I continued by looking at my skill list and I really needed to get basic meditation to tier up as I felt it was just on the edge of a level up. Otherwise, I still had quite a lot of basic skills, especially in the resource-gathering section. I needed to work on that otherwise I feel like my levelling up has decreased even on the lower end. I guess I’m running up to the wall that my previous life experience has made.

I now picked up speed and it didn’t take long until I reached Francis who was almost halfway to the village. I slowed down and walked beside him looking him over. He did have a small wound on his right side, but it wasn't that deep, and it was already healing up quite well.

I examined him and found that he was close to reaching the first rank which was incredible. I noticed that almost all of the wolves were at a similar stage, and I wondered if our nation’s third first rank would be an animal or would someone else beat them to it.

I believe that the few other people were now close to the first rank, and I was incredibly curious about who would receive this honour. There will not be an official prize or anything like that it was just something I wanted to keep an eye out for my own amusement.

After walking beside Francis for quite a while keeping him company I finally pushed forward and quickly made it back to the village. It was now close to night time but people were still working hard. Currently, most of the effort is spent on dealing with all the loot we got from the battle and taking care of the wounded soldiers.

It was a bit harder using my map to find people when there were so many of them around but eventually, I was able to locate David who seemed to be with his brother in the orphanage. When I finally reached them, it took them a few moments to register that I was there after which both of them seemed to exude panic. “Both of you come with me we have some things to discuss.” I waited until Mirhit nodded. He got up and pulled his brother along.

I kept my walking pace down so they could easily keep up with me. I led them to the village hall into one of the side rooms that's still got light even at this late hour. We sat behind a table, and I looked at them for quite a while thinking how I wanted to play this, but I chose not to play any games.

“Mirhit, you have done a great service to this nation. Both you and your brother are welcome to stay here as long as you want, or you can go whenever.” I then pulled out a chest and placed it on the table. “This is your pay and the reward you have certainly earned.” After I finished saying that Mirhit pulled the chest closer and opened it.

His mouth hung open when he saw the number of gold coins and almost 500 monster cores. He looked up at me and back to the treasure multiple times, but he still couldn’t say any words. “If you want, we can now be done and you won't ever have to talk to me again, but I would like to offer you a job.” This made him finally stop looking at the treasure and concentrate fully on me again.

“What kind of a job,” he asked. “Well for the lack of a better word you would be this nation's spymaster.” He immediately wanted to shake his head, but I raised my hand which made him stop.

“I am not expecting you to already know what you are doing. It will be a long process and you will have people who will teach you the relevant skills but currently, I am most interested in your ability to gather information using your insects. Our nation doesn't have a lot of people and there is no need to spy on our own people but there is a need to know what’s happening outside our borders and that’s where you could help a lot.” I explained.

That made him think. He asked some clarifying questions, and I explained some more but after about an hour of speaking, I was able to convince him to take the job. I guided them back to the orphanage and had to sit on top of the City Hall to think during the night. I will report the new position during the military meeting, but Mirhit already vowed the military oath, and I didn’t think anyone would have any problems with our new spymaster.

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That took care of one of our biggest worries, not having information about our surroundings. I felt like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders. This decision felt right and hopefully, I can give more of that weight to other people. Then eventually I could just live on my homestead and enjoy life. But it will take a long time until I can be worry-free while just farming.

I used the rest of the night to meditate on my adaptive metabolism. With it, I can now get sustenance from things that I couldn’t before but overall, the trait was useful when I was in situations where I was running out of normal food.

What this meditation session gave me was a tier-up for my basic meditation skill. Once again the decision was an easy one. One of the choices was unconscious awareness. I am most vulnerable when I am sleeping. If this ability eliminates or helps overcome this weakness it was an incredible get.

The ability was passive meaning I needed to dedicate some of my energy regens to keep it up. I will need to test this later but how to test it was a good question. It was almost time for the morning meeting. When I made it there a lot of people were already there and we now had a larger table so we could fit all the new people who had the clan administrator’s trait.

I was going to have to learn all the new people’s names and I haven’t even remembered all the previous people’s names. I really hoped that the new trait keen mind would help with this. The first order of business was for David to explain how our economy was going to work. I paid rapt attention and finally, I wasn’t constantly thinking about the upcoming battle allowing me to actually understand what he was explaining.

We were going to use a merit system where 10 United Freeholds credits equal one gold coin. The credits were going to be directly tied to gold coins meaning that you could exchange one gold coin for 10 credits or do the opposite. That meant that we needed enough supplies so we wouldn't run out of coins. The idea was to eventually have every citizen use a credit card so we wouldn't have to deal with so many coins, making it a lot easier for everyone.

Someone named Aravel asked why we needed this credits system at all if it was going to be tied to the old system of currency. David gave multiple good reasons but currently, the most important reason for us was that we didn't have enough physical currency to actually keep our economy running. It also helped manage our plans for how our workforce was going to be used.

Tomorrow we were going to open the jobs building. We were no longer going to be hiring, for example, a builder to work for our nation doing jobs we tell him to do like building a wall. We were instead going to post a notice of employment in the jobs building that we were going to require a builder to build a wall.

In the job post is certain knowledge or whatever else requirements were needed to build, for example, a wall. A person can decide if they want to accept that job post or not. Included in the job posting was how much they were going to be paid and anything else important like perhaps housing near the building site.

Not only the government could post jobs but everyone else who wanted as well. The job listing could also be for a long-term position like perhaps a smithing apprentice. You could also post that you were teaching some skill or knowledge and people could sign up to take your class. Basically, if you had something to offer or wanted something you could post it inside the job building where people could find it.

This way of doing things was necessary because of the homesteader class. David had spoken to my apprentices and me as well and one thing that we learned was that the homesteader didn't want a permanent job outside the area of the homestead. But even I would be willing to take up a job like helping build a wall if it was just that job.

The other consideration was the trait that every citizen of this nation had. The trait clan Freeman is now known a lot better thanks to there being so many who have the same trait. The biggest problem at the beginning was that the trait didn’t have a gender equivalent for women. Everyone just got the clan Freeman trait.

The big problem now seemed to be that if you hired someone for lifetime service who had this trait, they get antsy or worse. The trait didn't like it when people were too tied down. It wanted its person to have a level of freedom to pursue their dreams.

For example, if you opened your own bakery then that didn't affect it but most likely it was because it was your own initiative, your own place. If you were hired as a pastry chef for your entire life you wouldn't be able to keep your mind from wandering. The bakery that opened now only hired for five years at a time and that seemed to fix the problem but it was still something we need to take into account.