Thinking about how I might hold the biggest advantage in the game, since only Manual Mode players have the option of directly participating and influencing the game with just their presence, I began preparing. For me that meant that, overall, I should get my shit together and come up with an action plan.

First things first, we require wood for buildings, food for the people and stone for just for the Town Hall, signifying that that I was in the Stone Age with my civilization for certain. Since only those three resources are available to me, I should make sure I stock up enough to support future buildings as well.

Secondly, out of the three buildings left, Granary has priority. Even if the elves might not have knowledge of anything else besides foraging and hunting, I can teach them how to smoke meat and conserve fruits and vegetables.

Third, there’s the technology tree that was probably already unlocked in the Research tab, which is of utmost importance in advancing my civilization from useless barbarians to illuminated minds that can bring the future here faster. Also, since I am here and I have Mia’s knowledge as well, I should be able to influence the speed through which a technology is researched. If for example, there is gunpowder being researched and I already know the materials required to produce it, I’m already halfway there.

Fourth, what route should myself, the elf persona take? Should I go full adventurer? Probably not since that would be redundant given that I already have Alexandra. While being strong to clear out some dungeons and get back my invested mana concentration, research is the most important factor in the game. Therefore, I should focus myself on both clearing out monsters and helping with research.

Fifth, as far as my knowledge goes, social policies will play a huge role in my civilization and I should pick those carefully. While I am not fond of totalitarism, I doubt that I could build up a society that will be ruled through communism.

“However, hearing such beautiful girls saying ‘Comrade’ should be fun in itself…”

[Master, sorry to interrupt your proletarian dreams, but you are thinking aloud again.](Mia)

“Ahem! Right… Mia, please bring up the remaining three building descriptions.”

[Acknowledged!](Mia)

Granary

One of the earliest uses of this type of building was recorded as storing foraged fruits and vegetables, as well as smoked meat.

This building’s cost is 500 wood units and it requires both 'Masonry' as well as 'Hunting and Foraging' technology.

Cannot say I didn’t expect something like that. Given how is required for me to advance from the Stone Age onward, multiple resources as well as new constructions and technologies will become available. However, I am uncertain regarding how I can advance through ages or eras…

“Thankfully I have you love. Please tell me what the classification back on Earth is. Also what’s the difference between era and age?”

[The term of ‘Age’ describes the period of civilization advancement, while the term of ‘Era’ describes a combination of both technological as well as social evolution of a civilization. The one thing that they have in common is that each advancement will usually unlock new buildings and technologies.

For the ‘Era’, the classification is like following: Ancient Era, Classical Era, Medieval Era, Renaissance Era, Industrial Era, Modern Era, Atomic Era and Information Era.

For the ‘Age’, the list is more complex: Stone Age, Tool Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Dark Age, Feudal Age, Castle Age, Imperial Age, Discovery age, Colonial Age, Fortress Age, Industrial Age and Imperial Age.

What master also needs to keep in mind, is that in order to advance to a new Era, a certain number of Ages must be advanced through.](Mia)

“…”

Again, I kind of expected that. After all, even in the Ancient Era there were people capable of writing already, while in the Stone Age I’m on at the moment, there’s not even knowledge of paper or papyrus yet. Even if I’d want them to write on a stone slab, there are no tools that would allow us to do something like that. What is the most important thing I realized, is that tools are required for me to advance faster, given that there’s a Tool Age. Now, for confirmation.

“If you were to venture a guess, would we be considered as being in the Stone Age at the level of our civilization?”

[Not yet, master. In order to reach the requirement for Stone Age, you need to have enough food stockpiled for at least 3 months, 1000 units of wood and 1000 units of stone. Also, you are required to build the Town Hall, the Warehouse, Granary and Elvish Huts sufficient for the entire population. Once all the requirements have been met, the civilization can be considered that it entered Stone Age.](Mia)

“Ha…haha…”

Not even reaching the Stone Age requirement yet... However, is not all bad and it’s probably the case for all other Gods as well. The only difference is made by the number of people in the civilization. Since for reaching Stone Age I'm required to have enough food for all population for 3 months, as well as housing, it can be said that I have a considerable headstart in the game, since my civilization consists of only 200 Elves. Not to mention that they are already at LvL 1 in soul refinement and due to the World Tree they get more basic attributes, meaning that they are smarter. It will be easier to turn them into builders, artisans, researchers, etc.

[Miss Mia, Michael, I talked with the remaining people and they are willing to help. What’s our next course of action?](Alexandra)

“Good! There will be some changes of plans depending on what the status pages of the people look like. Any of them have skills?”

[No. Beside myself that has been blessed by the God of Chaos, nobody else possesses any...](Alexandra)

“That’s not a bad thing Alexandra. Since you are the representative of the Elf race, as well as the hero of this world, you need to learn to see things from a different perspective and look for the future. Is not that these people don’t have any skills, is the fact that they are blank slates! A blank slate can be molded in whatever is required of the group.”

[I understand…](Alexandra)

Well, she looks quite discontent in being lectured by me, but she’ll have to live with it from now on. While I don’t want to become a person of major importance, I want to have sufficient influence in order to guide them properly through her position as the Hero. Now, in order to earn their trust, I should make a power move.

“Alright, everyone! Your attention please!”

The looks of everyone under the World Tree focused on me. That’s a good start…

“We were all given a new chance at life, however we find ourselves in quite the bind. We don’t have food and we don’t have a bed to sleep in. While it’s warm outside and the World Tree provides us cover, we need to prepare for winter. For building houses, we need wood. For wood, we need to have tools that can take down the trees. I will need a group of 9 elves with fast feet that will follow me to the river close by to search for stones that we can use to create tools. Who’s willing to join me?”

Instantly, they looked at Alexandra for approval and she nodded in affirmation. Nine elves stepped forward.

I wasn’t that annoyed by the fact that they wanted her approval; rather, I was pleased by it. This meant that they properly accepted her as their leader, which will make it easier to make her into a queen of the race further down the road, once the civilization advances to a higher degree.

“Good! You guys step to my right. Next, we will need a group of 19 elves that will hunt with Alexandra for food. Since this task is dangerous, you guys will follow me to the river first of all to craft you some weapons. That should make things easier for you. Don't forget that you are responsible for the food of 200, so not only must you be successful, you must be careful not to injure yourselves in the process. That’s why Alexandra, the strongest one among you, will also join in this endeavor. Decide among yourselves whom the 19 people will be.”

Once more, they looked at Alexandra and she nodded. After discussions among them, the second group was selected and stepped forward. There were only 4 guys and the remaining were 15 girls. I could already see that in the future, I will have to count on these Valkyries to fight against the monsters.

“Great! You guys join Alexandra and come to my left side. Now, the rest of you have the most important job of them all: foraging and scavenging. Simply put, we can’t only eat meat, so Mia will join you and help you identify fruits, plants and vegetables that we can use as condiments, deserts or side-dishes. Not only that, but you will also be responsible for collecting dried twigs and grass that we can use to light up a fire. Keep a lookout for straight branches between 1 - 1.5 meters tall and bring those back as well, since we’ll be using them to craft future weapons and other tools. Mia, I will leave this group in your care and also please try and find if we can use anything as bowls or buckets to gather water, until we actually are able to create pottery.”

[Understood ma…](Mia)

“You little dimwit! No ‘master’ business while in front of the elves, it will look bad. Call me Michael. Or big brother…”- I said after quickly covering her mouth

[Understood Michael.](Mia)

You go for that huh? Such a heartless child, not wanting to make your big brother happy...

“Alright people! Let’s move out since we’re losing daylight. For the gathering and scavenging group, try and don’t go too far. Mia, you can split them in smaller groups but limit them to a maximum of 20 gatherers and at least 5 elves that will guard them at all times. Also, makes sure that for the guards you improvise some weapons from the forest. Something like clubs or staffs will have to make due for now.”

[Understood Michael! All right, you lot! Follow me and let’s go! We’ll split up after I take a look at your status pages!](Mia)

Whoa! She sounds fierce… Now, I’m left with the scouting group and the hunting group. They had expectant looks on their faces, but the poor pointy ears didn’t know that this was just the basic manual labor. Thinking about it, rather than a civilization, the current state of the elves felt more like a tribe.

“Alright! We should get going as well. Alexandra and the remaining hunting group will follow us, the scouting group, until we can find some things they can use as weapons. Our destination is the southern area of the forest. There we will find a shallow river that will come in handy.”

[Southern?](Alexandra)

She actually came closer and asked me in a whispered tone. I keep forgetting that their knowledge is limited; therefore, I took my time in explaining to her the easiest ways to tell the cardinal directions using the Sun, or moss growing on trees, or other small tricks like that. After she understood it properly, I had her teach the other two groups the basics as well, since both scouting and hunting heavily rely on the sense of direction and not getting lost while doing your job.

From their looks, they understood the tricks quickly since they are taught to children in schools usually and they looked at Alexandra with even more reverence. That in turn, made the heroine embarrassed due to the fact that she was kind of stealing glory from me.

After a couple other conversations in which I described how the monsters looked like (mostly because I was forced into doing that by the entire group), we reached the river. The clean blue water was almost transparent from riverbed to riverbed and it looked as about half a kilometer wide. Seeing that, I instructed everyone to start looking for rocks and I used the mud to draw the shapes that I had in mind to them.

It took about 30 minutes to an hour until we were able to find sufficient rocks that looked proper. As for the shapes, they were ones that could be used as knives Then, I told everyone to start looking for rocks and I used the mud to draw the shapes that I had in mind to them.

Another half an hour passed we were able to find sufficient rocks that looked proper. There were some that looked like knives about 30 cm in length with an almost rectangular shape and smaller almost conical ones, through which we could put together some makeshift spears.

Then, for the following two hours, I had the elves observe how I grinded the stones in order to sharpen the edges as well as the point of the new weapons, after which I grabbed some smaller vines that I wrapped around the lower part of the knives, making a hilt. For the spears, we weren’t that lucky and they honestly looked like they weren’t going to last longer than a stab. We used branches that were almost (and I want to emphasize the word ALMOST) straight and which weren’t neither green, nor old that were as thick as 1 and a half fingers. I used the newly created knife and split the end of the staff, placed the sharpened spearhead inside and then I used vines to once more tie the damned things together.

Progress made in Tools research technology through discovery.

25 research points have been awarded!

Now that was surprising, but again, not unexpected. Like I previously thought, I can use myself as an example and build things that aren’t from the current age the civilization is in and as a result, the research towards that specific object will become easier to accomplish.

The only thing left to do is to get some apprentices and have them become tool makers.