章 19: Huge Rewards

The morning light shone upon the busy House members as they scurried about doing their own chores and tasks. Early morning, Eldric and the group discussed how to build an enclosure for the goats, and they came up with a wooden fence that is about 1.7m in height and the base of the fence was a whole lot of stones. Which would provide a sturdy foundation for the fence. Evander had suggested that the goats be placed between the forest campsite and the farm fields past the forest, where enough space was guaranteed for the animals.

So, as they finished with their daily chores such as cleaning, tree felling and mining as well as farming and the newly added task of taking care of livestock they once more set out on a hunt but this time it would be easier to hunt as Caspian had forged enough spears and swords and axes to use. The swords he made were all mid-grade rank 1 swords [Snowflake] and the spears were also mid-grade rank 1 weapons called [Winter's Reach] and finally low-grade rank 1 axes called [Frostfang]. The group of knights thus replaced their old weapons with the new ones who were undoubtedly more powerful.

Eldric had decided to wait at the House and start planning the House layout and all the things that would be needed to build. Eldric had thus begun to map out the whole area starting from the entrance in the mountain through the barren garden and then smack in the middle was the house. The house had three paths in front of it making a T-crossroad.

The path leading right takes you to the training ground next to the river and the start of the lake, and a few meters away from the training ground the workshop and storage resides. Eldric also thought of building an armory next to the workshop for convenience.

The middle path so far leads straight into the woods but in the future the rose garden and scenery would be on both sides of the path and the left path leads to firstly the campsite in the small forest the after the forest the livestock would be placed. The goats were already placed there and when Eldric thought of the goats, he remembered the 6 swaybacked horses in the cavern and thought for future horses a stable could be built.

As Eldric had started mapping the area and planning future developments the system sounded a few times.

*Ding*

Noah advanced to Tier 1 Level 1

William advanced to Tier 1 Level 1

*Ding*

Congratulations for House Snow for having 10 Men-at-arms Level Knights

Reward: 20 Civilians, weapon blueprint, construction blueprint, Map

Eldric was absolutely over the moon with the news of the newly advanced knights, giving the House a military strength of 10 knights. When Eldric saw the second system notification, he could not help but speculate the pattern at which the system would reward him. Nonetheless he threw those thoughts at the back of his mind and looked at the reward he got.

The increase in workforce and possible military was always welcomed but Eldric had somewhat become immune to his civilian count going up almost every time. He wouldn't be shocked anymore but still, the number of civilians that would join them was quite a lot compared to previous times.

The blueprints did not provide much information. 'Looks like I would have to wait till tomorrow before knowing' he thought to himself. And lastly a map, one that made Eldric smile with joy. The map contained the information he truly wanted and needed. The map described the area where they are situated in- the mountain they were residing on was called Mount. Crown according to the map and it was not situated far from the border of the Kingdom of Stormwatch in the Verdonia region.

It was near yet so far, between the mountain and the border the Willow Forest and frost mountains stood. The Frost mountains were known for their rugged terrain and almost impassable routes.

The nearest city or town was a small town called Frostfall about 10 km away from crown mountain deeper into Montania. Eldric thought that the small town would probably be their first stop after coming down the mountain.

Speaking of the mountain Eldric saw the map depict the landscape of the mountains and what type of dire beasts reside in the mountains not only on mount crown but also in the surrounding mountains. Luckily for Eldric it seemed the Dire beasts that reside in the basin were also recorded and they are the Stonebacked Black Bears and a group of Black Striped Deers, the bear group had roughly about 20 members all of which being Dire Cubs and the leader of the group was only a Dire Novice. The deer herd was a big herd with about 50 members and the deer group had 3 Dire Novices.

The map only showed the approximate strength. When Eldric saw the information about the group, he sighed in relief that it was not a stronger group of beasts. As for the map being false, he had no such thought as he believed everything the system gave would be top notch.

Using the various information, he had just gained, he started to plan for the future, he did not get far into planning before the hunting groups returned. The usual wild animals were killed and a lone black striped deer.

They did the usual skinning and cleaning and after that was done and the group gathered at the campsite once more, they welcomed the other two knights into their ranks and Eldric had told the group about his plans.

"So, that is what I intend to do. Is there any objections or suggestions?" he asked. "Well, if we want to create what you want, I think we need to adjust the scope of the farm and the livestock area. My suggestion is that it takes priority, as soon as we can expand the area left of the house, we should be fine. I am only suggesting it because if we grow more and more, the amount of food and animals would increase dramatically and for use to expand each time would take too long. If we expand the size about 3 times more, we should be set for a long time before needing to adjust" Evander said after analyzing everything Eldric said.

Everyone agreed that it would be the better course of action and thus the following day they would start expanding the scope of their area. "Patriarch, I know we are situated in the middle of nowhere and we do have the necessary supply of food and fresh water, but the crop harvest will not come until another half a month, and I have to say I don't think eating this much meat would be great. You just said that the town is not far from here, why don't we trade with them for fruits, bread and vegetables? We can even try to get some more seeds." Cael suggested earnestly. When Cael said this everyone around the fire sat and shook their heads like a frenzied hen, in agreement to his suggestion.

"Hahaha," seeing them shaking their heads and nodding, Eldric burst out in laughter. "I know, but with what would we trade? And even if we did have something to trade, the distance may not be great, but the danger is. I know we want different food but until we can gather a group of late-stage Men-at-arms to take the risk I suggest we forget about it." he said sighing.

After some considerations they realized it may be for the best and that they would have to endure for a while more before any other food source would be thrown into their bellies.

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I created a discord server to show designs and so on.

https://discord.gg/DdWHs6xg