Looking at everyone, I think for a second before I speak up. "While we are on the topic of fortifications and buildings, there is something that I need to show everyone." Taking a small step back since we have decided on what we are planning to do with the token building. Browsing my menus, I find an option to show everyone the new building blueprints we have just received. I also received a shock due to how the system breaks down all the new buildings, leaving me pleasantly surprised.

- New Building Blueprints:

Housing:

Adaptive Housing Level 1 - Adapts the environment inside the house for all species so they have a better environment than the most basic of accommodations. 5 meters X 5 meters. Requires a Journeyman Enchanter and Journeyman Foreman. 200 Tier 2 Wood, 200 Tier 2 Metal

Defenses/Military Support

Stone Walls Level 1 - Stone walls with a high defense and a walking path that can accommodate two people standing shoulder to shoulder. Reaches 7 meters in height. 10 Units of Tier 1 Stone per 5 meters.

Spike Traps Level 1 - Basic spikes that can be placed inside pits or around the defenses. Requires 2 Units of Tier 1 Wood per 3 meters of spikes.

Moat Level 1 - A bare ditch dug out around the settlement. No materials are required.

Wooden Gatehouse Leve 1 - A basic gatehouse that will provide access into and out of the settlement. The gatehouse is 5 meters wide, 5 meters long, and 7 meters high. It is reinforced with heavy wooden doors and a crossbeam to shut. Requires 30 Units of Tier 1 wood.

Stone Gatehouse Level 1 - A stone gatehouse that will provide access into and out of the settlement. The gatehouse is 7 meters wide, 7 meters long, and 10 meters high. It has metal-reinforced wooden doors with a portcullis. Requires 30 Units of Tier 1 stone, 10 Units of Tier 1 wood and 10 Units of Tier 1 metal.

Ballista Towers Level 1 - These defensive ballistae fire bolts at a maximum rate of 2 per minute while they are manned. Requires 5 Units of Tier 1 wood and 3 Units of Tier 1 metal

Wall-mounted Catapults Level 1 - Attached to a stone wall, these artillery placements lob large boulders at attacking forces. Fires at a rate of 1 stone per minute for larger boulders and 2 per minute for smaller shots. Requires a stone wall, a journeyman foreman, 5 Units of Tier 1 wood, and 3 Units of Tier 1 metal.

Infantry Training Yard Level 1 - A basic training yard that provides dummies and a sparring ring. Increase the training time of skills by 5%. Requires 20 Units of Tier 1 wood.

Archery Training Yard Level 1 - A basic training yard providing dummies and target range. Increase the training time of skills by 5%. Requires 20 Units of Tier 1 wood.

Apprentice Mage Tower Level 1 - A basic tower that provides dummies to fire magic at, dummies to heal, and ample space to practice group-based spells. Increase the training time of skills by 5%. Requires 20 Units of Tier 1 stone.

Logistics:

Docks Level 1 - A construct that will allow the building of fishing vessels and other small boats. Requires access to a large body of water, and 50 Units of Tier 1 wood.

Shipyard Level 1 - This shipyard will allow access to build large vessels up to 20 meters long. Requires a Journeyman Foreman, 200 Units of Tier 2 wood, and 100 Units of Tier 2 stone.

Communication Tower Level 1 - A tower that allows instant communication between two towers at a range of 20 km. Multiple towers can increase the range of communication but must be placed in a straight line with the one in use. It requires a Journeyman Foreman, a Journeyman Inscriptionist, 200 Units of Tier 2 stone, and 200 Units of Tier 2 metal.

Irrigation Channels Level 1 - With access to water, these channels can increase the yield and speed of crop growth when the plots are located within 20 meters of the channel. Requires access to fresh water.

Wooden Bridge Level 1 - A simple wooden bridge connecting roads from one side of a river. It can only stretch over a 10-meter-wide river. Requires 10 Units of Tier 1 wood.

Stone Bridge Level 1 - A simple stone bridge connecting roads from one side of a river. It can only stretch over a 10-meter-wide river. Requires 10 Units of Tier 1 stone.

Offensive:

Siege Tower Level 1 - A basic siege tower that will allow attackers to mount onto walls up to 10 meters in height. Requires 10 Units of Tier 1 wood.

Special:

Summoning Portal Base Level 1 — This is a one-time-use blueprint for positioning a summoning portal base. It requires a Journeyman Foreman, a Journeyman Inscriptionist, a Journeyman Enchanter, 400 Units of Tier 2 stone, and 100 Units of Tier 2 metal.

Summoning Portal Tower Level 1 - This is a one-time blueprint that allows positioning a summoning portal tower. It requires a Journeyman Foreman, a Journeyman Inscriptionist, a Journeyman Enchanter, 200 Units of Tier 2 stone, and 300 Units of Tier 2 metal. -

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I look towards Dreamish, "It seems we have a way to train everyone in the specific skills and abilities now, along with more defensive options for when the attack arrives."

"That we do, Drake," She agrees. "I would like to get the moat in place and then fill it with the wooden spikes if we have the spare materials. I also want to get the different training yards in place, so we have some extra time."

"The moat won't be a problem since we can have Oria. I wonder if we can use that dirt differently to have multiple defensive lines?" Laxreal says.

"That isss a good question. My thoughtsss would be to get the training groundsss for the different troopsss up quickly asss well." Adds Vranjaya.

"It would be a great place to start training everyone for the rest of tomorrow since we only have that much time left." I offer.

"While this is all good," Dreamish pulls us back to the original topic. "We still need a way out of the settlement to gather more, and maybe there are options we haven't considered to extend the time like we did the last time. I don't want to deal with a night attack when I know not everyone can see that well in the dark."

Looking at the group, I agree with everything said thus far. Turning to Shadow, I ask. "What do you think? Should we see about getting people out to get more experience and try to extend our clock till at least the morning of the day after tomorrow?"

"Yes. There isn't a need to overthink that. What notification did you receive when we went into the fog with the large group last time?" He asks me.

I looked around my menus to see if there was a log of the notifications I received. Finding it after a little bit of digging, I showed all of them the exact notification.

- As a noble leading this army, you may select what you want to do since it is the first time entering as a noble.

War

Extermination

Exploration

Conquest -

"So, from what I can see, the best option for us to get more time is to send groups into the fog. I hope they can find camps or other items to extend our time." Shadow states.

"I would be curious what it would look like to just send one person through and what scenario they receive. The two times that we have gone through were completely different experiences." I offer, "The first time, we ended up getting an outpost that was connected to the cave that we entered. The second time, we were all split up, and my mission was to gather everyone from the party, which led to several different situations."

"You be meaning when you be helping me to receive my beast form?" Zul'Zara interjects.

"Or when you help free me from a cell in a goblin encampment." Strauvana follows up.

"And when you found the tower, I struggled to open it and then received your elemental alignment," Laxreal finishes.

"Yes." I sigh. We have never gone in by ourselves. Honestly, I am tempted to try it." I quickly raise my hand to stave off any comments from my family. I am currently the only person in the entire settlement with healing capabilities. And I have plenty of options to keep enemies at bay while firing from a distance."

My father quickly steps up, "I wouldn't typically agree with what you are saying, but in this instance, you might have a point. But I don't condone you going out before we have an attack on where we are. As you just said. You are the only one who has the possibility of healing us if we are in danger of losing our lives."

Hearing the logic from my father, I nod my head in agreement. "So what do you think we should do?"

"I would vote to send in groups like you said earlier, so it is potentially safer for everyone who goes. Maybe they have some healing potions that they can use while out. And while those groups are out, we can get some more work on getting the defenses up and running."

"I would have to agree with your father," Laxreal starts. "There are several things that I think you could be working on to improve yourself without the need to get into harms way. Have you considered working on your enchanting? Or work on some spells you have learned to increase their proficiency?"

"Once we get the mage's tower up, you could always go over to it and start to work on your spells in a more effective environment," Strauvana says.

"Those are good recommendations for Drake, but we must get things situated first before we get too far ahead of ourselves." Dreamish pulls the conversation back to the main topic. "The gate should be positioned towards the west since the north and south have bodies of water obscuring most of the land mass for monsters to attack, and we can easily see anything coming from all three of those directions."

"I second that thought," Shadow states in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Third," Vranjaya offers.

With the three commanders having the same opinion, I look towards the rest of the group. "Does anyone else have thoughts on where the gate should go?"

Seeing that everyone is shaking their heads, I pull up the settlement interface and select the wall portion we want to make into a gate.

- Notice: Since you are trying to place a gate on this section of the wall, the material cost for the gatehouse has decreased due to the materials from the previous building being of a compatible type. Resource cost has been reduced by 5 Units of Tier 1 wood. -

Before implementing the new gatehouse, I asked the room one final question: "Do we want to start with a wooden gatehouse, or should we swap to the stone gatehouse?"

Dreamish offers first, "While having the stone gatehouse would be a boon right now, I don't know if we should spend the resources on it quite yet. We aren't producing a lot of stone at the moment even though we can get more with the resource boxes."

"The same could be said about the wooden gatehouse," Shadow retorts. "I vote we go for the stone gatehouse. While it costs more overall, we might be able to get more people on top of it to fire down at any foes."

Dreamish looks thoughtful for a moment before conceding the point. "This is the wise option. I guess I was getting stuck looking at what we have on hand and forgetting, even as I said, that we can quickly get more stone when the resource boxes come along."

"Ssso, are we agreed that we ssshould build the stone gatehoussse, even though it will end up costing more materials?" Vranjaya asked.

"I think that is exactly what we will be doing," I respond as I select it and place it in the exact location.

- Notice: Due to selecting the stone gatehouse there will be a 5 Unit of Tier 1 wood cost reduction for this building. Proceed? Yes/No -

I mentally select yes and wait for the building to be placed down. Upon doing so, I see if anyone is chosen to be a builder for any other projects and find neither has an assignment. Figuring I should put everything into place before I start my next couple of items, I place the moat around the entire encampment other than the entrance, leaving a 5-meter wide span that we can easily adjust right before the attack starts. Following that, I try to put the wooden stakes into the moat beforehand, but I cannot until it has been completed. Slightly depressed, I selected Oria as the builder for the moat.

- Stone Gatehouse Level 1 time till completion: 5 Hours 56 Minutes 24 Seconds

Moat Level 1 time till completion: 8 Hours 54 Minutes -