It wasn't actually going to be hard. Rebuilding Red Hills - Hickory had given Hunter the Book before he left. The challenge was the lack of points. Just 8.

Eight points is what Hickory had left him with because of that Dam School. Hunter was still rolling his eyes, and he was also smiling...he'd got him back for such a bad joke, didn't he? May's face? When she got that cast iron pot - Best Good Buddies.

He'd probably be missing them all if he wasn't so dang busy - implementing a plan, all those ideas that had been bouncing around in his head since he first opened the Book that just made more and more sense as time went by -

Of course the canal was first - food, shelter, easy transportation back and forth, this wasn't going to happen in a day and people needed a place to stay.

That's what the equipment was actually for. Hunter hadn't known the town was so bad, they assumed the river was messed up and fishing wouldn't be possible, so they needed a way to transport enough food in.

Yet the closer he got, the more obvious the devastation was, if anything it got worse because there was more debris. Debris that all needed to be moved and cleaned, which was going to be hard without roads.

Buried roads, under a foot of silt and soil and - good soil. Thick soil. He'd learned a bit about soil, growing trees.

Canal. Then roads.

Of course they would need points for all that, and they had 8 points. So they could either wait for the next cycle, or they could ask people to pitch in. Just get everybody to drop their marbles back into the scrap pit, convert them all to points.

Now why would anybody do something that stupid? Just give everything away? Of course they wouldn't...but what if it was for a building that they wanted? They owned? They were responsible for and could make marbles from?

That's right, they would be responsible for paying the upkeep cost, and they would be able to use the building for anything they wanted, to make marbles and to live in, if a person wanted, they could combine structures now!

Why build houses at all? Most probably wouldn't, most would just live in their business and make do, but who knows? It wasn't for Hunter to tell people what to do - just give choices.

The complexes. Temporary rentals - people could build them, rent them out and make a profit. Families could all go in together and buy one - they could move in today!

There were so many solutions, short term solutions, because long term it was cheaper to build it from scratch, to get the hearth. But long term took much longer. A time when people weren't earning marbles, weren't working...

Paperwork. Contracts. It was easy, list what the Book offered and let people choose what they could afford, have them understand the upkeep cost, understand that defaulting on a structure, not paying the upkeep caused the property to go up to auction to the highest bidder -

The only problem was making sure there were enough marbles to keep the economy afloat, but people had incentive now! And marbles were free if you killed monsters.

Which of course resulted in a Red Hills gold rush on two fronts - once people understood what was happening, on one side you had people running off to kill every shadow they could find. On the other you had people rushing to pick up the debris and scrap it like free money on the ground, all to get marbles!

Families coming together, groups of people that knew each other deciding to go into business together, to sleep on the floors of their new business instead of renting a complex room, instead of buying a house -

All those useless structures from before that weren't possible because there weren't enough points were suddenly free!

Hunter didn't ask Hickory, didn't have to -

"What do you want me to do with the Book?"

"Whatever needs to get done."

Consideration. Hunter had been considering ways to make the town better for a while, hadn't he? Make it fair for everyone, rich and poor. They could do that now, they could build everything.

Everything. Not right away, but a lot faster!

What was Hunter going to build for himself? What would he invest his marbles in? A Shipyard, of course - a Dock, and a small manmade lake connected to the river and canal...he had wood, didn't he?

They controlled the River. Trade routes. All these cottage industries that people were building to sell stuff meant they also needed buyers, and that meant going down stream, but how do you get your boat back?

You don't! You build a cheap raft, just logs hammered together, not a boat. You load everything on it you want to sell, float it down stream, and you sell the wood, there, too! You walk back with your bag of marbles, your gold, your gems, your spices.

Safety in numbers, safety from the shadow, roads would be built, caravans. Somebody would rent horses to give people rides, somebody would build wagons, somebody would...

Of course right now he had a Book with 8 points in it. A pen. And paper. Consideration.

People could all leave, people could sell everything, some had. Some had already drank at Covanger Fields, the population was down to 7018, but the total upkeep was half that, they could pay the entire upkeep from closing incursions alone, it could end up just being a fishing village.

The richest village in the world, perhaps?

And maybe that alone would have been enough, but the Order of Secrets had come where he'd set up office in the Embassy Room, writing contracts and petting Tackle since May had an errand.

Tackle had her head in Hunter's lap, would nudge him if he didn't pet attentively enough - like right now as he focused on the Order members.

"Interium-Lord Fontiff." Most of them knelt, however one was really into it - or mocking him.

"Come on, ya'll." Hunter said, "No need for all that, and good work closing the bubbles, by the way. Hickory sends his thanks and has a surprise for you, once this is all done."

"You're not disbanding us?" They asked.

"No, of course not." Hunter said, "There's plenty of points, it's going to be a busy few weeks, but - no worries, what's going on?"

"I told you Mage!" Rogue? Was that what they called him, because of the bandanna over his mouth? "We, well, some of us thought we were getting razed for the points, we came by to hopefully show our progress to convince you not to, but we can wait for Hickory."

Hunter started to nod -

"Yes, we can just go back to fishing." Mage said evenly, "Spending half our time fishing, and half our time finding ways to fish better."

Hunter knew what they were getting at, "Can I see what you're working on?"

One of the guys walked forward and held out an small wood fish in his hand, a puppet fish, or a lure, though no hooks were on it. It was pretty rough looking, whatever it was supposed to be.

Hunter stared at it, then up to the man who started to stammer.

"You didn't bring any water?" Mage sighed, she reached across the desk and grabbed Hunter's beer, slid it forward, grabbed the lure and dropped it in.

It moved.

It didn't swim. It just floated on the beer and twitched it's tail.

Mage then pulled it back out and set it on the desk, it gave a few more flops than stilled. Hunter took a sip of beer. They were so clever - to pick the perfect thing for Hickory to fund, to pursue. When Hickory saw this lure...of course he didn't have to, in this they were on the same page...

"How? Actually, wait for Chase, I won't understand it." Hunter said, "This is...big, the priority, I can't even think of a proper reward right now."

Tackle nudged him - he petted more.

"We're a long way off from doing anything significant with it."

"Are you joking?" Hunter looked at him, "You just made a boat motor."

He grabbed the wood fish, holding it in the beer, it's tail flopped back and forth, splashing the beer aside.

"Really?" Artifice asked, "Its supposed to do things, not just wiggle, it supposed to be an automaton."

Where was Chase?

"You mean you can get it to do more than this?" Hunter felt his heart hammering, marbles falling from the sky.

"I believe I should be able to, not a fish, they don't have limbs, but if it were a gopher, spiders are common, more legs, it's about ratios but the practical applications are not as big as we'd like to - "

Hunter was just rubbing his head, his face, Tackle was nudging him - and it was hard not to hug the man or shake him, he took a deep breath.

"Even if you just did this, even if you just could make a bunch of big ones, or even a thousand small ones that flopped back and forth." Hunter stuck it into the beer, "The impact is so big I can't even imagine it."

"Truly?"

Hunter nodded - and Hickory was already giving them everything he could think of, money, land, titles - but you had to reward people, but with what?

And Tackle was getting feisty - of course, he pet her again and felt her ribbons.

"Medal of Achievement." Hunter said, they'd been around the military, isn't that what they do? People do incredible things there all the time and you give them a little ribbon?

"Tackle?" Hunter asked, and the horse looked up at him, "Would you be willing to reward this man for Hickory?"

At Hickory's name Tackle pranced with excitement, so smart. So sweet.

"Would you reward Artifice with one of your ribbons?"

Tackle looked up at Hunter suspiciously, her eyes narrowed, and then for some reason turned and eyed Mage.

Tackle left Hunter's lap, clomped around the desk and stopped in front of Artifice who seemed absolutely flummoxed - but also excited, as he untied one of the red ribbons.

"If you take that to May and let her know, she will be able to handle the rest when she has time." Hunter said, shaking the man's hand, "Thank you."

He kept the fish.

It seemed to work - Artifice seemed pleased and even embarrassed, perhaps for having a reason to speak to May? Tackle was happy, too, that her ribbons were important, only Mage seemed put out, but Tackle had accidentally stepped on her foot on the way back...

So boats, too...some day. Not just rafts, of course they'd probably find ten more solutions by then but it was because one inspired the next, not even rafts would have been possible without the Forest Environment -

But that was all in the future - presently, Hunter just had pen, paper, a plan. A Book with 8 Points.