Before Jack left the now extremely busy civilians, Gynda had told him the flowers he had sent to her last night was working wonders on Jacko's wounds.
He was resting in one of the houses and would be recovered enough by tomorrow.
'Tomorrow it is then..'
Jack moved to the summoning area and saw that the troops were still coming out every 10 minutes. Another 10 hours before they would be completed.
However he directly added another 100.000 gold coins for an additional 10.000 troops.
'Tomorrow night there will be 20.000 troops ready' Jack hoped this was enough.
He truly had to leave for the beach, and tomorrow evening was the deadline.
He knew that Arrow was sailing down the coast and Xena was running across the hills with her trash troops and civilians.
He was the only one who had not yet begun to move.
[Do you want to upgrade a troop? Cost 100x Gold Coins]
Jack had gathered 1000 trash troops near the drill-zones.
[Choose a common ability]
[Archery]
[Spear proficiency]
[Sword proficiency]
'ohh so not only do they rank up to common rank, but they directly become skilled in a weapon to some degree..' Jack looked at the trash troops with this new information.
He now somewhat understood why these troop were 'trash' rank. They had the poorest armor and the weakest spears.
They didn't have any weapon mastery or military knowledge.
They were basically just like medieval farmers who had been drilled into a mob with pointy ends.
[100.000 gold coins received. 1000 common troops with spear proficiency will be trained. Completion time: 24 hours]
Jack gathered 2000 more troops, and purchased upgrades for 1000 archery- and sword proficiencies.
[Lords Common Resources: Wood x175.000. Stone x15000. Iron x190.000. Gold Coins x140.000]
Jack had spend 100.000 gold coins for the treasure with 50.000 coins for the trade-fee. 100.000 gold coins for 10.000 additional trash troops and 300.000 gold coins for upgrading 3000 trash troops to common rank.
'Expensive... No wonder most lords are still heavily depending on the trash troops.'
Jack knew, that without his god given goldmine, he would also have to struggle a lot more than he had done so far.
And in this area, he would be lucky if he hadn't died on the first day.
Jack went on to inspect every single area of his village that was actually spread out on a large area.
The only way to the plateau and the black mountain, the area with the solid and powerful stonewalls, had an inner area of about 3 square kilometers in a half circle.
Inside this area was filled with trash troops, standing on the walls, going to and from the garrison towards the gate and the road to Harkens base.
Harkens forest base had underwent a huge change during the night. They had cut many tress, though the roots were impossible to remove and the larger and giant tress still stood firmly.
But even so, Jack realised that a decent area had been cleared.
He gave Harken order to clear the area, and then climbed a tree and sat on a branch so he could clearly see the entire clearing.
An hour later, 10 trash houses were carefully placed. He spend 15.000 wood and 5000 stone on this.
After this he spend the rest of his resources on a wooden wall with a single gate, facing the road to the plateau.
The resource cost of creating the walls changed depending on the form and length he wanted.
With 200 meters of 4 meter high wooden wall on the four square sides, 10 houses and some large and giant trees inside, this place now looked like a cozy wooden castle.
'It has the walls and a gate, yet only 10 houses here. Maybe I should check the mission board for new missions. Maybe I can get some useful blueprints..'
Jack jumped down from the tree and told Harken to resume work. He would send 100 civilians here later, to be the focus place of woodcutting.
He wanted the rest of the way through the forest cleared.
Jack went back to the summoning stones and spend 10.000 gold coins on 100 human civilians. They were to live and sleep in the forest under Harkens command.
Jack again checked his resources.
[Lords common resources: Wood x0. Stone x0. Iron x190.000. Gold Coins x105.000]
It was midday already, but Jack wanted to complete the inspections of his territory.
As the forest base were in order and the road to the plateau heavily secure, he continued to even out and polish the stone stairs to the living area above the mountain entrance.
In an hour the total of three sets of stone stairs had become much better to use, and the chance of falling heavily decreased.
The blackroot field were fully sown and the potato field was being harvested under a broadly smiling Gynda.
"My lord! Please have a meal before you continue. I think you will like the new batch of ready to eat bowls" She yelled with a warm wave of her hand as he passed.
Jack then continued down to the plateau. He saw many more wheelbarrows and larger carts in the area. The plateau had essentially become the central resource area.
Here the civilians traded stone for wood, wood for gold and pushed the carts and wheelbarrows with loads of timber and potatoes.
'It looks like these carts and wheelbarrows has been carved from a single piece of heavy wood. It must take many civilians to create each one..'
Jack continued and grabbed a bowl of food before he went inside the tunnel.
Eating this new batch of food left Jack very satisfied. Boiled potatoes, strange herbs from the forest and tender pieces of meat, all boiled to a satisfying broth with just the right amount of hot blackroot powder.
Reaching Gondo in the goldmine, he got another pleasant sureprise.
With the timber from the forest being cut into various sizes, shapes and planks in the sawmills, Jack saw that the dwarfs here had been busy.
All along the edge of the goldmine, these wooden items had been laid with a clear plan in mind.
However Gondo told Jack that he only needed a forge to procure hammers and nails, before the second and final layer of the goldmine could be swiftly made.
Jack was in a very good mood as he walked to his mansion. His 'village' seemed more like a bustling city. He just needed many more civilians to call it such.
As he reached Nisha and the civilians who was making ropes and candles, he didn't care as he picked her up and kissed her right there in front of everyone.
The female humans around Nisha giggled and whispered amongst themselves. The older women among them could not be fooled.
They had already uncovered the truth and spread the gossip about Nisha. It was clear as day what had happened, when they saw Nisha coming from the mansion in the morning.
"Lord! You embarrass me!" Nisha had strongly returned the kiss, but her face and skin had turned a dark red blush all the way down to her neck.
"I don't care. Let everyone know that you are supporting your lord in every way possible!" He grinned.
These words left Nisha on the brink of panic in embarrassment.
Couldn't the lord understand that many of the women dreamt of him?? Couldn't he understand that she would now be a target of heavy gossip??
Clearly some of the women who fantasized would now try to ruin Nishas reputation. They would think that she used her perfect figure to seduce the lord at night, as she had access to the mansion!
But Jack didn't care about all this. Nisha was his woman now.
"Don't you worry, just come to my bed every night." Was all he said.
Jack left her with another quick kiss and turned his attention to the building zone.
Most of the initial stretch of 5 square kilometres area, had been cleared to about 5 meters high.
Jack knew the the dwarfs used a 'hack a one meter high step, climb up and repeat' system to reach so far up without ladders.
It was far from the vision of a large dome-city he originally had.
Turning his attention away from this, he went to the dimwag farm. These creatures multiplied every day, and already he could see strange clumps of meat run all over the place, like head-less chickens.
Civilians were tending them carefully, placing stones for food near the long stretches of 'stable-nests' was a fulltime job.
Jack continued to make rounds, making sure everything was progressing, the civilians happy and the defences strong and secure.
Then at some point in the afternoon. The initial 10.000 troops had finished summoning.
The new batch of 10.000 - already paid for - got orders to march to, and directly enter, the barracks at the walls.
About 1000 troops now defended inside the walls, and patrolled the plateau, outer living zone and inside the black mountain.
Harken controlled another 2000 troops, patrolling the the road from the 'wooden castle' to the mountain gates.
Additionally he allocated troops to escort any and all civilians in or near the forest.
He had sent two teams of 200 troops in the north and south forest areas. They were to 'search and destroy' any new monsters or beast spawns.
And while on this mission, they could also gather the spears from the fallen troops.
Certainly these iron tips, even if somewhat rusted, could be re-smelted a some point. Even the wooden shafts of the spears could be used as firewood.
So all in all, about 3000 troops defended Jacks village and forward wooden castle.
3000 troops were currently training in the drill-zones.
That left Jack with 6000 troops, which he gathered inside the stone walls.