“Don’t worry about that, I’m going to spend the next couple of days getting things here in order with the new village control and maybe do a bit of crafting. Once that is done, I’ll head back out for some more hunting. Probably only about three days until I can get some more supplies.”
“We should have plenty to last until then. Even with the ramped-up rewards for the work orders. I’ll also ensure our young and elderly are taken care of.”
“Thank you, Daniel. Do me a favor and try and find any single mothers and fathers first when looking for workers. Also, make it known I will provide supplies for any who wish to take up a hunting trade with me to learn to supply the village from the forest. I also want to know if anyone has any fighting skills in the village for our upcoming issues.” Arthur told him.
“I’ll see what I can do. Goodnight, Arthur.” Daniel told him.
“Goodnight, Daniel.”
Arthur turned and headed to his room. To his surprise, Allendria was waiting for him by his door.
“Hello, Arthur. Headed to bed?” She asked.
“Hi, Allendria. I probably will but need to do a little work with my new position as the village mayor first. Once I have the main parts of that sorted out, I’ll probably hit the hay.” Arthur told her.
Allendria had a contemplative look on her face. She looked like she was trying to make a decision but couldn’t decide what that decision should be. The indecisive look on her face was almost cute.
“Were you able to talk to Rowan? He looked distracted during our meeting. I was afraid he may have been injured during the fight and was trying to hide it.” She asked him.
“You are right. I’m not sure injured is the correct term, but it hit Rowan hard mentally. He had never killed a man before, and the act earlier was warring with his emotions. That was what his issue was. I’m hoping that getting to work in the forge tomorrow will help get his mind back on track. Honestly, I doubt he’ll be able to sleep much, and I suspect he will start working tonight until exhaustion takes him.” Arthur told her in a low tone.
Allendria covered her mouth, and he saw tears form in the corners of her eyes. “He is suffering because of me. Had I not been there, it may not have come to a fight, and he wouldn’t have been forced to help you. Oh, I am so sorry, Arthur. I didn’t mean to cause this trouble for you. I do hope you know that I greatly appreciate what you and Rowan both did for me, though.”
“It was not your fault Allendria. I don’t want you to feel sorry for being a victim of someone else. What we did was the right thing even though it did result in someone’s death. We gave the bandit every chance to stop his actions and then gave every warning not to escalate the issue before we were forced to kill him in defense. I would do it in a heartbeat for you or anyone else, to be honest.” Arthur told her as he reached out and held her hand.
She looked down at his hand. “I have been trying to decide what to do to thank you for your heroic actions. I have been wrestling with an idea, but it is almost unheard of and wasn’t sure if I should. After hearing your words, though, I am sure it is the right thing. Tomorrow I want to bestow two gifts on you. The first is I want to train you at the beginning of the art of Enchantment. I have been trained in it but am not very high level. I can teach you what I know, and maybe we can work on it together?” She said hopefully.
“That sounds amazing, Allendria. I would love to learn a skill from you, but you know you don’t have to give me anything, don’t you?” He asked her.
“I was sure you would say that as well. The second gift is something I shall give, but you must never discuss it with anyone. I don’t care what excuse you use to explain it away, but you absolutely cannot tell anyone I was the one to teach you. I will give you the greatest gift I can bestow. I am going to teach you to unlock Fire Magic.” She told him.
“Wait, you can do that? I thought you had to find some rare artifact or something like I had to unlock it, that or find a master level magician to teach you.” Arthur said with shock on his face.
“Magic can be taught by anyone who has learned the skill. The problem is that it is very tightly held. Most magicians only learn the different elemental magics by enrolling in a magical school or apprenticing to a magician. When this happens, it is not only rare to be accepted but also costs a large sum of money. I am not overly familiar with human customs, but I understand it is similar. Typically it is unlawful for someone not registered as a magical teacher to teach another elemental magic of any kind. Since I am not human, I am not as concerned, but I still want this secret to remain that at all costs. It isn’t strictly forbidden in my culture, but it would be highly discouraged.” Allendria explained.
“I am honored Allendria and can promise your secret is safe with me. I will cherish this gift from you. I am going to head to my room to work on this village control panel for a few minutes before I turn in. I will see you in the morning. Goodnight, Allendria.”
“Goodnight, Arthur.”
Arthur entered his door with a huge smile and was looking forward to tomorrow now.
Chapter 17
Managing a Village
Arthur closed the door behind him and let out a breath he wasn’t aware he was holding. Allendria was breathtakingly beautiful, quite literally. He walked over to his bed and sat down. Taking off his new boots, he decided to relax for a moment while he sorted through his menu. He decided it was time to sort through this village interface. With a thought, he brought up his options.
Welcome to the Village Control Panel, Mayor Arthur. Would you like a quick overview of the functions of this menu?
Arthur decided it was time to use a bit of a crutch for once. He was tired of never understanding mechanics. He thought of his answer and decided on yes.
Hello Arthur, you have many options in the Village Control Panel. Keep in mind, some of these options may not be available until the village has gained Rank and quality. This village is currently Rank 1 out of 5 and is the quality level of Poor. Advancing the quality increases the experience rewards from work orders in the village and grants the village bonuses to different aspects of the village. These can include crafting speed boosts, crop growth boosts, and even disease resistance bonuses, to name a few. These become available by advancing Rank and completing particular objectives that the control panel will designate for you.
Once your village has reached level 5, you have the chance to raise the village to a town and from there another five ranks until it reaches a city. Each Rank requires certain milestones and objectives that you will see in the control panel.
Creating work orders can be done by accessing the work order option on the main panel. You are only required to choose the required task and description for parameters. You can select base rewards of materials or goods, but the village work order system assigns all experience.
Do you require any further clarification on the Village Control Panel?
Another option to choose. Arthur decided to choose No this time. After thinking of his answer, the menu changed, and the Village Control Panel itself appeared.
Alem’s Crossing Village Control Panel
Village Rank: (1/5)
Criteria for Rank Advancement: (0/5)
Village Quality: Poor
Criteria for Village Quality Improvement: (0/5)
View Criteria for Rank Advancement
View Criteria for Village Quality Improvement
Create Work Orders
View Current Work Orders
Current Active Village Bonuses:
All in all, it was pretty straightforward, and with his new context from the help notification, it was easy to discern. He decided the first thing he wanted to do was to view the criteria needed to rank up the village. With a thought, he selected the option, and another menu appeared.
Criteria for Rank Advancement
Current Village Rank: (1/5)
Current Criteria for Rank Advancement:
1) Increase Village Population by 10. (0/10)<
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2) Build 2 Additional Houses. (0/2)
3) Assign 2 Village Roles. (0/2)
4) Increase Village Defenses by 30 points. (0/30)
5) Establish 1 Official Industry in the Village. (0/1)
Well, that was blissfully straightforward. Clear cut goals are always the best and easier to manage. Arthur would have to see what would be needed to make these goals happen. The houses would probably be the hardest part. With scarce resources, it would be difficult to do, and on top of that, buildings can take a while to build.
Arthur decided he wanted to look at the quality standards as well. He thought about viewing the criteria for village quality, and the menu changed again.
Criteria for Village Quality Improvement
Current Village Quality: Poor
Current Criteria for Quality Advancement:
1) Completely Repair 4 houses. (0/4)
2) Complete 15 Work Orders. (0/15)
3) Raise Village Health Rating by 20 points. (0/20)
4) Build 3 Village Improvement Projects. (0/30)
5) Improve the Quality of 25% of the City Roads by 1 Quality Level (0/25)
Another set of straightforward improvements. Most seem relatively easy to do. The village health should be trivial. Some necessary city cleaning and food supply to bring their nutrition level back up should fix that problem. The roads would be a decently easy project, especially if he could get his magic involved.
Arthur decided it was time to work on setting out some work orders. He navigated back to the main menu and then checked the Create Work Order option. With a thought, it came up.
Alem’s Crossing Work Orders
Current Work Orders: (0/15)
Current Active Work Orders:
It looks like Arthur had fifteen work orders to issue. He decided it was time to sort out what he needed. Knowing what needed to doing and the resources on hand made it more comfortable. Arthur didn’t know what professions he had available in the village, so he was going to assign everything he needed. After some work, he filled out the first of his work orders and took a look at it
Work Order
Completion Criteria:
Provide 5 Tanned Animal Hides (0/5)
Provided Materials:
Village will provide necessary raw animal hides. Procure from Mayor. Any other necessary materials can be negotiated for.
Completion Timeline: 5 Days
Rewards:
5 Meal tokens to be used at the Village Inn.
200 Leatherworking Experience.
50 Character Experience.
Well, that wasn’t bad at all. The experience that the work order system added wasn’t anything to be stingy about with how low level most people around here were rumored to be. He could see why upgrading the quality would be necessary, though, so the rewards would increase. That would be needed as the citizens progressed levels. He decided to go ahead and fill out the rest and pulled up his new shortlist of active work orders.
Alem’s Crossing Work Orders
Current Work Orders: (0/15)
Current Active Work Orders:
1) 5 Tanned Animal Hides
2) 5 Tanned Animal Hides
3) 5 Iron Ingots
4) 5 Iron Ingots
5) 5 Iron Ingots
6) 5 Iron Ingots
7) 1 Standard Bow
8) 1 Iron Sword
9) 1 Iron Dagger
10) 1 Iron Dagger
11) 15 Arrow Shafts
12) 5 Wood Logs
13) 5 Wood Logs
14) 5 Meals Prepared
15) 5 Meals Prepared.
Most were super simple tasks, and he wanted to make sure there was a broad spectrum for people to get a chance to use them. There didn’t appear to be a limit to how quickly he could post new ones, so as long as he kept up with it, new ones could keep getting added. That would give most of the people responsible for the items they needed a chance for a job to do.
Daniel’s new cooking staff would be able to increase their levels with the meal preparation jobs, Rowan’s apprentices, and even Rowan himself could use the metal and weapon orders. He knew they had a tanner that could use the hides for that order. Once they finished some of those, he could shift one of those to a leatherworking order. He hoped he could find someone who was a bowyer, but there was no guarantee. He would love to find someone in the village with the skill to craft him a piece on commission from the yew logs Rowan and himself had gathered. Altogether, it looked like a good spread of jobs available.
He decided it was time to turn in for the evening. He would have to ask Daniel tomorrow what the plan was for getting the message out that these new orders were up for people to use. He would also have to work with Allendria on unlocking his fire magic and then make sure he was continually burning mana for experience while she was teaching him Enchanting. He laid all the way down on his bed. After a few moments, he decided to ditch his shirt and pants and fell asleep.
***
Arthur woke up feeling refreshed and ready to hit the ground running. It felt good to have at least some idea of a plan of how to get where they needed to be. Once he had the village up and working, he would be able to redirect all of the goodwill toward Lianna to help further his goal here. That should also keep her satisfied with his progress for the time being. He was sure she was eventually going to pressure him into increasing his pace, so he needed to try and get ahead of some of it.
Arthur got up and got his clothes back on. It was time to head out and get the morning started. He rounded the corner into the main room and found a handful of people milling around the area. He also noticed a delicious smell coming from the kitchen area. Arthur hadn’t seen most of the people in the room before, so he wasn’t sure how to take this. Daniel rounded the corner and greeted him with a smile.
“A bit of a turn out this morning. You were busy last night.”
“What do you mean?” Arthur asked him.
“All the work orders you posted. These people are here to collect the materials offered by your orders to get started.” Daniel explained.
“How do they even know about them? I was planning to discuss options on how to spread the word about them this morning.”
Daniel laughed, “You wouldn’t know this, but when Dalia made you Mayor, it sent a message to all villagers informing them of the change. Any residents of the village can access a version fo the village control panel. It only shows them the rank, quality, and available work orders, though. Nothing more.”
“Well, that makes it much easier. Care to assist with gathering up materials? Something smells delicious in the back.”
“I am sure I could help with that. My new assistants have much of the cooking under control since the main part of it is done.”
Arthur lowered his voice as he approached Daniel, “Many of these people look a bit hostile or upset. I am guessing the idea of someone they don’t know being made Mayor out of nowhere has something to do with that?”
Daniel nodded his head. “I would assume the same thing myself. I haven’t had much of a chance to speak to any of them. Their life has been so rough they have lost trust in almost everyone, though.”
“Can you do me another favor then? I want to get on the good side of some of these people so my tasks will get completed in an orderly fashion. I also want to make sure they keep coming back to do more. Can you get me a full round of food served this morning for everyone here? I want to make sure everyone gets a meal before they get to work, and it will give me a chance to address many of them.”
“I’ll see it done. Earning some goodwill with the crowd will go a long way for our plans.” Daniel said as he moved back toward the kitchen. Arthur was sure he was arranging for the food to be brought out.
Arthur turned to face the crowd of people milling about around the room. They all shuffled from place to place, looking like zombies. Each one was dirty and somewhat emaciated, but they had shown up to work regardless.
A
rthur cleared his throat loudly to get their attention. “Hello all, I know some of you may be a bit uneasy about having someone you have never met as your Mayor. I assure you I have nothing but the best intentions for this place. We are going to get this village back on track. In a show of good faith, I want all of you to find yourself a seat. I am having a meal brought out for every one of you at no charge. I only ask that you thank our gracious host Daniel. I also want to extend one more act of goodwill. If any of you have other family members, please send a message to them to come and receive a free meal as well. It is always better for families to get a chance to eat together.”
Arthur noticed looks of shock on almost every face in the room. A few of the people in the crowd were even in tears. They all started to slowly find a seat and get comfortable just as Daniel and his two new assistants began streaming out of the kitchen with bowls of soup for everyone.
Arthur wasn’t sure what all Daniel had put in the soup, but it looked delicious. He could see some of the venison cut into smaller chunks floating around in it and even saw the occasional piece of potato. Arthur himself was also looking forward to it.
He raised his voice once more to address them. “Please take your time and enjoy this warm meal. I will sit here and eat with you. Once we finish, feel free to approach me with the order you wish to fulfill, and I can ensure you get what you need to get started.”
Dravincia Page 21
