled as he looked at the dozens or so scouts accompanying him. They look quite silly with their butterfly nets. He thought back to what Chris said to him in yesterday's meeting. 'Well, if we can't kill them fairly, how about playing dirty? Titus, you seem the kind of guy for the job. Know of any deadly or powerful poisons that can be found around here?'
"Huhu." He laughed. [What kind of image do you have of me, my Lord?]
"Alright. Let's go!"
***** *****
Berg was finally able to breathe a little, it was now the middle of the afternoon and all his tasks were now done.
[The hunters' training is done for the day, and this should be all the information our lord needs.]
Berg went straight for Chris' quarters. There he found Chris posing and murmuring strange things.
"Is this more heroic?" Chris moved his feets a bit and raised one hand to his chest. "But this is more reserved. Should I go for flash or understated coolness?"
"M-my lord?" Berg wasn't sure what to do.
"Oh, there you are Berg!" Chris was back to his usual demeanor in a flash. "Did you collect all the information we needed?"
"Everything is here. Ahem." Berg cleared his voice and pulled out a leather parchment. "Five Cave Village has a total population of 2,520! We have 1,070 able adult males, 990 able adult females, 210 children, and 250 elderly and disabled people.
Of those people, 264 are hunters, 75 are scouts, 260 are soldiers protecting the village..."
To Chris' surprise, Berg just continued shouting numbers in a loud voice.
"Whoa. Slow down Bergy. I can't remember it all in one go." Chris looked at the leather parchment in Berg's hand and noticed that he had yet to see another one except for the map in the camp. [I guess paper is impossible for now, and leather parchments must be pricey and rare.]
"For now, just tell me, how long can our current stock of food last, how many copper arrows do we have, and is there any one that has a particular skill or job." Said Chris
Berg was a little disappointed as he could not show off all his hard work. However, he recuperated very fast.
"Currently, we have five days worths of food. This might seem like a lot, but I'd recommend keeping our current hunting efforts. As you know, our hunters will be unavailable for a few days, and many might be injured during the campaign... not to mention we might have new mouths to feed. I'd recommend stockpiling at least ten days worth of food. Hopefully, we'll get there in the next few days with your new hunting tactic, my Lord. We should know better tonight when they come back."
Chris nodded.
"We have 150 copper arrows left, 100 are already in use by the hunting squad, and we might have a few losses after today's hunt. Fifty more arrows were assembled today by the arrow crafting team. From now on, all new arrows will have bone arrowheads... Unless we find copper." Continued Berg.
"150... That's not a lot. Let's hope the bone arrows will work well. Make sure they are extra sharp, we are not going for damage but penetration."
"I will, my Lord!"
Berg now started listing the workforce skillset.
"We currently lack a lot of specialized workers. Most of our people worked in the fields or in the army before the war. But we do have thirteen cooks, one tailor and her two apprentices who are completely overworked..." Berg stopped there for a second and added. "They have to make clothes for 1,500 people, so they haven't had time to make things like pillows, my Lord."
"Hu-hu..."
"Ahem." Berg continued listing the workforce. "We also have three leatherworkers, one very talented carpenter and her five apprentices, seven masons, one herbalist and her three apprentices."
The list was rather long which surprised Chris. "How come I have seen almost none of these people?"
Berg scratched his nose as he answered: "I am embarrassed to say they probably had to abandon their craft for more pressing matters. We cannot build as we are forced to hide in caves and most crafts require tools and workshops which we cannot take with us when fleeing from the Kunalls. Even standard crafts will be left behind and will most likely profit our enemies as war loot. Their skills are currently useless... As long as we stay on the move."
"I see. Well hopefully, this will be fixed soon. Warn everyone to refresh their skills and prepare the tools they might need. The day we build our first city isn't far!"
"Yes, my Lord!"
"Hmm... We have a decent range of skillset. But we lack quite a few important ones. We have no blacksmiths, engineers, horse breeders, fishermen, accountants, or teachers?"
"I am afraid not. We might get lucky and find some of those if the refugee camp accepts our offers and joins us."
Chris nodded. "Let's hope so."
Berg stood up energetically and prepared to leave. "Then I'll take my leave and let you get back to... hm..." But just then he was stumped and livid. He didn't know how to end this sentence without sounding rude. "Hmm... posing?"
"What was that?"
"N-nothing my lord!" Berg quickly changed subjects. "I was just wondering if you found out what your divine power is?"
"Whut? Did you say divine power?!" Shouted Chris excitedly. [Is this my cheat? Is this my time?]
Today Five Cave Village was quite noisy.Everyone had something to do to help the battle preparations.Berg just came from checking on Cid, his third lieutenant.Cid is doing better. He should be fully recovered very soon, but he still can't hold a sword. Hm? He turned his attention to the crafting cave from where laughter could be heard. It was currently used by women and children. Let's see how they are doing."Hello everyone!"His greeting was met by many cheerful "Hi!" from the children.Berg stopped next to Rinat, a tall and buff woman sporting a ponytail, she is the group's carpenter, and she was overseeing the children in crafting arrows."How are the preparations going?" Asked Berg."Fifty arrows are ready so far. We should have a bit more than 500 of them ready in a few days." She pointed to the stack of arrows piled up in a corner. "Unfortunately, we have already run out of copper arrowheads. Therefore, we have replaced them with bone arrowheads. Is that fine?""Yes, my Lord said they only had to be able to pierce the skin. They do not have to inflict deadly damage by themselves. It seems he is looking into ways to complement our lack of firepower."Berg looked at all the little serious faces working carefully. "I see everyone is working hard." Berg was reminded of Chris' surprise when he noticed that each arrow was handcrafted, from start to finish, by a single person. Chris initially wanted to modernize the crafting process, but he pushed it for later as they were short on time, and what they needed right now was a guaranteed output of at least 500 arrows, rather than efficiency.What was the technique called? A production line? Mused Berg.She smiled as she patted one of the children's head. "They sure are a big help, and no one is complaining.""Oh? I see you even managed to have Titus' daughter helping out." Berg looked at a tomboyish child surrounded by the others as if she was their leader. She looked to be around ten years old."Haha. Petunia sure is a handful. But I think she is intimidated by my muscles." Laughed Rinat."Well, now that's quite something!" Berg was quite amused. He, however, turned serious as he addressed Rinat again. "I am sorry that we are wasting your skills on this.""Do not worry. Even the kids who should be playing around are not complaining." She said with a slight smile. "This is like a nice holiday for me. And besides, from what I heard of our king's plan, I should have plenty of work soon!"Rinat had yet to meet Chris, but word of mouth was a potent information sharing tool in such a small community. Particularly since there was almost always someone in earshot. So everyone knew what they were working hard for.Berg nodded and left for the other group in the cave. There he checked on the women who were grinding medicinal herbs into a paste, crafting bandages and the like. The rest of the women were in the nearby forest gathering the herbs to grind, flax for their fiber, and branches for the arrows.They did not go too deep in the forest as only the immediate surroundings of Five Cave Village were safe. Groups of four or five women regularly came into the cave to drop baskets full of supplies.Berg left the cave after making sure everything was fine, as he had his own duties, but his mind was elsewhere. What Rinat had said was still on his mind.The king's plan... Building a new city for every human. It's the same as declaring war on the Kunalls. There is no way they will let it pass, not after what they did to us and the hatred that was born from it.Berg was worried, but then he remembered the children doing their best to craft arrows."Sigh..." He closed his eyes and made a short prayer. "My Lord, let's do our best."****** ******Ferlin was in the forest west of Five Cave Village and was accompanied by half of the hunters. The other half was training for combat and guerrilla tactics under Berg's care. The goal was to learn to coordinate themselves for hit and run tactics. They swapped roles every day.The hunter's workload, just like everyone else's, was quite impressive.They had to hunt enough to sustain the village for the few days they will be gone to battle, and they had to do this with only half their crew.For this, they decided to adopt a new tactic, courtesy of their king."Is everyone ready?" Shouted Ferlin.In answer, he heard 100 motivated shouts of "Yes!""Remember, we fan out in silence. Don't go farther than 300 meters west from this spot and don't go too far from the closest hunter, you must still be able to hear each other! When you hear someone shouting, do the same and close to this spot slowly, while making as much noise as possible!"The spot they were standing in was in front of a large gorge that ended in a dead end. Any animals that fled to this place would have to go through the hunters standing at the exit. This was an efficient way to hunt from Chris' world. At least much more efficient than the usual "stalk and hunt" tactics used in this world.****** ******Titus was also very busy.He first organized a small group of scouts to keep watch on the Kunall Scout Camp. Their job was to find a good vantage point and to alert the village with a relay smoke signal as soon as a patrol left. The schedule of each patrol was already known, but they could not afford to take any chances. Chris made the sensible decision to drop all their plans and directly warn the refugee camp if a patrol left early and the battle preparations were not done. This was Plan C, for the worst case.The refugee camp was two days away from the Kunalls, but just one day away from Five Cave Village, so the refugee camp would have enough time to pack up in a hurry and flee.Titus said goodbye to those scouts in the morning.His next job was a direct request from Chris. The Kunalls capabilities were explained to him. And one thing was clear, they had very tough skin. Tough enough that they did not wear armor. This was terrible for the humans who mostly used copper weapons and arrowheads.It was enough to wound the Kunalls, but it was very tough to pierce deep enough to mortally wound them unless the throat or eyes were hit."Everyone has their nets?" Asked Titus. "Make sure they have no holes in them!"His men answered promptly. "Yes sir!"Titus smiled as he looked at the dozens or so scouts accompanying him. They look quite silly with their butterfly nets. He thought back to what Chris said to him in yesterday's meeting. 'Well, if we can't kill them fairly, how about playing dirty? Titus, you seem the kind of guy for the job. Know of any deadly or powerful poisons that can be found around here?'"Huhu." He laughed. What kind of image do you have of me, my Lord?"Alright. Let's go!"***** *****Berg was finally able to breathe a little, it was now the middle of the afternoon and all his tasks were now done.The hunters' training is done for the day, and this should be all the information our lord needs.Berg went straight for Chris' quarters. There he found Chris posing and murmuring strange things."Is this more heroic?" Chris moved his feets a bit and raised one hand to his chest. "But this is more reserved. Should I go for flash or understated coolness?""M-my lord?" Berg wasn't sure what to do."Oh, there you are Berg!" Chris was back to his usual demeanor in a flash. "Did you collect all the information we needed?""Everything is here. Ahem." Berg cleared his voice and pulled out a leather parchment. "Five Cave Village has a total population of 2,520! We have 1,070 able adult males, 990 able adult females, 210 children, and 250 elderly and disabled people.Of those people, 264 are hunters, 75 are scouts, 260 are soldiers protecting the village..."To Chris' surprise, Berg just continued shouting numbers in a loud voice."Whoa. Slow down Bergy. I can't remember it all in one go." Chris looked at the leather parchment in Berg's hand and noticed that he had yet to see another one except for the map in the camp. I guess paper is impossible for now, and leather parchments must be pricey and rare."For now, just tell me, how long can our current stock of food last, how many copper arrows do we have, and is there any one that has a particular skill or job." Said ChrisBerg was a little disappointed as he could not show off all his hard work. However, he recuperated very fast."Currently, we have five days worths of food. This might seem like a lot, but I'd recommend keeping our current hunting efforts. As you know, our hunters will be unavailable for a few days, and many might be injured during the campaign... not to mention we might have new mouths to feed. I'd recommend stockpiling at least ten days worth of food. Hopefully, we'll get there in the next few days with your new hunting tactic, my Lord. We should know better tonight when they come back."Chris nodded."We have 150 copper arrows left, 100 are already in use by the hunting squad, and we might have a few losses after today's hunt. Fifty more arrows were assembled today by the arrow crafting team. From now on, all new arrows will have bone arrowheads... Unless we find copper." Continued Berg."150... That's not a lot. Let's hope the bone arrows will work well. Make sure they are extra sharp, we are not going for damage but penetration.""I will, my Lord!"Berg now started listing the workforce skillset."We currently lack a lot of specialized workers. Most of our people worked in the fields or in the army before the war. But we do have thirteen cooks, one tailor and her two apprentices who are completely overworked..." Berg stopped there for a second and added. "They have to make clothes for 1,500 people, so they haven't had time to make things like pillows, my Lord.""Hu-hu...""Ahem." Berg continued listing the workforce. "We also have three leatherworkers, one very talented carpenter and her five apprentices, seven masons, one herbalist and her three apprentices."The list was rather long which surprised Chris. "How come I have seen almost none of these people?"Berg scratched his nose as he answered: "I am embarrassed to say they probably had to abandon their craft for more pressing matters. We cannot build as we are forced to hide in caves and most crafts require tools and workshops which we cannot take with us when fleeing from the Kunalls. Even standard crafts will be left behind and will most likely profit our enemies as war loot. Their skills are currently useless... As long as we stay on the move.""I see. Well hopefully, this will be fixed soon. Warn everyone to refresh their skills and prepare the tools they might need. The day we build our first city isn't far!""Yes, my Lord!""Hmm... We have a decent range of skillset. But we lack quite a few important ones. We have no blacksmiths, engineers, horse breeders, fishermen, accountants, or teachers?""I am afraid not. We might get lucky and find some of those if the refugee camp accepts our offers and joins us."Chris nodded. "Let's hope so."Berg stood up energetically and prepared to leave. "Then I'll take my leave and let you get back to... hm..." But just then he was stumped and livid. He didn't know how to end this sentence without sounding rude. "Hmm... posing?""What was that?""N-nothing my lord!" Berg quickly changed subjects. "I was just wondering if you found out what your divine power is?""Whut? Did you say divine power?!" Shouted Chris excitedly. Is this my cheat? Is this my time?
