Gathering resources

***

Jordan went on the edge of the nearby forest together with several awakened citizens, goblins, and many beasts including Max and the big wyvern Jordan named Silver because of his silver-like scales, also Silver is one of the beasts that Jordan used the awakening potion on, silver now has two elements, first electricity, and a second wind, sadly no fire, Jordan wanted Silver to awaken to fire and flew with him over the enemy armies while Silver burns them all… sadly for that Jordan would need to tame a dragon and from what the bestiary told him taming dragon is as probable as winning a lottery, even raising the dragon from an egg is close to impossible.

And what is he doing in the forest? today Jordan come to the forest for wood, yes wood, the weather is starting to get really cold and the construction needs wood as well, all the lone trees alone were already cut down, and to grow a tree from saplings it will take at least year even with the beast blood and mana fertilizer.

For this reason, Jordan had to risk going to the forest, even though it wasn't all that risky for him personally the forest was extremely deadly for normal humans, even awakened ones in low circles or body rank were going to be easy prey for the forest and the beasts in it.

First the beasts there are much more aggressive, their reproduction rates are through the roof and there are rare variants and even beasts that would not normally mutate, for example, ants, the ants grew in size to around 16 cm (half a foot) long and ten centimeters high, individual ants are very weak and can be easily killed just by stomping on them but those ants never move around alone, they move around in groups of tens or even hundreds, building nests that are taller than the non-mutated trees.

But Jordan isn't there to fight the monsters, he is there to get the wood, while on the edge of the forest Jordan began to assign jobs, the humans and goblins will be cutting down trees while some beasts will patrol around the area and then haul the wood back.

Jordan will also be using his space-storage to store some of the wooden logs, he already experimented on this and he can store up to 20 logs in his space-storage, the only problem is that with all the logs the passive consumption of mana will skyrocket and in several hours he will run dry and exhaust all his mana and without mana, the space-storage would collapse and eject all the items outside.

The beast patrolled around while Jordan watched over the workers, occasionally a tree will try to resist to save its bark, when that happened Jordan swooped in with his ax and cut down the tree. The trees weren´t at the level of treants but some still could move their branches and attack with them.

The sounds of fighting could be heard from afar, few beasts made it to the edge of the forest and started to fight with Jordan´s beasts, the humans that were working on cutting the trees started to work even harder and the goblins chuckled and continued as if nothing happened. But not to be deceived, the goblins aren't brave they are just cheeky, they would be scared just like the humans if it wasn't for Jordan, Max, and the other beasts that gave them the confidence.

Everyone continued their work and from time to time Jordan helped defend the perimeter, he would occasionally kill the stronger beasts that couldn't be easily handled without casualties. To conserve mana Jordan killed the beasts with strength alone, using mana only when there wasn't any other choice. Every casted spell meant one less wooden log brought back.

Currently, one wooden log could be priced for 5-10 crystals! until there is a cultivated forest from which the wood can be taken safely the wood price is going to stay sky-high, after all the woodcutters are risking their lives just for a bit of wood.

After loading the wood and the dead beasts on the pushcarts they began to head back, the forest was only a few kilometers (miles) away from the town, and yet every time they went there it was a small adventure. Until they clean the beasts from the fields and make some sort of wall around the danger areas, such as the forest, it would be impossible to safely walk outside the city.

Seeing the situation outside of the safety of the walls the awakened humans got to know that leaving the camp is close to suicide. It´s not impossible to reach some nearby city, after all the nearest city is only around 20 km (12 miles) away, it´s just unlikely.

After the carts were loaded Jordan opened his space storage and started loading the wooden logs in as well, with 18 logs in his space-storage and dozens of wooden logs on the carts the group returned to the town.

The way back was calm with only a few beasts attacking, the group made it back to the outskirts of the town just in time to meet the other group that went to collect herbs. Several groups go out of the town almost every day to collect various resources.

Because of Jordan, the other groups let the woodcutter group go first, Jordan and others cut in line and went before the improvised gate, there were guards with several books that contained the basic information about everyone´s looks, their family, and lastly their password.

With no knowledge of what is outside Jordan decided to keep his eyes open and made this primitive system of recognizing, without the tools for taking photos or fingerprints this is the best thing they can do for now.

The system worked for now only because there were almost no people from the outside, in the future when people from other towns start to come in the system of checking people will collapse and there will be a need for a new one.

Jordan enjoyed his privileges and skipped the inspection and made his way to the storage, it was the old factory to which he went to test his mana, now everything inside was thrown out and there were stored the wooden logs, building materials, and more.

After arriving there Jordan unloaded his space-storage and let the people there cut the branches, peel the bark and made the wood into firewood or prepare for construction.

Just as Jordan was on his way to his house the first snow started to fall, at first it was just a few snowflakes but by the time Jordan reached his house the clouds in the sky turned back, in few minutes the snowing was so intense that even Jordan with his enhanced senses couldn't see beyond few meters.

The weather changes caused by the mana started to show themselves.