"What's wrong Ian?" - Solar
After fighting through wave after wave of disgusting fish and humanoid hybrids, with annoying ghosts buffing them, something changed. The once ever-so-bright pillar of light that illuminated the cavern disappeared. Replaced with darkness, the fight became more dangerous and difficult. The monsters used the darkness to their advantage, weaving back and forth creating an illusion of a larger army with the faint glowing lure.
Unprepared for the sudden darkness, panic ensued throughout the ranks, but with Howard and Gobi's leadership, order was restored quickly before anyone lost their lives. In addition, Robin and Solar solved the light issue quickly illuminating parts of the cavern with balls of light or flaming arrows. Lynn creates a wall of bones to defend one side while I cast Bone Totem, allowing us effectively retaliate against the monsters but now that the monsters were killed another problem arises.
"I'm not sure. The door doesn't respond to me or anyone else which is extremely weird. Thinking back to the last time I touched the door, I at least got a response but now that the Pillar of Light disappeared, nothing is happening." - Ian
"Maybe, the door closed on its own? Or someone on the other side cut the connection between this door and whatever is on the other side." - Noah
"The monsters stopped coming through the door after the light disappeared. We can at least look at this in a positive light since it is still dark and we were prepared for a whole night's worth of fighting. We can give the soldiers a proper night's rest while collecting the loot and preparing for the next fight." - Howard
"That's what concerns me though. Why did it stop? What was different tonight compared to other nights? Did something change? How are we going to prepare for something that we don't is even happening? There are too many questions and not enough answers." - Ian
"I understand why you are feeling stressed, Ian, but, right now I think is a good time for us to rest. The attack this time was more intense with the increased numbers and the different types of monsters we fought. Not only were we fighting against a troop of monsters that could use weapons but our trap with the fight was put out almost immediately by the ghosts.
They weren't part of the plan and it caused us a bit of panic. We dealt with it the best we could but the stress and anxiety didn't escape from us. I could tell some of the hobgoblins were also scared at the fact that they were facing monsters that they couldn't even hit. There were too many unforeseen events that happened in such a short time span that I think it is good that we can have this small break." - Gobi
"Gobi is right, nothing good will come out from you being stressed and worrying about things we don't know the answer to. Go back up, I'll get someone to bring the loot once we compile it all together." - Solar
"Okay, I'll rest up for a bit. Thank you everyone and while the original plan didn't work out we still managed to hold them off." - Ian
Waving them off, I head back up to the surface leaving them to handle the clean-up. The walk up the tunnel to the exit was filled with humans, demi-humans, and goblins caring wheelbarrows and baskets up and down as the transportation of loot is slowly being completed. Looking at this, my thoughts wandered as I think about what was next to HavenFall.
I could tell we were growing stronger, not just individually, but as a whole, as both Gobi and Howard were able to control the panicked soldiers in the cavern. Both of them had the qualities of a general, and with them holding the reins I was able to freely commit my attention to fighting the more elite monsters during the fight without having to watch over the whole situation. This begs the question of what is next? Do I stay here or do I go to the Krepost to support Kingston since they are more exposed?
Then there were thoughts about the infrastructure of HavenFall itself. Looking at it from a modern perspective, I realized that there were too few people doing anything furnishing related. This is done by old man Hus, and his apprentices but they also handle all the weaponry and armor for the village which makes it extremely hard for them to find time to construct simple furniture.
Most houses only have a dry grass bed, a table and a couple of chairs as 'furniture' and while they believe this to be enough, I think we can expand on it more and create a better living space. We have more citizens now and eventually, I will need to incorporate a form of currency as well as a market and then eventually a system of wages.
In the long run, it will create a self-sustaining community as a government system will be created alongside the creation of money as well as jobs. Once trade can be established between HavenFall and the Krepost more effectively, items and objects from either side will start to have a price tag on them. Values of certain objects will increase and I will not be able to manage and allocate the resources by myself which further tells me I need to create a currency system so that the citizens will be able to form decisions themselves.
Writing and mathematics will be even more vital in the near future as I want every citizen to have the chance to learn, study and understand to a certain degree as the knowledge they learn in school will help them form their own paths. Thinking of this, I need to create an actual location for a school rather than the outdoor study sessions that were currently taking place.
On this trail of thought, schools will be able to expose citizens to various potential jobs and roles. There can be classes on botany, warfare, blacksmithing, magic and so much more allowing everyone to have a chance to find something they feel passionate about doing rather than me, Howard, Gobi, and Noah allocating people to do certain tasks.
I also think the creation of a shrine and/or temple will also do wonders for HavenFall. Since there are different religions, and different gods/goddesses I think creating a space for each god/goddess will allow others to pray in a comfortable state. Faith is an important factor for HavenFall as with the increase of the stat, the more benefits I will gain. If creating a shrine or temple can boost the amount of faith I gain, I would gladly do it. This would also introduce priests and maybe even missionaries to help spread the faith to future villages.
Lost in my thoughts, I don't even notice Melody standing in front of me waiting at the exit of the cave until I bump into her slightly. Looking up surprised, I see an annoyed expression looking back at me.
"Ian! What are you doing? I've been calling out to you for a while now but you didn't respond and now you just walk into me? What's the matter with you?" - Melody
"Sorry, Melody, I was just lost in my thoughts. I didn't mean to ignore you." - Ian
"I get it, there are lots to think about but there is something I need you to know. After Noah left his position at the waterfall to come down to the cavern, I took over the role of supervising the soldiers. We were able to repel the monsters that came to attack us and after seeing no more monsters, I became slightly worried and confused.
After asking one of the goblin scouts to venture forth, he came back to inform me of a fight that was happening not too far away from our vicinity. There seems to be a group of travelers that caught the attention of the fishmen and are currently engaged in a full-scale fight. According to the goblin, the travelers were slowly backing off from the fight, as they were on the losing side." - Melody
"Wandering travelers? Interesting… What did they look like? How many of them were there? From his opinion how big of a threat could they be to HavenFall?" - Ian
"They look worn out and tired, like they have been traveling for a long time, constantly getting into fights. Most of their armor is destroyed with some not even wearing anything other than some thin shirts and pants. Their weapons are also very basic, mainly consisting of spears, knives, and a couple of small wooden shields.
As for how many, the goblin couldn't get an accurate number, but the estimate is that there are somewhere between 25-40 people. A mix of humans, demi-humans and kobolds were seen fighting against the fishmen and ghosts. In all honesty, they don't seem like a threat to HavenFall but I'm not sure if us helping them is a good decision. We aren't done preparing houses for new citizens yet and food might become an issue if we are adding this many people all of a sudden." - Melody
"Hmm… I understand your concern about this group but having more people in HavenFall will always help. We need more manpower and if they agree to live with us we can solve the manpower issue. However, I would like to see the situation before making a clear decision. Get me Luna and Gewari. The four of us will have a look at them and if I think they are worth saving, then we will proceed to save them." - Ian
"Got it, Ian! I'll get them right now. Meet me at the waterfall?" - Melody
"Yeah, get them quickly. I don't want to get there too late in case they all die." - Ian
Nodding her head towards me, Melody runs off to the gate, fetching both Luna and Gewari who were sitting next to each other on top of the wall. Meeting back at the waterfall in a couple of minutes, the goblin scout led the way for us towards the new group of people.
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