“Mom, you’ve ignored me!”
“I’ve ignored you many times—otherwise your diet as a child would have consisted purely of ketchup with a few fries sprinkled in. What do you mean?”
“Patrols!”
Allison sighed. “Yes, that is actually true. It’s one of those things for which it somehow never really is the right time… But I agree that it would increase our security.”
“Not just that—we also need to find more resources for our economy. We are pretty close to being maxed out on dungeon runs, but we can do more by tapping into our surroundings. I think we should scout the region and define harvesting routes that the other teams can then protect. Now is the time before we go into the full implementation of our new economy.”
“When will we find the time, though, son?”
“We need to make some trade-offs. From what you have told me the other teams are coming along nicely. What if our team focuses exclusively on Rat World and Rings of Return? They offer a lot of loot and are frankly a better use of our time. If the others don’t clear the lowest levels of the other dungeons, that is not a big issue—we have enough people to have them run a dungeon every day—at least. If you only go into the first one or two levels, it should be possible for them to run two dungeons or more.”
Allison slowly nodded. “You are right. I know for a fact that the others are ready to step up, but it isn’t always easy to make the call. But alright. I will schedule things accordingly.”
“Great. Let’s leave tomorrow and find something interesting!” Ben clapped his hands and grinned, excited about what they would encounter.
***
Ben had spent some time with the map of the surrounding areas before deciding which area to explore. He had explicitly excluded the East, as that would take them up the mountain, closer to the Tier 2 areas.
That was something he did want to explore soon, but now he was looking for areas the other teams, not yet Tier 2, could cross without support once they had found harvestable resources.
They had spent most of the day exploring and had found quite a few areas that could be harvested, but only one—a large patch of mushrooms—seemed likely to regrow at a pace that would be worth setting up a harvest route for. Now they were close to the area where they had found the mine dungeon on their first hike up from Simonston, and Hercules had, after understanding what Ben was looking for, pointed toward a small cliff that rose vertically up the mountain. It wasn’t high, but the dark gray stone glimmered in some spots, piquing Ben’s interest.
Hercules himself seemed torn, on one hand proud of having found this area that Ben was interested in, on the other hand, slightly disgusted with the area, as it didn’t offer tasty Energy cores.
Ben conveyed how proud he was of the eagle and asked for a bit of patience while they figured things out.
Jamal volunteered to climb a few meters to reach the first glimmering spot. With an old knife, he tried to pry out a piece of ore, but all he did was break the knife’s tip.
Ben looked at the gleaming edge of his axe, debating whether it would be ruined by the stone or withstand it. He decided to trust Deepika’s enchantment and tossed it up to Jamal, who held onto the wall with one hand, grabbed Ben’s axe out of the air with the other, and then carefully brought the edge to the stone and ore.
A fist-sized chunk of cliff broke off and Jamal jumped down, handing the axe back to Ben while Anne picked up the piece that had fallen.
Sun Iron. Energy-infused Ore. Tier 1. Rare mining resource.
“That is what I am talking about!” Ben exclaimed after using [Analyze] on the piece of rock and metal.
Hercules screeched, sensing Ben’s excitement.
Ben looked around the area. With the cliff in the back this could turn into a reasonably defensible area if secured properly, and while it was just a few hours from the settlement, it was probably too long and unsafe for people to travel back and forth every day, so they needed to build structures for people to stay while they mined the vein.
“It seems like we’re back in the lumberjack business!” he grinned broadly.
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He knew it wasn’t the best use of his time, but he would definitely help build a few cabins and a small palisade to fortify the area. With their high Body attributes and the right tools, it should be something they could do in a day or two.
Energized, they returned home to plan for an excursion the next day with a few others to help quickly erect two or three cabins, sheds, and palisades they would need.
The small mining outpost would definitely put more strain on their resources, as it required permanent protection as well as guarding the miners moving back and forth to the settlement, but the ore was rare, making it likely to be of higher quality than the True Iron they could get from the mining dungeon, and it would create jobs for miners and resources for their smiths.
It felt like real progress to Ben.
When they returned and Ben relayed the news to Adam, the head of the Protectorate Administration, he was equally enthusiastic.
“You know, maybe this could be a good test case for our auction system. You should go and build it, and then we could auction it off to whoever wants to take the risk of operating the mine. They would have to pay for the protection and, of course, the salaries of the miners, plus the fee for the mining rights they buy for a year or two.”
“That sounds great, but it feels like a big risk for anyone to take, we don’t even know whether there is more than a handful of the stuff out there…”
“True, but currently the Protectorate is taking all the risk—and as far as I know there is nobody with a perk that can tell us how much ore there is.”
“Okay, why don’t you float the idea with the citizens? We go out and build it tomorrow, and once we are done in a couple of days people who are interested can come and visit. If nobody is willing to do it, we do it as a Protectorate-owned activity for some time.”
***
It felt really good to do what he had done for so long—and they were so fast!
They had spent just four hours and had already cleared the area around the cliff and cut all the trees they needed for the palisade and the cabins.
They were a group of twelve, the old-timers being clearly overrepresented. Some because they wanted to experience their old lifestyle again, even if just for a day, others, especially Marcus and Thomas, because they wanted to see what kind of resources they would be able to work with once the mine was active.
A large group of Dire Wolves had thought it would be a good idea to attack them while they were distracted, but they had been taught better, and now they were a few cores richer and the hides would be used by Carter and some of the other leatherworkers to make armor for the militia and for Simonston.
It was a good day.
***
By early afternoon the next day, they had returned to the settlement and Adam was waiting for them.
“I have quite a few interested people lined up. A group of Protectors will guide them to the site tomorrow, and then they have a day or so to make up their minds. Should be interesting.”
“Very much so. My gut feeling is that the mine will have a decent yield. If it was just a few rocks, Hercules wouldn’t have picked up on it.”
“I’ll talk with Madeleine. Maybe we can structure the auction not as a flat monthly fee but rather as a share of the yield—that would de-risk things for the bidders and provide us with some upside as well.”
***
A day later, after they had just saved a small clan in the steppes of Mongolia, alarm bells rang, alerting Ben in his office. He rushed down, and as he exited the HQ, he saw the cause for the alarm. A portal was rising out of the ground, close to the Protectorate Pillar.
Ben hadn’t received a notification from Meta or Mesa, so it was unclear what was happening. A few seconds later the mystery was solved as Akira, the powerful mage who had fought with them against the Drakniks, stepped through the portal that he had created with the help of the single-use token Ben had given him.
He moved towards the mage to shake hands and welcome him. “It’s great to see you! Are you visiting or do you need help?”
A few citizens had stopped to observe while the Protectors that had assembled in reaction to the alarm dispersed.
“Good day, Ben. It is good to see you again. I was wondering whether your offer to host my grandparents’ village is still on the table. While I did manage to keep them safe so far, the pressure is increasing…”
Ben nodded. “Of course, you, your family, and the village are welcome. How many people are we talking about?”
“A bit more than two hundred.”
“What? Two hundred?!?” In the grand scheme of things that was not a huge number, but it was almost a quarter of their current population. They would be able to host them somehow, though they had only built apartments for a thousand citizens so far. “I apologize, I was just surprised. Over the last few weeks, we typically welcomed groups between thirty and one hundred; going up by more than two hundred is doable—just a bit of a surprise.
“Let me inform Adam, who runs the Administration, and the others, then we bring your people over. Welcome to the Protectorate!”
With his typical efficiency, Adam quickly marshalled the welcoming and integration teams and stood ready as Akira returned through the portal, just to come back a few minutes later, helping an elderly couple with their belongings.
Quickly, more and more people streamed through the portal, heavily skewed toward older ages, but the vast majority still seemed fit and agile enough.
Given that they all came prepared, there was no need to give them a period to consider their next steps. Instead, they were quickly introduced to the Protectorate Pillar and the process of becoming citizens.
Akira stood by Ben, gazing at the settlement around them and the smooth process with which they were welcomed. “Ben, this is incredible. When you talked about a marble city in the wilderness, I thought that was a metaphor. I am grateful for the hospitality.”
Ben waved him off. “Hospitality is for guests. You’re citizens now.”
Meanwhile, Adam converted a large part of their remaining Credits to SCs and built a large number of apartments, starting to stretch the space available in their walled-off area.
One after another, the villagers touched the pillar and accepted the values of the Protectorate. After a few minutes, several notifications began to catch Ben’s attention.
They had reached Level 3.
