Fish Pond and Farm Irrigation system

Three weeks after Helena's group left the village, Blanc once again changed the assignments of the villagers.

Some of the farmers were assigned to collaborate with the construction team in order to create two essential farming structures.

The first structure is the fish pond which will help secure more food sources for the village.

Recently, the villagers along with Blanc, have been exploring the surrounding areas along the riverbank.

Although the river has been a source of water for the village, a large part of it is still unexplored due to some parts being too deep. 

In addition to this, Blanc thinks that there might be some sort of underwater mutated creature lurking so it is best to not explore the deep parts of the river for the foreseeable future.

The shallow part however is the habitat of a few freshwater species such as Tilapia fish, freshwater shortfin eel, freshwater shrimps, and catfish.

The plan is to build four medium sized ponds.

Each pond will house one of the four common freshwater species and grow their population for consumption.

The second structure is the farm irrigation system which can help save time and effort of the farmers leading to reduced manpower needed in taking care of the farms. 

For this, water pathways will be created from the river towards the outside perimeter of the farms.

Then, the water will be blocked by a carefully crafted flat piece of wood with just the right amount of thickness.

This piece of wood can be lifted up and down in order to to let the water flow for crops like rice while removing the need to go back to the river to fetch water for other crops which does not require as much water. 

The farmers can simply fetch some water from the water pathways and use them to water the other crops.

An irrigation system like this is required to increase farming efficiency. Fortunately, only a few kingdoms have discovered this technique and this will let their territory catch up to others.

Another 2 months passed.

"Alright aaaaaaand that should be it! Good job everyone!" 

The construction of the two farming structures was finally finished.

Blanc gave a compliment to the villagers involved in the creation of the ponds and the irrigation system.

"Ohhhh! look! water is flowing through the pathways!"

" Why haven't we thought of this before! we could've increased our output!"

"This is basically double the results with half the effort!"

The villagers happily exclaimed one after the other.

They were puzzled about the purpose of such pathways in the beginning but as soon as they saw the water flow, their questions were answered.

"Now let's do the same for the fish ponds! let the water flow in!" Blanc said.

After a few hours, the fish ponds were full of water. However, there are no fishes, shrimps, or eels yet.

Though still empty, the villagers were appreciating their masterpiece happily.

After a few moments of appreciation, the villagers then proceeded to install different kinds of traps along the river.

First of all, it will be hard to manually catch live fish and second, swimming in the river trying to catch fishes might lead to unexpected accidents.

To avoid such accidents, they could only install traps for now and wait for the fishes to be caught. Blanc however, does not plan to leave the river unexplored.

In the future, he will surely make a team who will be able to explore the river.

"Again, I appreciate everyone's efforts. The construction of these two structures is a big milestone for our village and will surely reduce our food consumption worries for the foreseeable future."

"Since there is nothing left to do, everyone involved may rest early for today."

"Tomorrow, we will check the traps and slowly fill the ponds with fishes, eels, and shrimps."

After the speech, the villagers dispersed and took an early rest inside their huts.

Blanc took a deep breath and looked around the village. A smile appeared on his face as he saw the harmonious and peaceful appearance of the village.

He was quite proud of himself for being able to live up to the expectations of those who trusted him.

Although it has been hard at the beginning, only 6 months passed and they are already no different from a normal village. This progress is quite fast.

"Aahhhhhh!! Wolves!" a villager from the cooking squad screamed in fear.

Blanc's melancholy was interrupted by the scream and he immediately sprinted towards the direction of the village kitchen.

He was shocked upon seeing that a huge pack of 20 mutated wolves were surrounding the cooking team.

Fortunately, the response of the warrior trainees was quite fast, they were already on the way holding the iron swords entrusted to them by Helena to protect the village if needed. 

These swords were initially part of the weapons purchased by Helena and Blanc but the swords were only given to them after a few months of hard and bitter training.

Helena strictly instructed them that the swords should only be used if the villagers' lives were in danger and should not be used in mock battles.

Although this was not their first time fighting wolves as Helena already brought them inside the forest of echoes for actual combat training, this is the first time they will fight such a large quantity of wolves without Helena's supervision.

The battle started and the trainees were initially doing good and have actually slain a few wolves.

As time went by though, the trainees started to get tired.

They eventually started to feel the pressure once they were being pushed back by the wolves.

"Eden! Behind you!"

"Kael! watch out!"

The trainees were able to push through but most of them were exhausted and wounded by the encounter.

Most of them were no longer in any condition to fight. 

There were only 4 wolves left on the opponents side but only Alexander and Leif were still in condition for combat. They were almost out of stamina too.

Fortunately for them, a black blur dashed past them and instantly cut the head of two wolves. 

Upon seeing most of their packmates dead in addition to the new combatant that entered the fray, the remaining two wolves decided to retreat.

"Village chief!"

"Village chief! that was amazing!"

"We had an idea from the captain that you knew how to fight but we didn't know you could fight this well!"

"Maybe you can even beat the captain!"

The trainees exclaimed in awe and unexpected glee. They were shocked by Blanc's combat prowess.

"What are you talking about? there's no way I can beat Helena, she would beat the crap out of me after a few serious exchanges."

"By the way, you guys should wash your wounds along the river then take a rest and recover"

Blanc said to the trainees.

"GRRRRAAAARRGHHH!!!!"

Their conversation was cut short by a loud roar.

Blanc was startled and looked at the direction of the roar.

A mutated red bear!

"Everyone, hurry! retreat! let me handle this." Blanc ordered.

"B..but village chief, will you be alright against this bear?" Alexander asked worriedly.

"You're all in no condition to fight! just retreat and leave this to me!"

Upon hearing Blanc's orders and seeing that most of their comrades are in no condition to fight, the warriors had no choice but to retreat.

"Damn! What kind of shit luck is this! How did this huge bear wander off near the village." Blanc muttered to himself.

He gritted his teeth and prepared himself to fight the bear but his focus was cut short again by a loud shout.

"You big fat piece of shit! How dare you invade my village! See how I dice you and roast your meat later! Take this! and that! and this!" 

The figure immediately dashed towards the bear and began beating, and slicing, and dicing up the bear.

"GRAAAAARRGHH!"

After a few minutes of combat, the bear was unable to fight anymore and fell down, dead.

The figure who dashed in was Helena, who was back from her settler recruitment mission.