Six sat across from Irduth in one of the red wood meeting rooms of the town hall. The brown robed, half-orc wore his red sash and clutched his massive tome. They had just finished the debrief with the rest of the officers and Charles and he’d sent them on their way.
Everyone except Irduth.
“Irduth,” Six began. “I find your performance lacking.”
Irduth sat up, bringing himself to his full height. “Is that so, Six?”
“Mhhhm. Yes, you executed a surrendering hostile with no pressing need to. You postured with our healer to do so. You’re kinda a dick.”
The half-orc scoffed. “You are a dick as well and you didn’t stop me.
Six face palmed. “Bro, I shouldn’t have had to.”
“Imperial Regulations state-”
“Fuck your Imperial Regulations, for the last fucking time.”
“Then what was I supposed to operate off of? If the Imperial Regulations are not the standard what is?”
“That’s actually fair and the only reason as to why I'm only restricting your assignments. Despite everyone else not killing that fucking thing, you went out of your way, overcame Kali Kik, and killed a low leveled surrendering creature.”
“You’re restricting my assignments?”
It's like Irduth wasn’t even listening. Six rested his hand on his own chest. “Although it is my fault for not training you properly, you still are not trained properly. It may seem self-evident but it bears noting. Charles will be your direct commander and as I mold him to my standards he shall mold you.”
“I will not be told what to do by a painted boy! Save me Kynairos, I resign!” Irduth dropped that almost involuntarily, slapping the table.
Six capitalized on Irduth’s outburst. “Accepted. Done. You are discharged from the military. You may leave.”
Irduth looked conflicted and confused but slowly stood. “Do I have to leave Mountain’s End?”
Six shrugged. “Nah, that's cool. Just don’t be a shitlord or yer done.”
Irduth nodded and left the office, dazed.
Six leaned back in his creaking chair. He now was to meet with Charles and Leoka.
Ravna was pregnant. Six was going to be a father. He wasn’t sure if he was ready but he was damn sure gonna try his best. It was an all consuming thought that presented itself whenever he had a chance to breathe. He was excited, but also scared. This was not the ideal place to raise a baby.
He felt an additional pressure, a familiar feeling, familial obligation. A big part of him just wanted to skip out on his leadership duties and make a proper house for Ravna but they had a few months before she really needed anything special. Providing for his coming family could wait.
It was the village that needed more of everything and Six wanted to get moving on the fundamental infrastructure that everything else would be linked to.
But really, what was Mountain End? What kind of community did he want to evolve this place into?
The Emperor Tree helped with growth so should he try to stack that? Rush out a bunch of schools and the like? He had his affinity searching program and the 5% administration and scholar townhall bonus which also kinda stacked with growth.
His pondering was interrupted by Charles and Leoka entering the room. Six analyzed them both.
Charles Penult
Orc
Level 10
Leoka Root
Human
Level 8
Not bad.
Leoka had only leveled once but Charles had shot up to level 10. Six smiled at them both, it was good to see your team on the come up.
Six gestured for the two to sit. “So, you heard my story out there in the north. What happened while I was gone?”
The two leaders looked between each other before Leoka gestured for Charles to begin.
Charles coughed and tried to meet Six’s eyes with furrowed brows. “It's been over a month, Six. A lot has happened.”
That felt vaguely accusatory but Six kept his stare neutral. “Yea, it's been a while. You good?”
Charles sighed. “Yes,I’m ‘good,’ thank you. After those people you recruited came back with Gatbark and the food, a flood of migrant peasantry followed behind. We decided to turn most of them away but they have taken to camping outside the palisade. Some try to sneak in but are quickly found out.
Their movements keep drawing bandits and monsters to our village. Inevitably we must march forth during these attacks to protect them. The bandits we pacify are given 5 years of prison with credit for service, thus the criminal auxiliaries are growing but our town defenses and food supplies are being stressed. The extra help from the soldiers has been instrumental in preventing our village guard from being ground to dust.”
Six grunted his approval, tapping his steepled fingers.
“Poh Doh has proven instrumental in the defense of the people and the trespassers. He has become somewhat of a comforting sight for most. Thank you for lending me his help during your absence, another vital point of defense.
Poh Doh was also a good deterrent for the angry mobs that demanded entry to Mountain’s End.”
“Angry mobs?” Six asked?
“The migrants wish to be let in. They do not wish to live outside the palisade and twice now have attempted to force the gates.”
“How did you stop them?”
“Sent Poh Doh to travel beneath the earth and hit their leaders with a surprise attack. They were unprepared and died easily.”
“You killed them?”
“They tried to force the gates?” Charles replied as if was unsure of its validity. “You disapprove?”
“I-” Six began before he stopped himself, he wasn’t sure what to think. “Would it have been possible to capture them?”
Charles considered. “Well, I suppose but the purpose was to stop the mob, not kill their leaders. I wanted to demonstrate force?”
“You learn all that at the academy?”
Charles nodded.
“And you have not cleared them from our land?”
“It didn’t seem like something you would do. I had those with clear culpability eliminated, that was enough.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Thank you Charles. Good job.” Charles had performed perfectly and Six was relieved to hear of him handling the daily problems of defense in a competent manner. “Is that all?”
“Yes sir.” Charles nodded and stood at attention.”
“Hmmm… You’re level 10 now… You pick your class?”
A smile crossed over Charles face. “I’m a Khan of the Dancing Ritual.”
“Ritual? Are you a caster type? I barely taught you those spells right before I left. How’d you pull this off?”
Charles beamed. “It's a commander enchanter type class. My perks are so cool!”
Six and Charles went back and forth for a bit about Charles' class. Many of the perks he had available helped his War Leader skill but many also scaled off his Enchantment skill. They mostly worked to enhance the effects of the skills over a long range. He was going to be a very powerful support asset in large scale conflicts.
An amazing class of the Transcendent rank, Khan of the Dancing Ritual was top tier but not as good as Six’s Predominant Golemclad Runechanter.
That being said, Time Blade or Warrior. It didn’t matter if one was possessed of enough will and skill.
Leoka tapped the table and brought the pair’s attention back to the work at hand. “What should we do about those outside the walls?”
“Should we not try to help them?” Six asked. “Is it not the right thing to do?”
Leoka shook her head, no. “We owe them nothing. Most of them are not… good. And, we need your help more.”
Six snorted derisively. “What does that even mean? Were the people of Alita village not deserving of help?”
“It means that you have a responsibility to us.” Leoka delivered evenly. “the people of Alita were running from a monster. These people could have stayed where they were.”
“Indeed, but Olisrosa is a shit place right now. Can't blame em for leaving that anymore than Alison's half of the settlers. It is not so simple as to only be responsible for one's tribe. We are part of an ecosystem. ”
Charles shook his head, no. “It belongs to the people already under it, do not endanger us by helping more than we can.”
“Nah. It belongs to no one, it's something I grant. But, you are right Charles, it would be inappropriate to allow them to overcrowd and over-tax us without proper services to scale with it.”
Leoka sighed. “We're already pressed. Constantly on the brink of beginning to ration. Always sleeping like potatoes dumped in a box. We can't let more people in. We can't feed them, house them, clothe them, train them.”
“Why are they here?” Six asked?”
“They think they can work for food! They heard about your job offers and came up the Kynairos blasted river!” Leoka snapped, this was clearly a sore spot for her.
Six hadn’t even completed the hiring process, it had been Gatbark and from the looks of the population increase it he had filled the boats of Elyria and Jeffums to the brim.
Leoka sighed in hopelessness. “Most of them know there is no work for them but still request food. They are begging. Our village has a horde of beggars.”
Six tapped his steepled fingers together. “Hmm. This is a problem.”
“Yes! And Gatbark keeps bringing them in!”
“Gatbark?”
“Yes!”
“Why’s he doing that?” Six knew why the grubby bastard was bringing in more people from the outside. More hands to put to work.”
Leoka groaned. “I don’t know but he won't listen to me when I tell him to stop.”
Of course he wouldn’t listen to Leoka. “Hmmm. I'll talk to him. What's the food situation?”
“We are fine, but there’s almost our entire population out there. We can't afford to feed ourselves and them, our timeline would halve. I can put a lot of them to work but feeding them all is gonna be a problem.”
“Were we not due for a harvest?” Six asked.
Leoka nodded. “And it was a good one, already the farms have the next sowing done but they say it will take longer as the buff has expired. It's been gone for nearly two weeks now.”
That's unfortunate. I wasn’t paying attention to that. Charles, you didn’t reapply them?” Six had spent some time teaching Charles his earth magic spells, Plant Growth being one of them.
“I’ve been extremely busy. The bandits grow worse and more powerful and our scouts say Olisrosa takes more and more land back from the countryside. This is something we should be doing but I do not have time to clear these lands and continue to administrate the military. Nor do I have time to go and channel the Plant Growth spell in the middle of nowhere.”
“You have no one to clear these lands?”
“You and those officers represent a significant portion of our strength and I wanted to wait before committing us to any significant offensive. There is no reason to rush in this matter as I doubt Olisrosa will seek to claim the Deathspire forest in any meaningful sense.”
Six considered Charles’ assessment, tapping his steepled fingers. “That's fair.”
They sat in silence for a bit until Leoka broke it, blurting out, “your abrupt trip was not the most well thought out.” She flinched but nothing happened.
Six agreed with her. He hadn’t thought it out that well. He kinda just did it. Now was the time to plan something well thought out for the immediate and far future of Mountain’s End.
There were his current quests which were both somewhat village based,
Orison Density I
Increase permanent sentient density to 10000 residents who call Deathspire mountain their home.
Sentient residents 3101/10000
Rewards for Completion: Level up of the Deathspire Mountain Ley Core
And
Remove the Trolls
The leadership of the settlers have determined that the trolls in the immediate area pose a threat. Remove the threat that the trolls pose.
Rewards for Accepting: None
Rewards for Completion: Voluntary Spiritual Energy
Relationship
Fame
Clout
Time Limit: None
Penalty for Failure: Loss of relationship with the settlers
Do you Accept? Yes or No?
The trolls were high priority but when questioned Charles had received no reports of them since Six had last tussled with them. Still, they were out there.
Six had the infrastructure projects to personally work on but couldn’t ignore the massive pool of untapped people that could be put to work if he could feed and protect them.
There was already an imperial coin based economy brewing within Mountain’s End without any civic prodding.
Alison had set it up to have the people she brought along paid, roomed, and fed. Six had tried to organize it the same way. Now these people from Olisrosa had shown up and camped outside their palisade.
Willing to work for nothing but food. Begging for food.
The collapse of the empire had created ripples of destabilization that would be felt for decades to come.
Six needed to devise a way to guide his people through that catastrophic surf.
He was no genius and he couldn’t hold it all in his head. He kinda wished he invested some points into intelligence.
But as the frustration built he observed it and stopped himself. He could only do his best, getting caught up in negative thoughts wouldn’t help anyone.
Skill increase: Mindfulness - Initiate - 17
He needed to break it down to its most base. If he wasn’t gonna drive these migrants from the walls he needed to integrate them and furthermore create a system of integration and assimilation that could easily scale to whatever population Mountain’s End grows to.
Of course he knew that systems of governance and administration couldn’t just be copy and pasted but the central design intention was more important at this point.
To integrate them he needed to give them a reason to want to assimilate into his ‘tribe’.
He was ok with certain forms of control but would rather have his society collapse than prosecute thought crime or practice mind control or whatever.
The easiest and most ethical form of control would be the carrot. Provide a simple and safe life compared to the alternative.
A shudder rippled through him. How easy he fell to the power grab.
He’d known he would be like this… controlling.
His feelings on the matter were irrelevant. He had a responsibility.
Increasing the food supply was the utmost critical task. They needed to be completely self-sufficient.
He asked Leoka to gather all the tested enchanters with a high earth magic affinity and have them meet him out by the first of the farms tomorrow morning.
Plant Growth was a powerful spell in many aspects, the most powerful being that almost anyone could perform the channeling version of it.
Six just needed to train a few Geomancers in the spell and he could delegate the buffing duties to someone else. Really, he should create a magical academy or some shit like that. He already had his enchanters. Expanding the disciplines even to a minor extent could only pay dividends.
But one thing at a time. He checked the village screen.
Mountain’s End
Rank 1 Village Current Citizens: 721 Current Gross Wealth: 10363 Gold
Policy: Minor Monarchy Morale: Low Crime: Moderate
Hygiene: Deficient Education: Minor Magical Structures: 23
The population inside the village had risen by a few hundred. A result of his recruitment and Gatbark’s continued efforts, most likely.
They brought in a ton of money while he was gone somehow. Or was that because of the arrival of the officers and himself with their loot?
“Crime is on the rise,” Six said it as half a question, half a statement.
Charles nodded. “No laws but crime is on the rise, yeah that's about right.”
Six grunted. “Ok. That’s a problem.”
Leoka snickered.
Six rolled his eyes. “Hygiene is down. Thats a fucking problem too. It's starting to stink.”
“That's normal,” Leoka said. “Just gotta watch out for the doctors.”
“Doctors?”
“Plague doctors,” she said, as if Six was an idiot.
Charles smiled gracefully and explained. “There is an order of doctors that roam the land purging cities on the brink of plague. We should work to avoid such a fate. The plague we spawned would be hell enough before the doctors arrived.”
Six grunted.
Education was now Minor Magical. He wondered about that classification and received a pop up box.
Minor Magical: Focusing on the creation of magically inclined individuals this location places importance on the nurturing of those with an affinity for magic. Providing resources and tutelage for those lucky few.
Hmm. Well, maybe he should try to diversify his education system a bit. Calling it a ‘system’ was a bit of a stretch really.
Morale was still Low which was obviously bad.
Looking at this screen showed him things were getting worse. They weren’t keeping up with the demands of a budding civilization.
He was failing them and as much as he tried to stomp down on his ego, it still irked him that he wasn’t doing his job well enough.
He felt the impulse to immediately get to work but he spent over an hour hashing out various gameplans for himself, Charles, and Leoka to put into action. He needed to delegate.
He had a general to-do list but he couldn’t just focus on one aspect of it, he had to build them up concurrently beside each other. All with a view for the future growth of Mountain’s End in mind.
FOOD: Train more enchanters in Plant Growth and the Minor Rune of the First Foundation of Growth. Establish more farms.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Many civic services were missing He couldn’t develop them all simultaneously. He needed to pick the first project to focus on and he decided on a sewer system. Hygiene was dropping, he could deal with disgruntled people but not sick people. So he would install a system of respiration, in with materials, out with waste.
HYGIENE: The outflow of waste is not enough for cleanliness but he needed to also establish education, health, and garbage services. He’d already begun to see food waste and animal shit strewn about.
HOUSING: He needed to get people into shelter.
CLEAR LANDS AND ESTABLISH SECURITY: Establish the true borders of Mountain’s End and establish who our neighbors are and our geolocational and political position to them respectively. Something to collaborate with Charles with.
CRIME: Investigate the reason for the rise in crime and create counter measures.
TROLLS: Kill those fucking trolls.
Charles and Leoka had similar lists but for their own respective areas of administration and all three were happy to end the meeting and get back to their ever increasing duties.
Six wanted to go spend some time with Ravna before he immersed himself in work but pushed that desire away.
He had a shit ton of ley workers to conjure up.