“Is this a good spot?” I asked, as I was manipulating the blueprint of the Grain Windmill around, trying to find the most optimal placement.
“More to the left,” Imu told me. “You want it within easy access of all the farming plots.”
“Can’t I just make more?”
“No. It’s wasteful if you don’t need it.”
“Okay…” I replied, defeated.
After placing the blueprint, a team of four Builders got to work quickly assembling it, although I could already tell it would take a while to complete. Almost exactly at the same time, the three Foragers I’d sent out with express orders to find wheat returned, their leader clutching a single tuft of what-looked-like-dried-grass.
“How fortuitous,” Imu declared. “…Ah. One of the Foragers just died on the spot. You should’ve given them provisions for their journey.”
“I didn’t think they would be gone that long!” I argued back and quickly zoomed over to check on the other two, who were both malnourished and weak from over a day of non-stop searching. As soon as I told their leader to bring his treasure to a Farmer, so that it could be converted into seeds for our fields, he keeled over, his companion following shortly after.
“For what it’s worth, I blame you entirely for this,” Imu said. “While your minions are only human-adjacent, they still have needs, like water and sustenance.”
“I know, but it just seems like such a waste to give it to them!”
“Didn’t you say you weren’t going to be a tyrant?”
“…I don’t like how good your memory is,” I replied obstinately.
With wheat steadily growing in a tilled farming plot and the twenty houses and the windmill complete, I could finally turn my attention to figuring out how to evolve my minions into actual roles, rather than keeping them in the vague jack-of-all-trades category they all had now, with only their tasks and assigned tools dictating their role, but very little except work-experience distinguishing them from one another.
“What should we start with?” I asked, facing decision paralysis myself, as I had no clue if a Baker, Breeder, or Mayor made the most sense to go with first. The only decision I’d managed to make was that a Butcher would definitely be the last thing I’d create.
“The Mayor unlocks an ability that I think you would enjoy, but a Breeder has more utility, given what we can do with cattle, both in terms of food and fertilising our fields to speed-up and boost the quantity yield of our harvests.”
“Breeder!” I exclaimed excitedly.
“Don’t you want to hear the Mayor’s unique skill first?”
“Okay…”
“Check it out:” Imu lifted his hands and a section from his Encyclopaedia appeared in the air, just like when he’d shown me the evolution requirements:
Evolving a minion to the rank of Mayor unlocks the [Mouthpiece] skill!
[Mouthpiece] – Allows for the direct control of a Mayor or any leader-evolved minion.
“Imu.”
“Yes?”
“I’ve changed my mind.”
“I know,” he replied sagely.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“Mayor’s House, here we come!”
[Crafting List]
>Structures
—Mayor’s House (Workbench)—
Unlocks the ability to evolve your oldest minion into a Mayor
Required Materials: Stone, Timber, & Wrought Iron
“Uh oh. We need iron… and a Forge…”
[Crafting List]
>Structures>Crafting
—Stone Forge (Workbench)—
Enables Ore Smelting, but lowers minion motivation in nearby structures
Required Materials: Stone
“We’ll need to send our gathers out to look for iron deposits, but at least the Forge will be simple enough to make. Make sure to put it away from the houses and crops though. It lets out a lot of smog and seems to lower the motivation of the minions who have to sleep next to it, as well as lowering the crop yield of nearby farming plots.”
“Motivation? What’s that?”
“You really are a tyrant.”
Fortunately, it only took about a day before our new Forge, placed on the fringes of my demesne, began spilling smoke into the air as iron was melted and refined from clumps of impure deposits.
Thanks to the many houses and their contribution to the size of my Hamlet, I now had thirty metres in radius out from the central tree to work with, and, as a result, not to mention Imu’s insistent urging, I moved the houses, farming plots, workbench, windmill, loom, and other stuff out and away from my tree more, which they had been crowding for a while now.
“It still looks like a mess, but it seems you don’t get proper city planning until next evolution.”
“It’s beautiful,” I replied, uncaring about his sensibilities. In a way, my hamlet was like some of the ant hives I’d sometimes been fascinated with back in the swamp.
“Oh, look, your Smith is done refining the iron.”
“Finally! Builders! Build that Mayor’s House!”
All sixteen of my Builders ran to where I’d placed the building blueprint at the very base of my tree. Given the importance of the Mayor and his house, I had decided, without Imu’s help, that it should be the closest to my core.
As one, the sixteen Builders all prepared to swing their hammers, but then they stopped, tilting their heads in sync and scratching their uniformly-bald and rubbery pates.
“What’s wrong!?”
“You need Wrought Iron. What you have there is Crude Iron.”
“I hate this System.”
“Me too, Toad. Me too.”
I used the crude iron to construct an Anvil, which did not seem to require a specific type of iron to craft, placing it next to the Forge, and earnt myself another System message:
Congratulations! For constructing your first Anvil, you unlocked the ability to craft Metallurgy Tools! Additionally, you can now craft Wrought Iron versions of all Stone tools! I bet you think you’re hard as steel…
>Items>Tools
—Iron Forge-Hammer (Anvil)—
Grants Metal Shaping skill and increasing Forging XP by 50%
Required Materials: Wood & Iron
—Iron Metal-Cutter (Anvil)—
Grants Precise Forging skill and increases Forging Output by 25%
Required Materials: Iron
—Iron Tongs (Anvil)—
Enables Hot Metal Handling skill and increases Forging Speed by 20%
Required Materials: Iron
New Versions:
—Iron Axe (Anvil)—
Grants Woodchopping skill and increases minion Harvesting XP by 30%
—Iron Hammer (Anvil)—
Increases minion Building Speed and XP by 40%
—Iron Pick (Anvil)—
Grants Stone-picking skill and increases minion Harvesting XP by 30%
—Iron Rake (Anvil)—
Grants Tilling skill and increases minion Farming XP by 30%
—Iron Scythe (Anvil)—
Increases minion Foraging Speed and XP by 40%
—Iron Shovel (Anvil)—
Grants Digging skill and increases minion Farming XP by 30%
—Iron Trowel (Anvil)—
Grants Sowing-and-Planting skill and increases minion Farming XP by 30%
“We’re gonna need a lot more iron,” I announced, immediately splitting my sixteen Builders into two, giving eight of them a basic stone pick and sending them off in search of iron deposits to haul back.