We got the ship completed just before the middle of winter. After a few tests, everything seemed to be working right, so the next thing to do was select a group to go to the other island. I'll be going to make sure that everything with the ship works both ways. I'll be bringing along a construction team composed of ten individuals, thirty city guards, which is about one-quarter of our total guards, five of the elite soldiers, and four hobgoblins who will eventually be this ship's permanent captain and crew. The ship itself takes more than four individuals to operate, but those four are the only ones who need to be trained on the complicated parts. The rest of the work is easily completed by untrained individuals for short trips like this.
After the crew was assembled, we set out for the other island. The trip took about ten hours, and then we spent another four hours picking which valley to set up camp in. Ultimately, we picked one with a decent sized stream running into the ocean, though it was quite a bit more narrow than some of the other valleys. We anchored the ship offshore and used two rowboats to ferry ourselves and our supplies onto land.
The guards and soldiers hunted and protected the camp while the construction team and myself worked on building a fort for us to stay in. After about half of a month, we'd made a basic fort such that it took much less effort to protect ourselves. Every day before that, and even afterwards, we'd had a few giant lizards come bother us. I'm pretty sure that these ones are a little smaller than the ones that were on our island, even after factoring in that I'm larger than I was back then. They also have a slightly different pattern on their skin. They aren't any less aggressive though, which is a shame.
There are ground birds on this island as well, though they're also slightly different than our own. They too seem to be slightly smaller, and their plumage seems to be a bit lighter in color. Between hunting and cutting down trees, many of the individuals who came along on this trip have gained quite a few levels.
By the end of the month-long trip, we'd added basic sleeping quarters to the fort, a few storage areas, a proper cooking area, and two charcoal kilns. Our ship's boiler uses charcoal for fuel, so keeping a stockpile at this fort is just common sense. It took us two days to get everything loaded onto the ship to leave. In the future it'll probably take less time, because most of the time spent came down to wasted time due to lack of skill. Though, I decided we should probably add in some basic pulleys to help with hoisting cargo up onto the ship, since lifting a whole rowboat each time was a lot of effort.
Ultimately, our return haul from the island included 70 giant lizard hides, a bunch of charcoal, and a bunch of levels under the belts of most of the trip's participants. Even factoring in the entire year prior where I did at least a month of leveling, I'm still only gaining levels very slowly. I didn't do any lizard killing on this trip though, so that's probably partially to blame.
Level: 44
HP: 2689/2689
MP: 1563/1563
Traits: Mana Affinity, Earth Manipulation, Improved Dexterity, Heat Resistance, Partial Sleep
Magic: Improved Stone Shaping, Tectonic Sense, Improved Earth Spike, Thermal Hands, Pulverize
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As winter gave way to spring, we didn't end up getting any word from the dwarves, which was somewhat nerve wracking. For what it's worth, Elora was getting updates from the elves using their bird messengers. I took what she said with a grain of salt, but it sounds like the situation is at a standstill, with both sides having dug into defensive positions.
Building up our defensive positions seems like a good idea as well. With our new hematite iron production, I'm hoping Karsh can make a fully functioning artillery piece, and we can build up even more coastal defenses. I also had another strategy meeting with Zeb and Zaka to plan out this next year.
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Without any trade, we're currently just stockpiling our extra salt and paper, so we won't be expanding any salt production this year, even though we have a decent supply of quartz coming in from the current mining deposit. I did, however, convince Zeb to dedicate a construction team to expanding the tunnel leading to the current deposit.
We also discussed a few old ideas that had been put aside for some time. Between the terrace farms and our normal clearing of forests to make new farms, we've gotten to the point where we've decided to dedicate a construction team to developing some villages outside of the city. Currently, some of the farms are about a two hour trek from the city gates. So, after looking at some maps, we've picked out two locations to build villages. The general idea is that a village will have between 40 and 75 individuals. They'll be mostly self-sufficient, though they'll only have basic necessities.
The plan is to have the villages have a well, some warehouses, a carpenter, an inn, and houses rather than apartments. One is being built along the road that goes around the island, just before the tunnel to the other valley. The other is being built up along the road up the mountain, closer to where we have the allotted forest plots for wood production. Both locations are actually along a stream, but for good measure, a manually operated well is going to be installed too.
The villages won't have a city wall, nor will they have a set of guards. Though they'll have a designated leader who'll be in charge of immediate handling of crimes, should they be committed. Ultimately, their village chief will report to Zaka once a month, or if any serious problems arise.
There was also a question as to how fecal waste would be handled. Unlike the city, where I built a sewer system that ran to the ocean, in both of these locations, there is a serious concern about contaminating the water which eventually runs to the city. Ultimately, it was decided that multiple saltpeter fields would be set up near the villages, with extra stone shaping being done to help prevent leeching into the water supply. They'll have special outhouses dug that can be cleaned out periodically to transport the waste to the fields.
At the same time, we still plan on growing the city. Some degree of discussion was had about the idea of building a new style of residence for hosting ogres and other similarly sized demon evolutions. Zaka has his own residence due to his size and status, but there are other demons of similar size which will only increase in number over time as more demons evolve. The main point of the discussion wasn't whether we needed the residences, but rather what form they should take. Should it still be communal housing, or should reaching that level of evolution come with additional residency perks, like having your own house?
Ultimately, it was settled that Zeb's team would continue only building out communal style housing. If a large demon wants a house, they can pay for one like everyone else, and given their increased size and stats, it should be easier for them to earn enough money to do so if they want one.
We also still have a significant amount of excess stone coming from the terracing and mining operations. So, while the port won't be directly expanded this year, the two jetties over there will be, as a way to use up the excess stone. The jetties help calm and direct the waves in the harbor, so it should make the port easier to navigate. We've also reached the point where the salvage team has started to run out of sunken ships that they can recover supplies from.
For over a year now, they've been collecting the remnants of the ships from the city's side of the island, and there are much fewer on that side of the island. That being the case, we'll switch it over to harvesting float vines from locations that are harder to reach for the rowboats. That also brought up the notion that next year the group going to the other island over winter should include some float vine harvesters, so we can gather even more float vine as it's actually our limiting factor in a number of metallurgic processes.
Hopefully, by next winter, the war will have died down and we can resume business as normal. Internal growth is great, but integrating ourselves into the economy of other countries is one of the best ways to prevent war.