Chương 61: Frontier Steward

Mark opened his map and looked at the zone. His camp was shown along with the trail going northwest toward the cave and the trail going west to the stream. It also had the trail going south to the ruined camp. He then looked over the points of interest. And the one that came to mind first was the clay pit. The clay deposit was the first real change in how he operated, bringing civilization with the use of pottery and making plates and glasses. He also had a trade agreement to provide clay.

So that became the next path he would make. Mark spent the next hour building the trail to the clay pit. He started the path about two thirds of the way to the stream and then went straight north so that the path would be clean and short. It did not take a lot of time to build that small stretch, but it would make a big difference in travel time. He had noticed that his movement speeds while following the designed trails were faster than off-trail.

When the path was complete, he filled up his entire inventory to its max with clay. He so wished he had one of the carts that Lakeside had. He would need 3-4 trips to get as much as he wanted to bring back. But the cart would have to wait for now. It was getting late, and he was getting anxious that he would not level today. When he finally got back to camp, he started pulling out the clay and adding it to the inventory system.

Just as he pulled the last of it out and the system gave him credit for the clay delivery, he finally hit level 8. [Level Up] Mark — Level 8 +5 Attribute Points Awarded Class Advancement Available. Mark assigned 2 points each to strength and agility and the last point to vitality. He then selected class advancement.

Strength: 12 Agility: 12 Vitality: 15 Intelligence: 18 Perception: 22 [Class Qualification Review Complete] Available Classes: Frontier Steward • Trapper • Expedition Pathfinder He decided trapper was not going to be his class and dug in to get more details on the other two. He looked at pathfinder next. This class focused on discovery, navigation, route optimization, and regional mapping. Which looked interesting. He then opened the Frontier Steward.

[Frontier Steward] A Frontier Steward develops, stabilizes, and expands frontier settlements and connected territory. Primary Focus: Infrastructure • Settlement Growth • Regional Integration • Adaptive Survival • Leadership Support He re-read the expedition pathfinder and then the Frontier Steward and then made his choice. [Class Selected] Frontier Steward [Frontier Steward — Level 1] Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Class Focus: Infrastructure • Settlement Growth • Regional Integration • Adaptive Survival • Leadership Support Current Active Growth Opportunities: Expand maintained pathways • Improve settlement infrastructure • Increase regional connectivity • Support settlement specialization • Stabilize frontier territory Mark was about to open up his class and look at the growth opportunities to decide which he would work on first when another message appeared.

SYSTEM MESSAGE: [Regional Disturbance Detected] Unstable activity detected within connected territory. Location: Southern Forest Edge Priority Assessment: Moderate That was a new type of message regional disturbance. Mark guessed it must be related to the class he just got. He opened his map, and clearly labeled was the disturbance. Mark looked toward the sunset. It would be dark soon. Should he figure this out tomorrow or go now? He re-read the message. Priority moderate.

Well, it was not low, which he would have waited on. He would get home after dark, but he decided if the system was going to prompt him, it had a reason. He let Dale and Tom know that he was going to look into something and he would be home after dark and not to worry about him and then set off towards the area indicated. He was able to follow his trail south for most of the way, so the trip was shorter than it could be. When he got there, he was surprised at what he found.

There were three people, and they were being surrounded by two forest stalkers that had not yet attacked but were circling them. There were two men and a woman. The two men were waving sticks in the direction of the stalkers, and the woman was crying. Mark quickly pulled out his bow and shot the closest one. He was able to kill it with one shot. His archery skills had come a long way since his early days. The other stalker turned toward him at the cry of the first.

When it saw that he was armed and ready for a fight, it turned tail and ran away. Mark quickly went over to the group. The sun had just set, so he pulled out one of his torches and lit it. He then asked if they were ok, which, surprisingly, they were. The group started asking him all kinds of questions, all talking at once. It ranged from where were they? to how did you kill that? to where is our house? Mark then realized the disturbance that he was sent to solve was new arrivals.

He quickly calmed them down and explained the situation as quickly as he could. He then pulled out two more torches and handed them to the group. The group kept looking around, waiting, expecting to be attacked again. He assured them, more importantly, that he could keep them safe and that there was a place that was safe for the night if they would follow him. The three of them followed him back to camp. By the time they arrived, everyone had gone to sleep.

Mark woke Dale up and asked him to get some food for their guests and help him talk to this group. They talked well into the night with the group. They found out they were a family and that they had just shown up to this place. They had been eating breakfast at their farm, and the next thing they knew, they were here. They received the survival system message, and before they could come to the realization of where they were, one of the forest stalkers had shown up.

The father, Elias, and the son, Finn, had found some sticks and were keeping the stalker back as they tried to run through the forest, and that is when the second one showed up. They had thought they were going to die until Mark showed up and killed one and ran the other off. The mother's name was Mara, and she was more outspoken during the conversation than the other two. She asked a few times how to get back home. How could she wake up from this dream? Then, finally, acceptance of their current state.

Mark and Dale promised to keep them safe. The family asked if they could stay here with them, as they had no place to go. Mark assured them they would be safe and could stay there and invited them to join the outpost, which they did. Dale gave them all some food and juice, and then they gave them the last two empty a-frames to sleep in. By this point it was really late, and the three newcomers went off to bed. Dale finally turned to Mark and asked.

"How did you find them?"

"I finally leveled up and got my class, Frontier Steward. The next thing I know, the system put me to work using my new class with a system message about a regional disturbance."

"Well, I guess we will talk about that and our new outpost members when they all wake up in the morning." with that he went back to bed. Mark climbed into bed, wondering what else his class would change in his life.