A gathering and compensation

"Two more days before I receive the next batch of residents..."

"And also pay wages to the current residents..."

Zach scratched the back of his head,he only had a hundred and seventy copper coins on him,yet he needed to pay a total of six hundred and forty copper coins as wages.

About half of this amount was to be paid to the three guards.

"I hope they will accept a different form of compensation..."

Zach pushed the matter at the back of his mind. He decided to cultivate for the remaining two days,he had used up all the spirit qi wisp in his dantian and an additional twelve percent of his spirit qi drops while laying the formation.

With the boost from the formation,Zach did not only manage to fill his dantian with spirit qi wisp,but also managed to convert an additional twenty-four percent spirit qi drops within those two days.

He was close to breaking through into the mid stage of foundation establishment realm,he only needed about a day of cultivation. After that,it would take him at least a month to stabilize his cultivation before resuming cultivation.

If he was in a hurry,he could use one of the foundation stabilizing pills,but this would result to addition of impurities in his body. Zach prefered not to depend on cultivation pills,at the same time, he wanted to take the one month to explore the forest and the plain for resources and spirit materials,as well as practise his sword art, smithing and formations,not forgetting that he had a camp that needed him to run and develope.

He wanted to increase his proficiency in these two fields.

A knock on his basement door pulled him out of his thoughts.

"That must be Timothy..."

Timothy was the orphan boy,he was the only one with permitted to enter his cabin,and thus the guards sent him over to inform him of the arrival of the new batch of residents.

"Tell the guards I will be there in ten minutes..."

Zach said as he stretched his muscles,he had not taken a bathe for a week,and the clothes he was in were leaking of sweat.

Actually,he had not had a meal in days,all this time,he was surviving on spirit qi. This was one advantage of being a cultivator. One could spend days without food,water or even sleep,but the amount of time depended on ones cultivation realm. But still,they had to eat as to replenish the vital energy in their bodies.

Ten minutes later,a refreshed Zach met the sixteen new residents at the communal dining shed. Each of them had been served a wooden mug of porridge and a piece of bread.

There seven men,two professional ones from the tool box's under their bench,five women,two of them having a profession and four teenagers. Three boys and one girl.

"Huh..."

"No children..."

Zach was taken back,but still,he was happy as the amount of work a teenager could do was more than a child's.

The adults age ranged between late twenties to early forties.

"Now I see why there are no children..."

The high number of aged people, though experienced,had to be balanced with young blood,and hence the four teenagers.

This time round,none of the new residents belonged to one family.

"Welcome all to my humble camp..."

Zach cordially welcomed everyone as he received the mug of porridge served to him by Timothy.

Thirty minutes later,was done explaining the rules, regulations and workings of the camp.

He had Timothy take them round the camp,before allocating them bed at the hostel.

Initially,there were thirty beds in the hostel, sixteen were currently occupied by the first residents, leaving behind just fourteen beds,that meant two people would lack a bed.

He had Timothy take them round the camp,so he could hold a talk with the rest of the residents.

"The truth is that I do not have enough copper coins to cover all your wages,so I thought of having everyone compensated with anything equivalent to their wage..."

The carpenter raised his arm...

"Yes,speak..."

Zach acknowledged him...

"And what creteria would be followed?"

Zach knew that he had to come up with a reasonable compensation plan as to prevent discomfort among his residents.

"For accomodation in the hostel,its going to cost twenty copper coins a week for bed and meals..."

Everything nodded at this as they felt the price was reasonable,but one of the cooks, who's daughter helped in the kitchen raised her hand.

"What about the children?"

Zach had expected the question to be raised,as the two children only received a wage of fifteen copper coins a week,five copper coins below the required accomodation price.

"The children wage would be raised to twenty copper coins a week,and their accomodation price reduced to fifteen copper coins..."

Everyone shook their head in support of this.

"As for the prices of goods, materials and other resources,there is a price list in the shop..."

"Feel free to visit and exchange your goods worth your coins..."

The shop had not been opened yet,since there were not enough hands to run everything.

As for the new residents,Zach did not plan on allocating them tasks,but rather letting them pick from the list of tasks availables.

"Any more questions...?"

Zach inquired and four hands were raised,the was tailor's husband,the carpenter,the man in charge of the animal sheds,and one of the helpers.

Zach picked the tailor's husband first.

"Thank you sir,I was just curious if I can exchange half of my wage for one of the larger wooden cabins?"

Zach smiled,and quickly agreed as this would reduce the number of current residents in the hostel by three, leaving behind three empty beds.

"Yes you can,but the price of such cabins is two hundred copper coins a month, allowing you to pay it on four instalment of fifty copper coins each..."

The tailor whispered something to her husband and he nodded.

"Sir,we wish to rent one of the large cabins..."

"That's good..."

Zach smiled as he quickly withdrew the key to one of the large wooden cabins from his poach,this had been made by the tailor,as well as the clothes he had changed into.

"Here is the key to cabin number one,I will deduct fifty copper coins from your wage..."

Zach said as he wrote down something on the bonded leather book. The book consisted of the residents names and records of tasked done.

"Thank you sir..."

The tailor's husband said as he picked the key and handed it to his wife,who was all smiles.