But for now, he needed more civilians and pickaxes.
[2000 Gold Coins spend. 20 Dwarven civilians summoned. Completion time: 200 seconds]
[2000 Gold Coins received. 20 Human civilians summoned. Completion time: 200 seconds]
[2000 Gold Coins received. 200 Trash troops summoned. Completion time: 33,3 minutes]
He made an additional purchase of the troops, as he wanted them as his escort to investigate the woods immediately outside his mountain territory.
[Jack: Xena, are you ready for another order of pickaxes? Also do you have a few lumber axes?]
Jack immediately sent the message.
He wanted the 20 humans to start lumber production and the dwarfs to start mining stone. This way he could gather wood resources outside and make a path through the forest. And in the mountain he could gather stone resources while excavating a building zone for the dwarfs.
While he waited for the civilians and troops to be summoned, and for Xena's reply, he checked the human chat.
[Entered the Global Chat - Chat is limited to one million nearby Human Lords]
Ramises the goat: The plant-hybrid lords have made an alliance! Are there any lords near the coast, north of the deadly mountains? I want to make an alliance!
Technicality: I am too far away to the south. But it's not any better here. You can buy my 500kg of lamb meat for only 30 gold coins a kilo!
Kingslayer: Exstortionate! Technicality, better hope I wont find you!
Plainspeaker: We will all die like Bobby did yesterday if we don't work together.
SolidBitch: Speak for yourself. I have a thousand troops. No lords have dared to attack me yet.
ShadowCoke: I live near the beach Ramises. But the beach is thousands of kilometers long. I haven't seen anyone yet. However I'm at the beach near the mountain peninsula. The area is very suitable, but the Hobgoblins from the forest near the mountains are common rank, and I dare not venture far out.
GeneralKanabis: Why would you disclose such vital information in public? You just lost the high ground..
Ramises the goat: ShadowCoke, I already have a small ship, so lets meet up and form an alliance! I will text you in private.
Quicky: I wish I lived near the coast.. All I see is hills and annoying centaurs..
Jack closed the chat. It was just contentiously filled with people boasting, crying or begging for resources.
[Xena: Yes! I have 157 pickaxes and 20 lumber axes. And that's all I have for a while. I'm afraid my iron spawn is depleted. And please hurry with the trade, I'm under attack from the centaurs.]
Jack quickly checked his gold coins reserve: 15.100 remained after he spend 6000 gold coins on summons.
[I can currently buy 80 pickaxes and 20 lumber axes, if the price is the same as last time. Don't die on me Xena. Put the trade up so you can get the gold coins!]
[Xena: Affirmative! The trade is up. Thank you Jack, your timing is impeccable!]
Jack bought the 80 pickaxes and 20 lumber-axes immediately for 10.000 gold coins and watched with disgust as the Lord System took additional 5000 gold coins for the trade.
The civilians and troops had finished summoning while Jack was occupied in the chat and trading.
He gave the lumber axes to the 20 human civilians and told them to go outside and down to the forest with the 200 troops.
"Dwarfs come with me." He simply said and began walking towards the goldmine.
When they reached the end of the main tunnel, where it began to descent down to the infinite gold resource, he stopped.
"I want to excavate a large area here. 1 square kilometer is your goal, and as high as you can. Preferable 5-10 meters to begin with."
The dwarfs looked at their lord with surprise. That was indeed a huge undertaking for such a small labor force.
Jack understood their concerns, but simply began to hollow out a new tunnel in the right side wall of the main tunnel.
He continued until there was a 3by3 meters wide tunnel, 5 meters in.
"You will start here. Continue this tunnel another 100 meters, then begin to hollow out the described area. That is where we will build your homes. The faster it's done, the faster you can have your own beds."
Jack already felt a bit tired after hollowing out such an area, but he continued a bit more and made a small cave where they could drop the stone resources to begin with.
"I will come and collect the stone resources here once in a while, until the new tunnel is done. When you begin on the building zone, you will have enough room to make stacks there".
Jack dropped the 80 pickaxes on the floor and walked towards the goldmine.
It had been about 2 hours since he last collected gold from the resource. He wanted to know what to expect on average on an hourly bases.
In the goldmine, Gondo showed him 35kg of gold. Jack thought that an estimate of 15-20 kilos an hour was not far off.
Converted into gold coins, Jack now had 3600 gold coins in total.
[2000 Gold Coins spend. 20 Dwarven civilians summoned. Completion time: 200 seconds]
Jack waited patiently for the last dwarf civilian to be summoned.
"Walk to the end of the tunnel. To the right you will find your fellow dwarfs. Grab 20 pickaxes from them, then walk down the descending tunnel and help Gondo and the others mine the gold there."
The new dwarfs happily hurried down the main tunnel after hearing about the gold.
Jack estimated that with thirty miners instead of ten, he would gain an estimate of 50 kilo of gold, or 5000 gold coins per hour.
After sorting the gold coins issue and the dwarf habitat is under way, Jack went outside again.
When he reached the plateau, he noticed the human civilians had begun to look a little rugged. They really needed a proper home and steady meals.
He was fully aware of the food crisis.
Quickly spending 1600 gold coins on food items; meat, a few vegetables and some spices, he delivered it all to Gynda.
She was very happy about cooking and immediately began to give orders for other civilians to assist her.
'This much should take care of the food needs untill tomorrow.'
Jack knew that meat stew was very basic, but it had to be enough for the time being. Even if he was lucky to find a good source to cultivate, who knew how long it would take for it to grow into a sustainable food source.
Next he wanted to gather up with the troops at the frontier beneath the plateau. He hadn't been there since he sent Harken and his troops there to secure the area.
Walking down the old cobbleroad and reaching the 'guardian stones' he laid his eyes on Harkens and the woodcutting civilians work.
There was about 50 meters from the 'guardian stones' to the edge of the forest. And in this area, and 100 meters wide from the 'guardian stones', they had already tried to fortify with sharp poles stuck in the earth.
"Lord! You're finally here!" Harken came running the second he saw Jack descending the plateau-path.
"What's the situation here Harken?"
"Mylord! The 22 civilians are busy cutting the small trees at the edge, We've used them to build a temporary palisade. But I fear it won't hold." Harken bowed his head in apology.
"Why won't it hold? It seems stable enough to me"
Jack went to the wooden poles, he could see they had used some rather strong vines from the bushes to bind them firmly together.
"Lord, not long ago, beasts from the forest was beginning to go dangerously near to us. We could see them between the trees and feel their aura. They are strong!"
Harken paused a bit and looked towards the forest edge where 250 troops currently amassed and stood guard while the 22 civilians gathered wood.
"Luckily the reinforcements arrived, and they moved back into the forest. But it's just a matter of time before they will be back".
Harken finished talking and Jack replied.
"And that time is now" Jack took his own trash spear out from his inventory.
"You will stay here with those 50 troops and continue watching the civilians. I will take the 200 troops into the forest. We need to see what's hidden there"
After giving his orders, he walked slowly into the deeper forest with his troops around him.