Chương 81: CHAPTER 79 — Regional Management

Breakfast today was made by Mara, and Mark could see that she was an experienced hand in the kitchen. The group quickly packed up their gear and gave a last look around the future fishing village and headed north. Garrick started right away talking to Mark about building order.

"We must build the northern outpost first. Then roads before major buildings. All the major roads should be created first with at least trails." He would supervise a team himself to make sure that the bridge placements were perfect and find temporary crossing points until the bridges can be built. After all the roads are started, the Mill would have the next priority, along with storage locations and storehouses at all the outpost locations, including the village site.

He insisted that for now tents for housing be used until the roads are fully constructed and storehouses built and goods are gathered for construction needs. Mara talked about the need to plan irrigation ditches and grain storage and livestock fields. They needed to find locations for future orchards and start considering crops they would produce and rotations of those crops.

Ava talked about patrol routes and the number of people it would take to keep an active patrol going to keep the workers and new residents safe and secure. Mark just listened to it all, but his mind was only on the regional management that he had totally forgotten to look at before in all the rush of activities and settlement creation and, of course, this planned scouting trip. They stopped at the clay deposits to check their quality.

Garrick was very pleased with the size and scope of the deposit, more than enough for their needs. The group continued until they got to the camp Mara and her husband had been staying in. She took Mark over and showed him the amazing growth of the animals that the kids had befriended and the Pig that fell in love with Dale. Mark was shocked at the different growth patterns. Two of the chickens were almost full-grown chickens soon. Mara said they should be producing eggs soon; one was a hen and the other a rooster.

There was discussion of getting more chicks before they start harvesting eggs. The growth when there was active work with the animals gave months worth of growth in only a few days. She showed him a gardening experiment she was doing. She had planted 2 sets of vegetables, both the same type. The first she planted and watered but paid no attention to. The other ones she cared for daily, checking their growth and making sure they were healthy. Her husband called it talking to the plants. She told him to look at them.

One patch had good growth more than normal but looked like it had been growing for a few weeks. She let mark know they had been planted only four days. The other patch looked like it had been growing for two-plus months and would be ready to harvest in a couple weeks. Mara said, "That patch there was planted the same day after I planted the other." This is the one Elias says I have been talking to. System seems to be assisting where I pay attention to them."

Mark and the others bid her farewell; he would have to think on this and discuss it with the others. This could speed up a lot of their plans and make things easier in some ways. Maybe harder in others.

As they traveled north on the path, they saw people going in both directions, some to the marsh, others to the burrow cluster, and even a few on their way to explore the southern zone and help harvest wheat. When they finally got back to Forest's Rest, the place was busy. There was a line of people waiting for a table to eat, and Dale was rushing around madly trying to feed people.

He could smell the smoke from the charcoal pits that could be seen around the area with vents of smoke coming out of them in the process of creating charcoal. Traffic going east and west on the road was heavy. Then he realized it was an actual road now, wider and able to have two hand-pulled carts pass each other. People were working on the Forgeworks tasks, and as Mark checked the lists, there were as many or more tasks to do than he saw last time.

There were two men talking to Tom about the order they were delivering as part of a trade agreement from the zone east of them. Trying to figure out who to deliver it to and pick up the promised trade goods in exchange, they were really looking forward to the wheat they were promised. Mark wished the others farewell and went into his A-frame which had been moved again. When looking for it, he realized one of the cabins was now finished along with the storage and most of the work area.

It seemed only the other two cabins were left along with some finishing work. Sitting on his bed, he brought up the regional management panel. [Northern Forest Region] Regional Control: 83% Active Settlements: The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

• Forest's Rest • Cave Camp • Eastwatch • Crossroads • Wayrest Population: 147 Known Professions: • Fighters • Scouts • Cooks • Builders • Farmers • Hunters • Herbalists • Crafters • Miners • Laborers • Specialized Average Regional Level: 5.

8 Infrastructure Rating: Developing Regional Stability: Stable Threat Pressure: Elevated ACTIVE REGIONAL PROJECTS Sanctioned Forgeworks Progress: 8% KNOWN MAJOR THREATS Rootmaw Territory (Status: Reduced) Eastern Marsh Predator (Status: Unconfirmed) Northern Forest Overpopulation (Status: Increasing) RESOURCE OVERVIEW High: • Timber • Resin • Food Moderate: • Stone • Clay • Herbs Low: • Metal • Cloth • Skilled Labor REGIONAL EFFECTS • Increased migration activity • Rising cave traffic • Improved trade potential The first major thing that Mark noticed is that the population had almost doubled since the last time he opened this up.

More than 75 people had migrated here since the Rootmaw fight. Another big one is the average level has dropped, which means most of those coming in are of a low level and would need training, skills, and jobs. Mark realized he was getting distracted again, looking at the screen, and opened up the zone control options.

POSSIBLE CONTROL OPTION [Regional Threat Pressure] Current: Elevated Options: • Reduce Spawn Pressure • Maintain Current Balance • Increase Regional Challenge Mark thought about the number of people in the zone and the stress that would cause if the threat stayed elevated. There were too many people now, and with all those people, an elevated threat would end up leading to loss of life, so he selected the option for Reduce Spawn Pressure.

[Regional Influence Applied] Northern Forest Region Threat Pressure: Elevated → Guarded Effects Expected: • Reduced hostile creature migration • Slight decrease in regional aggression • Lower chance of large-scale threat emergence Tradeoff: • Reduced combat encounter frequency • Slight reduction in experience gain within region Mark thought about lowering it a second time but decided that he alone should not be making all of the decisions, and he would talk with others over the next week or so and decide if they needed it to go down one more level.

Though on the menu he found the list of future management options that were locked at this time but would become available depending on his work to relieve the current regional pressures around the people and labor issues. LOCKED MANAGEMENT OPTIONS • migration guidance • road maintenance bonuses • wildlife pressure • settlement influence • trade route analysis • environmental strain More options dependent on future performance will be unlocked.

Mark then spent some time looking at the overlays on the map about soil quality, forest density, path maintenance, water levels, and migration patterns. That last one really interested him, as it showed that the migration was all heading to the cave, which soon would be a real problem. Mark finally closed all the displays and went out and got dinner. Dale told him that he needed to double the cooking staff and maybe add twice the number of tables outside.

As frustrated as Dale made it seem, Mark could tell he was happy and would like it no other way.