"You are all individuals, skilled and experienced with the potential to become great at the profession of your choosing and all I want to see from you is that success, success in your endeavors, success in your life.
"You will find that this land has many things to offer, that the land is both beautiful and bountiful. You will not be left wanting. You will also find that this land is fairly ruled and that you are all free men and women alike. There is no status quo, no hierarchy between the citizens of Dragon's Breach.
"You will all be free to run your own businesses, to live your lives as you see fit, and all I ask in return is some consideration as the founder. I will strive to turn this minor settlement into something grand and no day is too soon. Thank you, for your time and consideration."
Whether the speech was good or not, I couldn't tell since I just came up with it on the fly, but a few people clapped and Katherine and Selene didn't seem too upset with it.
Well, now that the pleasantries were over it was time to get to work. I did say that no day would be too soon for this settlement to become something grand, after all.
I turned to Katherine and Selene, "Can I leave the directing to the both of you? I need to prepare for a feast. We're going to have a large celebratory lunch to welcome everyone."
Katherine nodded silently while Selene asked for clarification, "What exactly are we directing here?"
"Show them the lodge for now, and let them set up a spot for their items. Then give them each a ration of jerky as they might be hungry, after that… it's up to you two."
With that I grabbed a sled and walked out towards the trees, hitting the forest line I burst into a sprint with the sled over my back. Wolves weren't found this close anyhow and I needed at least a pack, the entire pack.
After roughly an hour I had finally made my way back to the village with eight wolves packed high on the sled I was pulling. At least 800lbs of wolf in total, which should reduce down to about 240lbs of quality meat and maybe 80lbs of render. I wasn't really looking forward to rendered fat soup though, but I could add some salmon to it or something, I suppose.
Katherine had ended up distributing the jerky amongst the crowd, giving every individual around ten pounds of assorted rabbit, fox, and wolf jerky. This raised the morale of the NPCs and their spirits seemed quite lively over their future prospects. Selene in turn was letting everyone set up their belongings inside the lodge that was quickly becoming packed.
She had some reservations when it came to the new villagers being content with such poor accommodations but she had yet to receive any complaints. It didn't take long before both Selene and Katherine realized that nearly every single person that had been recruited had a positive attitude and a seemingly good personality.
They later attributed that to my diligence when recruiting, knowing full well that I was not a man that would skimp on the small details when focusing on the larger picture. I was also secretly told by Katherine that my image had secretly risen once again in their eyes.
It was certainly nice to be appreciated, even if it was a secret.
She was too cute.
Ah… why do I have to choose between them?
Dumping the corpses at the center of the village for all to see, I then kneeled down and started skinning; I had a lot of mouths to feed after all. Plus, there was one specific philosophy that I wanted to showcase out of all the philosophies I adhere to, and that was to lead by example.
I firmly believed in a variety of sayings by one General Patton, two of which went something like: "Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way," and "Always do everything you ask of those you command." Leaders lead from the front, and I had no issue doing the dirty work first for others to follow later.
It didn't take long before the cook had heard of what was going on and came over, engaging in some small chat as we discussed what we could do with the meat. In the end we came to the conclusion that we should spit roast the wolves over a large fire for a few hours, and have them for dinner rather than lunch.
Once I had finished skinning the wolves and butchered them halfway, the recruited chef took over.
One NPC successfully motivated.
My next step was to gather some smaller wooden branches to use as a spit; as I headed out into the forest I was joined by the two carpenters and the shipbuilder who were all proficient when it came to woodworking. I brought a nice sized tree down that had a lot of usable branches and made quick work of it.
The NPCs took care of the rest.
I needed some Salmon next for the soup, so I grabbed the nets that I had previously bought and walked over to the river. As I started throwing the nets out I was soon joined by the two fishermen that doubled as general laborers. With the three of us working together we were able to haul in a sizeable catch in record time.
It wasn't long after that, that multiple NPCs made their way over to introduce themselves and see if they could help in some shape or form. They were just simply standing around conversing with each other after all.
Not one to usually ask for help, I informed them that I would just be cutting some trees down in the meantime, so we would have wood to work with in the following days to erect more structures for everyone to live in.
I didn't need any help for the chopping, but maybe later I could use the help moving the logs. The warriors with all of their strength and bravado offered to carry the logs as a sort of competition.
After cutting down one-hundred and twenty trees, they were all lined up in stacks of three and the forty warriors each grabbed one log and dragged, rolled, or carried it back to the designated spot in the village and raced back and forth until they were done.
This event was later known as the self-explanatory Tri-Log Race.
It provided some needed entertainment though, and hell… it saved me the trouble of carrying them by myself.
By nightfall ninety-nine people were enjoying smoked and roasted wolf along with a fatty salmon soup. Broken up into large groups around multiple campfires, everyone was having a good time. The weather was favorable this time of year, the food was plentiful, and the people were good.
Ninety-nine people and not one was a problem.
The night ushered in its typical silence with all of the NPCs now asleep in the lodge after their hearty meal. With nothing left to do, I made my way to the cabin and logged out. I had been on for far too long and my real body had been starved, a mistake I had made far too often recently.
Chapter 34: Alpha n' Beta Meeting #3
(Saturday, February 13th Real Day)
Making my way outside of The Cube and towards the kitchen, I was once again disappointed by the lack of food available. Staring at the clock that was now reading 4:47 AM, I realized there was only six hours before the third Alpha and Beta tester's meeting which was a good thing.
Free food would be just around the corner.
Rummaging through the cupboard for a snack I started to eye the little white and red plastic bowl that only required water and six minutes in the microwave.
Microwaveable but not quite instant, it would have to do.
As I let my little bowl of udon heat up, I decided to clean up. A quick shower, change of clothes, and my bowl of instant udon noodles had sufficiently cooled down to eat. My only sustenance in over sixteen hours was a rather delicious bowl of instant noodles… things would need to change. Finishing my quick meal I elected to take a nap on the couch until it was time to head out.
No point in getting too comfortable in my bed.
Waking up a few hours later at 10:00 AM, all that was left was for me toss my shoes on and drive. With plenty of time, I elected to go at a nice & comfortable pace. Rubbing my semi-bloodshot eyes as I continued to drive, I decided to listen to some heavy metal to help wake me up.