It’s been a productive months.
System enhancements reduce chicken egg incubation times from twenty-one days down to seven. Those same enhancements make the chickens reach egg laying maturity in about six weeks. And to top it all off, each animal lays between two and four eggs a day.
If you do the math, and I have, our original two dozen chicken eggs have turned into…well, let me just say it’s a lot of chickens. Too many chickens.
The children, Harper, Justice, Jackson, and Mason, have thrown themselves into the poultry business with a level of enthusiasm only the youthful have. Forming their own business, Cluck You, Two, they’ve secured enough startup capital to purchase a dedicated workshop north of the barn.
With the inundation of fowl, residents are buying up eggs like hot cakes. Because of their prolific quantities, they’re sold for one Credit per dozen. Considering I paid 250 Credits for the same amount, I’m somewhat irked by the price. Such is capitalism.
Since it’s only been long enough for the first two batches of animals to reach maturity, meat isn’t offered yet. The children plan to start once the third batch begins laying. And due System growth enhancements, each of the animals are massive. The hens weigh nearly 10 lbs. The roosters, on the other hand, push 15lbs and are quite vicious. More than once one’s gotten loose and severely maimed a resident. Lucky for us, System regeneration heals those wounds in no time. I’m glad there hasn’t been an Alpha rooster yet.
Second, we’ve completed our first harvest.
With the 400% growth bonus, along with the Class Abilities of the Farmers, a truly astonishing quantity of food was grown. Our five Farmers, led by David Edelbrock, planted rice, peppers, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, and carrots. Like the chickens, System ensures each plant grows to an enormous size and produces the maximum they physically can.
Exactly how many pounds of produce they’ve grown is anyone’s guess. All I know is there’s so much we had to buy a System granary, and a large one at that, to store it all. An added benefit of the building is the food’s extended shelf life, and the prevention of pest infestations. System rats are as hungry as they are large.
As per our deal with the Valley (Kingdom) of the Twin Rivers, we provided them with two months’ supply of food after the harvest. With the quantity we have, and the absolute inability for us to eat it all, an additional three months is sold to them for 1,000 Credits. We could sell it for more, sure, but considering the amount we have, their lack of adequate food production capabilities, and the fact they’re our pseudo-allies, it’s justified.
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People are ecstatic at the variety of food. Rationing is no longer a thing, nor is the fact everyone needs to eat from cans. The scavenged food got old. Fast.
Over the last three months, excursions have yielded mixed results.
South Charleston, a few hours' walk south-east of Springfield on State Route 41, is doing alright. They’ve got a Hamlet, called The SC, but not much more. They’re all hillbillies, through and through, and as such, are incredibly insular, judgmental, racist, and egotistical. I think the only reason they talked to us is because one of our Scouts is from there. We’ve set up a dialogue with them, and traded some food and supplies. Because of their lack of Scouts or Rogues, they have little in the way of intel. The SC isn’t interested in any sort of official diplomatic activities, and they let us know not to come around too often. Yay for inbreeding.
Andy and his crew went to London. Once. The city, about twice as far from us as The SC is, but due east, is overrun with monsters. At least two dragons patrol the sky, and packs of dire hounds roam the land. The scouting team lost one member, so I put a mile wide quarantine around the place.
To our south-west are Clifton, Yellow Springs, and Cedarville. The hippie town of Yellow Springs, with its exceptional stores and chill vibe, is mostly degraded by System. Clifton, home to the Clifton Mill (and the world’s largest Christmas lights display), is some sort of weird outdoor dungeon. Cedarville, a once Christian college town, hosts a wildly insane doomsday cult. Several notes in the area say people left for Xenia, as they heard it was a safe place, but that’s a bit too far for us to go right now.
We limit our excursions to twelve miles, or about two days' travel, one way. With the seemingly random zone placement, and subsequent packs of high-level monsters, the further we go the more dangerous it gets. This means we haven’t hit places like Columbus (the state capital), Xenia, Dayton, Urbana, or New Carlisle.
The furthest west we’ve been is Enon, Donnelsville, Lawrenceville, and Tremont. Enon looks like a battle of epic proportions happened there, and the other three are ghost towns.
The small villages, and survivor holdouts the scouting team finds, are yielding good returns. We’ve boosted Carcosa’s coffers, storehouse, and added another dozen residents. Though, with those killed by monsters/dungeons, we’ve only netted six people, bringing us to sixty-six. Class wise, the new arrivals fill out a few of our weak spots. We gained a Baker, Tanner, Tailor, and a Butcher, 3x Fighters, another Cleric, a Druid, a Rogue, and two Paladins.
The White Witch’s Playground, the level five dungeon a stone’s throw from our ramparts, has been put to use. We run everyone, new arrivals included, through enough times to max out their XP earnings. This put our average level at eleven.
Weirdly enough, much like the animals and monsters, people find their fertility rates skyrocketing. Unsurprisingly, many of the women are pregnant. It seems human fetus gestation rates are sped up, too. System guides estimate a human fetus will mature between twenty-five and thirty weeks.
All in all, we’re doing quite well for living in the apocalypse.
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confirm when this book starts and make sure the time jump of three months is consistent throughout. I think there's some mention of 2 months here and there.