Chương 127: Chapter 123 – River Bend Trading Post

Brightwater Valley Day 4 of Grainworks Initiative Mark and Sarah got up and ate breakfast that someone in the outpost volunteered to make for them in trade for some of the wheat, which they both thought was a deal. The food was delicious and different from what Dale could make with the items that he had. When breakfast was over, Owen gave them directions one last time on how to get to River Bend Trading Post and then they set out going downriver.

As they traveled down the river, they noticed that the population density increased as well as farms, fences, and irrigation. Two hours later they passed the Goldbulb farm where they grew onions, garlic, and herbs. They did not stop, though, just waving at the people working in the fields, who just waved back. The smell in the air was different, but the people were the same. Hard workers are busy and making a life here in the Brightwater Valley.

Mark opened his map and looked at it as more things and trails became available for him to read. They continued heading south. Just a couple hours after they left Goldbulb, they passed the Meadowrun Dairy, another outpost. They did not stop but continued south following the road they were on. Only big change is the smell of cows rather than fields full of vegetables. Lots of people, stalls, fences, and homes around them, showing that this was an active and prosperous area.

Just after leaving the range of the Meadowrun Dairy, they stopped for lunch and ate one of the meals that Dale had packed for them. They also fed and watered the animals, who were doing really well during this trip. Mark was happy that they had not gone by foot, as he would be back almost at the beginning. After lunch they got back on the road and continued. They were getting close; there was a lot more river activity here.

Mark saw multiple barges and people going up and down the river and even saw one of the towpaths with four horses pulling a barge north up the river behind it. When they finally made it to town, they had to enter through the south side, where there was a two-lane bridge crossing the river, as the River Bend Trading Post was built on an island in the river itself. The first thing Sarah and Mark did when they got to town was find the stable to stable the animals and also the inn to get a room for the night.

The inn was one of two in the village, and it had 3 floors, making it bigger than Dale's, which was two floors. After their room was found, Sarah and Mark parted ways; she went to find the teacher they were referred to, and Mark went to find their village council and was directed by the innkeeper to where he would find one of the leaders. Michael was the man they found, and they went into a meeting room to sit and talk. Michael welcomed mark to River Bend Trading Post and asked how he could help Mark.

Mark told him that he came from Beaver Crossing and that he had come down to learn what was here from the zone above. He explained the Grainworks project they were working on and the task to create towpaths and get twelve oxen to help haul barges up the river. Michael said, "That sounds sort of like the projects that we have done. We about a year ago, we did a Orchard Initiative which was done on the east side of the river just upstream from here near Sunvine Farms, where you said you stayed the night yesterday."

Mark said, "Yes, a tomato grower from the farms told us about fruit, so it's true then." Michael said, "Yes, we have apples, pears, plums, and cherries. You guys don't happen to have any fruit trees up north, do you?" The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Mark said, "Sadly no, though we have a lot of wheat that we are building a mill to grind into flour. We were hoping that we could eventually get trade contracts for that.

For now though, I am just checking out the area, and someone that will handle the Grainworks trades will eventually come down here to make those contracts if interested." Michael then told Mark about the Dairy Cooperative that they did about six months ago. So with that, they did have access to large amounts of milk and fruit that they could trade for things like flour and wheat. He then asked what else they had to trade or access, too.

And Mark told him about the Forgeworks and the metal/ore, which delighted him, as they had a small amount of metal but only tiny quantities. Michael eventually got the whole village council together and Mark and the council spent the rest of the evening talking about what each of them had to trade and things they were interested in. Mark set up a few small trades with them for fruits, vegetables, milk, honey, and potatoes, which he also learned they grew in the area.

Mark was asked to go get all the trade goods he brought with him, as they wanted to see what he had. Mark then brought the mule over and dropped off the 3 fifty-pound bags of wheat he still had and about delivered it to the council. He then also unloaded out of his inventory all the sample metal products they had. And they were excited to see the dozens of items that he had. And they group purchased all of what Mark had and then gave him examples of all the items they sold to take back.

He received honey, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, turnips, and beans. He got a bag full of all the various fruits and many other vegetable types they had. Mark realized with the amount of items he had received, he was sure Sarah and her quest would level a couple times, as they had found far more items than Dale had expected her to find. The only limiting factor was the amount of weight the mule could haul. Mark then talked to them about his labor shortage.

They knew exactly where he was, as both of their projects had taken a lot of labor. They were not sure how many people they could get but said they would send word out to the surrounding area looking for people that were interested in moving to a new and different growing area. Mark had a list that the council had given him of the types of labor shortages they had and which were permanent possessions and things like construction that would be more temporary.

Also, at the end of the meeting, they let him know of a team of river runners that were currently looking to grow their business and where to find them, and he decided that tomorrow he would go talk with them and see if they could be contracted to bring a load of goods up the river and possibly teach others how the trade works and maybe jump-start the bargework needed in the grainfields to support river trade.

When Mark finally left, he left a group of excited people for the potential trade they would have from the north. And they were already talking about sending an expedition north and starting construction on a road up the left side of the river past Sunvine Farms to help with trade in the future. When Mark returned to the Inn he found Sarah eating a late dinner, and he joined her. She told him about meeting with the teacher and talking about what and how they teach.

And she learned that the system allows you to build a system-sanctioned school and the advantages of it and that she had a requirements list of what was needed and how to jumpstart the process to get the system to sanction it and that the school will then offer tasks for both teachers and students to aid in the teaching process. She was so excited Mark thought that she would try to get them to leave tonight rather than in the morning.

When the two finally finished their conversation, they each headed to their rooms for the night and planned to meet up in the common room in the morning. Sarah was going to visit a school and watch as they go through teaching. Mark planned to go find the river group and see if he could hire them and then make arrangements to head home after getting that done.

Mark's biggest regret of this trip was that he did not have time to visit enough area in the zone to fully unlock the zone needed for his steward class upgrade, which meant he would need to come back later when he had time to survey the full zone to complete another part of his upgrade tasks.