Chương 64: Outpost Management

Mark sat down for breakfast and said hello to his village's new residents. They made plans last night to go with Dale and Tom down south to where Cora had found the wheat fields. They had come to the decision that they wanted to influence future skills to include farming in their next level up to get skills closer to what they were familiar with. Ava planned to stay near camp and keep an eye on the murder pigs. The name had stuck with everyone but Ava; she does not like everyone calling them murder pigs.

With no one else pulling him in another direction today, Mark decided he was going to look into the outpost upgrade for his settlement and then also visit Cave Camp and see what he could do there. If there were time left over, he would look at his class upgrade options. When he finished eating, he pulled up the upgrade options for his outpost.

Forest's Rest — Outpost Level 2 Next Advancement Requirements: 8 Permanent Residents Improved Infrastructure Stable Food Source Specialized Production Connected Territory Pathway Before he had finished reading the list, a new message appeared. [Outpost Advancement Available] Forest's Rest has met all requirements for Level 3 Outpost. Mark realized that his Frontier Steward class had pushed him to go get the three new residents that he had needed for his outpost to level, which really came in handy.

If the class continued to do things like that, leveling up to a village was going to be easy. Mark selected the outpost update and waited for its results.

[Outpost Advancement Complete] Outpost Level 3 Requirements 8 permanent residents Profession structure or workshop Active production Trade activity Maintained defenses Benefits Trade recognition Route marker placement Allied settlement awareness Expanded resident limit Settlement inventory sorting Communal crafting support Mark looked into the benefits, and there was not a lot of change from level 2. He could now create trade agreements rather than just accept trade agreements from others. Resident limit went up.

He checked to see what that limit was, and it was now 12. Up from the 8 limits the rank below had.

Just being curious he pulled up the requirements for the next level Village Level 1 Requirements 12 permanent residents Multiple professions or classes Long-term food stability Permanent housing Recognized leadership roles Active trade route Benefits Official trade route registration Settlement quest generation Expanded settlement storage Resident role assignment Improved rested bonus Regional map visibility Warning Current location not suitable for Village Upgrade.

Village needs room to support housing for up to 20 people, 5+ crafting stations, and future space to support farming or livestock. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Mark was pretty excited when reading the list until he got to the warning. The location they were at was not suitable for an upgrade.

When reading over benefits, he really wanted to find out what settlement quests were, but it looked like they were out of luck; his current level was as high as they could go. And the current village level can only support 12 total residents. Mark just sat there thinking. He had made a mistake when he picked his current location. Of course, back then he was just trying not to die. He would have to talk to the others and let them know their limitations and resident cap.

He would not have to disband this Outpost but it was now limited, and he felt it. He had always known there was not room. The cabins in Lakeside, for example, were big enough that he could fit two, maybe three if he tore everything else out. Having the Frontier Steward class, though, Mark already knew that he would be building and changing. Now he knew that would one day mean moving too. With that realization done and his upgrade complete, he headed toward Cave Camp.

He stopped just across the stream from Cave Camp and this time looked at it with different eyes. Before he had thought that they might become competition to his outpost and future village. But he could see now they had the same issue he had. Too many people and too little space. Thinking back to the cabins, Lakeside had maybe two at most that would fit. His worldview had now shifted. He would, going forward, look at locations and see their future potential and not their current potential.

And the Cave was valuable; it had huge potential. But the camp was not. It at most could be a staging location. Mark could picture in the future Forest's Rest and Cave Camp would be two of maybe half a dozen outposts needed to support the cave as its popularity was growing. As he looked across the river, the original group of six now numbered more than a dozen he could see. Word was spreading, and treasure seekers were coming. Mark crossed the stream and walked over to the camp.

When Jarek and Mira saw him, they came over and asked him to the side with them to chat. Jarek said.

"Cora told us that she had talked to you and let you know what we were wanting." Mark replied.

"My understanding is you want me to manage the camp for you."

"Yes and no. Yes, we want you to manage it, but in the long run we want you to control it. We have realized this place is out of our control. And more people are showing up. We need places to sleep and we need the ability to trade. But none of us want to manage it. Cora indicated that this would be something you might enjoy doing." Mark looked at the two of them and then the craziness going on all around them. And instantly said.

"Yes, I would love to. This could be fun. My understanding is there was going to be a 10% tax, you could say, to support the outpost and that it would be split towards this camp and my camp."

"From our perspective, as long as there is access to trading through the outpost interface, we will leave it to you to figure out how or where to use the resources."

"Ok, one condition. I can't do all the work myself to upgrade and build. I will have resources to trade, but I will need muscle to do the work. I can create job lists of things I need done and what the trade offers to do it, but I will need you guys to provide people willing to do the work to build and make this area usable for a fair trade, of course." With that, Mark received a system prompt that granted him control of Cave Camp.

He found it interesting when he accepted he got 2 prompts: one for control rights and a second giving him XP for taking control of a second outpost. With the XP notice was a message indicating he also got progress toward his next class upgrade. The two of them waved and walked off. Mark went and found a chair and sat down. He brought up the outpost menu and found that it was very similar to all the options he had, with one major difference. There was a tab labeled Cave.

Mark, of course, clicked on that tab first, and it listed two options; the first was labeled "Instances." The second was labeled for Expedition Contribution. He clicked first the instance option; it listed Instance 1 on cooldown, with 3 Hours 12 minutes remaining. Instance 2 is on cooldown, with 4 hours 34 minutes remaining. Mark instantly realized how cool this was. He could check at any time and see current states. He next opened the Expedition Contribution tab.

It said the current contribution was set to 0% and gave him the option of changing that. When he set it to 10%, he was informed that as participants exited the cave, they would be prompted for 10% of the value of goods received, which would be transferred to the outpost storage. The participant would be given a list of the items received and their value, and they could transfer the items they wanted for the contribution equal to 10% and would not be allowed to exit if they did not choose their 10% contribution.

Mark thought that might upset someone the first time or those who did not want to fairly share, but it would simplify the process without anyone needing to track it. With that completed, he closed that menu and looked at the upgrade menu to see what needed doing to upgrade to the next level. Outpost Level 2 Requirements Dedicated Cooking Structure Stable Food Reserves Defensive Measures Maintained Water Access Connected Pathways 4 / 5 completed.

Looking down the list, they already had everything but defensive measures. So he walked over to Jarek and talked to him. He explained the change made so the system would enforce the 10% collection of goods value on exiting so he could inform the others so they did not have to think about it during the visit; it would be handled on exit. Mark then explained to him the need for defensive measures that were needed to upgrade the outpost to level 2.

Jarek agreed to get some work crews going between delves and pay those working out of the outpost storage. He let them know he would be back tomorrow and upgrade to level 2 then if they were done and look into upgrading it to level 3, which he let Jarek know was the highest available.

Mark, before he left, also shared the benefits of being level 2, which included contribution recognition, meaning they could gain XP for working for outpost benefits and the outpost map, and that settlement task tracking would also be included, most likely allowing them to have the system track the tasks assigned out and payment of goods for completion. Mark then left and headed back to camp and, of course, looked up on his interface what settlement task tracking was since he had that already.