They found the river after about fifteen minutes of walking, and the clearing mentioned by George showed up soon after. It wasn't huge, a fifty foot or so diameter circle of clear land nested in the curve of a river a bit smaller than the one they left behind at the hobgoblin camp. The trees around weren't incredibly dense and the soil was a little soft. The river flowed down from the mountains further to their northeast, and he could see the occasional fish darting through the remarkably clear water. It was a beautiful location, but didn't have much in the way of natural fortifications, apart from the forest itself. It would take them some time to clear enough trees to get their first proper building constructed, but they were no strangers to sleeping under the open sky at this point. It also meant a fresh supply of smooth river stones, which made Andrew perhaps unreasonably satisfied. It would do. They hoofed it right back to the other survivors camp and waited for the others to arrive.

It wasn't long before they arrived, gawking at the cleanly constructed buildings and well equipped population as they passed. Everyone seemed to be in good spirits as the little caravan passed through town on the way to their new settlement location, though Andrew saw some among his caravan making jokes at the sight of the makeshift U.S. flag and prominent cross on display, prompting dark looks from those near enough to overhear. It was definitely for the best that they weren't moving right in to the clearing with them. George was there to greet them, shaking as many hands as he could get ahold of as the people passed, and complimenting them on their strength and bravery, to mixed results. They were a more suspicious lot than Andrew had originally thought. The giants created a bit of a stir. Andrew could see many of the rooftop gunman eyeing them very carefully, and more than a few people took several steps back as they passed by, hands to weapons. George must have warned them, because no one did anything more than stare at them. Some in wonder, most in abject disgust or fear.

Then they were through, packing the carts through the forest again with Andrew in the lead. They made it to the clearing before midday, and promptly took a break, busting out a rough lunch from what was left of their dwindling supply of hobgoblin rations. They had enough food to make it through tomorrow, then they would be out. So as soon as lunch was finished the group of survivors cleanly split into two teams. One for hunting and gathering food, jointly led by Shelby and Kalan. The other dedicated to chopping trees and preparing the earth for new constructions, led by Arges. That left Andrew standing alone with Tyler and Rowan, the two best inscribers they had.

"What's the plan boss man? You gonna teach us how to make one of those?" Tyler said, pointing to Andrew's blood infused spear, stabbed point down into the earth near one wagon.

"Nope! Later, I promise, but you guys will be helping me set something up that'll help us out a lot a few weeks from now. We'll be crossing the river today, and carving up some trees. Here, follow me." Andrew said, tossing his chisel to Rowan and hopping across the small river from stone to jutting stone.

When they were on the other side Andrew turned back around to address them. "We'll be carving circles around these trees here." He said, patting the trunk of one tree. "It's something I was playing around with back at the hobgoblin camp. If we carve a mana accumulation and binding circle of matching types around one branch it builds up a huge amount of the corresponding affinity, which I can then use to increase the mana efficiency of other things. It's how I made the earth and air mana rifles. You guys following me so far?"

"We're carving circles into tree branches."

"Perfect. Lets get to it then. Air, Earth, and Water only, I haven't tested fire yet and I'm pretty sure it'll just end up igniting the branch eventually. One mana type per branch, we're going to try and hit as many branches as we can today, and see where we are tomorrow morning. These things build up over time, so the more we do now, the more we can use later. I'll try and show you guys how to siphon affinities later, I guarantee you'll get more use out of that than the blood infusion skill."

They got right to work after that, carving circles around branches, starting with the trees closest to the river. The construction and clearing team was focusing their efforts on the trees on the opposite side of the river, and they had more than enough of those to deal with at the moment. It also helped that these trees would be on the far side of their own camp, opposite the other group of survivors. He wasn't keeping the runes a secret, per-say, but he still agreed with Isaac, something was off about George.

There was a veritable grove of inscribed trees lining the far river by the time they were ready to turn in for the night, though the logging team far outshined their progress. Apperently enhanced strength and a handful of giants made the task considerably easier. They had managed to clear and strip around fifteen trees across half a day, and most of the team agreed they would be able to do it even faster now that they had figured out a good workflow. They only had a couple of axes taken from the hobgoblin camp, and ended up borrowing another pair from the other group of survivors for the day. Those axes had a distinctly modern polish to them and looked exactly identical to one another, down to the half-peeled pricing sticker on the handle.

The hunting team managed to bring back a variety of wild vegetables that Kalan considered 'probably safe'. He cooked a little bit of each up and had Carter, Andrew, and himself eat one each. They had the highest vitality out of anyone in the camp, and were a good few levels higher than average as well. They also managed to take down a large deer which was promptly processed and cooked up. The excess meat overfilled the small and thus mostly obsolete cold box, so they took whatever else they couldn’t store over as a gift to their new neighbors, who had already displayed an affinity for smoking their meat. Shelby led the charge on that particular endeavor and returned with promises of a skilled foreman to help them get started on a proper shelter the next day. They went to bed that night with stuffed stomachs and happy hearts. They had found another little slice of safety, for now.