Chương 116: Chapter 112 – Return to Northridge

Mark realized how much quicker it was this time while traveling north. The last time he had come the other way on foot, and the horses had helped a lot. Once they got the trail done to the Southern Outpost, traveling would go even quicker. They found a few small animals along the way, which helped Brian to get a little more XP and work on his bow skills. He was getting close to the next level and should get it when they got to Northridge and got the wagon and delivered the mail that he was tasked to do.

The first stop along the way was the Southern Outpost. Mark was welcomed by the group in charge; they had seen him less than a week ago and asked what he had found out. They spent the next hour talking about the harbor and the new instance they found. Then he let them know that they were one of two gateways into the area and to expect a lot of traffic in the future.

He then set up a trade agreement between them and Harbor Watch for food and road maintenance, which they enjoyed, as it would give them some incoming system credits to use. Mark then headed for Westward Village. This stop took a little longer, where they stopped to water and feed the horses and to get food for themselves at the local inn. Mark met with their village leaders and let them know about the harbor and the instance and future interest that it might bring to their area.

They were not on a direct route there, but people traveling from Northridge would increase traffic through their village. Mark, after all the travel on horseback, was getting more used to it now. He was not sure he liked the saddle, as it was not comfortable, but he enjoyed how much faster they were going and how that would make travel around places much better going forward as the availability of them was rising quickly. They arrived in Northridge about an hour later.

Mark stopped at the building where he met with the village leaders last time he was here and sent the rest of the men up to the stable to take care of the horses and make arrangements to pick up the wagons tomorrow morning and said he would meet them there when he was done. Mark found Joren, one of the village leaders, and arranged with him to set up a village council meeting because he had information to share about the location that he had shared with them last time he was there.

Joren said it would take an hour or so to gather the members of the council, so Mark decided he would wander around town while he waited. Northridge was much more lived in than Beaver Crossing. It had been around for about a year, he had been told during the last visit. There were many shops, one of which sold furniture, and he went in to look around. He was amazed at how many things they had that were not required. Mark had lived the last few months, living day to day. Only gathering things he absolutely needed.

These people were living, not just day to day. One thing he found that he enjoyed was a painting of the local lake. At this point, he had nothing on the walls of his cabin. He decided that he would buy the painting so that at least one thing was on his walls when he was walking towards the front of the shop to pay, he passed a shelf that had about two dozen different toys. And he realized that was something that most of them forgot was important.

When he got to talk to the shopkeeper, he asked if he could buy all of them. The shopkeeper was surprised and delighted. Mark arranged for the shopkeeper to hold onto the items and for Brian, a delivery driver who would be by tomorrow morning, to take the toys and the painting back to Beaver Crossing. The shopkeeper was excited to know that items that he sold would travel so far, and Mark suggested he talk to the delivery driver tomorrow to find out if he could help him with other transport jobs.

Mark then went back to see if the council was ready, and he only had to wait a few minutes to be able to talk with them. They then went into the building, and everyone grabbed a chair to sit and talk. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. Mark said, "Thank you for meeting with me today on short notice. Last time I was here I let you know about the possible issue down south.

Recently I got a new message that was critical that it be handled right away, and I and a group of adventurers went to investigate." Petra said, "Sorry, Mark, we have talked about that as a council for a while, but because of the new trade for wheat and the metal items out of the Forgeworks, we never got around to sending a team down." Mark said, "No problem at all. What we found was interesting. I am sure you're aware of the cave and its instances.

There is a harbor down there called Mistwater Harbor; it sits on the east side of a massive lake with many islands. It is a completely deserted and destroyed location, but sometime in the past it was a major industry there had to be remains of between 40 and 50 buildings, many docks, and even a dry dock." The council started to murmur and talk about it and what it could mean for them and water travel in the area. Finally one of them shushed the others.

Vera said, "Sorry, Mark, for the interruption can you please continue?" Mark said, "Yes, thanks. What I was trying to get at was that it also has an instance similar to the cave but is uniquely different. At this point it offers 2 instances with a 10 hour cooldown and two choices of utility or combat activities. I personally have done one of the utility instances early this morning before traveling here. It was kind of fun. Low level, little to no combat, but a task to complete.

When done, it ended; it took about 2 hours to complete." Again, the group cut in and started talking to each other about how they needed to send people down to investigate. How they missed out on finding this great opportunity. That they did not want to be left behind like had happened at the cave with them ending up building the Forgeworks because of advancements gained there. Finally, another member of the council shushed them again. Harlan said, "Come on, guys, let him finish.

I am sure he has not even got to the good stuff yet." Mark said, "Yes, let's get to the good stuff. When we ran the instance, the rewards were different from what the cave was. There, the rewards were mostly loot from monsters and resources from the cave. At the harbor the major prize was harbor credits. These are separate from the system credits you all should already be used to; they were only good at the harbor. There were many items available on the list, with even more shown as locked."

Mark continued, "I was told from the teams that ran it a few times before me that the fighting instances were different each time and were similar to the cave fights in that you fought and got loot and also system credits. There is a system where the more one type of instance is run, the credit reward goes down and the other type of credit value goes up, like the system is balancing wanting an equal amount of both types of instances run."

The council again started talking, and it went on for over an hour with almost no more input from Mark other than answering some simple questions. When they were finally done talking about the harbor, Mark let them know that he came to town with a group to pick up a couple wagons they purchased and let them know that there were more places to trade with in his area and created a number of new trade agreements with them. Mark had just excused himself when a system message came in that was listed as zone-wide.

[Regional Project Available] Region: Silvermere Eligible Settlements: • Northridge Village • Northridge Heights Outpost • Westward Village • Lakeside Village • Southern Outpost Project Selection Required. Voting Period: 7 Days Project details available through authorized leadership interfaces. As soon as he got done reading the message, Mark chuckled and quietly slipped out of the room while the council immediately began arguing over whatever a Regional Project was.