Chương 140: Chapter 151 — Beyond the Gate

Preparation Period Remaining: 1 Hour Mark woke before sunrise. Today was the day. The night before, all the materials that were not in his inventory had been taken to the stables, where a group would pack and load his horse so it would be waiting at the Frontier Gate. The plan was for everyone going through the gate to meet at the inn an hour before departure for one last meal. Dale had closed the inn the night before in preparation for this.

Over the last two days hundreds of people had shown up for the event from surrounding areas. Everyone wanted to see what this gate was. Last night they had a party like he had never seen before; people had feasted, and everyone had words of advice that they shared with those who were leaving. When Mark left his cabin, he was still surprised at how many people were out there. The town had put up ropes around the area to show the crowd where to stand so those preparing for departure had room to work.

On his way to the inn he could see the animals already out. He saw the goat, the murder pig, and the sheep. Mark's horse and Garrick's horse were there, and they were just bringing out Declan's horse and loading it up. Mark went into the inn and could see that Dale had set up a spread of food and people were already eating. Garrick had a plateful of food and was sitting talking with Naomi at one of the tables. He filled his plate and went and sat down at another table with Malcolm and quickly ate.

The conversation was low and calm; the group had talked about everything they could think of the last few days. Plans and goals: thoughts of what the ideal outpost may be, whether they wanted to build the outpost or explore the new zone first as their priority. Garrick had handed everyone a hammer and asked each of them to hold it for him. Not like they all did not have enough tools. Their inventory was loaded and gear stowed; it was almost a complete joke now about the hammer thing.

Bennet's badger was sitting on the floor eating off its own plate. Cassidy was joking about her worries about keeping the goat alive until someone found her. The three animals given to the group were all pregnant and would not be moving fast. But the people traveling with them were high-level enough and had weapons, so they should be able to hold their own. As the minutes ticked down to the one-hour point, the conversations started to taper off. Everyone was ready.

The plan was to walk out the door and head to the gate at the one-hour point. He was almost done eating when a System message appeared. [Preparation Period] Remaining Time: 1 Hour Prepare for Frontier Gate Transit ◈ ◈ ◈ It was interesting that as soon as the message hit, all those that were still talking stopped. Everyone quickly finished eating. They all stood up and started heading to the door. Mark was the third one out, and what he found was not exactly what he had expected.

There were two lines of people wide enough for them to walk between comfortably all the way from the inn door to where the animals were waiting. Each step he walked forward, someone would shake his hand, then hand him a small package and tell him to open it on the other side; they had prepared a treat for him. Some people he knew; others were complete strangers. He saw Clara, John, Cora, Leana, Hazel, and so many more.

No one did more than whisper a goodbye and hand something off, which he would put into his inventory. Nothing too huge, just an outpouring of goodwill. Mark passed by the group of school children that Sarah had brought with her. The council was in another group, and Dale handed him yet another pack full of food. This time they were travel rations; he promised him they would store for weeks and he would never starve.

Mark was surprised that it took almost forty-five minutes to make the short walk to the front of the gate. He had thought the last hour standing at the gate would drive him crazy, but he barely had time when he finally got there. At the gate they each lined up with their gear. Everyone had items in handbags or packs or small bundles that just did not fit anywhere else. The crowd had gone quiet, and as a group, they all waited as the timer ticked down the final minutes. It felt strange.

The crowd seemed to be holding its collective breath, and then another System message appeared. [Preparation Period Complete] Frontier Gate Opening... Please Proceed This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. ◈ ◈ ◈ All at once a shimmering ripple crossed between the arches of the gate; it looked almost exactly like the instance entries but bigger. Mark pulled on the reins of his horse and started walking forward.

He was not the only one moving either; no one was standing still. The first to touch the border just vanished along with the animal. Mark had barely registered that the person beside him, who was a half step ahead of him, had vanished before he hit the barrier himself. The next moment, Mark was standing in a field. He was no longer walking, nor was his horse. He still had his hands on its reins. He looked down at his feet; one moment he was walking, the next he stopped without conscious thought.

He quickly looked around, and no one else was there. This had hardly surprised him. Mark turned in a full circle to take in the sights. Nothing was familiar to him. His first thought was to bring up his map and see where he was. It almost shocked him that nearly the entire interface was empty. He normally had tabs full of zones and locations with his current zone on top of the list. But there was only one now. He was about to click on it when a System message appeared.

[Frontier Expedition Complete] Regional Assignment Confirmed Destination: Bracken Hollow ◈ ◈ ◈ It was then followed by a few more. [Regional Assessment] Region: Bracken Hollow Known Settlements: 0 Recognized Population: 10 Recognized Infrastructure: 0 ◈ ◈ ◈ [Priority Directive] Expected Pioneer Candidate Arrival: 7 Days Prepare ◈ ◈ ◈ [Frontier Objective] Survive Build Prepare for those who follow ◈ ◈ ◈ Mark finally opened the map and saw the zone name, Bracken Hollow.

The map was all grayed out, so he closed it again. Mark paused, really looking around. He could see there were some trees and a smaller river to the west of him a ways off and a much larger river far to the east; beyond the river to the east, he could see mountains. If he had to guess, the river or stream to the west had a marsh beyond them, or at least that is what it looked like from where he stood. Far to the west and northwest he could see what looked like a forest.

He just stood there at first, his horse and its pack just standing there waiting for his lead. He thought over what his first priorities were. He needed to pick a site for his first outpost. Somewhere that would be good for his orchard, garden, and herbs to grow. After the time he had spent recently at Wayrest, that area by the marshes in the Forest region sounded appealing to him, so he headed southwest from his current location, not in a rush, just looking around.

It was only about a thirty-minute walk to the edge of what he now knew was a marsh. There were trees here and water. Some of it was a small stream with the marsh opening up behind it. He looked around, and the spot he stood on was close to what he wanted but did not have enough room to build an outpost into a possible future village, so he continued following the stream in a southeastern direction.

He found some higher ground not too far south that was relatively flat, with the stream and marsh to the west and a field of grass and other vegetation to the east and southeast. It would give him plenty of room to build and enough area to plant his orchard and garden, with easy access to water and maybe even room for a future irrigation ditch. He looked around and thought about if this was the perfect spot or not. Then he realized it was not about perfect. It was about survival.

This was not perfect, but did he need perfect? No, he did not. What he needed was enough room, which this place had, and then he would need two more people to make his outpost. He unloaded his horse and stacked all his supplies up. He had more than he needed for weeks' worth of survival alone. He was not worried about that. Over the last few days with the group that had come to Beaver Crossing for the Frontier Gate, only Garrick and Mark had put building an outpost at the top of their lists.

From that group, Mark had learned Cassidy was a camp cook, and she planned to find a group forming an outpost and become their cook. Naomi was a gardener; her plan was also to find a group and work on food production for them. Declan was a riverman; his first goals were to explore, find the rivers, and map them out. He said he would support an outpost, but no way would he build one; he wanted to explore more than settle down. Malcolm, he had found out, was a Quartermaster.

He said he was good at supplies and organizing trade. He was not a scout or fighter and had no clue how to pick a location, so he planned to follow someone else's lead. Garrick said that he planned to build a village wherever the System dumped him out. If it were not the perfect spot, he would turn it into one. He planned to build and said that others would come to him; he was not going to them.

There were thirty Frontier Representatives selected, so Mark had no real idea who the other nine Frontier Representatives assigned to Bracken Hollow would be. But from the group he had already met, he knew they would be all kinds of different people. All of them would be survivors, but each had learned to survive in their own way. The real question was which Pioneer Candidates would arrive in seven days. They would be new, lost, and in need of training, and Mark intended to help save as many of them as he could.

Yes, this would be his first outpost. Mark had created almost a dozen now in his old zones. This one would most likely not be his last in Bracken Hollow, but this was a good enough spot for the first.