Chapter 112. The Cost of Growing

Carlos woke up with pain in his shoulder again.

It was not as bad as the injury from the Iron Fang Captain, but the Road Marshal had struck his shield enough times to make the whole arm stiff.

He sat up and opened his inventory. The reward list was longer than it had been before the conquest. Stone, iron, Blackstone Blocks, provisions and the other items filled most of the panel.

Four wagon symbols occupied one entire section by themselves.

--

[Inventory capacity heavily occupied]

[Captured Supply Wagons x4 are oversized items]

--

Carlos stared at the warning. It was the second time he was seeing it since he got them.

He had been happy when the system transferred the wagons. He had not considered how much space four complete wagons would take afterward.

He left the Lord’s Hut and found Ironroot already working.

"Of course."

Kaia stood near the Training Yard with one arm wrapped. She was not participating in the drills. She watched the Militia instead and corrected their positions whenever two of them moved too far apart.

Garr and the shield-bearing Bearkin were near their hall. Mira had bandaged both of them yesterday. Brann sat beside the wall with a bowl large enough for Carlos to put his head inside.

The fifth Bearkin, who had remained in Ironroot, carried another pot toward them.

Mira came out of the kitchen before he reached them to inspect.

"I have been waiting for you, Carlos. I need to talk about something urgent with you."

"Okay."

Carlos followed her inside and saw both Hearthkeepers standing beside the preparation table. One was cutting cooked meat into equal portions while the other counted wrapped meals and moved them into separate baskets.

Mira had placed a wooden board on the table. Lines of charcoal covered it.

"This is what Ironroot uses each day," she said.

She pointed at the first number.

"Seven Farmers require 14 meals. Five Bearkin require 25 meals. Four Archers require 12. Eight Shield Militia require 16. Kaia and her four guards require 15."

Carlos added the numbers slowly and nodded.

"Eighty-two."

"Before you, me and the other Hearthkeepers eat," Mira said. "We take two meals each. That brings Ironroot to ninety."

She moved her finger to the final line.

"Cedric’s agreement takes another nine while his group continues working."

"That brings us to ninety-nine," Carlos said.

Mira tapped the board again. "For Ironroot and Cedric. You are forgetting the other Lords."

Carlos looked at the baskets beside the Hearthkeepers. They were not all meant for Ironroot.

The daily food agreement had been renewed again. Eighty cooked meals, divided among four Lords, in exchange for one hundred and twenty wood and one hundred and twenty stone.

"One hundred and seventy-nine meals every day," he said.

"As long as you keep renewing the agreement," Mira said. "The wood and stone are useful, but the meals still have to be made before the next reset. Keeping up with demand is hard with our normal supply."

"And twelve Slime Cores for the six Slimes. Blue uses Mana Water, not kitchen food."

Carlos looked at the baskets. The upgraded kitchen could produce more than one hundred and seventy-nine meals. That did not mean the ingredients were free. Every meal required grain, meat, vegetables, oil or something else that Ironroot had to grow or buy.

"How many days can we continue?" he asked.

"If nothing spoils and we stop trading, more than a week," Mira answered. "If we keep the agreement, much less. If you summon another nine tomorrow, less again. If you summon every day after that, I cannot give you an honest number because the food disappears too quickly even though we grow things very fast."

Carlos had looked at the daily summon panel as something he was wasting whenever he ignored it. But the people did not disappear at the next reset and stayed.

"So no new summons... got it," he said.

Mira watched him carefully.

"Look, I have no problem with new people in our home," Mira said. "But we need to feed the ones already here."

"Until you can keep seven days of food for everyone already here. The eighty trade meals stay separate from that reserve, and we do not renew another day unless the kitchen has enough ingredients to fulfil it. The Slime Cores need seven days too."

"That is eighty-four cores."

Carlos’s expression changed. They did not have eighty-four Slime Cores. Carlos had not thought about the number properly. He had been busy with so many things but none of them at the same time.

Cosmic’s advice echoed in his mind again. He needed to prioritize.

"Then definitely no more Slimes."

Mira nodded. "I will keep the reserve separate."

Carlos left the kitchen and walked to Kaia.

She stopped the Militia drill when he approached.

"How is your arm?" he asked.

"Usable. But I should rest today to let it heal completely."

That answer sounded like something Mira had forced her to say. It wasn’t like her.

Carlos looked toward the western Gatehouse and sighed. "We won, but something felt wrong at the end."

Kaia was quiet for a moment.

"We entered with enough strength," she said. "We did not enter with enough plans to recover when things weren’t going our way."

"The system locked the bridge behind us."

"And we had no reserve outside it. No healer. No way to remove Garr or the Guardian after they were injured. We continued because stopping would have killed us faster. Yesterday was very chaotic, and we are lucky nobody died."

"Lucky, huh?"

Carlos remembered the Road Marshal pulling him through the enemy line.

He had used the Chain because it was moving toward Two. He would make the same choice again. That did not make it a safe choice.

"What do we change?"

"Permanent formations," Kaia answered. "Front line, ranged support and reserve. Everyone learns where to move when someone falls. We do not enter the next conquest without enough supplies to treat the people we bring."

"And a healer."

"If we can find one."

Carlos nodded. "No Conquest Level 6 before that."

Kaia looked surprised, but only for a second.

"I am happy you are taking my word for it. Thank you, my lord."

The inventory warning appeared again after Carlos turned away from Kaia, who was in a good mood now.

He walked to the open land between the residential buildings and the western wall. The area was empty, but it would not remain that way now.

Carlos selected the first one.

--

[Deploy Captured Supply Wagon x1?]

[Confirm location]

--

"Confirm."

A large wooden wagon appeared above the marked ground and dropped the final few inches with a heavy crash.

The nearby Militia turned toward it. One of the new Farmers stopped walking entirely.

The wagon was wider than Carlos remembered. Black iron reinforced its wheels and frame. The covered cargo section was empty now because the system had already separated the awarded provisions and container.

He deployed the other three beside it.

By the time he finished, the wagons occupied most of the open ground.

--

[Captured Supply Wagons x4 deployed]

[Inventory capacity restored]

--

Carlos walked between them.

They were useful, but Ironroot had no animals to pull them and no shelter large enough to protect them. The Bearkin could move one if necessary, but using his strongest troops as wagon animals was not a real answer.

He opened the inventory again.

The Blackstone Road Authority Fragment remained beside the Reinforced Road Marker Blueprint.

Carlos selected the Fragment but did not activate it.

--

[Blackstone Road Authority Fragment]

[Origin: Hellbound Conquest Level 5]

[Type: Route Marker Enhancement Material]

[Function: Adds Blackstone road authority to a compatible Road Marker Blueprint]

[Compatible item detected: Uncommon Reinforced Road Marker Blueprint]

[Possible result: Rare Blackstone Route Marker]

--

It appeared in his hand as a broken square of black stone. A dull red line crossed its centre.

Carlos turned it over twice.

The system had told him what it could become. It had not told him whether he should use it immediately, or where a route marker would be most useful inside Ironroot.

He sent Cosmic a message.

--

[Carlos Goldwin] - I found a road item that works with one of the blueprints.

[Cosmic Merchant] - What does it make?

[Carlos Goldwin] - A Rare Blackstone Route Marker.

[Carlos Goldwin] - Come to Ironroot before I combine anything. I want you to look at both.

--

The Domain Portal moved several minutes later. Apparently, Cosmic had reached the district again.

Cosmic stepped into Ironroot with both Lizardmen behind him.

Carlos waited beside the portal with the broken black marker in his hand.

"This is the thing," he said, holding it out.