Dom opened his Personal Chest and his draw almost dropped to the ground. Inside were more cubes than he knew what do to with. He had completed four of his five missions and acuminated a huge haul. He had completed the quest to conquer a town, the quest to win a battle, the quest to find three new locations and finally the quest to learn a new skill. He pulled the items out one by one and calculated what he had, whilst also asking Game Support which quest they were a reward from.
Wooden Token - Upgrade Building - From Town Centre Assimilation
Wooden Token - Upgrade Building - From Conquer a Town
Orange Cube - Military Hero Spawner - From Win a Battle
Green Cube - Random Building Spawner - From Win a Battle
Green Cube - Random Building Spawner - From Conquer a Town
Green Cube - Random Building Spawner - From Conquer a Town
Red Cube - Elite Villager Spawner - From learn a Skill
Red Cube - Elite Villager Spawner - From Discover Three New Locations
Black Cube - Villager Spawner - From Discover Three New Locations
Golden Token - Special Quest Map - From Win a Battle
Dom was ecstatic and laughed loudly to himself in glee. He was happy with the two Upgrade Tokens, as that meant he only had one more building to upgrade after these and he would have completed his final quest of this batch. He was also happy with the three new Random Building Spawners, and hoped that he would get some more useful buildings that could increase the efficiency and happiness of Riverside. He was also impressed to see that he had another Golden Token to add, and now had two special quest's to complete when he had the chance.
The two Elite Village Spawners were very important, as his current two Elite Villagers, Sostratus and Hua Tou were very key in the growth and development of the Town, whilst the Black Cube of a normal Village Spawner, he wasn't as excited about. His previous Black Cubes had however brought him all of his current Town Guards so he hoped more could be added to this force.
The item he was most excited about however was the Orange Cube for a new Military Hero. He was happy with the three he had, Subutai, Gan Ning and Tomyris. However as Subutai had mentioned earlier, they had many things to do, and having more leaders within would be a huge asset. He was also wondering how he could go about upgrading Warriors and Villagers to Hero level, as characters such as Octavian, Alexander, Banas, Hua Tou, Sostratus, Wang Shu, Lars and Helena were all key in the day to day.
He grabbed his cubes and tokens and placed them in to his bag. The only tokens he left behind were the Golden Token for the special missions that he was waiting to use. He would discuss the Golden Tokens again with his senior team shortly, now that they had dealt with the Nomadic Camp situation.
He headed downstairs and was glad to see that Shang Yang was waiting for him, he was sat at the table and reading some parchment that had writing on it. He looked up and smiled as Dom appeared at the steps.
"Happy with your rewards." Shang Yang asked as Dom reached the table.
"More than happy!" Dom replied, "We have two upgrade tokens, a new Military Hero, three new buildings, two Elite Villagers, another Golden Token and final a normal Villager Spawner."
"That is quite a huge haul!" Shang Yang replied happily as he put his parchment down. "I do worry however."
"Worry about what?" Dom asked seriously, listening to his Grade S Hero's words.
"We are growing very fast, however our military daily spawns are now higher than those of our Villagers. We need more Civilians to grow and feed the Military expansion. If it was a time of peace, the Warriors would be Civilians, however as we are in a time of growth and exploration we need the strong Military presence." Shang Yang stared, before handing Dom the parchment he had. "I have been doing some calculations, at our current growth we will start to struggle in around four to six months if we do not increase our Civilian percentage and improve our farmland yields soon. If the Military keeps increasing and the Civilian's don't at the same pace, that number could reduce."
Dom sat down and looked at Shang Yang seriously, his earlier glee disappearing. He had been going head first in to growing his Military might, and had left most of the Civilian things on the back burner for Lucius to manage. Lucius had been doing a good job, but was understaffed and had been doing lots on his own.
"It is not all glum however," Shang Yang continued. "From discussing with Lucius, we are massively ahead of where we were expecting to be in terms of growth, and most other new starters will be far behind. We just need to consolidate and set up some important structures in the background to manage this."
"What do you propose?" Dom asked.
"We need to concentrate on upgrading the Town Centre to increase the Daily Spawns. We also need to create a Mayors staff, with people who can look after key aspects of the growth. Lucius currently has meetings with the key family heads, I believe this is a good start to plan the day, but a background staff who can do the simple admin tasks would be perfect." Shang Yang replied. "We also need to reform the Military and create a long term structure to fit in your growth, I'm aware Subutai is already thinking this through."
"Anything else?" Dom asked, happy that the resolutions seemed simple for now.
"Yes, we need to improve our current building quality, ideally we need stone and other materials from the mountains. I am aware that a simple scouting mission has been done with some Miners that joined Riverside, but more effort needs to be made." Shang Yang continued. "We also have a reliance on the building types, but we should dictate our destiny and not let those buildings direct our growth. Our final initial step would be to find a trading partner who could supplement any shortfalls we have in materials or food in the future."
"Thank you Shang Yang, this has given me a lot to think about." Dom replied gratefully.
"Ahh, it is just a few thoughts of mine." Shang Yang replied modestly, "I would rather work on the school of Law and creating simple rules that the people can abide by for a happy but safe life."
"That sounds like an enjoyable task." Dom agreed, thinking that it didn't sound like an enjoyable task at all. "Would you like to join me and advise me as I use the cubes and tokens?"
"I would." Shang Yang replied, "I would advise that we spawn the new buildings first, and then use your upgrade tokens. After that you can then concentrate on the people side of things. We should meet up with Lucius and have him join us."
After leaving the Town Centre, they both soon arrived at the temporary camp near the school that the Nomadic Tribe Civilians had set up, their Warriors had now moved to the Cavalry Warriors Hall and were settling themselves in under Banas's order. Lucius was glad to leave the auditing to the two teachers and quickly joined Dom and Shang Yang. They were shadowed by two of Dom's guards as usual, this time it was Trojan and Homer.
"That is a huge haul." Lucius agreed, "I think what Advisor Shang Yang has outlined is a good way of using these items, let's do the buildings first then! I feel that the World has been our friend so far, so hopefully we get useful buildings again."
"System, please can you use the first Green Cube." Dom asked. Looking at the almost empty Merchant Area and deciding to spawn the first building here.
[Rolling for Random Building...Building Selected.....Market]
Suddenly the ground did a gentle shake as several small stalls appeared in an open space in the merchant area, with different shapes and sizes. There was also a couple of small warehouse type buildings that appeared to the side of it, their doors tightly closed. Many different goods then started to appear in the stalls, with some exotic foods in one, clothing in another and even some small animals in a third. In total there were around twenty stalls, with ten of them full of items and the others empty for now.
As Dom, Shang Yang and Lucius headed towards the Stalls, the doors to one of the small warehouses opened and ten people walked out, they were all dressed differently, some in exotic loose fitting clothing, whilst others had brightly coloured turbans and wore long silk robes. There were also one dressed in nothing but a long grass skirt to cover their personal areas. The people all bowed at Dom as he approached.
Dom had to stifle a laugh at the reaction of a man who was stood behind the man in the grass skirt as he reacted in disgust as the man in front of him bowed to show his respect, getting more of an eyeful than he was expecting.
"System, Show Stats." Dom asked.
[Riverside Market
Market Grade - S
Market Level - 1
Current Stall Occupancy - 10/20
Riverside Market allows for Civilians and Merchants to trade items and goods with one another. Some Merchants will now travel to Riverside to sell their wares, either by land or by water. All markets have a special function where they can purchase or request special goods from other Towns or Kingdoms. Remember, there is no such thing as a free meal]
"I think we are going to start needing Currency." Dom said to Lucius and Shang Yang.
"I would agree." Shang Yang said, "I didn't think we would need it yet, but this is a good opportunity. We just need to find an easier way to convert our riches in to coin."
"We could do paper notes with a value for now?" Dom asked, "Assign a value to the goods we have and people don't need to carry the physical gold with them. They can pay the merchants with the notes and the notes can be traded at the Town Centre for their worth."
"I didn't realise you knew much about currency?" Shang Yang replied.
"I don't, it's just an idea!" Dom stated, unsure if Shang Yang thought it was a good idea or not.
"It's a good idea for now." Lucius commented, "However we need a Bank and a Mint soon, if Sostratus can draw up the designs or we can purchase the Schematics that would be ideal. I'll also have someone get Cassius, as he is our head Merchant so this market is key for him."
"We could set him up as the Market Manager for now?" Shang Yang stated.
The ten people headed over towards Dom and his group. His Guards took up key positions on the flanks, but Dom was relaxed as usual.
"Welcome to Riverside." Dom announced happily to the ten new members of Riverside.
"Thanks for having us!" The man in the grass skirt replied, "My name is Makali, We are Shopkeepers and Merchants from all around the l and. We have brought our wares and would like to settle in Riverside as our new home and base of operations. We will need to set up our caravans to replenish our goods."
"What type of wares do you have?" Lucius asked kindly.
"I have access to some exotic fruits and seeds myself, if there is anything you like the look of, I can try and set up a more regular delivery. We'll need to speak with your Dock workers about moving things from between our warehouses and theirs."
"You are more than welcome." Dom replied, "Thank you for coming, I look forward to visiting your stalls soon and seeing what you have brought to Riverside. I have a couple more tasks, but please head over to the camp there and ask for Kento and Minato. They will be able to assign you suitable housing in the mean time."
"Thank you again." Makali replied kindly, he was very tall and had a large pattern tattoo down his arm and chest, with strong muscles and small eyes on his round balled head. He bowed again, and the man behind grimaced once more.