The Land: Predators: A LitRPG Saga (Chaos Seeds Book 7)

by Aleron Kong

  “Yes,” Richter asserted firmly. “We are growing. That means the one-hundred-percent-free ride is over. It is time that people see that there are clear benefits to loyalty.”

  “At your command, my lord.” Randolphus said with a bow of his head. He was actually quite happy with the pronouncement. In his opinion, Richter had been too free and kind with his subjects. People needed a leader to be bigger than life, not a friend that they could share an ale with. “That brings us back to the main question. How would you like to allocate the work assignments for the new villagers?”

  “As far as the Professionals, have the Jeweler look at our entire stockpile in the treasury and see if there is anything he can do. We have several uncut gems that he might be able to improve the value of, but I want him under guard the whole time. We won’t be showing these new villagers blind trust no matter what they vowed, not for quite a while. The Bowyer should be very helpful. We only have those clunky crossbows now. Get a list of whatever she needs and put her to work. The Painter and Troubadour I will leave to your discretion. If they can do things to raise the mood of the village though, I’ll consider that time well spent. As far as the Trader, it’s time we start offering our people a chance to spend some of the coin I’ve been paying them. After the Townhall is built, one of the next projects I want completed is a Market. We can sell some luxury goods, and it will also give people a chance to sell items gained from the Dungeon. See if the Trader is interested in growing that operation. And please get a list of what Enalise can make with her Crafting Profession. If she has any suggestions regarding our mining operations, tease those out as well. Also stress that I want all of the Professionals to test the other villagers, adults and children, to see if they have sufficient affinity to awaken a new skill.”

  “As you will, my lord.” Randolphus made several notations on a piece of paper. “And the others? It might be a good idea to assign more people as hunters and fishermen.”

  Richter considered the man’s words before shaking his head slightly. “As far as everyone else, guide them where you will, but the emphasis needs to be on increasing our fighting force. Ideally, one to two hundred of the new villagers will join the guard. After that, building up the village infrastructure, meaning getting more people with the Construction skill, is the main priority. Once those two needs are met, I really want to increase the number of researchers, smiths and alchemists. What do you think?”

  Randolphus shuffled through his papers until he found the one he wanted. He actually found it rather quickly, but was sighing internally, so he kept flipping through pages while he came up with a plan to make his liege see sense. “I believe that is excellent reasoning, my lord… as always, but we need to ensure that basic needs are met. The primary three are food, water and shelter, all of which are covered on this page.” The chamberlain handed over a sheet of paper. “Water is no problem, of course. Even if we were besieged, the lake and waterfall mean we will never overwhelm capacity, unless we have massive population growth, of course.

  “You are already aware that shelter is an issue, my lord. Our population is greater than one thousand now, though that does include the pixies who obviously do not need housing. Not including them, we need to house approximately nine hundred and sixty people. Each longhouse can, at capacity, provide that for ninety people, but that will be overcrowded. Over time this will lead to drops in Morale and possibly even disease, adversely affecting the Health of the village.

  “Our goal should be for each longhouse to hold no more than sixty at a time, allowing it to provide adequate housing. In an ideal situation, the longhouses would hold only thirty. This would allow those residing within to gain the comfortable perk, which can have many benefits including increased Loyalty, Morale, Productivity, and-”

  “Population Growth?” Richter asked with a side smile. “Always easier to seal the deal with less eyes around, am I right?”

  Randolphus sighed expansively, but nodded, “Yes, my lord.”

  “That means, including the five longhouses that we already have, we need, at minimum, another six. In a perfect world though, we’d have thirty-two. Is that about right?” If his math was correct, it explained why he’d gotten the warning for the available housing falling below 50% of his population’s needs. The good news was, he only needed to have one longhouse built to avoid the penalties associated with the 50% warning. Not that he planned to do the bare minimum.

  “That is correct, my lord, though now we must speak of building resources. So far, the longhouses have been built only of wood. It is less durable than stone, of course, but for expedience, I recommend we continue this policy in the short term. The current design that we use requires fifty units of wood to create a single longhouse. For simplicity’s sake, let us say that each tree felled can create two units of wood once split longitudinally. This varies from tree to tree due to size, as I am sure you understand, my lord, but it is a safe approximation. Thankfully, you summon a large amount of mist workers on a daily basis. This greatly increases the speed at which the village is able to harvest wood. At present, we have two hundred and fourteen felled trees that can be turned into four hundred and twenty-eight units of wood with little difficulty or time expenditure.”

  Hmmm, Richter thought. “We have enough wood to make eight longhouses, provided we don’t need the wood for anything else. Is there a way to improve the yield of the trees we chop down? To make trees provide more functional units?”

  “Yes, and I have already spoken with our new Professional Lumberjack. He is amenable to purchasing a Talent that lets him make rough boards from felled trees. At the first rank of the Talent, he will be able to make a felled tree produce three units of wood, instead of two.”

  “Not bad,” Richter replied nodding. “We can increase our stockpile by 50% right there.”

  “Yes, my lord. The best option would be to build a Lumbermill, however, so that each tree can be made into finely milled planks. If we had that, each tree could make four, six or even eight units of wood. Unfortunately, we do not have the blueprints to make such a building.”

  “Alright, so that’s water and shelter. Doesn’t seem like either will be a big deal. What about food?”

  “For convenience’s sake,” Randy handed him another piece of paper, “I have quantified one “unit” of food as what is required to sustain one person for one day. Again, this is a simplification. Children eat less than adults, but our fighters also eat more than the researchers. Again, on average the measurement makes sense.” Richter nodded to show that he was following along.

  “Thankfully, we are blessed in that department as well,” Randolphus continued. “The Quickening increases the yield of our resources by 25% and the perk from your Life Mastery increases the growth rate by 30%. Even better, Isabella’s spell, Virol’s Blessing, has the potential to further increase the yield of our crops by up to 100%. This is especially beneficial because, as you know, we lost most of our crops in the bugbear attack about seventy days ago, as well as a good number of our stores.

  “The good news is that we have more than made up for those losses in the months since. Currently, the village has five basic farms. They each cover one-by-one-mile areas. One farm can make enough food to feed five hundred people for half a year. I must again remind you, my lord, that this is all an approximation as some crops grow better or worse in certain conditions. There is also great variability in the number of days in each of the fourteen months of the year, but it is close enough to serve our purposes.

  “Forty-five days ago, Basil brought back enough rations to feed five hundred people for six months, or approximately ninety thousand units of food. Before that, not including the livestock, we still had eleven thousand and seven units of food. Since that time, we have eaten thirty-two thousand, six hundred and eighty-four units. It would have been less,” the chamberlain fixed him with a slightly judging glare, “but the many feasts you call for consume two to three times as much food as a regular meal.”
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  Richter just fixed him back with a glare. The damn chamberlain was always trying to kill the fun!

  “Carrying on, my lord. We have unfortunately also experienced some losses due to pests. The burrower rats were able to destroy another twelve thousand seven hundred and eleven units of food.”

  “What?” Richter asked in shock. It had been a bit of a mystery why the vermin, normally only seen deep in the earth, had come so close to the surface. They had been able to bypass the normal repel vermin charms that people of The Land used. He’d found a workaround a week later, but apparently, the little buggers had still made a serious dent in the village’s stores.

  He shook his head, partly in self-recrimination. He’d been told that about twelve percent of the food stores had been lost, but since there were still bringing in more every day, he’d basically put the matter out of his mind and let Randy handle it. He realized it was time to start taking a more active role. Heaving a big sigh, he said, “Thank you for handling all of this in the past. I’m going to do better about helping you out, man. Where does this leave us now?”

  Randy smiled at him appreciatively, “Thank you, my lord, I appreciate that. In answer to your question, after the losses from the burrower rats, and including the losses due to a lack of an appropriate storage area-”

  “What losses?” Richter asked, irritated that there had been more waste.

  Randolphus didn’t take it personally. He’d given enough bad news to rulers to know what to expect. “Right now, the food is being stored in generic shacks, and there still aren’t enough of those. Without a proper storage area, we are losing 1-3% of our food stores each week to rot and degradation. We have lost another fourteen thousand three hundred and twenty-eight units in the past six weeks. With all of this taken into account, there were forty-one thousand two hundred and eighty-four food units left from our stores before the raid on the goblin settlement.”

  Richter took a piece of paper from the chamberlain and did some calculations of his own, “What you’re telling me is that in just forty-five days, we burned through… almost 60% of all of our food. That was with a population of about seven hundred people.” Randolphus nodded. “And now I just added another three hundred and fifty-nine mouths to feed.” The enormity of the problem was beginning to dawn on him.

  “Yes, my lord,” Randolphus replied. He was happy that his liege was finally taking a direct interest in these matters. “To further complicate this issue, we have been providing food for Hisako’s army of several hundred over the last few days. In the past five days alone, we have consumed another six thousand and fifty-two units of food.”

  Seeing the panic rising in Richter’s eyes, the chamberlain finally took pity on him. “The situation is not as dire as you may think, my lord. The pixies, who account for about one hundred members of our village, do not require any food to be provided. They subsist somehow on the energy from the Quickening. The sprites have also been hunting the surrounding countryside. A definite plus to having Lady Hisako’s army stationed nearby is that the surrounding area has been almost free of monsters for the past few days.”

  “What about our own hunters?” Richter asked.

  “That,” Randolphus began, handing him another sheet of paper, “was my next topic. Each hunter brings in varying amount of food based on luck and their skill level. Will you be opening up the Dungeon to farm animals?” His tone made it clear how he felt about the last question.

  Richter had thought about it, “I don’t want to if I don’t have to. I heard what you said before about it slowing down the Dungeon’s growth if it can’t reabsorb slain monsters. I will if I have to though. Feeding our people is more important than anything else.”

  The other man made a notation, “It is good to have that option. As of now, however, each hunter brings in twenty units of food each day on average. Occasionally they take down a bear or moose, which equates to five hundred to eight hundred units, but this does not happen often. There are also days that they catch nothing. The increasing number of monsters around the village are also depleting the game. The rising levels of ambient mana from your awakened Powers attracts both predators and prey, but even the herbivores are having increasing levels which makes them harder to take down. Despite these difficulties, out fifteen village hunters, they have been averaging two thousand two hundred units of food per week. Now that we have a Professional Hunter in the village, that number may go up.

  “Our fishermen provide less food than our hunters in a day, but they do so more reliably. Each fisherman produces around ten units of food every day. With eight working to plumb the river, they have averaged five hundred to six hundred units of food a week. Their efficiency is not just due to their skill in Fishing, but also what waters they have access to. As of now, they are forced to work the river. The lake in the northern meadow is extremely plentiful, and could greatly increase the amount of fish they can catch on a daily basis. I agree that keeping all nonessential personnel away from the crystal garden and the skath cage is a good idea though.”

  Richter thought back to when thousands of fish had swarmed him in the lake, and knew that Randolphus was telling the truth. If things got dire, then he’d ease restrictions on who could access the meadow on a daily basis. Right now though, he was hearing that each hunter could feed about twenty people a week and each fisherman could feed ten. The fishermen fed less, but on the other hand, fishing entailed much less risk than prowling a monster-infested forest looking for game. He did a few quick calculations.

  Hunters: 2200 units/week x 6.5 weeks = 14,300 units

  Fishermen: 550 units/week x 6.5 weeks = 3,575 units

  Total garnered food = 17,875 units of food

  “Do these numbers check out?” he asked.

  Randolphus took a look, “Yes, my liege. I must say that it is refreshing to serve a lord with a basic understanding of mathematics.”

  Richter just eyeballed him. That math hadn’t been hard, and with Randy’s aristocratic accent it really wasn’t easy to know when the guy was making fun of him, so he just said, “Thanks.”

  “Indeed, my lord,” Randolphus replied with an enigmatic smile.

  “Okay, so with what the hunters pull in, we have about fifty-three thousand units of food as of this morning?”

  “There is, unfortunately, one more factor to consider, my lord.”

  “Of course there is,” Richter responded, now genuinely annoyed.

  “Yes, sir. The care and maintenance of our livestock require grains that also detract from our reserves.” He handed over yet another sheet of paper.

  Mist Village Livestock

  Animal

  Individual Requirement

  Total Requirement

  2 plough horses:

  1 stallion

  35 units/week

  87.5 units/week

  1 mare (1 pregnant)

  52.5 units/week

  25 sheep:

  2 rams

  1 units/week

  30.5 units/week

  17 ewes (17 pregnant)

  1.5 units/week

  6 lambs

  0.5 units/week

  136 chickens:

  4 roosters

  0.3 units/week

  31.65 units/week

  71 hens

  0.3 units/week

  61 chicks

  0.15 units/week

  58 pigs:

  3 boars

  01 units/week

  65 units/week

  37 sows (32 pregnant)

  1-1.5 units/week

  18 piglets

  0.5 units/week

  11 carnasids:

  11 piglets

  0.25 units/week (grain)

  0.25 units/week (fresh meat)

  5.5 units/week

  12 goats:

  2 bucks

  1 units/week

  17 units/week

  10 does (10 pregnant)

  1.5 units/week

  15 skaths:

  1 juvenile bul
l

  0 (skaths subsist on fish provided by their caretakers)

  0 units/week

  14 juvenile cows

  0 (skaths subsist on fish provided by their caretakers)

  Total

  237.15 units/week

  Richter looked over the chart, learning a great deal in just a few moments. One, it seemed like animals consumed 50% more food when they were pregnant than when they weren’t. That definitely explained why Ben and Jerry’s was always a safe stock.

  Two, carnasids were apparently not just mean pigs. Richter had had some small success taking animals from the forest to raise, but very few could be domesticated. Except for the skaths, so far, he’d only been able to transition the carnasids into that role. He had thought they were basically pigs, only slightly more dangerous than wild boar, but as long as they were fed regularly, they stayed fairly docile. The fact that they needed bloody meat to stay calm though reminded Richter that even though they were making nice, they were still predators. Danger was always lurking in The Land.

  He was just thankful that someone had figured out that the carnasid piglets needed fresh meat along with grains to grow. He wondered what that might bode for the future, if he kept domesticating monsters. What would the bats need once they fixed the goblin Bat Roost building that had been transported along with the Dungeon? It was an interesting thought.

  Another obvious point that leaped out at Richter was that animals were expensive! Two hundred units of food was literally enough for a man to live on for almost half a year in The Land’s weirdo fourteen-month system. These creatures were eating that much each week! Still, when he thought about how much joy eating burgers brought into his life, he knew it was all worth it. Daddy needed his medicine! Even if he didn’t, eggs every morning was in the contract he’d signed with Roswan when the man had first sworn fealty.