Akira finished putting on the new clothes that had been given to him by Samuel. They were a dark blue color the same as the new flag that was now flying everywhere. On the sleeves and the chest was a white crest of a wolf head howling at the moon.
He put on his armor over his new clothes, buckled his sword belt, and took a new large fur-lined cloak off of a wall. The cloth of the cloak was also a dark blue and had a large white embroidered howling wolf under a moon on the back.
Fully equipped for the busy day ahead of him he exited his room into the empty living room.
There were only burning coals in the fireplace giving the room a dim flickering red glow. He took a few logs from a nearby pile and placed them onto the fire before quietly leaving the room as it was still early morning and the girls had not woken up yet.
On his way to his office, he made a quick detour to the castle kitchen and grabbed some breakfast that he could eat while he walked.
Samuel was waiting for him outside of his office when he arrived still munching on the food.
“We have many things we must do today, sire. Mainly we need to work on getting the buildings needed for a tier 1 village built,” said Samuel.
“Right, where can I see the requirements again?” asked Akira.
“Next to the village information tab,” said Samuel.
Akira found it and opened the tab and began reading the requirements to rank up to a tier 1 village.
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Requirements for tier 1 village:
-Village granary built-Two months food saved up in granary.
-must have more than one source of permanent food gathered
-5000 population.
-security above 30%–
4 other types of buildings built
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Village Granary: A warehouse for storing grain.
Simple fence: Basic fortification, Weak defense, can stop wild animals.
Simple fishing dock: A dock where rowboats and small sail ships can dock.
Logging camp: A place to gather wood and replant new trees for later use.
Basic Mining Field: Speeds up the collection of ore.
Village level dining hall: Dining area for village residents.
Basic blacksmith shop: Able to build a variety of farm tools, such as axes, chisels, and other iron tools. Skilled blacksmiths can do more with limited tools.
General store: Sells various types of daily necessities.
Sawmill: Cuts the logs into planks and other shapes needed to build certain things including furniture.
Carpentry shop: Makes furniture and other wooden products.
Tavern: A cozy place to enjoy drinking and eating warm beverages and food with other people.
Watchtowers: A high platform to see a good distance away. It can only fit one person.
“Are these all the buildings that need to be built before I can upgrade?” asked Akira.
“Not necessarily, just what the requirements say. I suggest that you do build everything before having the village rank up or Kodria will have huge gaps in certain areas if you ignore them just to rank up,” said Samuel.
“Guess I’ll need to start working on a new blueprint,” said Akira as he entered his office with Samuel following behind him.
Akira sat down behind his desk and after finishing the food in his hands he went straight to working on a new blueprint to include the easier to build and more important buildings.
He could see all of the new buildings on the side and with the upgrade to the new blueprint creator, they all had the number of resources needed to build them listed under their name.
“Finished! At least for the most important ones,” said Akira as he completed the village blueprint #3.
“I suggest we get started immediately. I already made sure that the loggers were sent out so we can begin building as soon as the blueprint was done.”
“Let’s go then!”
Akira and Samuel exited the castle where the new castle guards, all wearing the new coat of arms, were guarding the entrance to the castle and patrolling the area making sure that nothing came close.
When the castle guards saw Akira their eyes locked on him and they all stopped and saluted Akira with their swords. They held the position until he was out of their view.
Akira looked back at the castle and saw that there were also several guards on top of the castle keep watching everything that happened below them.
“Is everything to your liking,” asked Samuel as he watched Akira inspecting the guards from afar.
“I have no complaints,” said Akira as he turned his attention to the open village square where several hundred werewolf warriors were standing around waiting for him.
“Everyone, gather around!” shouted Samuel.
The warriors all looked towards the new person they had never seen before with a questioning look but when they saw Akira behind him they all walked over to him.
“We’ll be extremely busy for the next few weeks as we work on many new projects. The buildings and other infrastructure you build will be used to keep the new village running smoothly so I need you all to give it your best,” said Akira as soon as the werewolf warriors gathered around.
“Yes, chief!” shouted everyone.
Of course, they would not be working for free. Everyone would be getting paid a set amount for every day that they worked along with receiving food while working. There currently wasn’t anything for them to spend the money on so they could save it for when they needed it later.
It was a way for Akira to boost the not yet established economy of the village. He would have to figure out something to replenish the village coffers so that they would not run out of money.
For now, he had to prioritize the more important buildings and infrastructure that would help grow the village in order to save on spending too much gold on pointless things.
Akira started to sort the werewolves into two groups and explained to each of them what they were to build.
He led each of the groups to the areas that the buildings and infrastructure were to be built and marked the places. After which he helped carry logs over to the shore where several new wooden docks were being built.
This helped the morale of workers who saw him working alongside them. Several docks were completed before noon arrived.
While working on the docks Akira had learned that Ardolf was now going to work as a fisherman now that he was retired from fighting.
“With this, the smaller ships and the rowboats can now use the docks as a place to moor their ships, as using it to make entering and exiting the ships along with loading and unloading the ships far easier. We no longer need to jump into the water to get to land,” said a satisfied Akira.
“You really are working hard,” said Mileena as she handed Akira a fish sandwich she had personally made while he had been working.
Although the sandwich was nothing special, bread was now considered a luxury as they only had a limited supply of wheat and flour due to it being winter as well as being so far south away from any large cities.
Mileena happily watched Akira eat the food she had made while Azura watched with an unhappy face because she was a few seconds late in giving him food she had made herself. So she ate it herself.
When everyone had finished eating their noon meal Akira took the rest of the warriors to help work on building a simple fence that surrounded the entire village.
When creating the blueprint he had made sure to keep enough space for the village to expand with more houses and buildings.
The fence was nothing special but it was far sturdier than the snow walls that would crumble far too easily.
In order to further strengthen the fences, a layer of snow was packed around it. The fence’s height was far shorter than the large snow wall in front of the village near the lake.
Akira had decided against creating ice walls around the city since they would melt during the short summer months.
Either way, the current fence and snow walls were only going to be a temporary thing until they had the resources, proper weather, and the right plans to build something better.
The fences layered with snow was a large project and took several days to complete. While they were building the fence other buildings were also being worked on as well.
***
With the completion of new docks several days before the lake was now extremely active with many smaller ships and rowboats filled with new fishers going out early in the morning to catch fish all day in order to help feed the village.
The large ships were anchored farther out guarding the river entrance to the lake, keeping a close watch for enemy ships or monsters that might attack the main island.
Akira walked by the docks and saw a small fish hatchery had been built using several nets in order to make sure a constant supply of fish could be found in the lake.
Varbu continued to oversee the gathering of the lumber needed for projects along with a large number of sturdy orcs. While Klyn had handed over the reins of gathering fruits, nuts, and herbs to goblins. Since he was always busy now with his grandfather trying to cram his head full of information he needed for his new position as sub-Head Shaman.
Everyone whether they were a werewolf, orc, or goblin pitched in to hunt wild animals and birds to eat. Several more large pens were created for the newly domesticated animals that were now being bred and taken care of by the villagers.
***
“I haven’t been able to see you all that much lately since you do nothing but work,” said Mileena.
“I can’t help it since there is so much to do,” said Akira as he ate a late lunch with Mileena and Varbu. The others were all busy with their own chores and important tasks.
“What’s next on the list?” asked Varbu.
“We need to work on the logging camp for the loggers to have some protection from the elements when the weather turns bad as well as a place to keep their tools and other logging equipment safe. We also need to prepare the area for a tree farm. We’ll have to use some of the Moomers and reindeer to help pull out the stumps to clear the land,” said Akira.
“Ah, that would be much appreciated. Having a place to warm up and keep our equipment will be nice. What about a sawmill?” asked Varbu.
“We’ll build one close to the logging camp, but we have to build a forge first in order to create the large saws for it,” said Akira.
Everything in the village so far had been created with hand tools that they already had, but it would be far better if they had a sawmill to cut the wood for them.
“What’s this I hear about a forge?” asked Delgar as he joined the three eating their lunch.
“Ah, Delgar. Just the person I was going to go find later. I need you to help find a nearby source of metal where we can set up a mine to supply the village’s needs. With a mine producing ore the forge that will be built will become very busy,” said Akira.
“This is indeed a heartening thing to hear! I will have to inform the others and we will put our full effort into finding a suitable place! There may be some metals near the quarry or somewhere on the other side of the lake,” said Delgar with a smile on his face.
It only took Akira and the builders a day to build the logging camp but the task of pulling stumps took a lot longer than Akira had expected due to the hard ground hindering their progress.
They needed it to be completed before the warm months arrived in order to plant new trees immediately. The shamen of the werewolf clans would be in charge of overseeing the tree farm as some of them had chants that would help with plant growth.
While the majority of orcs and werewolf’s worked on pulling out the stumps, Akira oversaw the building of a large warehouse at the bottom of the hill near the keep where it was close enough for the castle guards to keep an eye on it.
The large amounts of furs gathered from hunting were placed inside along with other surplus stone blocks, logs, Snowflake flowers, fruit, and other materials that were being gathered and produced now all had a place to be stored.
Akira had received many furs as gifts from hunters and placed them in the warehouse along with the others.
The biggest project out of all the buildings other than the castle keep was the granary. It required the area where it was to be built to be cleared of snow and ice along with laying down a sturdy foundation to support the stone granary walls.
The granary would have several compartments for long term storing all of the different foods that the city would need. The extra fish and meat hunted from wild animals would be either salted and dried or smoked and placed inside, while the herbs and plants would also have a place to stay. As well as the grains and other produce they traded for. It would be a much better way to store the food than leaving them in a box outside.
While those projects were underway Akira, Delgar, and the Dwarves, found a suitable place on the second island that had many resources including Korium ore, Icium ore, coal, and even the few rare gems and diamonds.
Akira left the creation of a mine to Delgar and the other Dwarves.
With all the material they were getting from the mines and the furs they would have no problem with gaining money later if they traded with Jerora.
While Akira worked on the specialized buildings the grand elders consulted with Akira who had given them a rough blueprint of the smaller log cabins that could be built and bought by families at a decent price.
The small log cabins were all being built in the open area Akira had left for them still inside of the new snow layered fence.
There were so many things going on that Akira was having a hard time keeping up with everything.
