The next day, Cid and the convoy finally arrived, Chris was impressed by its size. Almost everyone came over, there was as only one hundred people who temporarily remained to mine limestone in Five Cave Village. This meant Brine City had 1400 new pairs of hands ready to work.

Every task was sped up as Mia distributed everyone according to their personal skills and the general housing was finally done. It was closer to camping than living arrangements but already much better than sleeping in caves.

Now that Cid was here, another meeting was held in Mia's tent. They did not have a proper building for it yet.

"Everyone is now acquainted, let's plan our main tasks for the week." Said Chris. "Ferlin how are your hunters doing?"

"We found a sustainable amount of wild life west near the mountains, and in the northern forest close to the river. Given our numbers we should not have to worry about sustainability in the short term. But we should start preparing other sources of meat already." He continued, "More urgently, my hunters have noted several dangerous beasts in the valley. They haven't been hunted in years, and they have lost their fear of humans. Some are attracted by our activities, and we have spotted a few pack of wolves, as well as some Iris Gnolls and Slaghounds in proximity of our city. I believe we should clean those threats as soon as possible, there have been some close calls with our gatherers already."

Chris frowned, he remembers Berg telling him that Iris Gnolls have low intelligence and hunt in small groups. But they are still intelligent enough to craft small tools and can be quite dangerous. Slaghounds are called as such because of the slag-like materials on their backs. Hunters hate them because of their speed and the fact that arrows can not pierce their backs. They are a lot easier to kill with swords and maces, so soldiers are usually the ones to take care of them.

"Thank you Ferling. This means that our next item is security.

Cid, your job remains the same. We currently have 220 soldiers equipped with light armor. I will give you half to patrol and protect the city from beast attacks. You are also temporarily in charge of law enforcement." Said Chris.

"Yes my Lord! I will not disappoint you!"

"Cat, you will take the other half and actively remove the beasts threatening our city. Work with the hunters when you need to. Don't forget to use their reports, if the danger is too high for just your soldiers you are allowed to borrow up to 50 hunters from Ferlin. If this is still not enough for that hunt, you will need to request extra manpower from Mia or me."

"No worries." Answered Cat calmly.

"Remember to secure the places our people visit the most. For example the nearby forests where the gatherers and lumberjacks work. When those areas are secure, you'll need to move north and clear the forests near the river."Added Chris.

It was Titus' turn "Sire, my scouts have sent the signal, the next Kunall scout party has left their camp. We are closer to them than before, so they'll likely arrive tomorrow morning or at noon at the latest. This is according to plan, all our traps are ready, here is the ambush site" Titus pointed to the map https://ibb.co/hcf84H ) "I would like to borrow 80 hunters for tomorrow."

"Only eighty? Are you sure this is enough?" Worried Chris.

"Yes my Lord. Last time was akin to training, our hunters are now more prepared, their hands will be steadier. Our blacksmiths have also produced many arrow heads for us, now all our arrows are mounted with copperheads and ironheads, they will penetrate deeper in the Kunalls and the poison will work faster. We have also prepared boulder traps to block their escape. Even if one Kunall manages to slip by, he will collapse as long as he has been hit by a few of our arrows, he'll never make it back to camp. We also borrowed 20 horses to chase down the Kunall if that were to happen." Said confidently Titus.

"Very well, but do not fail! This is directly related to our survival. If the scout camp is alerted and attacks, everything is over!"Reminded Chris.

Titus noded and said very seriously: "Yes my Lord!"

It was finally Mia's turn. "I have divided the valley in four areas. North will be our industrial park. For now only the blacksmiths have a workshop. They just finished preparing arrowheads for our hunters. Their current job is to craft as many tools as possible, we need axes for the lumberjacks, pickaxes and buckets for the miners, we also need to prepare tools for the masons.

With the new additions from Five Cave Village I am also planing on building a carpenter workshop and a masonry workshop. This should be ready in the next few days.

The east will be farmlands, the area is relatively flat and close to the river for irrigation, luckily the convoy from Five cave Villages also brought us wheat and potato seeds, unfortunately the first harvests will not be enough to sustain us, we'll need to find ways to obtain or purchase more seeds.

We are still prospecting the valley but so far the best results have come from the southern mountains. We have found coal, limestones and copper. Our prospectors believe they will also find iron very soon. We should concentrate our mining efforts there.

And finally the residential and commercial districts will be located west and south."

Mia stopped but added one last thing. "Our prospectors have found a cave south of the valley. It seems it might have been inhabited, should we send a team to explore it?

Chris thought a little about it: [Hmm. Even if everyone left there might still be some good stuff stored there.]

"Very well let's send a team in, make sure they are armed." Said Chris.

With this the meeting ended, and everyone left Mia's tent except Chris.

"I heard there is a beautiful tree near the residential district, want to check it out?" Said Chris with a smile.

"Please don't joke around my Lord, we are all very busy." Answered Mia coldly.

Chris left with a dejected expression. His 4 adjutants noticed and came over to cheer him up. This was now a daily occurrence.

"Hang in there my lord!" Said Berg

"I'm sure you'll wear her down! You just have to continue until you break her spirit!" continued Titus

"Please listen to him my lord. Titus took 2 years of begging to convince his wife. He knows his stuff!" Mocked Ferlin.

"I know! I heard Cat and Mia talking about how they were missing the tea and sweets time they had in the afternoons! I'm sure miss Mia would be very happy if you found some tea for her!" Exclaimed Cid.

"Cid..." Said Chris in tears. "What a good guy you are. Way better than those others ones. Thank god you enjoy peeping!"

"P-peeping? I was just passing by when I heard it my lord."

Chris just added another task on top of his todo list.

Unfortunately... Tea leaves were currently such a luxury and were so hard to find they were worth more than their weight in gold...