Chương 70: Preparations

Mark woke early, already behind schedule. Today they had to finish their preparations to go and kill the forest alpha bear. He did not even get out of his a-frame before reports started coming in. The scouts had found the bear; it was a Rootmaw Alpha, level 15 and from the descriptions, it matched what he had seen a few weeks back. The scouts had found the path that they were following and the den they had been staying in.

News was also reported back that they found at least 2 victims in the area; they guessed they were new arrivals based on what they were wearing. The bodies were at least 2-3 days old; it might have been what triggered the alert. Mark was also told that one of the scouts had not reported in yet; that scout was scouting the most northeastern corner of the Rootmaw's area. Mark was instantly worried when he found out a scout was missing, as he had not seen Cora, Lena, or Ava, all of whom were out scouting.

He finally found out the name and identity of the missing scout he was part of the cave group originally from the area around Lakeside but not a Lakeside resident. Mark opened the task board to see the status of all the tasks outstanding. More than half of the list had already been completed. They were still short on people to pack and move goods to the staging area, but they had enough labor for digging the pit and people to reinforce it with wood, and the wood to do so had already been delivered.

They had made buckets with attached rope to lift and remove dirt. Braces to keep the sides of the pit up and the sharpened stakes to do damage at the bottom when it fell. There were carts to move the excess dirt away from the hole so there would be clear space to fight it when it fell in. The hole was planned to be 20 feet deep and wide in each direction. Large enough that once it got in it would not come out alive.

Mark was planning to go over for an hour or so to make sure the work was going well before going to the other sites and to make sure all preparations were in order. The plan was that the construction was going to start at first light, which would be in just minutes from now. Mark finally sat down and ate breakfast. Tom and Dale filled him in about the crafters and the gear they had made. Much of it was rushed work but would fill gaps that everyone had.

Tom also presented a set of leather gear to Mark, which he tried to refuse, but Tom insisted it was for him and he needed to be dressed for the part when this goes down and not look like a hillbilly. Mark looked at the interface for both Forest's Rest and Cave Camp and was surprised at the number of people on both lists that now had system credits for work done in both systems, and the number of completed jobs was just amazing. Everyone in the area had jumped in and was helping with this project.

Mark then brought up his class screen; he had finally looked at it yesterday after he was told that Tom leveled his class once already and was halfway through another and Dale had already leveled twice and was surprised that this situation would most likely finish off his first class level. [Frontier Steward — Novice Rank] If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

Advancement Requirements: • Establish 2 functioning outposts (2 / 2) • Organize 25 completed settlement tasks (25 / 25) • Maintain active regional trade ✔ • Coordinate a successful regional operation (0 / 1) • Expand controlled territory influence Potential Advancement: Apprentice Frontier Steward Last night he was still missing settlement tasks, but those were now completed; only 2 items are left to expand territory, which was only lacking because they had not fully scouted out that area and subdued it.

And he needed a regional operation. And if taking down the Alpha would not complete that, he was not sure what would. He had been surprised when talking to others about the complete difference in his class and many others. His class was about taking care of the land and helping others progress through outposts, settlement tasks, trade, and coordinating people to do operations to benefit others. Tom had to create armor; he had to direct and organize people and places.

When he left camp and headed to the designated trap site, he was impressed by the changes and improvements to trails. His map showed that almost 10 trails ran in different directions now through the zone. And the one he was on led directly to the pit location. He passed a few roaming guards and many people hustling here or there, delivering goods. The pit when he got to it was huge, and they had not gotten all that far yet.

But they had a system in place: diggers, bucket haulers, cart movers, and people delivering food and water to the workers. The process was even more than he thought possible in so short a period of time. He watched and checked in with all who had time, making sure that all their needs were met and that they had tasks that would provide system credits for the work done. Mark then grabbed a load of items that needed to be taken to Cave Camp and headed in that direction to follow up there.

At Cave Camp he had learned that all of the higher-level people had opted out of their scheduled runs to help prepare for tomorrow. They were only running the lowest level people, though, with a higher level guide to help level a few up that would participate in the fight tomorrow. He noticed across the river at the next prospective outpost more than a dozen tents set up where people that no longer could find a place to rest overnight had gone.

They would need to create the two new outposts after the regional threat is gone just to handle the influx of people. He spent the rest of the day going between places, setting up new tasks or updating them as needed and reassuring everyone that the plan was good and those that wanted to participate could and those that did not want to would be safely out of harm's way. He finally arrived back at the pit just before the sun went down.

The pit was completed, and it had been loosely covered so it was not an obvious hole. The excess items had been cleared, and the people were all standing around talking about the plan for the morning. Then the first scouting reports came in. The Rootmaw Alpha had figured out that it was being tracked. It was on a rampage. It had wounded a couple scouts, and there was one confirmed killed.

Ava ran into the camp and let Mark know that Swoop had been tracking it and let her know that it had changed directions and it was coming directly for them. Mark looked at the sky as the last rays of the sun were setting, and a panic started running through the camp. Runners were sent, and all hands were called to immediately head to the pit, as it did not look like the Rootmaw Alpha wanted to follow their plans.