The village chief will finally be given an official appointment. Only at this point is it truly considered that new land has been opened up for the kingdom, and the person becomes an officially recognized ‘minor lord’ of the kingdom.

“So troublesome?” Franklin Baker hadn’t expected that the ‘appointment’ of a village chief would be so complicated.

“Is it because the situation is rather special?”

A person who establishes a village with a pioneer’s decree can’t be considered an ordinary village chief, because they have a great deal of autonomy, and even have the right to expand and upgrade the village. In this respect, they are completely different from village chiefs within the kingdom. If they can expand the village’s scale and reach a sufficient population within the specified time, they can be directly promoted to town mayor, and this land will also become their territory.

“So that’s how it is.”

Strictly speaking, David Clark barely counts as a minor lord, just not officially yet.

It was precisely because of these benefits that David Clark joined the pioneering team. At first, he hadn’t expected to become the village chief himself; back then, he just wanted to see if he could get a knight’s title, which would mean leaving the commoner class.

Now… his thinking has become much simpler: since he’s already in this position, he wants to secure it even more, and he’s already started thinking about how to develop the village.

At present, his greatest reliance is the golden finger that attracts people from various worlds. As long as he makes good use of it, the current problems won’t be hard to solve.

For example, the land is barren and crops are hard to grow. He can ask Laura Smith to purchase some cold-resistant, high-yield crop seeds from her world, or even ask her to get some fertilizer and such to improve the land.

He could also wait until his relationship with Franklin Baker improves, and then ask Franklin Baker to find a druid for help, to get some special seeds to improve the land.

Even if neither of these methods works, David Clark isn’t planning to give up on this place—if it can’t be a grain base, can’t it be used for something else?

As long as he can keep using the golden finger, maybe one day a super genius will be sent his way, and then building an industrial base would be pretty interesting too.

“I just wonder what kind of minerals are nearby?”

After letting his thoughts wander for a while, David Clark drifted off to sleep. When he opened his eyes again, dawn was already breaking.

Turning his head to look beside him, he saw that the campfire was almost out. Franklin Baker was lying on his own bed resting, and the clean water, meat soup, and weapons and medicines placed nearby hadn’t been touched. It seemed that after he fell asleep last night, Laura Smith hadn’t come by again.

Getting up from the bed, David Clark added some firewood to the campfire, making it burn more vigorously again. Then he hung the pot of meat soup over the fire, so that by the time he finished washing up, the soup would be ready to eat.

He walked out of the cabin, breathed in the chilly air, did some simple stretches, and then fetched some clean water to wash up.

By the time he finished, Franklin Baker was already up as well, stretching in front of the cabin just as David Clark had done earlier. However, compared to David Clark, Franklin Baker’s exercises looked much fiercer. If you got hit by those thick arms, it definitely wouldn’t end well.

“Any plans for today?”

After finishing his exercises, Franklin Baker wiped his face with clean water and asked David Clark what he intended to do.

They had chopped a lot of wood yesterday, and David Clark had hunted several gray wolves. With plenty of food and wood, maybe it was time to consider building a house?

“Or maybe, dig a well first?”

“To build a well, we’d need stone, right?” Franklin Baker wasn’t too sure how to make a well, but he remembered that you needed stone for it.

When it came to specialized stonemason work, both of them fell silent.

“Let’s just build a place to live first!”

After all, only the two of them were living in the village long-term. Fetching water from the river was just a bit troublesome, not an urgent problem.

But the house—if they couldn’t build a sturdy, warm house soon, they’d suffer again when winter came.

Just as David Clark was considering whether to wait until Laura Smith had dealt with her current troubles and returned home to England, and then ask her to send over cement, bricks, glass, and other building materials so they could build a nice, comfortable house, he once again saw that faint, indistinct figure in his field of vision.

“Laura Smith?”

David Clark and Franklin Baker’s first reaction was that Laura Smith had come again, but it didn’t take long for them to realize they were wrong.

The figure gradually became clearer. Both of them had good eyesight, and they quickly saw that the newcomer wasn’t Laura Smith, but a man.

“Looks like there’s a new arrival.” Franklin Baker knew that only Laura Smith had come before, so this stranger must be a newcomer appearing for the first time.

They carefully sized up the newcomer. His height was average, his looks unremarkable, and his clothing was a bit odd. At the moment, he was looking around in utter confusion.

Soon, the newcomer noticed David Clark and Franklin Baker standing in front of the cabin, and walked over without hesitation: “Hello, may I ask where this place is?”

“Hello, this is Winter Village. I’m the village chief, David Clark.” David Clark was still sizing up the newcomer. The man had a ‘familiar’ face, but he couldn’t quite place his identity for the moment.