Time passed and Harvest day arrives

The info was the most basic stats a recruit wielded, without any equipment, of course. Gresvin was not too sure how this would be useful in the future, but he told himself that he should keep it in mind; it may become helpful in the near future.

After scanning the information, he saw the experience bar at the end: 'Experience? Is this the amount I need before they upgrade?'

As an avid gamer, he knew what it meant, and its inclusion meant that he would be able to have strong warriors in no time. Based on what he understood, experience would only be accumulated in battle. Luckily for him, the Endless Plains was a chaotic, battle-crazy region. 

Gresvin had thoroughly examined the system when he left his cabin and called the five recruits. The one recruit called Marcus seemed to have been given the task of leader.

"Tell me, are you willing to follow me into battle? To the edges of the world, till you give your last breath?" Gresvin asked, his voice full of power. "We do!" they shouted in response.

"Good, then come with me. I have to go down to the village. We will talk there," Gresvin said. The group headed down to the village. Not much had changed since last night's activities, but the villagers were already up and running about trying to rebuild the village.

Gresvin looked for the village elder and found him helping two men lift a support beam from a broken house off the ground. "Village Elder!" Gresvin called out and ran to help him.

"Oh? Good morning, Gresvin," the Elder replied with an honest smile. He and Gresvin gave a few simple greetings when the Elder's eyes wandered onto the five recruits, "These are?" He was skeptical of the sudden appearance of five warriors. 

"Oh, them? They are my followers," Gresvin smiled and gave a small laugh. They only found me this morning. You see, I quit the army, but we had run into some trouble and were separated." Gresvin came up with a lie. The Elder visibly relaxed when he heard Gresvin, but his eyes were still locked onto the five of them. 

"Five Rank 1 warriors!" his eyes suddenly constricted. Rank 1 warriors were not common, especially in these outer edges of the Endless Plains; most of the folk that roamed these areas were ordinary people with almost no training, and only those with training had the chance to advance to Rank 1 warriors.

"If these five were present yesterday," the Elder's voice could not help but lament that the possibility of more villagers surviving would have increased manifold.

'But alas, they were not. We can't do anything about that now.' The Elder's thoughts roamed for a while before he said, "We of the village of Coedwig welcome you, followers of Gresvin."

Gresvin looked the Elder on in surprise; he did not think it would be that easy for them to accept the new men. He was most surprised by the fact that he did not even have the chance to ask for their permission before the Elder had spoken up.

Gresvin could not help but recall the voice from last night: ' Earning the loyalty of the village, huh? Is that the reason?' he thought curiously.

Gresvin, nevertheless, quickly reacted and said, "Thank you, elder, for letting us stay. For this, I would like to offer our services. We shall protect your village to the best of our abilities," and gave a chest pump.

The village elder smiled and responded, "It is us that should thank you, warrior. Were it not for you most of us would not have been able to live to see the sunrise this morning and now you would protect us? We are eternally grateful for your services and bravery. I welcome thy with open arms." 

The group made their introductions and swiftly started to make use of themselves, helping the villagers rebuild the village.

Meanwhile, Gresvin stayed behind and talked with the Elder: "Elder, in the next couple of weeks, more and more of my men will arrive. I was wondering if we could work something out regarding their lodgings and possible food consumption."

The Elder eyed Gresvin and asked curiously, "How many men would we be accommodating?"

"Well, if we go off that probability that they would arrive once a week then… probably about a year if not more." He sighed with a shrug. "A year!" the Elder cried out in surprise. 'That would mean his army consists of tens of men. Who on Earth is this man?' Gresvin gave the elder a helpless sigh and continued to ask, "I know that there would probably be a shortage of food and water in the near future if my army is to continue growing but is there anything that we could do? If we need to, my men would gladly procure goods from the forest and surrounding areas," Gresvin once more asked.

"Mm, well, if your army is that large, we indeed would have a problem." The elder mumbled in thought. If that is the case, the forest has the best resources for us to use. We can procure the wood for the lodgings, and the animals would suffice for the coming months." 

"Very well, my men and I shall start once the village has been rebuilt. If there are any signs of bandits or raiders using this, we shall come as fast as we can to help." Gresvin gave the elder a horn. It was one of the items that came with the five recruits. "If what you told me is true, then I believe our next encounter with bandits may not be too far off in the future."

"Oh? Very well, thank you," the elder thanked. The two men went their separate ways; the elder continued to help move the debris while Gresvin joined up with his men to rebuild a few of the destroyed buildings.

***

The reconstruction process had taken quite a few days. The debris had been disposed of, and the buildings were utterly new. The original buildings had already been rebuilt, while a couple of buildings had been added.