Delegation

Alaric had finally finished the interviews. He saw potential in many of the people present, but nothing major. Of the villagers that caught his eye, they could be counted on one hand.

'Mike, Bonnie, Mulder, Piko, and Natali.'

Mike was a bit dangerous to people in power, like Alaric, but Alaric figured that as long as his family was kept safe, Mike would be a useful sword. His determination and willpower would have allowed him to go far, should he have been able to awaken.

Bonnie was directly related to Mike, being his daughter. She seemed to inherit her father's strong spirit and showed extremely high levels of intelligence. She used language you'd only find in educated adults and even asked him questions during the interview. She was only 15 years old!

'When she awakens in 3 years... she'll be a force to be reckoned with, for sure.' Alaric thought.

The other three were newcomers to the village. Mulder was a stout man, aged 60, with dark brown hair, and an unkempt beard. His black eyes exuded a strong sense of power and focus. He seemed extremely patient, thinking quietly before answering the last question of the interview.

'And, when I asked of his hobbies... he answered architecture, weapon forging, and tailoring! But, he also mentioned that the frequent orders from the Ryder family had dulled his passion. He came to the village in order to reignite the spark he once lost.'

The last 2, Piko and Natali, were less impressive than the first 3 talents.

Piko was, put simply, an academic freak. His hobbies included things such as math, which Alaric found useful, but not major. His reason for coming here, although well hidden in his calculative answer, was simply fear.

Natali? She liked to cook. A lot. She rambled for nearly a minute without stopping about her passion for cooking before being stopped by Alaric. One of those people that you needed to be wary of talking to, lest they drag you into their rhythm.

'Piko is useful as a middle-level manager. Handling smaller budgets, and taking inventory, he may become someone of a higher level in the future though. Natali would be useful during the winter since most villagers found it hard to cook for themselves during that time.'

Most other villagers answered rather simply, Alaric finding them to be good at mostly laborious tasks such as handling a farm. The spinach seeds he had would finally come into use, as soon as winter hit at least. Until then, he would use them to handle the gathering of various material necessities.

He delegated Mike as the manager of village defenses, guessing that he'd do anything in his power to keep the village safe. After all, his family lived here. With Mike's determination to protect the people he cared for, Alaric was sure that the village's defense system would become much more powerful very soon.

Bonnie had been chosen as his personal aide. He wanted to specifically nurture her talents, Alaric would bounce ideas her way as he worked, and in turn, develop her brain into something more useful for his management.

'Mulder, of course, will be allowed to create a forge for himself, I even gave him authority to delegate 5 strong men to the task of helping him.' Alaric thought.

Mulder was simply too useful of an addition, he'd need to give him some independence.

Piko had been delegated as manager of the labor tasks that Alaric sent the villagers' way, to make sure things went smoothly. In the future, he would also manage the farm, and report inventory to Alaric. Natali would simply be preparing for winter, deciding upon recipes that are cheap and easy to provide to a large group of people.

"The rest will be working on the gathering of materials... lumber, stone, and the like. Under Piko's management, of course."

That left 8 people to work on gathering, 5 people assisting Mulder, and specific duties handed to the talents he liked.

"With this system in place, I just need to give them time to adapt. I can stop handling everything myself... and finally get to business. I will focus on our military potential, and enacting the plan to raid the Ryder family."

Alaric originally planned to wait until he had 72 slimes to raid them, but soon decided against it. The sooner the better, he had to handle the aftermath annexation of territory directly after he was done. That, and the deal with the merchant caravan would be a handful.

'I told the villagers that I'd raid the Ryders in 3 days, but that was obviously a lie. I'm going the day after tomorrow! Who the hell knows if there is a spy here? I certainly don't!'

Although he delegated duties, Alaric knew that some traitors may be lying in wait. Even the 5 people he found talented, plus Clarus, were not off of his radar. He would leave Wurst at the village, just in case of sudden enemy attacks.

Although Wurst had the highest combat potential of all of his currently available slimes, Alaric was confident in handling the Ryder family with Gunnar and Pamela. Gunnar was no slouch in combat himself, and Pamela's utility automatically increased Alaric's effective combat potential to the realm of rank 2.

Currently, Alaric was handling the obvious group of corpses inside of the cold storage, or rather, restricting access to the cold storage. If any of the villagers saw them, a panic would immediately ensue.

"Wurst, you will be guarding the cold storage. Not a single villager is to enter!"

Yes, Alaric even delegated his personal bodyguard to this position. This cold storage simply contained too large of a secret. And, until the slimes in the old village chief's house split, he'd have no way to be rid of them.

'Still, I'm not confident without a powerful combatant following me to Ryder Village. Tomorrow, I think I will go out in search of Sonic. Even with Grander around, I simply have no choice.' Alaric pondered.

It seemed he would have to figure out some sort of plan to deal with Grander tonight. Or at least, a plan to escape from him.