Chương 105: Chapter 101 – Journeyman Frontier Steward

[Rank Advancement Available] Frontier Steward to Journeyman Frontier Steward Advance Now? YES / NO Mark pushed the button and waited. [Rank Advancement In Progress] Frontier Steward → Journeyman Frontier Steward Please Wait The group around him was still celebrating the completion of the Forgeworks, but Mark just held his breath; he had been waiting for this moment for weeks now.

[Level Up] Character: Mark Level: 11 [Level Up] Character: Mark Level: 12 [Level Up] Character: Mark Level: 13 He had forgotten about the message he received about his level up. But he got three of them? Maybe one was for the Forgeworks complete and the other two from the class complete. He brought up his current stats screen. Strength: 12 Agility: 12 Vitality: 18 Intelligence: 20 Perception: 27 His last level up was from the Rootmaw Alpha fight.

He never seemed to do the things that normally gave experience; it was a good thing it forced it upon him with these big projects and missions it kept sending him on, or his level would never go up. He still had fifteen stat points to spend. When he ran up to be here at the Forgeworks, he realized he was really lacking some skills, so he decided to add 3 to each Strength and Agility to bring them each to 15.

He added 2 to Vitality and then sat there looking at Intelligence Strength: 15 +3 Agility: 15 +3 Vitality: 18 +2 Intelligence: 27 +7 Perception: 27 Mark was terrible at picking stats, but he figured some more smarts might help him with the tasks he keeps getting sent on.

[Frontier Steward — Rank Advancement Complete] Previous Rank: Apprentice Frontier Steward New Rank: Journeyman Frontier Steward You have demonstrated the ability to: • Establish settlements • Coordinate regional development • Support specialized professions • Complete major infrastructure projects • Guide frontier growth Further opportunities now available. Then the next screen showed up.

[New Steward Features Unlocked] Regional Opportunities • Institution Recognition • Strategic Overview Mark then opened the regional opportunities. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. [Regional Opportunities] The system will now identify significant shortages, surpluses, and development opportunities within controlled regions.

Examples may include: • Resource shortages • Trade opportunities • Population pressures • Settlement growth potential • Infrastructure requirements These options were much more interesting than just the raw numbers he had before; now he could figure out where and what needed his help. He could then figure out why things mattered. [Institution Recognition] Recognized institutions may now be established. Examples: • Libraries • Schools • Infirmaries • Trade Hubs • Harbors • Additional institutions may be discovered.

Recognized institutions may generate: • Tasks • Requests • Development opportunities • Specialized profession growth Mark thought about the new option screens he saw on the Forgeworks. They worked similarly to the outpost tasks, but rather than him creating them, the system created them. He then looked at the strategic overview. This option was different from the other two; it did not go to a description but rather brought up his map with a new tab labeled "Strategic Overview."

When he opened that tab, he could see the three zones he had control in. Each one had overlays in the forest zone; there was a label that said "industry expansion" where the Forgeworks was and another labeled "herbalism expansion" down where the marsh was. He briefly looked at the grainfield southern zone, and it had multiple labels.

His future city was labeled as "population growth"; there was one labeled "river trade" and another for "livestock growth," and there were a few small labels indicating shortages for various things. Then he looked at the Lakeview area, and there were a number of marked locations, like Northridge Village, that had a "trade expansion" along with more in locations he was not familiar with. This option would be helpful in the future. His system was no longer tracking settlements but now tracking civilization needs.

[Journeyman Frontier Steward] You are no longer responsible solely for settlement survival. Your role is to guide regional development, specialization, infrastructure, and institutional growth. Mark then finally brought up the next rank requirements to see what he would need to do this time.

[Frontier Steward — Journeyman Rank] Advancement Requirements: • Establish 1 recognized village (0 / 1) • Complete 3 regional infrastructure projects (1 / 3) • Support a population of 500+ across connected settlements (190 / 500) • Establish 3 recognized regional specializations (0 / 3) • Maintain a collection of 15 recognized manuals (10 / 15) • Establish 3 recognized institutions (1 / 3) • Expand controlled territory influence to 7 connected regions (3 / 7) • Discover and establish contact with 3 system-controlled regions (1 / 3) Potential Advancement: Master Frontier Steward As he read through the list, he saw that some were already completed: 190 population that is supported.

That is probably the outposts in the forest zone, as the ones in the grain fields were not truly connected yet. And once they are, that number will jump a bunch, as there were way more than 100 people already down there between the farmers, fishermen, livestock handlers, and all the construction workers working on the village site and road network that Garrick insisted he get complete before founding the initial outpost in our village location.

His village was all but done, and he got credit for the books they had gathered and the three zones he had already surveyed. Even the Forgeworks was credited on the infrastructure projects. But the last one was it talking about the cave? That thing had caused half of Mark's troubles, and he needed to find two more like it? Then another message showed up.

[Regional Opportunity Detected] Unknown Water-Controlled Region Location: Southwest Exploration Potential: High Regional Assessment: Incomplete Warning: Environmental conditions unknown. Recommendation: Establish reconnaissance. Oh, Mark knew where it was, talking about the warning they received when they went west about something in the region south of there. I guess the system already had his next task lined up. It would just have to wait, though, as he needed to finally get the new village going in the south.

Though he still could not settle on a name for it. And he had a week left until Garrick said it would be ready. Mark looked around at the party going on. It must be time to go eat some cake. Dale was all excited about it. The system had already found another problem for him, or opportunity. With the system, it was usually both.