Civilization - Chapter 336 336 - Everbloom Preparation

“Alright, the weapon store will go over there, right next to the armor store. Make sure we have at least 3 people around each store, just in case we have some extremely energetic people. WAIT! Did someone ask Gewari to make a map of the area yet? I need that map on this board as SOON as POSSIBLE! Old man Hus! Is the equipment here yet?!” – Ian

Crunch time. I only had a couple more hours left in the game before it shut down for the night, but there were still things I could do to polish up the look of our new village, Everbloom. Noah suggested the name since this village will be the center point of our territory, as well as the center of our two villages. A place where it is always in a spring-like season since the forest never changes and with the constant flow of players, it becomes a place of growth and rebirth.

Originally, I was going to name this village as well, after all, I named HavenFall and kept the name for the Krepost after the building, but I decided against that. Looking over every potential person to look after this village, I was stuck between Howard and Noah, as they were one of the two people who took care of HavenFall during my absence. While Gobi, was also an option, he had already told me that he preferred to stay in HavenFall and teach the newer goblins and hobgoblins.

Thus, the options became Howard and Noah, and after confronting the two, I decided to let Noah take the role of Chief of Everbloom. While Howard became the Chief of the Krepost, and Gobi the Chief of HavenFall. Their authority was directly below mine, giving them the power to change things in their respective villages. With that, I also let Noah choose the name and within a couple of moments he came back and declared this place Everbloom.

Even though Noah is the Chief of Everbloom, at the moment, we were extremely busy preparing for the upcoming players, so we both agreed to take on different roles for now. In charge of mapping out the placement of each building and making sure each building has enough ‘staff’ to manage the players, is me. Noah on the other hand is in charge of bringing all the resources to make all the buildings.

“IAN! Gewari will be back within the hour, she is mapping out the area in the forest, but I have part of the map she has already made. Look, it shows Everbloom, HavenFall, the Krepost, and a bit of the surrounding area.” – Stellar

“Don’t worry boy! The equipment just got here! Weapons and armor galore. HAHA! I haven’t felt like this in such a long time.” – Hus

Stellar brings me a map made out of animal skin and charcoal, which we pin to a wooden board. This wooden board serves as the ‘map’ of the area, and while it was very rudimentary, with only small icons to indicate, mountains, trees, and the three villages. Even with this map, it only shows the bare minimum, so I do wonder what is Gewari doing. With Stellar’s help, we move the wooden board to the middle of the village, right in front of the Altar of Life, but enough distance away so people have enough space to crowd around.

Further away, along the edges of the village, were the ‘shops’ which I had Gibing, Ken, and Kaede set up with the help of other goblins and demi-humans. The shops which I had set up were Weapon Shop, Armor Shop, Potion Shop, Blacksmith, and Cafeteria. Each shop was constructed using clay bricks and wooden logs, prepared quickly by the construction crew in HavenFall.

Furthermore, to secure the shops and make sure they wouldn’t tumble over or be destroyed by a stampede of players, we also constructed a makeshift two-layered fence using the large boulders and sharpened branches. Creating a defensive barrier around the shops took priority once they were set up, boulders protected them against any shoving and pushing and the sharp branches were a deterrent for any player who had thoughts of just rushing into the shops.

Each shop had 3 employees, behind a small counter in each shop, with an additional 2 guards in the front to protect them. Of course, all the employees were either, hobgoblins trained by Gobi and Frank, or demi-humans trained by Robin and Gibing, so even if players want to rob or raid the shops they had to get through some tough opponents. That being said, I did my best to select hobgoblins and demi-humans who give off a friendlier vibe.

Mana Stones were the currency we decided to do after coming back into the game, and I was only able to make my decision after talking to Stellar and Solar. Even though I knew I had to make Mana Stones the currency, I still wanted to know about the reasons other tribes had used them, and according to Solar, the elves used them as mediums for spells. Currency didn’t mean much to elves as they were one big family, helping each other out in any way possible, but that didn’t mean they didn’t know the value of the Mana Stones.

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Used throughout their history, the Mana Stones that were harvested from monsters became a vital component in their offense and defense. Mana Stones could store spells, according to their size and purity, making them excellent materials for staves, wands, and accessories. Other races would trade Mana Stones with each other for better material, and it has already a common form of currency. However, the common folk didn’t use the Mana Stones, until now that is since all the players will be using Mana Stones as a universal currency.

Using this knowledge, I had the wolves, and everyone who would be better at hunting goes out and collects Mana Stones for the village. Sending numerous goblins, demi-humans, and wolves into the surrounding areas, I was able to understand which Mana Stones were in the area and which we needed to search for and collect.

Monsters around the same size as goblins but a bit smaller than wolves dropped a small low-quality Mana Stone. These were the most common, since numerous monsters were small and agile, but weren’t hard to kill like the jackalope. Once they got to the size of a wolf the Mana Stones changed to medium low-quality Mana Stones. This was the size difference that the patch was explaining. However, I wasn’t able to find anything bigger or of higher quality.

Regardless, with this, I was able to gauge an appropriate price for our equipment and items. I didn’t know about other villages, but I thought with the difficulty from killing a goblin versus killing a wolf, I also needed a way for players to exchange their small low-quality Mana Stones for better.

Initially, I thought maybe 10 small for 1 medium, but I was shot down by Nina almost immediately since that would end up making small low-quality Mana Stones redundant. Instead, she suggested we have 1 medium low-quality Mana Stone be equal to 50 small low-quality Mana Stones. This way players who end up just hunting will be able to gather a lot of low-quality Mana Stones and eventually be able to buy better gear, without making them rich too quickly.

Afterward, if we discover higher quality Mana Stones it would just be the same as before, with the next increment being 50 of that Mana Stone type. 50 medium low-quality Mana Stones for 1 large low-quality Mana Stone. 50 large low-quality Mana Stone for 1 small rare-quality Mana Stone. 50 large rare-quality Mana Stones for 1 small excellent-quality Mana Stone. Stellar had only seen a small excellent-quality Mana Stone once in her life, and using this we had created the currency used in HavenFall, Everbloom, and the Krepost.

The Weapon Shop supplied basic weapons of all kinds, bows, arrows, wooden swords, wooden axes, wooden spears, goblin knives, and small wooden shields. These were going to cost 5 small low-quality Mana Stones, which means if someone wanted to swap out their gear, then they needed to hunt at least 5 wild goblins or monsters of similar size. I also added some ‘higher-quality’ weapons to the shop, like the Orc Club, Stone Headed Ax, Stone Spear, and Stone shield, for a price ranging from 15 small low-quality Mana Stones and 1 medium low-quality Mana Stone.

I did the same with the armor shop, showcasing basic wooden armor, with leather and stone armor costing substantially more. In the Potion Shop, I priced the low-quality potions made by Lucina’s apprentices, at a base price of 25 small low-quality Mana Stones. This way it wasn’t extremely expensive later, but for those starting off, it would be one of the dream items players would want to acquire.

The Blacksmith shop was managed by Lime. At this time, old man Hus had allowed her to learn firsthand, by managing not only her own blacksmith but also apprentices who will learn under her. Teary eyes, she hugged and thanked old man Hus, promising to not let him down and with that, she took under her wing 2 demi-humans, a human and a goblin who wanted to learn the ways of blacksmithing. The price of her service is decided by her, meaning if she wants to she could charge players an exorbitant amount. However, I doubt she would do that.

Finally, the Cafeteria. While it isn’t a sit-down-and-eat cafeteria yet, Lucina had one of her apprentices, Maria,  who she vouched was an excellent chef come down and serve boxed lunches. Her idea was to provide at a cheap price, basic food consisting of vegetables, herbs, and protein found in the river, the forest, and grassland for the players. Starting at a low price of 5 Mana Stones, she would eventually escalate the price according to the menu selection.

I was one of the first few customers, and I ordered a vegetable stew, with jackalope meat on the side, for 10 Mana Stones. Each item was only 5 Mana Stones, but the portion size that came out was large enough to feed three maybe even four depending on their appetite. Dumbfound, I asked Rebecca and Nina to help finish the food, and I almost regretted it with how delicious it was. Knowing the value of the food provided by Maria, I didn’t even question how much it cost, and that was just the start of the Everbloom tour.