Preparation and reports...
"Welcome back Lord..."
Both Timothy and the lieutenant greeted Zach.
"Call me Zach..."
Zach told the two but seeing the discomfort in their eyes,he permitted them to call him sir.
"You can call me sir,and let it spread among the residents that I prefer being referred to as sir than lord..."
"Yes Sir Zach..."
The two replied,the discomfort on their faces vanishing,as they swore to have every resident reffer to their lord as Sir Zach while addressing him.
To them,Zach was a man they would fight and die for. Not only did he provide a safe place for them to call home,but also provided opportunity for everyone to better their life. His regulations though strict,they were not bias.
He also did not force them to work,every resident had their freewill. It was upto one to decide whether they will work or not,and what task they wanted.
Those who were willing to sweat for it and those who put effort into the well being and development of the camp reaped more than those who slacked.
This was evident from the two residents who earned a small fortune,from capturing and sell an ox to the Lord.
"Timothy,I want you take several residents to clear a twenty metre radius outside the camp and construct ten simple sleeping sheds on it,we will be receiving more residents tonight..."
The two were carried away by this order,but still Timothy acknowledged it as he left the table.
Outside, he rushed to the warehouse where he had temporarily set his office and took out the task records,he noted the names of people,who were currently not occupied with any task and sent word for them to meet him outside the camp.
He later rushed to the hostel kitchen and instructed the cooks to cook additional food, precisely enough to feed an extra a hundred people. To Timothy,since the lord asked him to have ten sheds constructed,it was a clear indication that close to a hundred people will be arriving tonight,as each sleeping shed could hold ten beds.
Zach had not informed him of the exact number,or had him ask the kitchen to prepare extra food. He had committed or these as he wanted to test his progress and growth. If Timothy could not pass such an easy test,there was no need nurturing him.
Zach smiled as he retreived his spirit sence,he had used it to observe Timothy's action and was pleased by the little boy.
"His mental age is way above his age..."
Zach thought as he returned his attention to the cabin,where the lieutenant had silently and patiently waited for him to address her.
"How was your expedition?"
Zach inquired from the inspector,who he realized,he did not know of her name.
"Where are my etiquettes..."
Zach reprimanded himself as he took the the three sheepskin maps handed over to him by the lieutenant.
"These are the map of the regions we explored Sir..."
As Zach perused the sheepskin maps,the lieutenant gave a report of their exploration.
"It took us nine days to explore the planes,as you can see from the maps,we did discovere areas of intrest..."
"The two area marked by a single pick axe are small quarries,the one closest to camp is about to be exhausted as we prioritized it due to the short distance we had to cover and the logistics arrangements..."
"The region marked with two pickaxe is a couple of small hills west of the second quarry,where I do believe there's an iron mine,since we managed to find several iron ores on one of the tunnel walls, seventyl-five metres from the tunnel mouth...."
Zach was now all smiles,the two quarries where a welcome,but the iron mine,that was a blessing. He could only hope that the core of the iron mine had at least a kilogram of spirit iron,this was enough for him to forge a low ranked spirit sword.
"The claw marks are locations of spirit beast,the darker the claw marks,the stronger the spirit beast..."
Zach had noted that some claw marks were lighter than others while some were darker,there was also a claw marks that was bigger than the rest at the edge of the two kilometer boundary mark.
"What about this claw?"
Zach inquired...
"That marks the territory of the strongest spirit beast we came across..."
Zach wondered whether it was a peak stage spirit qi gathering realm or a foundation establishment realm beast.
"Guess I will find out on my own..."
"I believe the blue marking are rivers or rather streams and the blue puddles are springs or water holes..."
"Yes Sir Zach,the blue markings are of streams well the puddles indicate the location of all springs..."
The lieutenant said as she handed over a bonded leather parchment book to Zach.
"And in here are the entries and descriptions to all normal and spirit herbs that we gathered."
Zach took his time going through the spirit herbs entries.
"They are not much but they will have do with what I have in mind..."
Zach kept the record aside.
"You did a good work Lieutenant..."
"Thank you sir..."
Zach had to acknowledge the effort that the exploration party put in during those nine days.
"I guess there were no traces of other humans..."
"Yes sir,there were no traces..."
Zach was silent for a while.
"Guess I will have to upgrade the camp as to explore further..."
Everything now depended on the next upgrade in two weeks time,there was the low stage spirit qi gathering realm a hundred year old oak tree,the bandit lair,the two settlements that traded with Evergreen Settlement and further exploration of both the forest and the grassy planes.
"What about the guards unit?"
"There has been progress as half of the unit has attained the minimum requirement body forging stage, while the rest are only a stage behind..."
The lieutenant paused,she was not sure of whether to proceed or not.
"Go on..."
"Sir,the only thing hindering them from exchanging their merit points for a cultivation manual are their merits points..."
Zach understood this well as he had set a strict merit point system before leaving. A week of guard duty was worth ten merit points,while any normal resource or materials brought in during patrolls or expeditions,were worth a single merit point per unit,while low ranked spirit herbs were worth a single merit point per batch,and the spirit beast were worth two merit points for the low stage spirit qi gathering realm beast,the merit points doubled per corresponding stage. But this only applied to the spirit beasts in the spirit qi gathering realm.