Plans

[Oh? So basically I need to find a monster or animal to slap into submission?]

{Essentially, yes. Although I wouldn't have phrased it as such.}

[Wait.. I've fought many monsters and animals already and yet none of them have even tried to submit to me? They've always fought to their deaths without even a second thought. I thought that was always going to be the case?]

{Remember back when we first began discussing Enlightened Tier and above monsters? I mentioned to you that the stronger a monster becomes, the smarter it becomes.

The rate at which they become self aware and begin to think for themselves varies for different monsters, but as they progress in strength all monsters will eventually develop a mind of their own.

Right now, they are operating purely based on their animalistic nature but that won't be the case the more time passes.

Monsters that were already fairly intelligent before the Path's emergence have a greater chance of developing self awareness quicker.

Once a monster develops self awareness, for better or worse, they also develop a sense of morality in a sense. Which means they will submit to you in order to preserve their life.

Which leads to the reason why I said it would be better to have a Beast Tamer find a mount for you. Although a monster or animal will submit to you to preserve their life, they will be constantly looking for a way out of their partnership. Unless you can form a true bond with them. Which results in a mutual partnership contract formed through The Path.

Beast Tamer's can form that contract with our without the consent of the animal using the power of their Path.}

[That makes sense.. so basically, I'm more likely to find an intelligent Monkey or Dolphin than I am to run into a smart bird?]

{I am not completely familiar with the species of this planet, but that sounds about right from what knowledge I do have.}

[Well that's unfortunate... force taming a Dolphin isn't going to help me... their aren't many species native to Arizona that I would dub as smart and worth taming... I guess I'll just have to spend some time looking around as I train myself over the remaining few days.]

{I would suggest you hold out until after your planet enters its Path. From the records in my database, their have been many instances where animals and monsters have evolved in unexpected ways due to their Planets evolution.

Who knows, maybe you find a dolphin who sudden grew legs and wings during your planets evolution.

Anything is possible.}

Grant didn't respond and instead began to imagine what a dolphin with legs and wings would look like and couldn't stop himself from laughing. The image was horrifying, creepy, but oddly cute in its own way.

The rest of the walk to the Town Hall, Grant tried to think of all the animals he knew that were native to the area he lived in.

A few different species came to mind, and some of them he had even fought already.

Scorpion, Camel Spider, Snakes, Javelina, an oversized cat or dog, and many more that he couldn't think of at the moment.

The thought of riding a massive Spider sent a shiver down his spine so that was an immediate no go.

A snake could be cool. But he felt he was never a huge fan of either snakes. And he refused to follow in the footsteps of a crazy ninja and his moody disciple.

Eventually his train of thought became moot though because he had finally arrived at the Town Hall.

After greeting Samantha, Grant immediately headed for the meeting room.

When he arrived at the doors he could already hear people debating passionately within the room. Out of respect, Grant knocked a few times before he opened the door.

The room immediately became quiet when everyone turned to look at the person entering, but when they saw Grant, they all gave him varying degrees of acknowledgement before immediately going back to their debate.

They had become accustomed to Grant's presence over the past 24 hours and although he wanted to be part of the conversations, he left most of the decisions up to them so they didn't stop simply because the leader had joined them.

Grant looked around the room and saw the walls nearly covered in different drawings and plans.

Clearly the staff hadn't slept much the night before because none of the plans had been there the day prior.

It was exactly these drawings that everyone was debating.

Everyone had a different perspective on what was the most efficient way to expand the dungeon and subsequently the town.

Grant could see a few drawings that had already been thrown away and others that looked like a child had taken a red marker too them. They had so many adjustments and alterations made that it was hard to make out the original drawing.

Rather than sit directly at the table, he decided to find a seat in the corner of the room and listen into their conversations. Grant knew that he was out of his element in a situation like this and decided to leave it to the professionals.

He had a hard time building an adequate house when he played The Sims, so their was no way he was disillusioned enough to think he could build an entire town.

Their were four main topics that everyone was debating heatedly.

How do they resolve the issues and how best to go about executing a plan that would provide adequate space were the sticking points for each topic.

First: Housing. There wasn't enough for everyone at the current time and even with the apartments that they had begun to build, it would take awhile before they had enough to house everyone comfortably.

Which lead to a major problem because everyone was doing their utmost to contribute to the town's survival, aside from a small portion of the survivors who were too lazy or unmotivated of course. Which needed to be rewarded as to keep the production levels where they needed them to be.

Second: Farming and husbandry. Yes, they had adequate food at the moment, but unless they resolved to eat only monster meat for the rest of their lives, they would eventually run out. Even then, eventually they planned to clear the entire area of monsters which meant they would have to venture further and further out to find an adequate number of monsters to feed the town.

Third: Allies. Although Skit said that his people didn't care about their living conditions, that didn't apply to Springtree and his fellow treants. They needed a large enough area to house all of them as well as fresh soil so they could continue to feed.

When they arrived at this topic, Grant actually resolved it relatively quickly with a few simple explanations.

Springtree and his people didn't need a source of water or anything since they fed off of the mana in the Earth. Which meant, as long as they had a large enough space, they could thrive.

Knowing this and the fact that they had already allocated a large room off the main portion of the dungeon, their issue was quickly resolved.

Their were some concerns what they would do if they ever allied with any other races, but they decided to address those issues if and when they become just that, an issue.

Fourth: Leisure and mental health. It sounded ridiculous at first, but when Grant thought about his mental state since The Path's emergence, he realized that it was actually a very important aspect of building the town.

The people were working basically non stop at this point.

It seemed inevitable that a red light district, gambling, or something along those lines would emerge as a way for people to relieve the stress of their daily lives if they didn't do anything about it.

Especially considering the complete lack of any activities other than fighting or building that existed at this point.

For some people, fighting or could be a stress relief, but they were a small fraction of the people that lived in the Town.

Grant wasn't completely opposed to the idea of creating a Las Vegas style area in a separate room of the dungeon to facilitate people's need for a release.

But it would have to be strictly supervised and only people they could trust would be allowed to establish a business in the district.

As time passed and the conversation became more and more detailed, Grant realized that he hadn't spoken for almost an hour and his presence was basically pointless.

The outline of their plans had already taken shape and they were now debating the finer details which Grant knew were completely beyond his ability to contribute too.

Before Grant left, Jerrod handed him a paper that outlined all of the things that they needed Grant to use the dungeon core to execute and create.

After receiving the paper, Grant thanked everyone in the room for their hard work before making his way out of the room and heading towards the core.