Chương 124: Chapter 120 – Grainworks Begins

Beaver Crossing Day 1 of Grainworks Initiative The seven days were finally over, and Mark watched the system count down the last few seconds. Then he received a system message, as did everyone else in the zone. [Regional Infrastructure Project Voting Completed] Grainworks Initiative Selected Beginning Project Activation... Resource Commitments Confirmed. Contribution Investments Confirmed. Regional Labor Allocation Confirmed.

Project Status: Grainworks Initiative — Active Estimated Completion: 40 Days Assigned Personnel: 0 / 10 Available Tasks Generated: 184 Additional Tasks Generating... Mark watched as the task list kept climbing. It would have been surprising if he had not already experienced it before with the Forgeworks. Then another message appeared.

[Grainworks Initiative Activated] Primary Construction Sites Designated: River Mill Complex • Great Granary • Regional Threshing Grounds • Freight and Distribution Yard Additional Facilities May Be Generated During Project Completion. Mark had not really thought about it but was originally thinking it would be a single building or series of buildings side by side like Forgeworks, but it was much more than that.

As there was no request to place the buildings, he brought up his map and was surprised to see all of the buildings and locations listed on his map already. Mark was sitting in the inn like a number of other people, and they were all talking and going over lists. Mark looked at the list and already saw that 2 people were already assigned to it. Mark looked at the "apply" button and, for the fun of it, hit it just to see what it would do.

But he got an immediate rejection, which made sense because he would not be qualified to run this project, nor did he want to. He was not surprised when he saw Garrick's name get listed as construction lead. And Elias was soon also listed as a team member. Many others he knew got other slots, and people whose names he recognized but could not place a face to also showed up on the list. Mark brought up the task lists and started looking through a small subset of each category. Construction Tasks: • Dig mill race.

• Gather foundation stone. • Construct drying platforms. • Raise granary supports. • Build threshing floor. Agricultural Tasks: • Survey additional grain varieties. • Expand barley production. • Establish oat test fields. • Collect grain quality samples. Transportation Tasks: • Construct freight wagons. • Acquire draft animals. • Establish hauling teams. • Create storage routes. Trade Tasks: • Establish export agreements. • Deliver flour samples. • Negotiate grain contracts. • Survey future trade opportunities.

The types of tasks varied greatly. On Forgeworks it was mostly construction tasks and then metal, mining, and smithing-related tasks. But this list was all over the place, which was a good thing. Then he found a category that was interesting. [Regional Export Network] Trade Regions Identified: 6 Active Export Contracts Required: 0 / 10 A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Contract Limits: Maximum 2 Active Contracts Per Region A minimum of 5 participating regions is recommended. Additional regions may be discovered through exploration. Mark looked at that screen and had to think about this one: he needed to trade with Five different regions. He only knew of three others besides the one he currently lived in. That was the Forest Region, Silvermere Region, and Mistwater Basin. And only two of those had real places to make trade agreements with.

That meant he would need to find at least three more regions. Clicking around on the interface, trying to get more info, he finally figured out how to pull up a list of possible current regions.

[Known Regions] Forest Region • Forest's Rest • Cave Camp Silvermere Region • Northridge • Lakeside Mistwater Basin • Harbor Watch [Unknown Regions] Southern River Region • Southwater Landing • Riverbend Trading Post Eastern Plains Region • Eastfield Settlement • Briar Hollow Northeastern Frontier Region • Stonebridge Crossing • Green Hollow This was interesting; the system is basically telling them that to complete their project, they must go out and explore and make new trade contracts with groups of people they have never met with little more than possible names of locations and general directions of south, east, and northeast.

Mark had assumed this project was about building a mill and making flour and using grain in the area. But it was much bigger than that. They had enough wheat in the zone to feed thousands or maybe hundreds of thousands of people if it was done right. And the system expected them to do it right. The project was not a farming project. It was an export project built on farming. Mark read back through everything to see what else he had missed.

He started with the task lists; rereading them, he realized that they were critically short of many needed items. They needed more wagons, horses, mules, oxen, and storage, and most importantly, they needed more workers. They had a zone mostly full of farmers. They needed so much more than that. Mark was starting to realize that this was not the easy project that he and the rest on the village council thought it would be. They had huge things that needed doing, and if not done, the project would run late.

They needed first to recruit people. Wagon drivers, Runners, workmen, loggers, blacksmiths, construction workers. They also needed to find future mill workers, threshing workers, granary workers, and freight and distribution workers, and there were plenty others that he did not know and could not figure out from the jobs lists he looked at.

Mark finally decided he could not think or stress over this alone and went to find Garrick, Dale, and the other council members to have a conversation about the project they got themselves into. It took about an hour to get the whole group together, but when they finally did, they sat down and talked. Mark brought up the trade contracts he had found and also mentioned that there was a new trade instance at the harbor.

He suggested that they start looking for people interested in trade and get them to go do the instance a few times over the next week so they could figure out the correct questions to ask. Megan, who was over trade and commerce for the village, took the lead on that and said she had a few already in mind, and she also told Mark that he was on her short list to help with trade; as he likes to travel around and meet others, it would be a great part of the project he could work on.

Dale spoke about the flour and millwork; he, of course, being a chef, knew flour and was excited about some of the other grains and items needed and about different qualities of flour, and he also talked about arranging food and drink for the work sites and said that he could cook most of the food needed at the inn and that he would bring in a few cooks he knew from up north to help. Garrick, of course, was excited about all the construction projects.

He also talked about that when the system went to place the locations, it prompted him with its suggestions and allowed him to tweak the locations a little to fit his master plans for the area. He also mentioned that they would need a lot more labor, wood, nails, stone, clay, and many other items. Many of which they would have to purchase from outside the zone.

He suggested that they get a contract with Silvermere, as they had a decent logging industry and could get a lot of lumber there and, of course, create contracts with Forgeworks for metal items. David said he went through the contracts for the livestock needs and that there were many. Most of which was for transportation needs. But he said he found a request for a dozen oxen for use on the southern towpaths. But he had no idea what that meant. Elias and Garrick both answered him.

When boats go downstream to trade, they can't easily go upstream. So they connect the ropes to the boat, and oxen walk beside the river on towpaths to haul the barges or boats back upstream. Mark said, "Oh yeah, That is why I suggested having the meeting not be about all the other things discussed but about the region south of us that we have to do trade with." Megan said, "What? Has someone been south and met people?"

Mark said, "I found a part of the Grainworks project that said we needed 10 export contracts signed. With a maximum of 2 per region to count towards total contracts. I know of only four regions, so I started digging through the task list and finally found a list of three unknown regions; one is south, one east, and one northeast, and it even gave me settlement names. The two down south that were identified were Southwater Landing and Riverbend Trading Post."

Garrick said, "While I guess we know what Mark's first project is, he needs to head south and find our two trade partners. Any one second the motion." Dale, with a smile on his face, said, "I second it." Garrick said, "Okay, Mark, pack your bags; you're heading south. I will send a team starting tonight to make a path following both sides of the river for the towpath once I figure out where in the task list the assignments are and find some volunteers to take the task."

The meeting continued for another couple hours, but Mark just tuned it out. He was heading south, and he could not decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing.