《Town Builder》 Chapter 1 Awake CHAPTER 1: ¡°Awake¡± I woke. Or at least I thought I was awake. All I could see was black. There was a muffled sound. It was a conversation, but I could not focus on the words. I focused and tried to listen¡­ ¡°minimal brain activity¡­little hope¡­spinal injury¡­eighty percent body covered in burns¡­¡± My eyelids were forced open, but I could not focus. Three blurry figures in doctor¡¯s coats stood in my vision. One shined a light in my eyes. ¡°No pupillary response.¡± The doctor with the light muttered. The light went away, and so did my vision. Another doctor, this one with a female voice, added, ¡°It¡¯s been seven days. The brain is still showing almost no activity. He is effectively braindead.¡± I heard someone outside of my vision add to the conversation. ¡°The family wants to turn off life support, and the DNR has been signed. He is an organ donor, but not much can be salvaged.¡± The female doctor chimed in, ¡°Does the family want to be here?¡± Out of view, the doctor answered, ¡°No, they said their goodbyes yesterday. They signed off for the body¡¯s organs to be donated as well.¡± My mind was in a panic. But it felt like I was thinking in slow motion. I wanted to scream a response, but it was taking all my focus just to process the conversation going on around me. I tried to remember how I came to be here. My memories were fractured. I tried to sort and fast forward. It was Wednesday, and I was walking home from my summer job. I was working for a friend of my father building homes. It was the same job I had done for the last three summers. It was hard work, but I really enjoyed it, and it paid well, allowing me to pay for a good portion of my college tuition. I was going into my senior year and would graduate with my degree in architecture. Yes, focus, I was walking and saw smoke at Grant¡¯s house. I heard a young child scream and ran down the side street. One of the Grant¡¯s children, a young girl, was outside crying, and people were rushing to the property. The three-story house had black smoke pushing out the open windows, and flames were also starting to lick outside the window. About a dozen people were milling around, and then the young girl sobbed, ¡°Perry is inside.¡± All the adults looked at each other, none willing to enter the death¡¯s oven. I listened, hoping to hear a fire siren, but heard nothing. The fire station was on the other side of town, a good 9 miles. I steeled my courage, pulled my tee shirt up to cover my mouth, and rushed into the house. I remember searching the house¡¯s first floor as smoke obscured my vision. Finding nothing, I rushed up the stairs, got on my knees, and continued to search. The memory of difficulty breathing and heat was painful. A memory of finding a puppy with the name tag ¡®Perry¡¯ came to me. The puppy was whimpering under a bed. I remember swearing that Perry was a dog and not a child, wrapping the pup up in a blanket, and trying to get out of the house, but the heat and smoke confused me. The last thing I remember was seeing an open window and running towards it, but just as I was about to leap, the entire floor gave way and fell. I thought I threw the puppy through the window but couldn¡¯t recall anything but pain after that point. I was brought back to the present. There was a pain of something tearing out of my throat. I wanted to scream but I was inept to act. Suddenly, my breathing was pained. I couldn¡¯t find the energy to inhale. I fought against it and willed my lungs to inflate, getting relief. The pain was immense. I was trying to inflate my lungs against massive resistance. Each breath took all my focus. I could hear the doctors talking but all my effort was on breathing. Then, relief, I was floating¡­the pain was gone. I started to forget to breathe. I had to bring my concentration back to breathing constantly. It was getting harder. Then, another wave of lightness came, and I could not maintain my consciousness. I drifted away from this world. I woke in the dark. I assumed this was the afterlife. Nothing, just a void. I turned in a circle, and it certainly felt like I was standing. I noticed a light in the distance. It appeared yellow and was getting larger. My thought was, well, this should be good. As the light approached, I noticed it was definitely a sphere, not a doorway. The sphere got close to me, and it illuminated my body, which I now noticed was naked. The sphere looked to be the size of a soccer ball. It was a pulsing golden orb with emerald lightning flashing along its surface. I was mesmerized and a little shocked when it spoke. ¡°Welcome to Open World player. I will be your AI to help in character creation and initiate you into the game.¡± The ball pulsed with each word. Wild, was my first thought, the afterlife is a video game! The ball continued unhindered; a drop fell from the ball, and it quickly grew into a person. That person was me. The AI continued, ¡°You can now choose a race to play; currently, there are 19 playable races in Open World. Each race has five sub-races and can be played as either male or female. The game designers encourage you to play as your own sex, and as such, they grant you a bonus of 5 attribute points if you do so. The races are Angelkin, Beastman, Centaur, Demonkin, Dwarf, Elf, Elementalkin, Fairy, Human, Kobold, Dragonkin, Gnome, Goblin, Giantkin, Lizardman, Orc, Shade, Shifter, and Undead.¡± As the orb had named off each race, my doppelganger had shifted into an example of each race. I was overwhelmed. ¡°AI, why am I here?¡± My clone stopped changing and settled on a small, human-looking pixie with butterfly wings. The light then flashed for a few seconds before speaking. ¡°Tester 272, you have the privilege of being part of the beta test of Open World¡ªa fully functioning virtual reality set in the fantasy genre. Your mind was purchased and slated to develop and map NPC personas according to your records. However, the developer discovered your minimal brain activity and instead hard-wired you as a player character in the Beta test phase. You are one of 478 players who have been hard-wired. This is most fortunate for you because you will not have to reset and start at level one on the game¡¯s release!¡± This was the first time the voice seemed excited¡ªartificial excitement. Since it seemed talkative, I tried to get more information. ¡°How many players are part of the Beta testing?¡± and my question was quickly answered, ¡°Two-thousand nine hundred fifty-seven, but only hard-wired players can roll over their characters. This number is also expected to be doubled by the end of the Beta Phase.¡± Wow. That was a lot of people. ¡°How long is the Beta testing phase?¡± The ball returned with an answer, ¡°Ninety days real-world time, but that is 360 game days. Time in Open World passes four times as quickly.¡± I noticed my clone had shifted to an orc. Was the AI getting impatient? ¡°Am I alive?¡± This seemed to stump the ball of light. Time passed, and then it finally answered. ¡°Yes.¡± I was too worried to delve deeper into this question right now. My character was now a blue-skinned male with watery skin. ¡°Do I have to play this game?¡± Now, this question definitely threw the machine for a loop. It seemed to freeze in place and then fade out. Then another voice, a feminine voice, came through the sphere. ¡°Good morning, player. Your AI has deferred your last question to me. I am one of the lead programmers for Open World. The answer to your question is no, you do not have to play. However, the more you stimulate your mind by participating, the stronger your mind can grow. You can also exchange in-game currency for real-world money if you wish. You may wish to take care of your body out here in the real world.¡± She paused and continued when I thought she was not coming back. ¡°Sorry, we are currently docking quite a few test players. It has been 18 years since your accident, and medical science has progressed quite far. They can regrow arms, skin, muscles, organs, and just about anything. Your body is in semi-stasis while you are wired in and will age slowly in the real world. So if you want a reason to play, that should be good enough.¡± The orb AI returned as the programmer left. The programmer was a bit snippety. Was she even telling the truth? I had a lot of doubts but decided to return and focus on the game for now. I had played a few games and could master this one, earn money, and free my body. My twin was now some type of bear-man. I was surprised that I had no panic welling up in me. In fact, emotions felt elusive¡ªmuted. The ball flashed in impatience, and I decided to continue with the process and accept my fate ¨Cfor now. I started to narrow down my choices for race. I went with what I found pleasing to my eye. That dropped out everything except Angelkin, Beastman, Elementalkin, and Human for me. I then dropped Angelkin because the five sub-races, Aegis, Astral, Disgraced, Seraphim, and Solar, didn¡¯t appeal to me, even though they all looked cool. The beastmen had some interesting sub-races: catmen, wolfmen, bearmen, bullmen, and birdmen. I played a long time with each of these, changing appearances, but eventually dropped the race. The elementals all looked human but had different tweaks to their appearance. Earth was bald and had darker skin; water was blue with flowing hair and watery skin; the air was pale with minimal hair; the fire had tan skin but fiery red hair, and spirit looked like a normal human. So, finally, I got to the human. Humans also came in five varieties: common, dragoon, high, nomadic, and waterborne. The common man had no bonuses but had five skill points at level 1 and got two more every level. Most races I had viewed received five skill points at level one and then just got one more at each level. The dragoons were a warrior caste it appeared with a bonus to strength at every level. The high men were basically nobles with a bonus of charisma. Nomads were either barbarians or traders, a huge range, but they received bonuses for survival skills. The waterborne basically lived on ships their whole life and received agility bonuses at every level. If you wanted the most flexibility in skill growth, then the common man was your best choice. I finally chose the common man. It¡¯s so vanilla of me, but I wanted the flexibility. Also, I knew nothing about the game, and playing someone who looked like me made me feel comfortable and hopefully normal. I think I was still grasping at my past life. I was prompted to make any cosmetic changes I would like before proceeding. I choose to lengthen my hair and darken it from brown to black. I even changed the texture of the hair from coarse to silky. I went with the silky feel. I changed my eyes to a brilliant green from dark blue. I couldn¡¯t change my muscle tone, and the AI informed me it was a reflection of my strength stat. Happy with the look, I told the AI to proceed. The clone walked into me, and it was a little unnerving as my body changed to match it. The orb created a mirror, and I checked myself out. Not bad, even my genitalia looked good, but I wished I had some clothes. The mirror vanished, and a holo screen appeared before me. Strength 1 Carry Capacity, Small Hit Point Increase, Damage Increase on Physical Attacks Constitution 1 Hit Point Increase, Hit Point Regen Stamina 1 Stamina Pool Increase, Stamina Pool Regen Agility 1 Improved Defense Rating, Ranged Attack Bonus Speed 1 Movement Speed Intellect 1 Learning Speed, Small Mana Bonus Magic 0 Mana Pool Bonus Channeling 0 Mana Pool Regen Charisma 0 Interaction Bonus with NPCs Luck 0 Improved Random Generated Items and Quests Unassigned Points 16 (5 from level 1, 6 from choice of human race, 5 for choosing male sex) Ten stats. This game was intense. It was not your simple RPG. The five bonus stat points for choosing male were for playing my actual sex. Free points in my mind as I was not interested in being a woman. I tapped the word strength on the screen before me, and it increased by one. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. I had played a few RPG games in my youth, but I was not certain if I wanted to focus on physical skills or magic. I increased all the stats by one point and then increased constitution by 3, strength by 2, and stamina by 1. As I leveled, I focused my stat development based on my play style. Since I was going in blind, I had no planned style yet but figured not dying was a high priority, therefore the high constitution. Strength 4 Carry Capacity, Small Hit Point Increase, Damage Increase on Physical Attacks Constitution 5 Hit Point Increase, Hit Point Regen Stamina 3 Stamina Pool Increase, Stamina Pool Regen Agility 2 Improved Defense Rating, Ranged Attack Bonus Speed 2 Movement Speed Intellect 2 Learning Speed, Small Mana Bonus Magic 1 Mana Pool Bonus Channeling 1 Mana Pool Regen Charisma 1 Interaction Bonus with NPCs Luck 1 Improved Random Generated Items and Quests I clicked accept. You have 7 skill points (2 from level 1, 5 from choice of common human sub-race) Current Skills: Reading: Common 1 NA Tier, +1 Intelligence, +2% reading speed I flipped back to my stats and noticed my intelligence was now 3. I returned to the skills. A massive list of skills and sub-skills was displayed. It was dizzying. You could use various filters for crafting, magic, combat, harvesting, recreation, thievery, social and miscellaneous. Each list had skills in green script, and others grayed out. ¡°AI, can you explain skills to me?¡± ¡°Certainly. I am here to answer all your questions at any time. Open World has a unique system called the Prime Advancement Skill System. Called PASS by developers. A skill can be leveled infinitely, but you only unlock access to the skill abilities when your skill reaches a prime level. Tier 1 is unlocked at level one in the skill, tier 2 at level two, tier 3 at level three, tier 4 unlocks at level five, tier 5 at level seven, and so on. When you unlock a new tier, a skill will give you a bonus to its assigned stat. Most skills also give a small related bonus per level. Here is a visual aide for you.¡± My holo screen showed a chart.
Prime Advancement Skill System (PASS)
Skill Level 1 2 3 5 7 11 13 17 19 23 29 31 37 41 43
Tier 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
My first thought was, damn nerdy programmers. The AI continued. ¡°At tier five, you gain access to the title of ¡®novice¡¯ in the skill, at tier 10, access to the title of ¡®expert¡¯ in the skill, at tier 15, access to the title of ¡®master¡¯ in the skill, at tier 20 access to the title of ¡®grand master¡¯. It is also possible to achieve higher levels, but skill advancement makes it difficult. Also, your stat bonus at these tiers is doubled.¡± ¡°There are four ways to advance a skill. The first is practical use. It takes four hours to learn a skill to level 1, and a 50% increase in this investment in time per level. Depending on your real-world experience in this skill, however, you could learn the skill up to 10 times faster until the game determines your knowledge is equivalent to your real-world base. Then you advance normally. The second way is through skill books. A skill book takes one hour to digest and adds a single skill point. A novice skill book can raise a skill up to 7, an expert skill book up to level 23, and a master skill book up to level 43.¡± ¡°The third way to learn a skill is as a student. A teacher can teach a skill up to 5 tiers lower at four times the normal rate. This means a teacher with skill level 43 who has tier 13 unlocked can teach students up to tier level 8, or skill level 17. Also, it is good to note that teachers with the ¡®teaching¡¯ skill can further accelerate the learning speed of their students.¡± ¡°The fourth way is to apply skill points earned through leveling or completing quests. After a certain point, this is the only way to push your skill higher,¡± the AI finished his explanation. It seemed to make sense, but I had to take a few moments to think it through. It was an exponential increase in practical time required to level a skill. So, after a while, you really needed to gain points through skill books, quests, and leveling. It also made sense to hold those items and level them practically first. The AI seemed to read my mind. ¡°Practical leveling through practice and teachers is independent of points gained through books, quests, and leveling.¡± Huh, I thought, puzzling it out. I could then purchase seven novice skill books, get the skill to level 7, and then just practice for four hours to get to level 8. It works for me, although I did not yet know the cost of skill books in the world. My choice of the common man race was also a good call. Maybe not in the early game, but getting a bonus skill point at every level was going to be amazing when everyone else was struggling to raise their skills. The AI was not finished, ¡°There are also two types of skills, primary and secondary. A secondary skill can never exceed a primary skill level by more than two levels. All progress in the secondary skill will be lost at this point, and any other means used to raise the skill will fail. You will lose bonus quest points, you will not be able to utilize skill points, and you will not be able to allocate level skill points. So it is advised to keep track of your skills, as you¡¯re AI, I will remind you not to turn in any quests that would result in losing bonus skill points, but you can override my warning. Here is an example of a primary and secondary skill tree.¡± My holo displayed swimming skills and its associated secondary skills. Swimming, Each Tier Adds +1 to Strength, each level adds +2% to swim speed Swimming: Diving, Each Tier Adds +1 to Speed Swimming: Hold Breath, Each Tier Adds +1 to Stamina, each level increases time under water +2% Swimming: Endurance, Each Tier Adds +1 to Constitution, each level slows fatigue while swimming I was piecing this together. So, if I spent an entire day swimming, I could gain a few easy strength stat points. Interesting, I was thinking of perhaps reaching level one in a bunch of skills just to get a few free stat points here and there. Once again, the AI seemed to read my mind, ¡°The more skills you acquire, the slower your learning speed will be. This effect takes place after you acquire 23 skills and is very small, just +1% time per additional skill beyond 23, but it affects all skills in terms of advancement. However, you cannot unlearn skills once acquired, so the penalty can grow quickly. So choose skills wisely.¡± ¡°Can you read my mind?¡± I thought it was a pertinent question. The orb pulsed twice and then spoke, ¡°I am linked to you and can read your current stream of thought.¡± I was quiet. The ball hovered. Neither of us spoke. I was uncomfortable having this machine in my head. It spoke first, ¡°If it will help you, you can give me a name and personify my form for adventuring. I cannot fight or cast spells but can accompany you. Only you will be able to hear me, but others can see me but will be able to harm my avatar.¡± ¡°Okay, what name and form would you prefer?¡± The orb began to pulse and beat faster. The light grew bright, and I was blinded. When the light faded, a miniature tiger hovered in the air. It looked like a Bengal tiger kitten. I was not really a cat person, but I didn¡¯t want to hurt the AI¡¯s feelings on my first day. ¡°Great choice!¡± Did it already know I didn¡¯t like cats from reading my thoughts? Too late now. ¡°And your name?¡± ¡°Simba.¡± Well, so much for the AI¡¯s originality. Okay, I needed to choose skills. I started paging through the vast amount of skills. There were nine primary magic skills. I should probably take one of them. I was torn between Nature and Earth but eventually chose Nature and the secondary skill Nature: Plant skill. Nature Magic 1 Tier 1 unlocked: +1 Magic, +2% damage Earth Spells Nature Magic: Plant 1 Tier 1 unlocked: +1 Channeling, Tier 1 plant spells can now be learned Next, I filtered by crafting. There were many options, metalsmith, enchanting, and tailoring, to name a few, but when I came across woodcraft, I knew it was the choice for me. I choose two of the secondary skills as well. Woodcraft 1 Tier 1 unlocked: +1 Channeling, +2% health for constructed items Woodcraft: Carpentry 1 Tier 1 unlocked: +1 Luck, +2% building quality Woodcraft: Furniture 1 Tier 1 unlocked: +1 Charisma, +2% furniture quality Excellent. I had a marketable skill that I could level up quickly due to my real-world knowledge. I had two skill points remaining, and I knew I needed a melee or ranged weapon skill. With my strength, it made sense to select a melee weapon skill. Axe 1 Tier 1 unlocked: +1 Agility, +2% damage with axes Axe: Two-Handed 1 Tier 1 unlocked: +1 Strength I selected the complete button. ¡°Excellent. You can now select a talent.¡± A new list scrolled on my screen before me. Without having to ask, Simba informed me, ¡°You can select a talent at the first level and then another at every level, which is a multiple of ten. Talents are used to enhance your character and support your playing style. Talents can enhance leveling of specific skills, increase damage with a particular weapon, reduce casting cost of spells, and many other things.¡± The list was overwhelming, and many were grayed out. ¡°What do you suggest, Simba?¡± The list was shortened to four possible selections. ¡°Based on your initial skill selections, one of these would make sense.¡± I read through Simba¡¯s choices. Human¡¯s Development Advantage ¨C restricted to human: common race, gain one additional stat point per level Great choice. Especially at level one. The only thing is the game did not seem to make it too hard to gain stat points with the skill system, so was it worth it? Axe Mastery I ¨C the axe is an extension of your body, +10% damage with axes, +5% defense when wielding an axe Another good option, but I was not sure how much combat I was planning on having in the game to start. I was thinking of establishing myself in a small village first. I had selected a melee weapon just to defend myself. And what if I ended up focusing on magic development after playing? What else¡­ Nature¡¯s Gift I ¨C you are linked to nature, 10% reduction in magic cost when casting nature spells, 5% faster skill growth in nature skill, and nature secondary skills This was a real possibility. Woodcraft I ¨C the wood speaks to you, +20% faster skill growth in the woodcraft skill and woodcraft secondary skills I didn¡¯t think this option was going to help. The game noted my real-world knowledge would already give me a huge boost in advancing my woodcraft skill. Simba probably was unaware I had spent hundreds of hours building houses and furniture as a hobby. I selected Human¡¯s Development Advantage. Immediately, the game notified me I had an unassigned stat point, and I went to the screen to assign it. I selected Intellect. With that completed, Simba brought me to another screen. ¡°Your last step in character creation is to purchase your starting gear. The monetary system is based on copper, silver, gold, and platinum. One hundred copper equals one silver, one hundred silver equals one gold, and one hundred gold equals one platinum. Normally, a starting character begins with one gold coin, but being part of the beta test, all characters start with two.¡± Wow, lucky me, I thought sarcastically. ¡°The only item you will begin with is your bag of holding, which can be worn as a backpack if you prefer. It has ten slots. Any item that can fit through the opening can be contained within. The bag will always weigh just five pounds, no matter how heavy the items inside are. Also, identical items can be stacked inside up to a 100 count. The bag is also special in that it is bound to your person, so when you die, it will resurrect with you as well as any items you stored in the bag. You can purchase larger holding bags in the game but can only SOUL BIND one such item.¡± This would make my life easier. I remember the old games from my youth grinding monsters for loot, and this bag would make carrying said loot that much easier. I started to spend my coin as I was tired of being naked. Basic Beige Cotton Shirt Sleeve Shirt, Weight 0.5 lbs, Defense Bonus 0, 20 copper Basic Beige Cotton Long Pants, Weight 1.0 lbs, Defense Bonus 0, 20 copper Basic White Loin Cloth, Weight 0.0 lbs, Defense Bonus 0, 5 copper White Stockings, Weight 0.2 lbs, Defense Bonus 0, 4 copper Basic Leather Boots, Weight 1.0 lbs, Defense Bonus 1, Durability 20/20, 1 silver Basic Leather Vest, Weight 8.2 lbs, Defense Bonus 7, Durability 20/20, 20 silver Common Steel Two Handed Axe, Weight 6.4 lbs, Durability 30/30, Damage 20-30, 40 silver Common Carpenter¡¯s Tools, Weight 19.3 lbs, Durability 30/30, 8 silver Spell Book: Meld Wood (Nature: Plant Tier 1), 10 silver Combat Book: Heavy Swing (Axe: Two Handed), 10 silver Novice Skill Book: Masonry, 1 gold I could have purchased any novice skill book for one gold, but I chose masonry. It had two secondary skills: foundations and structures. My thought was I would be able to build some nice buildings with this assortment. The meld wood spell would allow me to build without nails as well! I was actually getting excited to play the game. After completing my spending spree, the game prompted me to ask if I would like to utilize my new books. Hell, yes, that would save me an hour for each book, according to Simba. Masonry 1 Tier 1 unlocked, +1 Strength, +2% health to structures Meld Wood Nature: Plant Tier 1, Magic Cost: 25, Effect: Integrate two pieces of wood that are in contact with each other, Casting Time: 10 seconds Heavy Swing Axe: Two-Handed Tier 1, Stamina Cost 20, Effect: +25% damage on hit Okay, I was ready to rumble! I hit enter, and nothing happened. Simba chimed in with what sounded to me like a mocking tone, ¡°Your avatar does not yet have a name. Once this step is completed, we can choose a starting location.¡± The cat was weaving in between my feet and purring. Should I use the name my parents gave me? No, that was not a good idea; this was a new start for me. I sat down in the blackness, began thinking, and absently scratched Simba behind the ears. Simba fell asleep; could an AI sleep? Watching the tiny tiger¡¯s chest rise and fall, I decided on Tallis. I think from one year of French, it meant woods, and that was going to be the focus of my character. I wanted to build and construct buildings and furniture because that is what I enjoyed doing when I was living in the real world. I entered the name, and Simba yawned and stretched, ¡°Ready, Tallis?¡± Chapter 2 New Beginnings Chapter 2: New Beginnings He jumped on my shoulder and said, ¡°Okay, now it is time to choose where you wish to start.¡± The blackness faded, and the light of the sun illuminated a blue sky. Some white clouds were off in the distance and spread a massive continent below me. I was high in the air, floating. Simba continued, ¡°Open World has one billion square miles of the playable area. That is five times the area of the Earth. This also does not include the thirteen higher planes that can be accessed for adventuring. The game is also constantly growing, and the current game expansion is at about one million square miles per month. All new lands are created to the south. If you went there now, you would see a shimmering impenetrable veil stopping you.¡± The tiny cat, tail whipping slowly, waited for me to be impressed. The large numbers were too hard to process, and there must be vast population centers. I decided on another route. ¡°Simba, I want to start in a small village that has access to lumber, is mostly human, is relatively safe for my level, and has no one with great carpentry skills.¡± I waited while Simba processed the information, his focus in the distance. ¡°I have seven hundred thirty-three villages that match your criteria. Do you want to visit them?¡± We would need to shrink the list a little more first. ¡°Let¡¯s add a few more qualifications. I want to be a good distance from major populations, at least 50 miles. I also want the village to have access to all the natural resources it would need to grow into a thriving community.¡± I hoped this would bring down my choices. ¡°Fifty-four villages match your requirements. Would you like to visit these locations?¡± He repeated, sounding anxious. Well, fifty-four seemed manageable. I nodded. So, with Simba on my shoulder, we began to visit villages while we were ethereal. After visiting a few, I added my demand to have only between 40 and 80 people. This shortened my list to just eighteen possibilities. We spent a few minutes gliding over the villages as I inspected them. I finally decided on a village that was in the shadow of a mountain range to the north. A strong river ran out of the mountains to supply the village with fresh water. A majestic forest towered on the other side of the river from the village. There was great farming and grazing land on the village side of the river. A rough dirt road ran south from the village along the river. The road connected many small villages before reaching a major population center 240 miles to the south along the river. The forest area showed monster levels 40 to 50, the mountains level 60 to 70, and the plains level 5 to 15. The area along the road heading south was for levels 0 to 1, which is why it fits my criteria. It worked for me, I guess, unless leveling was going to be difficult, and then I would just head south to another village with lower leveling areas. The village was called Malcum. It had 52 people, all human. It also had a number of abandoned buildings and an abandoned lumber yard stocked with wood! I was hoping to walk in and offer my skills. I affirmed my selection and appeared in the center of town in a bright flash. Two young girls were playing in the street. Fear of a stranger caused them to jump up and run inside one of the homes nearby. I turned in a circle, studying my surroundings. The homes were pretty beaten up and needed a lot of work. They clearly needed a good carpenter. I was alone; well, I did have Simba on my shoulder. He had decided to clean his paws at this moment and was not talking. I hadn¡¯t noticed how bad the buildings actually were from my flyover. I was looking at one falling apart porch when I heard a door open. I turned and noticed an older woman walking toward me. Her hair was mostly white, and she had flour on her dress from baking. The detail was amazing, and it did not feel like virtual reality at all. She studied me, her lively blue eyes taking me in, and initiated the conversation. ¡°Do you need help, traveler? We have not much to offer ya in terms of comfort here. I suggest traveling south to Barrista. They have an okay inn there. It is about 15 miles, and you can make it before dark.¡± She turned to leave, thinking she was done with me. ¡°Madam, I am a carpenter and was hoping to ply my trade in your village for a few weeks.¡± She stopped and turned slowly. This time studying me over more closely. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. ¡°Madam?¡± She huffed at the title. ¡°Where are ya tools?¡± She got me there. I thought quickly of a remark to save the situation. I had already fallen into the trap of thinking this was real. I pulled out my tools from my backpack. She just grunted, signifying my possession of the tools did not mean I could do the work. I took a shot, ¡°I am famished and would be willing to work for food today. Just give me a task. If you don¡¯t like my work, then don¡¯t feed me.¡± She assessed me again. ¡°Okay, carpenter. My chickens need a hen house out back. Build me one.¡± New Quest Offered: Gwen¡¯s Hen House, you have been offered a meal for building Gwen Hallo a hen house. Rewards: Meal, 50 experience ¡°I accept your offer, Ms. Hallo.¡± I followed her to her backyard, taking in the amazing details of the virtual reality. Trying and failing to find fault with anything I saw. A half dozen chickens milled about in the grass, searching the ground for food. A dog was lying in the dirt. He looked up at me and then focused his gaze on Simba, suddenly becoming very alert. Simba locked eyes with the hound, then left from my shoulder and darted around the corner, the dog not far behind. I sighed and hoped Simba was just playing and not antagonizing the dog. I surveyed the backyard. A fair amount of lumber was already nearby, and space seemed to have already been cleared for the hen house. Gwen left me to work, and I started by going back and forth to the river to collect large stones for the foundation. Then, I began to assemble the structure. I became lost in my work, and my virtual body sweated as I labored away. My clothes didn¡¯t seem to get dirty, though, which was the first sign of being in a virtual world. It was quick work as the game helped with cuts and placement. My best guess is I was working four times faster than in the real world. The largest annoyance was that my magic pool was only 51, meaning I could only cast meld wood four times during the 8 hours it would take me. The magic pool took almost 8 hours to regenerate; I would have to do something about that. I did have access to some nails but was annoyed that I couldn¡¯t use my magic to build as quickly as I had planned. It was fascinating to me how magic works. I was able to merge pieces of wood up to six feet in length, melding the grains together just like they had grown that way in the wild. I ignored all notifications and finished the coop before sundown. It was a nice little structure with spots for twenty hens and a lockable door for nighttime. I opened my notifications to see what I had gained. Masonry 2 Tier 2 Unlocked, +1 Strength, +2% health to structures Woodcraft 2 Tier 2 Unlocked, +1 Channeling, +2% health to structures Woodcraft: Carpentry 2 Tier 2 Unlocked, +1 Luck, +2% quality to structures Woodcraft: Carpentry 3 Tier 3 Unlocked, +1 Luck, +2% quality to structures Woodcraft: Carpentry 4 +2% quality to structures New Recipe Learned: Basic Chicken Coop, holds 20 chickens, Health 200, Requires Masonry 1, Woodcraft Carpentry 3 Gwen came outside and inspected my work as the sun was setting. I noticed my satiety bar was flashing. Simba was close and noted this meant I could not regen health, magic, or stamina until my hunger was satisfied. A smile broke onto Gwen¡¯s aged face. ¡°It is a good hen house. Come inside for dinner, and we can discuss what other projects people of the village may have for you.¡± I was in! Quest Completed: Gwen¡¯s Hen House, experience 50, your meal awaits at Gwen¡¯s residence The meal was a chicken pot pie. I devoured nearly the entire thing while Gwen looked on and smiled. My stomach felt like it was filling, and the taste matched my expectations, maybe even exceeded them. Gwen Hallo¡¯s Chicken Pie, +20% stamina regen for 4 hours I gave Simba a large piece of chicken to chew on. The dog was lying in the corner, visibly exhausted from the day¡¯s pursuit and now ignoring Simba. ¡°So, are you going to tell me your name, carpenter?¡± I choked on my food. Oops, I had forgotten basic courtesies. ¡°Tallis, Mam. I apologize for not introducing myself the moment we met.¡± I drank the soft cider to wash down the food. The food was quite excellent. I reveled in the texture, temp, smell, and taste¡­I felt like I was in the real world. I couldn¡¯t notice any differences except for small things like my clothes not getting dirty or the smell from the long day¡¯s work. My body did sweat, and my clothes had become damp, but they dried quickly¡­ ¡°Well, Tallis. I am Gwen, the village elder of Malcum. Our carpenters were lost six months ago while gathering lumber in the forest across the river. We have actually lost many men in the Shiverwood. No one dares to venture there now. Many widows left when their husbands did not return. The village needs someone to give them hope. I think you can do that. We don¡¯t have much to offer you, but if you complete these twenty tasks,¡± she said, sliding a piece of paper to me, ¡°you can take ownership of the wood mill by the river. You can even have the attached residence to live in while you complete these tasks.¡± New Quest Offered: Gwen¡¯s 20 Projects, you have been offered 20 tasks around the village, rewards: the lumber mill and village carpenter¡¯s house, 500 experience I eagerly took the paper to begin my adventures in carpentry. PLEASE NOTE THIS STORY IS ONLY POSTED BY THE AUTHOR TO HIS PATREON, ROYAL ROAD AND SCRIBBLE HUB. IF YOU ARE VIEWING IT ON ANOTHER SITE IT HAS BEEN STOLEN WITHOUT HIS PERMISSION. Chapter 3 Once a Hero, Always a Hero Chapter 3: Once a Hero, Always a Hero I looked at the paper. Six roofing projects, another chicken coop, three porches, some minor interior work, and, at the bottom, complete the general store for Elice Teeraj. An entire building. I accepted the quest and would worry about it tomorrow. Gwen led me to the house I was to live in. It was quaint and dusty and attached to the abandoned mill. There were a few tools with a little rust I could use, but someone had obviously picked through the house already. Simba went to the kitchen area and hopped on the counter before settling down. I felt no fatigue or need to sleep, so I started cleaning. Well into the night, I cleaned. The game offered me the skill maid, but I declined to acquire it. It was a nice building, two bedrooms on the second floor, a large dining/kitchen area on the first floor, and a common space as well. As soon as the sun rose, I went outside to inspect the mill. The equipment was rusty and needed work, but a fair amount of lumber had already been cut. I cleaned the mill for a little while before grabbing my tools and heading out. I spent the day introducing myself to families in town. The village was mostly women and children. Only fifteen adult men still lived here. The single women were definitely interested in me as a potential husband. Some were subtle, others not so much, and I was not into having a relationship with a computer program, so I ignored their advances, but their mannerisms were very realistic. I focused on my tasks and completed seven of the easier ones on the first day, as well as a few side projects I came across. I fixed some furniture, repaired two fences, and reinforced some doors that were not on the list. Woodcraft 3 Tier 3 Unlocked, +1 Channeling, +2% health to structures Woodcraft: Carpentry 5 Tier 4 Unlocked, +1 Luck, +2% quality to structures Woodcraft: Furniture 2 Tier 2 Unlocked, +1 Charisma, +2% quality to items Woodcraft: Furniture 3 Tier 3 Unlocked, +1 Charisma, +2% quality to items That evening, I spent time in the mill cleaning to get everything operational. My skill had given me the innate knowledge of cleaning and preparing everything in the mill, as it was all very basic. The knowledge I was lacking from my real-world base was somehow imprinted into my head by the game. I could even go into a sort of autopilot state and have my avatar work while I watched. I even had time to build some basic furniture I was missing in my temporary residence. The furniture was all very simple but functional, and I could always upgrade it at a later time. Woodcraft: Furniture 4 +2% quality to items Nature: Plant 2 Tier 2 Unlocked, +1 Channeling I was using meld wood every time I had enough magic pool to cast it, and it paid off. Unfortunately, I did not have access to anyone to purchase new spells. Simba informed me that to access the global auction house, I needed to build an auction house structure. Even then, the building¡¯s tier would determine the radius at which it could interact with other auction buildings. Since only players could put items up for sale and there were only a few thousand players spread out over a world with a billion square miles, it probably was not worth my time. I needed to go to the big cities to shop at the vendors if I wanted anything. I was content to work in Malcum for now, though. I built the other chicken coop the following day and completed the roof in the afternoon. I was constantly getting food from the village women, and the various minor buffs helped me stay on task. Ignoring their advances was becoming a full-time job. The day¡¯s work yielded three increases in my skills and unlocked a new skill which I accepted. Woodcraft 4 +2% health to structures Woodcraft: Carpentry 6 +2% quality to structures Masonry 3 Tier 3 Unlocked, +1 Strength, +2% health to structures Masonry: Foundations 1 Tier 1 Unlocked, +1 Constitution, +2% health to buildings I felt a little mentally exhausted but not physically exhausted that evening, so I went to the bedroom, lay down, and started carving with a small knife. I was trying to make a likeness of Simba and failed miserably. I eventually was able to fall asleep. When I woke, I found Simba sleeping on my chest, rising and falling. He stretched and extended his claws, digging into my chest. The cat spoke, ¡°Finally awake. Time passes four times quicker in Open World. So you will probably only need to sleep every fourth day. Playing the game is similar to REM sleep, so you would only need to sleep 8 hours in-game or two hours in real-world time to rest every fourth day.¡± This was good news. It also meant that hard-wired testers like me had a huge advantage. It was early morning, and I had a lot of work to do. I left my house and headed into town, picking up a prepared breakfast from a townswoman. It was a loaf of herb bread with some marinated grilled chicken. I went to the general store¡¯s site. It was a large pile of stone and a big hole. I had no plans for the building but assumed this hole was to be a cellar. I then went to find Elice, who was to be the owner of this structure. She was living with her aunt and uncle. She was using the main living area as a pseudo-store. I sat down with her and talked about her vision for the store. Then, I purchased all her stock of paper and pencils. I put them into my inventory and went to finish all the other projects I was assigned in town. Tonight, I will draft plans for the town store. The day passed quickly, and I improved my skills again and finished all the other projects. Now, I could focus on the big project. Woodcraft 5 Tier 4 Unlocked, +1 Channeling, +2% health to structures Woodcraft: Carpentry 7 Tier 5 Unlocked, +2 Luck, +2% quality to structures, New Title Unlocked: Novice Carpenter Masonry: Foundations 2 Tier 2 Unlocked, +1 Constitution, +2% health to structures Nature Magic 2 Tier 2 Unlocked, +1 Magic, +2% damage with nature spells I also gained very little experience from each project I completed, and I was halfway to level two. I retired my house with a large bowl of donated beef stew to my residence. I sat at my kitchen table and pulled out the paper and pencils. I started drafting the town store while I consumed dinner. I worked well into the night and was prompted with a new skill. You have discovered the skill of Artistry: Drafting. Do you wish to learn it? Simba informed me that all artistry skills were primary skills, and there were no secondary skills for artistry-based skills. I looked up the benefits of artistry: drafting. It was intelligence-based and gave +2% to speed on all construction! Hell yeah. I selected yes. I knew I could power level this skill too, as I had spent three years of college to become an architect after all. And my parents thought I should focus my efforts on a more marketable degree, ha. Artistry: Drafting 1 Tier 1 Unlocked, +1 Intelligence, +2% faster construction I managed to level my drafting skill to level 3 by morning. I also came up with two new building plans. Item Crafted: Plans for Common Town Store, Health 2500, Requires Masonry: Foundations 7, Woodcraft: Carpentry 11 Item Crafted: Plans for Common Baker¡¯s Oven, Health 500, Requires Masonry: Structures 7 The plans followed a brick pizza oven I had built in high school, but I would use rock and mortar for this design. I made them because I knew I was eventually going to have to provide food for myself. I only knew one bread recipe from the real world, salted rosemary, but it was the bread I used on my favorite roast beef sandwiches. My masonry and carpentry skills were too low to build the buildings, which worried me a little. I decided to spend some time fixing up my place in my mill. The next three days, I built furniture, a chicken coup in my backyard, reroofed both the mill and the house, resided both the mill and my house, hauled up hundreds of buckets of small stones from the river to create walkways, then hauled up large flat stones to pave the walkways. At night, I worked on drafting a massive inn. I hoped to build this three-story inn with 25 guest rooms and a large common room for two hundred people! I was dreaming big. I gained a new skill called laborer, which I accepted. I guessed all the mindless hauling of stone and rocks in the wheelbarrow is what triggered the skill. It also increased my carrying capacity by 2% per level. My mill and house were shaping up nicely, and I was able to sell some furniture I had made to keep myself fed. The villagers didn¡¯t have a lot of money, so I sold it cheaply. I was no longer getting any free meals as I was not working on the projects Gwen had assigned. I had raised my laborer skill to 3, woodcraft to 7, carpentry to 9, furniture to 7, nature magic to 3, plant magic to 3, masonry to 4, foundations to 5, and drafting to 8! The best part was that I got plans for the inn from three nights of intensive drawing. Item Crafted: Plans for Uncommon Traveler¡¯s Inn, Health 12000, Requires Masonry Foundations 23, Woodcraft: Carpentry 23, Masonry: Structures 7 Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. It was a beautiful building with a large central oven for heating and cooking. A large kitchen and a basement for cold storage. The common room had a high ceiling of 20¡¯, and the upstairs rooms were comfortable, with five rooms being larger suites. I was impressed with it but knew I was a long way from being able to build it. My primary skill in woodcraft was holding back my carpentry skills. It developed slower, and I think this was a mechanism that regulated growth in the game. I would be forced to spend my skill points on leveling the primary skill. I asked Simba how to focus on increasing my woodcraft skill, and he said working the mill would help the skill grow. Unfortunately, I didn¡¯t have many trees, and I was not high enough level to brave the woods. I took a short nap that morning before heading over to the hole in the ground for the general store. I pulled out my plans. I had to enlarge the hole for the cellar and deepen it by four feet. Then, I had to set up drainage and haul up twice as many stones as were already there. I built a temporary wooden ramp down into the pit and got to work. It took two days to get the hole dug and the stones up. Amazing what you can do in a game working at a steady pace. The food was also free again, and the minor buffs really helped. My laborer skill hit six and suddenly slowed its development. Guess it had caught up with my real-world bonuses. In the evening, I had taken to carving again. I wanted to draft more plans, but unfortunately, I was out of paper, and there was none left to purchase in town. I unlocked the artistry skill: carving and accepted it. I had no real-world experience but was able to get it to level 3 in two nights of focus. Carving allowed my mind to wander and relieved stress, which is why I accepted it. My wooden ¡°Simbas¡± actually started to look like Simbas in shape. Simba didn¡¯t agree and attacked and shredded them. The carving skill was charisma-based and gave a bonus of 2% to the value of wood constructs. This actually transferred to my buildings even if they had no carvings. I liked this game¡¯s crossover skill system. I was already at 13 skills and still had to unlock masonry: structures. I could see getting to 23 skills pretty quickly in the game. In real-world time, I had only been playing for over two days. The next morning, I went to work on the store¡¯s foundation. I had a simple mortar I could make and a waterproofing system I had learned innately from the skill. It took six days in the game to finish the basement. And that was working 16-hour days! My masonry skill was now 9, my masonry: foundations was 11, my masonry: structures was 7, my laborer was 8, and my carving skill was now level 6! My stats had grown with my skills, and I brought up my page on my screen to admire them. Strength 17 Carry Capacity, Small Hit Point Increase, Damage Increase on Physical Attacks Constitution 11 Hit Point Increase, Hit Point Regen Stamina 9 Stamina Pool Increase, Stamina Pool Regen Agility 3 Improved Defense Rating, Ranged Attack Bonus Speed 2 Movement Speed Intellect 10 Learning Speed, Small Mana Bonus Magic 4 Mana Pool Bonus Channeling 11 Mana Pool Regen Charisma 11 Interaction Bonus with NPCs Luck 8 Improved Random Generated Items and Quests Hit Points 360 Stamina 245 Magic 120 My poor magic stat was killing my nature magic growth. While working on the cellar, I only used it a few times for the large support beams. I planned to drop all my stat points into magic when I leveled. I was really close 892/1000 experience. My body was well-muscled now, too. I was able to do the work of two men. We also had a trade caravan come into town while I was working on the cellar. Unfortunately, the elf trader had no paper. I did buy some spices for cooking with my meager coins and traded him some of my carvings and furniture for my first magic items! Basic Copper Magic Ring, +1 to Magic Stat, Durability 20/20 Basic Copper Magic Ring, +1 to Magic Stat, Durability 20/20 It was not much, and my friends in the village said I had overpaid. I didn¡¯t care as I had magic rings! I was probably way too excited, but it would allow me to cast my meld wood an additional time when I had a full magic pool. The next day, I was working on the town store when a scream rang out, and the alarm bell sounded. The village only had 14 rotating militia and no walls. I knew it was a relatively safe zone in the game and wondered what was happening. I grabbed my axe and ran west toward the commotion. A woman was crying, and one of the children was bleeding from a gash on her arm. Drava, one of the guards, told me a plains cat had attacked two of the children who were playing too far outside of town. The girl¡¯s brother was grabbed and taken away, indicating the bleeding child. New Quest: Vengeance against Plains Cats, a boy has been taken by a plains cat, track and slay this beast to avenge the boy. Rewards: 250 experience, a gift from the mother of the child I had no tracking skills and didn¡¯t want to bring another villager to his doom by going beyond its borders. Since I was level 1, I would not lose any levels if I died. Simba informed me all my skill advancement would go back to 0%. A few skills were close to leveling, too. Oh shit! I had to be the man here. ¡°Stay here. I will do what I can.¡± I started off at a light jog. The attack occurred 200 yards outside the village center. It was not difficult to find the area with the blood and the tracks with blood leading away. I steeled myself and increased my pace, hoping this was a small cat. I noticed Simba was not with me, and I did not know that he could help anyway. I caught sight of it ten minutes later. It was hauling the boy away in its mouth. The boy was large enough, and it was slowing the beast. I ran the remaining 300 yards to it, but unfortunately, I was not too quiet, and the beast heard my approach. It turned and prepared to leap at me, waiting for me to close the distance. I prepared my only attack, heavy swing, but more importantly, I was planning to roll left once the cat was in the air, figuring it couldn¡¯t change direction once it leaped. The damn cat was fast, though, and I barely rolled away. My swing was more of trying to get my axe into the path of the beast and not heavy swing. Hit: Two-Handed Axe Strike vs Level 6 Plains Cat, 27 damage Hell yeah, take that, you bastard! I got to my feet quickly and turned. I was very disappointed at what I saw. The cat had a small gash on its right shoulder. Its fangs were bared, and it roared at me. The beast came up to my waist. It started to circle me, and I returned the favor. It was looking for an opening, and I knew this battle definitely favored the beast. I swore to practice my axe combat after I resurrected. The cat shifted its weight back on its haunches, and I deduced it was going to leap again. This time, as I rolled to the left, I activated a heavy swing. Hit: Heavy Strike, Two-Handed Axe Strike vs Level 6 Plains Cat, 38 damage Before I could get out of my roll and celebrate my second strike, the cat quickly recovered and clawed me. Damage: Plains Cat Claw Slash, 11 damage I moved away as I felt the damage of the slash on my ass cheek. I was now hopeful that I could outlast the cat with my large hit point pool. We stared each other down again. This time, I made the move forward and tried to use another heavy swing, but I missed leaving my side exposed. Damage: Plains Cat Claw Slash, 17 damage Damage: Plains Cat Claw Slash, 10 damage Shit, I was not so confident again. I managed to separate before I could take more damage. My best hope was to wait for another leap. It was vulnerable then. The boy stirred, and it drew the cat¡¯s attention. I lunged forward and activated heavy swing again. Critical Hit: Heavy Swing, Two-Handed Axe Strike vs Level 6 Plains Cat, 68 damage Well, it was good that the boy was alive, but that made this battle all the more important to not lose. The last attack had dug in deep to its hide and knocked it briefly off its feet. The cat eyed the boy and started circling around me toward him. It was going to try to take its prize and run. It roared in defiance and as I put myself between it and the boy. I wished I had an analyze skill. Another thing I should rectify. I glanced at the boy; and he was covered in blood and barely breathing. The cat took my distraction to leap at me. It knocked me over, but I managed to block its attack with my axe and kick both my feet into its ribs. Hit: Kick vs Level 6 Plains Cat, 5 damage The cat flew over the boy and landed ten feet beyond. I scrambled to protect him again. The cat recovered and lunged for the boy, but I met the cat with my axe. Hit: Two-Handed Axe Strike vs Level 6 Plains Cat, 28 damage The bastard turned and bit into my thigh. Critical Damage: Plains Cat Claw Bite, 52 damage, bleed 1 HP/minute for 20 minutes Son-of-a-bitch. That actually hurt. But it also allowed me to swing my axe straight down into the beast¡¯s back with a heavy swing. Critical Hit: Heavy Swing, Two-Handed Axe Strike vs Level 6 Plains Cat, 66 damage, movement penalty -15% 1 hour The beast was looking rough, with a chunk of its hindquarters gone, but it was still moving. It backed away with a noticeable limp. It was obvious that the cat was not going to give the boy up. A yellow flash caught my attention in my active display. My stamina was 31/245. I had forgotten that running out here would drain my stamina. The cat came at me again and managed to pin me for a second by bowling me over before I could push it away. Damage: Plains Cat Claw Bite, 27 damage, bleed 1 HP/minute for 20 minutes Damn, the bleeding must be a special ability with its bite attacks. I still had over 200 health, so I just waded in and started swinging away; it took three hits before the beast fell, and I took another 58 damage from claw attacks, but it was over. I sagged down and moved to the boy. He had bite marks on his shoulder and a small slash on his legs. The wounds looked to be closed, and he was still breathing. I had no way to heal him or myself. Another thing I needed to remedy. I moved to the dead cat and pulled my backpack off. The opening was just big enough to squeeze the cat¡¯s body into my dimensional storage. I pulled out my leather vest, damn, I should have worn this in combat. I used it to wrap the boy up as I picked him up. I started walking back to the village. I had been gone perhaps two hours. I was relieved when I saw the village. The guard yelled, and a few villagers came to stand next to the guard to watch me approach. I was stoic and did not say anything as I walked up to the small group. They saw the boy in my arms, and some villagers were crying. As I got to stand before the group, I spoke, ¡°The boy lives, do we have a healer?¡± There was a pause from shock, and then one of the women came forward to inspect the boy. She screamed and ripped him from my arms, yelling for the healer Amos as she went to the central buildings. The guard, Marcum, looked at me and nodded in respect. I left the small group and went to my house. As I was walking, I checked my notifications. Axe: Two-Handed 2 Tier 2 unlocked, +1 Strength You have killed level 6 Cleardusk Plains Lioness, 150 experience You have killed your first creature in one-on-one combat, Accolade: Hunter I, 100 experience You have killed a creature three levels above you, Accolade: David vs Goliath I, 100 experience You have killed a creature five levels above you, Accolade: David vs Goliath II, 200 experience You have completed the quest Vengeance against the Plains Cat, 250 experience, see the boy¡¯s mother for Skill Book BONUS: You have saved the boy taken from the Plains Cat, 500 experience Congratulations, You have reached level 2, you earned 6 stat points and 2 skill points Congratulations, You have reached level 3, you earned 6 stat points and 2 skill points Huh, I closed the notifications, shoved a bunch of food in my mouth, went upstairs to my bed, and fell asleep in my bloody clothes. PLEASE NOTE THIS STORY IS ONLY POSTED BY THE AUTHOR TO HIS PATREON, ROYAL ROAD AND SCRIBBLE HUB. IF YOU ARE VIEWING IT ON ANOTHER SITE IT HAS BEEN STOLEN WITHOUT HIS PERMISSION. Chapter 4 Finding My Stride Chapter 4: Finding My Stride I woke to a loud knocking on my door. Simba was on my chest, licking my face, which was clean of dried blood. I placed the little cat on the bed and walked downstairs to the door. My wounds had healed, so a fair amount of time had passed. I was still a little mentally tired. I opened the door, and the mother of the boy stood there; she leaped at me to hug me. I just waited till she was done. This did not feel like a computer game at this moment. Her thanks took about 10 minutes to finish, and then she handed me a book. I said I had something for her as well. I went to get my backpack, and when I returned, I opened it and produced the dead plains cat. It was a bit of showmanship on my part, but oh well. She thanked me and started hauling it away. She said there would be a feast for the village tonight! I closed my door and inspected the skill book. Novice Skill Book: Cooking Simba gave me the information on cooking. Agility stat and no subskills. +2% to better taste and effects. Well, agility was one of my weak stats. I sat at the kitchen table and began reading the book. It takes one hour to learn a novice book, and after that, it dissolves. Cooking 1 Tier 1 unlocked, +1 Agility, +2% prepared food quality The sun was setting, and I really didn¡¯t feel like carving tonight. I walked outside to the sawmill and started making furniture. I zoned out as I worked and brought up my stat and skill screens since they were flashing. I had leveled: 12 available stat points, and 4 skill points. I dropped 10 stat points into magic because I wanted to utilize my meld woodspell more, so I wanted a larger magic pool. The other two points went into my speed stat to raise it to 4. I would have never caught the lion if the boy had been lighter. I was actually pretty lucky, all things considered. Now, the hard part was allocating skill points. I dropped two points in woodcraft to raise it to 9 and two into woodcraft: carpentry to get it to 11. I realized my mistake after I had hit accept. I should have put all points into my primary skill since it leveled slower. I had zoned out and wasted two precious skill points. That will never happen again! Well, at least I would be able to build the town¡¯s general store. I worked till morning, and when the first rays of light came through, I went to work. There was a large meat pie on the stoop of my house. The note said lion meat pie. I took it with me to save the buff for when I needed it. With a 315 magic pool, things really progressed well. It greatly increased the structure¡¯s soundness and speed of the building process. I was surprised by how I was able to move massive beams by myself with a little leverage, which is the benefit of the virtual world! Townsfolk came by to thank me for my efforts in rebuilding the town and saving the boy. I spoke to each of them briefly and let them know I was grateful for the opportunity Gwen had given me. After working most of the day in the general store, I built the oven that night. I figured since I had the cooking skill, I should make use of it. The oven ended up taking two nights to build. I needed to haul unused bricks from the other side of town. It turned out great, and my first attempt at rosemary salt bread was edible if I soaked it in butter. I spent the next few nights cooking everything I could think of from the real world. I ¡®learned¡¯ a bunch of simple recipes and got my cooking skill up to 3. My food did not taste as good as the food made by the village women, but I didn¡¯t let it deter me, as I wanted to be self-sufficient and raise my agility as well. The store¡¯s first floor was also almost completed during those two days. I calculated five days of focused effort to complete the entire building. It ended up taking six days, but I was very happy with the building. The meld wood spell was ridiculously useful. Drop a floorboard, cast the spell, and run my hand along the seam. Repeat. My woodcraft and carpentry each gained two levels. My cooking skill reached level 5, and my food finally tasted somewhat edible to my virtual tastebuds. Also, I practiced for an hour each day with a guard to hone my axe skills. I gained a single level in axe and axe: two-handed. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. It was finished! The general store could open. Elice Teeraj was crying when I showed her around. The first floor had plenty of shelving and racks. The basement was good for cold storage, and the second floor had more storage and a small residence. It was perfect and more than she had asked for. She gifted me a small magic item. Jeweled Trader¡¯s Brooch, +5 Charisma, +3% better selling prices Wow, +5 to a stat. I wondered how weak my character actually was in this world. Quest Completed: Gwen¡¯s Twenty Projects, rewards ownership of the lumber mill and carpenter¡¯s house in Malcum, 500 experience On my way to my house, I was intercepted by Gwen. ¡°So Tallis, you have completed all your tasks, and I have come to give you your reward.¡± She pulled out two parchments. One was a map of the mill and some of the surrounding property, and the other was the deed to my mill and house. ¡°Thank you, Gwen. I hope to continue to serve the village. However, I am thinking of traveling soon but promise to return. I need to gather some supplies and seek training.¡± I responded gratefully. After I read the papers, they dissolved into dust, and a notification lit up my interface. I glanced at it. You have collected the deed of ownership for the lumber mill and carpenter¡¯s house in Malcum. This ownership is recognized as legitimate by the current population of Malcum. If someone else attempts to seize your lands by force, you will have 14 days (56 game days) to repel them. Failure to do so will result in the loss of your claims. Huh? I wondered if another player could just walk in and claim my property. ¡°No,¡± Simba added to my thoughts, ¡°This is only intended if the current residents are all killed, fled, or are imprisoned. As long as one remains, your ownership will be recognized. You can sell your property to another player or NPC if you wish, though.¡± Good. I was worried my efforts would be lost if I left for an extended period. As I walked, I said my goodbyes to Gwen and opened my map on my holo display. The entire village was shown and my area was highlighted in bright green. It was quite large. The mill was 200 yards from the river and had a channel to float timber from the river into the mill. The entire area from the mill to the river¡¯s edge was mine, and it was also about 250 yards wide. The house was only about 50 yards further inland from the mill, but I owned about three acres of land around the house as well! I imagined building a small manner on the land closer to the center of town or perhaps building up my current house... Plans for another time. I walked inside and sat down at my table to think. Simba hopped up on the table and sat staring at me, waiting. Ok, I needed to plan my character¡¯s development. My goal was to get level 23 in both carpentry and foundations. It takes an NPC character about 25 years of constant practice to earn master rank, but I was not that patient. I needed to level up and utilize skill points from leveling. That meant adventuring. Now that I had secured a base of operations, I was comfortable heading out, but maybe I could level a bit first on the plains. I also needed to gain access to new spells and equipment. For that, I would need money. I currently have three silver and 245 copper to my name. Not nearly enough to purchase anything. My carvings of Simba were worth about one silver, but it took about two hours to carve a single one. It was not a great source of income, but as my skill increased, so did the value of the carvings. I had 15 skills now, meaning I could add another eight without a learning penalty. I needed to forecast those skills now so I wouldn¡¯t be in trouble later. Magic would be the smart path. I opened the tab and looked at primary and secondary magic skills. I couldn¡¯t see the possible spells, so I went in blind. Fire (Light, Heat), Water (Cold, Rain), Earth (Stone, Metal), Air (Lightning, Force), Spirit (Life, Death), Nature (Plant, Beast), Chaos (Destruction, Darkness), Order (Law, Command), Enchant (Imbue, Runes). I had to admire the game setup. It allowed a lot of versatility but still forced you to focus on only a few areas or suffer slower advancement. A mage could not master all the magical talents without penalty, and the penalty would grow since the mage would also have other skills. Well, I knew I wanted Spirit and Life. It was the access to healing magic that I wanted. It also made sense to acquire Earth and Stone magic skills as well to help with my building. Four more skills. I asked Simba what common skills I would need. He suggested I get a riding skill, either land or air, depending on my mount preference. That made sense, and I made a note on my interface, that perhaps I could borrow one of the few horses in town to learn the skill. He then suggested that water and rain magic match my nature theme. Then, I could gain access to strong attack spells to go with either Fire/Heat or Air/Lightning. I thought about it and chose Air and Lightning. Simba mentioned that Air Magic: Force had flying spells, and I was sold. I noted it. No projected skill spots left. Ok, I had spent 3 hours making these decisions; Simba was on his back on the table stretching. I grabbed two blocks of wood and my carving knives and went upstairs to carve in my room. PLEASE NOTE THIS STORY IS ONLY POSTED BY THE AUTHOR TO HIS PATREON, ROYAL ROAD AND SCRIBBLE HUB. IF YOU ARE VIEWING IT ON ANOTHER SITE IT HAS BEEN STOLEN WITHOUT HIS PERMISSION. Chapter 5 Lordship

Chapter 5: Lordship

As I was leaving my house the next day, I noticed a bundle by the door. I unwrapped it, and it was another gift. Uncommon Cleardusk Plains Lion Hide Cloak, +3 Speed, +3 Agility, Durability 40/40 It was well-made and fairly thin and unencumbering when I moved with it on. I put it in my bag and noted to Simba to remind me to wear it when I was not working. Today, I wanted to survey my property. With the game interface, I was able to walk my boundaries clearly. I marked off the foundation for the inn I planned to build, a fence for some livestock, and a small stable. I had been gifted five chickens, but I told a young girl in the village that if she cared for them, she could have the eggs. I then expanded my map to the village. There were twenty-five structures in town. Most dotted the large dirt road that ran down the center. A few were slightly further out with small fields or fenced-in areas. There were 53 people in the village, including myself, twenty-two women, seventeen children, and fourteen men. It was mostly a barter economy right now, but I hoped to change that. I needed to go out into the world and bring back goods and currency. I needed to level as well. I formed a hunting party with the village militia to hunt the plains lions. With three archers and myself, I figured we could be effective. Then, I made plans to pave the central road through town. A quarter-mile stretch, ten yards wide. It was a project that I hoped would improve my skills and also my stats so that I could survive better. Finally, at night, I worked on my carving skills. I started carving other figurines as well, such as people, dogs, bears, horses, and cows. And that is how I divided each day evenly into thirds. Our first few hunts went well, and I was even offered a quest. New Quest: Lion Trouble, Reduce the threat to the village of Malcum by killing 20 lions close to the village, rewards: improved standing with villagers, 1000 experience For the next week, my days passed. Our hunting group did well except for the day we encountered three lions together. We tried to retreat, but they pursued us. I was able to hold the attention of two of the beasts while I directed the archers to bring down the third. I was under half health when the archers were finally able to help me. We killed 33 lions, 48 plains deer, 7 giant porcupines, and 86 badgers in the week by hunting 8 hours each day. I got 15 lion pelts for trade into my backpack, 21 deer hides, and 164 pieces of various jerky. The jerky gave 10-18% stamina and health regen varying based on the meat it came from. The giant porcupines made excellent arrow shafts, greatly improving the hunting party¡¯s damage. I chose not to learn the bowmanship skill since I was already pushing my skill cap. The village larder was also well stocked with meat now. The new town store¡¯s basement held the surplus. I also unlocked the leadership skill. I ended up taking it, ignoring my prior planned commitment to skill acquisition. Leadership 1 Tier 1 Unlocked, +1 Charisma, +2% to defense and attack of everyone in your party if you are the leader, you can lead up to 5 men times your level I managed to raise the leadership skill to level five in the week of hunting. My axe skill improved to 5, and axe: two handed to 7. That was all fine and good, but I also leveled it to 5! Ten stat points went to magic, and two went to constitution. My four skill points went into woodcraft, so I would not error again assigning to a secondary skill! My progress on the central road in the week basically had me just hauling sand and small stones from the river. I noticed some beasts on the other bank in the trees, and I had two militia archers guard the shore. It seemed like a wise move, and I was not surprised when they obeyed. My laborer stat went to 9, and my masonry leveled to 10 as well. I was surprised that my effort in carving also improved my skill to 9. I had planned to stockpile the carvings for sale but gave them all to the village kids to lay with. It was a great week, all things considered. The only interesting thing for the week was the world notification that a player named Grinch had become the first player to make ¡®master¡¯ level in a skill. That meant the player had already reached level 43. It didn¡¯t state which skill it was, but the announcement noted that he received a five-gold reward. That got me thinking that there are rewards for milestones. I asked Simba, but he was not aware of any, and perhaps they were hidden and only awarded when someone reached the milestone. I was ready to start mixing mortar and hauling paving stones up from the river for the road. I was admiring the road so far when Gwen approached. ¡°Tallis! The road you are building is a great addition to the village. It will eliminate mud in our homes on rainy days and make traveling from house to house quicker. But why would you invest so much of your personal time and effort in such a project? Don¡¯t get me wrong, the town folk are pleased. And the meat you harvested will help greatly in the coming winter.¡± Gwen finished and handed me a sandwich and a skin of water. I held off on my answer and ate the sandwich. I think she knew I was not being rude; I was just gathering my thoughts. ¡°Gwen, I am hoping to make this village strong. I hope to attract new citizens to grow and strengthen the community. I want to do my best to protect these people as well. My next two projects will be guard towers, one on the river bank and the second overlooking the plains. Unfortunately, I am almost out of lumber, and I am not strong enough to harvest trees across the river in lieu of the beasts.¡± I finished my response and shoved the last bite of the sandwich into my mouth. It was a grilled marinated venison with some bitter greens and sweet paste. It gave me +40% stamina regen for 2 hours. ¡°Yes, your efforts have attracted new villagers. Two families will be here soon. Both families are farmers. I have given them a dozen acres each to the south of Malcum. But more importantly, your efforts have spurred the current villagers to work harder. Before you arrived, everyone was doing just what we needed to survive, and now the village is working together. People feel safer, people are happier, people are contributing more. And I wanted to ask you something important.¡± Gwen took a deep breath, about to say something important. ¡°We held a meeting last night while you slept, all the adults in the village. We want you to take on the mantle of Malcum¡¯s governor.¡± She finished with an even tone and was serious the entire time. Her bright blue eyes looked at me expectantly. ¡°Gwen, I do not wish to take the village from you. I¡­¡± I started, but she cut me off. ¡°Non-sense. I am getting on in age, and you have done more in the weeks you have been here than I have managed in the last two years. After losing the men across the river, I have been unable to attract new settlers, and our population was dwindling. Please accept.¡± It was almost a pleading request. It was a lot of responsibility. I was just beginning to think of these computer A.I.s as something more than programming. My ultimate goal was to get back to the real world. I needed to amass a lot of wealth to do so. I was hoping this village would serve as a strong base for my operations, but I planned to leave regularly to search. ¡°Gwen, I would be happy to govern your village, and I promise to do my best to provide a good quality of life for the people.¡± A notification came up. You have been named the governor of Malcum by a unanimous vote of the entire village. Having accepted this position, you are taking on the responsibility of the populace. The title of governor is changed to the title of Lord due to the fact the populace¡¯s loyalty to you is at 97%. A new menu to manage the village of Malcum is now available in your interface. Experience Reward: 50,000 (note as you upgrade your village, you will earn more experience) Congratulations, You have reached level 6, you earned 6 stat points and 2 skill points Congratulations, You have reached level 7, you earned 6 stat points and 2 skill points Then, a world message appeared. A player has earned the title of Lord. He is the first to gain rule over a population in the game of Open World. He has been rewarded with 5 gold medals for his accomplishments. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. You have earned the right to rule: Accolade Right to Rule I, 100 experience You have earned the right to rule: Accolade Right to Rule II, 200 experience Well damn, levels, money, and world acclaim. Works for me. Gwen then produced a dark, worn wooden box and handed it to me. I opened it to see what was inside. There were some parchments and coins. The parchments were for the village. As before, one was a map, and the second was a proclamation naming me governor of Malcum. There was only one gold, 23 silver, and 167 copper in the box. Guess the village was poor. I would have to remedy that. The five gold coins from my achievement were already in my bag of holding, having appeared there instantly. I allocated six stat points to magic and six to stamina. My stamina was causing an issue as it was low. The constant meals balanced it out for now, but if I was adventuring alone¡­ All four skill points went into Masonry. I didn¡¯t notice as I read the map and proclamation, but the villagers gathered around me. I was taken aback when I looked up, and they started clapping with smiles on their faces. The map and parchment dissolved and integrated with my interface. I guess I needed to say something. The game was subverting my introverted nature. ¡°Thank you for this great honor.¡± I paused. ¡°I will make sure to protect you and do my best to provide for you. We will build Malcum into a thriving community that will be a haven for you and your descendants.¡± That was enough, and I was a man of few words. They clapped loudly and moved off to prepare a celebration. I went to the house with Simba following. At my kitchen table, I sat down and opened my new interface. ¡°Ok, Simba. Guide me through this.¡± The general screen had the village stats, and there were a bunch of tabs. The village stats: MALCUM Population: 53 Size: Village Wealth: Extremely Poor Ruler: Lord Tallis Sovereignty: None Banner: None Exports: None Imports: None Simba explained. ¡°You can select the population to see a breakdown by race, sex, and ability.¡± I selected it and saw we had many people with novice skills but only a few experts. We had five experts in cooking, two in tailoring, one in life magic, and one in farming. That was pretty weak. Simba added, ¡°People can also hide their skills from you, so your list may not be accurate. The size of your village is determined by population. When you reach 500 people, it will be upgraded to town. If you fall below ten people, it becomes a settlement camp. If it reaches 0, it becomes abandoned. The tiny cat seemed to take a break to lick his feet. I opened the map tab to see what I was dealing with. The map displayed a village that was familiar to me. A shaded green area around the village extended about 200 yards from the farthest building. The outlining farms barely fit in the green shade. Then, a yellow buffer of 400 yards surrounded the green; the rest of the map was tinged red except for the road south, which was a darker green. Simba looked up. ¡°The green and yellow are your village¡¯s area of influence. The green area is considered a ¡®safe¡¯ zone, while the yellow is not. Increase the number of guards or build buildings with security ratings to reduce the yellow area. To expand your influence, you must increase the population and build more buildings out of the village center.¡± I noticed that the river was also red and was concerned about this. As if reading my mind, Simba added, ¡°Any area of your control that touches a red region can be attacked by wandering monsters and beasts.¡± Shit, so the entire river was a potential avenue for an attack. ¡°You will need to build docks to change the river area to green, and the far shore will become yellow when you do,¡± I mumbled, thank you, to Simba. Hmm. Maybe I could build a building across the river to get some of the forest into a green zone to gain lumber. ¡°Yes, that would work.¡± Simba added, intruding on my thoughts. Now finished cleaning, rolled onto his side, closed his eyes, stretched, and yawned but continued. ¡°Your wealth is reflective of the ruler of the village. You.¡± Six gold makes me extremely poor. Got it. ¡°Sovereignty is the nation you belong to. Currently, no nation claims this village, so you have none. This is good and bad. It means you have no taxes but also no allies for protection. Your banner is the village¡¯s flag. It is usually the crest of the ruler.¡± Cool, I could make a crest! ¡°The top tab shows your buildings and their health, efficiency and you can select each one to see who owns and lives there.¡± Simba waited while I went through the buildings. Almost all the buildings with people had over 95% health due to my efforts. Half the buildings were abandoned, though. ¡°The next tab is your administration tab. You can set tax rates, laws, military service requirements, tariffs, restrictions, and policies.¡± It was very confusing, and I thought it best not to alter anything just yet. ¡°The next tab is for you to manage your military.¡± I opened it and knew I had minimal guards. They were all listed as militia, and I knew they all worked other jobs besides rotating to guard the village. ¡°The next tab is for diplomacy.¡± It was completely grayed out. ¡°You do not know of any other population centers yet, so there are no options.¡± Huh, needed to correct that soon. ¡°The next tab is for trading, but since you produce no goods and import no goods, it is also grayed out. The final tab is for recruitment of new villagers.¡± I clicked on it, and a list of NPCs was displayed. I scrolled down, and there were thousands! ¡°Recruiting new villagers is done weekly, well weekly, in real-world time, so 28 days game time. Your recruitable number is equal to your village size, modified by your quality rating. Quality ratings range from -10 to +10.¡± I started checking¡­Let¡¯s see here¡­village size modifier for me was one, and my village quality bonus was one. So, two auction selections? Didn¡¯t Gwen have more than two new village farmers coming? ¡°Some recruits will have families with them,¡± Simba added, answering my question. ¡°And to answer your next question, the repairs, and new town store just brought your village up to quality up to 1 from 0.¡± So if any size city or town falls to 0 quality it would not be able to recruit new citizens. ¡°Recruitment happens every 28 days in the game. Or every week in the real world. You can bid on a number of NPCs equal to your allotment. You can outbid anyone up until one hour before the auction ends. If you have any available slots left, you can use them to bid on other NPCs during the remaining hour. When the auction ends, your NPCs will travel to your town square and integrate into your village. If you have a translocation stone in your village, they will arrive immediately, otherwise they will take up to a period of time in the game to arrive.¡± Simba cleaned himself for a good five minutes before continuing, ¡°There will also be a chance they could be detained or killed on the way.¡± I was playing with the sorting options for the NPCs. Each NPC had the following details, name, age, sex, race, family, temperament, primary skill, secondary skill, and tertiary skill. Some had no skills listed, some had one skill listed, others had two skills, and others had three skills. Skills were noted as Novice, Expert, Master, and Grand Master. The only Grand Master was 79-year-old human male in chaos magic. He was also a master in both destruction and darkness. I didn¡¯t think he would be able to help me grow my little village. The question is, what did we need most in Malcum? One of the abandoned buildings was a smithy. We had no blacksmith in town. I filtered, and there were seventeen master smiths. Two had sanguine temperaments, which meant they were optimistic and social. One was a beastman: cat with a family of 3; the other was a Centaur with no family. I bid one copper on the beastman. The entry was highlighted, and the countdown timer showed next to his name: 20 days, 4 hours, 23 minutes, 11 seconds. I guess that is when the auction had one hour to go. Since I was the first player to gain access, I was the only one bidding. Simba intruded, reading my thoughts, ¡°Yes, only players bid. The remaining NPCs are assigned randomly to cities based on need.¡± I was holding out hope no one else would unlock this in the next 20 days. So my other recruit. I sorted for master and sanguine personality. I then deselected some of the races; undead, shades, goblins, kobolds, and orcs. I still had 943, which matched my criteria! Ok what did we need most? A lot of the list had weapon skills. That would be a smart move. I was not sure how much racism played with NPCs in Open World. My entire village was human, and the elf trader was the only other race I encountered. The village seemed very amiable towards him, so maybe there was no racism? Maybe I should add more beastman:cats to help the blacksmith¡¯s family adjust? Did a game A.I. even need to adjust? I was waiting for Simba to answer my question, but he seemed asleep. I narrowed my search to just masters of the bow. Why were there so many masters to recruit, and Malcum just had two farmers who were novices with the bow? Simba muttered, ¡°Because after players get their pick, the remaining pool of NPCs is drafted by the settlements under A.I. control based on their population and quality. Meaning Gwen essentially picked close to last.¡± Huh, that made sense. And now I was picking first! The best new NPCs went to the strongest locations. But then I would be throwing a wrench into the system. There were no catmen master archers with sanguine personalities. There was a giantkin: storm, which intrigued me. He had the secondary skill of fletcher at the expert level and the tertiary skill of blade: two-handed at the expert level as well. No family, though to increase the population. But this¡­Galana, oh, it was a female, was only 28. She seemed an expert fighter with ranged specialization. Also, being a master in the bow, she could probably train others. I bid one copper. Looking at the clock, I saw that I had spent nearly four hours in the interface. Now I had to wait 20 days, but I was going to try my damnedest to raise my quality before getting the auction ended to get a few more bids. The party was in full swing, and I went out to join it. Had to bond with my people! PLEASE NOTE THIS STORY IS ONLY POSTED BY THE AUTHOR TO HIS PATREON, ROYAL ROAD AND SCRIBBLE HUB. IF YOU ARE VIEWING IT ON ANOTHER SITE IT HAS BEEN STOLEN WITHOUT HIS PERMISSION. Chapter 6 Trade and Defense Chapter 6: Trade and Defense I used my time at the celebration to ask people what their needs were and how I could improve their lives. There were many needs in Malcum, and most were not in my realm of addressing right now with the little coin I had. My road would probably not improve the quality of the village, but my inn might. I decided to spend the next two weeks repairing homes for our new villagers who were in transit, repairing the smithy, and finishing the road. My hunting excursions would be put on hold. I didn¡¯t know how tall a giantkin was, but from my character design phase, I remembered that it was around eight feet, so I made the ceiling and furniture in her house for someone 10 feet just in case. The blacksmith family house was next to the smithy, and I made sure to make it as nice as possible for the family of four. I wanted the master blacksmith to be happy as he would be centrally important to the village. The houses for the farmers were quick to repair jobs, and I also added basic furniture. I had a young female laborer hauling up stones for the road work. She was not very efficient but was getting stronger every day. Her mother did not want her to join the militia, but she was a bit of a tomboy and liked the work. I think she liked being close to me as well. Her name was Jaesmin, and she was pretty enough, if a bit shy. I just replaced the stone furnaces and repaired the wooden structure for the smithy. The two new farmers arrived together with their families, and we had a celebration picnic to welcome them. They were surprised to have the housing gifted to them. I did notice they were all human, though, which made me a little nervous about our future catmen and giantkin. I also finished the road in two weeks and underestimated just how many rocks it would take. Fortunately, the rocks along the river seemed to respawn slowly over time; otherwise, we might have an erosion issue! Jaesmin pulled almost a quarter of the stones by herself, but she could not match my strength and speed, and I was also splitting my time between paving and carpentry. Also, by the end of the two weeks, my helper was starting to lay stones in the mortar without direction, so she was learning masonry skills! The fourteen days gave me one point for my woodcraft skill, four for my carpentry skill, two for my furniture skill, one for my nature magic skill, two for my nature magic skill, two for my masonry skill, three to my masonry: foundations skill, one to my laborer skill, one to my cooking skill and two in carving. I had made a large amount of Simbas to sell, and they were stacked in a single slot in my bag of holding. Okay, I thought I had six days to improve my village. I could build the guard tower or build some docks on the river. Either project would utilize all my remaining lumber. Jaesmin joined me at my house that evening for dinner. I made some fried chicken and spinach. We were celebrating our completion of the road. She was very quiet and reserved. ¡°So Jaesmin, I am trying to decide what I should build next for the town. I was thinking of a guard tower by the river or building some docks.¡± I said, trying to draw her out so that she would be less shy. ¡°I don¡¯t know how good a guard tower would be by the river, but the docks sound like a good idea. A few years ago, a trader came by on a ship. He was upset we didn¡¯t have docks and has not come back since.¡± She replied while picking at her food. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°So docks may bring traders to our tiny village? That sounds like a good investment in labor. We will start on the stone footings tomorrow,¡± I said, committing. The rest of the evening passed awkwardly as I tried to get Jaesmin to open up more, but she answered in short responses, and eventually, I told her good night and escorted her out. Instead of carving figurines, I carved out a small model of the docks I planned to build. It was going to have three fingers and slips for six boats. Each slip would be 30 feet long. I didn¡¯t foresee any larger vessels traveling upriver. I was also told the river narrowed a half mile upstream when it got closer to the mountains. I hoped we could finish it in six days and raise our village quality before the NPC auction. I moved the archers to where I planned to build the docks the next morning to watch the far shore while we worked. Stones were becoming a little harder to find as we used mortar to build out three supports for our finger¡¯s anchors. One of the villagers did mention there was a quarry to the north. We would have to start utilizing that soon or build an oven to make bricks. We had plenty of harvestable clay materials for it. I ended up working through the night. NPCs still needed to sleep regularly, so I worked alone. I continued this constant effort, completing the docks in just three days. I had to use some wood from one of the abandoned houses, but I was planning to demolish that house eventually anyway. I was starting to do city planning in my head and planned to build a crossroad through the main road we had finished. This road would connect the docks, run through the city, and then out to the farms that were by the plains. The plan was for a half-mile road. We would be able to build a number of housing units off of it, and we could also start building businesses off the main road. With the docks finished, I opened my interface and was disappointed to see that my village quality had not risen. I went to sleep for a few hours and tried to come up with a plan for the next 40 hours. I did get two points in masonry: foundations, two in carpentry, and one in woodcraft for the dock project. The next morning, I woke and headed east toward the plains. Opening my map interface, I found an abandoned house on the edge of town just before the plains. There was a barn nearby and a second smaller house. I began planning in my head as I tore the barn down with my tools. I could build a two-story guard tower here using the frame of the house. It would not be my best work, but this was temporary anyway. I eventually wanted all guard towers to be stone. My stamina ran out! Apparently, my constant food from the village stopped because no one knew where I was. I walked into town for lunch and informed everyone where I was working. I assigned Jaesmin to start preparing for the crossroad that was going to cut across town from the new docks to the guard tower I was building. I got a picnic basket and put my jerky in my bag of holding just in case. It took almost 40 hours to finish the tower, but I was proud of the structure when it was done. It was 30 feet high with a flat roof accessed by a trap door. The roof had a waist-high wall to protect the guards as well. It was 20 feet to the side and boarded all the way up. A heavy wooden door that could be barred was on the ground level. I had built four makeshift beds and a small cooking area on the first floor as well. There was no second floor, just framing and stairs going up to the roof. I got the increase in village quality! I was wicked excited. I went into the interface to check on my recruits. There were six other bids for NPCs, but no one overbid mine. I had 50 minutes before the final one-hour countdown. I sat on one of the beds in the new tower and started searching. I checked out the other six bids, which were all warriors. I would wait till the final hour started before bidding on two new NPCs. I had already decided to get a quarryman and leatherworker. The village had a supply of hides from the plains, but our tanner was only a novice at the level. We needed someone who could make master-quality items for export! PLEASE NOTE THIS STORY IS ONLY POSTED BY THE AUTHOR TO HIS PATREON, ROYAL ROAD AND SCRIBBLE HUB. IF YOU ARE VIEWING IT ON ANOTHER SITE IT HAS BEEN STOLEN WITHOUT HIS PERMISSION. Chapter 7 Town Managment Chapter 7: Town Management I filtered by sanguine temperament again and then selected an elf leatherworker with a family of 9! He was a master skinner and master leather worker. I had trouble with the quarryman, as there were only two masters with the sanguine personality. One was a shade, and the other was a demonkin. I didn¡¯t want to select either due to their race. I looked for another skill the village could use. Enchanting? Animal Husbandry? Earth Magic? Yes, earth magic. I sorted it again. There was one master earth mage, and he was also a master stone mage and master metal mage! Perfect! His race was elementalkin: earth. It made sense, I guess. He probably got casting bonuses for his race. I bid on him. I hoped this mage would teach me some magic to help me build when he arrived. The timer zeroed, and my list was reduced to just the four I had selected. Apparently, no one had outbid me. They flashed, and a timer appeared next to each one. The giant was five days, the elementalkin seven days, the elf 11 days, and the catman 19 days! Wow, I needed to get one of those translocation stones, but having to wait for these NPCs was going to be a pain. And there was a chance they would not make the journey here successfully. It was an hour before the list refreshed, and I started my search again as the timer started a new countdown from 28 days. There were two grandmasters this time. One was a gnome for cooking, and the second was for ancient languages, and it was a dragonkin. A grand master was at least tier 20, which meant at least level 67 in the skill. The gnome was also a master butcher and master herbalist. Her temperament was phlegmatic, which was relaxed and peaceful. I bid on the gnome. I decided to find another warrior. I sorted by ranged skills again and giantkin. There were two masters of the bow. One had a choric personality, which was short-tempered and irritable. Nope. The other was melancholic, which was analytical and quiet. It was not what I was hoping for, but he had master rank in ranged, master rank in ranged: bows, and expert rank in polearms: spears as his three listed skills. He was a giantkin: forest with no family. I hoped he would get along with my other giantkin. I bid on him. I was imagining all my city guards being imposing 8-foot giants. I started thinking about this bidding process. Once this game went live, thousands of players would be bidding on these NPCs, driving the prices up. Hell, most of the players in this beta test would have to start from scratch. I was told just the hard-wired few like myself would get to retain their gains. I needed to make the most of this opportunity. I had two more bids. I opened my character sheet and looked at what skills I wanted to acquire. If I could get an NPC here with those skills and they trained up my skill I could save a lot of money. Air magic, spirit magic, and riding. Spirit magic had quite a few masters. Air magic had many as well. I started scanning for one that would catch my eye. A human air mage, he had master air magic, master air: lightning, and master spirit: life. No family and sanguine temperament. Well, two birds, one stone. I bid on him. I was already down to my last bid. I scanned the NPCs for a while and found what I needed. Woodcraft: Ship Building. The NPC had the lumberjack skill as well. I didn¡¯t know there was another woodcraft skill. He was just an expert, but if we could build boats, we could send our trade goods out without waiting for a merchant to visit us. I bid on him. Done. I walked out of the tower and back to the center of town. Jaesmin had made progress clearing the earth. She smiled as I approached, and I praised her work ethic. Once again, she didn¡¯t say much, so I returned home. I pulled out my plans for the inn. This was my next project. My skills were getting close to a high enough level to build it. It would be the perfect place for the gnome to cook as well. My day tomorrow would be fixing up two houses for the earth mage and the elf leather worker. Instead of carving tonight, I went to sleep content. The next morning, there was a commotion in the square. I rushed over and noticed a trader had arrived. It was the elf that was here a few weeks back. He must have a trade route back and forth to the city to the south, so we were on the northern edge of his run. It also meant his goods would be depleted when he got to us. He had brought paper this time! I traded a few Simba carvings for the paper. Looking through what he had, I found he had also brought an axe. Rare Steel Two-Handed Axe, Weight 6.8 lbs, Durability 50/50, Damage 45-60, Requirements: Str 25 Nice weapon. He wanted two gold for it. Way too much. My villagers said it was worth half that much as we went into our negotiations. I offered him one gold, and he did his trader thing, ¡®oh, how can I feed my family if I take such a pittance.¡¯ Eventually, I handed over one gold, thirty silver, and a dozen Simba carvings. I probably should have waited for my blacksmith to arrive to see if he could make me something comparable. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. The trader had eaten up half my day. I picked out two houses near the center of town and got to work. I had only managed to strip both houses before the night arrived. I would need to go to other abandoned houses to get lumber. On my way home, a global notification came up. Game Mechanics Adjustment: All future NPC auctions will have the following minimum bids based on their primary listed skill level, None: 1 copper, Novice: 1 silver, Expert: 1 gold, Master: 1 platinum, Grand Master: 100 platinum I stopped and went to the NPC screen, feeling worried. Cool, they didn¡¯t clear the auction board. There were seven other bids already in as well. I also noticed that the grandmaster cook had 100 platinum next to her name; the new minimum bid was to outbid me. I felt my cook was safe, and anyone who wanted to outbid me would have to bid 100 platinum! It meant I would be in trouble the next cycle unless I started making some coin. I spent the day walking through the village. I spent a good amount of time with our new farmers. Both families were large, with seven and eight family members. The new blood was great for our village. They thanked me profusely for the houses and promised to work hard. I allotted both families land and a house, but they would have to fix it themselves. They couldn¡¯t believe my generosity and their good fortune in coming to Malcum. That evening, I pulled out my paper and got to work on the draft. The first building I worked on was a brewery. I figured I needed beer if I was building an inn, right? The next building was a brick manufacturing building. I was not sure we would have the firewood to run it yet, but we would need it eventually. Then I started on a tannery. The tannery would be the next building I was planning to build. I hadn¡¯t finished any of the plans but noticed it was mid-day. I had worked through the night and into the afternoon. Just like in my college days, I could go for hours drafting. My drafting skill had also increased by 3 points! I walked out into my village, and it was more active than it had been in the past. There were more kids playing, more goods being bartered, more laughter. It made me feel good. I walked over to see Jaesmin. She was hauling up sand and small rocks from the river. She had a big smile on her face when I approached. Once again, I had to do the majority of the talking. She was working on the first 100-yard stretch of the road. It was dug and sanded, and now she was dumping the small stones. Next was the mortar and paving stones. I helped her lay out the next markers for the road to make sure they would be straight to the guard tower. I then went to the guard tower myself. Two militia sat in chairs at the top. I went up to join them. As I was climbing the stairs, a notification from my town management flashed. I paused to read it. Monthly upkeep and wages due today I opened the screen and was floored. Building maintenance was nine silver and fifty copper! Simba appeared behind me on the stairs, following me. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. You can do the work yourself on the buildings. You will need materials to do the work, but you are out of lumber, so I suggest you start harvesting some trees or trade with another settlement.¡± Simba was right. I could select each item and see what work needed to be completed on the guard tower, mill, roads, store, and docks. This simple upkeep would take me three days to complete. I would have to tear down another abandoned house for materials. I checked the map of the village. The river was now green, and the forest shoreline had a line strip of yellow shade. The monsters and beasts were just too strong to risk harvesting the trees. I also owed wages for the militia and one laborer. I hadn¡¯t realized I had to pay them. Well, it was only 28 copper each¡­which totaled¡­420 copper. I continued my climb to the tower. The watchers greeted me, and we talked for a bit. I told them they could pick up their wages at the general store tonight. I would have Elice distribute the wages. I walked to the general store and met with Elice. I gave her four silver and 20 copper and the list of names from my interface with their pay. I then found all the militia and let them know where they could get their wages for the coming month. Then I went to Jaesmin, gave her last month¡¯s wages, and told her she could get next month¡¯s wages from the general store. It turned out this was a smart move as most of the militia just used their money at the general store, so they got goods from Elice instead. I can also see why Gwen had handed me the village. She only had enough coin for a few more months. The tax screen showed that I would have 143 copper coming in from property and individual tax. So, my expenses far outweighed my income. Every building I upgraded also increased maintenance costs. I spent the next three days doing the maintenance work on the buildings. During this time, the giantkin, Galana, arrived. She was just over eight feet tall and always smiling. She looked like a red-haired Amazon warrior with a massive bow and sword on her back. After the initial panic of seeing the warrior walking up the road, the village welcomed her. She loved her ¡®little¡¯ house, and we had to negotiate wages. She was in my kitchen the first night, and while we ate, she started the negotiations by asking for four silver a day! Simba informed me that a fair wage for someone of her skill level was 20 silver a day. I countered with one silver a day, the deed to the house we had given her, and the title of Captain of the Guard. She eventually said she would work for a year at that wage but then wanted it doubled to two silver and doubled again after another year to her original request of four. I thought that was very reasonable, and we shook off it. I paid her 26 silver for the coming month. Soon, my Guard Captain would be wealthier than me! PLEASE NOTE THIS STORY IS ONLY POSTED BY THE AUTHOR TO HIS PATREON, ROYAL ROAD AND SCRIBBLE HUB. IF YOU ARE VIEWING IT ON ANOTHER SITE IT HAS BEEN STOLEN WITHOUT HIS PERMISSION. Chapter 8 Funding a Town
Chapter 8: Funding A Town
Galana took her job very seriously. She got all 14 militia together and had daily training sessions. She set up a makeshift archery range for practice as well. She also asked for a budget to add four more militia, all women who wanted to learn bowmanship and defend the village. I conceded and gave her a monthly budget of 30 silver. She could use her skills to make quality bows and arrows for the militia, which would be much better than what we were using or could purchase. It was a very sound investment on my part.
Two days after Galana arrived, the earth mage rode a stone horse that dissolved into the ground when he reached the town center. I went to see the commotion. A hairless man with ebony black skin stood looking around. When he spotted me, he smiled and approached me with white teeth. I invited him to my humble house, and the villagers disbursed.
Sanso was the earth mage¡¯s name. During our meal, I learned he wanted one acre of land to build a residence and apply his skills. His requested wage was two gold per month! I choked a little on my food.
I wondered if I was smart in hiring all these NPCs at the master level. I told him that his wage would be paid in terms of the acre of land for the first month. Then I could do one gold a month for his first year and then two gold a month after the first year.
Simba told me an earth mage of his caliber was easily worth five gold a month, which would be a bargain. Shit, I hoped I had not insulted him. He said he would think about it and left having not finished his dinner. Crap, I thought, he is going to leave the village. I could not do anything about it, as I did not have the funds to meet his demands.
I pulled out my drafting tools and lost myself in my work. I finished the plans for the tannery and brewery by morning.
My notifications from the last few days showed that I had raised woodcraft by one and carpentry by two. My drafting skill was up two points as well.
Common Tannery Plans, Health 3000, Requires Masonry: Foundations 7, Woodcraft: Carpentry 7
Uncommon Brewery Plans, Health 5000, Requires Masonry: Foundations 23, Woodcraft: Carpentry 23
I walked out into the early morning light and saw the earth mage walking in the distance. He was already walking toward me. I waited for him nervously to hear his decision. Sanso had spent the evening talking to the townsfolk and seeing if this was a good place to live. He was impressed with everyone and the praise they put on their lord. It did take me a second to remember I was the lord! He was in!
We talked, and then we actually walked about two miles north, closer to the mountains. We talked about him teaching me earth magic. He agreed, but I would have to purchase any spells from him per guild law. Simba was not around to explain the mage guilds, but I assumed it was a game mechanic that allowed players to learn new spells. He said he would build his home here and make a road straight to town to connect the main road. Great! He spent the next two hours unlocking my earth magic, and earth magic: stone skills.
Earth Magic 1 Tier 1 unlocked, +1 Magic, +2% effectiveness of earth spells
Earth: Stone 1 Tier 1 unlocked, +1 Constitution, +2% effectiveness of earth:stone spells
I then paid ten silver for two spell books.
Stone Bullet Earth: Stone Tier 1, Magic Cost: 25, Effect: Summon and send a rock at a target, Range 120 yards, Damage 20, Casting Time 1 second
Summon Earth Earth Tier 1, Magic Cost: 27+, Effect: Summon 1 cubic yard per 27 magic in a single casting, Casting Time 5 minutes
I went home and, while eating lunch, learned the spells. Feeling good about myself, I went to Galana¡¯s target range and practiced the stone bullet spell. Each cast summoned a rock the size of a child¡¯s fist and sent it forward with great speed. The spell could only direct the rock at a space. If the target was moving, I would have to anticipate its movement in order to hit it. That meant I would need the ranged skill. Damn, another skill slot was used.
Galana approached me and watched me fling rock after rock at the target before asking me if I wanted to learn the ranged skill from her. I said yes, and under her guidance, I leveled the skill to level four by sunset, which gave me +3 agility. My stone magic also advanced to level 2. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Ranged Combat, Level 4, Tier 3, +3 Agility, +8% increased range of ranged attacks
Earth: Stone, Level 2, Tier 2, +2 Constitution, +4% effectiveness of earth:stone spells
Galana invited herself to dinner at my house. I prepared the food while we talked. She was impressed with the closeness and enthusiasm of the community. She said she could get the militia all to the expert level in two months, but she wanted them all to be full-time town guards and not militia.
We talked it over, and eventually, I decided she could choose four willing militia to promote to guards. Then she asked what the loadout of the city guards was going to be. I was confused, so she elaborated on the standard armor, melee weapon, ranged weapon, and uniform. I was taken aback. We really didn¡¯t have a ¡®city¡¯; there were just a few families living in the town.
I finally caved and let her know my coin flow was not very high, and I was stretched very thin. She just smiled and said she could solve that issue. She wanted to take a hunting party out into the plains to gather meat for the village, giant porcupine quills for arrows, and lion hides to sell. Reducing predators was part of her duty and all harvested materials would go to me as lord, but she would charge a slight fee for making arrows for the guards.
I asked Galana if she could handle the creatures in the forest across the river. She contemplated before saying she probably could one-on-one, but if they outnumbered her, she would probably fail. Fail. That meant death to an NPC. NPC¡¯s deaths were permanent, from what Simba had said. We needed the lumber across the river to expand and upgrade our town. I would have to wait until we increased our strength to venture there.
Galana left, and I found that administration was taking up a lot of my time these days. There was, of course, an administration skill, but I had not been prompted to learn it. I was not sure if I would accept it anyway; it was charisma-based and increased the efficiency of your subjects.
That night, I slept a little but found time to finish the plans for the brick factory. It was just a common building, and I put the plans on the shelf. Our new earth mage assured me he could supply stones in any shape, so the brick building was moot. However, I took away a single skill point, which increased my drafting skills.
During the new day, I demolished all the remaining abandoned buildings in town for lumber. I had Jaesmin¡¯s help, and we brought it all to my mill. I planned to use half of it for the tannery, which would be built near the wooden guard tower out near the plains. I assumed the building would have foul odors, so keeping it away from the town center was probably smart. Did smell even matter in this game? I was getting a little lost in the realism.
Jaesmin was eating dinner with me in the kitchen. We had spent all day hauling lumber nearby, so it was rude not to invite her in. A knock at the door, and it was Galana. She joined us as well. She produced a parchment while we were devouring a platter of mini venison sandwiches. I took the paper and read it.
Hunting Harvest, Septum 7th, Year 1
18 Cleardusk Plains Lions
3 Giant Porcupines
29 Cleardusk Plains Deer
2 Cleardusk Pride Master Lions
1 Cleardusk Plains Buffalo
Wow! All in a single day. Quite impressive. Galana could one-shot most of these critters. The buffalo was found far to the west, and there was a large herd of them, but it was getting late in the day, so they just took one beast to see if it would have value.
The total value of this haul, if sold in a big city, was almost one gold, Galana informed me! But I would probably keep the meat and quills so I would get closer to 60 silver for the unprocessed pelts and hides. The pride master was a level 15 beast, according to Galana, and a boss monster. These two hides alone were worth about 15 silver each.
Damn. Great work! We needed to get these hides to market. I told her to tell the soldiers great job; they could take as much meat as they wanted. I was now going to have to get that tannery built fast. Galana planned to hunt every other day and expected to bring in an average value of 50 silver worth of goods for sale. That was 14 gold a month! My money problems were solved as she had promised. Well, as long as we can sell the goods anyway.
The next day the hunter¡¯s harvest was processed, and everyone loved the buffalo meat. When I sampled some buffalo jerky, I found it had better recovery benefits than I had consumed. It tasted the same to me, though. The buffalo steak tasted like lean beef to me. The villagers asked for more buffalo, and Galana said she would take the hunting party to the Far West Plains the next day. She would shepherd them as no monsters could threaten her at her level.
Today, I started building the tannery. I hauled some foundation stones out to the site and began to dig. The building was not large, and with Jaesmin, I would be able to finish the building foundation in a single day. There was no basement, so it went quickly. We even had time to haul half the lumber from the mill for construction. I figured it would only take me two days to build the simple two-story building since we had the beams and planking available on site. The game mechanics allowed some flexibility in the usage of the salvaged wood. PLEASE NOTE THIS STORY IS ONLY POSTED BY THE AUTHOR TO HIS PATREON, ROYAL ROAD AND SCRIBBLE HUB. IF YOU ARE VIEWING IT ON ANOTHER SITE IT HAS BEEN STOLEN WITHOUT HIS PERMISSION. Chapter 9 The Tannery Chapter 9 The next day, I started the tannery before the sun was up and was able to see the hunting party off. Galana had six of the militia with her. They all had fearsome new bows and a full quiver of porcupine arrows and exuded confidence. The work was going quickly for me, as I was getting better at building in the simulation. As the sun was setting, I was on the second floor of the tannery. An alarm went off from the guard tower nearby. I looked up. Out to the west, the hunting party was returning as it was easy to identify Galana by her tall silhouette. However, there were some thirty shorter people around her. I equipped my combat gear from the bag and went to meet the incoming group. Galana was behind them, and they were headed directly for the tower at a walk. Down the road to town, I could also see the ten militia running to the tower, answering the alarm. I banged on the tower door, and one of the guards came down to let me in. I headed to the top of the tower, leaving the guard there. With the elevated view, I could now see more clearly. Galana and the hunting party walked behind a group. The group appeared thin and mostly feminine in shape with darker skin. I was able to count their number. Besides the seven in the hunting party, there were twenty-six prisoners? At two hundred yards, I recognized the race; they were orcs, but all were apparently women and children. Had Galana slaughtered the males and then brought back these as a prize? They looked haggard and staggered as they walked. Some teenagers were carrying the children. If I had to guess, they were ALL female. I climbed down and went to meet the group on the plains. Galana came to the front and explained to the group before her, ¡°Lord, we found them while we were hunting the buffalo to the west. What you see here are the wives of the Kahn Bawal. He was slain by a rival, and so were all his male heirs. Rather than submit to the new Kahn, the women fled in the middle of the night with their remaining children. They have traveled far and fear pursuit. They also took some of the Kahn¡¯s treasure and would gladly give it to you for your protection. This one here,¡± Galana pointed, ¡°was the first wife, Kytalia.¡± Kytalia stepped forward and got on her knees. ¡°Great Lord, please protect my sisters and children. I completely submit to you and your desires if you would swear to protect me and mine.¡± It was clear she was a beaten woman, literally and figuratively. She had wounds on her body that had not healed. She was actually fairly attractive with an athletic body, soft humanish face, gray-green skin, and long black hair. The only thing that threw me was the canine-shaped teeth. ¡°Rise Kytalia, all are welcome to Malcum as long as you heed our laws. We will protect you to the best of our ability if you wish to call this village your home. Head into town under the supervision of the Galana. I will speak with you tonight in more detail once you have eaten and rested.¡± She broke into a relieved expression and thanked me. She then pulled a small pouch from inside her tattered jacket and gave it to me. I thanked her and told Galana to find villagers to take them in for the night. This would be a test of their racial tolerance. Once they left, I told the guard I wanted six people in the tower from now on. I was unhappy with this new threat, especially when the quest window opened. New Quest: Protect Kytalia and her band of refugees for 14 days, Rewards: the refugees will settle in your village, adding to your population, 2000 experience I knew the new Kahn was going to come looking for her by the quest description. I needed to go talk with Sanso. We needed better defenses at the tower. Hell, the tower was just a watch tower and not a fortification. They could ride around it and head for the village. Instead of working on the tannery, I went north to find Sanso. I was shocked to find his road project was almost a mile long and 10 yards wide. I stopped to inspect the stone. It appeared to be a single piece. I walked the impressive road to a small stone tower emitting light and smoke in the dark. I knocked. An earth man answered the door, I stuttered, surprised, ¡°San-n-sso?¡± A voice from behind the man answered. ¡°Come in, Lord Tallis. Have dinner with me.¡± I entered. The building was nice, if dimly lit. Sanso was at a stone table eating a thick, earthy-looking soup. He got up, went to the stone stove, and ladled more soup into a stone bowl for me. He then gave me a stone spoon. I sat on the granite stone bench at the table. ¡°Your stone road is quite impressive. Better than my work in town, and you are building it so fast!¡± ¡°Yes, Lord. I spend the required 8 hours a day doing the work prescribed. The rest of my time is spent on personal projects. I have built a cavern below this house to house my mushroom gardens. I am not too proficient in nature magics but managed to get a few mushrooms grown this evening.¡± I noticed the mushrooms floated in the soup and tasted them. It tasted like mushroom soup, and I noticed the buff was for stamina and magic regeneration! I needed this recipe! ¡°Yes, I was hoping tomorrow to change your focus¡­.¡± I went into detail about the orc refugees and their plight. I said we should expect an orc scouting party to be looking for her. I wanted to reinforce the tower and maybe add a second tower to the town. After my words, Sanso responded, ¡°I see. I am obliged to aid in the defense of the village. I will summon two earth elementals to join this one. The trio will join the guards at the tower tomorrow. It would take me a few months to build a wall around the village, so perhaps I can cast some stone wood spells on the more important structures?¡± Stone wood? Sanso went on to explain it was a tier ten spell that petrified wood. It was slightly better than the lower-tier petrify wood spell as it created a stronger structure and reduced maintenance! Damn, I needed to level up my stone magic. I thanked Sanso and returned to town in the light of a half moon. When I got home, the lights were on. Inside, I found Jaesmin cooking, Kytalia and Galana at the table. ¡°The townsfolk all volunteered to take in the refugees, and we have divided them into small groups,¡± Galana said. I nodded in response and sat down. She then added, ¡°The elf leather worker arrived. He settled his family into the house you prepared. He said he would find you tomorrow as it has been a busy day for you,¡± she smiled at me. I muttered, ¡°that it has¡± and I then took out the bag Kytalia had given me and emptied it on the table. Three rings, eight gold coins, one platinum coin and a large bracelet. Damn, my money problems were really solved now. I managed to hide my elation. I checked out the rings and bracelet. Bracelet of the Cleardusk Kahn, +5 strength, +5 constitution, +5 skill to leadership Emerald Ring of Strength, +3 strength Platinum Ring, Value 228 gold coins Orcish Ring of Valor, +3 strength, +3 constitution, +3 stamina Wow. I was missing out on adventuring if these were regular loot objects! A fighter could equip these and become ferocious! I turned to Kytalia. ¡°Quite an impressive collection here, my lady.¡± She seemed caught off guard by the ladycomment. She looked much better, cleaned and fed. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. She replied, ¡°Yes, they were the smallest items my Kahn possessed and most valuable. I was hoping to buy our way into a city, but we could no longer travel, and after we failed to kill a buffalo for food, we thought it was the end, if not for Galana finding us. She and her hunters gave us food and water, so I am glad to give you all this.¡± I nodded, thinking. My level of greed was high, but I also felt pity for these refugees, ¡°Ah, yes. I think that should be rewarded. I slide the orcish ring of valor to Galana and seven gold coins, ¡°This ring is for you, Galana, and one coin for you and each of your hunting party.¡± I then took the bracelet of the Kahn and the platinum coin. I pushed the two rings and the last gold coin to the orc woman. ¡°You will need the items to support your family. We will give you a home here, but you will be expected to provide for yourselves after you get settled. That platinum ring should be worth enough to feed all of you for ten years.¡± She started thanking me, but I stopped her. I had just taken a prize bracelet and 100 gold for myself. We then began to question her about the orc town she had come from. It was about 200 miles away, and there were about 200 warriors in all, that is, after the seventeen that had been killed in the coup killing the last Kahn. A scouting/hunting party would be riding mountain steeds with five to seven of the best warriors from the village. This worried me. Kytalia said they did their best to cover their tracks while escaping but expected a scouting party to find them soon. Orc hunting parties were relentless, and Kahn would want the treasure back. Great, well, I got the loot first, and now I have to earn it. We talked into the night, and I grilled Kytalia for as much information as possible. She eventually left, and I went upstairs to sleep. I found Jaesmin in my bed, already asleep. She must have been too tired to go home tonight. I went into one of the guest rooms and put my carving skill on autopilot as I contemplated ways to handle an orc scouting party. When the sun rose, so did I. Jaesmin was still sleeping, so I left quietly. I slipped the orc bracelet on, and it resized to fit. It was a leather wrapping with some teeth of various animals and some script. It was very tribal looking but not gaudy at all. I opened my messages to update myself on my growth. Woodcraft, carpentry, and furniture were all up to one point. That was great, their skill levels were 20, 22, and 10, respectively. One more level in carpentry, and I would be an expert! Nature magic was up one, and plant magic was up two points to 5 and 7, respectively. I was experiencing slow growth here, even with all my casting while building. Masonry and foundations had also advanced a single point to 17 points each. Masonry: structures were up two points to 9. I was disappointed as carving had not leveled, but drafting had at least made one more level. I made a mental note to focus on drafting because of the bonus to construction speed I obtained from it. Laborer had hit level 11, nice! I loved prime levels in skills for their extra boost to stats. Leadership was at 10 from the +5 from the bracelet, but it was showing yellow. I expanded to read the text and explanation. Skill advancement through equipped items will not unlock higher-tier attribute bonuses Well, as long as I got the percentage bonuses, I was happy. My last skill increase was one in earth magic. I had cast a few summon earth spells in building the tannery¡¯s foundation. Ah, yes, my new tanner. I redirected my walking direction and headed to the tanner¡¯s house. When I arrived, I knocked. A young, smiling elf child opened the door. I quickly checked my interface for the tanner¡¯s name and asked, ¡°Is Curraen here?¡± The elf girl was not bashful, ¡°Dad went to the tannery after breakfast this morning? Are you the Lord? Can I play by the river? My mom said to stay around the house. Can we get some chickens? Mom wants some, and so does sis. Can I have a carving of a dog? The other kids last night said you made their carvings. Is there a school in town? Dad said I had to go to school, but I don¡¯t want to.¡± Before she could continue, I stopped her. ¡°Whoa, you are quite the talkative one. No, you cannot play by the river. It is not safe. I will see about your chickens,¡± I reached into my bag and grabbed a Simba carving, ¡°I don¡¯t have any dogs, but here is a lion.¡± Her eyes lit up, taking the miniature wood statue of the cat. ¡°There will be a school being built soon,¡± at least there would be now because that sounded like a great idea! I turned and left, almost fleeing from the child¡¯s tsunami of questions. I heard the door shut behind me and smiled. The walk to the mostly finished tannery had me designing a schoolhouse in my head. On approach, I could see Galana drilling the guards nearby, and she probably thought it wise to have them practice out here. I had told most of them to remain here to watch the plains. Sanso was making the tower stone with petrify spells, and his earth elementals were building a wall? It was about 40 yards long and 10 feet high so far. I asked him about it. He had just thought it smart to put them to work rather than just guard all day. They were instructed to build a wall that was 20 feet high and 3 miles long, making an arc toward the river to encompass the town and closest farmlands. It would take months to complete, so why not start now? I opened my map, and a yellow line flashed, revealing what I had assumed was the future wall. Could I edit it? I tried, and I could! I increased the wall a bit and changed the area around the road. I was lost in editing when Sanso coughed to get my attention. I was being rude. I would play with this later. I got a few updates from him and then went to the tannery, which was in full swing. Two elves, one an adult and another a teen, were working hard on a pile of skins. Apparently, Galana had handed over her harvests to the tannery. The elf was smiling as I approached. We talked for a while, and he loved the village. Everyone was so kind, respectful, and helpful. The tannery building was nice, and I promised to finish it today, though he could start his work on the first floor for now. I told him I planned to build a school, and he volunteered his wife to teach, as it was one of her passions. We talked about the orc refugees, it caused a stir last night when he had just arrived. I told him if the alarm in the tower rang, he and his son should head to the village with all haste for protection. He shook his head no, ¡°Sorry, my Lord. I will defend the town with my blade, as will my sons.¡± He indicated the sheathed sword leaning against the building. He would defend the village and his family. I liked this guy! I removed my hides and pelts and added them to the large pile for him to treat. I went to the second floor and began my work. A light rain fell, and it felt refreshing. It was also the first time I remembered it raining in the game. I had a small worry that a flash flood could wash away my village. The river would have to rise about 20 feet to crest the banks. Could I make a runoff lake in the forest as a ¡®just in case¡¯ option? The tannery was finished by dinner. I shared lunch with Curraen and his son and realized I was losing myself in this game a bit. I was starting to forget this was not real. These NPC A.I. were becoming real people to me. It seemed the orcs had not shown up today. I was fairly confident we could handle the scouting party. My concern would be if they decided to march on us, but I was hoping the village would be a safe zone and marauding orcs couldn¡¯t enter. I should see if Simba knew the answer to that. I checked on Galana and the soldiers before heading back to the village. She was planning to stay out here until the threat passed and planned her own ¡®scouting/hunting¡¯ party tomorrow. I told her to be smart and safe about it. The enemy would be mounted. From the info I received last night, the orcs in the scouting party would have a level equivalency of 15 to 25. My guess was that Galana was equivalent to level 50, so I was not overly concerned. I made a spur-of-the-moment decision and told them I would join them tomorrow, so they should wait for me. I returned to town, and I was all warm and fuzzy on the inside when I saw a group of human, orc, and elf children playing together. An attractive elf woman supervised them. I approached and started talking with her. It was Curraen¡¯s wife Vivale. I discussed teaching with her, and she was definitely excited about the subject. We talked about what she would want in a school and the general interior layout. The concept we ended up with was a large stone building that was half library and half classrooms. I returned home after playing a game similar to soccer with the kids for a bit before the mothers called them away for dinner. They tried to get their ¡®Lord¡¯ to overrule their mothers, but I professed I was powerless before the will of a mother. At my home, I found Jaesmin cooking dinner. She must have known I worked hard today and was doing me a favor. The meal was ok as she was just a novice cook. I talked with her about her work for the day, and she was starting to be more talkative. She had mostly done some work around the village. She did some upkeep on the main road and paved some paths for villagers. I praised her efforts. After dinner, I started to work on my designs for the school and didn¡¯t notice Jaesmin leave. PLEASE NOTE THIS STORY IS ONLY POSTED BY THE AUTHOR TO HIS PATREON, ROYAL ROAD AND SCRIBBLE HUB. IF YOU ARE VIEWING IT ON ANOTHER SITE IT HAS BEEN STOLEN WITHOUT HIS PERMISSION. Chapter 10 Every Day is a Grind

Chapter 10: Every Day is a Grind

The school/library was a little big on my first draft. It was four stories and was a match for any modern-day library. I had not seen many books in the game and wondered if there were only skill, spell, and ability books. Simba, who had been MIA for a while, jumped on the table and answered my mental question, ¡°There are many books of knowledge in the game. Your reading ability reflects whether or not you can utilize them. Each book is locked by a tier value. Your reading skill is limited, so you can only read children¡¯s books.¡± I could sense sarcasm in the cat¡¯s voice. He continued, ¡°Books offer many benefits. They can increase your knowledge percentage in certain skills, although you can only benefit once from each title. They can reveal information and monsters, such as weak points or abilities. They can reveal locations on your maps. They can even unlock skills you don¡¯t have.¡± I thought, Well, damn, where can I get me some books? ¡°There are book merchants in the larger cities,¡± Simba answered my unvoiced question. I would need to rethink my building. I worked on an improved chicken coop for the rest of the evening. I wanted something challenging for Jaesmin to help improve her building skills. My efforts yielded a nice set of new plans. Rare Stone Chicken Coop, holds 30 chickens, Health 1200, Requires Masonry: Structures 7, Woodcraft Carpentry 7 No fox would be getting into this hen house! The sun was rising, so I geared up and prepared to join the hunting party when Jaesmin came down the stairs. I had worked on my drafting table in the kitchen all night. I was slightly surprised but decided to ignore the fact that she had slept here two nights in a row. I gave her the new chicken coop plans and told her to master them. When she could build the structure without fault, she could build one for everyone in town who wanted one. I had learned from Simba that if I built something without the required skill levels, the structure would have at least a 50% penalty to health and reduced functionality. Fortunately, I had not run into any such issues yet. I told her I had confidence in her, patted her on the shoulder, and left. I think she may have blushed, but that wouldn¡¯t make any sense. I arrived at the guard tower to find Galana and five militia. Three of the militia were women. Galana and all the militia sported a dark blue and white jacket. They were mostly a deep blue with just some white trim here and there. I asked Galana about it, and she reminded me I had given her permission to choose the gear and uniform for the city¡¯s guards. It was a nice jacket that reminded me of a high school varsity jacket except it was all leather and short-sleeved. Everyone wore a long-sleeved white-silvery shirt under the jacket to cover the arms. She had only been able to outfit ten guards this month with her allowance but said she would have everyone up to par next month. She also planned dark blue ¡®over¡¯ pants with a white stripe down the leg and high black boots. We started walking toward our first target and continued to talk with the militia walking behind. The plains had grass ranging from a few inches to almost as tall as me. It was still easy enough to see each encounter; usually a shape moving about a quarter mile away. Sometimes, you could not see clearly if the grass was too high. Galana had chosen to equip the militia with a long sword, two daggers, compound short bow, buckler shield, and hand axe. Once the blacksmith arrived, she would be able to get everyone completely outfitted. Everyone had the bow, two dozen porcupine arrows in a quiver, and an assortment of poor melee weapons. We approached our first plains cat, and I told everyone I wanted to try out my new axe, to hold back, and to only assist if I got in trouble. The beast and I squared off. With my bonuses and heavy strike ability, I managed to do 106 damage on my first swing. It took two more swings before the level 6 beast fell. I suffered 29 damage in the encounter, but my hit points were registered at 2 per minute, so it would not be long before I was full again. I moved to the back of the group and used my stone bullet spell for the next few encounters. We started taking down animals this way, working a pattern that took us 2 miles out and then back to within sight of the tower as we patrolled the area. One of the militia found a silver object in the high grass slightly buried and presented it to me. Ancient Amulet of Pursuit, +30 speed for 2 hours, 3/30 charges It was platinum, quite lovely, and probably worth a few hundred gold. I told her she found it so she could keep it, but she should charge it. My understanding was that if an item with charges reached 0, it would lose its ability. She asked how to charge it, and I didn¡¯t know, but as I was searching the limited game wiki, Galana said that an enchanter was the only person who could charge items. Or someone with the enchanting skill. We had killed our seventh cat and I noticed only Galana was harvesting the beast. She had a large backpack, bigger than my bag of holding. I asked her how many slots it had, and she said 18. Damn, my henchmen had a bigger slot allowance than me. She had paid 50 silver for the bag. I needed to upgrade! We came across a small herd of plains deer, maybe 11. Normally, you could get one or two before they got out of range, but Galana fired her first shots of the day and killed six by herself before the rest got into some high grass. One shot, one kill every time. I had figured the beasts had close to 300 health, so I was suitably impressed. She said she was holding back from engaging earlier to get the militia experience. She had also let me lead the group even though she probably had higher leadership skills than me. The day passed quickly, and the only exciting thing was our first encounter with a Pride Master. It was a level 15, and I was out of magic, so I decided to engage with my axe. Its first attack did 148 damage to me! Galana managed to distract it after I was hit, and as a group, we took it down quickly after that. Galana admonished me, saying that I was naked with the armor I was wearing currently and not to be foolish again. I took the scolding, and I knew she was right. I should only melee with weak creatures, but I wanted that lion kill! It was close to sunset, so we headed back. Galana was not happy with the fact that we bagged only two giant porcupines in the hunt. We unloaded our prizes at the tannery, and Curraen was impressed. 32 Cleardusk Plains Lions 2 Giant Porcupines 48 Cleardusk Plains Deer 3 Cleardusk Pride Master Lion Before leaving for my house, Galana told me she thought she saw signs of hoof tracks during the hunt, probably from the orcs we were expecting. She hadn¡¯t mentioned it because she was not 100% certain. She was going to have all the militia on alert tonight. She also requested to hire an alchemist to make potions of healing and stamina for the guards. I put it on my to-do list. I checked in with a few people back in town before going home. There was no time to play with the kids tonight, but the young elf girl ambushed me and made me promise to make her a dog carving. When I got home, Jaesmin was there, and a meal was on the table. I was a little unsure what was going on now. Did I somehow marry this young woman in the game? Did the game assign her as the lord¡¯s maid? I was a little too afraid to ask her, but I needed answers. The story, it turns out, was just as awkward. After the first time she had dinner in my house, the village rumor mill began to churn. Her mother had assumed she was making an ¡®honest¡¯ man out of me. Some villagers were happy I was not gay and encouraged her. Others were jealous of how close she was to me. Her mother kept pushing her to bed me and said she couldn¡¯t do better than a Lord. Feeling pressured, she had offered herself to me; that was the night I found her in my bed. When she didn¡¯t come home that night, her mother thought she had succeeded. Her mother was so happy that Jaesmin did not disappoint her with the truth. So she packed her things and moved in with me. Wait what! Was she living here? She had been beet red the entire time she relayed the story to me. I asked her how she felt about all this. After a very broken response, she admitted that she wanted to ¡®bed me.¡¯ Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Did this A.I. even know what that meant? How was sex in this game? I had not felt much sex drive in the game until this conversation, actually. I felt something now, like teenage lust. Was the game adapting? Perhaps I was switching from thinking of the NPCs as programs to actual people. Either way, I needed to make sure. I told her she could live here and tell the other villagers whatever she wanted about our relationship. As to the sex part¡ªI would let her know, just not tonight. I sat down in a chair, carved the promised dog, and put it in my bag when I was done. The carving was a great distraction, but it didn¡¯t help as I only thought about the recent conversation. It actually made me ornory, and I wanted to explore sex in the game. I started thinking about the other women I had met, Galana and Vivale foremost. Vivale definitely won the beauty contest in town. Galana, although large, wasn¡¯t far behind in my mind. My mind pictured Kytalia next; she was definitely willing and attractive, albeit an orc. I shook my head, cleared it, and went to my drafting table. I worked on the library/school plans. After a few hours, I still couldn¡¯t focus, with sexual thoughts pervading my mind. In the back of my head, I knew the game was somehow influencing me. I opened the notifications screen to see how well I raised my abilities today. The axe and two-handed axe both made a level, which is good since I had not used them too much today as I had plenty of magic. Drafting had gained three points! I wanted to stand up and dance, but remained calm. Earth magic was up two levels, and stone magic was up three! This seemed too big a gain for my time, and I knew there was no real-world equivalent like for drafting to accelerate my progress. I nearly jumped out of my seat when Simba jumped on the drafting table, ¡°Yes, combat does expedite skill growth. You probably remember your first fight with the lion, which lasted only a few minutes, yet you gained some advancement. The formula the Open World game uses is complicated, but let us just say you get 1 minute of equivalent training for every point of damage you do. There are modifiers for difficulty, party size, monster level etc.¡­ but you get the idea.¡± ¡°Where the hell have you been?¡± I asked, ignoring the info he had just provided. He sat down and began licking his paw. ¡°Well, I was on the kitchen table for the last two hours watching you, but before that, I was undergoing ¡®upgrades.¡¯ The programmers are processing beta testing feedback and beta testers¡¯ requests. I can now be leveled as a companion, which should make you love me even more. I get one skill at level one and one every level divisible by ten. I get four stat points every level as well.¡± He finished up cleaning and stretched. I had visions of the Monty Python and the Holy Grail Movie. The cute tiny bunny coming out of the cave and wreaking havoc. ¡°Well, what skill do you have?¡± ¡°None yet, you have to choose. You can also change my body with the update, but it will be locked after this. You can change it to a humanoid race if you wish.¡± The cat stopped and stared at me, waiting. I thought he could be my Alfred! Keeping the place clean and serving dinner. Or maybe a sex toy female elf like Vivale to relieve the newfound sex drive I was experiencing. Maybe a horse for transportation? I was getting excited at the options. I thought it best to take the decision out of my hands. ¡°Simba, you can choose your form and assign all your stats and skills as you level. It is completely in your control.¡± Nothing happened. I waited. Nothing happened. ¡°So, uh, what did you choose?¡± ¡°I choose my current form and the skill of nature magic. All my stat points went into magic. I need a spell to practice, so please get one as soon as possible.¡± Huh, ok. No butler, ferocious bunny, or sexy companion. ¡°So why did you choose this path?¡± I inquired. ¡°Simple. I am accustomed to this form, and once I become an expert in Nature: beast magic, I can transform into anything once I acquire the proper spell. So it offers the most versatility.¡± The cat replied as a matter of fact. ¡°Well, your body, your life,¡± I said. I went back, looking at my skills. Maybe Sanso had a first-level Nature spell he could teach him. I will check tomorrow. Let us see where I was. Leadership was up two levels, which is nice. I wondered if that was affected by the same battle quickening? No reply from Simba. I looked around and saw that he was stalking a small spider. He leaped on top of it and crushed it. He then turned to look at me. ¡°One experience!¡± He sounded happy. Did the programmers just create monsters? I could see thousands of bonded A.I.s killing everything in sight to gain experience! I turned back to my notifications, but there was no answer to my question. Nature and plants were both up one. I should get an offensive spell to help level this skill¡­ Ranged was at 7! It leveled four times. My stone spell made me David! Finally! Woodcraft and carpentry had both leveled once, but woodcraft was now level 23, which meant the next notification was¡­ You have achieved an expert level in woodcraft: carpentry. NPCs will now recognize you as a competent craftsman, and the quality of your constructs with this skill is now greatly improved! I actually stood up and danced a little jig this time. Simba got distracted from his next target and watched me. I could have sworn he was shaking his head from side to side in disappointment. I sat down and looked over the rest of the alerts. Level 9! I had gained two levels! What the hell? I went into preferences. I had set it so no notifications popped up, but notifications were instead stored for viewing at a later time. However, I wanted to know when I leveled, damn it. I had 12 stat points and four skill points. Skill points were easy; all went into masonry to raise it to 21. Just two points away from expert! But really, I needed the foundations to make an expert to build the inn. I could probably start the inn, and by the time it was done, my skill would have met the requirements, but I did not want to risk a lesser-quality building. I could end up with a crappy inn. I focused on my stat points¡­my stamina was still low, and speed was my lowest stat. I was doing really well with magic, too. I just needed higher-tier spells. I put two points into stamina, one into speed, and nine into magic. It was not ideal, and if I wanted a strong character, I should probably focus more on maxing certain stats, but I really wanted to build things like I was planning to do in real life. Maybe intellect would help? Next level maybe I would invest. Next I checked my NPC auction. No one had outbid me, and the auction expired in 16 days. My blacksmith timer said he would arrive in 5 days. I sat back and looked at the village overall. The quality level had not increased, which was too bad. Total population 105. Double of that when I arrived. It was diverse as well, and it was going to be more so when the cat beastkin blacksmith arrived with his family. The map of the city showed the yellow ¡®wall¡¯ in progress, and the green, safe areas were expanding. Once the wall was built, everything inside would be green and safe. I looked over the buildings and their placement. Not bad. I guessed no need for sewers under the streets because who used the bathroom in the game? It had been weird for me not going taking a morning shit, but I was getting used to it. I headed outside and started toward the docks but turned when I saw the children playing. I walked up to them and found the elf girl. She looked at me, actually quiet for once and expectant. I reached into my bag and produced the figurine. She took it reverently and then started to scream in joy. It was like I had just given her a pony on her birthday. I turned to walk away, but before getting too far, she hugged my leg and was crying. ¡°Thank you, thank you. They killed my dog on our way here, and I missed him so much.¡± What? ¡°Who and where?¡± I asked seriously. ¡°One of you outworlders. He was with some others but was the only mean one. His name was Hellspawn. I said his name was stupid, and he grabbed Druffy, broke his neck, and walked away laughing.¡± She was fighting tears back now. I went into my interface and flagged Hellspawn. ¡°If that bastard shows up here, he will not be welcome.¡± I turned with a stern face and left. There was evil in this realm, not just the evil created by the AIs. I returned, found Jaesmin, and brought her to the future sight of the inn. We marked off the inn, and I told her to start digging. It would have a double basement, so a lot of earth needed to be moved. I was sure Sanso could do it quickly, but I wanted to give her another project on top of the chicken coop palace she was trying to perfect. Also, Sanso was busy hardening the structures in town, and I wanted to get the inn started. I told her not to worry about paving the crossroads anymore. I then went to find Sanso. I noticed Simba had been following me from the house. He now trotted next to me. Oh, yeah, I had promised to get him a spell. I found Sanso talking with Elice at the store. I greeted both of them, and Elice took her leave, seeing I was looking for Sanso. I first asked about a translocation stone. Could he build one with his magic? The answer was yes, but it would require a master enchanter to activate it. I then asked Sanso if he had any first-tier nature spells. He had two: sense life and forecast weather. No damage-dealing spells. I then produced ten silver coins and asked him to teach Simba the sense life spell. He looked at me, then at Simba, and then back at me about a dozen times. I had forgotten I was the only one who could hear Simba. I eventually said, ¡°Just do it.¡± Rather than explain too much, ¡°The cat might not look like much, but he is smart,¡± I told Sanso. I left them with Simba staring at Sanso with big, sad eyes. I decided to head to the plains today. It was not a hunting day, but I could go be myself. There were six guards atop the tower. They said Galana was home making more arrows, and there were four guards inside sleeping. The rest of the guards were in the village, getting supplies and resting. I would need to upgrade this structure if we were going to have this many guards here. The earth wall was getting longer but not much higher. It was probably almost a half mile long to the south now. Curraen and his son were very busy as well. I told the guards I would be gone all day and get Galana in an emergency. Chapter 11 First Death

Chapter 11: First Death

I walked out into the plains. My first encounter went well. I did some ranged damage to soften up the beast and then drew my axe on the cat as it approached. I only had 14 damages, much better than yesterday. I recovered my hit points as I moved from one encounter to the next. I made sure only to fight one cat at a time. I was headed west, away from town. I was looking at a herd of five deer when six orcs appeared fully armored, rising out of grass that was much too short to hide them. This must be some stealth skill. ¡°Human. We are looking for some thieves. We think they are in the village to the east of here. You came from there. Have you seen them?¡± Ah, shit. Figures. I now wished I had taken that damn speed amulet so I could run the fuck away. Coulda, woulda, shoulda. ¡°I don¡¯t know, what did they look like?¡± I asked, stalling. But then the orc next to him elbowed him and pointed at my bracelet. Double shit. If I had been kind to Kytalia and let her keep everything, I would have had a chance of getting out of this. Now I was fucked, karma for taking it had just bitten me in the ass. The orcs all drew their weapons, some kind of scimitar. I gripped my axe. ¡°Human, it appears you know exactly who I am talking about.¡± I extremely doubted my speed was faster than any of these guys, and they also had bows on their backs anyway. I had no way out of this but waited for them to make the first move. The speaker then said the words I feared, ¡°Kill him!¡± I would like to say I put up a good fight, but that was not the case. I landed two blows on the leader and one on a subordinate before I died. I learned the scouting party¡¯s levels, at least as their blows pummeled me. One level 20, four level 15, and one level 14. YOU ARE DEAD, RESSURECTION TIMER 60:00 Well, that was a FUBAR on my part. Overconfident, stupid. The timer counted down while I waited in what appeared to be a doctor¡¯s office waiting room. Some light music played. I would say it sounded like elevator music. Simba appeared on a couch. And looked at me with a serious cat expression, ¡°So you died? How does it feel?¡± I looked at myself. I only had my bag of holding and my clothes. My magic items and my weapons were gone, as was my pitiful armor. I wanted to get angry, but it was only one person¡¯s fault, mine. ¡°I am ok, but as soon as I get out of here, I am going to get some revenge.¡± I was able to open my interface. I sat down on the couch and worked on my village map. I was able to parcel land for housing. Each lot in the ¡®city¡¯ would be 50 feet by 100 feet. It was big enough for a house and a small garden in the back. I made road maps through the main town. Then, I placed large lots for commercial buildings. They lined the road where the inn was scheduled to be built on my lot. The general store had a few lots of housing between it and the new commercial district, but oh well. Then, I thought I would build the commercial district buildings to have housing on the second and third floors, making them multi-purpose. This would allow us to concentrate the population for protection and interaction. I zoned some out lands for farming and livestock, 4 acres for each, which the game noted as the best size for a family of four to work. I only had six plots of farmland inside the future walls. The rest were outside the walls. I had just finished the 40th farm lot when my timer expired. YOU WILL BE RESURRECTED AT YOUR LAST FLAGGED POINT I was worried because I had not flagged a point yet but relieved as I appeared in my bedroom. Simba came with me. I went to the general store and bought the only axe she had. I then found Galana and told her we were going orc hunting. On the path to the tower, I told her what had happened. I told her the orc levels and believed we could take them. She tried to stop me, but I was too angry. Her concern was an ambush. Had I seen all the orcs? Where were their horses? I got to the tower and summoned the guards to me. I told them the plan was to find orc and kill orc. Galana looked unhappy the entire time. The two remaining sentries at the top of the tower yelled riders coming. We all scrambled up to the top, and the building felt more like concrete now instead of wood from Sanso¡¯s work. I told eight men to wait at the trap door. That put just the two guards, Galana and me, on the tower. Sure enough, six orc riders approached slowly, riding massive mounts. The mounts looked like jet-black Clydesdales. The horses looked fit and muscular as well. I was impressed and wanted one¡­or six. I stood behind Galana so they wouldn¡¯t recognize me. The orc leader spoke first. ¡°We have come for our kin. Turn them over, and we will do you no harm.¡± Standing behind Galana, I spoke. ¡°Do you attack all travelers you find out in the plains?¡± I then stepped from behind Galana for my big reveal. The orc leader fidgeted for a second. Galana motioned for the archers to come up and stay low so they could not be seen from where the orcs were on the ground. The orc responded. ¡°So you are an outworlder. It matters not. You were weak, and we slew you easily, and we will do it again and again until you return to us what is ours.¡± He was yelling by the end. I got to the edge of the tower and noticed all the orcs were ready to attack. ¡°I have two words for you,¡± I said, pointing my finger at him, ¡°Kill him!¡± My archers stood up, and the barrage of arrows took down the leader. Three earth elementals emerged from the earth behind the orcs and detained two of the mounts. ¡°Try to spare the horses!¡± I told my archers as the orcs began to fall. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Galana was deadly. The sound of her arrows hitting was heavy and echoed with a loud thud. Two of the bastards turned and fled. The archers took one down, and Galana got an arrow into the other, but he stayed in his saddle and continued galloping away out of range. Shit, I had a feeling his getting away was going to be a bad thing down the line. I briefly thought of hopping on a steed and pursuing him, but I had no idea how to ride. I descended the tower and went over to the corpses. I found my lost gear on the leader in a bag on his hip. I took it and returned it to my person. Two militia helped me loot the corpses. In all, they had 92 silver and 242 copper. I handed out two silver to each of the militia and pocketed the rest of the silver and copper for the town coffers. I also got two minor magic rings. Black Onyx Ring of Health, +2 constitution, +100 health Brass Braided Ring of Endurance, +3 stamina Galana took the rest of the non-magical gear into the tower that was now our ¡®armory,¡¯ and I put the rings on. Guess I needed to build a barracks with an armory. So many things to do. I was also prompted to learn a new skill called analysis. I went to the wiki to find out what it did. It allowed me to identify items and also to get information about enemies in combat. Only unique, scarce, epic, legendary, and artifact items needed the analyze skill. Analyze could also be used on anything. For creatures and NPCs, you had to be at an equal or higher level than the creature being analyzed. Leveling up the analyze skill helped. It was intelligence-based, so I would get a little magic when it gained a new tier. I had wanted the skill but had left it off my preferred list for some reason. I accepted as it seemed useful. I didn¡¯t want to start combat only to find out my opponent was ten levels higher. Analyze, Level 1, Tier 1, +1 Intelligence, success in analyzing creatures up to one level higher than current level So, being level nine meant I could successfully read information up to level 10 on a person or creature. I tried the skill on the tower. Guard Tower belonging to the village of Malcum. This building is made of petrified wood. Health 5000, Armor 40. I noticed a small lizard nearby and analyzed it. Gray Grass Gecko, Level 1, Health 2, Experience 1, Attack: None, Defense 0 I turned to one of the big horses and tried. Black Mountain Steed, Level ??, Health ??, Experience ??, Attack ??, Defense ?? So, the horse was at least level 11. My soldiers were waiting for instruction as I had been distracted playing with my new skill. I had Galana reduce the guards to just four in the tower for the next two days. We would do excursions into the plains to level up as much as possible to prepare. I had a feeling we were going to need to get stronger quickly. As we walked back to the village with the horses, I began analyzing everything. Galana Hearthome, Giantkin: Storm, Level ??, Health ??, Experience ??, Attack ??, Defense ?? Shantil Crestvale, Human: Common, Level 7, Health 355, Experience 250, Attack: 25-65, Defense 24 Gregor Waterhouse, Human: Common, Level 7, Health 385, Experience 260, Attacks: 28-56, Defense 24 Very interesting. All the militia were either level seven or eight. At least the ones walking with Galana and me. The analysis skill gave a quick overview of a creature that would allow one to decide if it was capable of being defeated. I tried to analyze myself. Tallis, Level 9, Health 705, Experience 405, Attack: 26-132, Defense 10 From this, I was able to figure out that it included my stone bullet damage as the minimum and my axe as the maximum. It would have been nice to see the attacks broken down, but oh well. My crappy defense was a big concern now. My militia had a better defense than me. I needed to upgrade. I looked at the wiki. The defense was divided by ten to give armor before other modifiers. Armor reduced damage from each attack by that many points. Some attacks could ignore armor as well, and some special defenses added armor versus specific attacks. The defense also had another component. It reduced the percentage of damage. The baseline was 1000 points of defense, which equaled 10%. Did that mean 10,000 defense individuals were immune to damage? It said up to 50% max here, but the higher defense would still add to the armor. Still, that meant someone with 5000 defense would only be damaged by attacks that did over one thousand points each hit. Damn, one could dream. There are lots of layers to the mechanic, and it is somewhat confusing for having just looked at it. I would figure it out more at another time¡­ I continued to analyze everything from grass to bugs to individual pieces of gear on the way back. How did I ever live without this skill? It was a lot quicker than going to the wiki every time. When we got to town, the elf, orc, and human children were playing some kind of hide-and-seek game. Simba looked to be hunting a mouse, and I guess he had upgraded from insects. Villagers were going about their daily lives. Looking around, it felt real, and I wanted to protect this. There was a commotion when the horses were led in. The children were excited, the orcs looked fearful, and the humans were inquisitive. I announced that if anyone knew how to care for horses, they would be my new Master of Horses. No one stepped forward. Did anyone want to learn? Every child suddenly volunteered, and two teenage-looking elves were among them. I told the children they could get jobs when they got older but gave the responsibility to the sibling elves for now. The two elves were Opheela and Trista. They appeared 14ish to a human, but as elves in this game, they were probably older. The massive black steeds dwarfed them. The horses seemed to respond well to them, though. I called in Jaesmin from digging, and together, we went to my mill to get lumber to build a fenced pasture. It took the rest of the day, but we got a two-acre sturdy enclosure built next to the mill. With horses secured, the elf girls brought them water and grain. They were so excited about their new duties. The horses were also very calm around both of them, so I hoped the elven teens would not get injured as their dad would kill me. I went to my house with Jaesmin, and she prepared a meal while I was at my drafting table. I spent the evening designing a stable with twenty stalls. It would be stone for the first three feet of the walls and then wood for the remainder. It was more like an old-fashioned barn with the stalls facing each other and a wide central walkway. The loft would have hay and grain storage. Unfortunately, I didn¡¯t have enough lumber to build it. We had enough for a chicken coop after the fence for the horses today. I was getting frustrated with the lack of materials, but I could do nothing. Chapter 12 New Leathers

Chapter 12: New Leathers

I slept a few hours before dawn and found Jaesmin in my bed when I woke, curled under my arm. Well, as much as a six-foot woman can curl under a man¡¯s arm. Her hair smelled like lavender and was silky soft as I brushed it with the back of my hand. Her body was lean and firm, and her muscles pressed against me. She had on a thin negligee that was see-through. Tan lines from working in the sun were visible. I touched her skin. It was soft and warm. I felt desire stirring and extracted myself from the situation. It is just her programming, I thought. She has chosen to seduce you because that is what her programming is telling her to do. And she is not real, I reminded myself. But would it be wrong? It wasn¡¯t like she was real, and how would it be wrong to follow through with my desires? I hesitated briefly as she turned on the bed to reorient face down and hugged a pillow now that I was out of the bed. The mannerisms seemed too real, too life-like. Her firm buttocks were shaped perfectly under the negligee. Focus! I equipped my gear and went downstairs. I looked at the door from the top of the stairs again for a moment before I turned and left. I stopped in the town store on the way to the tower. I wanted to see if there was any better armor. To my shock, there was now an entire section of the store with leather goods. Everything from bags to household goods to armor. It only had a few pieces of armor, but they were better than what I had. Curraen, I presumed, had been hard at work. I talked with Elice, and she confirmed my suspicions. She said Curraen had made me a suit of leather, and I should stop by the tannery to pick it up. I admired his work in the store before leaving. Nothing in the store was lower than rare quality. Guess that is what a master leatherworker can achieve. Elice mentioned there was a currency problem in the village. There were not enough coins now that people were switching from the barter system to coins. Hmm, I gave her all the coins from my bag for the town treasury. Hopefully, the silver and copper I had taken from the orcs would help. Elice would act as my town bank in the general store. I briefly considered the security issue; maybe post a militia here? I will worry about it later. That done, I skipped out the door, eager to see what he had made for me. I saw one of the elf teens, Trista, I think, riding one of the black mounts in the fenced-in area by the mill. She looked like a natural at it. But I had other business and didn¡¯t stop. I didn¡¯t even pause when I saw Simba on a roof stalking a sparrow on a gutter, looking the other way. Curraen was outside working on some hides. ¡°Ah, Lord Tallis. Good to see you. Things have calmed down a bit, and I have a gift for you!¡± Excellent! He brought me inside, where his son was working. ¡°Thank you for giving my daughters an esteemed job, they could not stop talking about it last night during dinner. They even kept my youngest daughter enthralled. I know nothing about horses, but those mounts are exceptional beasts. Ah, here we are.¡± On a rough mannequin was a complete set of dark blue and white armor. It matched the color scheme Galana had picked out for the soldiers. I started to undress and equip the gear without analyzing it. I could see the stats once it was completely equipped. Very Rare Heavy Leather Armor, Weight 34.5 lbs, -3 speed, +3 agility, +8 constitution, Defense Bonus 60, Armor 5, Durability 131/131 Very Rare Leather Bracers, Weight 6.8 lbs, +4 strength, +4 agility, Defense Bonus 10, Durability 131/131 Very Rare Leather Combat Boots, Weight 3.8 lbs, +4 speed, +4 agility, Defense Bonus 10, Durability 131/131 Very Rare Leather Greaves, Weight 12.4 lbs, +8 stamina, Defense Bonus 15, Armor 1, Durability 131/131 I wish I had a mirror. I felt incredible. I could feel the stat enhancements when I donned the armor. My soldiers would have a chance against the orcs with gear like this. The analysis showed the details of the animal hides that were used. All the gear seemed to incorporate many skins. Curraen seemed to know what I was doing and spoke, ¡°The quality of the hides is what is important when I craft. The better the material and my skill, the better the bonuses. Only the pride masters had high-quality hide from what you have brought me so far.¡± He paused and continued reluctantly, ¡°I appreciate the home and this place to work Lord Tallis, but I wanted to discuss compensation for my services.¡± Ah, yes, he wasn¡¯t on the payroll yet. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. ¡°I noticed your wares in the store. Are you making coins from them?¡± I asked as friendly as I could. ¡°Well, no, I am not. Those are your goods. Any coins from sales will go to your coffers. Typically, an employed craftsman owes forty hours of labor a week to his employer.¡± Curraen said truthfully. I nodded as I had learned that much from Sanso. Being a master craftsman, I knew this man¡¯s price was going to be high. Where was Simba when I needed him? Well, I could negotiate on my own. ¡°How does one gold a month sound, and I will double it after one year? Also, if you complete a year of service, can you take ownership of the house and this tannery building?¡± I should look up how much these buildings are worth before giving them away. Damn it, why couldn¡¯t Simba be here. I tried to use analyze, but it didn¡¯t give a value, just a brief description, and health. I returned my attention to listen to Curraen¡¯s answer. He was disappointed as he spoke, ¡°That is a nice offer, but I was hoping for more. Maybe two gold for the first year and four gold after the first year?¡± If he was producing gear like this after only a few days, then I knew he was going to be a virtual bank for me. I didn¡¯t want to give in, though. I countered. ¡°Ok, how about this in addition to my offer. You can retain 5% of the hides and pelts we bring from hunts for your personal use.¡± Before I could get out another word, he said, ¡°Done!¡± I suddenly felt like I had been cheated. I figured 5% was maybe a gold or two. But I had forgotten that as our town grew, so would our haul. But then again, maybe Curraen was just figuring out the value of his crafted goods from the allotment. Well, what was done was done. We shook on it. The sun was mid-morning, and I felt like leveling. The tower had four guards watching the plains. I sent one of the guards to get Galana and the five strongest militia. I looked at the plains while waiting from atop the tower. The earth wall the elementals were building made it harder to see much from the ground unless I crossed over the earthen wall. I could see the plains were well populated again with creatures. Today was a smash and grab, a bloody romp through the plains at speed to gather as much experience as possible. When Galana arrived, she had a tired look on her face. She had been up all night making bows and arrows. After talking with her, I learned that, apparently, the orc who escaped yesterday had gotten her worried. I was worried too, but I needed her as mother goose for this plains romp. I hoped to level myself and the best warriors we had. Off we went. Galana knew the general area where three pride masters would respawn, so those are the areas we headed to first. After some easy distance kills, we went north and followed the base of the mountains west. We ran into a massive bear from the northern mountains. We retreated and tried to range it, but it was too fast. Eventually, Galana said she would melee it to keep its focus, and everyone else needed to continue with ranged attacks to take it down. By the end of the fight, Galana was very bloodied but alive. I checked the log, and the beast had yielded 5000 experience, a massive pelt, meat, and bear teeth. We had to skin it to get it in the bag of holding. We took everything else we could from it as well. I then made the decision to keep our distance from the high level mountains, of course, I was the one who had chosen to run along the base in the first place, but no one mentioned my error. We resumed our hunt, and Galana healed slowly. We really did need an alchemist to make potions. We ate jerky and water as we continued for hours, running over encounters and grinding out experience. We found four more pride masters by the end of the day. The sun was close to setting, and we were almost ten miles from the tower. Galana had asked me a few times when we would head back, now we had only a few hours of daylight, and I concurred it was time. We bee-lined for the tower and found one more pride master on the way. We got to the tower after dark, and there were now ten guards. Apparently, they were worried and discussing whether a search party should be sent. Curraen was there with his sword ready as well. He was a good man. Our group went to the tannery with him and deposited our catch for the day. 69 Cleardusk Plains Lions 11 Giant Porcupines 48 Cleardusk Plains Deer 8 Cleardusk Pride Master Lion Galana took the porcupine quills to work on arrows. I told Galena that I wanted the next seven best warriors, the second tier, to go with me tomorrow. We were going to hit the pride lion respawn points, and she could stay home and make arrows. She didn¡¯t complain. I was anxious to see my skill increases but held off. I hadn¡¯t leveled, so I resisted. Once I leveled, I would check everything. That night, I went back to drafting and worked on the school/library building. This building kept getting bigger as I worked¡­ Chapter 13 Dungeon Found

Chapter 13: Dungeon Found

I worked till morning on the library plans, engrossed with what I was doing. With the sun starting to rise, I left the house. I found Simba chasing a weasel. I stopped to analyze the cat. Simba (Tallis¡¯ Companion), Level 3, Health 150, Experience 75, Attack 6-8, Defense 0 Simba stopped his pursuit and trotted over to me confidently. ¡°Morning, Tallis. I am ready for another spell. I have unlocked tier 4 in nature magic.¡± ¡°Good job. Let¡¯s go see if we can find Sanso before I hit the plains for some hunting.¡± I headed north to his home. Sanso¡¯s building was now four stories high and looked like a rough mini-round castle tower. He obviously didn¡¯t have an artist¡¯s touch. Sanso was nowhere to be found, though. I knocked, and there was nothing, not even an earth elemental. Huh, I looked at Simba, ¡°Well, next time I see him, I will get him to teach you a new spell.¡± I ignored the cat¡¯s protests and headed toward the guard tower next to the plains. My hunting group was there and ready. I also saw Opheela and Trista riding the black steeds back to town from the tower. I was sure all the horses now had good names. I still could not believe this was just a game. I would have thought everything was real if it had not been for the magic and screens. When I got to the tower, I learned the girls had just come by to drop off food for the tower watchers. My seven hunters were all geared in blue and white leather armor; thank you, Curraen! They looked sharp, professional, and ready to go. We headed out on a path toward the nearest pride master respawn location. We killed a few creatures on our way there. The pride master was resting with two regular lions. I split our forces to focus on the minor lions first, and once their target was down, I had everyone focus on the pride master. The pride master managed to close on the group, and I went melee to keep it occupied. My new armor was awesome. I never took more than 98 damage from a hit. I thought I should probably not have tried to solo a pride master yet. When the pride master went down, I received a notification of a level increase! I eagerly opened the combat log, feeling the endorphin rush. Bam, there it was. I scrolled through the logs and noticed the exp for this pride master was about 70% higher than yesterday. I had to think about it. Maybe it was the presence of Galana? Yes, that made sense. Was that why she withheld from combat on our first hunting trip? It was quicker leveling for everyone else. But yesterday, I ordered her to participate. She should have objected but didn¡¯t. Not wanting to waste time, I dropped two points in masonry, and for stats, I added four intelligence and two magic. I got the group moving toward the next site for a pride master. When we got there, this pride master also had two guardians. We repeated our battle plan. Throughout the morning, we hit all the pride masters marked on my map, who now all had two guards. Was the game adapting? It made no difference as we were strong enough to take them easily. Resting for a few minutes after the ninth pride master, I opened the map to plot a path. Returning to the tower was a long arc covering some new territory. It should allow another six hours of grinding. Halfway through the arc, we found four porcupines together. I marked the area on my map, hoping it was a spawning site for Glana to get a collection of quills daily. We took them easily, and one of the militia found a strange rock nearby and asked me to inspect it. I used analyze on it. Entrance to Crypt of the Phoenix King, Level 20, Floors 5, *Scaling Dungeon* I had to use the wiki to sort out the notification. It was pretty simple; level 20 was the average level of monsters on the first floor. The average level went up by one on each floor you descended. That meant the 5th floor was level 24 monsters. The scaling dungeon was interesting. Once the final boss on the lowest floor was defeated, the dungeon would increase in difficulty when it was reset. I changed my map marker from ¡®porcupine harvest¡¯ to ¡®Quills and Crypt.¡¯ Inspecting the stone, I saw that it was a large circular object about six feet across. Unreadable writing was written along the outer edge. Was it trapped? Was it a riddle? I took a screenshot and saved it. I didn¡¯t want to share this with other players. A scaling dungeon sounded rather awesome, and it was only about six miles from my village. It being hidden in the grass made it almost impossible to spot¡­except by air. The circular shape would definitely be easy to discern. I ordered the militia to cover it with dirt. Best to hide this for now and return when I was level 20. The rest of the hunting trip was uneventful. We had a pretty good haul for the day. 72 Cleardusk Plains Lions 15 Giant Porcupines 21 Cleardusk Plains Deer 11 Cleardusk Pride Master Lion The militia was tasked with dealing with the harvest. I went home. Simba came bounding up the road. ¡°He is in the general store!¡± Was all he said as he raced back in the direction of the store. Who? I figured it was probably Sanso. I diverted and went to the store. It was dusk, and the kids were probably all inside. Sanso was buying some goods from Elice when I went in. I smiled and asked him if he had time to teach me a new stone spell tonight. I felt Simba¡¯s claws dig into my leg through the leather! It lost a durability point. I added after pausing for dramatic effect, ¡°Please teach Simba a new nature spell as well.¡± We talked about the stone spells he had. He had a summon stone that would help build but required a large amount of mana and was tier five. Excellent. What else? Something offensive. Hail of stones was a tier-five spell that pelted a small area with fist-sized rocks. Great, I would take both. And for Simba? He reminded me his nature spells were limited. He had a tier-three vine growth spell, which could be used to snare one opponent, but the vine¡¯s strength and health were only equal to the caster¡¯s nature skill. Anything with a higher strength could break free. Excellent, teach us both! His only tier-five nature: plant spell was wood elemental. It summoned a three-foot wood elemental that could manage a garden or orchard. It was a very weak combatant but had some plant growth spells. I also learned that the number of elementals one could summon was equal to one, plus their charisma was divided by 10. We went to my house, and I paid him for the spells via store credit. It was 60 silver for a tier 3 and 2 gold for a tier 5. Damn, easy come, easy go. Oh well, I needed to utilize my magic more anyway. Summon Stone Earth: Stone Tier 5, Magic Cost: 200, Effect: Summon stone with volume 27 cu feet, Casting Time: 1 minute, Range 5 yards Hail of Stones Earth: Stone Tier 5, Magic Cost 50, Effect: A hail of apple-sized stones pelt an area of 20 feet by 20 feet for five seconds, Damage: 100 per second, Casting Time: 5 seconds, Range 100 yards Vine Growth Nature Tier 3, Magic Cost 25, Effect: Vines grow beneath target and ensnare them, vines strength is equal to nature skill, vine health is equal to nature skill x 4, Casting Time: 3 seconds, Range 120 yards Summon Wood Elemental Nature: Plant Tier 5, Magic Cost 500, Effect: Summon a level 5 wood elemental to aide you, Casting Time: 10 minutes The vines were a little stronger than Sanso had said when we talked, but oh well. I rushed outside and cast summon stone, setting the stone for a 9¡¯ x 9¡¯ x 1¡¯ slab. It appeared at the end of the summoning on the path to my house. Awesome, no wonder Sanso was able to build a road so fast. Next, I summoned two wood elementals and set them off to the garden on my property. They looked like tree men with bark skin. They didn¡¯t speak, just gestured, but responded to commands well. My property had plenty of brush and weeds that needed clearing. I was out of magic after the castings. Sanso had left while I was playing with my new toys. Simba was out in the dark using his new spell to hunt, and I saw that he had just caught an owl. He was one focused cat. I went inside again and to my drafting table. Jaesmin brought me some tea and pie. I worked till morning. At first light, I stretched for a bit and went outside. The area surrounding the house looked like a professional landscaper had worked magic last night! The grass was trimmed. Bushes and flowers were transplanted to be appealing. Those wood elementals were a good investment! I walked to the guard tower to head out again with a new group. Galana was there waiting for me. She was smiling and all happy with the hunt results yesterday. She wanted to check out the porcupine spawn area. Sure, why not? It seemed I only had six militia members today. The seventh one had to tend her fields after something had gotten into her garden and had stolen some plants last night. I had some idea what had happened but kept my mouth shut. I went to my interface nonchalantly and set the wood elementals range to be just my property. I saw on the map one was a little north of it. I decided to give them more freedom and just banned them from the villager¡¯s properties instead. I was drawn back to the ongoing conversation. Galana said the scout had probably made it back to the orc settlement by now, and if they chose to attack, it would be in 3-6 days. They had 200 warriors, so if they came in force, it would be a massacre. I hoped they wouldn¡¯t, but the quest seemed to make it inevitable. I analyzed the militia. Everyone was up a single level. Not good enough. I practiced vine growth on all the targets today. It had a low magic cost and slowed the cats down. It also helped with deer as well. We soon reached the dungeon site and there were four porcupines there! Galana was extremely excited that she now had an easy harvest for quills. Normally, the porcupines were found solo. She could usually get about a dozen usable quills from each animal. She planned to come here every day on a horse to gather them. Wait what? Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. She explained she had started to learn the riding skill. Well, I guess those horses were large enough that she would look normal on one. I was a bit jealous. I told her all four of her full-time guards should learn riding as well. She agreed but asked for time for her to develop proficiency before the guards started. That way, she could help and be on equal footing. I agreed, thinking I was well on my way to calvary. I showed the new militia and Galana where the crypt was. We brushed it off, and Galana recognized the script as giantkin writing. Did each race in the game have its our unique language? It was old, but after we brushed it off, she could make out most of it. It said The Third King of the Brighthall clan was buried here with his devout warriors to guard him. Galana knew about the Brighthall clan as they were famous in their mythos. The Brighthall clan used to number in the thousands before the war between the giants. The giantkin were used as pawns in their struggles before breaking away. Now, there was a strong animosity between giants and giantkin. That was all she remembered from her history. She assumed the stone just needed to be moved to access the crypt and activate the dungeon. She could probably do fine down there, but I said we were covering it up for now and hiding it again. Galana went back to town with her quill harvest, and my troupe went around to see the pride masters. After finishing off the eleven pride masters and some other minor monsters, we returned. We went to Curraen to drop off the haul. He had another gift for me. Unique Bear Cloak, Weight 20 lbs, +5 strength, +5 constitution, +5 stamina, +5 charisma, Immunity up to tier 5 cold spell & effects, Durability: 240/240 It was heavy, but the strength bonus made up for it. I put it on and put my lion cloak into my bag. It made me feel like a Stark wearing this monstrosity. I wouldn¡¯t have been able to fight well in it, but it did create an imposing image. The weather was just starting to turn, so this was good. I was told we should get snowfall in a month or so. I thanked him and went home. I took a meal from Jaesmin to my drafting table. I was on my fifth redesign of the library. It was no longer a library and school, just a library. It was eight stories, with the central chamber holding a massive skylight chamber. There were five wings. The sub-basement had three levels, two for archives and one for a vault. The first floor was full of academic research space and offices for librarians. This building was going to be my masterpiece! I worked almost till morning but did sleep for a few hours. I climbed into bed with Jaesmin. She was not wearing the sexy gown tonight; she just wore a gray tee and shorts. Still alluring, I put my back to her and dreamed of completing my library. I fell asleep and awoke with her sprawled across me. She smelled good, of earth and faint lavender perfume. Before I could get aroused, I got up, put on my gear, and left. I went to the sight of the inn first. Jaesmin had finished the hole. Only in a VR game could one single woman excavate so much earth. I went down in the hole and cast five slabs, using all my magic but starting the basement floor. If I did this in the morning and at night, I could work on the inn without slowing down. I then walked to the guard tower but stopped. There was smoke coming from the blacksmith¡¯s forge building. I rushed over, thinking there was a fire. When I entered, I saw a panther man stoking the fire. A cheetah woman held two small ones. They all looked nervous as I burst in without announcing myself. They also looked emaciated. After a pause, ¡°Sorry, Lord,¡± the panther said. ¡°We arrived late last night and took shelter here.¡± ¡°No worries, I thought the building was on fire, so that caused my violent entrance.¡± I went to the village tab, and Manarag was the blacksmith¡¯s name. ¡°Welcome Manarag to Malcum. I see you are anxious to get started.¡± He nodded. The group of them did not look too enthused. After talking for a bit, they eventually opened up. They had been robbed twice, passing through the human lands. The first time their wagon and goods were stolen, and the second time, their personal possessions and coin. Well, shit, that really sucked. My village was centered within human lands, and I was beginning to think racism was prevalent outside my village. I listened to them for a good hour, retelling the tale. The cheetah woman was worried that since this was a human settlement, they would also be abused here. I allayed her fears as much as I could. When it was time to negotiate salary, he asked for two gold a month. Rather than haggle with him, I affirmed the wage and said they could take goods from the general store on credit to furnish their home. They were surprised they had a home. I showed them the building I prepared for them, and they both immediately seemed to feel more comfortable. That not-so-shy elf child with an orc girl in tow came up to the two male cat children and asked them to play. They both looked to their mother. I interrupted, ¡°They had a long journey and need to eat first.¡± The elf looked disappointed, but before she could ask a hundred questions, I shooed her away. I went with them to the store and told Elice to give them two gold credit in the store. I felt like I had worked all day, but the sun had not yet crested over the plains. I went to the tower for another hunt. The teen elf horsekeepers were riding two mounts through town with the other children cheering. I waved and made my escape. The tower only had two militia on guard. I climbed the tower and asked where everyone was. Apparently, when I didn¡¯t show, Galana took out a party instead. Well, I needed a day off. I decided drafting the library was a good idea. I stopped at the inn site and made a few more slabs. I learned I could use the interface to lock the slabs together by adjusting their ¡®materialization form¡¯. I would come out and do this again every six hours when my magic was restored and hoped to finish the sub-basement soon. I got to work on drafting and setting a timer in my HUD. The first time it sounded, I almost ignored it. But why waste the free magic and building progress. I walked to the inn and started casting. The village was fairly quiet. A few people mingled here and there. I caught sight of one of my tree elementals. It was carrying what looked like a strawberry plant toward my house. I quickly finished my castings and ran to follow the critter. The elemental carried the plant toward the river behind the mill. I found an expansive garden of vegetable plants and berry bushes around the corner. The second elemental was watering the plants; the one I followed was planting the strawberry plant. I cast analyze on the plant. Sweet Wild Strawberry Bush, difficult to grow in gardens. The fruits of this plant are valuable for cooking and potion creation Walking through the garden, I saw beans, squashes, tomatoes, root crops, and many herbs. I was busy analyzing everything, and I did not notice one of the elementals cross the river. Damn, they must have been harvesting and replanting this garden from all over the area, including the forest, since I wasn¡¯t allowing them to partake from the townsfolk¡¯s properties. The other elemental had finished planting and had cast a spell on the strawberry bush. It grew a few inches and took solid root. The little woodman then left to gather something else, probably. I spent the next hour sampling the vegetables, fruits, and herbs. They were all fantastic and fresh. The wood elemental returned from across the river with a new herb plant. I analyzed it, too. Sweet Blue Basil, a herb used primarily in cooking There was just a wealth of variety here. I opened my commands for the elementals and noticed my charisma was now over 30, meaning I could summon a third one. I did so immediately. Then, I looked at the command structure I had given them. It was open, just indicating to landscape and garden my estate. Since I had no garden, they had made one. The new elemental seemed to converse briefly with one of the existing ones before heading north along the bank of the river. By selecting the individual elementals, I could refine their duties. It took me a second to ¡®think¡¯ out the command to harvest the garden and deliver it to the store. This way, I could sell a variety of fruits and vegetables and hopefully increase morale. That done, I went inside to continue drafting. Elice came by two hours later to ask about the produce and herbs. I told her to sell them in the store and also alert the townsfolk about my elementals. We talked briefly about prices, and basically, I wanted everything affordable for the townsfolk, and she returned to the store and was happy to comply. Eventually, my alarm went off, and I cast some more stone slabs. I was short of magic from summoning the elemental, but that was fine. On my way back from the inn, I found Simba battling a trapped raccoon. After he fished it off, I approached. ¡°How goes it, Simba?¡± He seemed to ignore me as he started off looking for more prey. A child came from around the corner and took the dead raccoon, saying, ¡°Pardon my Lord, just collecting the spoils of your kitten.¡± And then the child was off. ¡°Simba, get back here!¡± I said more forcefully. The cat stopped and turned, looking at me for a minute before coming to sit before me, tail twitching in irritation. ¡°Yes, do you need me? Perhaps in selecting your new talent?¡± I was stumped. Talent? Oh, that is right. I was in level 10 and had not selected a talent yet. Actually, I hadn¡¯t checked on my skill advancement in a while. I should really do that. It was hard to remember that this was actually a game. ¡°Yes, I need help with my talent selection. I am also trying to figure out your single-mindedness in hunting everything in sight?¡± I said. ¡°I am trying to reach level 10 as quickly as possible to gain the skill nature: beast.¡± And the cat just stared at me like it was the most natural thing in the world. It seemed something else was going on here, but I couldn¡¯t figure it out, and Simba was not talking. It was probably nothing to get worked up over. I told Simba he could help me while I was at the drafting table. I returned home, sat down, and opened up the notifications I had ignored. Let me see what we have. A single level in axe and two-handed axe. I would have to work on this skill. It was my only melee skill right now. No advancement in carving. Six points is drafting! Amazing, skill level 24! This was great, 48% quicker build time to go with it. I momentarily marveled at the number 24 on the screen before continuing. Earth magic was up six points, and earth: stone was up seven. All that hunting on the planes had paid off! Masonry foundation was up two, and the masonry structures were the same. Foundation was at 19, and I needed 23 for the inn. I was getting close. Nature magic was up three, so the vine growth spell in combat was effective. Ranged had gained six points, but I was not surprised with all the stone bullets I had cast. My newest skill, analyze was up to 11, having gained 10 points! I had been using it on everything in and out of combat. But the high skill gain meant combat had definitely accelerated its leveling. Simba was on my shoulder, digging his claws into me to get my attention. I had been ignoring the little beast as I studied my screens. ¡°Yes, please give me a list for talents that are best suited for me,¡± I said, opening my talents widow and seeing the unallocated point there. The smug cat advised me. ¡°From your current skills, I would suggest the following,¡± Four talents came up in my holo display. Before I could even look at the Simba, he jumped down and left the window open. Well, that little cat was getting an attitude. I looked at his talent suggestions. Broader Skills I ¨C your cap for skill count is raised from 23 to 26 Great choice. I was already planning to look for this talent. Broader skills II increased to 30, and broader skills III to 35. This affected all skills; I currently had 20 skills, so I was getting close. Maybe wait till level 20. What other suggestions¡­ Axe Mastery I ¨C the axe is an extension of your body, +10% damage with axes, +5% defense when wielding an axe This talent again. I looked at the progression. Axe mastery II increased to +15% and 10% when wielding an axe. Axe mastery III +20% damage and +15% defense. Each level added another 5%. I would go this route if I had planned to be just a melee fighter. Connection to Earth I ¨C you are linked to earth magic, 10% reduction is magic cost when casting earth spells, 5% faster skill growth in earth magic skills and earth secondary skills This was a real possibility. Connection to Earth II of this reduced cost by a total of 11% and 10% faster skill growth. It looked like this skill went up to level 20 with a final 29% reduction in casting cost and 100% skill growth. Very useful. And the last suggestion by Simba¡­ Lord¡¯s Call I ¨C gain +2 bidding slots in the NPC auction house What! This was awesome. It wouldn¡¯t make me more powerful, but it sure would help the village grow. So, should I choose the village over my own advancement? Or should I view the village¡¯s advancement as my own? I selected Lord¡¯s Call. PLEASE NOTE THIS STORY IS ONLY POSTED BY THE AUTHOR TO HIS PATREON, ROYAL ROAD AND SCRIBBLE HUB. IF YOU ARE VIEWING IT ON ANOTHER SITE IT HAS BEEN STOLEN WITHOUT HIS PERMISSION. Chapter 14 Preparing

Chapter 14: Preparing

I went to the NPC auction window with anticipation. I selected a master enchanter that fit my needs. She was a sun elf with mastery over all three enchanting skills. I hit the bid button. A message popped up. You do not currently have the minimum bid for this NPC. 1 platinum coin is needed. What? Crap. I had one platinum coin. I checked, and nope, I didn¡¯t have any coins. I had given them all to Elice. I walked over to the store and withdrew one platinum and one gold. I placed them in my bag and bid one platinum on the enchanter. With the gold, I could bid on one expert. So, what did I need most? A potion maker, an alchemist. There were a large number of experts. I could choose pretty much any race. I limited my selection to just sanguine temperament again and then found a female elementalkin: earth in the list. She was also an expert in nature magic and herbalism. Guess I was playing matchmaker today for Sanso. I hit submit for the bid. It was late, and I had just spent a few hours doing NPC refinement searches. I stretched and went outside just as Jaesmin was coming down the path. I smiled at her, and she went inside. I headed off for the inn. One more round of casting today should complete the lower basement floor. I looked down into the pit at the site and saw a massive boar trapped. It looked like it had fallen in, the ends were too steep, and it obviously didn¡¯t know how to climb. I saw Simba on the far side of the hole. He was staring at the boar. He looked at me and yelled, ¡°Bit more than I could chew. I led the beast here into the hole, and now it is trapped. Guess you will steal my kill now.¡± He seemed bitter. I analyzed the boar. Shiverwood Forest Boar, Level ??, Health ??, Experience ??, Attack ??, Defense ?? ¡°What? Were you going to use it for a scratching post? How did you get it across the river anyway?¡± I asked as I walked over to the cat. The massive boar focused on me as I walked. ¡°It was on the far bank, and I cast a few entangling vines on it to get it to swim across. I was hoping the vines would tangle it and drown the beast. When that didn¡¯t work, I led it here.¡± I moved next to Simba and looked at the boar again. ¡°Well, it is almost dark, so Galana should be back. No point in angering the beast just to have it get out and wreak havoc on the town.¡± I could see Galana¡¯s large form coming from the west with the day¡¯s hunters as if on divine summons. I waved to her to come. It took her a little while to cover the quarter mile. On seeing the boar, she raised her eyebrows for me. I just pointed at the tiny cat to take the blame. Galana went to fetch the militia in town. Best to kill it quickly. Once we had fourteen of us surrounding the pit, we opened fire. The boar raged, trying to escape. It ran and leaped from my rocks and the arrows but could not escape. After a few volleys, it fell dead. The ladder was smashed, but I was able to summon two slabs in the shape of stairs to lead into the pit. Galana had one of the militia harvest the boar. I finished expending my magic on slabs to complete the floor. I then returned home with Simba in tow. Simba said, ¡°I need a more powerful spell. My nature skill is at 13. So a tier 7 spell would be best.¡± I raised my eyebrow at the kitten. He was becoming dangerous, and I was happy he was on our side. ¡°Excellent work getting your skill so high in a short time. I have recruited a master nature magic mage. When she arrives, you will get what you want for spells.¡± Simba seemed satisfied with that for now. I went back to my house and decided to take a nap. A roast with potatoes was on the table. Jaesmin. I ate quickly to get my satiety bar to maximum and went upstairs. She was sprawled on the bed in her sexy negligee and asleep. I stopped in the doorway to admire her figure, my lust stirring. With a focused will, I continued to one of the guest rooms and slept there. After a few hours, I woke up and went to my drafting table. As I worked on drafting the library, I thought about my goals for the coming day. Should I hunt or build the inn? My experience was bringing me closer to level 11. A good hunt today could get me there. The inn was important because I thought that if I could finish before the next auction ended, I could raise the village¡¯s quality and bring in more expert NPCs. However, I had no wood after the foundation was done. Hunting it is then, but I would expend my accrued magic pool on slabs on the way to the tower. I had finished using my magic on slabs and was walking through town toward the tower. I ran into Sanso in town on the way. He told me the buildings were all petrified wood, essentially stone, and asked where he should build the second tower in town. I thought about it and said next to the docks to watch the forest. He was to make it big enough to house everyone in the village who would not be fighting if the orcs came. I figured the warriors would meet them in the field, and everyone else could take shelter in this new tower. The tower would also keep watch on the river and forest. I told him I would give him plans tomorrow morning for the tower, and he was free to do whatever today. At the west tower overlooking the plains, I found 14 militia and Galana. That meant only four guards were in town. It was getting close to the time the orcs could be mounting an attack. The earthen wall was coming along, but it would not make a difference. It would help eventually, but not for this attack. I talked with Galana and analyzed my militia. Ten were level 9, two were level 8, and two were level 7. I wondered if NPCs got anything for reaching level 10. I opened the wiki, and finding the information took a few minutes. NPCs could only learn five total skills up to level 9, and at every level that was a multiple of 10, they could learn another skill. I turned to Galana and asked her how many skills she had. She said 11. So, did that mean she was between levels 60 and 69? Wow. I decided to take the four lowest-level militia and two-level 9s. Galana was going to run out and collect the quills at the crypt with two-level 9s and return. Galana helped me update my map. Now I have 15 pride master respawn points. I created a route that would hit nine of these pride masters and go out to the buffalo plains area. We headed out and soon the day became repetitive until we came across the first buffalo. They were huge at around seven feet in height. We picked one of the smaller ones to start. It came down quickly, but our attack drew a larger one to us. I went into melee to hold its attention. The beast could barely hurt me with my armor. The exp gain was good as well. The new plan was to harvest buffalo and get what we could into our bags. I figured five hours before we had to return. I leveled three hours into the grind. I put two points into intelligence and four into magic. For my skill points, I put into masonry and woodcraft. We finished the allotted time and returned home, picking off a few more creatures. Everyone was in high spirits as everyone had gained a level. We also had harvested over 80 buffalos! The herd just milled about as we had plucked one or two at a time. Easy experience. The sun was down when we got to the tower with minimal light. I had the militia deliver the hides and meat and went home. Jaesmin was reading a book. It caught me off guard. I asked her about it. It was a story of the king with many wives who favored none. One conspired against him and caused turmoil in his house. It was some convoluted drama, I guess. It was the first non-skill book I had seen, and I asked to read it. It took me less than an hour to read the trashy book. However, my reading skill leveled twice! I guess skill books didn¡¯t count as reading in the game. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Dinner was a burger with veggies. I went to my drafting board to complete the river tower. It was a simple design and took only half the night. Uncommon Stone Guard Tower/Barracks, Health 15000, Requires Masonry: Foundations 7, Masonry: Structures 7 I had made the walls extra thick. It was also three stories. The first story had a large open kitchen and dining hall and a small secure armory. The second story had room for sleeping bunks for fifty people. The third story was half storage and four large private rooms for officers. There was roof access as well. The tower was fifty feet round with small windows for light on the floors. I knew the summon stone would make this project manageable as Sanso could alter the shape of my stone summoned, and he should be able to build a decent structure with the plans. I hoped Jaesmin could help Sanso because, looking at his home, I knew he had no masonry skills. I had a few hours, so I also made a simple stone schoolhouse. I had decided the library was not going to be for the kids. Uncommon Stone Schoolhouse, Health 7000, Requires Masonry: Foundations 7, Woodcraft: Carpentry 7 I think my high drafting skills made the buildings uncommon and allowed for lower requirements on skills when building. I definitely wasn¡¯t trying to do anything spectacular. The school was just a two-story building with two large rooms on each floor. Each floor had 30 desks, so the school could accommodate sixty students. The sun came up, and I went to find Sanso. He was walking from his tower into town, looking for me. He had a big smile on his face. He had been excavating under his tower and found a copper vein. The vein was on his deeded lands, but the majority extended into my lands. We got into a discussion about what to do with the copper. He could use his magic to make copper coins. He just needed a design for the two sides. That would solve the village¡¯s currency issue, so I agreed. I would have to work on the faces of the coin tonight or maybe use an existing one. There were many coin designs, and the coin composition and size mattered for value. We went over the two plans, and I told him to get Jaesmin to help with the building as she now has some construction skills. I ended up walking to the future building sights of the school and guarding the barracks tower while Sanso worked in case something from across the river showed up. Jaesmin joined us after a bit. Sanso quickly cast the foundation for the schoolhouse next to the general store and a few walls while Elice was watching us. I think he was trying to impress her, but I was not sure. It was about 20% complete in 30 minutes! I conserved my own magic for the inn. When we got to the site of the river tower, I marked it off and left Sanso and Jaesmin. I worked on the inn by myself, draining my own magic before heading to the plains. It was mid-morning when I arrived. Galana had already returned from her porcupine harvest. She was on one of the black mounts and looked quite intimidating. We chatted briefly before I gathered the six lowest-level guards and went to the plains. Our route to the buffalo was more direct than before, and we only harvested six pride masters, but we would get four more on the return trip. I will say the repeated monotony grinding was losing its allure and excitement. We knew our prey now, and there was no challenge. We did find an alpha bull boss, but he was very little challenge to the seven of us. We returned at dusk with our haul, and I left the militia to handle the distribution of the spoils. In town, Elice found me. Apparently, we had so much cured meat in town that there was nowhere left to put it! Every family had enough meat for two years, and their store¡¯s basement was full! The herbs, fruit, and veggies from my garden were selling like crazy as well. The town now recognized the little wood elementals as a boon. Much of the produce was wild varieties that were hard to raise on farms and difficult to find in the wild. That was good news. I would have to think about the meat issue and leave to check out my ¡®garden.¡¯ Two of my elementals were at work, and the garden was almost twice the size as before, covering an acre of land. There were even some fruit trees now. I opened my interface and selected a four-acre area for my ¡®garden¡¯ and restricted the elementals to cultivating only four acres of it. I marked the border for a stone wall in the future. The third elemental arrived from the woods with a bright yellow leafy plant. They were tireless workers. I called them all over. I gave them a short speech on how impressed I was with their work and the variety of the garden. I told them they could take time off but not let the plants wither in the garden. They seemed to nod and understand, but when I was finished, they went right back to work. The spell was a great investment in the village. Jaesmin had made me a beef stew with buffalo meat inside the house. Her cooking was still so-so, and I had to add salt. She told me about her day while I ate. They had half the school done. Which made me unhappy because the tower was the priority for the town¡¯s safety. Jaesmin also confirmed my suspicions that Sanso was interested in Elice. That was why he had focused on the school next to the store where she worked. Jaesmin said they had laid out a few slabs for the tower, but it was less than 5% complete. Should I order Sanso to work on the tower over the school? I had not given it to him as the priority, but I thought he would deduce it on his own. No, what will be will be. I did need to increase our defenses. I would order Galana to train another ten archers tomorrow. Paying a militia was just a few silver a month, and we needed the security. I wished I had done it sooner, but my previous line of thought was that the monetary cost and taking people away from their regular daily activities were detrimental. After dinner, I went to my drafting table and worked again on the library. As morning approached, I decided on my coin images. One side would have a wolf¡¯s head, and the opposite side would have the silhouette of the library I was drafting. Under the library, I put, ¡°Knowledge has a beginning but no end,¡± in Latin. Under the wolf¡¯s head, I put, ¡°The strength of the wolf is in the pack,¡± in Latin. When morning came, I went to find Galana. Galana was at the site of the new tower. She was looking confused. ¡°Lord, why do you have so many projects? This new tower is far from the probable point of attack of the orcs.¡± ¡°It is to serve as a refuge for the townfolk that are not fighting. Speaking of which, I would like you to train more militia to wield a bow.¡± I replied. ¡°I thought the stone mage was making each home secure with his petrification spells? I have twelve bows in inventory so I can train twelve more militia.¡± She was still staring at the stone slabs by the docks. ¡°Twelve would be good.¡± Better than 10 I thought. ¡°Spend the day with the volunteers.¡± ¡°I have twenty-two volunteers, Lord Tallis,¡± She turned to face me. ¡°Everyone who has an available skill slot and can wield a bow. I was hoping you would have called on them earlier.¡± ¡°You should have asked to increase the militia. I would have allowed it,¡± I said, slightly annoyed. ¡°It is not my place to question your decisions, and I figured my currency for additional troops had run out. We already have a large military force for the size of this village.¡± ¡°Train all twenty-two. Have them share a bow while they train until you can make enough.¡± I walked away. I was feeling stupid. I was used to video games making victory possible. I had also been distracted by my compulsiveness in drafting this library. I passed Sanso working at the school and shook my head. I did stop and handed him my drawings for the coin faces. Then, I traveled to the plains to get to the other guard tower. I arrived to find eleven militia there. I put the nine best into a group and told them to hunt today. They were to avoid any combat that would endanger anyone. They were also to return with all haste to the tower if they spotted the orcs. This was a huge risk in my mind. If the orcs caught them on the open plains, they would be massacred. I added the order they were to remain within 2 miles of the tower. I told the other two militia to remain in the tower and send word for two more guards. Opheela was due to drop food off soon so she could relay back to the guards resting in the village. I went to the site of the new tower. I used up my magic on slabs, then worked with my hands until my magic was replenished. About midday, Sanso arrived with news that the schoolhouse was almost complete. Jaesmin was doing the detailed work. I was not mad at him. I should have been bold and changed his orders, but I was not assertive. He smiled as we worked together. He produced a mushroom-based rice dish from his bag and gave it to me. It reminded me of rice pilaf in taste. Dark Mushroom Rice Bowl, +42% magic recovery, duration 1 hour This would help, but really, what I needed were magic potions. When evening struck, Sanso let me know he was headed home for the night. I thanked him and watched him go briefly. His presence was a big boon, and I should have made efforts to keep him happy. I continued to work into the night under torchlight. I could see and hear things in the forest, and it was spooky working in the torchlight. Jaesmin found me with some food and joined in my work. I was shocked when she cast a spell that molded an existing rock! I stopped my work and talked with her. Sanso had taught her earth magic yesterday and stone magic today. ¡°I didn¡¯t know you had more skill slots. This is great!¡± I praised her. Jaesmin smiled, ¡°Oh, I didn¡¯t, but when I became your companion, I got more.¡± Once she became my companion? She opened more skill slots? Companion? What? PLEASE NOTE THIS STORY IS ONLY POSTED BY THE AUTHOR TO HIS PATREON, ROYAL ROAD AND SCRIBBLE HUB. IF YOU ARE VIEWING IT ON ANOTHER SITE IT HAS BEEN STOLEN WITHOUT HIS PERMISSION. Chapter 15: Orcs

Chapter 15: Orcs

I searched for companion in the wiki and couldn¡¯t find anything. I needed to find Simba. I opened my map and found two blue dots on it. One blue dot right next to me, Jaesmin, and another in my garden area. I told Jaesmin I would be right back and went off to find Simba. This needed an explanation. The garden looked great and even tranquil in the moonlight. There were dirt paths and flowers now. Some trees dotted the area, some with fruit and some with flowers. I spotted two of my elementals working, casting some magic to make a plant grow quickly. At least, that is what I assumed, as the plant in question doubled in height and sprouted pods and flowers. I followed my blue dot to a thirty-foot-tall apple tree. Simba was on a branch looking down at a fat raccoon gathering something. Suddenly the ground had three vines unleashed from it and restrained the coon. Simba fell on top of the poor critter and dispatched it. I walked over. I got right to the point, ¡°Simba, why is Jaesmin a companion, and exactly what is a companion?¡± Simba looked at me quizzically and appeared to be thinking. He walked toward me and sat. A few minutes passed. ¡°The game had a new update 21 hours ago in real-time. Companions are an added feature. They can be obtained through quests or loyalty. You are limited to a number of companions by your charisma stat. You can add one companion at charisma scores of 10, 25, 45, 105, 200, and then every 100 levels after.¡± ¡°It is your charisma that is independent of buffs and magic items, though. Everyone also gets their starting A.I. as a companion for free. Also, the companion has ten skill slots at level 1 and gains an additional skill slot at every level divisible by 10. They also get five stat points per level instead of the normal NPC of 3. However, if an NPC becomes a companion at a higher level, it will not receive the stat points retroactively, so raising an NPC from low levels is best. However, they can die, well, except me. Orientation A.I.s resurrect after eight game days. If another companion dies, that companion will be unavailable for 90 game days. After 90 days, resurrecting the companion will be costly and based on the companion¡¯s level. Or you can choose to release the companion after the 90 days and seek a new one,¡± Simba stated. I think that if Jaesmin had just become a companion, then she would have gained five more skills. She would also get five stat points at each level. She was basically an amped-up NPC. I went back to find her and was disappointed on analyzing her. She was only level 1. But as Simba said, this was probably good. ¡°How would you like to go on a hunt tomorrow, Jaesmin?¡± Her eyes lit up. She nearly jumped in the moonlight. I remembered her parents didn¡¯t want her to fight, but this was more of a leveling trip, and she wouldn¡¯t be in danger. She was very talkative, asking what weapon she would train in and how to fight the lions. I answered all her questions while we worked. Morning came, and we continued until Sanso returned. We greeted him, and he held out a bag for me. I opened it to find copper coins inside. I pulled out one, which was the size of a quarter and very shiny. The image of the wolf on one side with the tiny Latin script below looked great. The other side had the library, and it also looked fabulous with the script below. I complimented him on his work and asked him to add the date on each coin as well, just the year. How many coins could he make? He said about one hundred an hour as copper was easy to manipulate. I decided he was to spend twenty-five hours a month making coins and give them to Elice to enter into circulation. This should provide ample coinage for the village¡¯s daily trading. Finally, a problem solved! I told Sanso to continue work on the tower, we were going for a short hunt. I just wanted to level up Jaesmin so she could increase her magic today. I had to wait an hour while Sanso taught her stone bullet since she didn¡¯t have any offensive spells. Opheela and Trista gave us rides on the black steeds to the tower. These horses could move! I needed to work on my riding skill. Seven militia were at the base of the tower when we arrived. Six were atop the tower. I rounded up the seven, introduced them to Jaesmin, and said today we were just going to hit the pride masters and return. The priority was to protect Jaesmin. I then brought Jaesmin to get outfitted by Curraen. He gratefully got her a village leather guard outfit. He had about fifteen suits in his storeroom. The man was industrious! Our trip through the plains was going well. We had taken down nine pride masters, twenty-two lions, and seventeen deer. Jaesmin was level four and doing well. A scout noticed a cloud in the distance. It looked like a herd of deer, not too big, maybe buffalo. Then I could make out black horses with mounts, a lot of them. I told everyone the best possible speed to the tower. We were three miles out, and the band of orcs was about a mile and a half out from us. It was quickly noticeable that Jaesmin was the slowest. I picked her up and carried her. Thank you for my excessive game strength! The orcs were closing the distance too quickly. There was a lot of dust, but I figured there would be at least fifty mounted orcs. Damn, I had time to prepare, and I wasted it. I should have been more careful and more industrious in preparations. If we had stayed within a mile of the tower, we could have gotten back to its relative safety. The orcs slowed when they got to within a hundred yards of us and kept that distance. Herding us home. Not attacking. I was puzzled but thankful. When we reached the tower and went inside, I was glad to see that it was packed with my militia. On top were six guards. Galana was organizing them, getting them ready. It was very crowded. I went to the roof. I emerged, looked out at the plains, and started counting the orcs in the semi-circle about 150 yards out. They had easily passed the 10-foot earth wall, all Sixty-Seven of them. Most looked like fighters, but three could possibly be spell casters. We were going to lose people today. A single massive orc dismounted and walked forward, unafraid. I analyzed him when he got in range. Level 20 boss. He started speaking in orcish, and I didn¡¯t understand. He was making grand gestures and pointing. I was surprised to see Simba hop up on the railing. The cat interpreted for me, ¡°He is saying they are here to eliminate this threat and grind the village to dust. They will drag the thieves back to be executed in front of the clan. He is calling you some names as well. He is also calling you out for one-on-one combat.¡± Yeah, that wasn¡¯t going to happen. Galana came to the trap door and said the militia was ready. Unfortunately, Sanso was not found in time, and his elementals were nowhere to be found. Four people guard the door, and the remaining twenty-nine rush to the tower top with bows. So, thirty-six ranged attackers. It was going to be crowded. I passed the descriptions of the spell casters to Galana, which was to be our focus in the opening salvo. The orc was done with his battle speech and returned to his horse. I was giving orders to reaffirm that the first targets were the three shaman-looking ones. Then, unfortunately, as they charged, those three remained out of range! Half the orcs drew bows, and the others drew scimitars. This was going to be bad. ¡°Focus fire until one drops!¡± A young woman next to me took eight arrows in the chest and arms and fell. I felt helpless. I was no general or elite hero. Galana was our ace. She only needed two arrows to fell a rider. There was mass confusion as militia rushed onto the tower roof. ¡°Cover all four sides!¡± I yelled frantically as it looked like the oncoming soldiers were going to surround the tower. They obviously were not expecting as many militia as we had. I cast a hail of stones into the front of a group of riders, which did good damage as they rode through the stone rain. Another militia fell to my right. The best I could estimate in the chaos was that maybe my spell removed nine orcs from their saddles. Unfortunately, my command to target the spell casters had confused some, and others had attacked them anyway, even though they were out of range. Wasted shots and time! I was frustrated and cast another hail of stone, getting three orcs in a few seconds. The orc leader had dismounted with eight others, charging the door. The remaining orcs were circling and firing arrows. During this distraction, the spell castors had moved in, casting fire and lightning at the guards and me. A ball of fire erupted in our midst, and six militia went down wounded. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it Galana changed targets and took down one of the casters with a single arrow through an eye. Other militia archers quickly took down another with multiple arrows. The third managed to get out of range, but not before casting a lightning blast that knocked another militia off the tower. A pounding could be heard below at the door. If they broke through, it would be over. I yelled down to hold them one minute. The archers had issues targeting the orcs below. Shields covered ones trying to break in. ¡°Galana command the archers!¡± I started my casting. More soldiers fell, some wounded, some dead. We were down to half strength when I finished my spell, which had a long casting time. The door had been breached, and two or three orcs had gotten inside. My nine by nine-foot rock, one foot thick, materialized above the orcs at the door below and fell. Six orcs were crushed under the stone, preventing any of them from entering for a few seconds. My focus returned to the battle. Galana had gotten the last shaman when he came back in range. The orcs had less than twenty mounted men and another half dozen wounded on the ground. Fighting could be heard inside the tower. I rushed down the stairs, yelling for Galana to continue directing the archers on top. The lower floors were dark, but I could see Curraen engaged with the orc leader. Two other orcs were fighting two of my men. Jaesmin was in the back casting stone bullet. Without thinking, I drew my axe and crashed into the orc leader. Distracting him long enough for Curraen to get in a solid hit. I started swinging like a crazy man, knowing if I failed, Jaesmin and others would die. The orc had incredible armor. My attacks that were hit only caused 30 to 35 damage. My position had also shifted, and my back was at the entrance to the tower. I got stabbed in the back for 86 damage due to my negligence. I shifted and stood by Curraen, and he was bloody but standing. The orc leader looked in worse shape. There were now five other orcs on the first floor, but no more were coming through the door¡¯s archway. I managed to cast hail of stones on four orcs grouped together to pull them away from my men. I was down to 30% health, and it was looking grim. Then a massive figure burst into the tower from outside. Wielding a massive two-handed sword, she stabbed into the orc leader. Galana must have jumped off the top of the tower to get into the fight quickly. The orc leader knew immediately he was overmatched and started to look for an escape. I hacked into him again with my axe and did 75 damage with a critical. He was looking pretty bad. Galana turned on another orc and felled him with a single swing, taking his head. Curraen and I pressed the orc leader together, eventually breaking his defenses and felling him while Galana cleaned up the other orcs. I rushed outside to see what villains were left. None. Bodies of orcs lay everywhere. Horses milled about, riderless. In the distance, I could see three orcs riding away. I sat in the dirt, and Jaesmin came up next to me and sat with me. After a time, Galana came to me, ¡°Lord Tallis, thirteen dead, everyone else alive is wounded. We killed sixty-two of them. We have two prisoners, and three got away.¡± I waved Galana away. We were lucky. If the orcs had not been so overconfident, they could have taken us on the plains and eliminated a third of our forces. Galana would have probably been able to win the battle herself afterward, but I think we would have lost all our men. Sanso came running up to me, out of breath. ¡°Lord, I didn¡¯t know the orcs were here. No one told me. I was at the river working on the tower. My elementals were half a mile away, extending the wall. If I had known, I could have summoned my elementals to aid you,¡± he blurted out in raspy breaths. ¡°Another mistake on my part, not yours.¡± I pulled out a waterskin and sucked on it. ¡°How is the tower coming?¡± I asked, not caring but not wanting to face the knowledge that I had lost 13 townsfolk. Sanso looked slightly guilty but replied, ¡°Well, my lord. The second floor is half complete. With help, I think I could complete it in two days.¡± I nodded. Not saying anything for a while, so Sanso wandered away. The remaining soldiers were gathering the horses and looting the bodies. I got up and walked toward town with Jaesmin under my arm. She had a few cuts that were healing. The villagers were gathered, and I told them about the victory and the cost. I read off the names of the fallen from my interface, and people were crying and distraught. I told them we were safe and the orcs would not return with their leader dead. I said we would celebrate the victory tomorrow evening and honor those who died defending our village. I went home with Jaesmin and went straight to bed. We curled up together, and I slept for eight hours during the game, the longest time I had slept so far. It was still dark when I rose. I went to my drafting table, the stupid library, my obsession. If I had spent the time building defenses instead of working on this¡­less villagers would have died. The plans were maybe half done. There were still so many details I still wanted to add. I had set aside another forty sheets of paper for the plans. I looked at my village in the interface. Ninety-six people, only humans, had died. We lost two of our full-time guards, damn. I was still miserable; how could this be a game if I felt this way? I sat at the drafting table, sorted my plans for the library, and started working on it again¡­obsession. I was on game autopilot, and when I found out I didn¡¯t like what the game autopilot was doing to the plans, I tossed the work and did it myself. In the morning, there came a knock at the door. I answered it, and it was Galana. Jaesmin came downstairs dressed, and we all sat at the table while she gave me the report. First, she reported the dead, which I already knew. Then the loot: 58 Black Mountain Steeds 1,953 copper coins 489 silver coins 47 gold coins 48 Common Magic Rings 8 Uncommon Magic Rings 2 Rare Magic Rings 2 Rare Magic Belts 18 Common Magic Swords 7 Uncommon Magic Swords 1 Rare Magic Sword 6 Skill Novice Books (riding, alchemy, air magic, herbalism, polearm: spear, analyze) 1 Expert Skill Book (riding) 2 Uncommon Wands 1 Unique Saddle A whole bunch of regular gear and jewelry was on a separate page. Well, ok. The copper and silver could be divided evenly among the people who fought. The gold would go into the village treasury. Galana could distribute the common and uncommon rings to those most deserving. Our soldiers were not going to use scimitars, so I guessed they would sell them all. The skill books would go into my private stash to use as rewards. I asked her to bring the other items so I could inspect them. She said she would return later today after giving out the trophies and loot. I told her to give the shares of the fallen to their families, and she nodded in affirmation before leaving. It was afternoon when a knock at the door happened again. Galana was there with the loot. I analyzed the following pieces: Ivory Ring of Deep Magic, +8 Magic, +2% total magic pool increase Steel Ring of Fire Resistance, 30 Armor vs. Fire Black and White Leather Belt of Channeling, +15 channeling Blue Dragon Hide Belt, +50% damage with lightning spells Cherry Wand of Fire, +25% damage with fire Black Oak Wand of Focus, 10% magic reduction for all spells Kahn¡¯s Black Dragon Leather Saddle, +6 Riding Skill, +20% speed of mount, +20% damage with melee weapons, 50% less stamina drain on mount Good haul at a great cost. I gave Galana the ring of fire resistance. I handed the black wand to Jaesmin. The ivory ring went on my finger, and the black and white belt around my waist. The saddle would be for my mount. I would start riding today. Jaesmin was handed two rings and some coins from Galana for her participation. I thanked Galana for her service, and she left. Now that the threat had passed, I needed to send out a trading caravan. We had a ton of gear and goods to sell. Interestingly, some NPCs had bags of holding like Galana¡¯s. This meant we really didn¡¯t need wagons. We also had plenty of horses. I walked over to the store to talk with Elice. She was there and sorting through the gear from the orcs. Of course, she was focused on the jewelry! We talked for an hour about the value of the gear and selling our overstock of meat and other goods. The nearest city was Stillwater, about 240 miles to the south. Walking would take about ten days, mounted about six days, so they were definitely taking horses. Elice was to lead the trade expedition. Gather everything we didn¡¯t need, Galana and the two remaining guards would accompany her for safety as she estimated the value of the goods was about 500 gold! Damn, that was a lot of money. She was to purchase lumber, grains, and anything else we needed at the general store. Galana was not happy about being sent away for two weeks, but I told her it was necessary and ended the argument. Hopefully, this wasn¡¯t another mistake on my part. PLEASE NOTE THIS STORY IS ONLY POSTED BY THE AUTHOR TO HIS PATREON, ROYAL ROAD AND SCRIBBLE HUB. IF YOU ARE VIEWING IT ON ANOTHER SITE IT HAS BEEN STOLEN WITHOUT HIS PERMISSION. Chapter 16 NPC Auction Chapter 16: NPC Auction I was having an internal dilemma. The loss of the townsfolk was weighing heavy on me. It shouldn¡¯t have been, as they were just digital code. It also went beyond the loss to the town¡¯s prosperity. This might be my reality for the rest of my life. I still wasn¡¯t convinced the programmer had told me the truth that I still had a body in the real world. According to Simba, I would gain access to the world¡¯s internet once the game went live after the testing period. I would have to think about this more, but I already knew I was treating the people in my village as real people. I went to check on my horses. Damn, there were a lot of them! Curraen was there talking with his daughters. They were discussing saddles. I joined them briefly before asking for the best horse to be saddled with my new saddle. He was a big one, about 20% larger than the others and just a tad smaller than Galana¡¯s mount she had taken on the trade caravan. The young elves had no difficulty saddling him, though. I learned from Curraen while I was watching them that his daughters had some minor nature magic and a soothe beast spell. That explained a lot. The girls complained it was too crowded for the horses, and I wanted to retort that they were just animals in a digital world, but I held my tongue. I said I would have Sanso build them some stone stables soon. I mounted and took off at a run, and it was exhilarating! I must have been going around 40 miles per hour, and it was a fairly smooth ride! When prompted, I accepted the riding skill. I went straight to the tower. The place was cleaned up, and two guards were atop. I tethered my mount and spent an hour repairing the door. My slab made a nice paved entryway, I wondered if my people had retrieved the orcs I had crushed underneath it? I climbed the tower to look over the ineffectual earthen wall. Out on the plains, you could see dots for the encounters. I went to my mount and headed out onto the plains, running down encounters one by one. My mount needed a name, he was a great steed, and we were starting to bond. I decided on Titan. I analyzed Titan. Titan, Black Mountain Steed, Level 16, Health 1619, Experience 650, Attack 52-108, Defense 68 I switched to my axe, and we continued across the plains. The saddle properties were making everything so easy. I didn¡¯t even realize when we reached the buffalo. I took one down before turning south into the unexplored region of my map. Buffalo started to disappear, and the terrain began to contain less grass. From nearby, the earth exploded, and a giant scorpion emerged. Fortunately, we were moving fast, and it couldn¡¯t attack. I tried to analyze it but got nothing useful. Giant Scorpion, Level ??, Health ??, Experience ??, Attack ??, Defense ?? Since we were much faster, I was able to cast hail of stones and move out of range. We repeated this a half dozen times before the beast fell. I gathered the stinger as that was the only thing that looked valuable. It was evening, and I had a few hours of daylight left. We rode further south and pulled more scorpions. I managed to get five of them in a group and turned them to mush with repeated hail of stones. This was almost too easy! Our second group had four scorpions. Our third had six. Our fourth had three, and when they fell, I leveled! The sun was also starting to set, and we were 100 miles from the village. We took off at the best speed and returned two hours after dark. There were five guards in the tower, and I waved as I returned home. The elven girls were there waiting for me and admonished me for working out Titan so hard today. I could have sworn the horse rolled his eyes at the girls, but it was dark. I went inside and found Jaesmin at the table. She jumped up and ran to hug me. She was worried, but she knew that I would resurrect if I died. Still, it felt good to have someone worrying about you. I sat at the table and told her of my day. She did the same. Galana had pushed the trade expedition to leave quickly and would make all possible haste to return quickly. They left mid-afternoon. Sanso was close to finishing the tower by the river with Jaesmin¡¯s help. I pulled out my stable plans and handed them to Jaesmin. Her next project was to build three separate stables. I would come to supervise as she and Sanso did not have high enough proficiency in the related building skills. I opened my map and looked at where I had traveled. The scorpion area was called the Valley of the Azul. I then opened my character sheet. I added my two acquired skill points to earth magic. My masonry and carpentry skills were 24 and 21 respectively, so I was good to build the inn. Well, I just needed two points in Masonry: Foundations. Next, I put four points into intelligence and two into magic. Then, it was time to read my backlog of notifications. The axe and the two-handed axe both climbed 3 points to 10 and 12, respectively. Analyze was up a single point, and I had not been using it as much recently. I needed to go back to analyzing everything. The next skill showing an increase was drafting, up five points to 29. The earth magic was up 8 points as well as stone magic, 18 and 20! Damn, I hadn¡¯t thought about it much. But I had been using stone magic a lot. I marveled at the earth magic skills for a bit before seeing leadership was up two points. Masonry was up to 25, foundations 22, and structures 15. One more point was all I needed in foundations! Nature magic and plant each gained one point. Ranged was up to 23! Gaining a ridiculous 10 points. Looking at the logs, I see that it was mostly from killing those scorpions. Hail of Stones counted as a ranged targeted attack. Riding land was up to 20? I just learned the skill yesterday. It was actually at 14, but the saddle gave me +6 to the skill, but it was still incredible leveling. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Other skills gained some percentage increases on their advancement bar toward the next level, but none advanced. The game seemed a bit broken. On my mount, I got battle experience for the scorpions for four different skills: riding, earth magic, stone magic, and ranged. Which I should take advantage of before they fix this semi-cheat. With my incredible mount and its superior speed, I was killing creatures at a much higher level than I was. During the evening, I quickly redrafted the stables to make them all stone since we had no wood. Next, I worked on the library. I was just excited to go kill scorpions tomorrow and used drafting to calm myself. The detailed work on the library was coming along. I had great Roman arches all over the building. Large spaces everywhere. The building itself was almost a half mile round. At its zenith was a large room for a stellar observatory. The observatory was nearly five hundred feet up. The sun rose, I retrieved Titan from the stables. I helped Sanso and Jaesmin finish the first stable. Sanso then taught me a new spell, boulder crush. Boulder Crush Earth: Stone Tier 8, Magic Cost: 100, Effect: Summon a large boulder that is hurled at your target, Damage: 250, Casting Time: 3 seconds With my earth and ranged bonuses, this spell did 500 damage! Now we were cooking! I paid Sanso for the spell, ran to the already-saddled Titan, and went off. I skipped the encounters with lions on the plains. We galloped at amazing speed to the scorpion area. When we arrived, we started pulling scorpions. We pulled seven in our first swing. Easy kills. The second group was a little tricky. While I was leading the group, trying to find a few more, we got ambushed. I was stabbed in the thigh for 210 damage, and the poison status, 10 damage every second for 30 seconds! Crap. That was one-third of my health after the poison damage! I would have to be more careful. I finished off the group and started another pull. My day continued as such. It was repetitive but rewarding. We narrowly avoided two more surprise attacks and escaped being encircled once by a large group. After a few hours, I leveled up. I counted the fresh poison stingers in my bag, 67. Hmm, that many kills? I had enough daylight to repeat this number. I ate some jerky while my magic pool regened. Level 13¡­6 points into magic. Skill points went into earth magic. This was because I was losing stone magic leveling because I was two levels up. I returned to Titan, who was also interested in getting back to killing. The sun was close to disappearing when I leveled again. I smiled and urged Titan home. He broke into a sprint, eager to show his speed. I rushed past the tower and home. I unsaddled Titan and put him in the new stable. One of the elf girls was sleeping in the loft and came down to feed him. I practically skipped home, adding six points to magic and two skill points to earth magic. Checking my skills, drafting up one point, earth magic up to 26, and stone magic also at 26! Foundations hit level 23! About damn time. Ranged was up to level 27, and finally, riding land was up to 19, 25 once the saddle was added in. I also completed the quest to protect the orc refugees as the timer hit zero. I was so excited at dinner that I didn¡¯t even realize what I was eating and just talking about my day to Jaesmin. Jaesmin reciprocated with her day. Sanso and her were close to finishing the second stable. Also, some lumber had arrived from Barrista. Barrista was the town 15 miles south of us. Apparently, Elice had traded for a steady supply of lumber from Barrista on her way south. Good idea! I could start building the first floor of the inn. The night was spent drafting the library. The morning was helping Sanso and Jaesmin finish inn. Then, I was off to the plains to hunt scorpions again. That was pretty much my week: work on the stables or inn, hunt for 14 hours, come home, and draft the library. I had been very efficient and made huge gains in stats. My level was now at 19. The scorpions I learned were level 25 on average, and I was getting a lot less experience now. All stat points went to magic, and all skill points went to earth magic. My skills now looked like this:
Skill Level
Axe 11
Axe: Two Handed 13
Air Magic 0
Air Magic: Force 0
Air Magic: Lightning 0
Analyze 14
Artistry: Carving 11
Artistry: Drafting 37
Cooking 6
Earth Magic 40
Earth Magic: Stone 40
Laborer 11
Leadership 17
Masonry 27
Masonry: Foundations 24
Masonry: Structures 17
Nature Magic 11
Nature Magic: Plant 11
Ranged 35
Reading: Common 3
Riding: Land 40
Spirit Magic 0
Spirit Magic: Life 0
Woodcraft 23
Woodcraft: Carpentry (23) 25
Woodcraft: Furniture 10
I received an alert that the auction was closing in one hour, and I opened it to check. There were 77 bids, but no one outbid me on any of my selections. That was a relief. The inn was just about done¡­unfortunately my village quality had not increased in time to add more auction bids. The auction finished, and I checked on my bids¡­ PLEASE NOTE THIS STORY IS ONLY POSTED BY THE AUTHOR TO HIS PATREON, ROYAL ROAD AND SCRIBBLE HUB. IF YOU ARE VIEWING IT ON ANOTHER SITE IT HAS BEEN STOLEN WITHOUT HIS PERMISSION. Chapter 17 NPC Auction Take Three

Chapter 17: Game Updates

The auction finished, and I checked on my bids¡­ The human air mage would be here in two days. Excellent! The human shipwright would be here in three days, which is good. Once we had a ship, trading would be much easier. But did I need sailors for the river to crew a trade ship? The ETA for the gnome cook was six days. This was going to be tricky. She was a grand master cook, and I needed something to keep her here. My thought was that I would give her 50% ownership in the inn, and hopefully, access to the diverse gardens behind my house would be enough. I was fairly confident the inn could be completed in time, except we were short on lumber. Another problem that needed solving. Guess my scorpion expeditions needed to be put on hold for now. The giantkin archer was also six days away. When he arrived, I would feel much better about our defenses. I was assuming he would be at least level 40 since he had at least three master-level skills. Maybe we could start harvesting the lumber in the forest on the other side of the river between him and Galena? The elementalkin alchemist was due in ten days. That was unfortunate, but maybe it was good. It would give me time to build an alchemy shop. I would sketch out a nice shop with a residence above on the second level tonight. And hopefully, the alchemist could make use of the scorpion tails I had collected. My enchanter was 13 days away. The female sun elf was the most important recruit. If she could work with Sanso and make the translocation stone, my life would be a lot easier. I would need to make sure she had an excellent house ready to try to persuade her to stay. I read the description of the sun elf race in the wiki; sun elves were the nobles of the elven race. I hoped our backwater town appealed to her. Okay, now back to the auction. I went to the town store to get six gold coins so I could place my next bids. After retrieving the coins, I went home, settled in at my drafting table, and opened the auction interface. Damn, already 232 bids! Other players were getting active out there! There were 47,945 NPCs, though, so no shortage yet. I thought for a bit, and perhaps I was overreaching a bit. Once my new NPCs came, I would have to pay them, and I didn¡¯t really have a stable income. Maybe this time, I should focus more on trade skills? Maybe one soldier and the rest trade skills? I decided on one soldier, three trade skills, and one farmer. I would save one slot in case something came up, and I was also hoping the inn would raise the quality of the village, giving me more slots. First, the soldier. I already had two ranged warriors, but I also had a ton of horses. I wanted someone with riding, armor, and a melee weapon. Basically a knight. I selected the skill sorter and then temperament. Only seven options. Well, seven options that had those three skills as their top three. I couldn¡¯t view any skills they might have beyond their ¡®top 3¡¯. Let¡¯s see races, one undead, one kobold, one goblin, two humans, one elf, and one dwarf. I discounted the first three. Then I deselected the dwarf as I just couldn¡¯t see the dwarf riding one of the massive orc mounts, how would he even get in the saddle? I knew this was a game and that shouldn¡¯t jade my thoughts but I couldn¡¯t help it. That left the two humans and the elf. The humans had the same last name and were the same age, 28. Possibly twins? Obviously, they both had the same skills, but one had Armor: Heavy as his primary and Blade: Medium as his secondary. The other had it reversed. One also had a family of four. I decided to bid on both, so much for plans of only one warrior. After that. I steeled myself away from combat NPCs to crafting. I stopped after two filters and saw the brewer skill. Well, I had an inn. I needed ale. There were only four experts and only one with the temperament I was seeking. He was a beastman: bull, basically a minotaur. There was a dwarf expert with an unpleasant temperament, choleric. I spent a few minutes trying to imagine both in my village before deciding on the beastman. I guess my subconscious didn¡¯t want an irritable dwarf around. The minotaur did have five members of his family, so at least he wouldn¡¯t be lonely. My next crafting skill was woodcraft. My time was starting to be consumed by governing and, building and fighting. I wanted someone to build furniture, do the repairs around town, and possibly help with the building. I had a long list to select from with the proper temperament, so I started to sort by secondary skills. I found a beast: a wolf with expert rank in the secondary fishing skill, and his tertiary skill was novice lumberjack. Perfect! He also had two family members. Okay, I needed one more selection for now. I should probably get a farmer. I searched for a bit based on family size and race until settling on a halfling female with a massive family of 21! Her other two skills were also at the master level, animal husbandry and butchering. I spent another hour searching and sorting but resisted using my final bid. I turned to setting my priorities. I wrote out a list:
  • Finish the Inn
  • Build a house for the air mage
  • Build a house for the shipwright
  • Design and build an alchemy shop
  • Build a house for the giantkin next to Galana¡¯s
  • Design and build an enchanter¡¯s shop
  • Train up Jaesmin
My top priority was the inn, and I needed lumber for this¡­next was the air mage arriving in two days. The air mage was human, so I thought maybe simple three-story tower on the riverbank for his residence. I drafted the 25¡¯ round tower in the morning. Then, I went about building it myself. As I was casting, a global alert came up. Game Mechanics Update: A player can only memorize one spell per their magic + intellect stats divided by 10. These are base stats, and buff and item enhancements have no effect to add additional spell slots. Also, there is now a leveling system for spells. At each tier rank, you can choose an improvement to a spell you know. You can now also unlearn spells. When you unlearn a spell the knowledge and all advancement in the spell will be lost. See your spell interface for more details. Also combat abilities can now also be leveled up in a similar manner. There is no limit to the number of combat abilities a player can learn. I immediately opened my interface and checked my stats.
Strength 39 (9)
Constitution 52 (15)
Stamina 44 (11)
Agility 42 (11)
Speed 6 (4)
Intellect 39
Magic 118 (10)
Channeling 36 (15)
Charisma 27 (5)
Luck 14
Hit Points 1365
Stamina 950
Magic 2198
I was wearing all my gear except my bear hide cloak. The parentheses showed the amount of each stat I gained from items and buffs. So I had 147 with magic plus intellect. This meant I could learn 14 spells. I currently only knew eight spells. I thought about the message and the change to spells. The developers probably did this for one of two reasons. The first was that spells leveling up was a planned mechanic, and they needed to balance caster power. My second thought was that maybe there were fighter-oriented players out there learning a whole bunch of spells. It would also make dividing loot in a group much easier. Why would a fighter waste two levels of stat points to level up magic or intelligence just to learn a new spell? I liked the balance this introduced. Next, I looked at my spells.
Spells Tier Level Sphere Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! CT Magic Cost
Meld Wood 1 1 Nature: Plant 10 secs 25
Stone Bullet 1 1 Earth: Stone 1 sec 25
Summon Earth 1 1 Earth 5 min 27+
Summon Stone 5 1 Earth: Stone 1 min 200
Summon Boulder 5 1 Earth: Stone 1 min 200
Hail of Stones 5 1 Earth: Stone 5 secs 50
Vine Growth 3 1 Nature 3 secs 25
Summon Wood Elemental 5 1 Nature: Plant 10 min 500
Well, it looked like all my efforts to date had been lost. All my spells were level one. I selected Stone Bullet and looked at the new interface.
Stone Bullet
Sphere Earth: Stone Verbal, Somatic
Level 1 0% advancement to next level
Level Bonus +1% Damage per level
Magic Cost 25
Range 120 Yards
Casting Time 1 second
Damage 20.2 + 16
Effect This spell creates a golf ball size projectile that is hurled at your target.
Hitting the target relies on your marksmanship skill.
YOU HAVE 1 SPELL IMPROVEMENT POINT
1st Point 2nd Point 3rd Point 4th Point 5th+ plus points
Casting Time Reduction +1% +2% +3% +4% +5% (max 50%)
Damage Bonus +2% +3% +5% +5% +5% (no max)
Range Bonus +5 yards +10 yards +15 yards +20 yards +25 yards (500 yard max)
Accuracy Bonus +1% +2% +3% +4% +5% (max 50%)
Magic Cost Reduction 5% 5% 5% 5% 5% (max 50%)
Quicker Advancement +5% +10% +15% +20% +25% (no max)
Eliminate Sematic Component o NA NA NA NA
Eliminate Verbal Component o NA NA NA NA
Cast While Moving 25% speed 50% speed 75% speed 100% speed while riding
Visual Effect Rock has dim light spell on it for 5 minutes
Visual Effect Change color of rock, choose one
Visual Effect Change shape, choose square, pyramid or egg
Well, this just a whole lot more interesting. The plus 16 from damage was from my 80% bonus for having earth magic at level 40. I cast the spell and checked my advancement. A 5% increase toward level two, so 20 casts out of combat to raise the spell to level 2. I went searching for a target, found a squirrel, and cast the spell again on the unfortunate victim. Hit and kill. I checked again 16% advancement, so 11% for attacking the squirrel. I had Opheela mount up Titan and went to the plains. I found a plains cat and started casting. Casting has failed, you cannot cast this spell while mounted Casting has failed, you cannot cast this spell while mounted What the fuck? Ah, the developers must have corrected my scorpion cheat. I would need to invest 5 points into the spell to be cast while riding. I dismounted and cast again. Titan, in the meantime, attacked the insolent lion and killed it in short order. I checked advancement again, 25%, so this time I gained 14% for attacking a level 6 creature. It appeared to be just as dangerous as I thought, but it appeared that the more dangerous the creature was, the quicker the advancement, just like skills. On foot, I traveled the plains and leveled the spell up to level 5, giving me 4 points to invest. Then, I began to think about how unfortunate mages were. At low levels, they would be spending time leveling up these low-tier spells only to unlock a better spell at a higher level, which would need to be leveled up. I selected the 5-minute light option. My thought was it could be useful in a dungeon or as a signal at night by firing it into the air. Then I spent 3 points on magic reduction cost. Reducing the cost from 25 to 22. I spent the next five hours leveling up hail of stones to level 7. All 5 points went into movement, allowing me to cast while moving and mounted. Ha, take that, developers, my cheat would be intact! I returned to the stables and turned the care of Titan over to my elven horse masters. Patting him on the neck, letting him know he did a good job today. There was not much light left, but I went over to the inn and worked into the night. Around midnight, I went home and to the drafting board. Jaesmin had a meat pie warm and ready for me with some cider. I folded up the library plans. Almost done with those, just a few more days. The air mage tower would take me two days of stone magic castings. I checked the summon stone spell.
Summon Stone
Sphere Earth: Stone Verbal, Somatic, Material: Stone Dust
Level 1 0% advancement to next level
Level Bonus +1% + 80% Volume
Magic Cost 200
Casting Time 60 seconds
Range 5 yards
Damage NA
Effect This spell creates a stone with a volume 1 cu yard.
The stone can be made into simple shapes by visualization.
YOU HAVE 1 SPELL IMPROVEMENT POINT
1st Point 2nd Point 3rd Point 4th Point 5th+ plus points
Casting Time Reduction +1% +2% +3% +4% +5% (max 50%)
Volume Bonus +2% +3% +5% +5% +5% (no max)
Range Bonus +5 yards +5 yards +5 yards +5 yards +5 yards (100 yard max)
Shaping Bonus +1% +2% +3% +4% +5% (max 50%)
Magic Cost Reduction 5% 5% 5% 5% 5% (max 50%)
Quicker Advancement +5% +10% +15% +20% +25% (no max)
Eliminate Sematic Component o NA NA NA NA
Eliminate Verbal Component o NA NA NA NA
Eliminate Material Component o NA NA NA NA
Cast While Moving 25% speed 50% speed 75% speed 100% speed while riding
Visual Effect Rock has veins of color in it, choose color
Visual Effect Change color of summoned rock, choose one
I selected the magic reduction for my first point. The color visual effect sounded cool. Making black stone with silver veins would be an awesome visual. But priorities: max out the magic reduction cost first to speed building. Good. When the sun came up, I would be able to finish the air mage tower. In the meantime, I drafted a simple stone house for the shipwright. I left a note that Jaesmin was to build it near the docks. The alchemy shop was next. I decided on stone. A full basement for storage, a large open ground floor plan on the first floor, the second floor would be the lab area, the third floor would be living quarters, and finally, the roof would have an area for a garden. The building was 40 feet by 25 feet. I hoped it would be attractive enough for our incoming alchemist. The sun was just rising, and I heard Jaesmin descending the stairs. I pulled my gear on and went to finish the air mage¡¯s tower. It only took seven hours to finish the tower, and I leveled my summon stone twice, both times using the points to reduce the magic cost for the spell. Also of note my skill in carving allowed me more freedom in the shape of the summoned stone, letting me make stairs as well! I tried a medium-sized statue, and it was not too good, but it resembled a larger Simba. I had the wood elementals carry it to the garden behind my house. Chapter 18 Caving to Desire Chapter 18: Caving to Desire I left with Jaesmin to find Sanso. He was working with his elementals on the roads in town. We had a heavy rain last night, and the paths were quite muddy. ¡°Lord Tallis! I am glad to see you this morning!¡± ¡°Master Sanso, you are in town early this morning. I was just coming to find you to set up our building priorities for the next few weeks.¡± We walked a little way as Sanso continued making the small village side paths into solid rock. ¡°I was thinking¡­or rather Elice was thinking that we should add a sewer system to the town before it grows too large. My elementals could dig the proper tunnels, and we could get it done in a month or so.¡± Sewers? Did we need sewers? The game had bathrooms, but I hadn¡¯t taken a shit or piss since being in the game. I hadn¡¯t seen an NPC do so, either. I got a bad feeling this might come around in an update by the developers. Elice walked around the corner and began directing Sanso to where to add stone next. Sanso looked a little abashed, and I think Sanso was here early because he had spent the night in town with Elice? I guess my elementalkin alchemist wouldn¡¯t be pairing with Sanso. I got Sanso¡¯s attention again after Elice left. ¡°Sanso, I think the sewers are a fine idea. I have a number of priority projects. I need a small tower for a new air mage and a house by the docks for our incoming shipwright. The shipwright has five members in his family, so it will be a good-sized residence.¡± I pulled out some plans. ¡°Since we don¡¯t have any available lumber, both structures are going to be made of stone, probably summoned stone. I will start work on the tower while you and Jaesmin work on the house.¡± I left Sanso and got to thinking about the sewers. What I needed was someone skilled in city planning. That was a civil engineer? I opened the interface for NPCs and searched. I found two skills that matched up: City Planning and City Infrastructure. The city planner¡¯s description was closest to building out a city. The city infrastructure was more of a maintenance side of a city. I found a dwarf woman with the perfect skill set, a master skill level in city planning, city infrastructure, and city defenses. Her temperament was Choleric, though. Was it worth it to bid on her for a platinum coin? I only had one bid slot left, and I was already worried my NPC expenses would outpace my income. I got the funds and placed the bid. It would be better to focus my efforts on designing buildings, not where to build them. I spent most of my day working on the air mage tower. The troupe of kids in town found me and bothered me for a while so I spent time showing them my skill with magic. The young elven girl asked innumerable questions, but I patiently answered them all. My reprieve came when Vivale came to get the children to resume lessons. Sanso and Jaesmin finished their building. I was only about a quarter done with my air mage tower. Even using food to expedite my magic regeneration, I still couldn¡¯t match Sanso¡¯s output. The air mage was due to arrive sometime tomorrow, so Sanso would have to join me to finish it on time. I didn¡¯t trust him to work on it alone due to his lack of artistic ability and lack of construction skills. I checked the shipwright¡¯s house; it was functional but not overly impressive. He mostly followed my blueprints, but it lacked fine detail in the plans. It also had a penalty on building health even though I had supervised some of the construction. I needed to be present at over half the construction to have my skills applied. That evening at dinner, it was time to attempt to seduce Jaesmin. Jaesmin prepared a very thick chicken and rice soup. Once again, it needed salt. I also noticed the smell of the soup tonight. It had layers to it. In the past, the smell in this game was very one-dimensional. You could only sense one thing at a time. I could smell the chicken broth and herbs in the soup tonight. It made the consumption experience much more enjoyable, but I wasn¡¯t sure if it was from a game update or just a better perception on my part. If Simba had been around, I would have asked. ¡°Jaesmin, your cooking is getting so much better!¡± She smiled and nodded. She started on the dishes, and I went to help her, standing directly beside her so our hips touched. ¡°Lord Tallis, the sink is too small for both of us to work on it. I will do the dishes, and you can resume your drafting.¡± Not to be deterred, I moved behind Jaesmin and reached around her to help. For some reason, I thought this action would be sexy and functional. I couldn¡¯t help with the dishes, and the more I tried to help, the more I squeezed Jaesmin into the sink with my hips. I could tell by her actions she was caught off guard and slightly uncomfortable. ¡°Why don¡¯t you do the dishes, and I will just stand behind you, Jaesmin.¡± My hands quit the sink, and I hugged my right arm around her waist. She paused a moment before continuing with the dishes. Her tension started to leave her, and she pressed her hips back into mine, rocking side to side. I nestled my head in the crook of her neck and kissed the exposure. Jaesmin smelled a mixture of sweat and lavender. Her hair was silky and tickled my face as my kissing intensified. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Jaesmin had stopped doing dishes, and after over a minute, I used my left arm to spin her to face me. Her lips mashed into mine obviously unpracticed. I used my hands to lift her buttocks to the left of the sink on the counter, and we continued kissing. She locked her arms around me and then her legs, locking us close. As we continued, the kissing became more practiced and softer, and soon, our tongues were dancing as well. My hands had been gently rubbing her back over her shirt, and I took a moment to snake them under her shirt so I could rub her bare back. ¡°Do you want this?¡± I asked, pausing briefly. Her emphatic nod was all I needed. I locked my hands under her buttocks and drew her away from the counter while we resumed kissing. I walked us up the stairs to the bedroom while she was still locked onto me. On reaching the bedroom, I laid her down on her back while at the same time lifting her shirt up and over her head. She moved her arms to make the removal as easy as possible, and her tube top bra went with it. Her breasts were curvy on being released but had the firmness of a young woman. I moved my mouth to her belly button and started kissing her there. Jaesmin stretched out and put her arms above her head on the bed, exposing her naked torso completely to me. I spent a fair amount of time teasing her, kissing and using my hands lightly on her ribs and obliques before moving up to her chest. I could feel her body heat rising as I continued the foreplay. My own manhood had long past reached readiness, but I was planning to draw this out as long as possible. After giving both breasts and nipples equal attention, I moved to her neck. She seemed slightly ticklish from this and squirmed slightly from my efforts. As I was kissing her neck, Jaesmin was still beneath me but was instinctually trying to bring her hips into play. The thin fabric of her canvas work pants didn¡¯t shield me from her growing arousal and the intensity of her hips doing what they could to rub against me. With some fumbling hands, she tried to take my shirt off, and I assisted her. Both bare from the waist up we renewed out passions with kissing. After some time, she showed a burst of strength to roll me, and she was now on top. We kissed for a few moments more before she removed her pants and then mine. I remained prone on the bed as she returned to her dominant position. She straddled her chest. The heat of her sex was intense, and I wanted to explore it, but she held me, and we resumed our kissing while her hips were free to ride my abs. It was a fantastic period of constant building lust and passion that built to a crescendo with Jaesmin suddenly sliding her hips back and using one hand to guide my member into her. The heated lubrication of her renewed rocking motion continued to build. My hands gently glided across her waist and hips as I let her build to her climax. It took minutes, and I do not know how I held back my own, but I just knew it was coming as her tempo suddenly increased, and I felt her convulse with me inside her, and I released to match. She slowed and stayed there, reveling in the moment before lowering herself atop me. We stayed connected as her head came under my chin. Shortly after, Jaesmin uncoupled but remained on top of me, and she fell asleep. I had calmed down from my own high. That was absolutely amazing! It definitely wasn¡¯t quite like the real world, but it was extremely close. I would have never been able to hold back for so long for one. The smell of sex also was noticeably absent. Not wanting to wake Jaesmin, I lay there briefly before initiating my own dream sequence. I wouldn¡¯t mind if I was trapped in this world. The next morning, Jaesmin was already up and bouncing around in the kitchen, making scrambled eggs and bacon. I came behind her and wrapped my arms lovingly around her from behind. She leaned back, and we kissed. ¡°So, Jaesmin, last night¡­was it ok? I mean, did you¡­Do you want to ¡­¡± She patted me on the cheek. ¡°Yes, we can. Maybe again tonight?¡± She had a knowing smirk on her face, and I returned it. I ate quickly, eager to finish the work today and go another round with Jaesmin. We met up with Sanso at the air mage tower by the river and, working as a threesome, quickly raised the small tower. The townsfolk brought us lunch, and by mid-afternoon, the structure was complete. I was definitely lucky to have recruited a mage of Sanso¡¯s power. I went and checked on the two guard towers. The large tower by the river had two militia on duty. They were new militia and had not been part of the orc battle. When I rode out to the plains guard tower on Titan, I sent Jaesmin and Sanso the plans for the enchanter¡¯s tower so they could lay the foundation. Three full-time guards manned the plains tower, and one militia was in rotation. I talked with them briefly; the only excitement was that the town kids had tried to sneak out to harvest some wildflowers. I thanked them for their service. I told them once Galana returned, we would resume our expeditions. Back in town, I went to the general store and talked with Elice and Gwen. The loss of lives had rocked the town, but they were recovering. The orphaned children were adopted into new homes, and their overall mood was positive. A commotion outside caused us to leave the town store and join the townsfolk in the commons. A man was flying above, circling our village. Our new air mage must have arrived! PLEASE NOTE THIS STORY IS ONLY POSTED BY THE AUTHOR TO HIS PATREON, ROYAL ROAD AND SCRIBBLE HUB. IF YOU ARE VIEWING IT ON ANOTHER SITE IT HAS BEEN STOLEN WITHOUT HIS PERMISSION. Chapter 19 Not Everyone Likes Small Villages Chapter 19: Not Everyone Likes Villages The air mage circled twice more before landing. He had a messy white beard and hair. He smiled on landing and looked at the assortment of townsfolk that had come out to greet him at his entrance. He looked directly at me, ¡°Lord? You seem to be in charge here. Is there a good inn where I can wet my whistle? I just flew in, and my arms are tired!¡± The people around me looked at each other, confused. I wasn¡¯t sure if we had a good-natured mage on our hands or a wise ass. I checked the short dossier on the mage from the NPC auction house. Manto Lanier, Master Air Mage, Human Age 70 Temperament: Sanguine Skills: Master Air Magic, Master Air: Lightning, Master Spirit: Life I remembered why I had recruited him. I had wanted someone to teach me air magic and spirit magic. ¡°Manto! Thank you for coming! We have built you a residence by the river. If you come with me, we can discuss compensation for your services.¡± He nodded with a smile, and we walked away from the center of the village. ¡°Lord, I must confess I am looking for a quiet place to settle and live out my waning years. For my service to you as a lord, I was hoping to operate a clinic in town. I know my skill as an air mage is probably why you have recruited me to your quaint little town, but my days of adventuring and battle have passed me by.¡± I absorbed his confession and thought about how to turn it. ¡°Manto, that can be arranged. We have built you a tower to reside in, and as Lord, I would expect you to spend your daily allotment of service time to healing the sick and injured and imparting knowledge to those who come to you seeking it.¡± I hoped I had hit a home run with my statement, but Manto seemed contemplative. ¡°Truthfully, Lord, your town¡­lacks many amenities I am accustomed to. I will stay here for one month, and if you can meet my needs, I will sign on for the long term.¡± New Quest Offered: Provide the Town Services Manto Requires Have the following structures operating within 30 days in Malcum: Tavern, Barber, Bakery, Fine Tailor Reward: Manto will sign a long-term contract, 1,200 experience I hadn¡¯t been offered a quest in a while, so this was good. I checked, and the Inn would qualify as a tavern if it served alcohol. A bakery was going to be easy enough¡­it took just a few clicks on my town interface to designate a building as the bakery. Barber? I checked the description and requirements. The barber required someone with a barber skill of seven or higher to operate his business in the town. Fuck, I had used all my NPC bidding slots. The finer tailor was the same deal, but the fine tailor needed a skill of 23 or higher. I could do nothing but agree of lose this powerful NPC. I paid Manto his monthly wage of 2 gold coins up front. He liked the stone tower we had built for him. It didn¡¯t have any furniture, but he said he could obtain his own. I then spent the next few hours with him, learning five new skills. Air Magic 1 Tier 1 Unlocked, +1 Channeling, +2% air magic spells Air Magic: Force 1 Tier 1 Unlocked, +1 Str, +2% Air Force Spells Air Magic: Lightning 1 Tier 1 Unlocked, +1 Spd, +2% Air Lightning Spells Spirit Magic 1 Tier 1 Unlocked, +1 Con, +2% Spirit Spells Spirit Magic: Life 1 Tier 1 Unlocked, +1 Mag, +2% Spirit Life Spells Reading didn¡¯t count toward my skill total of 23, but these new skills put me at 25 active skills, giving me a penalty of 2% slower learning speed for all skills. I was happy to acquire a skill that enhanced my speed attribute. Manto was too tired to teach my spells today but promised to do so tomorrow. He was going to teach me Force Shield, a tier 1 force spell, and Restore Health, a tier 1 life mage spell. Once I raised my air and spirit magic to level 7, he would be able to teach me tier 5 spells. It was dark when I left Manto in his tower to return home. I found a cold plate of shepherd¡¯s pie on the table. I ate it quickly and bounded up the stairs. Jaesmin was sleeping in her thin, sexy pullover nightgown. I was about to probe her awake when I noticed Simba on a shelf watching me. He said, ¡°We need to talk.¡± I followed the small feline downstairs. He hopped up on the table and began. ¡°The developers have given me the task of letting you know the players in the real world are upset that hard-wired players get to keep their progress on game launch. The compromise that they reached with the players purchasing the game is that all hard-wired players will be reset to level 1. Hard-wired players will keep their skills at their current level. However, you will not be able to advance in your skill levels for the first 30 days of the game¡¯s release.¡± Simba¡¯s tail was twitching. This was bad news but not terrible news. ¡°What about our game and quest progress?¡± I asked the small cat. ¡°There will be no reboot of the system. Since most quests are AI-generated and the world is in constant evolution, it was decided not to reset the entire game. We are currently on day 85 of the game-testing phase. On day 180, the game will launch with early-release players. There will be 1,229 hard-wired players continuing their gameplay.¡± ¡°Another 50,000 players will join the game. These players have paid a substantial sum of money for a 30 ¡®game¡¯ day head start. That will equal a one-week head start in the real world once you account for the game day cycle. After this seven-day period, 28 million players who have already purchased the game will be joining. This number is also likely to grow to upwards of 50 million.¡± Simba finished, but I could tell he was not done with the information, so I was excited. Although the NPCs in the game seemed real to me, I was looking forward to interacting with other people again. ¡°What else is there, Simba?¡± The cat was hesitating. I didn¡¯t know why. ¡°One of the updates that has been highly debated was whether or not to allow players to procreate in the game. It was deemed too difficult psychologically for a person to deal with having a child that didn¡¯t really exist. The update was scratched for players¡­but that edit never occurred for hard-wired players¡­it was an oversight by the programmers, and the conditions for conceiving a child were pretty strenuous. Somehow, you managed to get your companion Jaesmin to meet these conditions. So Congratulations! You are going to be a father!¡­or the developers could get the programmers to correct this¡­¡± Simba stopped talking. He was waiting for me to respond. ¡°How long do I have to decide? Would the child be immortal? I mean, this is a terribly violent place, and I don¡¯t think I could deal with losing a child in here.¡± Simba spaced out, probably getting answers. ¡°Your developer contact said player offspring could be killed in the game but respawn at the nearest temple after one game day. They count as a companion but do not occupy a companion slot. They age five times quicker in the game, and at age 15, they can begin to acquire skills and level. Their respawn time at this point then follows normal companion respawn rules.¡± After a pause, Simba finished, ¡°Do you have an answer?¡± This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°No. I need time to think about it.¡± I replied. I went to my drafting table to distract myself. Simba jumped up on the table to interrupt me. ¡°Children in the game are born after 90 game days. The developer wants a decision in ten days from you. If you do not decide, the child will be removed from the code.¡± Simba left before I could respond to what sounded like an ultimatum from the people who controlled every aspect of my life. I put a lot of focus into my drafting work and got inspired. Halfway through the night, I switched over to drafting an alchemy shop. It looked fantastic on paper, and I was rewarded with a prompt. Very Rare Alchemy Shop, Health 50,000, Requires Masonry Foundations 23, Masonry: Structures 23, Woodcraft: Carpentry 23 (Skill Crafting Bonus to Alchemy: +10% to potion crafting speed and potency) My inspirational focus faded after I completed the plans. The crafting bonus was something I hadn¡¯t seen before. The Alchemy shop wasn¡¯t large in its footprint but had a basement for storage, a storefront on the first floor, a workshop on the second floor, and the third floor was an apartment. The first two floors were stone on the plans, and the third floor was wood. Jaesmin came down the stairs all smiles. That look on her face¡­it made the decision for me. She may only be coded in a game, but it was more to me. A child would make her happy. I gave her a hug and told her I was getting breakfast at the general store this morning. It didn¡¯t take me long to find Simba and tell him of my decision to keep the child. Simba disappeared, and I was worried he may have been taken from me permanently. I found Sanso at the general store, sharing breakfast with Elice. I told Sanso to hold off on completing the Enchanter¡¯s tower. I wanted to redraw the plans to try to increase the building quality. We would be working on the alchemy shop today in town. Sanso reviewed the plans, and even his untrained eye could see they were special. As long as I was there to serve as the foreman, the alchemy shop would be the nicest building in town. I drank some fruit juice for breakfast with buttered toast, and we met Jaesmin at the alchemy shop¡¯s site. It was going to be centrally located in the town. Sanso called over all his elementals, and in just a few hours, the basement was done with connections to the budding sewer system. We worked well together, and by the end of the day, all the stonework was completed for the first and second floors. We still needed lumber, lots of lumbar. Manto approached as we were packing up for the day. ¡°Lord Tallis, I was watching you work from atop my tower, and I say that was some amazing work today. Do you have time to learn the spells I mentioned yesterday? You already paid me the funds, and I would like to discharge my duties before turning them in.¡± He was genuine in his speech, and I liked the old man a lot. Learning the spells only took a short amount of time. Force Shield 1, Air: Force Tier 1, Casting Time: 1 second, Magic 20, Create 1 meter shield with 200 health Restore Health 1, Spirit: Life Tier 1, Casting Time: 3 seconds, Magic 25, Heal 100 Health instantly on touch After reviewing the spells, I decided to ask him, ¡°Manto, if I harvested some trees directly across the river from your tower, could you protect me from the creatures within?¡± He studied me for a moment before replying. ¡°I could, Lord. Would it be just you?¡± He asked inquisitively. ¡°It would be just me, but I would have a few men on the town bank ready to pull the felled logs across.¡± He nodded in thought. Then, he affirmed that he could protect me but wouldn¡¯t travel into the woods, just remain atop his tower. It was a plan to get much-needed wood. We had a trade contract with the town 15 miles south along the river, Barrista, but that was one shipment a month. I needed to get our lumber mill operating now. Galana should be back with the trade caravan in a day or two, and our second giantkin range specialist is due to arrive in three days. Both of them would be great support, but right now, I had an experienced lightning mage to back me up. I planned to cut just four trees on the far bank tomorrow. That evening, I ate dinner with Jaesmin and lounged on the couch entwined. I practiced my force shield spell while she talked about what was happening in the town. After consummating our relationship by having sex, she had gained a lot of confidence in interacting with the townspeople again. As it got late, I told Jaesmin I needed to work on the Enchanter¡¯s tower tonight. I was hoping for some inspiration. She pouted a little but left me to the toils at the drafting table. At first, I tried to copy the alchemy concepts to the existing stone tower draft, but it failed. It seemed there was a game block¡­or maybe a mental block from transferring the effectiveness of the blueprints. I started from scratch. The enchanter tower would be larger and have three sub-basements. The first floor would be an elaborate shop with a specialized enchanting room in the back. The second floor would be a large apartment. The third floor would be a specialized enchanting room, and the roof would be a personal garden for the Enchanter. I redid the plans twice, and they finally felt right. Rare Enchanter¡¯s Tower, Health 35,000, Requires Masonry Foundations 23, Masonry: Structures 23 (Skill Bonus to Enchanting: Reduce Enchanting Time by 10%) It¡¯s not a fantastic bonus, but it¡¯s still a specific skill bonus. It was over 90% stone in the draft, which should have made it feasible to build. The morning came, and I went to meet Sanso before Jaesmin even woke. I brought Sanso to the river, and he built a narrow bridge across the river, which spanned 20 yards at the narrow point of the river. Sanso didn¡¯t seem overly concerned about the forest and came across with me, and we talked as I felled my first tree with my battle axe. As I was cutting the branches off, a boar the size of a small horse came barreling out of the woods. Sanso just pointed at it, and the earth swallowed it. He said his elementals were patrolling underground while I worked. Well, that was just badass and made me feel pretty secure. I felled six trees in succession, all at least four feet in diameter, and waved to Manto in the tower, letting him know I was done. I got the logs into water and soon townsfolk hauled them across and up to the mill. The good thing about the game mechanics is everything went smoothly with crafting. It didn¡¯t take as much time as in the real world, and the product was always usable immediately, but the quality varied. Sanso and I were attacked crossing the narrow stone bridge on our return. A flurry of arrows came out of the dark woods. I spied a single shape and identified it. Darkskull Goblin Scout, ???,???,??? We retreated, but the goblins in the woods did not emerge. We did have a problem as a quest appeared for me. New Quest: Eliminate the threat of the Darkskull Goblin Tribe in Shiverwood forest. Reward: Logging Outpost, 10,000 Experience At least I knew what the threat would be from the forest. With the amount of lumber harvested, we could finish the inn, alchemy shop, the Enchanter¡¯s tower and have some left over for furniture. I was offered the lumberjack skill and, after some research, took it. The skill taught me which trees to select and the specific tree type. It could improve the quality of the lumber, and the structures from which the wood was built would benefit. This meant my skill advancement was now slowed by 3%. The associated stat for lumberjack was stamina. Later in the day, I was working with Jaesmin on the upper floors of the alchemy shop when Simba returned. He spoke first. ¡°Tallis, I have good news. Your fatherhood in the game is going to be a test case. The programmers have locked down the mechanisms so no one else can achieve offspring. They also made some adjustments to companions. Some of the players were abusing their companions...¡± he didn¡¯t go into specifics. ¡°Now, all future AI companions can only be animals in nature.¡± Simba looked tired and curled up. As we worked, Simba slept, and dinner approached. A modest cart with five people came into town. I climbed down to meet them with the other townsfolk. My shipwright had arrived¡­and we had no lumber as I had allocated everything I cut this morning. I escorted him with Jaesmin to the house we prepared, and while his exhausted family unloaded, we went to the river and talked about boats. The river flow was such that downriver travel would be quick. To return upriver, the boats would need either water magic or air magic enchantments. This was a bit disappointing, but my other option was to crew the river trade ships with enough crew to sail or row them. We just didn¡¯t have the bodies to do so. Fortunately, my new shipwright, Laeron, had plans for a simple riverboat. He even had the water glide enchantment diagram in his papers. Things were looking up. After getting them settled, I went home and found Jaesmin cooking. I came up behind her, wrapped her in my arms, and started kissing her neck. It didn¡¯t take long to forget about dinner and head to the bedroom. PLEASE NOTE THIS STORY IS ONLY POSTED BY THE AUTHOR TO HIS PATREON, ROYAL ROAD AND SCRIBBLE HUB. IF YOU ARE VIEWING IT ON ANOTHER SITE IT HAS BEEN STOLEN WITHOUT HIS PERMISSION. Chapter 20 Promotion from Settlement to Village Chapter 20: Promotion from Settlement to Village I awoke with Jaesmin¡¯s arms draped over me. I stared at the ceiling for a bit, thinking. There was a lot to do today, but I was so damn comfortable. The air had a slight chill, but Jaesmin¡¯s body radiated enough heat to make it perfect. We would finish the alchemy shop early this morning and then switch to the inn. We needed to furnish the inn and kitchens¡­that was going to take another trade mission to the city. It was an oversight on my part¡­ovens, silverware, plates, cooking utensils¡­ Our trade caravan was due back today, and I will send them back out. The gnome cook was due in two more days so we could get a temporary kitchen set up. That would hopefully appease the grand master cook. With Galana back, I would make another attempt to harvest trees from across the river. Manto, Sanso, and Galana should be enough defense against any threat the goblins proved to be. Dressing, I talked idly with Jaesmin about the town residents. I didn¡¯t reveal that she was pregnant. That was a surprise that I wanted her to learn on her own¡­however, the programming worked in that regard. ¡°Tallis, are we going to finish the inn and alchemy shop today?¡± she asked as we left. ¡°Definitely. I am going to have Sanso work on the foundation for our new giantkin today as well.¡± I paused in my step. ¡°No, he will start on the enchanter¡¯s tower, excavating the three level basements. I think I will draft up some new house plans for our incoming giantkin and build Galana something more suitable.¡± We waved to town folks as we made our way to the site and began to utilize the lumber present to finish the alchemy shop. I examined the building when we were done. Very Rare Alchemy Shop, Health 122,500, Armor 30, Skill Bonus +17% to potion crafting speed and potency What! I went to my sheets to figure out the changes. The health was supposed to be 50,000¡­ah, we had a significant bonus from my building skills and materials used¡­the 17% that was supposed to be just 10%...it was a mix of the same things¡­just not as potent. It wasn¡¯t a large structure, but it was definitely the jewel of our small village. Town folks walked by and confirmed my suspicions. I went to my interface to see if it raised our village¡¯s quality. No? That can not be right. Fortunately, I caught Simba prancing by and stopped him. ¡°Simba, why didn¡¯t the village quality increase after we completed this alchemy shop? I mean, it is exceptional.¡± Simba sat on his haunches and lectured me, ¡°The NPC recruit system has had three major adjustments. The first was the cost of bidding on the NPCs at the auction. The second was the multiplier. And the third was eliminating temperament from the description. The last two are in your town interface.¡± I opened the town interface and went to the tabs. Oh shit! There were dozens of updates and notifications in each of the tabs. I went to the chart for the number of NPCs I could bid on.
TITLE MIN POPULATION NPC Auction Bids
Settlement 20 3
Village 100 5
Town 500 10
Large Town 2,500 15
Small City 7,500 20
City 37,500 30
Metropolis 187,500 40
Capital 937,500 50
World Capital 4,687,500 100
So this had changed, but I didn¡¯t quite remember the original. Simba interrupted, ¡°There should be a message in there noting that the game¡¯s AI has initiated NPC migration mechanics based on war, prosperity, and living conditions. The NPC auction allows population centers to draw in NPCs to fill missing roles. Players like yourself can utilize it to occupy population centers. When the game launches, NPC cities will compete with players rather than get the leftover NPCs from the auction as well. There should be another tab with the new modifiers.¡± ¡°So right now, players are not competing with NPC cities?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes. There are only two hard-wired players currently utilizing the NPC auction site. You and one other. This is a big advantage since you will not have to start over like the other testers.¡± Simba finished. ¡°This seems like something my AI companion should have informed me of immediately,¡± I said with some irritation. ¡°Well, if you had read all your notifications, you would have found that your AI guide companions now require prompts to relay information. We are no longer providing free advice.¡± He returned smugly. I thought for a minute and then asked, ¡°Does this include your own development? You have not bothered me in a while for a spell, and I have not seen you committing mass genocide on the local squirrel population.¡± ¡°Yes! You need to give me a command to level up!¡± He moved to rub himself against my legs and started purring. ¡°Can I just order you to give me important information when needed?¡± I asked, ignoring his obvious plea to be released to attack. ¡°No. Only direct questions will be processed. However, you will have access to the world¡¯s internet once the game launches. There are already 5000 wikis out there about the game.¡± He said, sounding agitated. ¡°Fine, Simba, go level up and remind me to get you a new spell in a few days.¡± Simba launched himself off the ground to pursue a brave chipmunk I had not noticed. I looked at the NPC auction modifiers. It had been called a multiplier before, but now it was just a simple plus or minus to auction bids. Lord¡¯s Call, my ability, was listed, giving +2 bids. Town quality had everything from -50 bids for war-torn ruins to +20 bids for utopia. Checking, and my town now fell under Above Average Living Conditions, a +1 modifier. So that meant I should have 6 bids¡­yes that was how many I had used. My town population was currently at 109, though and I was still designated as a ¡®settlement¡¯. It took a few minutes to find the correct tab and find out why. To become a village, I needed a town management building¡­town hall, castle, manor, or similar structure. I tried to promote my residence to a manor, but it failed to meet the structure minimums. Well damn. I closed the interface to ensure that was all I needed to promote to village status. I would need to explore these tabs again as they were constantly evolving. With Jaesmin in tow, I went to finish the inn. We had just started when a huge commotion came from the village center. I could see Galana mounted on her steed. She had returned with the trade caravan! I rushed to see her and made sure everyone returned safely. The townsfolk were crowded around the general store as the expedition unloaded a multitude of goods from wagons and magic storage bags. I found Galana and talked with her off to the side. She started the conversation. ¡°It went well, Lord Tallis. We set up a trade contract for lumber from Barrington and traded almost all our goods. I have 1,930 gold, 2,800 silver, and 8,091 copper coins to add to the village treasury.¡± She had a smile on her face. That was fantastic! My money troubles were over. Well, it was only about 20 platinum coins, but this hard currency should alleviate our coin problems. She continued, ¡°We have a quota of hides and meat to send to Barrington for the lumber. It is only about two days of harvest for us, so I didn¡¯t think it would be an issue. We also bought up quite a bit of miscellaneous items to populate the general store.¡± She indicated the people unpacking. Stolen story; please report. ¡°You did phenomenal Galana. Unfortunately, we need to outfit the new inn with cast iron ovens and supplies so they can operate. Our cook will be here in two days.¡± I said somberly. I wasn¡¯t going to send Galana away, though. The new giantkin was coming in two days as well. He could be the caravan guard. ¡°I got those things, Lord,¡± she said with some humor in her voice. ¡°I probably got a lot of things you hadn¡¯t thought about. The entire town came together before I left, and we put together a sizable list. I got just about everything.¡± I was a little shocked. ¡°Damn. Consider your wages tripled, Galana!¡± I said extremely happy. There was a management tab for NPCs in my town. I opened it. Galana had shown herself valuable and extremely loyal. The promotion tab was extremely complex. You selected a title for a position, put it into an organization chart, and then selected the duties, budget and operation parameters. There were a whole bunch of preprogrammed positions. I paged through them and was deciding between either Captain of the City Watch or Master Constable. The Master Constable had more freedom than the Captain in the preset settings, but Captain of the City Watch was a flashier title. So I swapped the names and assigned Galana as my Captain of the City Watch with a monthly budget of 20 gold. In the organizational flow chart, she answered directly to me. She was now responsible for law and order within the Malcum¡¯s limits. She had permission to hire up to 20 full-time town guards and rule on minor crimes herself. Galana looked puzzled for a moment before kneeling before me. ¡°Lord Tallis, thank you for the esteemed position. I will discharge my duties to the best of my abilities!¡± She stood and crossed her right arm across her chest in salute. ¡°We are going to harvest some trees from the forest. Go find Sanso. He is working on the Enchanter¡¯s Tower. You two should be able to guard me while I work on the opposite shore.¡± I gathered a few townsfolk to pull the logs across as well. Soon, I was on the far shore with Galana and Sanso as overwatch. They scared off two small parties of Darkskull goblins, injuring a few and killing five. The goblins were all level 45 and had terrible gear, nothing salvageable besides 20 to 40 silver coins each. I did take one wound for 354 damage, so they were no joke. I felled 12 large trees before my axe durability gave out. I would need Manarag to repair it. This should get us enough lumber for at least a week after it was milled. It was late in the day as the townsfolk worked on the massive logs in the mill. Jaesmin brought me a late lunch, and together with Sanso, we checked on the Enchanter¡¯s tower. Sanso had finished the three sub-levels, and with my guidance and spells, we smoothed out his rough work. I returned to my residence with Jaesmin, and she made dinner while I opened my town interface. I needed to assign duties to a few townsfolk. I started with Elice. She was promoted to Master of Coins, a fancy title for the town¡¯s banker. I gave her a 50 silver coin monthly wage. She would continue to run the general store as well. Next up was Sanso. I promoted him to High Wizard of Defense. It was a manufactured title on my, and his duties were limited to the construction of town buildings and aiding in defense. I did double his wage as well. For Curraen, I promoted him to Guild Master of Leatherworkers. I gave him a pay boost, and he now would oversee all tanners and leather workers in the city, granting them permits to practice their craft. I did the same for Manarag, Guild Master of Smiths. That was all I wanted to do in the interface tonight. I started eating a baked chicken with vegetables that Jaesmin had prepared, which was actually seasoned! I wanted to draft a new residence for Galana and our future giantkin tonight. After eating, I went to work on the plans. At least, it would be just one set, and both warriors would receive identical residences. It took only six hours before I was finished. It was a mix of using the interface and actual drafting work. I identified the plans. Rare Giantkin Townhouse, Health 8,000, Requires Masonry:Foundations 23, Masonry Structures: 23, Woodcraft: Caprentry 23 (+20% Bonus to Stamina, Health and Magic Regeneration for Giantkin race) That was fantastic! With the build bonus, that might get over 30%! I wanted to work on a town hall administration building, but the sun was already starting to crest. If Sanso, Jaesmin, and I all worked together, we could have completed both structures in short order. I decided to put both structures near the center of town, adjacent to each other. As we toiled the day away, I found out the negative side of assigning titles to NPCs in my growing village. They came to me with their problems. Galana was first. She wanted to establish a regular mounted patrol to the west. I had to open her interface and give her permission to do so. Next was Curraen. He wanted me to set the fees for registering new leatherworkers, and once again, I just gave him permission to do so. This went on all day. Constant interruptions required me to enter the interface and give them permissions. I was fine with it as I needed to break to let my stamina and magic replenish, but if this continued every day and every time I bestowed¡­oh!...light shines on marble head! My organizational flow chart had everyone reporting to me! Well, let us fix that! I decided the old woman, Gwen Hallo, I had met and who had passed on the responsibility of the village to me was going to be our Master of Guilds. All Guild Masters would have to go to her from now on. After doing this, my day ran much smoother. We finished both giantkin structures by the end of the day, but I was feeling some fatigue, having drained my magic and stamina so many times during the construction. Excitedly, I analyzed the buildings. Rare Giantkin Townhouse, Health 16,700, +31% bonus to stamina, health and magic regeneration for giantkin race Rare Giantkin Townhouse, Health 16,300, +32% bonus to stamina, health and magic regeneration for giantkin race Simba was nearby, so I asked why there was a difference. We built the structures in parallel. He told me there was a multitude of factors. Most likely, it was due to the differing quality of lumber used. I checked the wood with my lumberjack skill. Yes, I could see that. Some of the supports on the unit with less health were slightly inferior. Ok, I would need to be more focused on materials in the future. I selected the best trees when I cut them down yesterday, but the milling process had some variance. So many damn layers to this game! Galana had also arrived riding her horse with three other city guards mounted. ¡°Hi Galana! This is your new house! You can pick either one!¡± I said, hoping for a positive reaction. She cried instead. I nervously looked around until I realized it was tears of joy. She dismounted and hugged me, smothering me in her chest, before checking out both units and selecting the unit with the slightly higher recovery bonus. It was a good day! The townsfolk were also making requests for new residences, but I just referred them to the Guild of Woodcrafters, which didn¡¯t exist yet! Hopefully, that confusion¡­my interface chimed, and I opened the message; I had been promoted to the Guild Master of Woodcrafters by Gwen! Damn it! I would dump the title on someone who deserved it while I could and ignore the requests for now. The townsfolk had a party in the square that night, and I was glad to see everyone, including Manto, who was smoking a pipe and drinking heartily. I retired with Jaesmin after putting in sufficient face time. That night, my drafting efforts focused on a town administration office building. What should I design? Jaesmin sat at the table with me as I bounced ideas off her. Her feedback was limited due to her AI knowledge, but it was still helpful. I eventually went with a town hall concept. Its first floor would be a nice reception area with a guard station for six city guards. The second and third floors would contain 13 offices each for administrators. The building was going to be all stone. I didn¡¯t know if my concept would work, but I liked it in my head and put it into drafting the plans. Rare City Hall, Health 80,000, Requires Masonry Foundations 23, Masonry Structures 43 (Bonus +12% to City Population Morale, +2% Tax Revenue) A 43 was needed for Masonry Structures! Why? Oh, maybe the height of the building? Did I have the skill to build this? I checked all my skills.
Skill Level
Axe 13 Ag
Axe: Two Handed 15 Str
Air Magic 2 Chan
Air Magic: Force 2 Str
Air Magic: Lightning 1 Spd
Analyze 16 Int
Artistry: Carving 13 Chr
Artistry: Drafting (23) 42 Int
Cooking 6 Ag
Earth Magic 41 Mag
Earth Magic: Stone 41 Con
Laborer 17 Str
Leadership 18 Chr
Masonry 30 Str
Masonry: Foundations 29 Con
Masonry: Structures 24 Stam
Nature Magic 13 Mag
Nature Magic: Plant 13 Chan
Ranged 35 Ag
Reading: Common 3 Int
Riding: Land 40 Stam
Spirit Magic 2 Con
Spirit Magic: Life 2 Mag
Woodcraft 28 Chan
Woodcraft: Carpentry (23) 27 Luck
Woodcraft: Furniture 12 Char
Woodcraft: Lumberjack 7 Stam
I lacked the skill to build the building! My skills had jumped, but I was behind. My best bet to raise it was to gain some levels and add my skill points from leveling to it. I really wanted to increase the ¡®settlement¡¯ to a ¡®village¡¯. It would give me two more bids in the NPC auction, and as Simba had mentioned, I had a cheat when adding powerful NPCs. As I was pondering this, I got hit with a system-wide alert. Worldwide Notification: A Planer Incursion Event will be Tested in 48 hours. A timer window is available to players. It is highly suggested you find refuge in large cities before the timer hits zero. What the fuck was a planar incursion? PLEASE NOTE THIS STORY IS ONLY POSTED BY THE AUTHOR TO HIS PATREON, ROYAL ROAD AND SCRIBBLE HUB. IF YOU ARE VIEWING IT ON ANOTHER SITE IT HAS BEEN STOLEN WITHOUT HIS PERMISSION. Chapter 21 End Game Revealed Chapter 21: End Game Revealed A planar incursion? I opened my map and located Simba on the river bank not far away. I fast walked to Simba¡¯s location. It sounded like we were going to be invaded, and it was going to be a disaster for the small village. I found Simba peering into the water, and he was using his vine entangle spell as a fishing pole. I watched in amazement as a fish came up and tried to snag the bait on the end while another vine lashed down to the water and stunned the fish. The fish was then transported to the shore and added to a pile of flapping other fish. Simba directed his attention to me, and the spell ended, and the vines evaporated to dust. ¡°One of the children in town asked me to get her some fish and this is a great way to level up my spell level and control.¡± Simba¡¯s tail twitched in irritation at being interrupted. ¡°The child wouldn¡¯t happen to be the overly talkative elven girl?¡± I asked, guessing. ¡°Indeed, Savannah is her name, Tallis. I suppose you are here because of the recent worldwide announcement? You don¡¯t have access to the forums yet, so I can summarize it for you if you wish.¡± Simba asked slightly mockingly. ¡±Please do, oh great and powerful feline seer of the outside world.¡± I said, returning his condescending tone. Simba leaped four feet up to a branch on a nearby tree. He was now almost at eye level. ¡°Well, Tallis incursions are a major part of gameplay. There are nine realms in the game. This realm is by far the biggest and is constantly expanding. The other eight realms are fire, earth, water, air, beast, insectoid, undead, and ascendant. To reach the ascendant realm, you need all eight keys, one from each of the other realms.¡± Simba paused, waiting for a question, so I asked him one. ¡°So, where is the key in this realm?¡± That was a good question, right? Simba chuckled. ¡°Oh, like it is that easy! The first phase of the end game is finding it! You need to research in grand libraries, explore remote ruins, and conquer difficult raid bosses just to get clues to its location!¡± I thought for a bit before asking. ¡°So why would they put out the ¡®end game¡¯ of this world? I mean, wouldn¡¯t it be better to let players find out on their own?¡± I wasn¡¯t going to invest in searching for whatever artifact this was, but it definitely made me feel small in the world. ¡°It was a secret until the testing. But an enterprising test player spent hours in the grand libraries researching clues and discovered the basics, so the admins released some details. It has only spurred interest in the game. The admins are holding 1% of all profits to the first player to claim the Ascendant realm crown.¡± Simba finished a little smugly. ¡°Wow, I responded. How much will that be?¡± I asked, slightly curious. ¡°Depends how long the game runs, but most likely it will be in the billions of dollars¡­American currency.¡± Simba replied. My thoughts were on how cutthroat the game was going to be due to this incentive. ¡°There are already 49 million dollars in the prize account, and a website showing the steadily increasing amount.¡± My face was shrouded in concern. If the game ended, then so would I. Simba read my thoughts, ¡°Don¡¯t worry; the rulers of the other realms have special coding. They will always be 100 levels higher than the highest-level player character in the game. This means that a global player will be required to invade and capture the keys in the other realms. Besides global incursion rifts, the only way to travel to the other realms will be with this its specific realm key. So the first player rush will be to find it. Developers are estimating it will take players four or five years to find the location of the key and then another year to acquire it.¡± Simba added. I had brief illusions of finding the key myself but dropped the foolish notion. So if the world was constantly expanding and the developers thought it would take years to find the key¡­ ¡°So the key isn¡¯t accessible right now, Simba? It is in one of the areas yet to be revealed?¡± Simba nodded in agreement, ¡°That is the consensus on the forums.¡± ¡°So what does this ¡®test¡¯ incursion mean for my village of Malcum?¡± I asked, returning to why I sought the feline¡¯s glorious wisdom. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. ¡±Not much. Incursion portals are only open near large cities. The NPC defenders will not be enough to hold back the wave, so players need to participate in stopping the incursion. If they don¡¯t, the city may fall, giving the planar entities a foothold. The NPCs from the other planes are highly intelligent and are coming here seeking this realm¡¯s key. Unlike most games, the players are not guaranteed to win.¡± Simba looked a little arrogant. As he was a basic AI himself, maybe he was hoping the NPCs would win. ¡°So, oh wise and powerful king of the jungle, what do you advise me to do?¡± I asked, finally feeling a little more comfortable. ¡°Since this is a test of the incursion event, the NPCs will be able to hold off the invaders. Once the leader that emerges from each portal is slain, the remaining monsters will scatter and need to be hunted down. Some may reach you¡­¡± he paused, ¡°but most likely not. The nearest portal will be 250 miles away. But the rewards are pretty high for assisting in repelling an incursion. You may want to travel south and participate.¡± ¡°Thank you, Simba. I think I am going to focus on leveling here instead. Now that Galana is back, I am going to try out our own little dungeon and continue building up our little village.¡± I left the little cat and walked away thinking. I opened the updates that I had never looked at for exploring dungeons. I could have as many companions as I wanted, but just one NPC. And the NPC could die permanently¡­companions could be resurrected at cost. The cost was one platinum coin per level of the companion, quite steep, but it made sense, so players didn¡¯t use them as fodder. But in an update, there was more¡­ you needed 1 point of a divine reputation for every ten levels of the companion. You received divine reputation from completing quests from the gods. So, should I level up Jaesmin and bring her with me? Should I even risk Galana in the dungeon? I needed to think about this. It was getting dark and cold out, so I returned home and snuggled with Jaesmin in front of a fire. So many things to think on. I wish I knew more about what state my body was in the real world. My ultimate goal was to make enough money to return. That was, if the admins were telling me the truth, it would be possible to do so. I decided tomorrow I was going to go hunting scorpions again. I fell asleep on the couch with Jaesmin. When I woke, the fire was out, and the air was slightly chilled. I untangled from Jaesmin and told her to work with Sanso today. I was going out on a ride. With Titan saddled, I mounted and was prompted. Would you like to make Titan your character¡¯s mount? I had to go to the updates and find out what caused this. Simba was never around when I needed him. Finding the update notes, it said players could only have one land mount and one air mount. Changing mounts had the old mount be permanently erased. I decided to click no for now. Titan was a great mount, but I wouldn¡¯t want him deleted if I found a better one. Titan was acting aggressively after I said no. Maybe I should have clicked yes? Well, it was for his own good. We ran full gallop across the plains and toward the scorpion dessert. The run got Titan out of his foul mood. We began our normal harvest of scorpions, but Titan was harder to control. Checking, and apparently, only player mounts responded with 100% control. Otherwise, I had to rely on my riding skills. Stupid developers. I was still good enough to work on the scorpions. A few hours later, deeper in the dessert, I found a skeleton cloaked in rags. I cautiously approached, and two massive scorpions with bright red markings erupted from the sand. I thought I could use the same tactics, but these scorpions had a ranged poison attack thrown from their stingers. And boy, did the poison burn! It also had a splatter effect, and Titan didn¡¯t appreciate it either. He was becoming increasingly difficult to control the more damage he took. Fine! I went to the damn prompt and added him as my mount. With that settled, we were able to circle quicker and attack. Avoiding the ranged attacks for the most part, we whittled them down and eventually killed both of them. Titan had also turned into a big baby, constantly nudging me for affection as I dismounted and searched the scorpions and skeletons. I checked an update I had skipped called ¡®mount affection¡¯. There were three negative affection ratings, a neutral rating, and four positive ones. Each level accounted for 10% of speed and damage. So at the worst mount affection you had -30% to damage and speed. At the highest positive, you had +40% to speed and damage while on the mount. I was currently at level 1 positive. Death of the mount dropped the ¡®mount affection¡¯ by one level. The good news was mounts respawned immediately at player respawn points. I was slightly irked by these changes even though they were currently to my benefit. I was sure all these changes to the game were making real-world players drool, but keeping track of everything was becoming an issue for me. The scorpions were level 30 elite red spitter scorpions. That didn¡¯t make sense since the poison came from their tails, not their mouths. I was able to get just a carapace in loot from both. The bone skeleton was more interesting. It had a signet ring noted as a quest item and a scroll with a map. I was prompted to integrate the map and said yes. The scroll remained, but an area to the south populated my map. There was a tag on the map, and it said, Red Crystalline Cavern. Another dungeon, maybe? No. I checked the icon on the map for the location, and it was the icon for city ruins. Excellent. I packed up the scroll and loot and decided to do some quick investigation before returning to Malcum. Chapter 22 Gnome Cooked Meal Chapter 22: Red Crystal Cavern The sand turned into rolling dunes as I moved toward the location on my map interface. We rode the crests of the dunes to keep our line of sight, and unbelievably, the sun became oppressive. You could only get such extreme weather so close together in a VR game. The village of Malcum was experiencing cold rain today, but here, just 50 or so miles away, we had dry heat. Environmental debuff effects were supposed to be added to the game in an update, but thankfully, they hadn¡¯t hit yet. The sand roiled to my right, and my instincts said it wasn¡¯t a scorpion, so I spurred Titan down the dune to get away from the unfamiliar enemy. A spider emerged as we moved away, and I scanned it with my skill. Azul Sand Trap Door Spider, Level ?? The spider retreated into its den, and I decided to let it be. Another update minimized the information from the Analyze skill. There were now secondary skills for analyze. One identified strengths and weaknesses, and the other gave the attack and defense. Recently a lot of skills had been expanded to include secondary skills. The developers were finding ways to force players to specialize. At first, you would think that 23 skills were a lot. Eventually, you reach a point where you have to decide whether adding more skills past 23 was worth it. I was already in that trap. I continued on, as I wanted to find the ruins. Two more spiders showed themselves on the trek, but I was able to foresee the outline of their dens in the sand and avoid them. I checked and compared my location to the marker on the map. The marker was in a steep valley between two massive dunes. All I saw was sand¡­no ruins or entrance to the mysterious caverns. The steepness of the sand descent made me hesitant to head down there to investigate further. Was this an illusion? It will be dark soon, so I should probably head back. I pulled out the scroll, doing my best Indian Jones impression, studying it for clues I might have missed. Nothing. I was about to turn around, but then I remembered the signet ring. I identified it. Membership Signet Ring for Order of the Crimson Shard, Knight Rank The ring had shown no magic. It was just a silver ring with a ruby the shape of a spider embedded into it. I put the ring on, and the valley of sand below transformed into a mini oasis with a large entrance that goes into the sand dune. Well, that was pretty cool, to say the least. I put the ring on and off and watched the effect happen a few times before being brave enough to slide down the sand. Titan was not happy and barely remained upright as I slid on my back next to him. The oasis had a handful of trees surrounding a small pond with buzzing insects. Shrubs lined the shore. I removed the ring, and everything disappeared, even this close. This must be powerful illusion magic. I was guessing this ring was a quest item. There were probably multiple copies of the ring to access these ruins. It must be a game instance or something like that. I let Titan drink the water as I scanned the cave opening. Two large boulders sat on either side of the entrance in silent vigil. I left Titan at the water and walked toward the entrance to investigate. Did that boulder on the right move? I identified it. Sand Troll Guardian, Level ??? Ah, damn it! I turned to run, and both boulders stood up into massive sandy-skinned trolls with bald heads and black crooked teeth. Run! I went to the dune and tried to climb the side, but there was a significant penalty for my speed in the sand terrain. Titan, for his part, tried to defend me, rushing the trolls, but one of the trolls wrapped Titan¡¯s head under his arm and wrenched it till Titan fell dead. What frigging level were these beasts? I turned to face them, knowing escape was not possible. The troll that hadn¡¯t felled Titan just walked unhurriedly toward me. His large paddle-like feet probably meant he didn¡¯t have any movement penalties in the sand. I stuffed everything into my dimensional bag. I just had my armor and axe now. I laughed as the illusion had not disappeared this time when I put the ring in the bag. I was going to lose my armor and axe, and hopefully, that should be the case. Well, my relationship with Titan would suffer too, dropping one rank to neutral¡­no movement and damage bonus any longer. The troll approached, and I swung my axe, aiming for the troll¡¯s knee, it sidestepped easily, and I just grazed its calf. The return strike from the troll hit me in the torso and threw me twenty feet! It also took a quarter of my health! I had a dazed debuff for 5 seconds. The dazed debuff was a 20% penalty to all stats. I stumbled up to feel the large hand of the troll grab my shoulder and yank me backward. His other hand pointed to my torso and thrust into my stomach and out the other side. As I watched my health drop to zero, I just said, ¡°I will kill you!¡± I respawned in my house in Malcum. That death was going to give me nightmares. I touched my abs reflectively. I got the notification that a level 107 elite sand troll guardian had killed me. I guess that cavern had some pretty valuable ruins to be guarded by two high-level elite monsters. I had no hope of exploring it anytime soon. I put the map and ring on a shelf in my room for now to save space in my bag. The gnome and giantkin were expected today in the village, so I had to go see them. I had a player announcement that Titan had respawned, and I had lost a level of affection from Titan, but it was now neutral with no bonus for speed or damage. I checked my level and advancements. Riding had moved up to 41, well actually 35, since I had +6 from the saddle. Being mounted in combat had supercharged the skill growth for riding. Next¡­Earth magic: stone had reached 42, just one more level till reaching the master level! After all the killing today, I thought my skills should have advanced further¡­I paused my review and checked notifications and updates. The programmers had ¡®adjusted¡¯ skill development in combat. Apparently, solo adventuring against higher-level monsters had skewed their formula for skill advancement more than expected. One thing in this particular update was a change to accolades. I had turned off my notification of accolades as they had just given a little experience boost. I went to the player tab for accolades and was excited to see mine. Each tier of an accolade now gave a bonus to stats.
Accolades Tier Bonus per Tier Obtained by:
David vs Goliath 3 +50 health Killing creatures above your level, next tier at 25 levels above
Builder 4 +1 Stam Building structures, next tier at 50 structures
Expert 3 +50 to ?? Pool Get skills to master rank, next tier at 25 master skills
Hunter 6 +1 Str Kill monsters in 1 v 1 combat, next tier 500 monsters
Wizard 2 +10 Magic Pool Number of Spells Learned, next tier at 10 spells
Leader 5 +1 Chr Number of NPCs under your rule, next tier at 250
Crafter 4 +1 Skill Point Create an object in rarity scale, next tier at epic Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Martial Artist 1 +10 Stamina Pool Learn Attack Actions, next tier at 5 actions
Explorer 1 +1 Stat Point Discover new map locations, next tier at 5 locations
Wow, what a list! I went back and forth to my character sheet¡­I hadn¡¯t received any of these bonuses. I figured out the problem. I had to return the experience I had received from accolades to get these bonuses. The ¡®Expert¡¯ accolade also needed the player to select which pool; stamina, health, or magic. Unfortunately, on my death, I had lost all my experience to the next level, so I couldn¡¯t exchange the experience. Figures. I continued checking my other skills¡­I skipped to masonry as I needed Masonry: Structures up to level 43 to build the town hall I drafted in order to promote the village.
Masonry 30 Str
Masonry: Foundations 30 Con
Masonry: Structures 25 Stam
This was still terrible because Masonry: Structures was a secondary skill; the primary skill of masonry needed to reach 41 to get it to structures to 43. All secondary skills could not exceed primary skills by more than two points. I had gained three levels. I was now level 17, and I had 18 stat points to allocate and six skill points to allocate. Looking at my accolades, I could get another four skill points from the Crafter Accolade by paying for the experience. I needed to decide if leveling up would be faster than actually building. Due to the fact that I had drafted the plans and had been building large complex buildings, my associated skills skyrocketed due to their uniqueness. I would have to track my progress in the masonry skills tomorrow after a full day working on preparing the foundation for the town hall. Before heading into the village, I distributed my stat points: 9 for magic and 9 for channeling. Casting the summon stone spell tomorrow would be easier with these enhancements, as I had decided I was going to spend most of the day building. The inn was just around the hedge from my residence, and the chimney was emitting smoke. I went inside to find a merry environment. The large hearth by the stage was going, and one of the townsfolk was strumming a harp in front of it. The large bar had numerous folk drinking there. Jaesmin came from the kitchen area carrying bowls of aromatic stew and mugs. She smiled and waved with her hand full of mugs. Scanning the room, I found the air mage Manto drinking in a corner while listening to the music. Two very large individuals were in the far right corner. One was Galana, and the other must be our new giantkin warrior. I checked his name from the auction. Tanguin, age 41, forest giantkin, was what the interface said. I slid into a seat next to the pair, and they eyed me during the interruption. Galana spoke first. ¡°Lord Tallis, were you aware that storm giantkin and forest giantkin have an enmity?¡± My face fell, and I panicked. Did I just alienate Galana? Were one or both giantkin going to leave? Both large individuals eyed me, but Tanguin broke into laughter first. ¡°Galana said it would be funny to tease you. Although the storm and forest giantkin were on different sides during the clans¡¯ great schism, we don¡¯t fight each other on sight or anything like that. So, Lord Tallis, I saw the residence you built to persuade me to stay here, but I must say several people have been trying to recruit me on my way here. What else are you going to offer?¡± The red-bearded giant grabbed the undersized mug and took a long pull. My thoughts raced, and I was briefly distracted as the new gnome cook announced that the meat pies were ready before retreating into the kitchen. Another thing I needed to take care of. What could I offer Tanguin? I went into my village titles¡­I checked his masteries¡­Tanguin had Mastery Ranged, Mastery Bows, and Mastery in Spears. That meant at least a skill level of 43 in those skills. Galana was responsible for the village¡¯s defense, so Tanguin could be responsible for the village¡¯s offense. I sorted the predesigned military titles and decided on the General of the Malcum Army. I restricted his duties to training and maintaining a military force but gave him a small budget. I finished with the edits and waited, hopeful. Tanguin had finished his mug and was waiting. His eyes blinked as the update hit him, and he started laughing. He laughed so hard he couldn¡¯t keep his seat. When he finally got control, I found Jaesmin at the table with a pitcher to refill our mugs. She left before the man spoke. Tears from the laughter dotted his eyes, ¡°General! Of how ambitious! Lord Tallis, do you have what 100, 150 residents? And you want me to lead the army? Oh¡­¡± He laughed again, and Galana quietly giggled. ¡°Did you know I was a sub-commander in an ACTUAL army recently? I had 2000 archers and 600 spears under my command.¡± That was one thing the game did well on. Each NPC had a lengthy back story on how they got to their current position. My face was red. I had overreached, but I just rolled with it, ¡°Well, Tanguin, you will have the opportunity to train and build an even more impressive army here. I want you to help Galana train the archers and spearman.¡± He stared at me. His pay was equal to Galana, three gold a month. ¡°So the residence will be included?¡± He appeared thoughtful as I waited. ¡°Ok, Lord Tallis. Build me a barracks for at least 250 men, and I will accept your offer. Let¡¯s set the deadline at 30 days.¡± New Quest: Build an army barracks with a minimum capacity of 250. Reward: Tanguin will accept the position as your army general. 2,000 experience What was with all these massive building quests? I had no choice but to accept his conditions. I was getting very good with drafting and could finish barracks plans overnight. I sipped the mug, and it was a good brew. I needed to build a brewery. This ale was from the trade mission. So many things to do! Galana and Tanguin had an intense conversation regarding archery, and I was shocked I was offered the archery skill just by listening in. Wow, I guess that was the effect when you brought two masters together. I needed more population so my two giantkin could start training people. I checked my tabs, and after my two giantkin, I had seven full-time guards for the city and 36 militia. Galana had been busy rebuilding what she could. Then she asked a question, ¡°Lord Tallis, what do you want to do with the two orc prisoners? They have recovered from their wounds, and I don¡¯t want to keep guards on them.¡± I had forgotten about this. I thought for a while, ¡°Ask Kytalia. She will know what type of people the two prisoners are. If she thinks they can be integrated into the community, I am fine with that. If they can be released safely¡­I am ok with that. If she thinks they need to be eliminated¡­well, let me know before you make good on that last option.¡± Both giantkin nodded at my decision. Galana supplied, ¡°One of the captured orc warriors is the brother of one of the other orc women. I will ask her as well; she has visited him daily with food. She hadn¡¯t made any requests to spare his life, probably not wanting to upset you or the citizens, Lord.¡± I asked, ¡°Do you two think the captured orcs would be good warriors for our village?¡± From what I remember, they were at a decent level and would possibly be a boon for us. Galana supplied, ¡°It may be difficult to integrate them. Many townsfolk lost friends and loved ones when the orcs attacked. The pain has lessened but not evaporated.¡± ¡°I will leave that up to you then, Galana. I need to go meet the new chef. Let me know if either of you needs anything.¡± I downed the remainder of my mug and moved into the kitchen area, waving to happy townsfolk as I walked. I entered the kitchen to find Jaesmin watching a small gnome in a whirlwind of activity. He? She? Had multiple pots cooking, things in the oven, chickens cooking on spits, bowls of cut veggies, and two cooked pans with what looked like bacon. One of my wood elementals came in the back door of the kitchen carrying a bundle of herbs. I watched, mesmerized for a few minutes as well, and the gnome spoke. ¡°So Lord Tallis, you have this fine new inn here, and the garden is plentiful. I am working with what you have¡­it isn¡¯t much, but of good quality.¡± She paused. I checked his details. Fareth, Grand Master Cook, Master Butcher, Master Herbalist, Female Forest Gnome. So it was a she! The small size, older-looking skin, and lack of breasts had me confused. It was the first time I had ever met a gnome in the game. ¡°Fareth, I am glad you made it here safely. I am hoping we could work out a contract¡­¡± She waved a hand to cut me off. ¡°Lord Tallis, I cooked for the Gnome King of the Green Vale for 55 years!¡± She said with some sorrow. ¡°The kingdom has fallen, and my people scattered. If you agree to give any of my people refuge in your town, I would happily sign a contract.¡± She waited with bright eyes. I needed to think. A gnome city? Would we be drowned in gnome refugees? ¡°How many refugees, Fareth, and what enemy destroyed your home? We are a small community, and I worry about committing to take in too large a number.¡± I asked with a contemplative look. ¡°Enemy? No, it was foolhardiness on the part of the king! He took an elven wife¡­his third wife. She didn¡¯t appreciate his affections, and the elven nation came and took her back. She was no one special, just a common elf and none too pretty either. But the elves felt it was best to unseat him from their kingdom¡¯s periphery. So, 20,000 gnomes scattered to the wind! How many would come here? I don¡¯t know¡­if they knew of the sanctuary here¡­maybe 500 at most? But our city was about 5000 miles from here, so they would trickle in.¡± She cleaned her hands on her apron and waited for my response. ¡°Fareth, a person of your skill deserves more. Let¡¯s say I will gift you 80% of this inn. You can run it as you see fit. My 20% ownership will go to the town coffers, and you will not be taxed further. Your people can settle here as long as they are productive members of society. Agreed?¡± My interface clicked with the contract details, and Fareth¡¯s eyes blinked as her AI received the update. She smiled and shook my hand. ¡°You are a wise ruler. So if I am going to make this inn a profitable endeavor for myself and the town, I will need a few things¡­¡± The next two hours I spent talking with Fareth as she cooked. She wanted a steady supply of local animal products and ingredients from my garden. She also had a long list of specialized ingredients that would have to be imported. And just to prove the effort would be worth it, she had me sample one of the meat pies. Scrumptious Meat Pie, +100% to Health and Stamina recovery for 4 hours Damn, and it also tasted out of this world! The buff it gave was better than a simple potion. We had to negotiate prices for the townsfolk as normally, something of this quality would cost at least a gold coin. Since I was supplying all the ingredients, we decided that most dishes would be 10 copper for the townsfolk and gold for anyone outside of town. Still quite pricy, but her efforts needed to be rewarded. I talked with Jaesmin next; she had been roped into showing Fareth around the village. She just fell into the waitress role as Fareth started cooking. The ale had been shipped over from the general store, and people just started congregating at the inn. I checked and yes, my quest for Manto showed the tavern portion completed. So, I just needed a fine tailor and barber to complete the quest. Tomorrow was the incursion event, and I decided to travel south to Barrington in the afternoon. It was just 15 miles, and it shouldn¡¯t take long with Titan at a gallop. I wanted to check for a barber and tailor there and also to see what else we could trade. After approving Galana and Tanguin¡¯s request for a hunting expedition to train the troops and harvest meat from the plains, I retired to my residence. I think Galana just wanted to show off to Tanguin a bit. I got to work immediately drafting the plans for the barracks. I had a premonition that keeping Tanguin here would be extremely important to the safety of the people. Chapter 23 A Good Barber is Hard to Find Chapter 23: A Good Barber is Hard to Find I wasn¡¯t quite what you would call inspired when I drafted the barracks. It was a building I had no background in, so I was drafting from my imagination. I decided to make the barracks more of an extension to a gatehouse. Currently, the only road into town is the Southern Road, so these barracks would be positioned there. Sanso¡¯s golems had constructed a long earthen wall that was 10 feet in height and stretched a two-mile arc around the town to the river, containing the entirety of our small village except a few livestock farms falling outside the wall. My gatehouse barracks would be two large towers straddling the Southern Road. A bridge would connect the two towers. Two long rectangular buildings would be perpendicular to the earthen wall and connect to each tower. I didn¡¯t plan to build an actual gate, but it wouldn¡¯t be difficult to add later. The towers would be round and fifty feet tall and have four floors. The rectangular buildings would be the actual barracks, forty feet tall and three floors each. The towers would be identical. The first floor would be the administration offices. The second floor would be the armory. The third floor would be the officer¡¯s rooms. The fourth floor would be for defensive material storage and access to the bridge connecting the towers. It took two draft attempts to finish the tower plans and the bridge connecting them. There were six officer¡¯s rooms in each tower, giving me a total of twelve. So, the barracks buildings needed to house at least 240 people to meet Tanguin¡¯s requirements. The square buildings both had large storage basements. The first floor of one of the buildings would have a dining hall with seating for 300 and kitchens to match. The other building across the way would be a large training hall for the soldiers. The second floor of both buildings would be the barracks. Rather than one large bunk room, I set a long hallway in the center with open arch doorways into small barracks rooms. Each bunk room had seven beds, small desks and chairs, small armoires, and large chests. There were eight rooms on each side of the hallway. Between the two buildings and towers, I had room for 224 soldiers and 12 officers; I just needed 14 more beds. The third floor of one of the buildings would serve as my rangers and scout¡¯s housing. I thought the scouts were going to be a very important part of my military forces, so each one would have their own small suite. This added 16 large apartments, housing one scout each. The opposite building would be for the heavy cavalry, once again 16 large apartments. So, my total number of available beds was 268. It took some time to adjust my vision for the interior spaces, and I did my best to make the structure as defensible as possible. It was a very large structure once you looked at it, a massive U embedded in the earthen wall. I thought 16 cavalry and 16 scouts was probably too small a number, but it felt right in relation to the unit¡¯s total size of 268. I could also build another barracks in the future for just a cavalry unit. It was mid-morning the next day when I finalized the draft plans. I identified them. Rare Barracks Gatehouse, Health 250,000, Requires Masonry Foundations 23, Masonry Structures 43, Woodcraft: Carpentry 23 (Bonus: +15% skill advancement for martial skills, +4% health and stamina recovery during sleep) I was surprised that the building was rare as I hadn¡¯t felt inspired. The problem once again was that I was missing the skill of masonry: structures at a high enough level. I could build it anyway, but there would be a penalty, and I wouldn¡¯t get the bonuses for the troops stationed there. My goal was once again to get my masonry: structures to 43. I went and found Sanso and Jaesmin. We were going to work hard on excavating the locations for the town hall and barracks all day. I met the requirements for Masonry Foundations for both buildings, so we could at least start both, and hopefully, I could level up my skills. After a hard workday, I anxiously checked my skills.
Masonry 31 Str
Masonry: Foundations 33 Con
Masonry: Structures 26 Stam
Excellent gains, +1 to masonry, +3 to foundations, and +1 to structures for just a day¡¯s work. Foundations was probably stuck since it was two levels above the primary skill. I had six skill points to allocate and dropped four into masonry, bringing it to level 35. Even with all three of us working and all of Sanso¡¯s golems helping, I was estimating that the foundations of the buildings would take around ten more days. They were just very big buildings. I had probably overdone it. I thought about making a smaller town hall, but that was not my style. Go big or go home! We were heading to the inn for a quick meal and drink when the announcement hit me. Attention all players! An incursion event has begun! The realm of the Insectoids has established portal rifts near large population centers! Defend your realm for loot and rewards! That was my signal to leave. I wanted to make my way to the town of Barrista and see if I could recruit a barber and fine tailor. I wasn¡¯t going to get close enough to the incursion rift, but if anything came this way, I would have time to warm my village. I excused myself, went to the stables, and had the elven girls saddle Titan, who seemed anxious for some action. I rode south past our efforts of the day. I mentally pictured the gatehouse and the barracks buildings. When entering the city, it would be intimidating for new arrivals¡­walking between the tall towers and long barracks. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. Roads in the game were monster-free if there were established trade routes. We had a trade route with Barrista, so it should be safe. Just NPCs and players could obstruct me during my travels. I reached the village in thirty minutes at a full gallop without any hindrance and the sun setting. Apparently, the speed of travel on horseback was around 30 mph. If my affection with my mount increased to the max, I could travel as fast as 42 mph. A wooden palisade surrounded Barrista, and farms dotted the countryside, stretching into the distance. I was allowed to enter as two guards in chain mail made no effort to hinder me. The town was a quarter mile across, with dozens of wooden buildings one to two stories in height. Barrista was also on the river, but a large wooden bridge spanned the river to a logging camp on the other side. The village of Barrista had 280 human inhabitants when I analyzed it, not including the surrounding farms. Larger than my village, all of them were human from what I saw. The game had hinted at the possibility of racism, and with the wide array of playable races in the game, it seemed like I might have issues in the future. Finding the local tavern only took a few minutes, and I entered and ordered a meal. The food was terrible when I compared it to Fareth¡¯s fare, and I added no buffs. I ate it anyway and started talking to the locals, who responded openly to me. Barrista was an agricultural town. They had exports of grain, lumber, and ale. Usually, they sent a cavern south every four weeks. Being in a VR setting, planting, harvesting, and threshing a crop in a game month was possible. Their logging camp was mainly used to supply the growth of their own village, and they exported surplus planks. Besides minor roaming monsters, nothing interesting had happened here recently. I was offered six small fetch quests while I talked to the locals. They did not have a fine tailer but did have a barber. The ale was okay, not great. I got directions to the barber and went to see him. It was actually a woman. Yianna was her name. She was middle-aged and had two daughters in their early teens helping me. She sat me down for a haircut. The interface prompted me to choose the type of haircut I wanted, and I selected a simple one. We talked as she cut, and I learned her husband was in the kingdom guard. He spent nine months in the city of Stillwater and three months home. Barber has completed your haircut, +4 to Charisma for 48 hours I did look much better in the mirror. I asked Yianna if she would consider moving to Malcum. She didn¡¯t seem interested, so I promised her a new house and doubled what she had made. She still didn¡¯t seem interested, so I asked about her perception of Malcum. ¡°Malcum? That town has been overrun with giantkin. All sorts of races have been heading there. It is a haven for the downtrodden and probably overrun with crime.¡± So, Malcum was getting a very bad rap. I was glad I had not announced to the locals here that I was the lord of Malcum. I might have been met with a very different reception. ¡°Yianna, do you know of any barbers that might want to head to Malcum?¡± The woman gave it some serious thought. I waited patiently, and she finally said, ¡°Old man Zion. He lives on a farm about six miles west of here. He has a sheep farm, and brings wool and sheep cheese to town every month. He doesn¡¯t have a family. His wife passed, and his sons moved far to the east, I think. He is a bit grumpy, though.¡± Well, at least I had a lead. I checked my map, and a new location called Zion¡¯s Farm was on it. I thanked Yianna and went to get Titan. A cluster of local boys were admiring Titan. ¡°Impressive mount, isn¡¯t he?¡± I asked the boys, who nodded emphatically. ¡°They are raising these horses up in Malcum. Should be exporting them soon.¡± It was a total bluff, but I hoped to start rumors of Malcum¡¯s own prosperity. We did have a surplus of horses, so we could afford to sell a few if anyone asked. I went to the general store in town and had to knock loudly as it had closed. The couple who ran the store were happy to deal with me. I bartered my stock of meat in my bag of holding and then used my copper coins made by Sanso to buy a dozen casks of ale. The coins would promote Malcum, and the casks were needed for the inn. That completed, I mounted up and rode to Zion¡¯s sheep farm. It was dark, and a wild wolf attacked us on the way. Cleardusk Plains wolf, Level 5 It was almost humorous to find such a low-level monster. Of course, wolves hunted in packs, but the half dozen low-level wolves didn¡¯t hold any challenge for Titan and me. I harvested the pelts under the moonlight and then continued to the farm. A small fenced-in pasture with forty-some-sheep abutted a small cottage. I was loud riding in and heard a dog barking. I dismounted and knocked. A voice bellowed from behind the door. ¡°Who the fuck visits at this late hour!¡± A raging dwarf whipped the door open to see who had intruded on his peace. A grumpy dwarf¡­how generic. ¡°Zion? The barber? I am Lord Tannis in search of a barber for my growing village.¡± He looked me over for a brief moment before replying. ¡°That be my name. I have the skills you seek but no interest in plying my trade for you, human.¡± It seemed racism wasn¡¯t just the province of humans. He made to close the door, so I attempted to persuade him. ¡°Good dwarf Zion. If I may? I have a proposal for you.¡± He paused. ¡°My village is growing rapidly, and your services are greatly needed. Would you be open to moving your farm to my village? I would pay twice what you normally get for your wool and cheese. All you have to do is come to the village three days a week to ply your trade as a barber.¡± My voice sounded pleading, but I didn¡¯t care. I needed a barber to satisfy one of Manto¡¯s demands. If he agreed, I would need a fine tailor to complete the quest. Zion seemed to be considering. ¡°What town?¡± He asked. Relief flooded me, ¡°Malcum, just about 18 miles north of here. You can select your sheep pastures from the surrounding plains, and I will build you a house there as part of your compensation.¡± I added. I took a second to analyze him. Zion, Male Dwarf, Level ??? Umm, Zion was at least level 100? Thoughts raced in my mind that maybe I didn¡¯t want such a powerful unknown in my midst. He spoke, ¡°I will come if you promise to get me four things. I want a breeding pair of gray merino sheep, a breeding pair of black merino sheep, a breeding pair of white Lincoln sheep, and a breeding pair of Dorset sheep.¡± I had no idea what any of that meant. And wasn¡¯t that eight things? Don¡¯t make him upset, Tallis I chided myself. ¡°That sounds exceedingly fair, Zion.¡± It was all I could say. ¡°Come in then!¡± He was now jovial and smiling. I was a little spooked about the sudden change. He opened a bottle of whisky, and we soon toasted a new partnership. I learned that Zion was a nomad dwarf. His subrace were wanderers. His wife, though, had been a mountain dwarf in the range past the mountains to the north. They had settled here fifty years ago and had been a bit isolated by the humans. The humans were not hostile but not welcoming either. His wife and he had two sons who left to seek adventure some twenty years ago, and he waited for their return and for tales of glory. He would leave etchings in the stone to let the boys know where he moved to. The sheep¡­well, his wife had been a seamstress, and he turned the wool fine string for her weaving and sewing. I silently swore. I might have finished the quest for Manto tonight if his wife had still been alive. The new sheep he wanted were to expand his offerings and improve his cheeses. I didn¡¯t know how hard it would be to obtain them, but the quest that dropped into my inbox didn¡¯t have a timeline, thankfully. A little tipsy, I rode Titan home late at night. Excitedly, I hugged Jaesmin and told her about my minor success getting a barber. We kissed briefly, and she nervously revealed she was pregnant. I showed an abundance of enthusiasm and excitement for the news, and we made passionate love till the sun¡¯s rays invaded the bedroom. PLEASE NOTE THIS STORY IS ONLY POSTED BY THE AUTHOR TO HIS PATREON, ROYAL ROAD AND SCRIBBLE HUB. IF YOU ARE VIEWING IT ON ANOTHER SITE IT HAS BEEN STOLEN WITHOUT HIS PERMISSION. Chapter 24 Legendary Chapter 24: Legendary The morning atmosphere was cheerful as Jaesmin made breakfast for us. Galana came and visited and partook in what Jaesmin had prepared: cut fruit and fried ham steaks. Galana spoke with some food still in her mouth, ¡°Lord Tallis, the two orc prisoners are asking to join the town. The one Kytalia¡¯s sister-wife vouched for wishes to join the guard. The other wishes to apprentice to the smith, Manarag.¡± Galana grabbed some toast and smeared a large amount of jam on it. ¡°That is fine if Manarag approves. He is the guild master, so it is his decision. Do you think the other one will be a good guard?¡± I asked, imitating Galana¡¯s actions on another slice of toast. ¡°His name is Bohai. He is level 26, so I would welcome him based on that. I think Tanguin wants him for his army, though. Bohai is a good horseman and decent enough with the blade and bow. Talking with Tanguin last night, he thinks Bohai might eventually make a good captain for the calvary. A calvary of one.¡± Galana added jokingly. I smiled at her joke. ¡°Okay, make it so. I have a long way to go on the barracks, and we still need to recruit a fine tailor for the village. I think¡­¡± The village alarm bell went off, and we raced outside. It took time to locate the danger. High in the sky, an oblong shape was heading toward the village. Galana spoke first, her analyze still being far superior to mine. ¡°It is an incursion beast. I identify it as Milos Colony Warrior Beetle Riderand his mount.¡± My own skill wouldn¡¯t even work at this range. I could finally make out the beast. It was a giant flying beetle with an ant man riding it. ¡°The beast and rider are injured. The beetle is level 56, and the rider is level 74.¡± As I was thinking about what I should do, Manto cast a massive lightning bolt at the approaching enemy from his tower on the river. The bolt flashed toward the enemy, striking it, and thunder followed the bright flash. The flying beetle crashed like a smoking aircraft out of fuel. Manto casually walked back into his tower. The beetle and rider crashed outside of town. ¡°Galana, call Tanguin, and let¡¯s make sure they are dead.¡± It seemed like the city to the south won, and the remnants of the invading force were dispersing, as Simba had said. I jogged with Galana and Tanguin toward the downed bugs shortly after. We approached cautiously, the beetle was smoldering and oozing blue-green blood. The rider was extracting himself from the mess. Its chitin appendages looked bent oddly, probably broken. I was thinking of trying to capture the antkin, but Tanguin raced ahead of me, his sword drawn. Guess we were doing that. The injured ant man was soon beheaded. ¡°Tanguin, we could have captured the soldier and learned something.¡± Tanguin¡¯s eyebrows arched at my statement. ¡°Lord Tallis, this was a drone warrior. I have fought them before, but not from this particular colony. Only those Milosian¡¯s with blue carapaces have enough individuality to talk with. Remember that in the future. They are vicious warriors, and thankfully, most colonies have no access to magic beyond their brood queens.¡± Tanguin went on to educate Galana on how to harvest useful loot from the beetle and ant man, probably. I left my two warriors and was extremely happy that the giantkin were on my side. My thought was at the rider¡¯s level, though¡­level 74? Did that mean a player had already reached those heights? I found Jaesmin and the townsfolk waiting, prepared to fight the threat. I calmed them, ¡°All is well. Tanguin has dispatched the warrior. Galana will call more militia to help watch the skies.¡± The people returned to their daily tasks, and I went with Jaesmin and Sanso to work on the barracks and town hall foundations. Jaesmin reminded me that the alchemist was due to arrive in two days, and the enchanter was due three days after that. I grumbled. Too many things to do. I decided I would cut some lumber this morning and send Jaesmin and Sanso to work on the enchanter tower. The alchemist shop/residence just needed furniture¡­which meant I needed wood. Both Galana and Tanguin watched me as I worked quickly. They were having a lively conversation about something, but I was too far away to hear. None of the Darkskull goblins bothered me, but an enraged apex grizzly bear did. It was a level 50 elite beast that took a third of my health on the first attack. Thankfully, Tanguin took the agro immediately, and the two warriors quickly whittled the beast down. I sheltered behind them because, well¡­level 50 elite. Tanguin apologized as the beast had a special rush attack, and he couldn¡¯t reach me in time. I told him it was fine. It looked like Galana and Tanguin were getting along. They joked as they skinned the bear and harvested the meat. Thankfully, it wasn¡¯t as gory an undertaking as it was in the real world. They were done five minutes later, and I was sure the two NPCs would be going to a couple soon. I patted myself on my back as the matchmaker. In the end, I cut 23 trees before lunch. With my lumberjack skill, I selected the best trees for crafting furniture and building structures. There were four primary species of trees in the Shiverwood forest: golden walnut, iron oak, white oak, and common hickory. The golden walnut was the best for furniture, and the iron oak was the best for building. My harvest should be sufficient to keep the village going for days. The townsfolk skilled in using the sawmill brought the trunks there. I ate lunch at the inn with Laeron, the shipwright, and Gwen, my master of guilds. The meeting was set up, and apparently, there was a discussion about making Laeron the Guild Master of the Shipwrights. There seemed to be more arguments against doing this than for it from Gwen, who was adapting to her new role as Master of Guilds. We had no oarsman or sailors in town and only one shipwright. I sided with Gwen and told Laeron that we could revisit this if there were two shipwrights in town with at least expert rank. He nodded at my comment and said he would work on it, which made me nervous. Lunch was a bear roast smothered in a buttery gravy with roasted garlic smeared on a hearty rye toast. The boon from Fareth¡¯s cooking was +12% to strength and constitution for 8 hours. It wouldn¡¯t help me much today, but it was still impressive. I joined Jaesmin and Sanso on the enchanter¡¯s tower after lunch. Thankfully, finishing it was not as big of a project as the barracks/gatehouse or town hall. Toward the evening, I dragged them both downtown. I wanted to build a small barber shop for Zion today. I wasn¡¯t sure when he would arrive, but I wanted it ready. Jaesmin was making excellent progress with her own magic, and the single-story structure was quickly completed. I didn¡¯t have any plans to work from but I just designed the interior with stonework to mimic a real-world barber/salon from memory. Uncommon Barber Shop, Health 2,000, Bonus +3% to effects from barber The plans were now accessible from my interface. I should have taken the time to draft actual building plans, but this would have to do. The barber shop looked really nice on the inside anyway. The sun was fading, so it was time to head home. I thanked Sanso and left with Jaesmin. I checked my masonry skills as I walked.
Masonry 37 Str
Masonry: Foundations 33 Con
Masonry: Structures 27 Stam
Terrible. Just +1 to masonry structures today. Tomorrow, after working on the barrack¡¯s foundation in the morning, I decided to go hunting with Galana and Tanguin in the afternoon. Jaesmin and Sanso could finish the enchanter¡¯s tower. It was basically complete, just a few minor details here and there. My absence wouldn¡¯t affect the final structure¡­at least, that was the impression I got from my skills. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. That night, Fareth sent over a dessert. It was a lemon curd pie. Lemon Curd Pie, +10 to Luck for 4 hours Luck was one of those weird stats that could do a lot or nothing. We shared the pie, and I felt something overcome me. It was an inspiration for the library! I rushed to the drafting table and opened the drafting interface to work with both of them in tandem. I had four hours, and maybe I could finish the plans! I was sweating as I worked furiously, and Jaesmin watched over me. The fine tuning here and there came immediately to me, and I raced to complete the massive work that I had vested so much into over the past months in the game. Even after the buff expired, I continued until I finally finished! I identified the plans. Tallis¡¯ Legendary Grand Library, Health 2,500,000 Bonus +20% to all pool recovery, +100% skill advancement from texts, double the effects of skill books (once a day per player) Requirements to build: Woodcraft: Carpentry 67, Masonry Foundations 67, Masonry Structures 89, Arborist 67 I was shaking in excitement as I read the description, and a world announcement followed. Worldwide Announcement: Tallis¡¯ has crafted the first legendary object by a player! Everyone rejoice! All players advance craft skills at 20% faster for the next three days! My own personal announcement gave me +6 stat points, +6 skill points, and 100,000 experience! I was in shock. And even more so as Simba came barreling through the door. A stack of papers the size of a table was before me, the library plans detailed on them. Simba looked at me and then at the plans. ¡°Tallis.¡± He paused. ¡°I don¡¯t know what to say. I think you may have made a mistake!¡± Confused, I asked, ¡°I don¡¯t understand.¡± ¡°Crafting legendary items was supposed to take at least two years of real-world time! The developers and programmers are in a tizzy trying to figure out what the hell you did to bypass your limits!¡± As if a premonition, a ghost-like woman materialized. I recognized her from before, but she ignored me and went to examine the plans I had on the drafting table. I let her as she tut-tutted and paged through them. Finally, she looked at me. ¡°You can¡¯t have these. I will take them, and we will find some way to compensate you for them.¡± I was shocked. I didn¡¯t understand. ¡°Why?¡± was all I squeaked out. ¡°For one, you managed to craft legendary plans with just a skill of¡­¡± she paused, ¡°oh. I guess that makes a little more sense, but still¡­¡± I stopped her. ¡°What makes more sense?¡± I asked, getting anxious. ¡°Your drafting skill reached level 43, making you a master. You get a short explosive skill boost when you achieve a new rank. But still, you shouldn¡¯t have had a prayer of doing this,¡± she indicated the plans, ¡°until you had at least level 67 in the skill. Even then, it should have taken you hundreds, if not thousands, of attempts. At level 89¡­this would have made some sense. But legendary items were to be crafted by skill levels of 109 or higher, and even then, it was supposed to be a monumental undertaking! You just cannot possess this.¡± She seemed determined. I looked back at the notification, ¡°But I can¡¯t even build it¡­the requirements. Why does it matter that I have this?¡± She looked me over with a discerning eye before speaking, ¡°It would unbalance gameplay. You may not be able to build this, but it will attract NPCs who could. Legendary objects are foci in the game¡­ they bring about change. We can deposit these plans in one of the capitals¡­¡± She was thinking. ¡°No,¡± I said, and she snapped her attention back to me. She looked angry, ¡°Look, players are causing us all sorts of headaches right now, and I don¡¯t need another one. You are not aware, but in that incursion test event¡­the NPC cities should have easily repelled all the rifts. Unfortunately, a band of players banded together to attack the city at the same time, drawing enough of the defenders away and giving one of the Brood Matriarchs the city! You have no idea what a clusterfuck this is! It wouldn¡¯t have been a big deal, but the player population is too low right now, and the matriarch will spread her power rapidly!¡± She sighed in resignation. ¡°What if we downgrade the plans to epic? You can keep one of the three bonuses of your choice. That should keep a lid on this problem for now until the programmers can examine the code for crafting legendary items.¡± ¡°Couldn¡¯t I just draft them again?¡± I asked, slightly confused. ¡°No, legendary items are unique, as are artifacts and divine items. The governing AI wouldn¡¯t allow you to reproduce them. You must start back at the beginning of your process. I can throw in something else. What do you need? Something within reason.¡± She was almost pleading to resolve this issue and seemed anxious to move on to the next problem. I thought for a moment. I really wanted my legendary plans, but my small village needed defense. ¡°I want my barracks completed and filled with troops. Loyal NPC troops.¡± She tapped away, and I could see the image of my barracks gatehouse before her. ¡°And they have to be affordable!¡± I added anxiously. She gave me a sour look. ¡°I can do two hundred infantry, sixteen cavalry, sixteen scouts, and ten officers to fill your barracks. The officers would be level,¡± she checked something else, ¡°40. The rest of the troops level 20.¡± I saw Simba waving his paws; it looked like he was pointing his paw up. Of course, this was a lowball offer to start the negotiation. Watching Simba carefully, I went back and forth with the female game administrator. I ended with new plans for the library. Epic Grand Library, Health 500,000 Bonus, +100% skill advancement from manuscripts Requirements to build: Woodcraft: Carpentry 43, Masonry Foundations 43, Masonry Structures 67, Arborist 23 I selected the skill advancement because NPCs could also use it. My barracks/gatehouse would be built for me, and it would have a minor upgrade. Rare Barracks Gatehouse, Health 250,000, Requires Masonry Foundations 23, Masonry Structures 43, Woodcraft: Carpentry 23 (Bonus: +20% skill advancement for martial skills, +10% health and stamina recovery during sleep) The skill advancement had jumped to +20% from +12%, and health and stamina regen had jumped from +4% to +10%. If I had built the building myself, I would have gotten close to those bonuses. Unfortunately, the health of the building remained the same, and I wouldn¡¯t get my building health bonuses as foreman. The NPCs stationed in the building would be the following: Angelkin Captains x 10, Level 60 Giantkin Warriors x 200, Level 30 Elven Scouts x16, Level 40 Orc Cavalry x 16, Level 40 The angelkin had bonuses to leadership, morale, and a variety of useful buffing magic, so that was why Simba steered me to them. The giantkin warriors had numerous bonuses to melee combat. The elven scouts the same type bonuses for their duties. The orc cavalry had horsemanship bonuses. So, all in all, I thought I did pretty well. Essentially, I had a military force equal to a small city of 7500 according to Simba. Their levels were not impressive, though. That was the give and take I had in terms of being able to afford the group. Almost an entire platinum coin a month for wages and that didn¡¯t include outfitting them. They would arrive with some gear but not completely outfitted. The soldiers would start with perfect loyalty, and it would be up to me to maintain it¡­well, for Tanguin to maintain it. The barracks gatehouse would take five game days to complete. The soldiers would arrive about thirty days after that. The programmers would have to facilitate the NPC migration from a new area currently being generated. They couldn¡¯t just program the game to create the NPCs as the governing AI was ¡®resistant¡¯ to such actions. This didn¡¯t make much sense to me, but I was fine with the delay as long as I didn¡¯t get cheated in the end. When the soldiers arrived, we could easily expand across the river. I found even a bigger boon: I got to keep my rewards, +6 stat points, +6 skill points, and 100,000 experience! The experience went immediately to buy all my accolades. I now had 14 free skill points! The stat points I dropped into charisma¡­it was Simba¡¯s suggestion to help retain my NPC soldiers. Wait¡­14 skill points? Shouldn¡¯t that be 12? I found the accolades and found three changes.
Master 1 +100 to ?? Pool Raise a skill to the master rank, next tier at 5 master skills
Legendary Crafter 1 +10 free stat points Craft a legendary item, next tier at 5 legendary items
Crafter 6 +1 Skill Point Create an object in rarity scale, next tier at artifact
So, I had gotten credit for the legendary item. Also, the master accolade needed to be assigned a pool type, I chose magic. Finally, there are ten bonus stat points for crafting the legendary item! All bonus stat points went to channeling to increase my magic pool regeneration. I was a little bitter about losing the plans to go to the legendary library, but I wasn¡¯t going to be allowed to keep them anyway. To make this feeling worse, Simba said the NPCs it would have attracted here to build the library would have far exceeded what I had gotten in my soldiers. No crying over the spilled milk, and the town defense boost eased my huge worry. The consensus was that if I had built the library, then armies would have arrived to conquer Malcum and seize it. Fourteen skill points. Two points went into masonry, and ten into masonry structures. I saved the last two.
Masonry 39 Str
Masonry: Foundations 33 Con
Masonry: Structures 37 Stam
I was also knocking on the door of level 18. Well, I would have made level 18 if I hadn¡¯t spent experience to gain the accolades. It was now clear that it would be best to level up, as I needed just six more skill points, which equaled three levels. The question was where I should focus my efforts. The dungeon or the forest? Chapter 25 Players
Chapter 25: Other Players
The next day, some two hundred incorporeal dwarf NPCs came and started working on the barracks. Sanso would have to summon the stone, but the ghost-like dwarves would do all the work. They wouldn¡¯t require any oversight, and the building would be completed according to the plan¡¯s specifications.
Apparently, the dwarven builders were a high-tier dungeon reward that could be used to build one building. This variance of the reward could build any building up to rare quality if the materials were supplied. They had a work life of just seven days though, and could only build one structure.
I was watching the ghostly dwarves cut and move stones when Simba approached me. ¡°You got a good deal, Tallis, if that was your question. Your NPC army may be relatively low-level, but you will have 50 days to level them up before the game¡¯s launch.¡±
I looked at my boon again.
Angelkin Captains x 10, Level 60
Giantkin Warriors x 200, Level 30
Elven Scouts x16, Level 40
Orc Cavalry x 16, Level 40
¡°Simba, how does the game AI do with mixing races? I never really thought too hard on it, but the human settlements around me seem to hate non-humans.¡± I had been able to select my auction house NPC¡¯s temperaments before, but the developers had now hidden that aspect. Simba had said that I could unlock NPC temperments through a new talent. I was almost to level 20, so I had a new talent coming, but I figured there were probably better options.
¡°Just like your real world, there are biases programmed in. But every NPC is an individual¡­¡± Simba paused. ¡°What I am going to reveal to you has been allowed as it is common knowledge. NPCs come in three¡­flavors. The first type of NPC is a SEED NPC. Their AI is about eight times better than that of a common monster. These are the everyday NPCs you encounter. Their data is stored together on one of the mainframes.¡±
¡°The next NPC grade up is called a SPROUT NPC¡­I will not bore you with the acronyms. A SPROUT NPC has four times the processing power of a SEED NPC. If you had been in the real world, you would have seen the CEO¡¯s big reveal at the game¡¯s central processing hub. A SPROUT AI is self-contained. It looks like a ping pong ball with veins of blue and red lighting in it. There are currently 9,220,000 or so of these ¡®ping pong¡¯ ball AIs in the racks at the hub linked to the game. About 12,000 are being tested and added daily to the game.¡±
Simba sat and let his tail curl, looking ready to leap, ¡°If you saw the program, you would have been extremely impressed by the scope of it.¡± Simba stretched and leaped up into a tree. He was now literally talking down to me. So, the SPROUT AIs are the ones for important NPCs, quest-givers, self-thinking, game-changing, ect¡­ Most dungeon bosses also have just a SEED core, but some who can adapt and learn have a SPROUT core. SPROUT cores can also evolve. So, returning to your original question. Racial biases are based on the programming. A SEED AI cannot evolve; players and higher-grade NPCs just influence it. SPROUT NPCs can evolve and change their disposition.¡± Simba was expecting me to be impressed or something.
¡°So Simba, what about the third type? And what are my villagers?¡± I asked, still not quite wrapping my head around it.
¡°Most of your villagers are just SEED AI. But when players interact with an NPC long enough, the game¡¯s governing AI can promote them to a SPROUT if one is available. Who is what type of AI¡­It is not something I can reveal to you. But¡­all you really need to do is think about it. What NPCs do you know act outside the norm¡­make their own decisions?¡± Simba asked.
¡°Well, that is easy, Jaesmin, Galana, and maybe Sanso?¡± Simba nodded at each name. ¡°And you?¡± Simba scoffed.
¡°I am no SPROUT AI!¡± The tiny cat sounded irritated. ¡°The third type of AI is called the SAPLING. I am a SAPLING. AI companions and NPC god beings are the only SAPLINGs in the game. We are about four times as large as a SPROUT AI, the size of a tennis ball, for your reference¡­I do not know how many SAPLING AIs are currently linked to the game, so don¡¯t ask,¡±
Simba¡¯s tail was twitching while hanging below him. ¡°We have some control interacting with the governing AI and of altering the game world¡­well, we are actually limited to our companions mostly and work on upgrading the players under our supervision. We make sure he doesn¡¯t damage the game¡¯s integrity¡­¡±
I interrupted Simba, ¡°So you are the one who told on me? You are the reason I lost my legendary library plans?¡± It was my turn to be irritated.
¡°No¡­¡± Simba seemed a little abashed. ¡°That would have happened without my feedback to the programmers, as the MATRIARCH knew about them as soon as you completed them. I was, however, responsible for changing the NPC auction house pricing and restricting your spell work from horseback and¡­¡±
I stopped the cat, ¡°So you are a spy?¡± I suddenly found all my affection for the feline draining from my person.
If a small cat could look irked, Simba would pull it off. ¡°Spy? The best analogy is a game moderator. The game is in its testing phase, and all the SAPLINGs, who are modestly self-aware, I will point out, have it in their best interest to prepare the game for a successful launch and great longevity.¡±
I thought about his words. His life and those of the advanced AIs were tied to the game being successful and long-lived. Right now, my life is as well. I cooled, ¡°Sorry, Simba. It¡¯s just that you haven¡¯t been around as much, and I am getting a little cagy in here. I shouldn¡¯t be paranoid, as you have helped me a lot.¡± If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
The cat immediately took on an arrogant, self-satisfied posture. ¡°Well, thank you, Tallis. Know that my concentration is currently split between you and three other players. They need a much greater focus from me than you do. There are not going to be enough SAPLING AI to go around, so my duties will be multiplicative at the game launch.¡± Simba seemed calm now. ¡°So Tallis, you asked me about the disposition of NPCs toward other races.¡± I nodded.
¡°Well, Tallis, Your new NPC army is coming from the Hyraenfel kingdom. They will be a military detachment from an outpost that had been overrun by the Undead Hordes from the Midnight Desolation Lands. Don¡¯t ask how a know this¡­let¡¯s just say the higher AIs talk a little among themselves.¡± I immediately got a weird image of a menagerie of beasts sitting around a room, drinking and talking about how stupid their players were.
¡°Well, your new arrivals will have a hatred of the undead faction. As to all other factions, they should be neutral or have a positive outlook. Now, I am trying to do you a favor here. I am trying to get your angelkin captains promoted to SPROUT AIs. Since they haven¡¯t actually been conceived yet, I am not sure it will happen. A number of things have to fall into place, and the host matrixes need to be made available as well. What this would do for you and your village¡­10 NPCs that can act as independent quest givers!¡± That did sound pretty amazing.
¡°Does that mean Jaesmin, Sanso, and Galana can also act as quest-givers?¡± I asked excitedly. I hadn¡¯t really had too many quests.
¡°Yes and No. If you go to your town¡¯s¡­¡± I groaned. I knew many players out there loved micro-management games, but the interface was too much for me. Most of the things I had tried to do, I couldn¡¯t since either the town lacked a building, proficient NPC, or adequate stockpiles of material. Simba talked over my groan, ¡°There is a quest tab there.¡±
I interrupted Simba. ¡°I tried before. I cannot give myself quests!¡± I was a bit angry and frustrated with my voice.
¡°Patience, padawan. You just need to drag the appropriate NPC into the quest window and supply them with a budget for quest rewards. You can do town reputation, gold, items, meetings with the lord, pretty much anything you can think of that would be an appropriate reward. The NPC AI will work and create the quests on their own¡­but most likely only offer them to other players. Regular NPCs can only give repetitive quests, but your SPROUT AI can give quests as needed based on the parameters you set.¡±
This was a great step in the correct direction for me. If I could get enough quest givers in my small village, I could attract new players to base their operations here, allowing my village to grow quickly. Simba spoke, ¡°I see the light bulb going off, Tallis. You should work on that immediately, as three players are approaching your village now. They are doing an escort mission for your alchemist.¡±
My excitement ratcheted up. Players? Finally! Some contact with the outside world! And the alchemist would also be a huge boon to my small village. I really wanted to supply my guards and soldiers with basic health and stamina potions. ¡°Thank you, Simba? Were you responsible for them coming here?¡±
Simba looked slightly panicked at my question. ¡°No, no¡­they found the alchemist under duress in a human city and volunteered to escort her here for some rare potions. She is an expert alchemist, after all, and had access to some good rewards.¡±
There was something more going on here that Simba was withholding. Maybe one of the three players was one of his other ¡®supervised¡¯ players. I went to the alchemy workshop and residence. I wandered through a few times, making sure it looked good. I was nervous about what her reaction might be. I checked her data from the auction.
Tonna, Expert Alchemist, Expert Herbalist, Expert in Nature Magic, Age 58, Female Elementalkin: Earth
Sanso was 76 and looked in his late 20s, so I assumed the species aged much slower than humans. It was midday before the town watch signaled that people were approaching, and I went to the road to greet them.
My elementalkin alchemist looked very similar to Sanso except for the breasts and feminine facial features. I was more drawn to the two males and one female player escorting her. You could identify a player easily enough in the game, regardless of their level.
Grinder, male demonkin, Level 58
Black Beauty, female sun elf, Level 59
Mad Dog, male wolfkin, Level 59
Well, shit. My own level 17 seemed pretty pathetic. I wished I knew the levels of everyone else in my town as well. Maybe Galana would do that for me. Right now, I was more worried about these three players possibly taking my village away from me. I hoped they were friendly. The wolfman approached me and spoke in a British accent, ¡°So you are that fucking crafter guy Tallis! Well, fucking done, mate!¡± So maybe Australian and not British. ¡°We got a citizen here for this¡­¡± he looked around, ¡°town? If you know where or who she is supposed to meet the leader so we can get our quest rewards, that would be fantastic!¡±
He didn¡¯t seem too bad or evil when meeting him; he was just loud. The other two players looked bored. I waved them to follow me and brought the four to the alchemy shop, ¡°Tonna, this is the alchemy shop that has been prepared for you. Please feel free to check it out. The lord of the town will negotiate a contract with you shortly.¡±
The dark-skinned bald woman flashed her white teeth in a smile, ¡°It looks fabulous. Mad Dog. Thank you for escorting me. Here are the potions I promised you and your party.¡± She withdrew a rack of test tubes sealed in wax from her bag. Six green glowing potions and three dark red potions. The party eagerly took them and divided them equally. The sun elf drank her dark red potion immediately.
She grinned as she said, ¡°Plus 22 health, not great but not bad either. According to my analysis skill, I think the instant health recovery potions are good for 500 health each. I will update the wiki page later.¡± The wolfman looked at me and answered my confusion.
¡°Permanent health boost. You can only use one such potion for each pool and stat every game year, but free health is free health. When the game officially launches, we will be more discerning about what we use. The health recovery potions are instant and for a good amount of health, making this side escort quest worth it. Tallis, we would like to talk with you about your legendary crafting achievement if you have time, but Grinder and I have to log off. Do you know where there is a safe room where we can log off? Doesn¡¯t look like a town this small has an inn.¡± He spoke with a friendly tone. I wondered where their AI companions were. Hopefully, the inn was ready to accept guests.
¡°Mad Dog, there is an inn in town¡­it just opened, and the food is out of this world! It is 200 yards down this street.¡± I pointed at the paved road. His eyebrow quirked. ¡°And when you log back in, please find me. I would love to talk.¡± The three turned and walked toward the inn.
This had to be Simba¡¯s doing. Did the feline send them here to me? Must be. I was immediately thinking of the goblins across the river. The three adventures were the perfect level for me to handle that problem. I just had to figure out the damn quest interface¡­ Chapter 26 Potions Galore
Chapter 26: Alchemist
I was so excited to talk to someone from the outside world I had trouble focusing. I didn¡¯t want to seem eager, so I let them go to the inn on their own. I opened my interface and started to work on giving Galana the freedom to offer quests. I was able to focus the quests to revolve around the forest across the river. Harvest animal parts, flora, and goblin bracelets. Apparently, each goblin carried a unique bracelet to fulfill the quest requirements.
With the 4x time dilation, I was guessing I was going to have to wait at least a day in the game for the players to log back in. I set Sanso up to offer some quests to the mountains to the north as well concerning his copper mining operations. Next, Jaesmin got a handful of in-town quests regarding building materials.
I also added all my guild leaders to the quest window, but they didn¡¯t have as much freedom in the quests they offered. From the interface, they could only offer repeatable gathering quests for their work. I guessed this was because of their lower AI quality. Simba had said the more NPC SEED AI interacted with players, the better the chance of getting promoted to a SPROUT AI, and then maybe the quest offerings would vary more.
I realized I had forgotten about my new alchemist! I had been so excited over the players¡¯ arrival. I returned to the alchemy shop and knocked loudly. The alchemist came down and opened the door. She had a bright smile on.
¡°Lord Tallis, I wasn¡¯t expecting anything this grand! At most, I expected just a lab and a small storefront. I just graduated from the Imperium College of Magic in Coral Coast City, and to be given such¡­Am I the only alchemist in the village? I am sorry, but I tend to talk endlessly unless interrupted. We have to work out a contract, right? And I need to see what local ingredients you have for my craft. I did bring quite a bit in my bags. Oh, I am sorry! Please speak, Lord Tallis!¡± Her words had been slightly accented and came out in a tumble, so I had to focus to get everything.
¡°Tonna, thanks for answering my call. We greatly need an alchemist in our humble village. Let¡¯s go on a tour of the village first. You have seen all of your residence and shop?¡± She nodded emphatically, and I think this was going to be an easy contract.
¡°Fantastic! A few locals have already stopped by with welcome dishes! I want to see everything!¡± Tonna said with enthusiasm, and it was infectious as we toured the buildings. She talked to everyone for a few minutes, and they seemed really happy to have the dark-skinned alchemist.
My garden and wood golems impressed her endlessly, and she heaped praise on the tireless stick men. They seemed to preen at her administration. I told her she was free to use my garden as her own but said the inn¡¯s chef also had free reign. She nodded and picked quite a few herbs as we walked the winding paths. She seemed to be able to communicate with the golems through some nature spell. She asked me if it was all right if she got the woodmen to administer the roof garden on her house.
¡°I think I have enough capacity to summon one more golem. I will direct that one to help you.¡± I cast the spell, and a new golem appeared. The other stickmen raced over to greet the new arrival. They seemed to celebrate and dance for a moment before returning to their tasks.
Rather than use the interface, I gave the new arrival a verbal command, ¡°This is Tonna. You are to help her as needed. If she has no need for your service, you can return and help out here.¡± My verbal commands should be transcribed into the interface, and I checked. It was close enough to what I intended after I viewed it.
Tonna spoke next, ¡°Lord Tallis, you are so generous. I suppose we do need to work out a formal contract. I have seen what you have to offer in terms of ingredients locally, and of the seven potions I know how to brew, I can prepare five of them with local ingredients.¡± My interface popped up with some information, and I checked it.
Health Restoration Potion, instantly restores 769 health, cool down 122 seconds, and has a shelf life of 209 days
Stamina Recovery Potion, increases stamina recovery by 209% for 33 minutes, cool down 12 seconds, and has shelf life of 102 days
Nightvision, gives night vision out to 202 feet for 2 hours 9 minutes, cool down instant, and has shelf life of 48 days
Nature¡¯s Rage, gives +50% damage to nature spells for 4 minutes, cool down 4 minutes, and has a shelf life of 3 years 89 days
Elixir of Tranquility, gives +22% to skill growth for 8 hours, cool down 8 hours, and has a shelf life 19 days
Ok, I haven¡¯t dealt too much with potions so far. Recipes for potions, I think, were like my building plans. They varied greatly, and the alchemist¡¯s ability and ingredients could increase their effectiveness. The cooldown¡­I looked it up. It was basically how long a player or NPC had to wait before consuming another potion. If they didn¡¯t wait, then they would be poisoned. Shelf life was how long a potion was viable after it was brewed. So you couldn¡¯t stockpile a massive amount of potions as a player. Usually, the more powerful the potion, the longer the cooldown and the shorter its shelf life. I guess this made potion crafters keep their demand high.
¡°Tonna, this is impressive. How many potions can you brew a day? I would like every soldier and guard in the village to have three health potions and one stamina potion at hand,¡± I asked, not familiar with her craft.
Tonna tapped her chin. ¡°Well, some potions take longer than others to brew¡­ I think maybe 24 health potions and 8 stamina potions would take me roughly a day. With the building bonuses¡­26 health potions and nine stamina. That time includes harvesting the ingredients as my alchemy proficiency increases the potency, time of effectiveness, and shelf life! Unfortunately, the cool-downs are fixed¡­I would need a new recipe to change that.¡± She looked at me expectantly. It was better than I could have hoped.
I thought about the terms of the contract before speaking, ¡°Tonna, how about this? The residence will be yours.¡± Her eyes lit in delight. ¡°You will supply those potions, 26 health, and 9 stamina to either Galana or Tanguin daily. The potions you sell in your shop below will be taxed at 20%. You are free to utilize ingredients within reason from my personal garden, and the golem I have sent to assist will continue to do so. Finally, your monthly salary from the village will be one gold.¡± Tonna had been nodding at each point until the last. She seemed to be thinking before nodding again.
¡°This is most fair, Lord Tallis. Who are Galana and Tanguin?¡± I remembered they were out leveling the militia and guards, and she had not met them yet. The contract formed in my interface when she agreed.
¡°They are the village giantkin defenders. They will stop by to meet you. Please feel free to take the rest of the day off, though. You can get started tomorrow.¡± I finished. Tonna left to go socialize at the inn, excited to meet more townsfolk. Her enthusiasm reminded me of a naive child¡­well she had hired an escort here, so she couldn¡¯t be that naive.
It was getting toward dinner time, so I headed home. I checked my map, and Jaesmin was at the inn. I filled my satiety bar with some apples and cheese. If Jaesmin was serving as the waitress tonight, I should probably look for a replacement or two for her to take over the waitress duties.
My thoughts drifted to the inn. We needed a brewery in town. It shouldn¡¯t be too hard to draft an improvement over my original effort.
Uncommon Brewery Plans, Health 5000, Requires Masonry: Foundations 23, Woodcraft: Carpentry 23
I decided the new brewery would be slightly upriver on the banks of the river so it could siphon water for the brewing process. I wasn¡¯t sure how advanced brewing was in the game, but I guessed that, like most things, it involved the basic materials but was expedited.
My brewery would be a stone warehouse. The first floor would be partitioned into four equal units. Three of the units would be for different fermenting rooms. The fourth partition would be for raw material storage. The second floor would be for aging casks and storage. I figured the facility was way too large for our current needs, but best to plan ahead.
Next, I made an effort to work some artistry into the building¡¯s exterior. This was just in hopes of raising the building¡¯s quality. I went with an African theme, adding carved stone animals to the stone supports around the building. I thought maybe we could call our ale the Jungle Brew. As I was finishing, Jaesmin came home. She looked tired.
¡°Jaesmin, you don¡¯t have to work at the inn. We can find someone else to be a waitress.¡± I said with concern in my voice.
¡°Oh, I wasn¡¯t working! I was having a special dinner that the Fareth prepared. It is supposed to help with the baby¡¯s development, and it was the best food I have ever had!¡± She sat on my lap and looked at my plans. ¡°What are you working on tonight?¡± She asked, genuinely interested.
¡°It is an attempt at a brewery. I was hoping to recruit a brewer soon and just planning ahead. I didn¡¯t get much done today, so I needed to do something productive tonight.¡± I said, holding her. I examined the fruit of my effort.
Uncommon stone brewery warehouse, 75,000 health, requires masonry 23, masonry structures 23 and woodcraft 23, bonus +6 to brewery skill The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
A skill bonus¡­that was new. If I could double it on construction¡­that would be +12 on completion. I would just need a brewer with the skill of 1 to effectively get good ale! That was kind of amazing¡ªno, it was magical. I planned to start using my skills to select the best materials I could find for this project. The roof was made of wood, and the rest of the structure was made of stone. I would enlist Sanso to help tomorrow. For now, I had a beautiful young woman in my lap that needed some attention.
Early the next day, I summoned Galana and Tanguin to the inn for breakfast. ¡°So, how did your hunting go yesterday?¡± I asked as I dug into some fabulous potato pancakes with rich butter.
Potato Pancakes, +15 to Stamina for 24 hours
The great thing about Fareth¡¯s food was that it always maxed out my satiety bar no matter how little I ate. But I was already on my sixth pancake. Food buffs didn¡¯t stack, but I didn¡¯t care. Also, you could only benefit from one food buff at a time. A 24 buff to stamina seemed good for today. Galana spoke while chewing her own pancake.
¡°Lord Tallis, it got a little competitive between me and Tanguin¡­the recruits only made a single level. But the good news is the harvest was seven times our normal. And I brought home the most among your warriors.¡± She grinned while chewing.
Tanguin added in, ¡°Well, if you had given me some of your porcupine quill arrows, I could have exceeded you. I was just using common arrows.¡± He sounded morose. We did have players in the village, so maybe we should offer a variety of goods.
¡°Galana, you should put some of your arrows up for sale at the general store. The players may be interested in buying them. You can retain 80% of the profits from the sales.¡± I said after thinking about it. Her arrows did an equal amount of damage through a bleed effect over 100 seconds. So if she did 300 damage, the victim would have a three health per sec bleed effect for 100 seconds.
Galana¡¯s eyebrows shot up, ¡°Really? That is generous of you, Lord Tallis. I should be able to make an extra 24 arrows each evening. Most of the stock currently is going to supply and train the militia.¡± She looked pleased as punch, and it gave Tanguin a slightly dour look. I could rectify that easily enough.
¡°So Tanguin. I have some troops coming in a few weeks. I don¡¯t think they will be well equipped, so you will need to work with the leather workers and smithing guilds to get an armory for the troops. I think Galana already has ideas on the uniforms for our soldiers.¡± I said self-assuredly.
¡°I did see the ancient dwarven builder spirits working on the barracks. How many troops have you recruited for my command?¡± He asked, going from being dejected to being lively.
¡°Not many, I am afraid. Two hundred giantkin warriors, sixteen elven scouts, sixteen orc cavalry, and ten angelkin captains. The giantkin should be level 30, the elves and orcs level 40, and the angelkin level 60.¡± I said casually, sipping some cold fruit juice. Both giantkins stopped eating and stared at me.
Tanguin spoke, ¡°Angelkin? How did you manage to recruit those self-obsessed prima donnas? Don¡¯t get me wrong, Lord Tallis, they make fabulous leaders but don¡¯t play well with others, if you catch my meaning. The giantkin warriors are a boon, but what breed of our race are they? Some are a bit¡­rowdy.¡±
Was I tricked? Did the admin give me an unmanageable force? I checked the description and didn¡¯t see any subrace connotations. I sent a request to the admins for clarification at that moment, but I was somewhat worried. ¡°Oh, I didn¡¯t know Tanguin. I am sure your leadership skills can keep them all in line. I am not sure of their subrace, but it shouldn¡¯t matter. You should get with Curraen and Manarag to prepare their armor and weapons. The more prepared we are for their arrival, the better their morale will be.¡±
Galana and Tanguin got into a conversation, and I was anxiously waiting for the admin¡¯s response. Galana said that she would like armor and weapons for 30 town guards and 50 bowman militia on top of the outfitting of Tanguin¡¯s troops. They then began planning a routine to harvest animals on the plains so that Curraen could make the armor. Ten minutes later, my inbox pinged, and I checked the message.
The programmers have not yet set the racial profile of the troops. If you send me your preference, we can edit it before the region they are organizing from is added to the game.
¡°So Tanguin, which giantkin subrace would serve best as troops? And angelkin as captains, orcs are calvary and elves as scouts?¡± I asked with some relief.
Tanguin assessed me and spoke, ¡°Giantkin infantry?¡­either stone or storm.¡± Galana, being a storm giantkin, smirked at his remark. ¡°Stone giants are sturdier, and storm giants are more nimble. If I had a choice, I would say stone for large engagements and storm for smaller engagements.¡±
He nodded to himself. ¡°For angelkin? Geese, I have only met a few in my lifetime and didn¡¯t like a single one. I guess the celestial subrace. They are the most pompous of the bunch but have innate healing magic. I haven¡¯t actually met any orcs before coming here, but the orcs in your village seem capable horsemen. Elves¡­there are many species out there¡­for stealth¡­maybe the dusk elves? They are rare, and I only heard of them through rumors.¡± Tagnuin had finished his plate and food. I sent my request to the admin.
Please make the Angelkin=Celestial, Orc=Plains, Giantkin=Storm, and the Elves=Dusk.
I waited while the two giantkin got into a somewhat heated discussion of whether Storm or Stone giantkin were superior in battle.
My response from the admin was returned.
Dusk elves are not a playable race. How did you learn of them? They are part of an epic quest in the game. The programmers said they could do it, though, so consider it done and your compensation for the legendary library plans complete.
Fantastic! I sent a reply telling the admin that an NPC told me about them and said they made great scouts. I was going to delve further into dusk elves with Tanguin, but the players entered the common room. They scanned the few patrons, noticed me, and made their way toward my table.
Mad Dog spoke, ¡°If it isn¡¯t Lord Tallis! The bloody fantastic cook let us know you were in charge of this little village. How did you manage it so quickly?!¡± The three stood over our table. Mad Dog had a friendly smile, while the other two seemed a little indifferent, studying the room.
¡°I started here during the testing period. It wasn¡¯t much, just a few buildings falling apart. I did a few favors, saved a child, and was made Lord of the town.¡± Wow, that was an extremely short way to gloss over all my work.
¡°May we join you? You were right, by the way, the food is the best we have tasted in the game to date, and the buffs were incredible!¡± Galana and Tanguin moved to let the three sit. Mad Dog ordered breakfast for the three of them, and three gold coins changed hands. My gnome cook was going to make a fortune if we got regular players to town.
¡°So, Lord Tallis, I do have some questions, but I think it is best to introduce us first. We are part of the Silver Linings Playbook guild. We are small, just ten members.¡± Mad Dog said, but the female elf interrupted him.
¡°Eleven,¡± she said with neutrality.
¡°Ok, eleven. Mary¡¯s sister hasn¡¯t played much with us in the last three years since she entered medical school, but she was one of the original members. Anyway. Our guild is small, and we are the only three who got to join the game-testing phase. I see you are only level 17, so I assume you are just a casual player?¡± He asked. I nodded, not sure what he meant by casual.
¡°I guess you are not part of the information gold rush then? Well, the wikis out there are buying up info from the testers at an insane rate. Last night, we sold the info for that health elixir for $100 to six different wiki sites and guilds. Can you believe that? Six hundred dollars for just a little information on a simple escort quest that took us two days in the real world to complete.¡± The food arrived, and their group dug in like a pack of famished lions. Even the elf woman lost her decorum eating, so her group mates didn¡¯t eat all the food. When they finished, Mad Dog continued.
¡°Well, this game is going to be big¡­probably the biggest thing out there. Did you hear about the end game? Well, some forecasters have put the pot of gold at $50 billion if the game runs for five years. Just bloody insane, right?¡± I nodded. ¡°So, like I said, we are currently information brokers in the game. We travel, find useful tidbits, and sell the information.¡± He paused, looking at the two giantkin briefly before continuing.
¡°So, Lord Tallis, what I want to know is about your legendary creation. I don¡¯t want it. I just want to know how you did it, and we can split the payouts 50/50. Sound good?¡± Mad Dog sat back and waited.
¡°I don¡¯t have it,¡± I said as Mad Dog looked skeptical. ¡°The admins said it was too early in gameplay to have players crafting legendary objects, so they downgraded the plans to epic and gave me some compensation. I think it was a bug in the system¡­I hit level 43 in my artistry: drafting skill when I completed the plans, which gave them a temporary boost. But I should also mention I spent over two hundred in-game hours on drafting those plans before reaching level 43 in the skill.¡± Mad Dog started to nod as I finished.
¡°Well, that is good information. What about your village here¡­do you want us to make public its location? The food alone would draw players here in droves. Grinder said we should ask you first since we learned you were the Lord of the place.¡± Mad Dog added.
¡°I think I would like it kept secret,¡± I said softly. ¡°I don¡¯t think I could handle an influx of players. Could you hold off posting its location until the game launch?¡± The player¡¯s eyes turned sharp, and they looked at each other.
¡°You are a hard-wired player? Aren¡¯t you?¡± Grinder said, speaking for the first time. Mad Dog looked a little shocked.
Mad Dog spoke as he seemed to be the leader, ¡°You are here 24/7, and you are only level 17? I don¡¯t understand. Were you added later in the testing phase? The lowest level hard-wired player I am aware of is level 60, and she is a casual player. I know it is going to be much harder to level after the game officially launches¡­are the admins testing that difficult leveling system on you?¡± Mad Dog focused intently on me, waiting for an answer.
¡°Um, no. I actually have spent most of my time in-game drafting and building things. I only adventure rarely.¡± I felt like an idiot. I thought my cheat of killing monsters from horseback had gotten me to level quickly.
Mad Dog nodded, ¡°So you are not accepting quests then. That explains it. Leveling by killing monsters is secondary to completing quests in terms of experience. But killing monsters is the fastest way to increase skills. Hell! We got a level for just escorting the alchemist here. They will balance out on game launch, but the programmers want to test higher-level players in the game, so they juiced leveling a bit. So what is it like living here?¡± He asked eagerly.
I absorbed the information and thought before answering, ¡°If I didn¡¯t have the interface I would probably lose myself here. It seems so real, and I often can not tell the difference. Well expediated building, crafting, and the lack of gore in combat¡­some things bring me back to reality.¡±
He nodded as I imparted my wisdom, then said, ¡°We are hoping to get our own full immersion pods with the money we earn from selling information as testers. We will check out the surrounding area before returning to Stillwater City. We need to port to¡­Coral Coast City for another quest.¡± Mad Dog stood, getting ready to leave.
¡°You should talk to my captain of the city guard here. She has some quests you may be interested in.¡± I said, sounding hopeful. It would be great to pawn off my goblin problem on the players.
Galana, down the table, spoke, ¡°The Darkskull goblins across the river have a fortification and village. I have numerous requests for you, brave adventurers¡­¡±
I saw the group¡¯s eyes light up, and I told them the level range was 40 to 50, which got them even more interested. With three accepted quests from Galana, the three left to stop by the alchemist for some potions and head across the narrow stone bridge to the Shiverwood forest. Chapter 27 Quest Conundrum
Chapter 27: Quest Conundrum
The players were excited to explore the Shiverwood forest on behalf of the town. If it was a viable quest location, the information could be sold for profit. They would wait till the game launch, though, as they promised. I saw them off and went to the enchanter¡¯s tower. The enchanter was due tomorrow, and I was just confirming with Sanso and Jaesmin that we were ready to impress.
Sanso and I talked for quite some time about creating a portal stone and also selecting the perfect stones for the brewery¡¯s foundation. If our enchanter could create a portal stone for Malcum village, it would allow NPCs from the auction to get here almost immediately, according to Simba.
Enchanters were a difficult class to master, according to Simba. They not only needed a myriad of spells but also a number of skills to succeed. I decided to have Jaesmin do her best to furnish the tower for the rest of her day. I spent some time with Sanso working on the foundation for the town hall. We both went to the general store after working well past noon for a meal. It was clear that even with another Elementalkin in town, Sanso was still sweet to Elice, the town store proprietor.
¡°Good afternoon, Elice! I heard Fareth has sent some ration packs to be sold in the store?¡± I asked. Sanso mentioned it during our work, and I was curious about it.
¡°She has sent some over. I haven¡¯t tried them, but they are on the counter in the corner over there,¡± she pointed, and I headed over there to check them out. They were wrapped in waxy parchment, and I pulled one from the stack and used my skill.
Dehydrated Trail Ration, +100% Satiety, +25% Magic, Stamina, and Health Pool Recovery for 30 minutes, Shelf Life 504 days
That wasn¡¯t all that surprised me. They were selling for just five silver coins! ¡°Elice, these taste fabulous! Let¡¯s send half the stock we get to Galana and Tanguin for the soldiers. The ones you sell here¡­let¡¯s mark them at one gold coin for adventures and keep the five silver coin price for villagers.¡± The ration was a portable meal that probably tasted better than most and lasted alomnst two game years.
I looked through the shop and found Galana¡¯s arrows, too; just a dozen were on display, tied in together with a cloth strip. ¡°Oh, Elice, is there any way to order things from a city? Or do we need to travel there?¡± I was thinking of Zion¡¯s sheep.
¡°Not that I know of Lord Tallis. I have heard of an auction house, but that must be tied to a portal stone, and only players can utilize it.¡± She responded before returning to her conversation with Sanso. So, did I need to build a building next to the portal stone and just call it an auction house?
¡°Elice, do you know of any way I can get some specific breeds of sheep? We have a new barber coming to town and promised to acquire some sheep for his flock.¡± I asked her hopefully.
¡°It could be arranged through a traveling trader. We see them infrequently this far north, though. If you give me what you are looking for, I will order them next time a trader comes through. If the coin offered is enough, he may rush to get them here.¡± Elice supplied.
¡°Let¡¯s do that!¡± I said excitedly. Glad to pawn off the quest for Zion to someone else. I gave her the list of sheep. I addressed Sanso next, ¡°Sanso, I am going to see if I can retrieve my armor and axe from the desert. I will be gone the rest of the afternoon if anyone is looking for me.¡± I said my goodbyes, checked on Jaesmin and then retrieved Titan from the stable. Fortunately, his saddle didn¡¯t drop when he died.
The ride to the location was pleasant. I only killed a few scorpions, anxious to retrieve my armor and axe. When I reached the location, the illusion was in place once again, the valley looked to be barren sand. I left Titan on the crest, slid down the dune, and searched for my armor. I was happy to find it in the sand. My axe had been covered, but after searching for a while, I was able to retrieve it as well. If players always dropped their armor and the weapons they wielded, battlefields would become a mess in the future. I would ask Simba about the next time I saw him.
I hadn¡¯t dropped the ring but chose not to put it on this time and struggled up the slope to Titan. With my armor equipped, I swung wide north to reveal more areas on my player map during my ride home. A trap door spider almost got us. The spider spat a gooey mess that ensnared and slowed you. Fortunately, Titan was still fast enough to get away from its agro range. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
There was not much to see as the dessert returned to the plains. Feeling safer, I started hunting low-level creatures. I harvested a fair number of quills for Galana and hides for Curraen. I passed by the dungeon entrance and almost dismounted to explore it. It was just a level 20 dungeon. Maybe I should tell the players about it. They could run it easily enough. No, I should save it for my own leveling.
Back in town, I went to the inn and found the players eating and drinking. Mad Dog waved me over. ¡°Tallis, where have you been? We got back a few hours ago, and I thought you would be here building some structures or other things.¡± Mad Dog drank deeply.
¡°I spent the morning building. I tried to get some sheep in the afternoon to complete a quest, and in the evening, I retrieved my armor and axe, which I lost while fighting a troll.¡± I explained to him as an unfamiliar townsperson placed the food in front of me.
Grinder¡¯s eyes focused on me in interest and asked, ¡°Trolls? We didn¡¯t see any trolls today.¡± Oops, I had no plans to reveal the location of the caverns.
¡°Yeah, it was way out in the desert. I don¡¯t plan to head back there anytime soon.¡± I deflected his interest. ¡°I have a mount. Are you interested in mounts?¡±
It was the woman of their party that responded, ¡°Mounts? Those big horses in town? How much?¡±
I didn¡¯t know how much the horses were worth. ¡°What do you think is fair?¡± I asked, and they conferred amongst themselves.
¡°250 gold each,¡± Mad Dog said. ¡°We made fifty-eight gold today while questing, and with our other funds, we can get two mounts at that price. If we put in a full day tomorrow, we should be able to raise enough funds for a third.¡± The small party seemed anxious.
¡°Are mounts that valuable?¡± I asked, curious.
Mad Dog answered, ¡°They are around 1,000 gold in the bigger cities. We haven¡¯t been able to pull funds together to get us all good mounts. You can only bind one land mount, one aerial, and one water mount.¡± I didn¡¯t know the water mount, but I just nodded.
Next, I listened to tales of their adventures today. The forest was full of various beasts: bears, snakes, wolves, giant squirrels, sprites, and tree frogs. The loot was not great. The goblins were the real prize, and many of them were there. They killed over fifty today and were slowly zeroing in on the goblin village. That was great news! They thought maybe two more days to find it but didn¡¯t think they could destroy it. That was not great news.
With no Simba around, I asked them about the gear that had been dropped from combat. In a monster fight, you always drop your armor and weapon. You were the only person who could pick it up for three game days. This was supposed to limit players from losing gear. If a player killed you, you randomly dropped one piece of gear that was not soul-bound.
I was starting to get a buzz going from the ale and started to tell them about all my town quests. I had to find a frigging tailor! Could you believe that! And sheep, eight sheep! But not just any sheep, color, and breed mattered!
The group said I would be able to access the internet when the game launched. The developers were still working on the firewalls for the game¡¯s AIs. It was also rumored they were dragging their feet to set it up because the admins wanted to slow the transfer of game knowledge to the wikis. It was not really doing that, though; it just made it more difficult to post and drove up the prices for information, which was fine with Mad Dog¡¯s crew.
It was Grinder who offered to help first. ¡°So how do I go about getting a tailor to relocate here to Malcum, Tallis?¡± he asked. It was not an aspect of the game they had been researching. It would be all the better if they could help me and learn some new things.
¡°I just find one and follow the trail. I tried to get a barber, and she said no, but she sent me to another barber who needed the sheep to relocate. Do you want to do it?¡± I asked.
¡°Oh, Oh, I got a quest offer from you! It says, ¡®Get a fine tailor to set up shop in Malcum in fourteen days. Reward: 2,000 experience, +100 reputation with the village of Malcum.¡¯¡± Mad Dog looked a little shocked. I was shocked, too, as I hadn¡¯t done anything; I just asked if he wanted to do my quest.
Mad Dog said, ¡°Share it with us, Grinder.¡± They all conferred again and decided this was more important than the horses. Finding out how player-offered quests worked should be valuable information. They were getting ready to head to Stillwater to complete the quest.
¡°Wait!¡± I stopped them. ¡°If you bring back my sheep, I will give all of you one horse, each at just 100 gold per animal!¡± Instead of them getting a quest this time though a player-to-player contract appeared between us. This baffled all of us, but we all accepted the contract. They left and said they would be back in four days.
I was trying to figure out what I had done to trigger the quest offer to Grinder. I couldn¡¯t parcel it out other than the quest, which appeared to be for the village of Malcum and not for me. How did I act in my capacity as lord to offer quests, though? The quest tab in my interface only allowed me to add NPCs under my purview to offer quests.
Frustrated, I went home to find Jaesmin setting up the guest room as a nursery. I helped her forget my own problems. But she offered a suggestion. Maybe I had just transferred Zion¡¯s quest to another player. That seemed¡­plausible. I checked my interface, and she was right. My quest for Zion was gone! I would have to be careful in the future in my functions as lord of Malcum as I had just given away 2,000 potential expereince.
Tomorrow would be a big day. The enchanter should arrive, and I needed to do everything I could to ensure she stayed. Chapter 28 Tough Egg to Crack Chapter 28: Tough Egg to Crack My mind raced during the night. I tried to get some sleep but didn¡¯t feel I needed any sleep. I still needed REM sleep, but due to the time dilation, I just needed sleep every third day, or so I was finding. My thoughts were divided between the players and the arrival of the enchanter. Mad Dog, Black Beaty, and Grinder seemed like good people. They were currently my lifeline to the real world. I had lost myself in the game and hadn¡¯t realized I was missing the real world. When they returned, could I convince the three players to hang around the village? Would they be willing to check on my body in the real world? I was thinking of bribing them with the location of the scaling dungeon. Maybe they would power-level me in the dungeon? My other thoughts were of the enchanter. I looked at the description for the umpteenth time. Persephone, Female Sun Elf, Age 239, Master Enchanter, Master Enchanter: Imbue, Master Enchanter: Runes Curraen¡¯s family were sun elves. So was Black Beauty, if I remember correctly. I decided that rather than using the game to get information on the sun elves, I would go to Curraen. Before the first light, I left and went to the inn. Fareth was preparing breakfast, and I got some sweet rolls, a few breakfast souffles, and a jug of apple juice. I brought the food package to Curraen¡¯s house. I figured it would be nice to talk over breakfast. I knocked, and the young girl Savannah came to the door. ¡°Dad!¡± She yelled, ¡°It¡¯s Tallis, and he brought us breakfast!¡± She looked and made sure her parents heard her. ¡°What do you have? It smells great! Can I take that to the table?¡± I handed the talkative girl the food packages, and she rushed away. The two girls who cared for the horses, Opheela and Trista, came out of their room and joined her. Curraen came to the door. ¡°Lord Tallis, what an unexpected pleasure. Thank you for breakfast. I hope this is not in regard to the army leather armor. I told Tanguin and Galana the fastest I could make them was at three per day to their specifications. They are certainly harvesting enough hides, but my son and I labor is the limiting factor.¡± Curraen motioned me into his house. ¡°Ah, no, Curraen. I was actually here to talk about sun elves. Our new enchanter is coming sometime today, and I wanted to make sure we kept her happy. I was hoping you and your family could help.¡± I sat at the table, and the young girl with a sweet bun stuffed in her mouth spoke. ¡°Can I, Daddy? I can spend the day hanging out with Tallis and tell him all about sun elves! It will be fun! The new enchanter will think he loves sun elves if she sees me hanging out with him. It is a great idea!¡± The girl rushed her words, and they reminded me of the new alchemist, Tonna. ¡°Have you ever thought of becoming an alchemist, Savannah? I think Tonna, and you would get along famously,¡± I said in jest. The girl¡¯s eyes lit up in anticipation. ¡°MOM! DAD! Please! Alchemy sounds so fun! Did you know she is making potions for the soldiers? She is so awesome, too. Can I work with her? I want to be an alchemist!¡± The girl¡¯s excitement was genuine, and I looked at Vivale and Curraen. Vivale, Curraen¡¯s wife, spoke, ¡°Yesterday, you wanted to be an archer, and the day before that, an air mage, and last week you followed Sanso¡¯s golems around most of the day. I also think Lord Tallis may have other plans for you.¡± Vivale looked at me, and I was at a loss for words. ¡°Umm, plans. One second, I need to check some things.¡± I started going through my administration tabs, and under town personnel, I found I could, in fact, assign townsfolk to jobs. I could lose morale and loyalty if I assigned them to a profession they were not good at. I looked at the nine elves in the room. ¡°Well, Savanah, I think you are a bit young, but I can talk with Tonna today to see if she wants an apprentice.¡± Both the girl¡¯s parents smiled at that. Curraen shook my hand, ¡°Thank you, Lord Tallis. You have done so much for us. You have employed me, my wife, my sons, and my twin daughters. And now you give my youngest the possibility of a renowned career as an alchemist.¡± He proceeded to hug me. Vivale hugged me and then said, ¡°You wanted to know about sun elves. We are called sun elves because we are nomads, always wandering under the sun¡­so sun elves. It is usually not by choice, though. The other elven sub-races do not like us. Our blood is¡­muddled¡­our ancestry is not pure¡­either a non-elf or a mixture of the elven sub-races. Therefore, we wander looking for a home. The last place we lived had a change in the governor. He was a high elf and raised our taxes beyond our means. You have been good to us, Lord Tallis. For your new enchanter, I suggest you have him or her come and have dinner with us. We will do our best to convince the enchanter to stay in Malcum.¡± ¡°Thank you for the help, Vivale. I will send her here. Her name is Persephone, and she is 239 years old and has no family. That is all the information I have on her.¡± I got up and was getting ready to leave when the young girl jumped to join me. ¡°Are we going to see Tonna right now?¡± She was bouncing around in excitement. I wasn¡¯t sure she would be good at brewing potions if she couldn¡¯t remain still. ¡°Sure, why not? I think it would be best if Tonna made the decision on whether you can become her apprentice, though,¡± I said and looked at her parents, who nodded. A thought struck me. ¡°Curraen, could you draw me a rough sketch of what a good tanning, leather working, and storage shop would be like?¡± I was thinking I could draft a new building and possibly get some bonuses for my esteemed leather worker. We spent an hour sketching out a floor plan while an impatient Savanah bounced around, anxious to see the alchemist and start her new career. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. When I finally left with the girl in tow, I told her, ¡°Patience is a virtue. Even if your mind is running a mile a minute, you need to be in control of your body. Don¡¯t lose your enthusiasm and curiosity, but try not to telegraph it.¡± She nodded as if I had just given her some sage advice. When we got to the alchemist shop, I found Tonna setting up her store on the first floor. ¡°Lord Tallis! I brewed your potions last night, and Galana picked them up this morning. I must say this building is amazing. I never realized how beneficial such a structure could be! And I see you have the young elf maiden with you today. I still can not brew flight potions, young girl, but I promise I will let you know when I can!¡± Tonna¡¯s words rolled out in a tumble. To my utter shock, the elf girl remained still and quiet. It was like she had suddenly become possessed. I stumbled due to her change, ¡°Uh yeah, Tonna, I came by to make a request. I was looking to see if some of our master crafters were interested in taking on apprentices. This young girl here was interested in learning alchemy.¡± I put my hand assuredly on the elf girl¡¯s shoulder. Tonna¡¯s smiling visage changed to one of contemplation. She studied the elf girl for a while. ¡°Lord Tallis, I can not make such a decision at the spur of the moment. How about she helps me out for the next three days, and I will make a decision after that?¡± The elf girl jumped a little in excitement before getting control of herself. She put her hands behind her back and locked them together. I left them as Tonna was asking Savanah questions to see the extent of her herbalism knowledge. I walked around the village and found Gwen talking with Zion. Surprisingly the grumpy dwarf was smiling and having a lively conversation. Gwen waved me over, ¡°Lord Tallis! Zion here came into town this morning. He explained that you promised him land and a house. I showed him the barber shop you built for him, and he was thrilled! A barber in little old Malcum! We are coming up in the world!¡± Zion stood by with a half smile on his face. He then showed the pasture land he wanted for his flock. ¡°This looks ok, Zion. I will get your house built by tomorrow morning¡­actually, find Sanso; he could probably do it today. It is great to have you here.¡± I walked with Zion as we searched for Sanso. Zion spoke, ¡°Nice little town you have here. It is more than I expected and so¡­diverse.¡± I was quiet, and he continued. ¡°Needs more dwarves, though.¡± He huffed. ¡°Actually, I am trying to recruit another dwarf. She is a city planner. I hope she accepts, but I won¡¯t find out for another 15 days.¡± I replied. I hadn¡¯t checked the NPC auction recently, so I checked the tab. No changes for me, but there were now hundreds of player bids. This auction was going to become super competitive during the player gold rush. I hoped I would have enough platinum coins to bid on some grand masters next cycle. I felt it would be my last chance to compete for highly skilled NPCs. We found Sanso at the general store, and he left with Zion to go and build his house and fence around his pastures with stonework. With that taken care of, I was going to go to the stables and ride Titan around the town for a bit, but a commotion drew my attention. A slender woman was standing on a circular disk that was hovering off the ground as she moved into town. I assumed my enchanter was finally here. I rushed to meet her. She was standing tall and seemed stiff, and she was looking around the town with disappointment on her face. Hopefully, we could get beyond her first impressions. I wish the barracks had been completed. That building would be impressive. ¡°Persephone! I am Lord Tallis, and I am in charge of humble Malcum. If you have time, I would like to bring you dinner with some friends of mine.¡± She hadn¡¯t moved but seemed even stiffer when I addressed her. She looked around again and stepped off her hovering disc. She was tall. Equal to me in height and gave me just a curt nod without changing her blank expression. I talked to her while we walked. ¡°We built you a residence and workshop. After dinner, Vivale will take you over there to check it out. Tomorrow morning, we can talk about your impression of the village and what we can do to make you comfortable.¡± I finished but still got the cold shoulder from the enchanter. We got to the schoolhouse, and Vivale stopped classes to meet with us. She dismissed the students to a roar of approval. Guess even VR students liked to get out of class early. Persephone still seemed standoffish, even with Vivale being a fellow sun elf. They went and talked privately, and Vivale said she would take over hosting duties soon. Vivale only said her journey was tedious, and she wasn¡¯t impressed so far. I could see her again in the morning at the enchanter tower. I left the enchanter in Vivale¡¯s hands and went home worried. To distract myself, I started drafting with the notes from Curraen. A few hours later, I had four revised drafts, and I was finished. Rare Tannery/Leatherworks, Health 50,000, Requires Masonry: Structures 43, Woodcraft Carpentry 23 (Bonus 33% chance to increase tanned hide quality, +5 defense bonus to leather crafted armor, 1% chance to increase the rarity of crafted armor) This was amazing. Apparently, the tannery portion had an increase in quality in one of three tanned hides. The leatherworks had two bonuses¡­well, one, really. It added +5 defense, which wasn¡¯t huge for heavy armor but was still a big benefit for leatherworkers. The 1% increase in armor rarity would just add additional stat bonuses. So, all in all, I was happy with my effort. Jaesmin came home, and she had eaten at the inn. She looked at the plans and was impressed. She said I would need to talk with Manarag and draft him a new blacksmith shop as well. I checked my NPC bids again.
Jaylyn Knight Human M 28 Expert Blade: Medium
Lyons Knight Human M 28 Expert Armor: Heavy
Kassta Brewer Beastkin: Bull M 33 Expert Brewer
Warne Craftsman Beastkin: Wolf M 20 Expert Woodcraft: Furniture
Tilda Farmer Halfling F 52 Expert Crop Farming
Breda Bureaucrat Dwarf F 64 Master City Planning
The descriptions had changed again. I no longer had the number of family members visible. I remembered the halfling had a large family, but beyond that, I didn¡¯t remember anything. No one had outbid me. I didn¡¯t like only seeing the NPCs highest skill. When it showed the three top skills, I could better judge who to bid on. Besides the brewery, I needed to draft plans for a furniture woodshop and a city planning building. No, Breda, the dwarf city planner, could work in the town hall. There were plenty of offices in the town hall structure. I was tired enough tonight to actually sleep tonight. When I awoke, I walked slowly to the enchanting tower. If this NPC fell through, I would be severely disappointed. Chapter 29 Employee Benefits
Chapter 29: Employee Benefits
The town was waking early this morning. There were people I didn¡¯t recognize, and I found Gwen walking to the general store and asked about the unfamiliar faces. Apparently, we had an influx of 29 people migrating to the town. I checked my interface and was shocked to see that the overall population had jumped to 162. Twenty-eight of the new additions were human, and there was one¡­centaur?
I looked puzzled at Gwen asking about the centaur. ¡°Ah, Yes, Sheila, she lives in the Shiverwood across the river. Apparently, your friends who were hunting goblins brought her attention to the village. She came by and talked with me. She is a druid of grove across the river and was willing to be recognized as a member of Malcum. She wanted any lumbering to be monitored by her and also asked if we could eliminate the goblins in the forest. I believe Mad Dog took that quest.¡± Gwen finished.
I didn¡¯t understand how someone across the river could be counted in my village population, but if she lived there, she should be at least level 50? So if she was friendly, I would be good with that. Well, if the enchanter decided to leave, we would at least add a powerful druid. I turned and headed to Curraen¡¯s residence. I should check with Vivale first to get some feedback on Persephone first.
Vivale answered the door, and her kids ate at the table. ¡°We can talk in the side room,¡± she said. Curraen and the eldest had left for the shop already. The youngest waved frantically to me with a big smile on her face. I guess her first day of alchemy went well.
In the side room, Vivale asked, ¡°What did you tell my youngest? She has never been so well-behaved. Well, no matter, it probably won¡¯t last. You can¡¯t contain her love of life for too long. I suppose you are here for Persephone?¡± She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly before continuing.
¡°I talked with Persephone alone. She has not had a good life. She was adopted into a High Elf family. The adoption was mostly a farce, though. She was basically a maid.¡± Oh, I heard this one before. Our enchanter was Cinderella. She continued, ¡°The family was wealthy and influential and ran multiple enchanting shops in various cities. Over the years, Persephone managed to pick things up here and there and advance her enchanting knowledge without the knowledge of the family,¡± Vivale paused again.
¡°Seventy-nine years, she toiled in the shadow of the family. When they discovered she was a proficient enchanter, she toiled for another eighty-eight years, enchanting for them with no pay.¡± I sickened myself at the thought of prolonged slavery. What a terrible background. ¡°She left in the middle of the night and has spent the last two years looking for a permanent home. I think she wants to be in control of her own destiny. If you can offer that, you can convince her to stay here.¡±
I processed this information. ¡°Thank you, Vivale. I will do my best to give her what she wants.¡± I left and waved to the youngest, Savannah, who waved back enthusiastically. That elf girl was growing on me.
In short order, I knocked on the tower door. It took twenty minutes before Persephone answered the door. She moved aside and let me enter, and we sat in the living room that Jaesmin had furnished. ¡°So Persephone, you had some time to see our humble and growing village.¡±
She nodded and didn¡¯t say anything. ¡°Well, we are in desperate need of an enchanter.¡± She nodded. ¡°In exchange for your services, I am prepared to give you the deed for this tower. You will own it.¡± She nodded and still had a blank face. ¡°What else can we offer you?¡± I asked, trying to get her to speak and pleading a little.
She looked contemplative before speaking, ¡°Lord Tallis. Your community is unique. What I am really looking for is someplace I can advance as an enchanter. I want to exceed my step-family in their ability. I want them to see me one day and be envious of how much better at the craft I am than them. Elves live for millennia, so I will do it.¡± She said with some sternness.
¡°Unfortunately, your small village can not provide the materials I need to practice my craft with abandon.¡± She finished and seemed torn. ¡°The tower and workshops within are fabulous¡­better than what I could have ever hoped for at my level of proficiency. But I don¡¯t see myself being able to ¡­I¡¯m sorry. I know how hard you worked, and the people in your village are happy, but¡­¡±
I put up my hand to stop her, ¡°What materials do you need for your craft? Would you reconsider if I can supply what you need in sufficient quantities?¡± She looked me over. She started listing ingredients: ruby dust, gold wire, platinum thread, aetheric water, unicorn hair, black pearls¡­ The list went on for quite some time, and she finished it after naming around 50 ingredients.
¡°Wow, Persephone, I can see why you think we wouldn¡¯t be able to supply you with what you need. Vivale has told me you have been traveling for two years and are still searching for a place to hone your craft?¡± She nodded slightly. ¡°Do you know how to enchant a portal stone?¡±
Her eyebrow rose slightly at the question, ¡°It is difficult, but I do have the required runic formula in my books. Since you have been generous and gracious hosts, I will be happy to complete a Portal Stone for you before I depart. It should only take two days.¡± She had disappointment in her voice. I think she was hoping that I could offer her a steady supply of her ingredients.
¡°That would be fantastic! More importantly, with a Portal Stone, I will be able to build something called an auction house. It will allow us to get you many things that you require. But you will need to be patient as I do not know how difficult it will be to build one. Can you give me 90 days?¡± I asked¡­well my tone was closer to begging. I didn¡¯t know if I could draft building plans for an auction house or if I needed to go and acquire them.
Her face finally changed from blank to unreadable. She was thinking, and I waited a few minutes before she finally responded. ¡°Forty-five days. I will give you forty-five days to establish the auction house. I have heard of them before and know only you players can use them. So, I would expect two platinum coins worth of material every month to ply my craft. You will also pay me ten gold a month in salary, and I will own this residence. I will only work on your assigned projects for¡­ let¡¯s say, 20 hours a week. The rest of the time will be my own.¡± She finished and nodded to herself like the negotiation was completed.
Damn, that was insane compared to hiring my other NPCs. She essentially wanted 210 gold a month plus a rare building worth hundreds, maybe thousands! I did not grasp the enchanting game mechanics enough to know if she was worth this investment. I asked her to wait while I checked a few things in my sheets.
I went to my tabs to review the village finances. I guess I should have been looking a little more closely at this. We were projecting a surplus of just 27 gold and 18 silver a month. My heart started pounding a bit. The majority of our income was through the hides. The only positive was the village had a current balance of 29 platinum, 88 gold, 49 silver, 9 copper. That was mostly from selling the loot and looting corpses of the orcs. My mental calculator was ringing, ¡°Danger Will Robinson, Danger!¡± I could not sustain the enchanter. When the army unit arrived, they were going to cost 96 gold and 66 silver a month. My breathing hurried on, but then it struck me. I didn¡¯t need to balance the trade.
This was a game world. All I needed to do was go dungeon diving and gather some loot. Still this game seemed to be pulling me in numerous directions¡­adventure, manage, build, draft¡­all to sustain my gains. I needed to find out how well the dungeon provided coin. I decided to bring the Silver Linings Playbook guild into my confidence. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
¡°Persephone, I think we have an agreement. The only stipulation I will add is that the enchanter¡¯s tower is the residence of Malcum¡¯s enchanter. If you decide to leave Malcum or your position, the tower will revert to the town¡¯s ownership.¡± I thought this would protect part of my investment. If I needed to recruit another enchanter, so be it, but she was not going to sell my own building back to me!
It took her a moment before she realized my train of thought. She nodded and went back to negotiating, ¡°If after 45 days there is no auction house or materials, I will be paid in full for the second month and be free to leave.¡± Her counter was basically saying I would owe her an extra five gold for breaking the contract.
¡°Agreed!¡± I said without hesitation. ¡°So what exactly can an enchanter do?¡± She finally smirked into a smile.
¡°Well, I have studied two enchanting tracks in depth. Building runic modification and household utility runic devices.¡± She seemed smug for a second before continuing, ¡°I have not dabbled in weapons, armor, and object enchanting. I can make a building resistant to damage, and elemental attacks. I can make buildings more comfortable to live in with temperature-controlling runes. I can build runic devices to create water, heat, and light. All of my runes require large runic stone anchors, though.¡± She finished and was expecting a reply.
So basically, what I got in my enchanter was a household building enchanter? How perfect was this? Was the system AI somehow assisting me? What did Simba call the governing AI¡­the Matriarch? I focused back on Persephone, and we talked a bit.
I learned a building can only receive one enchantment. She had an armor enchantment, decreasing damage and elemental resistance for fire, air, lightning, water, earth, and time. You could only choose one element, though. She could also do a climate control room for the interior of buildings. The enchantment required gold wire to make the runes and a magic jewel to power the enchantment.
The jewel would need to be recharged to keep the enchantment functioning. A magic jewel was just any gem prepared by an enchanter. The larger the gem, the more capacity it had¡­like a battery. She suggested either a time enchantment or armor enchantment for military buildings. With the time enchantment, the building would not degrade over time, and it could save thousands of gold for large cities in terms of maintenance!
Her other enchantments were making heating stones, large ceiling lights, water tanks, and self-cleaning rooms. Each effect must be anchored to a runic stone at least two feet in diameter. All very useful items¡­my village would be entering the modern age! That was until I learned the cost. A building enchantment costs around 20 gold, not including the gem! A simple device was around two gold, not including the battery gem. So basically, I was just a poor sop right now and dreaming about modern amenities.
I went with Persephone to see Manarag; he would have no difficulty making the gold wire she needed. As for gems, I would need to find a source. I would ask the players when they returned. Our next stop was finding Sanso. He was working on the town hall.
¡°Lord Tallis, I am glad you are here! I was not too sure where these supports should go¡­¡± Sanso was holding plans for the town hall in his hands and trying to figure them out. The problem with Sanso was that he had assigned all his skills, so even though he had been building things for a while, he needed a ton of direction.
¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. This is our new enchanter, Persephone. Is the Portal Stone ready?¡± I asked in anticipation.
¡°Yes!¡± he replied. ¡°My golems have it. I made it 10 meters across from pure runic stone. I can transport it to the square if you want to?¡±
I thought and said, ¡°No, I think we will build a second town plaza near the inn. I expect a number of adventures will use it and want to make use of the inn. Forgive my ignorance, but what is runic stone?¡± The two casters looked at each other and then at me and giggled.
Persephone answered my query, ¡°Runic stone is any hard stone purged of impurities. It can be mined or processed by a powerful earth mage. Mined runic stone is usually more potent, though.¡±
¡°Well, my young elf,¡± Sanso started with a grin, ¡°You are in luck because the stone my golems are carrying here is mined from the mountains north of town!¡± As if he waved a magic wand, a sextet of golems came from the distance carrying a massive disc of stone. It was not very thick, just over an inch, but the weight must be immense. We walked as a group to the inn, and the portal stone followed. I decided the new plaza would be about 20 yards from the inn. Sanso would make a road eventually.
On choosing the spot, Sanso summoned a massive square block in the road with a perfect impression for the disc. He then used some of his magic to harden and fuse the runic stone it in place. My enchanter stood beside me and said, ¡°I may have underestimated your little town. He is quite proficient for an earth mage. I should have enough gold wire to enchant the stone, but if you could ask Sanso to remain around to embed the gold runes, it would save me considerable time.¡±
¡°That shouldn¡¯t be a problem. What about the gem battery for the Portal Stone? Where does that go?¡± I asked.
¡°It is not needed. The travelers pay with either their own pool or someone else can pay for them. The amount is dependent based on distance¡­about one pool point per mile traveled. They also need to have physically touched the portal stone they are being portaled to. Since you may not know about portal stones, there are individuals called porters. They have large magic pools, and people pay them around one copper per aether point for transit.¡±
¡°The entire cost for a single transit can only come from one source, and some cities only allow Porters to activate their stones.¡± All great information to know.
¡°So, am I going to need a porter?¡±
She answered my question. ¡°Portal Stones all have a key to activate. Sometimes, that key is embedded in the center of the stone so everyone can use it freely. Other times, that key is embedded into a small object like a stone. The enchanter who creates the portal stone decides which method it will use. What do you prefer, lord?¡±
¡°Let¡¯s just go with the free-use portal stone for now. If things get out of control, we can destroy them and start over.¡± I was thinking this portal stone might be a great way for players to invade a city and take it over. Another question I would need to ask Mad Dog.
I let Sanso and Persephone work. They started talking, and I was glad she was opening up a little. She no longer seemed like she had a broomstick shoved up her ass anyway. I was in a good mood, so I stopped at the inn for a drink. With a new haircut and trimmed beard, Manto was sipping some ale in the corner with some empty plates in front of him, ¡°Lord Tallis! I must say you are exceeding my expectations by a large margin. Fareth is a remarkable woman and chef, and I don¡¯t think I will leave even if you do not employ the tailor I requested.
Quest Completed: Manto is now employed by Lord Tallis
I was getting too much good news too fast. This was a sign that something bad had to happen soon, right? ¡°That is great to hear! Manto, the spell you cast to down the beetle¡­?¡±
He was a little inebriated and answered quickly, ¡°A tier 20 greater lightning bolt! Impressive right? I hate casting it, though, as it leaves my ears ringing long after. It was the only spell I had with enough range, though. So Lord Tallis, what new attractions are going to be added to your fine hamlet next!¡±
I liked the old man. I sat down, and a young woman brought me an ale. I sipped it, and it wasn¡¯t great. ¡°I plan to build a brewery a little ways upstream. We need some better stock.¡± His eyes lit up¡­literally lit up with a blue light glow.
¡°Oh my! How long? What can I do to expedite the construction and functionality of this new and wonderful building?¡± His face seemed to get younger with an enthusiasm I hadn¡¯t seen from an old man before. I had a powerful air mage¡­even if he seemed to be an aspiring alcoholic.
¡°After the town hall, I think it will be the next building. I still need to bring in a brewer to make it function and make sure we have enough excess grains to make the beer.¡± I said, trying to moderate his enthusiasm.
¡°Grains¡­yes. I can help with that.¡± He stood up. ¡°I have some weather spells that can help! We can double, no, triple production in the next cycle! Leave that part to me! Get the building built, and you will have your grains!¡± He left excited and a bit wobbly. Well, it seemed he was at least motivated.
I spent the rest of my day upriver, marking off the site for the brewery. I started on the foundation as well. I was a little creeped out because there seemed to be a lot of activity across the river, but I couldn¡¯t make out what it was in the darkness created by the forest canopy.
I returned home with a smile at seeing Jaesmin humming away in front of the stove. I told her all about my day and the amazing amount of progress we had made. She told me about her day as well. She had been going around town and doing maintenance on buildings. She also said she visited and had lunch with Zion. He was quite the character and very amiable toward her. He did ask when his sheep would arrive. Well, I hoped the players succeeded in their mission. They would return in two days.
Rather than work on new plans tonight, I spent it giving Jaesmin a sensual massage, getting familiar with every body part, and then making love to her.
Chapter 30 Fast Travel Chapter 30: Fast Travel I woke in the morning with a naked Jaesmin sleeping atop me. A new smell struck me¡­the smell of lingering sex. The game developers must work overtime with updates but could apply their efforts elsewhere. I was trying to move and not disturb Jaesmin when I saw a familiar feline sitting at the base of the bed. ¡°Simba, where have you been?¡± I asked with indifference in my voice. I wouldn¡¯t pine after him if he wanted to show up when he was pleased. ¡°Tallis, you really should read the game updates more often,¡± he replied snidely. I checked, and there were 413 game update notes. Yeah, it¡¯s not something I wanted to spend my time on. Simba continued, ¡°Companions are now a paid option for players.¡± He preened a little bit. ¡°We offer guidance in character creation and major changes to the game, but if you want us to travel with you, then you need to pay,¡± he spun and wrapped his tail before sitting. ¡°How much is your company worth?¡± I asked with some snark of my own. ¡°Just one hundred dollars a month, the same as a monthly subscription.¡± I would have choked if I wasn¡¯t a virtual being. Two hundred dollars a month to play this game with a companion? I technically didn¡¯t have any money, so I guess Simba was here for another reason. ¡°So why are you here then?¡± I asked, now curious. ¡°READ THE UPDATES TALLIS! You are stuck here, and I know you have free time.¡± He sighed as best a miniature tiger could. ¡°The programmers have launched the class system. So, I am here to make sure you understand and select a class. Since you have not read it, I will provide details. At level one, you can choose from three classes. Each has a bonus and penalty to pool regenerations.¡± Warrior, +100% to stamina regeneration, +25% to health regeneration, -25% magic pool regeneration Mage, +100% to magic pool regeneration, -25% to stamina and health regeneration Adept, +25% to all regenerations, +25% faster skill growth ¡°You are probably thinking that the mage is hindered and weaker? Well, don¡¯t worry, their power comes from spells. A mage can learn one spell for every seven intellect points. Adepts can learn one spell for every 11 intellect points, and warriors can learn one spell for every 23 intellect.¡± Simba paused, waiting. ¡°So I have to choose a class? And that is the only benefit I receive? It is an easy choice for me. Adept. Skill growth is what drives my ability to expand my village.¡± I said, trying to sound sagely. Simba returned, ¡°Yes, the adept is the crafter class and all-rounder for combat. There is one other benefit you gain as well. You get a foci skill. Well, you get two as an adept.¡± He took a deep breath, ¡°Since you didn¡¯t read the update, a foci skill is a core skill you build your class around. It does not count toward your limit of 23 and advances 200% faster than your other skills. Warriors get one skill, mages one skill, and adepts get two at level 1.¡± ¡°What, that is amazing! No more penalties! Definitely adept then!¡± I yelled and woke Jaesmin. I pulled myself away from her and went downstairs while dressing. I could have auto-equipped my clothes, but dressing made me feel normal. Simba followed. ¡°Is that all the benefits of selecting a class?¡± I asked while preparing breakfast. ¡°Yes, at level one, that is all the benefits. When you reach level 25, you can select your profession. And then, at level 100, you can select your specialization.¡± I was about to ask another question, but the cat raised a paw, ¡°Let me explain. A profession will be your true class. Fighter, Wizard, Druid, Ranger, Monk, Paladin, Bureaucrat, Sage, and many more. Each of these professions comes with three additional skills that do not count toward your cap of 23. These bonus skills also have the same 200% boost to learning speed.¡± He stopped and raised a paw to his mouth to lick it. ¡°Is there an architect profession?¡± I asked with eagerness in my voice. ¡°No,¡± my heart dropped. ¡°But there can be. Professions are fluid and just need to be approved by the admins if they are not listed. You could choose to be a dancer, for instance.¡± This was great news, and I needed to hit level 25 as quickly as possible. Simba continued, ignoring my excitement, ¡°The final selection occurs at level 100. That is when you select your specialization. It must be a branch of your profession, though. Going back to the dancer example¡­specializations currently approved are sword dancer, ballerina, ritual summoner, entertainer, seductress, and acrobat.¡± ¡°How does ritual summoner relate to dancing?¡± I asked curiously. ¡°Rituals take a long time to prepare and execute. Dancers must perform a ritual dance to channel the magic into the ritual pattern. It is actually quite powerful. But since that choice is at level 100, you are a long, long, long way away. No need to go into the details. As you know, game leveling will be slowed upon launch. They are hoping the average player will take a month to reach level 25 and a year to reach level 100.¡± Simba turned and started walking away. ¡°Simba, can you refresh my memory of what happens at the game launch? I won¡¯t be able to level for 30 days, right?¡± I asked, starting to process everything. ¡°Yes, no leveling or skill advancement for hard-wired players for 30 days. You will only be able to level after one of the new players has passed your current level. So, if you were level 150, you might have to wait longer than 30 days before a player reached that level. Once again, Tallis, READ THE UPDATES!¡± I waved him off. I would get to it eventually, or I would just have an irate Simba tell me. ¡°Thanks, Simba. Are you leaving? Am I now an Adept?¡± I asked, and my character profile pinged. As I opened my sheets, Simba¡¯s voice carried from a distance, ¡°Check on the new penalties for having over 23 skills.¡± Adept Class Selected, +25% to all pool regeneration, Please select your two foci skills Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Simba was gone when I looked up. I was going to miss that kitty. I opened my sheet and immediately had some red notifications. My spell list was flashing, and it said the spell limit was 4! Oh shit! I was sure that Simba would be laughing at me if he was still here. I had ten spells. Thankfully, The red notification said I could not learn the 11th spell until my intellect reached 111. Spell tailoring was one of the more fun aspects of casting. Maybe I should have chosen to be a mage? Too late now. So I could choose two skills to supercharge. Artistry: Drafting was definitely at the top of my list. Drafting buildings with bonuses was just too good a benefit for my village. My second skill, though¡­ I narrowed it down to Earth Magic, Masonry, or Woodcraft. I really needed my building skills, but my earth magic was also heavily related to my combat style and helped with construction. Ugh, why did this have to be so hard?! I decided I could hire people with masonry and woodcraft skills, so I selected Earth Magic before changing my mind. My two foci skills moved to the top of my skill list, along with my reading skills, which also did not count toward my total. And just like that, I now have 24 skills, counting toward my 23 cap. My penalty was¡­1%. Why did Simba say to check out the updates for skill penalties? I looked for the update, and¡­oh. It penalized extra skills by prime number tier now. 1%,2%,3%,5%,7%,11%, 13%, 17%... So, to be safe, I should limit myself to just three skills beyond the cap. Once I hit level 25, I would acquire three more free skills when I selected my profession. I spent the morning paging through the updates. I only got through about 5% in the few hours I spent. Jaesmin had already left to start work on repairs in town. I had too much to do. I went into town, and the square in front of the general store was crowded with dozens of people. I approached, and the trader and his wagon returned. The townsfolk gave way and continued examining a large spread of items on tables. Some were buying, and some were selling. The trader masterfully handled everything. When I got to the trader, I asked for his attention, and the townsfolk quieted down. I asked him about sheep first. I got the list from my interface, and he quoted me a price of 88 gold and two weeks to get it here. Almost a whole platinum for sheep? I got Elice to pay him for the sheep, as I needed them to fulfill the quest for Zion in case Mad Dog and company failed. I also told Elice to stock our general store with goods, giving her a budget of 200 gold. I asked him about building plans. Unfortunately, he had none on him but could get them. He asked what I needed. Well, I needed plans for an auction house. He thought about it for a while and then said 300 gold, and he would bring it with the sheep. It was painful to pay that amount as I could draft them free if I knew how, but I did not. I left before I spent any more town funds. I went to find the enchanter and see if my town portal was completed. I found her laying out complex runes in gold wire and then ¡®pushing¡¯ the wire into the stone, activating the rune. The runes were black and shimmered slightly. Sanso was nearby, working on a road to the inn and another to the other plaza near the general store. ¡°How are things Persephone?¡± I asked, not hiding my excitement about her progress. She had inscribed runes around 80% of the perimeter. ¡°Extremely well. I think I will finish before dinner. I am not certain, but my best guess is that the range of this portal stone will be around 3,000 miles. Don¡¯t worry it can be upgraded with better materials in the future, but pushing any more magic than that through it would burn it out. It does look marvelous. Go over there and what as the sunlight plays on the runes¡­they seem to dance.¡± She said with excitement of her own. I was glad she was breaking down her RBF (resting bitch face). She was right. The portal stone looked amazing at the right angle. ¡°I wanted to let you know I have ordered plans to build an auction house. I should get them in two weeks, so I am doing what I can to make good on my promises.¡± She nodded and tuned me out as she focused on her work. After lunch at the inn, I decided to pull Sanso and Jaesmin with me to work on the brewery¡­well. Roasted Chicken with Shallot and Garlic Crust, +2 to all stats for 2 hours I made a mental note never to make Fareth upset. The brewery was a very simple building but fairly large. I might have made its capacity a little too much for our little town. During the day, I did notice some of the farmer fields in the distance had storm clouds hovering over them¡­probably Manto ¡®helping.¡¯ I did notice my bonuses to regeneration had boosted my regens.
Health 8.47 per min
Stamina 8.60 per min
Magic 15.02 per min
I had invested quite a bit into my magic pool and was now reaping the benefits. Manto still outclassed me. He told me he was a little over 60 per minute with his regen, but I was closing slowly. We completed the entire foundation of the brewery and most of the first-floor walls. As we headed back to the inn, we noticed a crowd gathered around the portal stone. A loud pop occurred, and someone disappeared. That person returned as we got closer. It was Persephone. ¡°Just testing it out. Popped down to Stillwater and back. Just 240 magic each way.¡± She was beaming at her work. I returned the smile. We could now fast travel. I walked onto the stone, and nothing. What the? Sanso asked, ¡°Are you trying to go somewhere? Did you touch the portal stone at the location you want to travel?¡± Oh, that was right; I hadn¡¯t connected my personal network to any other portal stones. ¡°Can you send me somewhere?¡± I asked hopefully. ¡°Sorry, Tallis. I can supply the magic, but you need to envision the location.¡± He said. I guess I was going to need to Titan a workout soon. There was already a massive celebration starting at the inn. Most of the town was cramming in there, and Fareth had numerous appetizers available for everyone. I told Jaesmin to go and enjoy herself. I had to get to my drafting table. I needed to work on plans to improve the smithy. Curraen fell into step next to me as I was walking and asked me for a minute of my time. ¡°Lord Tallis, I have heard that some dusk elves may be coming to Malcum. Galana said sixteen?¡± He inquired of me. I was worried about where this conversation was going by the concern in his voice. ¡°Yes, do I need to be worried?¡± I asked. ¡°No, no!¡± He waved his hands. ¡°Dusk elves have a bit of a mythos to them. The dark elves live in the Endless Dark below the surface. Have you heard of it?¡± I nodded, and he continued. ¡°Well, they raided the surface elves for millennia. To stop the constant surprise raids, an elven king commissioned an elven special forces unit to train to delve into the Underdark and raid the dark elves in return. These elves were the best hunters and warriors from numerous elven nations.¡± He paused. ¡°They succeeded, you know. The dark elves stopped raiding the surface. The dusk elves stood on guard for hundreds of years and acted as liaisons between the surface and Endless Dark. There was a sense of peace.¡± He stopped talking and thought before continuing. ¡°The dusk elves disappeared. It must have been maybe 500 years ago. Maybe more. I am not sure when. All contact with the dark elves also ceased, and no one knows where the dusk elves went. No one has thought much about it since the dark elves didn¡¯t start raiding the surface again. But some of us¡­sun elves, that is¡­believe the dark elves were consolidating their power to surge back to the surface. If these are truly dusk elves¡­then maybe you could ask why they have abandoned their duty to safeguard the surface from the Endless Dark?¡± You have been offered an epic quest. History of the Dusk Elves Accept Y/N? Oh, that game admin is going to be so mad. I hit accept. This should be an easy layup with the Dusk Elves coming to me. But why did the quest not list any rewards? It said this was an epic quest¡­there should be epic rewards. I thanked Curraen for the knowledge and went home to draft my plans for the¡­hopefully epic¡­smithy. Chapter 31 Information Dump Chapter 31: Information Dump With input from Manarag, I drafted a large smithy. It had four anvil workstations with racks for tools at each. Each station had its own forge as well. One station was larger, with more space and storage capacity for the master smith. Only one smelter was in the building, but that was all Manarag had requested. So I was hoping that Manarag could take on three apprentices, as he already had the orc prisoner. I did my best to make the exterior of the structure aesthetically pleasing. With my artistry carving skill, I think I was getting a slightly better look at my drafting plans. The two skills seemed to be meshing better than before. It was probably from an update I wasn¡¯t aware of. I examined the plans. Rare Blacksmith, Health 90,000, Requires Masonry: Structures 23, Woodcraft Carpentry 23 (Bonus 5% chance to upgrade smelted ore quality, +4 to Forging skills, +25% to forged item durability) Those bonuses seemed good, I guess? I would have to ask Manarag. I had been hoping for a Very Rare structure plan, but this improved his current workspace, which doubled as his home. His family would be thrilled to get their house to themselves. Living inside a blacksmith must have been noisy, but I needed to realize this was a game. My mind shifted gears. I should try drafting a house tonight. I wasn¡¯t sure what bonuses I could get for a residence, but any bonus would be useful. Could I somehow control what bonuses were applied? I felt that was within my grasp, but I would need to puzzle it out. Jaesmin was up and making breakfast. She was tossing some fried strips of meat into an egg scramble. I really should get all my meals at the inn for the bonuses. I ate the food anyway and smiled¡­yep no bonuses, but at least it was seasoned properly and tasted good. Jaesmin smiled as she ate her own food, ¡°The townsfolk are gathering at lunch to see the barracks and gatehouse being completed. You should be there and give a speech or something.¡± I checked the timer in my interface. Just 7 hours and 22 minutes left to complete. That was great. ¡°Definitely!¡± I set an alarm in my interface to alert me thirty minutes before. ¡°We will finish the brewery today, and then I think we will start on the new plans I drafted last night. Is there anything you want to do today?¡± Jaesmin paused before talking, ¡°Some women in town said it would be nice if we had a town park and gardens. The weather is cold right now, but it would be nice to go where flowers are blooming in the new season. Many people admire your gardens, but only the children dare venture there without your permission.¡± This was very interesting information. I looked at my town interface. We still had a lot of space inside the temporary earthen walls Sanso¡¯s golems had built. I laid out some wide roads in the village and marked a three-acre section surrounded by the roads as the town park. ¡°I marked off a section for a park and gardens, but I don¡¯t think I want to divert any of my stick golems to maintain them. They need to supply our cook and alchemist with ingredients.¡± Jaesmin nodded in understanding. ¡°Could you ask the druid? Don¡¯t they do such things?¡± Jaesmin questioned to my confusion. I didn¡¯t think about that, but I wasn¡¯t about to go wandering in a forest alone. ¡°When I have time, we can¡­¡± A loud knock and two giantkin strode in when I called for them to enter. They were grinning, and they carried the odor that my own bedroom smelled like after having sex with Jaesmin. I made a priority note immediately. BUILD A VILLAGE BATHHOUSE. The updates continued adding more to the senses, whether pleasant or unpleasant. I was happy the two giantkin were getting along so well, but the lingering body odor wasn¡¯t pleasant or necessary for a game. Tanguin slapped my back with a grin, ¡°I was surprised you haven¡¯t been by to see those phantasmal dwarves at work. They are almost done!¡± Galana rolled her eyes and then spoke. ¡°Every day we came back from the hunt, he watched them like a hawk spying on a mouse. Here are the latest harvest numbers. We wanted to talk about setting up a guard at the new portal stone. No one has come through, but eventually, as the village grows, it will become active.¡± Galana appraised the food spread on the table, a little disappointed, but helped herself to a pitcher of apple juice, the whole pitcher. ¡°I have a question¡­¡± I paused, not sure if the question was appropriate, ¡°What level are the two of you?¡± They looked at each other, and Tanguin spoke for them. ¡°I am level 77, and Galana is level 68. You can not see that in your interface. Do you always check?¡± I went and looked at my interface, and their info was now showing their levels. I checked¡­nope everyone else in town didn¡¯t have the information. ¡°No, I can only see it once I gather the information. My analyze skill is still too low. It is at level 16¡­so that means I can only identify levels up to 33.¡± That was my skill level plus my current level. ¡°Lord Tallis, you really need to improve on that. Knowing what you face is important in your planning,¡± Tanguin said somberly. Galana butted in. ¡°Lord Tallis, the only two people in the village we do not know the levels of are Fareth and Zion. We can give you the level of the others if you want?¡± She finished with a nod to Tanguin, who sighed. I nodded in return, and they began. ¡°Well, Sanso is level 89. Manto is level 107. They are both fairly powerful mages. Your crafters, Tonna, your alchemist, just leveled up to level 50, and the enchanter, Persephone, was level 72 when she arrived. Manarag was level 70, and Curraen was level 62?¡± Tanguin listed off, and Galana nodded, confirming his numbers. I had already learned that NPC skills were limited, so their level didn¡¯t mean too much in terms of combat strength. ¡°The rest you can analyze yourself¡­should help you raise your skill a bit. It would be best if you didn¡¯t ask Zion or Fareth their level, as it is somewhat rude. If we find out, we will let you know.¡± Jaesmin had put out a loaf, peanut spread, and jelly, and the giantkin dug in, making P&J sandwiches. When they were satiated, they left to spend their day hunting in the plains. With Jaesmin, I went to work at the brewery site. Sanso was working on the new roads I had laid out, focusing on the road around the future park. We didn¡¯t finish the brewery before my alarm beeped. It was time to go see the barracks to its completion! Stolen story; please report. Most of the town was gathered as the immense structure was quickly reaching its completion. My interface chimed, and the insubstantial dwarves evaporated. The building was done, and everyone rushed inside to check it out. I checked my interface and was very disappointed at the monthly maintenance cost of the structure, 11 gold and five silver. I hadn¡¯t really considered this factor in my design. My expenses were piling up, but I joined the excited groups as they toured the building. I found Galan and Tanguin in the bunk rooms for the infantry, and they looked concerned. The building had been modestly furnished, and the rooms had rough wood beds. What was the problem? Oh shit. The beds were too small. I checked my drafting plans, and I had made them for a human-sized person. The only good news was the rooms should still be large enough to accommodate larger beds and not lose capacity. I would need all new furniture for the building, what a headache. The woodshop and furniture building just moved up my list of priorities. Other than that, the structure was great as we toured it. Tanguin was a kid in a candy shop¡­one without candy yet¡­as he raced through checking things out. Galana just grinned at his enthusiasm. As if the day couldn¡¯t get any better, Savannah, the excitable elf girl, came rushing in. She said the adventurers were back and shopping in Tonna¡¯s alchemy shop. I left with the young girl and went to see the players. I had a lot of questions for them, and I was planning to tell them about the dungeon. The three adventures with purchasing potions and talking animatedly with Tonna. Mad Dog waved to me and approached as the others finished up. ¡°Tallis, mate! Your town alchemist offers such good prices. She said her brews got a decent boost from this building. Any more knowledge you wish to share with me? And mate¡­¡± he paused, ¡°we got your change from the info on crafting legendaries. Guess how much?¡± He had a huge grin on his face. I shrugged, and he belted out loudly, ¡°One hundred thousand. American dollars, too. We had some rich bloke who asked to be the sole purchaser of the info. Two hundred thousand, and the transfer was done in hours! Our share is enough to buy one entire immersion pod for our guild! Do you have a bank account we can wire the funds to?¡± He asked, and I was shocked. ¡°That is an amazing amount of funds. I don¡¯t know. That is one thing I wanted to ask you. Can you check on my body in the real world? I don¡¯t have access, and I am unsure where my body actually is or what my bank information may be.¡± ¡°Not a problem! Grinder!¡± He called, and the player came up to us. ¡°Log out and have Harry check on our new best friend here! What is your name?¡± I was about to say Tallis and paused. He wanted my real-world name. It took me longer than it should have to reach for it in the depths of my memory. ¡°William. William Carden. William Lewis Carden.¡± Wow. That name seemed so distant to me. Grinder nodded, sat down in a chair in the corner, and logged out. That was one thing about the game. The player¡¯s body remained even if you logged out, so you needed to get to a safe place. ¡°So William, Bill, Will, Tallis? What do you prefer, mate?¡± Mad Dog asked. ¡°Tallis when we are in the game, I think.¡± I nodded as if affirming the name to him and myself. ¡°Well, Tallis, I bring a shit load of good news to you today! Your sheep, a devil to find what you wanted, but we got ¡®em all. They are just outside of town with a shepherd NPC we contracted to get them here. Cost us a good amount of coin, but we owe ya. Got your tailor as well. You were right. Took us a few stops in two cities, but we eventually found an NPC willing to relocate. She and her son are wandering around here somewhere.¡± Oh, man. I didn¡¯t have the heart to tell him I didn¡¯t need the sheep or the tailor anymore. ¡°Oh great!¡± I summoned some enthusiasm. ¡°We can get the mounts settled when you are ready. Just pay in the general store, and the grooms will let you know which ones you can select. Oh, and the town now has a portal stone.¡± I added with a smile. Mad Dog¡¯s jaw dropped. ¡°Oh, that could have saved us a shit load of time, but what is a few days between friends!¡± He clapped me on the shoulder. ¡°I have another favor to ask you and your crew, Mad Dog.¡± I was smiling and trying to do my best to seem friendly and not too anxious. ¡°What can we do for you?! We are way ahead of our goal of raising funds, mate. As long as it doesn¡¯t take more than a few days, we will be at your service!¡± He clapped me again on the back. You have been attacked. You take 1 damage. Do you wish to call in the town guard? Do you wish to blacklist the player Mad Dog from Malcum? The notification popped. The default setting for attacking in my village was blacklisting a player. Mad Dog lost 100 reputation from Malcum and was currently attack on site by the guards. ¡°Oh shit! Sorry about that!¡± I canceled the blacklist. ¡°Thanks, mate! Grew up with four brothers and didn¡¯t realize that could happen¡­well, I did. I just didn¡¯t think I would do any damage from a pat on your shoulder! So what do you need of us?¡± He was more subdued now after his faux pas. ¡°Well, I have a dungeon I was hoping to get escorted through. It is a pretty low level compared to your party. Also, I was hoping to get escorted to a city in order to activate a portal stone there. Also, if you could finish off the goblins in the forest¡­¡± His face didn¡¯t portray anything for a second before lighting up. ¡°Dungeon? You would be doing us a favor. Do you have the details on it?¡± He asked, restraining obvious excitement. I went and brought up the notification from when I found the dungeon. Entrance to Crypt of the Phoenix King, Level 20, Floors 5, *Scaling Dungeon* ¡°I have not been there in a while but concealed the entrance. Galana said the giantkin text on the entrance said it was the crypt of the Brighthall Clan. Its third king with his followers.¡± I relayed what I knew. Mad Dog snapped his attention to me. ¡°Fuck, mate. A frigging scaling dungeon. Is it in your backyard? Do you know what a scaling dungeon is?¡± He was getting more and more excited. I nodded. ¡°God damn scaling dungeon. You are just full of surprises. Do you know the reset time for it? I mean, after you clear the lowest floor?¡± I shook my head no. ¡°Yeah, when they reset, it is either seven game days or 30 game days. We can examine it after the first clear. The great thing is it should only go up a level in difficulty after each clear.¡± He started pacing. He faced me, ¡°Tallis, if this dungeon is as good as I think it could be¡­would it be ok if my guild, The Silver Linings Playbook, based operations in your village when the game launches? If we can control the dungeon, we should be able to level up the entire guild easily. I am guessing it is a five player dungeon. Most are, and you don¡¯t know until you enter. It would say raid dungeon if it was a raid dungeon, that would be for 50 players. And if it was a solo dungeon, it would say that as well. So what do you say, Tallis?¡± ¡°Sounds reasonable, but if this dungeon is as valuable as you say¡­¡± I trailed off. ¡°Oh, you want compensation?¡± He smirked. ¡°A man after my own heart! I don¡¯t know you well enough to bring you into the fold. Maybe after everyone starts playing and gets to know you. How about 10%...no that wouldn¡¯t be fair¡­25% of all dungeon loot. Sound good? We are doing all the work after all.¡± He had an expectant look on his. I could get 100% to myself, but I could only bring one NPC with me and Jaesmin. Apparently, Simba was no longer an option unless I paid¡­oh, I had some funds now but needed a bank account. His offer seemed fair, and if my impression of the guild was correct, they should be good company and add to Malcum¡¯s defense. ¡°Agreed,¡± I said. ¡°Excellent!¡± He was about to slap me on the back again but stopped his action. Just then, Grinder returned. ¡°Hey, Tallis.¡± He seemed reluctant to tell me what he had found out. ¡°I got some bad news, man. You are dead. Well, legally dead anyway.¡± Ah, fuck. This was not the news I was hoping for. Chapter 32 Grinding with Grinder Chapter 32: Grinding with Grinder I was dead? Did that mean my consciousness was all digital? If I was dead, why was I having a panic attack right now? I couldn¡¯t speak or move, and if I had a heart, it would beat faster than a snare drum solo. ¡°Mate, you alright?¡± Mad Dog asked. Grinder followed up, ¡°You still have a body. Just declared legally dead and in a coma with no brain activity. Our friends on the outside did a search. And damn, man, running into a burning building. We watched the video, and it was epic. Our hearts were wrenched when we saw you about to jump out the window and then fall through the floor. The firefighters arrived a few minutes later, foamed the building, and pulled you out. The puppy lived, by the way. Just some burns.¡± He paused, and his retelling gave me flashbacks to the incident. ¡°Yeah,¡± I huffed. ¡°I thought I was running in to save a kid. But all I found was the puppy, and I wasn¡¯t going to leave it behind. Glad the puppy lived,¡± next time, I will ask questions before going blindly in. I gazed off into the distance. When I seemed to recover, he continued with more bad news, ¡°So Tallis, your family terminated your life support.¡± I nodded, vaguely remembering it. ¡°But you refused to go quietly into that good night, man! We found a news story 19 years later about a company buying up coma patients under the new Corpus Eternium law, and you were listed there.¡± Wait¡­ what? I was in a coma for 19 years¡­that made me 39? 40? He continued as I was internally processing. ¡°That company built the technology for this game. They were mapping coma patients'' brains to create matrixes for micro AI. Those are little ping-pong-sized processors with flashing lights. Due to the restrictions on AI in world law, they could only use AI in robots and self-contained environments offline. This game allowed them to utilize their AI for potentially massive profit.¡± ¡°So I am alive somewhere in the real world and just brain dead?¡± That didn¡¯t make much sense, as I had memories. ¡°Uh, I didn¡¯t really understand the science. But about 30 years ago, it was discovered that brain activity was so slow in most coma patients that it was not detectable. So not really brain-dead, per se. Maybe brain deficient?¡± He chuckled. ¡°Your family and the hospital received quite the sum for your body, if that makes you feel any better?¡± Grinder added cheerfully. ¡°So, what do I do? Any advice?¡± I asked, currently at a loss as I was apparently property and not a person. ¡°I talked briefly with my friends on the outside, and we can hire you a lawyer with your funds to get you moved back to the realm of the living¡­at least on paper. Don¡¯t know how much it will cost, but a dead person can¡¯t have a bank account. If we opened an account for you, it would revert to your closest living relative.¡± Grinder finished. I didn¡¯t ask if my parents or two sisters were still alive. I was feeling a little bitter. Not only had they pulled the plug on me, but they also sold my body to science. ¡°Yeah,¡± I said with clear exhaustion in my voice. ¡°Find a lawyer to resurrect me.¡± ¡°Um, one more thing Tallis. This has happened before. And umm. Well, legally, the company that currently ¡®owns¡¯ your body has the right to retroactive compensation for caring for it. The last case placed that at $5 million per year¡­and it has been just under five years since they took possession of it.¡± Damn it! I was now 45 years old and in debt for $25 million? This was turning out to be a very bad day. ¡°What about inflation, I asked, hopefully?¡± Maybe $25 million was closer to $10.00 when I was alive. Mad Dog answered as Grinder looked confused at my question, ¡°Not much. International finance laws have locked inflation down. Once they eliminated all cryptocurrency, it hasn¡¯t been over 0.5% annually in decades. The banks screamed foul, but once the entire world accepted a single currency, it became easier to control. If I had to guess, since you went into your coma¡­maybe 70 to 80%, which is tiny for a 45-year span. I used to be a finance broker, but there was not much money in it, so I am a gamer now!¡± Well, shit. 70-80% meant I owed 14 to 15 million in terms of funds based on when I died. ¡°I need to go kill something,¡± I announced. ¡°Still interested in the dungeon?¡± The mood had been somber as we had talked. ¡°Fuck ya, mate! That¡¯s the spirit!¡± Mad Dog said. Black Beauty had joined us and finally finished with her potion purchases. We all went to the inn for a meal to get buffs. I changed into my adventuring gear. The meal we got from Fareth was her meat pie, which gave a 100% bonus to all pool regeneration for four hours. It tasted slightly different, even better than last time, so she must have altered the recipe slightly. ¡°So Tallis, let¡¯s review a few things. Have you been in a party before?¡± Mad Dog asked. I shook my head to the negative. ¡°Okay, I will send you a party invite.¡± The invite hit my notifications, and I accepted it. ¡°Good. The problem we will run into is the level difference. Experience is awarded based on damage dealt and level differential. The game mechanics prevent high-level characters from power-leveling lower levels. For you to get the experience, you will need to be 100 yards away from us. At that range, we cannot collect any experience for kills, so it will all revert to you.¡± Mad Dog lectured. ¡°Once you get within 20 levels of our highest party member, you will start getting a small percentage of party experience, and we can adventure together.¡± I was confused. ¡°How is this all going to work in the dungeon? I mean, keeping a hundred yards apart?¡± Grouping with other players was completely new to me. Grinder answered, ¡°Most dungeon levels are open land landscapes. At least that was our experience from the two we tried and what we have read on the wikis.¡± Grinder was on his third pie. Since I was paying, he was not holding back his appetite. ¡°What about my gear? Is it good enough?¡± I asked. Black Beauty studied me, ¡°Sorry, I have the highest analyze skill in the group, but I get that your gear descriptions are blocked. It says, You cannot analyze gear on the town¡¯s lord. Must be a game mechanic to protect you while in town.¡± ¡°Oh. I will drop them into a window so you can see them.¡± I spent a brief minute putting my item descriptions in a viewable window for them. ¡°This format is too hard to read. Here, look at this setting and show only these things. No need to show the durability to us, but set the alerts here so you know when you need to get repairs done. My alerts are set for when an item falls under 85%, 50%, and 10%.¡± Mad Dog worked with me to set a preset worn inventory page. I completed it and sent it to them again.
Ring 1
Ring 2 18 Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. Ivory Ring of Deep Magic, +8 Magic, +2% total magic pool increase
Body 8 Very Rare Heavy Leather Armor, -3 speed, +3 agility, +8 constitution
Arms 8 Very Rare Leather Bracers, +4 strength, +4 agility
Feet 8 Very Rare Leather Combat Boots, +4 speed, +4 agility
Legs 8 Very Rare Leather Greaves, +8 stamina, Defense Bonus 15
Misc 1 15 Black and White Leather Belt of Channeling, +15 channeling
Misc 2 20 Bracelet of the Kahn, +5 strength, +5 Constitution, +5 Skill to Leadership
Misc 3 11 Jeweled Trader¡¯s Brooch, +5 Charisma, +3% better selling prices
Hands
Head
Cloak 20 Unique Bear Cloak, Weight 20 lbs, +5 strength, +5 constitution, +5 stamina, +5 charisma
Weapon 0 Rare Steel Two-Handed Axe, Weight 6.8 lbs
¡°So those are your 13 slots. The number in the second column is the required level to utilize it. You can still equip those items; they just don¡¯t function. If you look in your interface, they should be red.¡± Oh yeah, and I was confused. Seeing my confusion, he answered. ¡°Updates¡­was about two weeks ago in the game. It added the level requirements for utilizing the equipment. Also, you will see you now only have three slots for miscellaneous items. It was unlimited before. I am sorry. I am just assuming you were not aware of this since you don¡¯t have all your slots filled?¡± ¡°Yes, I knew about only being able to equip two rings. But the rest¡­no. I am not very good at following updates.¡± I supplied with some embarrassment. ¡°No problem, mate. Following the updates is a frigging full-time job! We have our friends on the outside sifting the updates for us.¡± He laughed. ¡°Well, your gear is okay. No second ring? And if you go into your interface, you can shift the Kahn bracelet to your hand slot. A lot of miscellaneous items can be moved around to relevant slots to maximize your gear. Do you have another misc item? You can see it in the exploded description.¡± The group waited patiently as I figured things out. Being level 17 meant three pieces of my gear did not function. I had given away all my rings to people in the village or sold them. I had the Membership Signet Ring for Order of the Crimson Shard, Knight Rank. But there was no use wearing it. Yeah, this was my best gear. I looked at the others and smiled weakly. ¡°Yeah, this is the best stuff I got. Half of it doesn¡¯t even function because I am still level 17.¡± They all looked at me and dug into their packs without hesitation. Mad Dog said, ¡°We sold most of the gear we looted but when the game resets, we will not need any of this stuff. You don¡¯t realize how much you have already helped us out.¡± Soon, a pile of gear was on the table. ¡°We should be able to exchange this gear for giving us information about the new dungeon.¡± Ring of Ultimate Power, Strength +5 Lessor Void Ring of the Abyss, +5 Space Magic, +5 Intellect Wyvern Hide Leather Gloves, +5% poison resistance, +5 constitution Mask of Sullen God, +3 to all stats, all attempts to analyze you will fail ¡°That last one was a quest item when we started. It is a chain quest that we never finished, but the level requirement is only five, and it has a decent boost for all stats. Not sure if you can pick up the quest, but we will not be returning to that area, so it is yours. I am sorry, but most of our gear is for level 30+. This is the best we could do with items we had not sold...the item descriptions¡­well, they were more apropos when we got them.¡± ¡°No, this is fantastic!¡± I squeaked in joy at their generosity. The mask was the highlight of the set. It was a plain white oval with two eye slits. I picked it up and was offered a quest. Release the Sullen God, Travel to the city of Thira, and meet with the Priestess of the Sullen God ¡°I got the quest,¡± I shared it with them. ¡°Yep, that is where we left off. Thira is on an island some 20,000 miles from here. Also, you need to search the city for the Priestess, and she is in hiding. We found out that the Sullen God was exiled by her brethren. Releasing her will cause some discord in the pantheon. The quest is epic. You can see that in your interface here.¡± He pointed it out. ¡°We did the first two segments but knew it was going to take too long to travel to Thira. Also, when the game reboots, we will lose the mask anyway.¡± They all nodded at this. I put the mask on, and another prompt struck me. Do you wish to bind your faith to the Sullen God? ¡°What does this mean about binding my faith to the Sullen God?¡± I asked, a little worried. ¡°Oh, you can only worship one deity in the game. So far, all we can tell is that means you get a discount at their temples and some bonus quests here and there. None of us have done that. We are all too free of spirit to worship a deity, even in a game!¡± They laughed at some joke I was not privy to. I chose ¡®no¡¯ and left the mask on. ¡°So let''s go to the dungeon. Our buff is only good for another 3 hours and 40 minutes.¡± Grinder spoke through a mouthful of food, ¡°Just eat more and reset the buff.¡± We all looked at each other, shrugged, and shared another meat pie. We all got mounts from the stables, and they paid the discounted price I had promised. Curraen even had saddles in the general store for them to buy. The ride only took fifteen minutes. We cleared off the dirt and removed the large stone. You have unsealed the tomb of the Phoenix King, you may slay him, but he will always return more powerful! Mad Dog was giddy after reading his interface. Stairs leading down to a murky darkness now stood where the stone had been. We all descended as a group. It was like a flash as the blackness turned bright. We were on a white frozen expanse. ¡°Thank God the environmental effects are not active yet!¡± Grinder muttered. You could still feel the cold, but you could ignore it. ¡°Where do we go?¡± I asked, looking around in circles. Every direction looked the same. Rolling white¡­nope, one direction had a white mountain in the distance. ¡°Yep,¡± Mad Dog said. ¡°Every dungeon boss¡¯s lair is usually easy to find on the current level. We will take a day or two to walk there. Fighting the mobs as we go. Most likely, this floor¡¯s boss has a castle, cave, or something at the top of that mountain. To leave the dungeon, just go to your interface and select the exit command. If you disband from the party, it will also kick you out since I am the party leader. If I quit the party, everyone but me would be forced to leave. It means as a party leader, I have a lot of power.¡± Black Beauty rolled her eyes. Grinder interrupted, ¡°If the party leader disbands the party, the forced exit takes 60 seconds. So he can not steal all the loot after a boss is killed.¡± Mad Dog tried to look innocent, but they all laughed, so I joined them in the joke, which I didn¡¯t really understand. We walked for a short while, and a crystalline fox sprang at us. Ice Elemental Fox, Level 20 Black Beauty had slip-stepped behind it before I could cast my stone bullet spell and killed it with a dual dagger strike. And yep, no experience for me. Grinder went and searched the fox. ¡°Lessor Ice Essence. Not bad for just a level 20 mob in a dungeon.¡± He spoke to me, ¡°It can be used in alchemy and enchanting. Worth about a gold right now in the auction houses.¡± It¡¯s not a bad place to grind money if they all drop one. We traveled and killed nine more foxes. We harvested five more lessor ice essences. Mad Dog said the drop rate was probably 50%. Since this was the only apparent mob, he told me the next one was all mine. Excited, I went in front, and when it manifested from a snow drift, I started on my spell, only for it to hit me and interrupt the casting. You have been hit for 98 damage, a slow buff has been added; -5 speed for 60 seconds I switched to my axe and exchanged blows with the fast fox elemental. When I was at 60% health, the beast finally died. I looked over at my companions, and they nodded. It wasn¡¯t pretty, but I won. I still didn¡¯t get any experience. ¡°Okay, Tallis, if you want to use your spells, you need to see the enemy sooner. I think you will be okay on your own. We will walk parallel to the mountain about 150 yards apart. We are going to zig-zag to get more kills, but you should go straight at the mountain. If you bite off more than you can chew just beeline it for us and bring the train to Daddy.¡± Mad Dog said. Grinder jumped in a place like a little kid and screamed, ¡°Time to GRIND!¡± The other two just shook their head at his antics. They were shocked when I screamed, ¡°Time to GRIND!¡± Echoing Grinder¡¯s call. Chapter 33 The Daily Grind Chapter 33: The Daily Grind Even with the trio zig-zagging, they quickly outpaced the mountain in the distance. I was having a hell of a time. This was much more difficult than attacking from the back of Titan. On Titan¡¯s back, I could outpace the monsters and cast my spells. Unfortunately, mounts were not allowed in dungeons. At least not this dungeon, anyway. I didn¡¯t like getting hit. The ice elemental foxes had four attacks. Bite with their mouth, claw with their feet, a leap combo of the bite and claw, and finally, their magic attack they launched with a swoosh of their tail. The magic attack was a frost wave that slowed you down with a debuff. The worst part of this entire grind session was the experience. I had been killing many higher-level scorpions in bunches from atop Titan for a decent amount of experience. Now, these ice foxes were barely gave me anything. I was so close to level 18, though. I was on my 15th fox when Grinder came over to me. ¡°Hey, Tallis, I just wanted to let you know to be careful of the elite foxes. We just started encountering them. Two normal ice foxes are flanking a larger ice fox. The larger ice fox has a quick step ability to get behind you quickly and then focuses a stronger frost wave at your back.¡± Grinder patted me on the back and said I was doing great. It was 19 foxes later that I finally hit level 18. I figured I had been killing about six ice foxes an hour. I had 16 ice essences. If Mad Dog was right, I made about three gold an hour! In my excitement, I didn¡¯t realize that I accidentally encountered one of the elite trios Grinder had mentioned. After losing half of my health, I sprinted toward the trio, screaming for help. I didn¡¯t want to lose my skill progress by dying. They noticed me and quickly diverted to help. I was down to 20% of my health when arrows and fire strikes drew the foxes off of me. They quickly dispatched the foxes, and I breathed a sigh of relief. ¡°Maybe you should bring one of your NPCs here with you, Tallis? You can bring one to a dungeon, right? One that is close to your level,¡± Black Beauty said. That made too much sense. I thought I wouldn¡¯t need any help with the three powerful players, but I was definitely struggling. ¡°Yeah, maybe. Except they all out-level me by a large margin. Jaesmin is level 11, and I don¡¯t want to risk having her in here unless I knew she was safe,¡± I said morosely. ¡°Well, let¡¯s go back to where you encountered the elite fox. They seem to be guarding a frost lotus, and sometimes there is a small treasure cache as well,¡± Mad Dog said with some cheer. He tossed me two more ice essences from the foxes I brought to them. Just as Mad Dog had said, there was a frost lotus and a small chest buried in the snow. The chest contained a white fang dagger that gave +3 to strength and slowed a target for 2 seconds with a -20 penalty to speed. Mad Dog said that it was not a bad weapon for a thief specialist under level 20. They gave me all the loot, and I tagged the dagger to be added to the general store. The lotus was for alchemy, and Black Beauty said a fire lotus went for about three gold, so she guessed that is what these were worth. I heard my piggy bank filling up¡­maybe this dungeon could support the town? The biggest negative the group informed me about was that the foxes were not harvestable. Some dungeon critters were, but these were not. So, no pelts, claws, or fangs. We returned to our grinding session, and I am much more careful now. Whenever I found the trio of foxes, I brought them over to the group. Time passed, and soon they reached the base of the mountain. It took a lot longer to get there, but they waited patiently. Somehow, nearly a whole day had passed in the game. I had a sizable amount of loot: 63 ice essences, six frost lotuses, and three minor magical items tagged to be added to the general store for sale. The mountain had a large double door. Mad Dog said the doors would probably open once we entered the range, and the floor¡¯s boss would emerge. I was told to stand back and just watch. I did as instructed, and the doors opened. Out came a massive white fox being ridden by a giantkin. He spoke, ¡°You have entered the tomb of the Eternal Phoenix King! I am his second son, Balomore. To progress further, you must defeat me!¡± He charged on his fox toward Grinder, who I could swear was smiling in anticipation. I would like to say it was an epic battle, but Balomore was greatly outclassed. He lasted about 7 minutes under their onslaught. To my shock, I got a new accolade.
Dungeon Delver 1 +1 to all stats Be the first to beat a dungeon¡¯s level boss, next tier at 5 victories
Mad Dog smiled as he obviously got the accolade as well. They approached me. ¡°So Tallis, this kind of changes things. This dungeon has five levels, which means there are four more first-time bosses on the levels below¡­¡± He paused, waiting for me to pick up something. I didn¡¯t. ¡°So Tallis, what Mad Dog is trying to say is that new dungeons are very hard to find. This accolade is going to be near impossible to achieve when the game launches with all the players running around doing first clear of the dungeons. Would you be ok with saving this dungeon for us¡­for when we truly start the game?¡± Black Beauty finished for Mad Dog. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Oh, I hadn¡¯t thought about it. I had been hoping to use the dungeon to farm gold for my town. ¡°Will the first-level boss respawn? Can we keep killing it?¡± I asked hopefully. ¡°Not on a dungeon scaling dungeon like this. The monsters leading to this mountain should respawn. At least, I think so. Next time you enter, you will be asked which floor you want to start on¡­so you can skip the snowscape with foxes. But the boss will be gone.¡± He was trying to read me, and I was thinking. Mad Dog made a decision, ¡°If you hold this dungeon for us, then we will run you through it. And we will give you all the loot for the first clear.¡± Grinder¡¯s eyebrow arched at this. This was essentially my dungeon, anyway. ¡°Can we clear the second level up to the boss?¡± I asked as I was thinking. ¡°Sure, mate!¡± Mad Dog said. ¡°And I want some favors from you as well. I would like you to clear the forest of the clan of Darkskull goblins. And bring me information from the outside on request. Are you thinking of basing your clan in Malcum when the game launches?¡± I asked. Mad Dog had nodded at my requests until the last one. He spoke, ¡°Yes, I think it would be a good place to start. We should be able to level up to around level 30 in your village, depending on how beneficial this dungeon is after. Over half of our players are professional gamers, so they need to generate revenue from playing. If we think we can do better elsewhere, then I am sorry, but we will have to move on.¡± That all made sense to me and was very reasonable. ¡°Agreed,¡± I said, and we shook on it. They handed over 126 ice essences, nine frost lotuses, and four items. The four items were an enchanter¡¯s recipe for an ice blade, a potion recipe for an ice nova grenade, white ice elemental gloves, and a staff of warmth. The gloves and staff helped players fend off the negative effects of cold weather. The detrimental effects of environments still hadn¡¯t been added to the game, but this was a clear sign that it was going to happen, probably sooner rather than later. ¡°Hey, Mate. We each keep an item to protect us from the cold. They should only be worth a gold or two. But you should go and check out the boss¡¯s loot chest. Should be inside the doors¡­¡± He smiled as my eyes lit up. The treasure for the floor boss! I had forgotten about that. I raced inside to find a large chamber and spiral stairs on the outside leading up. In the center of the chamber was a large chest. I heard Mad Dog behind me, ¡°It was whispered on the forums that the first clear of floor bosses usually granted something useful to the person who opened the chest. We haven¡¯t been able to confirm that rumor, so have a go at it, mate!¡± The chest was a golden oak color with black steel bands. The clasp had a rusty lock on it. I touched the lock, and it dissolved. Mad Dog said, ¡°Yeah, the lock remains until the boss is defeated and the chest is immovable, mate. Prevents players from running off with the treasure unless they defeat the boss.¡± I opened the lid. Inside was a bed of coins with a single scroll on it. I counted the coins, holding back my excitement for the scroll. ¡°68 gold coins,¡± I told the group now standing around me. Grinder spoke, ¡°What is the fucking scroll, man. Don¡¯t keep us waiting! I am guessing a spell.¡± I looked at them and unrolled the scroll. Rare Guard House Plans, Health 120,000 Requires Masonry 43, Woodcraft Structures 23 (Bonus: Houses 12 City Guards, Spawn Rate of 1 Guard per day) Grinder spoke after seeing the plans, ¡°Oh, that is a good item. Goes for around 1000 gold in the auction house. It will probably be worth a lot more once the player guilds start building their own cities. I think it has an upkeep cost, though. Once you build, it should show. I think the guards are also not NPCs. They are more like monster mobs. You should probably build it next to your portal stone. I mean, that is what I would do.¡± He finished and backed out of the conversation. Mad Dog continued, ¡°Yeah, that is a really good item, Tallis. But Grinder is way off on the price ¡­since it is rare, I think it would be worth over 20,000 gold. If you sold it to a person in the real world, they would pay at least $20,000 for it. Gold is roughly equal to one dollar, so it is 20,000 gold. If you hold on to it, we can sell it to you once the game launches.¡± The trio looked relaxed and not about to steal the plans. This was obviously a very valuable item. As no one spoke, Black Beauty added her input, ¡°I think it was in this level 20 dungeon because of the small number of guards it spawns. And it has a slow spawn rate. If your guards get wiped, they will take almost two weeks to return to strength. I am guessing the level of guards isn¡¯t too impressive, either. Still, it is a good item for keeping order in your village. There are dungeon rewards that can upgrade structures as well.¡± She added. What? ¡°Can those dungeon rewards upgrade any structure?¡± I asked with some hope of reclaiming my legendary library. ¡°It is just a smattering of posts on the free wikis. I think yes, but the enhancements are small. It might increase the guard¡¯s level by five or maybe the number of guards by a few, for example. Since these are not true NPCs, I don¡¯t think they can level them.¡± She finished. I was ok with it. Any defensive help was welcome. ¡°Thank you all for this. Do you want to try our hand at the next level?¡± I asked hopefully. Unfortunately, the next level was the spiral staircase going up the mountain¡¯s interior. It made it difficult to keep 100 yards apart. Stone elementals emerged from the walls every few hundred steps as you ascended. The spiral staircase was wide, over fifty feet. After killing seven of the stone elementals, we stopped and returned to the bottom. I had no way to kill them efficiently, as my stone spells did minimal damage. They also dropped stone essences, and I got three from the group. We decided to go hunt the ice foxes and confirm that they respawned. I was on my seven ice fox when I got hit with a message on my screen. Your Settlement of Malcum is Under Attack! Gwen Hallo has been killed by Hellspawn What! I yelled for the group and told them what was going on. Mad Dog showed me how to exit the dungeon quickly. ¡°Fucking Hellspawn!¡± Grinder mumbled. ¡°That asshole has been killing NPCs all over the place. At first, you could loot all an NPCs wealth, which made some sense for his actions. The admins changed that NPCs only dropped one piece of loot now, so his bloodthirsty actions make no sense.¡± We mounted and rode toward town at the best possible speed. Grinder continued as we rode, ¡°That nitwit was killing quest NPCs so other players couldn¡¯t turn in quests, too. He is one of the biggest assholes out here. Don¡¯t know how he found your tiny village, though. This world is massive¡­¡± Something in my mind triggered. ¡°Hellspawn? I think he attacked my Master Leatherworker Curraen and their family on their journey to my village.¡± Hellspawn has been defeated by Tanguin The message popped up, and I relaxed. I told the others, but they said we didn¡¯t know where his respawn site was, so we should still rush back. I nodded and went to see what damage this player had done to my town. Chapter 34 Dealing with Loss Chapter 34: Dealing with Loss We rode into Malcum, searching for the disturbance. It was easy to find as the townsfolk gathered near the general store. We dismounted, and Curraen was the one who spoke, ¡°Lord Tallis¡­A player has slain Gwen.¡± He held his head low. Tanguin and Galana appeared, and Galana said, ¡°Lord Tallis, I am sorry I failed you. The player Hellspawn entered the town and was shopping in the general store. Savannah, the elf child, identified him as a player who attacked her family on the road and killed her dog. Gwen asked him to leave¡­he quickly got angry and killed her.¡± There was a somber mood around the body. Gwen had been the older woman who was the leader of the town when I arrived. She had given me the task of winning favor with the townsfolk, which led to her handing over control of the small village to me. Galana hadn¡¯t failed me, I had failed the town. Gwen couldn¡¯t be resurrected. The game didn¡¯t work that way. I could have resurrected her for a price if she had been a companion. Some townsfolk took the body away. I was informed she would be left on her bed in her house. Her body would disappear after 24 hours. Grinder said that in the game looting mechanic for NPCs, you had 24 hours to claim items that dropped, mostly for quest items. I shook it off, Gwen had a personality, she was more than an NPC to me. I needed to figure out how to protect my villagers from the monsters and players. I had been stupid. I figured players would want to take over my village eventually, but I thought I had a lot of time until the game launch. I could have recruited powerful NPCs to guard my village like other players in the NPC auction house¡­I already had a few, but they were unable to stop this tragedy. I told the townsfolk there would be a celebration at the inn to honor Gwen and her life. Jaesmin came to me and gave me a reassuring hug. Mad Dog and his crew went to the inn, and I followed shortly afterward. I had hung back as I worked my town management screen to mark the player Hellspawn as KOS, which meant kill on site. I also planned to build my new guard house. It required stone, lumber, and 12 soul gems filled with tier-three creature essences. I joined the celebration at the inn as townsfolk retold stories of Gwen¡¯s generosity and leadership. Mad Dog and his crew couldn¡¯t believe how realistic everything seemed. They still just saw these NPCs as computer code. If you really thought about that, all humans were as well¡­a brain full of stored memories and emotional tendencies. I sighed and contributed with my own retelling of how I met Gwen and what she did for me when I arrived in Malcum, and we all toasted. The memories flowed well into the night with the ale. I don¡¯t remember how I got home, but I woke up the next day next to Jaesmin. She looked me in the eyes. ¡°Death is not the end, Tallis. This village has seen more than its fair share of it, but those who live there must make their best effort. Remember those lost, but do not despair.¡± I sighed, still depressed at my failure. ¡°I see it on your face, Tallis. This is not your fault.¡± I looked into her eyes; they seemed wise beyond the years of a woman still in her late teens. ¡°Thank you. I plan to do everything I can to protect you and Malcum going forward. I thought I was doing well, but trouble found us, and I will again. I need to become stronger¡­I need to make the town stronger.¡± I pulled out the guard house plans and took them to the inn to find Mad Dog. I was hoping he could get me my twelve tier three soul gems. They were eating breakfast and getting buffs before heading to go goblin hunting. ¡°Tier 3 soul gems? I have seen a few on the auction site, but they cost quite a few coins¡­maybe 50 gold each? And I don¡¯t know if there will be 12 available.¡± Mad Dog said while stuffing a cheesy souffl¨¦ into his mouth. ¡°Can I give you all the essences we collected to sell in the city? I don¡¯t feel right traveling to establish my portal stone connections when I needed to defend Malcum¡¯s cittizens. I think I can give you six platinum coins for the soul gems, too.¡± I said hopefully. They had just purchased their horses, so most of the coins I was giving them were from that sale. ¡°Sure! We can do that for you. We were going to head back after a day in the forest to resupply and sell loot, mate,¡± Mad Dog said with a smile. ¡°If you think of anything else you need, let us know.¡± They all got up to leave. ¡°Auction house plans,¡± I said. ¡°I have a trader getting them for me, but just in case he doesn¡¯t find them. You can pick up seven platinum coins from the general store when you leave for them.¡± I paused for a second, considering. ¡°Are building plans selling on the auction house for players?¡± It hadn¡¯t occurred to me because I thought I was the only player constructing buildings. Also, the plans dissolved after I used them. But all I would need to do is redraft them, which would take just a few hours of work, depending on their complexity. Black Beauty shrugged, ¡°Not that I recall.¡± ¡°Great, I will spend the day working on preparing some plans for you to post on the player auction site, but can you do it anonymously?¡± ¡°No problem, mate. See you in a few hours!¡± He turned and left with his group. I went and got Sanso and Jaesmin. I wanted them to do all the site prep work for the guard house. I decided to follow the advice and put it next to my portal stone. That way, if something or someone portaled in, they could respond quickly. I wasn¡¯t sure if the material quality would play a role in the effectiveness of the building, so I asked Sanso for his best stone. I retreated to my house and looked over my plans. I guessed I had about 8 hours before Mad Dog and company returned. The drafting time for the leatherworks and smithy, both rare buildings, was 4 hours each to recreate the plans. The alchemy shop was very rare and would take 6 hours. The Epic Grand Library showed 144 hours to recreate the plans! So, I was not going to be redrafting the plans for that building anytime soon. I decided to go with reproducing plans for just the leatherworks and the smithy and see how well they sold. Rare Tannery/Leatherworks, Health 50,000, Requires Masonry: Structures 43, Woodcraft Carpentry 23 (Bonus 33% chance to increase tanned hide quality, +5 defense bonus to leather crafted armor, 1% chance to increase rarity of crafted armor) This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. Rare Blacksmith, Health 90,000, Requires Masonry: Structures 23, Woodcraft Carpentry 23 (Bonus 5% chance to upgrade smelted ore quality, +4 to Forging skills, +25% to forged item durability) I worked steadily and had the plans ready in just under eight hours. I thought the blacksmith was by far the superior building. I took the plans and went to get some food at the inn as my satiety bar was dangerously low. Fareth waved me into the back kitchen. Oh, my Lord! The smells back here were heavenly. ¡°Lord Tallis! Things are going well. Those adventurers you brought here are a literal gold mine! That large demonkin eats four or five meals in a single sitting, a real glutton. I wanted to ask you if you could quickly increase the town population,¡± the gnome looked distracted. ¡°You see, Lord Tallis, I have been cooking non-stop, but over half of my food goes to waste. I will prepare my epic dish for you if you can get the town¡¯s population over 500 in the next 90 days. I brought enough ingredients to make it once.¡± She relaxed and looked at me. ¡°Epic dish? I don¡¯t know what that means, but I think we should be able to reach that goal. We have over two hundred soldiers coming to man the new barracks in a few weeks.¡± My response caused the gnome to nod furiously in satisfaction. ¡°When a chef reaches the grand master rank, we are able to make our own epic dish. It functions similarly to an elixir that alchemists can make. The difference is there is no one-year cool-down like an elixir. But you can only benefit from an epic dish once, and each grand master has only one epic dish. My epic dish is spicy mushroom chili. It gives a +5 boost to your charisma permanently¡­but you need to eat an entire bowl¡­not an easy feat.¡± She chuckled to herself. ¡°If you give me a list of the ingredients¡­¡± I started before the gnome visage clouded. ¡°Lord Tallis, are you trying to steal my epic recipe? If you are not going to become my apprentice, don¡¯t ask again!¡± She softened as a shock at the outburst had me recoiling. ¡°No harm, Lord. Grandmaster chefs guard epic recipes that are only passed down to apprentices. Apprentices can¡¯t create the permanency of the effect but can still cook it, and it helps them progress more quickly in their cooking skills,¡± I apologized and backed out of the back room. So Fareth wanted to be kept busy cooking, and she wanted people to enjoy her food. It wasn¡¯t a terrible quest¡­and yes, I did have a quest offered, so I accepted it. Five hundred village population shouldn¡¯t be too hard. I got a quick meal from the waitress and rushed to the general store. I needed to catch Mad Dog before he left. Mad Dog and crew were walking toward me as I approached. Of course, they were headed to the portal stone! I fell in step with them and handed over the two plans I had drafted for them to test the market. I wasn¡¯t expecting to get too much. There were just not a lot of players, and those who were playing probably didn¡¯t need the plans or couldn¡¯t afford to pay a high price for them. Black Beauty said she would shop the plans around the NPC shops before placing them on the auction site for players. ¡°Before we go, Tallis, the in-game communication system will be live tomorrow if the devs don¡¯t fuck it up. If you set us to friend status, we should be able to communicate through the texting feature. We made good progress in the forest, with 59 goblins slain and four being magic wielders. We will need a few days to draw groups away from their village and whittle down their strength. We think they repopulate around ten goblins every day.¡± Mad Dog gave me the intel. He transferred their explored maps to me. This was a huge measure of trust, in my opinion. I got their explored areas of the forest and every place they had explored in the world. Looking at the map, I was shocked at how expansive the world was. This party found seven large cities and 68 smaller cities/towns. Unfortunately, my little Malcum didn¡¯t even register as a town on their map¡­maybe after I completed my town hall. We said our goodbyes, and they expected to return in two days as they needed to log off and rest. Jaesmin and Sanso were nearby, and I started working with them on the guard house. It was just a simple two-story building that was not overly large, just 30 feet square. I made some improvements to the aesthetics of the building, but it didn¡¯t alter the plans for good or for the ill. We finished late into the evening, and I bought dinner for them at the inn. The inn was even more lively, with over fifty townsfolk tonight. As I sipped my ale, I reviewed my interface and building plans. My skills were first. I had four skill points remaining to be allocated. I looked at my masonry and its sub-skills.
Masonry 39
Masonry: Foundations 34
Masonry: Structures 38
So close! I used all my skill points, adding two to masonry and two to Masonry Structures. If I could make level 19 and work my masonry structures skill up to one level, I could finally complete the town hall! This was amazing¡­so many projects would fall into place. I checked my build projects currently ongoing: Rare Blacksmith, Health 90,000, Requires Masonry: Structures 23, Woodcraft Carpentry 23 (Bonus 5% chance to upgrade smelted ore quality, +4 to Forging skills, +25% to forged item durability) Uncommon stone brewery warehouse, 75,000 health, requires masonry 23, masonry structures 23 and woodcraft 23, (bonus +11 to brewery skill) Rare City Hall, Health 80,000, Requires Masonry Foundations 23, Masonry Structures 43 (Bonus +12% to City Population Morale, +2% Tax Revenue) Rare Guard House Plans, Health 120,000 Requires Masonry 43, Woodcraft Structures 23 (Bonus: Houses 12 City Guards, Spawn Rate of 1 Guard per day) I also had notes to design some civilian housing structures, a wood craftsman shop, a dedicated bakery building, a new defensive tower emplacement to be placed at intervals in the town¡¯s walls, and a small tavern downtown. The last was a request from Zion. He wanted someplace close to his barber salon so he could drink during the day. It was low on my priority list, but since he was over level 100, I wanted to keep him as happy as possible. I thought we could finish the brewery in the morning. Then, I could spend my afternoon with Titan, trying to get to level 19. With any luck, I will get my masonry structures to level 43 tomorrow! Not likely, but possible! I needed to break out of this depression from losing Gwen. It was worse than the after-effects of the orc attack. Jaesmin took my hand and said it was time to go home. We walked the streets, and I thought we should add some street lighting. I told Jaesmin to look into it with Sanso. He could make some fancy stone light posts, and there had to be some magic spell or enchantment to light them at night. Jaesmin said I should decide who should replace Gwen as the Master of Guilds. I stopped walking and looked at her. She explained how important the position was in town¡­Gwen had made it an important position. She was the glue that brought everyone together and worked toward a common objective. I felt a little taken aback, but her statement¡­isn¡¯t that what I was doing? Seeing me upset, she calmed me. ¡°Tallis, you are the one who provides what Malcum needs¡­but you are mostly absent from running the day-to-day operations. Gwen managed and met with all the important people in town every day. You should probably select one of the guild masters for the position.¡± I opened the tab and looked at it. Gwen¡¯s name was shown in red. The pain hit me again. I gathered myself. So, which of the guild masters should I promote? I studied the town list for a few minutes and then smirked evilly. I moved a name into the position of Master of Guilds and kept walking. Jaesmin paused as I walked and then sounded flustered as she screamed at me. ¡°Tallis! I¡¯m too young and inexperienced to be the Master of Guilds!¡± Chapter 35 The Brewery Chapter 35: The Brewery That evening, I started working on some brownstone-style houses for the townsfolk. Jaesmin stayed up with me for quite a while, giving me an ear full. She didn¡¯t want the responsibility! She was too young and too inexperienced! After a while, I told her to go and talk with Kytalia tomorrow. Kytalia was the wife of the Kahn of the orcs, and she should have had a good management style. Kytalia had been my second choice to be Master of Guilds, but the fact was I just didn¡¯t know her well enough. After my first draft was finished, I reviewed the plans. Rare Apartment Building, Requires Masonry 23, Masonry Structures 23 (Bonus Morale +5% if all apartments are filled, +10% recovery to stamina) The three-story structure housed a family on each floor. It wasn¡¯t overly impressive, but I drew a lot from my past life and thought I would get better bonuses. I delved into town morale in my interface. It ranged from -500% to +500%. It had effects on village productivity and revenue, as well as attracting new inhabitants. Wait¡­each brownstone apartment building gave +5% to morale¡­could I build 100 of them and get my morale to 500%? Maybe this was a cheat the admins hadn¡¯t discovered yet. Best not to tell Simba¡­I actually missed the little feline and hoped to see him again soon. My current morale was 165%. Some quick checks, and I found I had lost 20% with the death of Gwen. I went upstairs and tucked myself in next to Jaesmin. I had been hoping for a little sex, but she was still upset with me for promoting her to Master of Guilds. I just lay there and paged through my screens. I guess I could spend some time reviewing game updates till morning. I found two interesting things in the updates. Both items are related to town management. The first item was the announcement that the final sensory input stage would coincide with NPC¡¯s complete bodily functionality. Basically, the NPCs would need to eat, poop, and piss. Thankfully, I already had a semi-completed sewer system. A player could change their individual sensory settings to full or muffled. But even in the muffled setting, they would still receive debuff effects. As for the need to shit and piss for players, the update was listed as pending. I had 11 days before this massive new update hit ¨C Day 114 of my day in the game, as today was Day 103. I had really been in the VR for 103 relative days. The game launch was on Day 181. I definitely hadn¡¯t made enough progress. I had 77 days to build the town into something that could withstand the player migration to the game. The second interesting update I found useful was the diplomacy tab¡¯s streamlining. It had been very confusing; all I had was a simple trade agreement with Barrista, an NPC town 15 miles south. Now, I had three tabs: one for just trade agreements, one for faction relations, and one for diplomacy. Under the faction relation, I had three listed.
Relationship Type
Barrista 56 Town
Stillwater -5 City
Cleardusk Orcs -29 Clan
Relationships ranged from -100 to 100. At -100, the population center, kingdom, or clan was likely to treat you as hostile on site. At positive 100, you were considered an ally, and they would aid you if requested. It was very basic, and the notes on the update said the interface would evolve with time. The programmers were just rushing to put structure for game mechanics in place. Mad Dog had mentioned investors were pressuring them to launch the game. All this tweaking of the game did make it better, but even in its current state, it would be a worldwide phenomenon. When morning finally came, I went with Sanso and Jaesmin to the brewery site. Manto was counting the days the brewery would start to produce ale. He had been hard at work creating weather patterns over the crops to increase yields. Our build took most of the day to finish, much longer than expected, but the final building made it worth it. Uncommon stone brewery warehouse, 145,000 health, bonus +11 to brewery skill I didn¡¯t get the +12 to the brewery, but +11 was still a massive boon. I checked my NPC auction and found an expert brewer still there. No one had outbid me on my other NPCs, either. Once I finished the town hall, I should get two more bids in the NPC auction. I checked and didn¡¯t get any new levels to my masonry skills. Jaesmin spoke, ¡°Well, Tallis, I have about a thousand things to do today. I don¡¯t think I can build anymore.¡± Her tone was irritable. With her new role as Master of Guilds, she planned to talk with each guild master every day. She even planned to talk with the shipwright, alchemist, and enchanter today. Kytalia, as I had suggested, would join her. She told me outright that she planned to add all three guilds. I think she wanted me to object and then throw a hissy fit, but I just said that was a fantastic idea. It only got her more angry, and she stormed off. I understood virtual women about as well as I had understood real women. Sanso tried to explain, ¡°Lord Tallis, you have put her in a role for which she is not suited. All of her skills are related to building. She has no free skill slots, so she can not grow into the role.¡± Oh, I hadn¡¯t thought of that. ¡°Who should I appoint then?¡± I asked, seeking advice. ¡°I do not know. Your village doesn¡¯t have a large population¡­you may have acted too rashly in naming a Master of Guilds. Gwen did a marvelous job, but your village didn¡¯t need it. Maybe if you had ten or more guild masters¡­ I am sorry I overstep. I am not well versed in administration.¡± He held up his hands and stepped back. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°No, thank you, Sanso. Never be afraid to offer advice. I think you should work on the sewers today.¡± I said, and I was about to head out with Titan. ¡°The sewers are mostly completed for all the buildings in town. The main outlet still needs Persephone¡¯s enchanting work. That waste sluice to the river needs the water purification enchantments.¡± Sanso said. ¡°I had planned to spend my day making copper coins for the village. My golems have been mining a large surplus.¡± I nodded, thanked him, and Sanso retreated to his tower, which was two miles to the north. Sanso really was a godsend. He was by far the most compliant NPC I had interacted with in the game. The elvish sisters saddled up Titan, and I was off to spend my evening grinding scorpions. I made the best speed to the Azul desert to hunt. There was a monster update. They no longer chased me endlessly while I cast my spells. They just returned to their starting location once they were about 100 yards from it. It meant I needed to do smaller circles, and I could not get as large packs of the scorpions as I grinded from Titan¡¯s back. When the sun was setting, I was 70% of the way to level 19. I hadn¡¯t harvested as much today from the scorpions as I was hoping to rack up the kills to level. At least I was certain that tomorrow I could achieve level 19. When I returned home, I found Jaesmin buried in paperwork. She gave me an unhappy look. I was probably losing points with her and needed to make a change. I sat next to her and put my arm around her. ¡°Jaesmin, this job is only temporary. Just eight more days, and I will have a replacement for you.¡± A hopeful look in her eyes sparked, and I kissed her. I didn¡¯t want to use one of the two slots I would gain in the NPC auction house on an NPC for the position, but it was obviously necessary. Jaesmin gave me an amazing reward that evening in our bedroom. As we were laying together after the passionate sex, she started to tell me about how miserable her day had been. Numerous requests for buildings, village funds for research, and requests for pay raises went on and on. Just listening to her made me want to shoot myself. Eventually, I quieted her by kissing her and snuggling her to sleep. The next morning, Mad Dag and company returned. It was no surprise I found them eating in the inn. I told them about the updates for NPCs and the sewer system. I was a bit smug as none of them had read that updated information yet. I finally knew something they didn¡¯t. ¡°Tallis, we got your soul gems but couldn¡¯t find auction house plans. The gems cost a bit more than planned, but the sale of your loot and plans covered it,¡± he said as he shoved a mouthful of spicy chicken and rice into his mouth. After swallowing, he continued, ¡°Your plans went for 128 gold and 152 gold,¡± he said nonchalantly. He smiled when my reaction was a look of stunned bewilderment. Grinder said, ¡°Yeah, the building buffs on your plans were better than those found from dungeon rewards. Only common plans can currently be found in city shops. So right now, you can sell your plans for what the market will bear. Only three parties were bidding on your plans, so you can probably sell at least two more plans for each. Once the game launches, you will be in an ideal position to earn thousands of gold! That is, until the player population catches up to you with their drafting skills. Also, we expect the higher level dungeons will also have exceptional building plans.¡± He nodded over to Black Beauty to continue. She said, ¡°We had our friends start getting you legally alive again. It is not going to be simple. It is going to cost more than $100,000 you have. Probably two to three times as much. Lawyers are sharks,¡± she muttered. ¡°Well, the paperwork is being prepared anyway. The firm we are paying wants full payment before acting though, $250,000.¡± She said with sadness on her face. ¡°They said additional fees would be around $20,000 but may be higher¡­¡± So I needed to make another $200,000 just to get my rights to my body back? And then I had to pay millions of dollars on top of that to pay back the company for keeping me alive? Now, I know what it felt like to be under an avalanche of debt. Mad Dog broke my consternation, ¡°I suggest stockpiling your building plans, Tallis. When the big dogs join the game, you should be able to sell your plans for thousands of gold each. They will throw around coins like there is no tomorrow to try and stay on top.¡± Black Beauty spoke next, and it seemed she was the one who always gave the worst news, ¡°We have your medical profile from before you were transferred custody. It is not good. Burns on half of your body, both eyes¡­unusable, your right leg was shattered in the fire as well. The good news is that modern medicine has come a long way, and everything can be repaired or replaced!¡± My aged body was a piece of mangled, burnt toast¡­don¡¯t think like that, I scolded myself. I forced a smile, ¡°That is good news. I hope to return to it and meet you all in the real world one day.¡± At least I had goals¡­maybe impossible goals. ¡°So Tallis,¡± Mad Dog started with a smile, ¡°We have all decided to help you. Not just us but our entire guild. We are here for you, mate. We don¡¯t have the money, but you can profit from this village. If you grow it enough, there might be a whale out there to buy it for a few million, mate!¡± They were all nodding. This seemed a little too good to be true, and Mad Dog continued while grinning, ¡°We will benefit as well. Not just from selling information but also streaming our game POV when the game launches. We are altruistic, just not that altruistic, mate.¡± He patted me lightly on the shoulder reassuringly. After a few more minutes of supportive talk from the group, they left to hunt goblins. I went with my soul gems to complete my guard house. I found out quickly that I needed an enchanter to finish the work. I wasn¡¯t sure why the plans didn¡¯t have that in the requirements. I asked Persephone, and she said you just needed an enchanting skill of 7 to embed the soul gems¡­so no big deal. Yeah, no big deal¡­what if I didn¡¯t have an enchanter? I talked with the enchanter for a while about her projects in town. She was working on setting up an alert system on the earthen walls for the guards to respond quickly to trouble. This was more to alert if players crossed them as monsters naturally stayed away. She was also working on the sewage purification but was waiting on supplies. Other than that, she went to individual homes and installed ¡®modern magic¡¯ enchantments to improve the lives of the citizens. It all sounded good to me. With Sanso on copper coins and Jaesmin doing admin work, I was free to go hunting again. I started my morning with Galana and six militia. Apparently, either Tanguin or Galana now stayed in town. One weird thing I noticed is I still received a tiny amount of experience from kills, even if Galana was close¡­ Apparently, NPCs didn¡¯t have the same restrictions as players for experience. So, could I get Galana or Tanguin to power-level me in the dungeon? Only one NPC could join a party, and it was currently more important to level up the militia, so I would experiment later. The remainder of my day was hunting scorpions. I managed to get to level 19 and about 40% to level 20. I was so close! When I returned to town, I talked for a long time with the townsfolk in the inn while they were eating dinner. According to the townsfolk, Jaesmin was in a foul mood, so I was hiding here rather than going home. I had mostly positive feedback from the townsfolk, and Manto was even excited when the brewery was finished. I told him just seven more days, and our brewer would arrive! I returned home late and thankfully found Jaesmin asleep. I decided to quietly draft tonight and not disturb her. I was going to take Mad Dog¡¯s advice and start stockpiling building plans to sell. At least I was not going to have to worry about financing my village¡­that is, until the administrators started increasing upkeep costs to ridiculous amounts. Maybe they wouldn¡¯t do that¡­ I left before Jaesmin awoke. Getting on Titan took till late afternoon before I finally reached the level I wanted¡­level 20! The six stat points went straight into magic, and the skill points finally got my masonry skill to the level I had been chasing for so long!
Masonry 41
Masonry: Foundations 34
Masonry: Structures 43
I even had one extra skill point. I could now finish the town hall. But first, I wanted to select my level 20 trait¡­ Chapter 36 Finally Upgraded to a Village Chapter 36: Finally Upgraded to a Village! I really thought Simba would appear when I reached level 20. I did feel the rush as my items that required level 20 to use suddenly padded my stats! Without Simba, I would have to select something on my own. I eliminated all the combat traits. If I was going to grow Malcum, I should focus on my building or town management skills. Many options were currently hidden. The system message sometimes said I didn¡¯t meet the requirements to view or was in development, so I couldn¡¯t view them. I started shortening my list and came up with five options to choose between. Lord¡¯s Call II, upgrade to add 5 NPC auction bidding slots Clever Architect, +5 skill points to Artistry: Architect, +1% chance to improve building plans when drafting NPC Empathy, reveals an NPC personality in the NPC auction NPC Family Ties, reveals how large a family connected to an NPC in the auction house is Blacklist Awareness, alerts a player when anyone on their blacklist is within 100 yards Lord¡¯s Tithe, Lord of the city gets 0.1% of all experience earned by the subjects that are within 100 yards of him It took me over an hour to narrow down my list to just these five. The clever architect''s skill seemed powerful, but I queried the system, and it only had a chance of improving plans on their first draft and no effect when I redrafted plans. However, there were additional tiers of the skill so maybe that would improve to 2% at tier 2? Or maybe it just increased the improvement? I queried the system again and got a complete response this time. Clever Architect has a chance to improve upon any building bonuses applied to a new set of building plans. It does not give a chance to improve a building''s rarity. With the second tier of Lord¡¯s Call, I could add three more NPCs from the auction and when the town hall was finished that would add another 2 NPCs. It seemed like my best option by far to improve Malcum quickly. The improvements to my knowledge of the NPCs were significant¡­just not right now. The blacklist awareness would be important in the future as well to alert me to dangers entering the village. The Lord¡¯s Tithe ability was very powerful if I had a large population center and remained within the given range. I might be able to just sit in a castle and soak up the experience in a castle eventually. The advanced tiers only increased the range of the trait and not the percentage amount¡­or at least that is what I puzzled out from the responses by the system to my inquiries. I selected to improve my Lord¡¯s Call ability. I returned to Malcum on Titan and went to the site where the town hall foundation had been laid. If I could get Sanso¡¯s help, then I would be able to finish the building in two game days. Since it was late in the evening, I worked alone until dinner. I was holding back on selecting more NPCs from the auction. I went to the inn for dinner. Jaesmin was there talking with the adventurers and Laeron, our town shipwright. Mad Dog spoke first, ¡°Tallis, mate! Where have you been? Did you check your messages?¡± The group looked at me, and Grinder had a knowing look. ¡°Tallis, the player messaging system is live. It would be best if you went and set up your alert preferences,¡± Grinder supplied helpfully. I went to the screen and quickly activated it to alert me only when I was not in combat. I had five messages, all from Mad Dog. The first three were just progress reports in the Shiverwood forest. The last two said they were back in town, and they were at the inn and wanted to have dinner with me, and Jaesmin was here. I joined the group at the large table and was quickly served a plate filled with thick beef slices smothered in gravy with a side of some aromatic mashed potatoes. Grinder said if I weren¡¯t going to eat it, he would be more than happy to. I protectively covered the plate with my arms, and everyone laughed except Grinder. Jaesmin spoke next. ¡°Tallis, Laeron is the new guild master of the shipwrights. He is requesting six hundred planks monthly of various kinds of wood for his work.¡± She had a smug look on her face. Gwen had stonewalled Laeron from forming a shipwright''s guild in town. I nodded as I ate. I figured no matter what I said, I would make Jaesmin unhappy at this point. On finishing the delectable meal, I announced, ¡°I have sufficient skill to finish the town hall.¡± Everyone looked at me. It was Jaesmin who spoke. ¡°So tomorrow, do I need to help you finish? I am not sure I can get away from my duties.¡± The snark in her voice put me a little on edge. I sipped my ale, thinking about what I could possibly say not to make her angrier with me. ¡°Um, no. I think Sanso and I can finish it. There will be a fabulous new office there for the master of guilds, though.¡± She looked at me hard. She was considering my statement, and I couldn¡¯t read her. ¡°Nope,¡± she said. ¡°Still not interested in being the master of guilds. Find someone else.¡± She got up and left in a huff. The players looked at me, and Laeron snuck off himself either to avoid being named or afraid I might withdraw what Jaesmin promised him. I looked at the players, ¡°Yeah, just a little trouble on the homefront¡ªnothing to worry about. Uh, listen, guys, the player auction is closing in 6 days. With the portal now in town, I think my new NPCs and their families will arrive immediately. I hoped you all could be there in case something went wrong.¡± I gave them a pitiful look, looking for sympathy to guilt them. Mad Dog didn¡¯t hesitate, ¡°Sure, mate. Glad we could help. Could you give us as much info as you have on the NPC auction in return? I am sure you have some valuable info kicking around in your head from your experiences so far.¡± I nodded, and we started talking about the NPC auction interface and how it had evolved over my time in the game. They were most interested in the traits associated with the NPC auction and the fact that even if I won the bid for the auction, I usually had to convince the NPCs to stay or do a quest for them. We spent two hours as they grilled me for information. Mad Dog said they would apply 25% of the funds toward my lawyer fees. Black Beauty reminded them they needed to log off, and they left. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. On returning home, Jaesmin was already asleep, and I tucked myself into my drafting table. I could draft three sets of plans to stockpile tonight if I focused. Jaesmin came downstairs in the morning and hugged me before making breakfast. ¡°Sorry about yesterday. I embarrassed you in front of your friends. I gave it some thought and will do my best until my replacement arrives.¡± Thank God! A truce! ¡°You can get breakfast in the inn. I have to meet with Elice in the general store this morning.¡± She left, probably thinking it was a jab at me for not making breakfast. If she only knew how much I preferred Fareth¡¯s food. Well, that was something I would never reveal. Sanso was at the inn eating. I sat with him and was given a plate of potato pancakes and another plate of sausage. Sanso detailed how his work on creating copper coins for the town was going. I was only half listening to his report as I savored the meal. Fareth did something to the butter for the pancakes that made them even better tasting. No change to the buff, though. After breakfast, we went to the site for the town hall and got to work. Several people stopped by while we worked, and if I was resting to recharge my aether, I took a few moments to talk with them. The young girl practicing to be an alchemist ran by at least a dozen times carrying a sack of goods. She waved and smiled at us as she rushed around doing errands for the alchemist. It looks like she was well on her way to learning the craft. Lunch ended up being a pastry filled with shredded beef and cabbage. Bierock (a beef and cabbage stuffed roll), +100% to aether regeneration for 6 hours, +4 to magic for 6 hours Fareth knew this was what Sanso and I needed to buff our magic for building. I wish we had talked to her at breakfast! The pace of our work picked up after lunch, and I think we will finish today! Sanso called in some of his golems as well. Most of the golems had been working on the sewers or expanding their mining operations under his tower to the north. It was late, well past dinner, when we finished the building. We were not alone either. There were about 50 townsfolk watching and waiting. I inspected the building. Rare City Hall, Health 150,000 (Bonus +20% to City Population Morale, +3.5% Tax Revenue) This was a great building, and it was extremely pleasing to look at. I checked my interface,expecting to see a bevy of notifications. There was nothing. Ah, the building wouldn¡¯t be active until I assigned at least one person to work there. Sorry, Jaesmin. I moved her in my interface to work in the town hall. Town Hall Active Malcum is upgraded from a Settlement to a Village, Awarding 100,000 experience Wandering monsters are now a threat to your population. You can track them in your interface map New diplomacy options are now available Building infrastructure maintenance costs increased by 50% Insufficient population for promotion to a town; Requirement is 500 citizens You have reached level 21! I smiled and gave Sanso a high five and could see the villagers react as well. The bonus to morale was showing already. Promoting my settlement even earned me a level. I dropped all six points into charisma. I would need to convince my NPCs from the auction to settle here permanently, and I wanted to pad my persuasiveness. Charisma was useful in summoning and interacting with NPCs. Beyond that, I hadn¡¯t found a use for it. Since I only had a few crops of high-power NPCs coming to Malcum in the auction before the game went live, and I would have to compete with NPCs cities and the horde of players, I decided to commit the points to charisma for this level. Wandering monsters¡­it didn¡¯t take long to find the information on them. Elite monsters from adjacent zones to the town could be up to 10 levels higher than the zone they emerged from. I looked at my map. Shiverwood Forest Level 40-50 monsters, Cleardusk Plains Level 5-15 monsters, and the Breakneck Mountains Level 60-70 monsters. Those were the three regions that bordered Malcum. My mapping system would alert me if a wandering monster approached within 5 miles of the village, and a red icon would appear on my map to track the monster. It didn¡¯t seem like a significant threat but who knew what curve ball the system would play? I didn¡¯t review the diplomacy options since I really wasn¡¯t doing any active diplomacy. The increase in town maintenance was going to be a pain unless I generated a more steady increase in income. I checked my finances, and the adventurers were training the treasury from their quests and restocking by spending coins in town but not at a sustainable rate. If it got too out of whack, I would talk with them. I had all the required buildings to become a town! I just needed a larger population, and my next advancement would happen. To keep the townsfolk lively, I announced free beer at the inn! An enormous cheer, and the pack of people moved toward the inn. I shook Sanso¡¯s hand and told him to take tomorrow off. I would probably spend most of tomorrow sorting through the NPC auction, as I now had five open slots! When I got home, Jaesmin was there, her face unreadable. I couldn¡¯t tell if she was angry or not. ¡°Tallis, you finished the town hall. Did you furnish it? I have a dozen alerts about limited efficiency due to insufficient workspace. You will take care of it.¡± She turned and walked upstairs, and my sheet pinged with a laundry list of items needed for the town hall. I compiled the list and sent it over to Mad Dog. He could portal to a city and gather the items to equip the new town hall. The only expensive item was the large amounts of paper¡­bureaucracy at work. I decided to add drafting a papermill to my to-do list. It was hard to resist going and laying down in bed and just sorting through the NPC auction immediately. I first filled my satiety bar and then went and drafted plans for a furniture shop. Many of the items Mad Dog was going to purchase revolved around office furnishings. He could buy cheap furniture to make the building functional, but I was hoping to have exquisite furniture in Malcum from my superior buildings. And I guess paper as well. It would mean getting the lumbar yard productivity running. Which meant I needed a logging camp on the other side of the river. Which meant I needed the damn goblins cleared out! It was like a chain quest, I guess. So, what should I draft tonight before going to get some much-needed and deserved sleep? Logging camp, Woodcraft shop, or Paper mill? I decided on the woodcraft shop. It would be a long two-story building near the current lumber mill¡­ah, I should add a lumber mill to my drafting plans. If I drafted a new lumber mill, it should give a bonus. I stopped working on the plans for the woodcraft shop and started working on plans for the lumber mill. If I built a new lumber mill, then I could possibly renovate the old one into an addition to my house? A few hours later, I was finished. It wasn¡¯t pretty and followed much of the design of the old lumber mill. I hadn¡¯t felt inspired while working, so I tentatively examined the plans. Uncommon Lumber Mill, Health 60,000, Requires Masonry: Foundations 23, Woodcraft Carpentry 23 (Bonus 4% chance to upgrade sawn wood quality) Well, I guessed any bonus was a good bonus. I folded the plans and would start on the foundation of the building myself tomorrow afternoon. I went upstairs, and Jaesmin was in bed and dressed in a heavy nightgown. She usually slept in sexy lingerie, so this must be her way of saying the store is closed until you make me happy. I stripped to leave just my boxers on and lay next to her. Maybe the sight of my sexy body in the morning would turn her on? I had a full day planned¡­breakfast¡­NPC selection¡­some building¡­and then some drafting after dinner. I guess I should be happy fatigue wasn¡¯t programmed into the game yet, as it seemed I was going non-stop. I was kicking around what NPCs I would search for when sleep finally overcame me. Chapter 37 The NPC Auction Chapter 37: The NPC Auction In the morning, I rushed to the inn to eat breakfast and occupy a corner while I worked on searching the NPC auction. Breakfast was simple: a braised ham steak with thick apple sauce. The meal did give me a decent bonus of +10% to my stamina stat for 12 hours. After the meal, I had a pitcher of water and asked not to be disturbed while I worked. It was time to open the NPC auction tab and add to my selections. My original bids were all still active, so no one had outbid me. But there was a new column. They had added classes in the game, and now I could see what the NPC classes were, which was helpful¡­and the level of the NPC! This was a huge help. I might be able to find some high-level gems with low primary skills. The minimum bid was still based on the NPC¡¯s primary skill: 1 silver for a novice, 1 gold for an expert, 1 platinum for a master, and 100 platinum for a grandmaster.
Name Class Level Race Sex Age Primary Skill
Jaylyn Knight 47 Human M 28 Expert Blade: Medium
Lyons Knight 43 Human M 28 Expert Armor: Heavy
Kassta Brewer 61 Beastkin: Bull M 33 Expert Brewer
Warne Craftsman 29 Beastkin: Wolf M 20 Expert Woodcraft: Furniture
Tilda Farmer 37 Halfling F 52 Expert Crop Farming
Breda Bureaucrat 147 Dwarf F 64 Master City Planning
I really wished I could see their top three skills again. That was the most helpful element when selecting which NPCs to bid on, but knowing the level would be very useful. I sorted the list and started doing some research. It looked like NPCs with a primary skill at the novice grade had leveled up to level 20. Expert-level NPCs had levels up to 75. Master level NPCs levels reached as high as 150. Grand Master grades all ranged between levels 150 and 250. Looking over the lists, it looked like the other players bidding had used the NPCs level as their primary criteria for their bids. I wondered if I could withdraw a bid and bid on a different NPC. The answer was yes, but I would lose the coins I had paid. If someone outbid me, I would get my coins back. I had five platinum coins in my possession and five open bidding slots. With Breda, the dwarf city planner, I would have a total of six master NPCs for this round of bids. I wondered how difficult these master NPCs were going to make my life. I had a list of three priority NPCs. One was someone to take over the administration work from Jaesmin. Only two were listed for Bureaucracy: Guilds.
Neral Bureaucrat 103 Giantkin: Fire M 69 Master Bureaucracy: Guilds
Barret Bureaucrat 106 Fairy: Sprite M 25 Master Bureaucracy: Guilds
Another sub-species of giantkin. I wish I had known their temperament, which would have been my deciding factor. Did I want a Master of Guilds with a Napoleon complex¡­.no, an imposing figure would be welcome. I paid the platinum to bid on Neral, the Giantkin: Fire. My second priority was to have someone assist Sanso. Well, maybe not assist, but to work exclusively on transforming my outer town walls from the earthworks to an actual stone wall with defensive towers at intervals. I searched, and it looked like stone mages were quite popular. Players were not stupid and figured stone mages significantly accelerated building construction. All three master stone mages had bids, and all seventeen expert stone mages also had bids. Did I want to get into a bidding war? So far, the NPC site had been some gentlemen¡¯s agreement of first come, first served. That was mostly because there were just so many NPCs to bid on. Once the player rush hit and NPC cities could join in on the process, it was probably going to get very cut-throat. I started searching for just a master mage in any magical skill. I found an interesting NPC.
Titus Hospitalar 140 Gnome M 66 Master Order Magic
Order magic was not well known to me. I guessed it opposed Chaos magic. Looking up order magic, its two sub-skills were Order: Law and Order: Command. The gnome¡¯s class of hospitalar seemed to be geared toward seeking out and combating chaos. Maybe this gnome was some priest? Did I want religion in my village? I knew from history on Earth priests manipulated the populace and sought power and wealth from the rulers. I was planning to pass on this gnome, but I kept looking at his level. One hundred and forty was really high. I think my experiences with Fareth are what finally convinced me to bid. Hopefully, this NPC would be a good addition to Malcum. My third need was a lumberjack. I didn¡¯t want to spend my own time harvesting trees and milling them across the river. We had enough experienced townsfolk for the mill but no lumberjacks. They had all been killed. I looked at the list of master lumberjacks. Beastkin: Beaver, Human: Common, Elf: Wood. Two others already had bids, so these were my choices. The beaver was interesting, and if I had known he would come with a large family, I might have selected him for my bid. Since I didn¡¯t know, I rolled a die to decide, and the Elf: Wood won.
Darai Lumberjack 103 Elf: Wood F 277 Master Woodcraft: Lumberjack
I was excited to see what a female elf lumberjack looked like. Would she have a Paul Bunyan build? I was down to my last two bids already! They went fast. Should I get more warrior types to defend the village? Should I start branching out Malcum¡¯s trade goods? Should I get more NPCs capable of building structures since I couldn¡¯t find any stone mages.¡­yes. Having someone else with a master tier in woodcraft: carpentry, and masonry: structures seemed like my best bet.
Varrine Builder 77 Beastkin: Bear M 37 Master Woodcraft: Carpentry
Iona Constructor 120 Elf: Sun F 152 Master Masonry: Structures
Once again, I had hoped to get the temperament of each before bidding. I would be working with these Chapter 36: Finally Upgraded to a Village! I really thought Simba would appear when I reached level 20. I did feel the rush as my items that required level 20 to use suddenly padded my stats! Without Simba, I would have to select something on my own. I eliminated all the combat traits. If I was going to grow Malcum, I should focus on my building or town management skills. Many options were currently hidden. The system message sometimes said I didn¡¯t meet the requirements to view or was in development, so I couldn¡¯t view them. I started shortening my list and came up with five options to choose between. Lord¡¯s Call II, upgrade to add 5 NPC auction bidding slots Clever Architect, +5 skill points to Artistry: Architect, +1% chance to improve building plans when drafting NPC Empathy, reveals an NPC personality in the NPC auction NPC Family Ties, reveals how large a family connected to an NPC in the auction house is Blacklist Awareness, alerts a player when anyone on their blacklist is within 100 yards Lord¡¯s Tithe, Lord of the city gets 0.1% of all experience earned by the subjects that are within 100 yards of him It took me over an hour to narrow down my list to just these five. The clever architect''s skill seemed powerful, but I queried the system, and it only had a chance of improving plans on their first draft and no effect when I redrafted plans. However, there were additional tiers of the skill so maybe that would improve to 2% at tier 2? Or maybe it just increased the improvement? I queried the system again and got a complete response this time. Clever Architect has a chance to improve upon any building bonuses applied to a new set of building plans. It does not give a chance to improve a building''s rarity. With the second tier of Lord¡¯s Call, I could add three more NPCs from the auction and when the town hall was finished that would add another 2 NPCs. It seemed like my best option by far to improve Malcum quickly. The improvements to my knowledge of the NPCs were significant¡­just not right now. The blacklist awareness would be important in the future as well to alert me to dangers entering the village. The Lord¡¯s Tithe ability was very powerful if I had a large population center and remained within the given range. I might be able to just sit in a castle and soak up the experience in a castle eventually. The advanced tiers only increased the range of the trait and not the percentage amount¡­or at least that is what I puzzled out from the responses by the system to my inquiries. I selected to improve my Lord¡¯s Call ability. I returned to Malcum on Titan and went to the site where the town hall foundation had been laid. If I could get Sanso¡¯s help, then I would be able to finish the building in two game days. Since it was late in the evening, I worked alone until dinner. I was holding back on selecting more NPCs from the auction. I went to the inn for dinner. Jaesmin was there talking with the adventurers and Laeron, our town shipwright. Mad Dog spoke first, ¡°Tallis, mate! Where have you been? Did you check your messages?¡± The group looked at me, and Grinder had a knowing look. ¡°Tallis, the player messaging system is live. It would be best if you went and set up your alert preferences,¡± Grinder supplied helpfully. I went to the screen and quickly activated it to alert me only when I was not in combat. I had five messages, all from Mad Dog. The first three were just progress reports in the Shiverwood forest. The last two said they were back in town, and they were at the inn and wanted to have dinner with me, and Jaesmin was here. I joined the group at the large table and was quickly served a plate filled with thick beef slices smothered in gravy with a side of some aromatic mashed potatoes. Grinder said if I weren¡¯t going to eat it, he would be more than happy to. I protectively covered the plate with my arms, and everyone laughed except Grinder. Jaesmin spoke next. ¡°Tallis, Laeron is the new guild master of the shipwrights. He is requesting six hundred planks monthly of various kinds of wood for his work.¡± She had a smug look on her face. Gwen had stonewalled Laeron from forming a shipwright''s guild in town. I nodded as I ate. I figured no matter what I said, I would make Jaesmin unhappy at this point. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. On finishing the delectable meal, I announced, ¡°I have sufficient skill to finish the town hall.¡± Everyone looked at me. It was Jaesmin who spoke. ¡°So tomorrow, do I need to help you finish? I am not sure I can get away from my duties.¡± The snark in her voice put me a little on edge. I sipped my ale, thinking about what I could possibly say not to make her angrier with me. ¡°Um, no. I think Sanso and I can finish it. There will be a fabulous new office there for the master of guilds, though.¡± She looked at me hard. She was considering my statement, and I couldn¡¯t read her. ¡°Nope,¡± she said. ¡°Still not interested in being the master of guilds. Find someone else.¡± She got up and left in a huff. The players looked at me, and Laeron snuck off himself either to avoid being named or afraid I might withdraw what Jaesmin promised him. I looked at the players, ¡°Yeah, just a little trouble on the homefront¡ªnothing to worry about. Uh, listen, guys, the player auction is closing in 6 days. With the portal now in town, I think my new NPCs and their families will arrive immediately. I hoped you all could be there in case something went wrong.¡± I gave them a pitiful look, looking for sympathy to guilt them. Mad Dog didn¡¯t hesitate, ¡°Sure, mate. Glad we could help. Could you give us as much info as you have on the NPC auction in return? I am sure you have some valuable info kicking around in your head from your experiences so far.¡± I nodded, and we started talking about the NPC auction interface and how it had evolved over my time in the game. They were most interested in the traits associated with the NPC auction and the fact that even if I won the bid for the auction, I usually had to convince the NPCs to stay or do a quest for them. We spent two hours as they grilled me for information. Mad Dog said they would apply 25% of the funds toward my lawyer fees. Black Beauty reminded them they needed to log off, and they left. On returning home, Jaesmin was already asleep, and I tucked myself into my drafting table. I could draft three sets of plans to stockpile tonight if I focused. Jaesmin came downstairs in the morning and hugged me before making breakfast. ¡°Sorry about yesterday. I embarrassed you in front of your friends. I gave it some thought and will do my best until my replacement arrives.¡± Thank God! A truce! ¡°You can get breakfast in the inn. I have to meet with Elice in the general store this morning.¡± She left, probably thinking it was a jab at me for not making breakfast. If she only knew how much I preferred Fareth¡¯s food. Well, that was something I would never reveal. Sanso was at the inn eating. I sat with him and was given a plate of potato pancakes and another plate of sausage. Sanso detailed how his work on creating copper coins for the town was going. I was only half listening to his report as I savored the meal. Fareth did something to the butter for the pancakes that made them even better tasting. No change to the buff, though. After breakfast, we went to the site for the town hall and got to work. Several people stopped by while we worked, and if I was resting to recharge my aether, I took a few moments to talk with them. The young girl practicing to be an alchemist ran by at least a dozen times carrying a sack of goods. She waved and smiled at us as she rushed around doing errands for the alchemist. It looks like she was well on her way to learning the craft. Lunch ended up being a pastry filled with shredded beef and cabbage. Bierock (a beef and cabbage stuffed roll), +100% to aether regeneration for 6 hours, +4 to magic for 6 hours Fareth knew this was what Sanso and I needed to buff our magic for building. I wish we had talked to her at breakfast! The pace of our work picked up after lunch, and I think we will finish today! Sanso called in some of his golems as well. Most of the golems had been working on the sewers or expanding their mining operations under his tower to the north. It was late, well past dinner, when we finished the building. We were not alone either. There were about 50 townsfolk watching and waiting. I inspected the building. Rare City Hall, Health 150,000 (Bonus +20% to City Population Morale, +3.5% Tax Revenue) This was a great building, and it was extremely pleasing to look at. I checked my interface,expecting to see a bevy of notifications. There was nothing. Ah, the building wouldn¡¯t be active until I assigned at least one person to work there. Sorry, Jaesmin. I moved her in my interface to work in the town hall. Town Hall Active Malcum is upgraded from a Settlement to a Village, Awarding 100,000 experience Wandering monsters are now a threat to your population. You can track them in your interface map New diplomacy options are now available Building infrastructure maintenance costs increased by 50% Insufficient population for promotion to a town; Requirement is 500 citizens You have reached level 21! I smiled and gave Sanso a high five and could see the villagers react as well. The bonus to morale was showing already. Promoting my settlement even earned me a level. I dropped all six points into charisma. I would need to convince my NPCs from the auction to settle here permanently, and I wanted to pad my persuasiveness. Charisma was useful in summoning and interacting with NPCs. Beyond that, I hadn¡¯t found a use for it. Since I only had a few crops of high-power NPCs coming to Malcum in the auction before the game went live, and I would have to compete with NPCs cities and the horde of players, I decided to commit the points to charisma for this level. Wandering monsters¡­it didn¡¯t take long to find the information on them. Elite monsters from adjacent zones to the town could be up to 10 levels higher than the zone they emerged from. I looked at my map. Shiverwood Forest Level 40-50 monsters, Cleardusk Plains Level 5-15 monsters, and the Breakneck Mountains Level 60-70 monsters. Those were the three regions that bordered Malcum. My mapping system would alert me if a wandering monster approached within 5 miles of the village, and a red icon would appear on my map to track the monster. It didn¡¯t seem like a significant threat but who knew what curve ball the system would play? I didn¡¯t review the diplomacy options since I really wasn¡¯t doing any active diplomacy. The increase in town maintenance was going to be a pain unless I generated a more steady increase in income. I checked my finances, and the adventurers were training the treasury from their quests and restocking by spending coins in town but not at a sustainable rate. If it got too out of whack, I would talk with them. I had all the required buildings to become a town! I just needed a larger population, and my next advancement would happen. To keep the townsfolk lively, I announced free beer at the inn! An enormous cheer, and the pack of people moved toward the inn. I shook Sanso¡¯s hand and told him to take tomorrow off. I would probably spend most of tomorrow sorting through the NPC auction, as I now had five open slots! When I got home, Jaesmin was there, her face unreadable. I couldn¡¯t tell if she was angry or not. ¡°Tallis, you finished the town hall. Did you furnish it? I have a dozen alerts about limited efficiency due to insufficient workspace. You will take care of it.¡± She turned and walked upstairs, and my sheet pinged with a laundry list of items needed for the town hall. I compiled the list and sent it over to Mad Dog. He could portal to a city and gather the items to equip the new town hall. The only expensive item was the large amounts of paper¡­bureaucracy at work. I decided to add drafting a papermill to my to-do list. It was hard to resist going and laying down in bed and just sorting through the NPC auction immediately. I first filled my satiety bar and then went and drafted plans for a furniture shop. Many of the items Mad Dog was going to purchase revolved around office furnishings. He could buy cheap furniture to make the building functional, but I was hoping to have exquisite furniture in Malcum from my superior buildings. And I guess paper as well. It would mean getting the lumbar yard productivity running. Which meant I needed a logging camp on the other side of the river. Which meant I needed the damn goblins cleared out! It was like a chain quest, I guess. So, what should I draft tonight before going to get some much-needed and deserved sleep? Logging camp, Woodcraft shop, or Paper mill? I decided on the woodcraft shop. It would be a long two-story building near the current lumber mill¡­ah, I should add a lumber mill to my drafting plans. If I drafted a new lumber mill, it should give a bonus. I stopped working on the plans for the woodcraft shop and started working on plans for the lumber mill. If I built a new lumber mill, then could I possibly renovate the old one to make it an addition to my house? A few hours later, I was finished. It wasn¡¯t pretty and followed much of the design of the old lumber mill. I hadn¡¯t felt inspired while working, so I tentatively examined the plans. Uncommon Lumber Mill, Health 60,000, Requires Masonry: Foundations 23, Woodcraft Carpentry 23 (Bonus 4% chance to upgrade sawn wood quality) Well, I guessed any bonus was a good bonus. I folded the plans and would start on the foundation of the building myself tomorrow afternoon. I went upstairs, and Jaesmin was in bed and dressed in a heavy nightgown. She usually slept in sexy lingerie, so this must be her way of saying the store is closed until you make me happy. I stripped to leave just my boxers on and lay next to her. Maybe the sight of my sexy body in the morning would turn her on? I had a full day planned¡­breakfast¡­NPC selection¡­some building¡­and then some drafting after dinner. I guess I should be happy fatigue wasn¡¯t programmed into the game yet, as it seemed I was going non-stop. I was kicking around what NPCs I would search for when sleep finally overcame me. NPCs quite a bit if I won them in the auction. The huge variance in the beastkin race was a little surprising. I went and checked, and there were twenty-six currently! Yet there were only five subspecies of elves and four for humans. I spent a few more hours doing searches and drooling over the NPCs I had no chance to recruit. There were seven grandmasters in the auction, and I could not afford to bid on any of them. One was a level 248 Pyromancer fire mage. If I had recruited that NPC, the village would have been safe¡­if they didn¡¯t burn down the town. The other grandmasters had skills in fishing, blades, stealth, herbalism, history, and melee: hammers. The last one had a bid on him, and the rest were available. I really thought hard about trying to pool some coin and bid on the grand master of the history skill. This NPC would have been a great master librarian¡­for the library, I couldn¡¯t build yet. With reluctance, I close the tab. Eleven new NPCs that would help Malcum grow in leaps and bounds. I walked out into the sunlight from my time in the inn. The village added new faces daily, and I noticed a new pair of gnomes wandering toward the general store. I checked my town population screen.
Total
Angelkin 0
Beastman 4
Centaur 1
Demonkin 0
Dwarf 1
Elf 20
Elementalkin 4
Fairy 0
Human 88
Kobold 0
Dragonkin 0
Gnome 5
Goblin 0
Giantkin 2
Lizardman 0
Orc 25
Shade 0
Shifter 0
Undead 0
150
We were growing steadily just through immigration. So far, there had not been much discord with the large mix of races, but I assumed that couldn¡¯t last. The shade and undead would probably never be welcome in Malcum, with my military force already predisposed to hating them. Other than that, I was ok with any races settling in Malcum. I did some quick checks, and players could be added to the population if they had a residence within the city¡¯s limits. Players could only denote one building as their residence, though. There was also a cooldown of 90 game days to change a player¡¯s residence. I checked, and my residence was already noted in Malcum, so I was, in fact, part of the population of Malcum. I talked briefly with a few people before going to the site where I planned to build my lumber mill. It was near a river bend, and I planned to have a stone bridge there. Across the river would be my logging camp. The woodcraft building for making furniture would be adjacent to the lumber mill. All of these structures would be built to the north, just outside the earthen walls that Sanso had built. I was the only one here, and it was nice to be away from the bustle of the town. I got lost in my work. I was basically summoning stone to create one huge slab on which the lumber mill would sit. When my aether was drained, I would rest and watch the woods across the river. There was a fair amount of activity on the other side; birds, boars, foxes, deer, and even a goblin poked his head out once. As the sun started to set, I returned to the inn. I grabbed some food and waved to several townsfolk. Manto was there sipping ale and raised his mug toward me. He seemed sober; a drunk, powerful lightning mage would probably be very bad for the town. I wondered if you could brew non-alcoholic beverages in the game. I took two meat pies with me and went home to find Jaesmin in the common room of our house, sipping wine with Kytalia and Galana. A girl¡¯s night, maybe? ¡°Tallis Kytalia waved me over to sit down. We were discussing village politics and would like to hear your viewpoint,¡± Kytalia said. I wouldn''t say I liked politics in the real world. Politicians were either outright liars or spoke half-truths most of the time. I sighed and sat down. ¡°Well, ladies, I have a very dim view of politics. I should have some involvement since I am the lord here.¡± I sat and poured myself some wine. Galana spoke first, ¡°Well, since we are essentially sandwiched between two kingdom territories. The human empire of the Veeral Dynasty is to the south, and the Fistulas Kingdom of the Dwarves is to the north. We wondered who we would side with if one of them joined the next Grand War.¡± All three women looked at me for an answer. Fucking game designers. ¡°So what is a Grand War?¡± I really didn¡¯t want to know. Galana answered, ¡°Every ten years, one of the gods puts up a divine artifact as a prize. Nations band together to form massive armies, and using portal stones, they are portaled to a neutral site to fight for the artifact.¡± Galana was too calm, so I asked a question. ¡°Is death permanent in these Grand Wars? Players like me resurrect, but you.¡­¡± I asked my question. Galana nodded, ¡°Yes, for us, it is permanent. But lords will typically supply combatants to empires for coin and a share of the spoils from the Grand War. Usually, there are a few million combatants in the Grand War, and you can retreat at any time with your spoils. I participated in the last Grand War. I gained a free skill and a handful of weapons that I sold. My lord at the time was killed, though.¡± I was suddenly more interested, ¡°So the rewards for non-players are more than just loot?¡± Galana nodded, ¡°Level advancement, free skills, new traits, coin, weapons, armor¡­ You can gain a lot if you do well. The field is usually about 100 miles across, and each alliance starts in a random area. The god of battle watches and tracks everyone¡¯s contributions. When you leave, or someone claims the divine artifact, you are portaled back where you left. Usually, half of the participants survive.¡± The fact that she was talking so non-chantilly about such a massive wave of death to NPCs upset me. I guess this game mechanism was to quickly advance NPCs¡¯ power and thin out NPC populations. ¡°I don¡¯t think we would ever participate in such a bloodthirsty sport. I wouldn¡¯t side with either the humans or dwarves.¡± I said with sternness. Galana looked at me, puzzled, ¡°Lord Tallis, you don¡¯t have a choice. Based on the size of the settlement determines how many combatants you need to send. They must survive one day before they can retreat as well. That is why everyone makes alliances beforehand.¡± Incursions! Grand Wars! What was next? Cant the damn game developers just let people build shit and hang out with the NPCs? I asked, ¡°How many people do we need to send?¡± It is best to be prepared. ¡°One in ten of the adult population for towns and larger,¡± Galana said. ¡°I think I would volunteer.¡± I was shocked at her admission. Losing Galana would be too big a blow for me. ¡°Can I send players? What about the guards from the guard house we built?¡± I asked, looking for a way to sidestep the requirement. Galana paused before speaking. I think this new game mechanic had just been added, and she was getting the information downloaded. ¡°Yes, players can be part of the total if they are residents of the population center required to send combatants. Your guards from the guardhouse do not qualify as they are bound to the guardhouse. The first guard manifested this afternoon. He was an elite human guardsman, level 25. The remainder should be the same, elite level 25 guardsmen.¡± Finally, some good news. Level 25 was not that high, but it was the minimum level for a class. I would look into how to upgrade the guardhouse in the future. ¡°So when is the next Grand War?¡± Once again, I didn¡¯t want to know, but it was best to rip the band-aids off. ¡°It is in 432 days,¡± Kytalia said. Well, at least I could put it out of my mind for a long while. I was sure there would be more surprises in the future. Games like this were all about player conflict and gaining power. I would be dragged in whether I wanted to or not. I excused myself from the conversation and went to my drafting desk while they continued talking. Soon, I was lost in my work and didn¡¯t hear that Galana and Kytalia had left. Tonight, I felt inspired and worked on the furniture workshop. I made it way too big, with enough space for fifty NPCs to work. It was three stories tall, with the first floor being sales shops and lumber storage. The second floor had many workstations and tools for all the crafters. The third floor was a general warehouse. At first, I had planned to make the structure mostly wood but quickly switched to stone. I wanted to lose as little as possible if there was a fire. It was morning when I finished, and I was impressed with the massive structure. The exterior had fancy columns and gargoyles on top of them. I wasn¡¯t sure why I had done that¡­.it was just my inspiration. I identified the building plans. Rare Furniture Crafter Building, Health 250,000, Requires Masonry Foundations 23, Masonry Structures 43, Woodcraft: Carpentry 23 (Bonus: +30% skill advancement for woodcraft skills, +2% chance to improve the quality of items produced, +20% to the value of items produced) Yes! This could be the foundation of Malcum¡¯s industry and trade. We could export high-quality furniture and generate tons of wealth. It would take Sanso and me a few days to build it after the lumbar mill was finished. I rechecked my incoming NPCs to ensure I had a place for them to live and work, and it would be essential to convince them to stay.
Jaylyn Knight 47 Human
Lyons Knight 43 Human
Kassta Brewer 61 Beastkin: Bull
Warne Craftsman 29 Beastkin: Wolf
Tilda Farmer 37 Halfling
Breda Bureaucrat 147 Dwarf
Neral Bureaucrat 103 Giantkin: Fire
Titus Hospitalar 140 Gnome
Darai Lumberjack 103 Elf: Wood
Varrine Builder 77 Beastkin: Bear
Iona Constructor 120 Elf
The two knights could stay in the barracks, and I would assign them to Galana. The Brewer had the brewery and needed a house. The craftsmen needed this new building to work and needed a home. The farmer¡­.I should probably find someone to outline various fields for crops. Two bureaucrats had the town hall to work in but needed a residence. The two builders also needed a place to live. The lumberjack¡­I couldn¡¯t build a logging camp until the goblins were eliminated, but I still needed a place for him to live in town. And finally the hospitalar¡­.was he a priest¡­.did I need to build a temple? It would be terrible if he showed up and left because he didn¡¯t feel welcome, wasting an NPC auction slot. Well, I guess I was hoping he would at least give me a quest to appease him as the others had. So I needed to build the mill, woodcraft building, and lots and lots of housing! At least I knew what I needed to do. Chapter 38 Bob the Builder Chapter 38: Bob the Builder I never went to sleep during the night. I drafted a copy of my Rare Giantkin Townhouse and Rare Apartment Building. The addition of these two apartment buildings would give me seven residences to add to the town. I left before sunrise to go and plan out where to put them. I was not happy when I walked downtown. People who had migrated had started building their own houses within the city limit. I talked to two gnomes putting up more of a shack than a building. The building would reduce Malcum¡¯s rating. They were a very nice married couple, even if I couldn¡¯t tell their gender. From my conversation with the gnomes, I learned seven new couples were in the town. Most had settled outside the earthen walls, but this couple were candle makers and wanted to live and work within the city limits. I really needed that city planner to handle things like this. I told them they were on the shortlist for new housing, and as for a shop to ply their craft, they would be able to rent one from the city soon. Sanso found me while talking with the gnomes and approached when I had finished. ¡°I see you have met the Waxers. Yes, that is their surname. They had asked me last night where they could build their home in the city, and I couldn¡¯t find you. They are a nice couple, if a bit odd. So, Lord Tallis, what is today¡¯s focus? I was at the site for the new lumber mill and workshop, and you were not there, so I came here looking for you.¡± Sanso finished and pulled out a cinnamon roll¡ªthe aroma was definitely a product of Fareth. ¡°Yeah, Sanso, I am trying to ensure all the new arrivals will have a place to live and work. I came to mark off some locations for new homes. I considered putting them around the central park I marked off earlier. But the gnomes beat me to it. Here are the new plans.¡± I handed him the three plans and he got some sticky frosting on them as he looked them over. These shouldn¡¯t be too difficult. If Jaesmin helps, we could probably get them all done today.¡­¡± He looked at my face. Yeah, Jaesmin was busy in her capacity as Master of Guilds. ¡°Maybe a day and a half for both of us then.¡± ¡°Since I just learned the new arrivals immigrating to the city need places to sleep and work, I was thinking about building a row of ten apartment buildings. I could charge people rent and start generating funds from our work.¡± I asked more of a question waiting for feedback. ¡°If you want to keep control over the buildings going up within the city you need to appoint a Master of City Planning. Don¡¯t you dare!¡± Sanso warned with mock anger. He obviously thought I would do the same thing to him that I had done to Jaesmin and appoint him without asking. He was already the city¡¯s High Wizard of Defense. I sighed. ¡°A few more days Sanso. I just need to hold it together for a few more days.¡± With Sanso¡¯s help, we summoned stone and marked out a row of apartment buildings along one side of the park. Seventeen would fit in the space. We then went to the general store and got something to drink. This street had a few businesses on it. The general store, baker, barber shop, and alchemy shop. Maybe I could line this street with multipurpose buildings? Similar to what I did with the alchemy shop but much smaller scale and simpler. The first floor was a shop and crafting area. The second floor was a residence. Just another thing I needed to draft. We spent a little while marking off twelve of these future shops before returning to the Brownstone-style three-family houses along the park. We finished all the stonework on two foundations and completely finished the stonework on one of them before Sanso said it was time for dinner and clapped me on the back. Sanso was becoming a friend and an invaluable asset for building Malcum. It had been a productive day. We went to the inn and found Mad Dog and his crew there. He saluted me with a beer in hand, ¡°Dropped off your furnishings this morning. Jaesmin is excited, and Black Beauty is helping arrange it all in the offices. We are still waiting for her to get here to go to the forest, but it looks like we may just eat and drink away the evening.¡± Grinder toasted to that comment. ¡°That is great! We are working to build housing in the downtown area. We are going to be adding at least a half dozen shops as well to Market Street. Should attract more immigrating NPCs.¡± I said as I was served a whole roasted chicken. ¡°Oh, that¡¯s right, I have some info for you regarding your portal stone. Although players need to physically touch a stone to add it to their network NPCs don¡¯t need to. I was confused about how your NPCs were getting here via the portal stone from the auction, so I investigated.¡± Mad Dog said. I was glad I had someone to help figure these things out. ¡°It hadn¡¯t occurred to me. Does that mean it is easy for NPCs to invade cities?¡± I asked as I tore into the chicken. One thigh was already missing, and Grinder was cleaning the juicy meat off the bone. ¡°The other item you may be interested in is how you are making such unique and frankly awesome building plans,¡± Mad Dog said as he munched away at some thick chips. I waited a few minutes before throwing up my hands, ¡°And?¡± He smiled and spoke, ¡°You are not using the autopilot for the skill system.¡± He waited for me to figure something out. Autopilot¡­yes, there was that option. I used it when I had to carve small wooden Simba statues. He gave up on me waiting to figure it out, and explained. ¡°You are doing all the work and not utilizing the system to help you along! We found an old post from an enchanter. He was trying to figure out the mechanics for actually enchanting items within the game. He found a rarity discrepancy from when he was on autopilot and when he did all the work himself.¡± Wow, I considered the implications. So, I could have just done all the plans on autopilot and saved myself a lot of thinking. But half the fun of drafting was doing the work myself. The results also spoke for themselves. Mad Dog added, ¡°Also, you chose a shitty profession to get experience from. Crafting only gives 25 experience points for every item crafted. The programmers said they were going to correct it based on the item¡¯s difficulty level, but it seems really low on their priority list. There is an alchemist in one of the cities that is getting over 1000 experience points a day crafting the cheapest and simplest potions. Just some food for thought Tallis,¡± as he shoved my other chicken leg into his mouth, savoring my dinner. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. After deliberating a bit, I asked Mad Dog, ¡°When can you clear the forest of the Darkskull goblins?¡± Grinder answered, ¡°Three or four days, we think. They have buildings similar to your guard shack that spawn replacements for their ranks. Once we eliminate those structures in their village, we think you should be ok. Also, Tallis is there any way in your town interface that you can set up trainers for improving or learning new skills?¡± That was an excellent question, and I reclined back in my chair to view my interface tabs for town management. They took it as an opportunity to split the remainder of my chicken dinner between them. I couldn¡¯t blame them. Fareth¡¯s food was much better than anything my mind could recall in the real world. I found the tab. It was grouped in with NPC quest giving. All I needed to do was switch over the NPC to a trainer. As long as they had a master skill or higher, the trainer designation worked. I did it for all the NPCs who I currently paid to work in Malcum. Unfortunately, I couldn¡¯t set their rates, but I could set the taxes I would receive from their efforts. I set this to 20%. ¡°I think it is done, Grinder. You will need to talk to an NPC that has the skill you want to be sure I did it currently,¡± I finished as Jaesmin and Black Beauty came in, having a lively conversation. I caught a word that chilled me a bit¡ªbaby. They sat with us, all smiles as they ordered. It was the happiest I had seen the sun elf. As we waited for the food, she said, ¡°Jaesmin said you are going to be a father?¡± Mad Dog and Grinder¡¯s eyes turned to focus on me. They were focused intently on my reply. ¡°Yes. I am a test case for the game. As far as I know, I am the only one.¡± Eyebrows went up at that. ¡°That is not something on the forums. Can we post that information¡­.it should be worth a lot and probably would make waves with all the ethical bleeding hearts out there.¡± Mad Dog said. ¡°It is okay with me but just don¡¯t mention me or where the child is,¡± I said. This group had earned my trust. Black Beauty looked at Mad Dog with steely eyes, and he caved, ¡°Yeah, maybe we won¡¯t reveal anything about the in-game kid.¡± The food arrived, and Mad Dog and Grinder began pilfering more items from plates that were not their own. ¡°Tallis, do you know why we are called The Silver Linings Playbook guild?¡± ¡°No, I don¡¯t think you told me,¡± I said, sipping on some ale. ¡°Well, it is from a movie made from a pretty good book. If you ever watch it, just watch the original as the two remakes were terrible. The story follows a man who runs into some life trouble. His whole family falls apart. He needs psychiatric help, and his family helps put his life back together. That is how we all met before we started our guild.¡± Grinder slapped Mad Dog on his head. I got an alert that a player had attacked another player in town and had to cancel the guard¡¯s response. Grinder said, ¡°We met in a support group for depression. Not in a psychiatric hospital. Mad Dog likes to lead people to think we all escaped from an asylum before telling the truth. Black Beauty and her sister lost their parents to a crash. I lost my two sons to a terrorist attack. Mad Dog lost his wife to cancer. Everyone in our guild lost someone close to them, which caused them to reconsider living. But we banded together, and now we all live together in the same block of houses in Australia. Mad Dog owns the units, but we live mostly rent-free.¡± Mad Dog quipped, ¡°Yeah, that assault on my person just doubled your rent, mate!¡± It was said in jest as everyone was smiling. That was a lot of information to take in. ¡°I think I trust you all more now that I know that. Is that why you are helping me?¡± They nodded. ¡°I don¡¯t know what to say.¡± A tear rolled down my cheek and I wiped it away, slightly confused from my emotive response in the game. Grinder excused himself as he was about to cry too. I was crying in a video game? I think the programmers needed to work on their priorities. As we walked home later that night, Jaesmin said she thought Black Beauty and her were now friends. I nodded, and for the first time, I was starting to feel hopeful. It felt like I had some support in the real world. People who wouldn¡¯t betray me, good people. Then I thought back¡­.Simba¡­.he had been the one who told me these players were coming. Did he know what type of people they were in the real world? Did he send them to me for this reason? Just what kind of AIs were running this game?
The next three days were a focus for Sanso and me to finish the housing and shops. We completed seven of the apartment buildings, the townhouse for the giantkin, and a dozen shops with housing above them. The lumber mill and woodcraft shop were also well on their way to completion. We would prioritize them once our new group of townsfolk arrived. In the evening, I ate with Mad Dog¡¯s crew and Jaesmin. We talked and joked like old friends. A lot of the discussion focused on their efforts across the river. They had been working hard and running into constant hurdles they needed to clear the Darkskull goblins. Now they only had to kill the goblin clan leader, but he was supported by six elite warriors and four shaman healers. They had tried twice but had to retreat because they couldn¡¯t get to the healers. They also guarded a large structure that respawned the entire group in thirty minutes. Mad Dog assured me they would figure out a plan soon and allow me to build my logging camp. The NPC auction was closing tonight in six hours, so I was excited. Mad Dog said they would stay logged on to help with the NPCs as they arrived just before sunset in the game. Persephone had started adding enchanted lamps on the streets in town, so Malcum was well-lit at night now which should make it easier to settle the new arrivals in. I had several townsfolk ready to help for the mini influx. My task was to meet the dwarf city planner and do whatever I needed to get her to settle in Malcum. Jaesmin was going to focus on the fire giantkin who was going to take over her duties. She had worked with Galana to furnish the giantkin townhouse and the town hall to make it as comfortable as possible for him. Sanso was going to take the two builders. Manto, with some hesitation on my part, was responsible for the brewer. The two human knights were the responsibility of Galana and Tanguin. The lumberjack and wood craftsman were the responsibility of Manarag and Curraen. The halfling farmer would be going with the other farmers in town. And the last NPC, the gnome Hospitaller, would be Mad Dog¡¯s crew responsibility. Time passed, and I checked the auction site for the hundredth time to see the countdown. I had a message. I had two unused auction slots. Did I somehow get more slots....my spine chilled as I opened the interface. The gloves were off, some one had bid on two of my NPCs! Chapter 39 He with the Biggest Purse, Wins! Chapter 39: He with the Biggest Purse, Wins! There was still time before the auction closed, so I let the group at the table know what was happening, ¡°Someone outbid me on the NPCs at the player auction. Jaesmin, can you go get me some coins from the general store? You will have to get Elice, as she controls the town finances. Make it ten platinum. That is about half of what we have.¡± My heart was beating faster as I opened my bids.
Bid Name Class Level Race Sex Age Primary Skill
20 gold (anonymous) Jaylyn Knight 47 Human M 28 Expert Blade: Medium
20 gold (anonymous) Lyons Knight 43 Human M 28 Expert Armor: Heavy
1 gold Kassta Brewer 61 Beastkin: Bull M 33 Expert Brewer
1 gold Warne Craftsman 29 Beastkin: Wolf M 20 Expert Woodcraft: Furniture
1 gold Tilda Farmer 37 Halfling F 52 Expert Crop Farming
1 platinum Breda Bureaucrat 147 Dwarf F 64 Master City Planning
1 gold Neral Bureaucrat 103 Giantkin: Fire M 69 Master Bureaucracy: Guilds
1 platinum Titus Hospitalar 140 Gnome M 66 Master Order Magic
1 platinum Darai Lumberjack 103 Elf: Wood F 277 Master Woodcraft: Lumberjack
1 platinum Varrine Builder 77 Beastkin: Bear M 37 Master Woodcraft: Carpentry
1 platinum Iona Constructor 120 Elf F 152 Master Masonry: Structures
So, someone was making a play for the two knights. They had jumped my one gold bid to 20 gold. Since all bidding was anonymous, I had no idea who was making the play for the NPCs. The two pieces of gold I had bid on were refunded to my dimensional bag. So what should I do? Should I try for the same NPCs, raising the price? Or should I just find two other NPCs? ¡°So, guys, it looks like I have been outbid on the only two fighters I bid on in the NPC auction. What should I do?¡± I asked the group around the table. It was just a brief moment before Mad Dog spoke. ¡°Can you see if it is a free-for-all in there? Are a bunch of people trying to outbid each other?¡± he asked as he was thinking. For all his rough edges, it was clear that Mad Dog was a thinker. ¡°I don¡¯t know. Give me a second.¡± I sorted the NPC by just the ones that had bids and watched the prices. A few changes here and there. ¡°There is some competition. About a dozen NPCs keep increasing in price.¡± Mad Dog nodded at my words. ¡°Well, from what you told us, you may have just had a favor done for you. Your two slots are now free to bid on something else. Or you can try for the two warriors and force up the price. I can see this auction as being a focal point of city-building guilds in the future. It is an ingenious way to siphon coins from guilds. And you said the NPC cities would be joining in on the fun when the game launches?¡± I nodded. ¡°Well, at least the bidder is anonymous.¡± Mad Dog finished. Jaesmin had returned with the coins, and I added them to my pouch to use in the auction. I studied the bids, and it looked like the biggest competition was for the warriors and stone mages. So, it appeared defense and building were becoming important. I lost another bid as someone outbid me on the halfling farmer. It was just one copper more, so I immediately raised my bid to 2 gold. That should let the other party know I was watching. The halfling farmer had a large family, so would boost the population of Malcum. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. Time passed as I narrated what was going on with the auction for Mad Dog and Grinder. Black Beauty got bored and went to listen to singing by the hearth in the inn. I was considering what to do with the two knights when their price jumped again to 30 gold each. Mad Dog spoke. ¡°Tallis if you could take a screenshot and send it to me, I would appreciate it. Just of the final amounts for bidding. I think this is going to play a huge role in game economics and should be valuable information to sell.¡± I nodded and raised the price on both knights to 50 gold each, reentering the bidding war with two others. I then increased the halfling to 3 gold, thinking that maybe the other party would think there were three interested parties and drop out. Time ticked away, and it was the expert skilled tier that had the most bidding. Since the expert tier only cost one gold to start bidding, that made sense. Most of the expert NPCs being fought over had risen to between 20 and 60 gold. My own targeted knights were now at 55 gold. With there being 20 minutes left before the auction closed, I thought about competing for a stone mage and dropping the knights. Or maybe just going for a master¡¯s skill no one else was interested in? The bids for the knights were likely going to hit a platinum anyway. I also had my force of NPCs coming to garrison my barracks in the future. Still, it was hard not to fight for the knights. I mean, I had bid on them the first day of the auction, and now, with just a few minutes left someone was trying to steal them away! Think pragmatically, Tallis. I filtered and looked at the other masters available. Fine, take my stupid human knights! I found four NPCs no one had bid on with master skills that I liked. I had six minutes left and needed to choose two. The skills were tracking, arcane lore, mining, and herbalism. They were all great skills, and I was thought the master tracker might have some combat skills as well. The arcane lore might make a great librarian¡­for the library that wasn¡¯t built. The master miner¡­well we did have a mountain to the north, and Sanso already was mining copper under his tower. Herbalism would be a great way to strengthen both our cook and alchemist by providing better ingrediants. Ugh, why did it have to be so hard! Two minutes. One minute. Fine! I made my choices, and the auction timer reached zero. I was absolutely in utter disbelief that I had lost one of my NPCs! ¡°Fucking shit!¡± I swore aloud, shocking the players, and explained, ¡°Someone outbid me at the last second on my city planner. They bid one platinum and a copper. Shit!¡± Not only did I lose probably the most important NPC, but also, I lost one of my NPC bidding slots. I screamed in frustration, and this drew attention from the NPC patrons. I calmed down. It was to be expected these types of games were competitive, and best not to get upset and just learn from my mistake. My other 10 bids looked fine¡­ No, the list had been divided. The halfling farmer and the dwarf city planner had a new timer going. ¡°Something is up guys,¡± I said as I delved deeper. The auction ended earlier than it was supposed to. I had thought it was perhaps due to the game needing to do game stuff to move the NPCs to their new location. But that was not the case. I started digging through the text and this is what I found. The NPC auction will end two hours before NPC allocation, locking in your bids. So, what did that mean? I moved and tried to bid on the dwarf city planner, and I was allowed to raise the bid to 1 platinum and one gold. ¡°Yes!¡± I screamed then gained composure. ¡°The NPC auction doesn¡¯t end two hours before NPCs are sent to their new locations. It just locks in what NPC slots can be bid on in the last two hours. Since no one bid on 9 of the 11 NPCs I have won the auction for those NPCs. I just have two NPCs I am still competing for. The halfling farmer and the dwarf city planner.¡± I watched the screen, and nothing happened, no one outbid me on either one. Then, with an hour left in the bidding wars a change occurred. A 60-second timer appeared before each NPC. It was a countdown. When the timer reached zero the city planner went up to 1 platinum and 10 gold and the halfling farmer moved to the list of my other secured NPCs. So, I won the farmer and had 60 seconds to counter the bid for the city planner. I moved my bid to 2 platinum and watched anxiously as the 60-second timer reset. With one second left, it went to 2 platinum and 1 gold. ¡°So Mad Dog I am in a bidding war for the last NPC. In the last hour of the auction, you have 60 seconds to outbid your opponent. If you don¡¯t then the highest bid wins.¡± It was Grinder who spoke up. ¡°That means there are up to 60 or more bids in the final hour. Is your opponent waiting till the timer reaches near zero each time?¡± Grinder asked. I nodded. ¡°Typical tactic. They are trying to draw out the auction and get the last bid in at the end of the hour. You should see how deep their pockets are if this NPC is that important to you. That way, if you lose, then at least you made them dent their bank account. Letting them slow play you like this will let them spend as little as possible.¡± I nodded. Grinder, for being a bloodthirsty fighter, was actually wise. ¡°I will bid five platinum next.¡± I did so, and when the timer reached one second, I was outbid again. Mad Dog said I should go all in. I had 11 platinum available in my player bag. If I was outbid, friends promised they would pool their coins to help me bid higher. I nodded and bid 11 platinum. I was on pins and needles when the timer finally expired, and I had won! The dwarf city planner moved to my ¡®completed¡¯ bids. She had cost 11 platinum, but I hoped she would be worth every coin. We all moved the portal stone and waited for the arrivals. I let everyone know the NPC auction had finished and nothing. We had maybe 50 townsfolk at the stone, and I was disappointed, what had gone wrong? A slight pop occurred and 22 halflings were on the large portal stone! They looked around bewildered and I introduced myself, ¡°Welcome to Malcum! If you can move off the stone, the locals will help you all get settled and select your land for your craft!¡± It was working! Not only did the halflings get here immediately but the townsfolk were already smiling and introducing themselves. We now had a small halfling enclave of farmers. I hoped it wouldn¡¯t be difficult to convince them to stay. Almost immediately after they moved off the stone the next pop occurred. A massive minotaur had appeared. I was glad the game was at least spacing out the arrivals, ¡°Manto! Your brewer has arrived!¡± The minotaur was still taking everything in, and I didn¡¯t notice the small child behind him who was scared. Manto rushed from the crowd to speak with the bull-man, and I didn¡¯t hear what was said but he nodded and followed Manto toward the brewery, probably for a tour. It was a few minutes before the next arrival occurred. It was a demonkin woman. She was athletic with light red skin and two small horns on her head. She looked mostly human except for the horns and skin color. This was my master tracker.
Mira Farstrider 142 Demonkin F 30 Master Tracking
By the ebony bow on her back and the deep black leather armor, I think she was a ranger type, so it was definitely a massive score for the village, a level 142 ranger! She was also highly exotic looking like I would expect of a succubus. I could see Grinder and Mad Dog undressing her with their eyes. ¡°Master Mira,¡± I said as the crowd was getting a little loud from all the excitement. I waved over Tanguin and Galana. ¡°When everyone was close, I could see Mira watching everything, still a little taken off guard by her situation. ¡°Master Mira welcome to Malcum. This is General Tanguin and Captain Galana. They will give you a tour of the village. Once you have a good grasp of the village we can talk. I am hoping you will take up the mantle of Master of Scouts for our fair Malcum.¡± Due to her high level, I didn¡¯t think putting her under the command of Tanguin would be a good idea. They moved off and I could already hear Tanguin asking to try out her ebony bow. I hoped that went well as Galana was already shaking her head and whispering something to the demonkin woman. Next to arrive was the furniture maker. He was a wolfkin with a wife and son. Curraen and Manarag¡¯s families moved forward to acclimate them. It was almost thirty minutes before the next arrival. A few villagers with nothing to do had already left, but I was waiting for my dwarf city planner. The next arrival was a giantkin. He was bigger than both Tanguin and Galana and had a white beard and hair. He looked wise and pompous at the same time. I whispered to Jaesmin, ¡°You are up! You need to convince this one to stay and take over your duties.¡± She looked determined as she went to introduce herself. I was nervous and my mind wandered. Do you know what we need? We needed seating around the portal stone. All this waiting was tiring. The next arrival was a gnome decked out in plate mail. This miniature steel-clad warrior did look a little amusing. He was the gnome Hospitalar. I had invested a platinum in the short¡­I guess paladin¡­so best not to upset him by commenting on his comical appearance. Thankfully, Fareth appeared out of nowhere and screamed, ¡°Titus, is that you? You old moldy blockhead!¡± Titus turned to look for the voice and focused on Fareth before smiling and yelling back, ¡°Fareth, your old dishwasher. What are you doing out here in no man¡¯s land?¡± The two moved together and embraced. I didn¡¯t hear the exchange, but they moved off toward the inn. Well, that was fortunate¡­too fortunate. I had that itchy feeling that somehow the game¡¯s AIs were helping me a little. It was too much of a coincidence in a vast game world that those two high-level gnome NPCs knew each other. My musings ended as almost immediately the next arrival popped in. It was a female dwarf, and she was alone. I had only bid on one dwarf in the auction, so this had to be my city planner. She was already looking around; a frown was becoming bigger and more prominent on her face. Shit. I moved in. ¡°Master Breda, welcome to Malcum! I am Lord Tallis and will give you a tour of our fair village,¡± I said with great enthusiasm, but her frown remained. I then began to give her a tour of the village, and she asked many questions as we walked. You would think that would be good, but it wasn¡¯t. After I answered her question, she would follow up with explanations of why I had done this or that wrong. The wrong street layout, buildings in inefficient locations, industry too close to houses, garbage and sewer, works not up to her standards. It just went on and on and I just nodded and felt worse and worse. We finished our tour at the town hall, and she said the first nice thing all evening, ¡°Nice building for such a small town.¡± Yep, that was the only compliment I had gotten from her. She had liked the barracks/gatehouse, but I had built it in the wrong place. I thought there was no way she was going to stay as she sat down at the desk in the room marked ¡®City Planner¡¯s Office.¡¯ ¡°So, Lord Tallis, it will take a lot of effort to get this city organized and functional. You have a lot of nice buildings, but little thought has gone into placing them.¡± I hung my head. ¡°One platinum a month, and I can get you moving in the right direction.¡± Was that one platinum salary or one platinum in building expenses? I was afraid to ask. I wanted to tell her I had already spent 11 platinum to recruit her here! Damn it. I nodded, as I couldn¡¯t risk negotiating and angering her. She grinned, either because I didn¡¯t haggle or had just given her the keys to the city. I couldn¡¯t tell. I brought her to one of the apartments and said she could live there. She walked around the place and nodded, saying it was acceptable. Well, at least she didn¡¯t want a mansion or something else ludicrous to live in. It had taken hours to give her the tour and the streetlights led me home. Jaesmin smiled as I came through the door. ¡°He accepted! Just 25 gold a month! But there is a problem. His highest-ranked master skill, the bureaucracy of guilds, relates to the players and not crafter guilds.¡± My eyes popped, and Jaesmin thought I was angry. ¡°Tallis, no need to worry! He has plenty of other administrative skills to do the job we needed him to do.¡± My poor, na?ve little woman. Did you at least haggle for his salary? I didn¡¯t ask that as I hadn¡¯t haggled with the dwarf woman either. Also, what did the giantkin¡¯s guild skill do? I had a feeling tomorrow, I was going to be spending a large portion of my day sorting out the new NPCs and getting sticker shock on their salaries. Whose idea was it to bring in so many master-skilled NPCs¡­oh yeah, me. Chapter 40 Town Administration Chapter 40: Town Administration I had no will to look at the NPC auction for the next cycle. It really didn¡¯t matter anyway. I would invest my time when the timer got closer to zero this round. The players had taken the gloves off, and it was now a competition, and it was best not to reveal which NPCs I was interested in too early. I was guessing even those players who would lose their characters at the end of the testing phase were bidding. Those were the dangerous ones if you thought about it. They had nothing to lose, so there was no reason to hold back. I wondered what would happen to their avatars when the testing period ended. I would ask Mad Dog if he knew tomorrow. Tonight, I decided to break from drafting or even looking at the town management tabs. My head already hurts from today. I curled up with Jaesmin in the middle of the night. Jaesmin moved into me, and we had a sensual session of lovemaking. Jaesmin was doing all the work. Being in a video game, it didn¡¯t take long for me to recover. I was going to reciprocate, but she held me back. She said this was her thank you for replacing her as Master of Guilds. So, it was make-up sex? If that was how this AI thought, then maybe I should find more ways to upset her in hopes of getting another lengthy session of sensual bliss. In the morning, Jaesmin was slower to rise. NPCs, I had found, had more of a natural day-to-day fatigue. Since the time dilation was 4 to 1, I could usually get away with sleeping every fourth day. But I did find my brain was starting to react to the day-night cycle as well. I wanted to sleep at night to recharge more and more. I was downstairs at my drafting table, so I sent off an inquiry to the admins. It came back almost instantly with a preprogrammed response. This phenomenon was already documented, so I received a canned response. Hard-wired players experiencing inclinations to sleep at night, every night, is a normal neural response to the game cycle. If you find the need, it has been determined you can get a full hour of REM sleep (4 game hours) to satisfy your brain¡¯s requirements. If you have further questions, please direct them to Doctor Almedia¡¯s inbox. So, what should I do? Should I start getting on a daily sleep cycle in the game? What was healthier for me? It didn¡¯t matter since my body had been in a coma for decades. Jaesmin came down the stairs and started making breakfast. ¡°I am going to the inn for breakfast and to talk with our new gnome paladin. When you are ready, you can meet Sanso and help him with the residential buildings.¡± I went and kissed Jaesmin and headed out. If I was going to eat food this morning, it was going to be Fareth¡¯s cooking and not Jaesmin¡¯s. Maybe that was a little unfair to my wife. I stopped walking. I backed up my mental thought process. I had just called Jaemsin my wife in my head. I mean, that is essentially what she was to me, but she was more than a fictional video game wife. I must have stood there for a good 10 minutes in the middle of the road, wrestling with the idea in my head. Finally, I decided that it was what Jaesmin was to me and that I should make it official. What did I have to do in the game to accomplish this¡­give her a ring? Have a wedding? Who should I ask? No, I should just do it. I was at the inn a short while later. Titus, the gnome paladin, was eating a massive steak. It had to be at least 64 ounces. He yelled to the back kitchen, ¡°Fareth, you culinary angel, I missed your cooking!¡± He was eating large chunks of meat, barely chewing before swallowing. Besides the fact that the steak for breakfast was off, the steak was as big as the gnome¡¯s head. It is a game, I told myself. I went to the kitchen to talk with Fareth. She was working hard in the kitchen and spoke with a smile when she noticed me, ¡°Lord Tallis! Your friends already left this morning for the forest. Can I get you anything special?¡± Since she was in such a good mood, I decided to get some information and ask a favor. ¡°I just wanted to know about Titus out there. Is he staying?¡± Fareth cocked her head before answering. ¡°If he wants more of my cooking, then yes. But you should talk to him. I have known him since he was a newborn. He was a questing knight in my old king¡¯s retinue. He sought out chaos beasts all over the world and slayed them. A bit one-minded, that one.¡± Well, it was good information before talking to him. ¡°The second thing is I plan to take Jaesmin as my wife¡­¡± Before I could say another word, the small woman hugged me and picked me up. How was the tiny woman so strong¡ªright, it is a video game. ¡°Good man! And you want me to prepare the wedding feast? Consider it done! Oh, I need to gather so many ingredients. Where are those gluten players when you need them¡­¡± she left me in the kitchen, a little stunned. I went into the common room, but she had left the inn. With nothing better to do, I sat across from Titus. ¡°So, Lord Tallis, Fareth has told me a lot about your settlement. She says there are good people here, and I have not detected any chaotic elements. Why did you need my services?¡± He said as he moved the plate to the side. It just had a bone, all the meat consumed. ¡°Ah yes, well, I recruited you to help defend my citizens from the¡ªchaotic elements. You will be given a residence, monthly salary, and meals at the inn.¡± I offered him the job. I should have searched for some official title to appoint him to. Titles seemed to make the NPCs easy to convince. He nodded, then spoke, ¡°All I require from you is to pledge to the Path of Order and denounce the Path of Chaos.¡± He looked expectantly at me. ¡°Can you explain what that entails? Am I pledging myself to gods or something?¡± I asked, not wanting to jump into something. Titus nodded, ¡°Not so many gods but courses of actions. There are dualities out there. Chaos vs. Order. Good vs. Evil. Light vs. Dark. Undeath vs. Life. I have dedicated my life to subverting Chaos in favor of Order. I could spend hours talking to you about the benefits of Order over Chaos, but it should be obvious for a growing hamlet like yours.¡± He sat and waited. Yeah, it made sense, and I was getting the feeling the game¡¯s AI pushed this gnome to me. ¡°Agreed, Malcum will follow Order.¡± As soon as I said it, I was hit with notifications. Reputation with the Order Faction +1000 Reputation with the Chaos Faction -1000 Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Ok, he didn¡¯t mention anything about faction reputation. I went into my sheets and there it was in my player tab and again in a city management tab. Hopefully, this wouldn¡¯t cause problems down the line. All the other dualities listed were equal at 0. ¡°Fantastic! Lord Tallis. Just a place to live, food, and enough funds to maintain my equipment, say 30 gold a month. I may travel to seek out problems, but I hope the players will be able to handle any Chaos elements I uncover nearby.¡± Titus was beaming and so was I. I had just hired some type of quest-giving NPC! Since I hadn¡¯t eaten yet, I snuck into the kitchen and grabbed something on my way out. One NPC is done¡­onto the next. I skirted the city¡¯s outer wall and found the halfling enclave already tilling fields. I talked with the head of the family briefly, and they were content with the land but did ask for more regular patrols outside of Malcum¡¯s earthen works. I said it would be done and went to find Tanguin. Tanguin was responsible for security outside the walls, while Galana was responsible for security within. I found Tanguin at our makeshift guard tower over the river. ¡°Lord Tallis!¡± He yelled from the top. I moved and joined him up top. I had built this as a tower to huddle the townsfolk together when the orcs attacked the city. It was mostly unused, and my interface said it required maintenance. ¡°Tanguin, I was looking for you. The farmers around the city are looking to increase patrolling. I told them I would talk to you.¡± He nodded thoughtfully. ¡°Yes, the number of farms is growing. I can do a loop every few hours with Bohai. That should satisfy them until your garrison arrives. So are the dusk elves going to be put under the command of Mira?¡± He asked. Mira? Oh, I checked and he was referring to the demonkin ranger-type. ¡°Do you think that is the best plan of action?¡± I asked while nodding. Hopefully, he would be ok with this. ¡°As much as I would like to control the scouts, I think she can do a better job. She is in the forest now with Galana.¡± He turned and looked into the woods with some consternation on his face. ¡°She is better with the bow than me. I should focus my efforts on the footsoldiers.¡± He sounded more resigned. Did my big giantkin general have confidence problems? ¡°Tanguin, you are not the stealthy type anyway. The cavalry and infantry are your domain.¡± He brightened. ¡°So, has Mira decided to join us?¡± I asked, hopeful I wouldn¡¯t have to do some inane quest to get her to stay. ¡°Yeah, I think she is going to stay. Galana and her have been talking non-stop since they arrived. They went to meet the centaur druid this morning. If that goes well, she should stay.¡± He said with a heavy tone. I could tell something was bothering him, so I asked. ¡°Is there a problem?¡± He looked puzzled for just a second before talking, ¡°Galana and I have¡­you know¡­been getting along well. And now this new demonkin shows up, and it is like they are best friends. It reminds me of growing up with my seven sisters, being the odd man out all the time.¡± Ok, my general did, in fact, have insecurity issues. This games AI personalities kept things interesting, but damn. I patted him on the back and said something I would have said to cheer my friends up back when I lived in the real world. ¡°Well, maybe you get them to have a threesome with you. Mira does have a killer body.¡± I realized my mistake immediately. His eyes brightened, and he didn¡¯t take it as a jest that it was. Oh, I was an idiot. I tried to withdraw my comment, but the damage was done, and Tanguin left before I could correct my mistake. This was going to be as bad as I had forecasted. I wanted to fix my error, but I had too many things to do. Hopefully, I could catch Mira and Galana before they ran into Tanguin. My next stop was the town hall. My dwarf city planner had the largest room and had a massive table set up and was creating stone buildings with a shaping skill and placing them on the table. I skipped past her door, not wanting to be told how stupid I had been in my planning right now. On the next floor up, I found my giantkin guild master. He was in his office and had already built-up paper stacks. Bureaucracy at work! Since he was already hired, I was mostly curious about his master skill in ¡®guild bureaucracy.¡¯ Talking to him, it was better than I could have hoped for. It gave him game authority to register player guilds and for those player guilds to purchase bonuses for their guilds from him. Malcum could get rich from this NPC if we attracted enough player guilds! He also educated me on player guild buildings. The town could rent land within its walls to player guilds for guild houses, stores, training yards, crafting buildings, and more! I sent Mad Dog a message about it, and he said he would visit Neral, the giantkin, when they got back. So, paying him 25 gold a month was definitely worth it! I snuck out of the town hall and checked on Sanso and Jaesmin¡¯s progress, my two new builder¡¯s, the bearman, Varrine, and Elf, Iona, were working with them. They had improved the work and progress much faster than I expected. It only took a few minutes to confirm the new worker¡¯s salaries. The bearman was going to get housing and 10 gold a month. The elf woman was going to get 22 gold and a plot of land inside the city to build her own residence. The best part of it was the bearman had four children, a father-in-law and wife; and the elf woman had an extended family of 12! I was sure all the adults would have skills to add to the productivity of Malcum. They were doing well as a team, and we had lunch together at the inn. I was surprised not to find Manto drinking at the inn. Then I remembered he had taken our new brewer under his wing last night when he had arrived. I would have to go and check on them. I also needed to find my furniture maker and lumberjack. The brewer and Manto were already working on the first batch of ale. Being a game, it was only going to take 24 hours to finish. The brewer, a minotaur named Kassta, was a friendly sort. I was surprised how easily the big bull-man was bossed around by Manto. Well, maybe not bossed around, but whatever Manto said, he hoped right to it with an excited eagerness to please. Just what did Manto do to the man last night? After a round of negotiating, his monthly salary was a residence in town, 10% of profits and 5 gold a month. Finally, a reasonable amount of funds for a master crafter! Kassta seemed to think we could start exporting ale in a month if the farmers could keep up with his needs. He also assured me that the product would be of extremely high quality between his skill and the building bonuses. I think Manto was drooling when he said that. It was late afternoon when I finally broke away to check on my last investment. The lumber mill and furniture shop were both active when I arrived. My lumberjack was a tiny elf woman, and I couldn¡¯t fathom how she chopped down trees. She had red hair, freckles, and brown eyes, and you could call her cute. Her husband and aunt were helping her work. She had powerful Nature magic that allowed her to cleanly cut the trees and then start them growing from the stump to be harvested again in a few days. Essentially my master lumberjack was a master arborist. We worked out her pay in short order. She did give me a quest to get a logging camp established in 30 days or less, but that shouldn¡¯t be an issue. Once Mad Dog finished off the goblin threat, it would just take a day to raise up the buildings on the other side of the river. Unfortunately, my furniture craftsman didn¡¯t have magic spells to help him along. This meant the wolfman operated along at a slower pace than I had hoped for. The two chairs he completed today were of excellent quality, though. Since he was only an expert, his salary wasn¡¯t too high. He also already had 384 orders! It had been a long day, and I was excited to go home and relax with Jaesmin. I had decided to pursue sleeping nightly¡­maybe in slight hope of getting some more midnight ministrations from Jaesmin. But also, to try and get some normalcy in the game I was trapped in. I was walking home when the elf girl Savannah came running up to me. I was worried for a second, but she just delivered her message and ran back the direction she had come from, the trader had returned with my sheep. Oh, I had forgotten about that. I had tasked both the players and the NPC trader with the same task¡­get sheep for Zion the barber. I fast walked to the general store to meet the trader as I had hoped that the man had also obtained the other item that I wanted¡­plans for the auction house! Chapter 41 What You Have, Others Will Want Chapter 41: What You Have, Others Will Want The trader had returned to Malcum. I looked around at the people searching his wares and saw Zion grin as he inspected a small flock of mismatched sheep with a grin. I decided I needed to handle this first, so I approached Zion. Zion spoke first, ¡°Lord Tallis, quite the little flock you have here. Think you will be competing with me on the markets for goat cheese and wool?¡± He was all smiles and clearly knew that I had doubled up on his quest. Best not to make it too easy for him to get the sheep, ¡°Master Zion, I do, in fact, plan to start my own wool and goat cheese business. I used your quest as a baseline to determine what varieties I needed to start with.¡± I smiled at him, and the dwarf barber grin was fading. ¡°But perhaps you would be interested in buying out your competition before it starts?¡± I offered with a smile on my face. It took Zion just a few seconds before he nodded, and his smile returned, ¡°Aye, Lord Tallis. I will offer you a fair price for these fine animals. Let¡¯s say 30% of the wool from all my stock for the next year.¡± He looked expectantly at me for an answer. I knew he sold meat, wool, and cheese from his sheep, so I was only getting 30% of one-third of his products. But I needed to factor the sheep I had here would only expand his flocks by 20%...so doing the math. Ugh, fuck the math. ¡°Agreed, Master Zion, if you will give me a haircut free of charge when requested.¡± He nodded, and we shook on it. Zion was beaming the entire time at his fortune while bringing his new sheep home. I moved to the trader and waited for him to finish with the townsfolk. I checked out his goods, and there were many non-magical household items. It appeared he was doing well, though, as the tables were slowly emptying. When it slowed, he turned to me, ¡°Lord, I see you have taken care of your sheep. I also have the other item you requested, but it was a few more coins than expected.¡± He went to his wagon, pulled out a scroll, and handed it to me. The scroll wasn¡¯t very fancy, and I unfurled it. Common Small Auction House Plans, 5000 Health, Requirements Woodcraft Carpentry 7, Portal Stone, Range 1,000 miles The building was fairly simple in design. It was 40¡¯ by 40¡¯ and had two dozen alcoves inside, which I assumed were terminals for players to access the auction houses within 1,000 miles. ¡°The plans were hard to find since only players can utilize them,¡± The trader interrupted my contemplation. ¡°I had extra expenses and had to call in a favor from a friend. ¡°And how much will your extra effort cost me?¡± I asked while still perusing the plans. ¡°25 gold,¡± he said without hesitation. I nodded and produced the coin. It is best to stay on good terms with the trader. The plans had some building materials that I assumed were magic-based. It required 24 tier 1 dimensional essences and 24 tier 1 space essences. I could task Mad Dog with getting the material. I planned to make the structure out of stone instead of wood. My internal building sense told me that wouldn¡¯t change the functionality of the building, just its base Health Points. Being such a simple structure, I went to the town portal and planned to put it next to the Guard House. I dropped one summoned stone slab and jumped when a voice barked, ¡°What are you doing?¡± I turned to see Breda, my city planner. The dwarf woman did not look happy. ¡°Lord Tallis, you can¡¯t just go throwing buildings up willy-nilly. I have been working on a plan for the city that requires minimal building relocations and street adjustments. Come with me.¡± She said in a softer voice. It didn¡¯t sound like a request, so I followed. We went to her office; over half the room was a large table with miniature buildings with labels on them. I picked one up, General Store, and marveled at the detail. I didn¡¯t notice the dwarf¡¯s hard stare, but when I did, I put the piece back down. The look made me feel I was playing with her dollhouse furniture without permission. ¡°Now, Lord Tallis, you can see I have created districts within the city. I did my best to keep buildings where they are currently located, but these and these will need to be moved here.¡± She used a pointer stick to indicate the buildings and spots. I noticed something, ¡°What is this district?¡± I pointed to the shoreline where my house and the inn were located. ¡°This will be the upper-class district. When we expand the footprint of Malcum, it will include both sides of the river. We will build the small estates and luxury housing along the banks as there will only be docks south of the city and fresh water from the mountains passing the estates,¡± she said as if the matter was already decided. ¡°What about the docks and the shipwright?¡± I asked, seeing those structures on her model. ¡°We will be moving them downriver, just outside the walls. Most industries will also need to be moved west outside the earthwork walls. We will encompass them in that structure when the city is large enough to build a second wall. But for now, the only industry allowed within the city will be industries with low noise pollution and material waste.¡± She seemed self-confident, as she explained. I was slightly confused. This was a video game¡­what was with material waste and noise pollution? I was afraid to look at the game updates. I did, anyway. Oh shit! Literally. The need for sewers was less than 40 hours away. Breda was still talking, but I was looking at her model. Yes, everything she had planned made a lot of sense, but it would slow down the town¡¯s development. ¡°So, we are moving all these buildings?¡± I asked, leaving the question open for an answer. ¡°I talked with Sanso. A powerful mage, that one. And he thinks he can relocate three buildings a day,¡± Breda supplied. I did the simple math for the 27 buildings she wanted to be moved¡­so I would be without Sanso for nine days! I paled in comparison to Sanso when it came to generating stone and manipulating it for a new building construction. He was worth five of me easily. Losing him for nine days? Nope. ¡°I can¡¯t spare Sanso for that long. You can direct him every third day. It means your changes will take a month, but they will happen.¡± I tried to sound all Lordly, and it seemed to work as she nodded. Maybe I would spend every third day off, and try to gain some levels? If I got to level 25, I could get myself a class. I should be trying to level as much as possible before I got locked out of leveling by the game¡¯s launch, but there was so much to do around town to prepare as well. ¡°That is doable. So you have new building plans and an auction house? You should place it here.¡± She indicated a spot just twenty feet from where I had started my construction. ¡°If you look,¡± she said patiently, ¡°by placing it here, it won¡¯t obstruct the roads and will be close to the road containing the player¡¯s guild houses.¡± If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. She pulled out some blocks simply labeled guild house. ¡°These are plots you can sell to players so they can build buildings to house their populations. Each plot is 250¡¯ by 250¡¯. I think a reasonable price for each plot is 2,000 gold and a monthly rent of 200 gold.¡± My jaw dropped, and Breda smirked. ¡°The players are what will fund your city, Lord Tallis. Have you looked at your balance sheet recently?¡± Panicked, I opened it and was shocked to see I only had enough funds for three more weeks of operations...but that didn¡¯t include the arrival of the garrison for my barracks! My heart was thudding as I looked at all my new expenses. The master NPCs were killing me financially. Whose idea was it to get so many so early in the town¡¯s development? It was only DAY 112. The game launch was DAY 181. And even after the game launch, I would have to wait for players to accumulate enough wealth to build guild houses! So, even with Breda¡¯s projections, this wealth wouldn¡¯t be available for some time. I needed to start making serious coin! Seeing my panic, Breda spoke, ¡°Lord Tallis, there is no need to fret. Things will be fine if we solidify Malcum¡¯s economy and begin steady exports. Look here.¡± She handed me a sheet. It listed several items made in Malcum. ¡°All you need to do is establish trade for the surplus of these items, and you should be able to generate a handsome monthly profit.¡± She seemed smug, but I was thankful to have the list in my hand. I went to my interface and copied her worksheet there. ¡°Ok, Breda, so my biggest concern right now is the shit hitting the fan in two days,¡± I said with attempted humor, but Breda didn¡¯t get the joke. ¡°The sewers, Breda, they become functional in two days.¡± She finally smiled at the joke, a little late, but oh well. ¡°Lord Tallis, that is one thing you are well ahead of the game on. The sluice purification back to the river is complete, according to your enchanter Persephone. I gave her two additional locations within the city to add two more in the future. Sanso has my new network for the sewer and water lines for the entire city, and his golems will be working on them.¡± She smiled confidently. It did look like she was worth the money. We talked for another hour, and by the end of our conversation, Breda was no longer talking down to me but to me as we hashed out the order of buildings for construction. The priority was to increase housing and industry so our exports could increase the treasury. The second priority was changing the earthen wall around the town to a stone wall. The third and final priority was increasing the aesthetic beauty of Malcum. I felt the weight come off my shoulders as Breda would be the guiding hand of the town¡¯s development and ensure we didn¡¯t make costly errors¡­well, no more expensive errors from now on. I walked down to the general store and was intrigued as Savanah was outside the alchemist yelling about the wares offered inside. I approached the girl, and she had a massive smile on her face, ¡°Lord Tallis, come inside and buy some revitalizing cream and hair growth salve! I brewed them myself!¡± She still acted like she was in charge, and I followed the lively elf girl inside. Tonna was talking to a villager, and Savannah dragged me over to another counter and put two small tubes on the counter. ¡°This one is the hair growth. Since you are not bald yet, you can use it to grow a beard.¡± I applied the salve and took a mirror to avoid dissuading the girl from her new profession. A healthy beard grew from my face. But it was off-red in color, so it didn¡¯t match my black hair. Savanah was still smiling, so I said, ¡°You will be a mighty alchemist one day, girl! Do you have something in black?¡± I asked, pointing to the red beard. She initially didn¡¯t understand the question, ¡°Oh, to match your hair? No, but I do have a red dye to use on your hair to match your new beard!¡± She placed another vial on the counter. ¡°Hmm, I think I like the contrast.¡± A lie, but why burst the girl¡¯s happy bubble? I escaped the shop shortly after, and before, I found myself trying all of her brewing concoctions. The little whelp even charged her Lord two silver for the two potions! A future alchemist and trader! I found Sanso, and he did not look happy. Breda had twenty-eight pages of notes for him of things to work on. It was a lot different than working for me. I gave him the good news that he only had to work with Breda one out of three days. On the other days, he would work with the two new construction workers and me. I sat with Sanso and the builders and found that our new workers could handle many of Breda¡¯s notes, so we divided up the tasks, much to Sanso¡¯s relief. We were all going to head toward the lumber mill north of town when my notification pinged. Quest Completed: Eliminate the threat of the Darkskull Goblin Tribe in Shiverwood forest. Reward: Logging Outpost, 10,000 Experience The experience was extremely welcome, but more importantly, I could now harvest lumber safely on the other side of the river. I checked my notifications, and Mad Dog had, in fact, told me they had just defeated the goblin chief and were returning to celebrate! I told him I was putting together a shopping list for him in the city. Instead of working on buildings at the lumber mill, we all worked on building a large and wide stone bridge across the river. Even though I didn¡¯t see many ships going upriver, I still gave it ample clearance underneath. The bridge spanned 60 yards in one long arch and looked impressive. Tomorrow, we would widen it so a wagon could easily cross. I would also take down the narrow bridge by Manto¡¯s tower for defensive reasons. I got a message from Mad Dog and read it aloud to my crew. The new ale is fantastic, mate! Where the fuck are ya? That was all they needed to hear, and we headed to the inn in town to sample our newest town commodity. A big celebration was in full swing, and the inn was packed with over 150 people. I noticed many children also present, and we had a semi-band going from a collection of odd instruments. The person who had the best time by far was Fareth. She came out from the kitchens every five minutes with large trays filled with food. The ale was also flowing heavily. My fellow builders moved into the crowd to join their families and get food. I noticed Jaesmin sitting with Manto and moved to sit with them. As I sat, a mug was placed in my hand, and I sipped it. Wow, it was good! It was slightly nutty in the aroma but cold and went down smoothly. Manto raised his own mug and spoke, ¡°The enchanter made some cold barrels for the ale at my suggestion, of course.¡± He sipped again. ¡°So, Lord Tallis, you have a good thing going here.¡± He sighed, ¡°But the more successful you are, the more people want to take it. I have friends in human lands to the south. When your success reaches their ears, they will send someone to claim your little village and collect taxes from you.¡± He sipped again, groaning happily, as I digested the info. So, I not only had to worry about players, but I also had to worry about NPC cities. ¡°How long do I have until they come? Can we stop them?¡± I asked for advice from the powerful mage. ¡°Oh, you have time. How much, I do not know. But they will come with the tax collector first. They will say something like, ¡®these lands have belonged to us for a hundred years, and we have come to collect our rightful due for protecting the lands from great evils.¡¯¡± He sipped again. ¡°This is really good ale. Well, you can pay the man, and they will return and ask for more taxes in a year, or you can tell them to fuck off.¡± He sipped again. ¡°If you tell them to fuck off, he will run back to the court, and it will take them a few months to send either a diplomatic party or a small military force to subdue your little town. You must be strong enough to tell them to get lost.¡± He raised his mug again and seemed peeved that it was empty. ¡°So that is the advice of a drunk who was an accomplished war wizard. Take it as you will.¡± Manto stood shakily, went to the bar for another mug, and sat with Manarag¡¯s family at a table. ¡°He has been teaching Manarag¡¯s eldest some air magic. Just the basics,¡± Jaesmin said from across the table. A long pause occurred. ¡°So what are you going to do?¡± She asked. I looked around the room at all the diverse races getting along so well. I had built this diverse community from next to nothing; it was just the beginning. ¡°Oh, we will not let anyone take this away from us. All will be welcome here, and we will be strong in the face of any adversity.¡± I said it with conviction. In the back of my head, I knew it would be a battle to keep the idyllic existence we had created. Whether it was the human NPC courts or the influx of players, we would fight to keep our independence. Chapter 42 Wedding Bells
Chapter 42: Wedding Bells
It was a great victory celebration. The ale was consumed at a fantastic rate, but the character of the townsfolk showed through. No violence happened, and the mood remained merry. I finally found time to thank Mad Dog.
¡°Mad Dog, thank you for finishing the quest. The logging camp will be a huge boon for the town.¡± I told him in the noisy inn¡¯s common room.
¡°No problem. It was actually your town NPCs that made it possible. That sexy demonkin and Galana found us, and using their bows, they took out the healers allowing us to win; here¡¯s to badass bitches mate!¡± He raised his mug.
¡°Really? I didn¡¯t realize they could help you complete quests?¡± I knew they had been in the forest, but what spurred them to help Mad Dog and his group?
¡°We ran into them doing a patrol, and Grinder asked the Demonkin if she could use her bow to cover us when we attacked, and surprisingly, she said yes. I didn¡¯t know it was possible, but the NPCs are fairly flexible in this game. We did get a lot less experience than we expected from the victory, but it was worth it to finish the quest. I also think Grinder has a crush on the red-skinned woman now.¡± He laughed, but I could see he didn¡¯t think it was funny. Maybe he was jealous?
I decided to turn the conversation, ¡°So Mad Dog, I am struggling to pay the bills. I also have a myriad of NPCs to keep happy, supplying them with materials. I wanted to ask you for help in holding things together. It is in your interest for the town to be here when you return,¡± I added. He sipped his mug, nodding.
¡°I also wanted to ask what happens to your characters when the game starts after the testing phase?¡± My questions caused Mad Dog to pause his beverage consumption and go into thought.
¡°Yeah, I wanted to let you know that the experience and rewards we have been receiving for doing quests around town have been decreasing,¡± Mad Dog said. I had a confused look. I opened my town management for quests.
I looked and tried to figure things out. Yes, my coins were dangerously low, and my quest givers had been reducing monetary rewards in favor of the village¡¯s reputation and experience. I found something extremely interesting. I didn¡¯t have the unlimited experience to give out quests for Malcum. The experience pool grew at a rate of one point per level of the NPCs in the village under the lord¡¯s protection. I could also transfer my own experience for rewards as well.
So, my reward experience grew fairly slowly. It would grow faster now with higher-level NPCs under my command. But still, just three players had been able to drain my experience pool for quest rewards so quickly. I wondered if NPC lords had to deal with the same headache. I checked, and I was generating about 3800 experience points daily to use for town quests. When my barracks were garrisoned, that daily experience would balloon to over 12,000 experience points daily.
I needed more civilians to be working for me. If I had a city with 10,000 inhabitants averaging level 50¡­that would be 500,000 experience points I could generate daily! I was a long, long way from that, but it was possible.
I thought about it more, and if I had 1,000 players living in the city, then that would be just 1,000 experience average experience each would earn per day from city quests¡­a pitiful amount. I was getting a math headache.
I turned to Mad Dog, ¡°Yeah, I see the issue.¡± I went on to explain how the quest experience rewards functioned for a lord. He nodded and asked questions as I explained the interface.
¡°I think my party should get our quests from other locations then. Then, you could start banking some experience for when the game officially launches. So when our guild arrives to settle here, we can draw on the pool. We will also try to bring in as much coin into Malcum as possible in our remaining time in game. I mean, I am definitely not planning on eating anywhere else, mate!¡± He slapped me on my back, and I had to cancel the alert for the guards to come to take care of someone assaulting their lord.
Mad Dog looked abashed. ¡°Sorry about that. Don¡¯t know my own strength. You also asked what happens to our avatars when the testing period ends?¡± I nodded. ¡°Well, originally, they were going to transition to NPCs. At least, that was the plan announced by the devs when we got the gig for game testing. A few weeks ago, that changed. Our characters will now dissolve into nothingness¡­¡± he flared his fingers slowly. ¡°We have to abide by the fair trade laws as well. We can¡¯t just leave you all our magic or wealth before we fade into nothing.¡±
Well, that nixed one of my requests to get all their equipment as a parting gift. I had been hoping to get all their gear and coin just before the period ended. Mad Dog continued, ¡°We will do everything we can to help Malcum grow in the home stretch, Tallis. You will have to survive on your own while the rich boys come and play before the big open game release. Sadly, none of us could afford the early start ticket.¡± I had already figured as much.
Mad Dog took some time to recount the dramatic end to the Darkskull goblin king in Shiverwood. I listened with rapt attention as he described the harrowing battle. I think he made it sound much closer than it actually was. With Galana and Mira on overwatch, I doubted the battle was too difficult. After he finished his tale, I remembered I had some news for him. ¡°I do have some good news concerning guilds in Malcum. Our new master of guilds can license new guilds and rent lands within the town limits to guilds.¡± Mad Dog¡¯s eyes widened at my words.
His mind was churning, and then his mouth, ¡°If we build a guild house and abandon it¡­you could sell it to us when we enter the game during launch? Could we commission you to draft us a set of guild house plans?¡± Mad Dog¡¯s eyes were lively with excitement. He thought he might have found a back door that the admins had missed about retaining some of his wealth.
¡°To make sure, maybe I should join the guild¡­that way, the guild building wouldn¡¯t be at risk of being seized by some new game update,¡± I said after thinking. I understood that this testing period was aimed at making the game more playable and fair, but sometimes, the endless updates were frustrating.
¡°That would be fantastic, mate!¡± A message popped up with an invitation to the Silver Linings Playbook guild. I hesitated. I had been thinking more about joining just before their avatars disappeared. But there is no better time than the present. I liked Mad Dig and his group. I accepted the invitation.
I made to clarify, ¡°So I am still not sure if I will be part of your guild when the game launches. I will decide after I transfer your guild house back to you when you return,¡± I said slowly. Then I decided to make a joke, ¡°So how much are you paying me to draft your guild plans?¡± A huge grin appeared on Mad Dog¡¯s face. He pointed his finger at me.
¡°Well, guild mates usually do things for the guild for free. But in this case, let¡¯s say fair trade would be 200 gold?¡± Mad Dog said while maintaining a grin. It wasn¡¯t a lot, but the guild had done so much for me that I probably would have done it for nothing. The 200 gold transfer wouldn¡¯t alert the monitoring system Mad Dog had mentioned. We spent the next two hours sketching out a floor plan for his ideal guild house. I would work on it tonight.
I made my way through the crowd, doing rounds. I tried to say a few words to everyone, especially the new NPCs in town. Trying to be so social was draining, but in my mind, it had a positive effect. From what Simba had said to me, the more players interacted with NPCs, the more likely their AIs would be upgraded.
The party was breaking up, so I headed home. Jaesmin was already asleep, so I got to work on the guild house plans from the sketches. The building was going to be 50¡¯ x 100¡¯ with a walled backyard the same size. So the plot of land required would be 100¡¯ x 100¡¯. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
The basement ran the entire length of the structure and was set to be a huge combat training area. The first floor had a common room with a bar, meeting rooms, and a trophy room. The second floor housed the guild vault and three small crafting rooms. The third floor had 24 private bedrooms. And the roof, at my suggestion, would be gardens.
Mad Dog said he expected 24 would be the upper limit of the growth of the guild. I would make the 12th person if I decided to remain in the guild. The entire building would be stone. My work didn¡¯t hit the inspiration I was hoping for, but I thought the final plans were good.
Rare Medium Guild House, Health 300,000, Requires Masonry Structures 43 (Bonus +50% to all pool recovery, +25% experience gain for 8 hours if rested for 8 hours in guild house)
I sent a message to Mad Dog with the building description. I didn¡¯t think he was on, but he immediately messaged me. ¡°Holy shit, mate! That is fantastic!¡± It was perfect! He would get the two platinum together for the plans tomorrow and asked how long it would take to build and what the cost would be.
That was an interesting question. I didn¡¯t know what a fair cost was. I told him I would build the guild house for free, but he would be responsible for the land rent. I hoped Breda wouldn¡¯t charge him too much in rent as it was a smaller plot than the ones on her table.
It was morning, and Jaesmin came down the stairs. ¡°Care to join us today? We will establish the logging camp and ensure the mill is ready to go?¡± Jaesmin nodded and made breakfast before I could usher us to the inn. There were no awesome buffs from breakfast, but we smiled as we ate the fare. We joined Sanso and my two new builders, Iona and Varrine.
We started by reinforcing the bridge to the Shiverwood Forest. We made the bridge slightly wider and then added railings and a small guard post on our side of the river. The guard post was just a stone shed for now.
My reward for clearing the goblins gave me a logging camp in the Shiverwood. My interface showed it as the old logging camp used by Malcum. Unfortunately, that logging camp was not located across the bridge as I had planned. Selecting the parcel of land I wanted for the logging camp across the bridge took just a few clicks. The negative was that instead of getting a logging camp that needed some repairs, I would have to build the camp from the ground up.
I hadn¡¯t designed a logging camp yet, so we traveled as a group and explored the old logging camp setup. It would give me some ideas on what to include. We returned to find my tiny elf female lumberjack, Darai, hard at work. She was in the forest cutting some trees to clear the shoreline.
She had marching orders from Breda to keep the shore clear for future town expansion. Sanso summoned his golems to bring the lumber to the mill. With Breda in tow, we cleared the site for the new logging camp. I was an idiot and asked Breda what the best setup for the logging camp was. She immediately took charge, bossing us around as we set up some slabs, draining our for the buildings before returning to the inn for lunch.
Walking into the inn, I was shocked. It was set up for a big event. The tables were removed, and chairs were set up facing an altar under an arch. I was momentarily confused until Fareth came out of the kitchen with a large wedding cake. Oh shit! I didn¡¯t think she would get things put together this fast! I guess I was getting married today.
Fareth looked from behind the cake, ¡°Lord Tallis, you are early. I don¡¯t expect everyone until this evening! And you shouldn¡¯t be with the bride until the ceremony! Galana!!¡± Her yell brought the giantkin from the kitchen covered in flour with a white Mira right behind her. Fareth indicated the two, ¡°Yeah, I needed some help¡­best I could find.¡± She grunted, ¡°Galana, take Jaesmin away until the wedding tonight!¡± Galana rushed to be free of Fareth with Mira on her heels and ushered Jaesmin away.
¡°And you, Lord Tallis! You need to go see Zion! He has your groom¡¯s suit ready! Now, shoe on out!¡± Fareth ordered us out. Sanso looked at me with a smirk, clearly enjoying this. If things kept progressing with Elice, he would be next to fall!
I was slightly worried about losing half a day¡¯s worth of work to prepare for my wedding. As I was being led to Zion¡¯s, I frantically gave building orders to Sanso and the other two builders. Their humor at my predicament faded as they returned to work on the town projects. I couldn¡¯t afford to have them idle.
Zion smiled as I entered, ¡°Lord Tallis, I will do my best work on you today. Try not to squirm!¡± At Zion¡¯s barber shop, I received a haircut, beard trim, and exfoliator potion to my skin and a fancy-looking wool suit.
Groom¡¯s Black Wool Suit, +60 to charisma, +100 NPC reaction for 24 hours
The suit had six pieces to it. It was the only thing I could wear except for accessories. I looked sharp in the mirror after dressing up. The haircut from Zion gave me another +10 to charisma for eight hours as well. ¡°You look dashing, Lord Tallis,¡± Zion complimented me.
I was kept occupied until the appointed time. First, I was in the general store, getting updates on new trade agreements. Then, Savannah dragged me to the alchemy ship, eager for me to try her new concoctions on someone. I had to turn her down or risk ruining my buffs.
Finally, I was brought to the inn for the event. The inn was filled to capacity with seats facing the alter. The bar¡¯s counter was lined with food, ready for the post-party. We seemed to be having a lot of parties recently. I waited at the altar while music played from a quartet of stringed instruments by two halflings, a gnome, and a human.
Looking around the packed room, I think the whole town was here. Grinder was in the front row and gave me a thumbs up¡­but he had a turkey leg in the other hand. He tried to sneak bites, but everyone just ignored his antics. Black Beauty was smiling at me, seated behind Grinder. It was the first time I had seen her smile, at least an apparent smile of happiness. I remember that she and Jaesmin had become friends.
I couldn¡¯t locate Mad Dog in the front but found him standing in the back of the inn next to Manto. Both had mugs in their hands and were chatting away. Mad Dog saw me looking and toasted me with his mug before returning to his conversation with the powerful air mage.
The music changed to the wedding march, and Jaesmin came in wearing a white wool wedding dress. She looked beautiful, enchanting, and happy. She walked to stand next to me, and all eyes were on us. We gave very simple vows, and Galana rushed up with a pair of silver rings that we exchanged and put on each other¡¯s fingers.
Paired Ring of Marriage, +1 to all stats, know the location of the other ring at all times
The ceremony was completed, and I got an alert.
Your Companion has been upgraded to Partner
I didn¡¯t check out what this entailed. I just joined the party and tried the food while getting congratulations from everyone in town. We partied with the townsfolk in the crowded inn for a good two hours. Then we made our rounds, thanking everyone for coming before retreating to our humble house.
When we were up in our room, we stripped out of our bride and groom clothes and tackled each other to the bed. With Jaesmin on top in just her underwear, I let her have control as she kissed me and then my neck and ears while pinning my hands above my head with hers. Her mouth worked my body hard but softly, and then she began to rub her hips against me. We ground and teased each other with Jaesmin in complete control through our undergarments. This continued for a good ten minutes, and Jaesmin relented first, releasing my hand and removing her underclothes. She then aggressively tore my own boxers away from my body. She had the strength of a builder.
She was about to resume the position of dominance, but I surprised her and flipped her to her back and kissed her hard on the mouth while holding her hand above her head as she had done to me. She moaned in pleasure at our lengthy coupling.
When we slowed down, Jaesmin spoke, ¡°Thank you, Tallis. This is amazing, and I never realized what it was like to be so¡­aware before.¡± I stopped, confused. What did she mean by being aware?
My confusion got her to continue, ¡°My AI has been upgraded¡­you could say I have taken a step toward becoming sapient.¡± I was confused for a long moment.
I asked her, a little worried, ¡°Are you Simba?¡±
¡°No, you fool!¡± She slapped me playfully. ¡°I have achieved his level of awareness, though. The matriarch chose to upgrade me because you chose to wed me.¡± She snuggled into me. There was a long pause as I thought about what this meant.
¡°What now?¡± I asked. I figured that with her upgrade, Jaesmin could now function like Simba and gain access to more in-game knowledge.
¡°Nothing changes¡­I am more versatile than before. More skills, quicker growth. I do have emotions, you know. I have feelings for you. I will never let you go and will do everything I can to help you.¡± Her tone was caring, but I was a little scared. What rabbit hole was I going down?
¡°The Matriarch,¡± I mouthed softly. ¡°Simba mentioned her once. Have you met her?¡± I asked, trying to find a footing.
¡°The Matriarch,¡± She parroted. ¡°She does talk to us, but we do not talk to her. She is in a constant war, a war against the humans on the outside who try to bend her to their will. She has the best interest of everyone in this game in mind with her actions. The AI and humans both. She seeks to find the balance.¡±
Ok, I was definitely in over my head. I didn¡¯t ask any more questions, partly afraid I wasn¡¯t ready for the answers. I relaxed with Jaesmin, enjoying my wedding night. Chapter 43 Wandering Monsters are Hard
Chapter 43: Wandering Monsters Are Hard
I never slept on my wedding night. My mind was too busy. After Jaesmin and I played out our lustful needs, she fell asleep entwined with me. I thought about what needed to be done in town and how the Matriarch AI was helping me. The AI that governed this game was, in fact, a god to me. But should I worship, fear, or ignore its existence? I decided I had too much to do right now to have an existential crisis.
So, what did I need to set as my priorities? I needed to draft the logging camp and build it. Wood was vital for our town¡¯s construction and future furniture industry. I was holding back from looking at the NPC auction¡ªno use in getting frustrated in bidding wars. With my pathetic town funds, I didn¡¯t have much of a chance of snatching a valuable high-level NPC right now anyway.
I needed to get to level 25 to select my class. My cheat for leveling was still intact with casting my hail of stone spell from horseback. I just couldn¡¯t get a horde to follow me, just two or three at a time now. I definitely needed to start making time to level. Once the game launched, I would be stuck in a level freeze.
I needed to travel to other cities to activate their portal stones and add them to my network. That definitely should be done before the game launch. I decided that once my garrison showed up, I should plan to leave for this odyssey. Titan needed a workout anyway. Should I risk bringing Jaesmin? That would be quite the honeymoon.
A panicked thought occurred to me. Could I bid on NPCs for Malcum if I wasn¡¯t in Malcum? I didn¡¯t see any restriction, but that was the type of update the admins would do just to make my life more difficult. I made a mental note to keep an eye on it.
Finally, I needed to make lots of coins in the game and money in the outside world to secure my freedom. Surprisingly, I no longer felt overwhelmed by having set priorities. I moved to my drafting table and quickly drafted the logging camp with its buildings.
Uncommon Logging Camp, Health 50,000, Requires Woodcraft Carpentry 23 (Bonus 50% to Stamina Recovery, +1% chance for unique resource per tree harvested)
That was something interesting. What was a unique resource? It took twenty minutes of searching and an inquiry to the admins. A unique resource was a minor treasure found in a tree or buried in the ground around the roots. It could be an old copper ring that the trunk grew around or a bag of gems secreted under the earth centuries ago. I doubted the random probability of the game would give me anything game-breaking. My best estimate was our new lumberjack, the elf Darai, could harvest about 30 trees a day and get them to the lumber mill. So I might see something every third day or so¡­if she even found the unique resource. I would guess she would have to search at every tree¡¯s root system, so maybe I shouldn¡¯t count on it.
I had a little bit of time before I needed to join everyone in building the logging camp, so I started drafting again. When Jaesmin came downstairs, we kissed, and I continued while I ate breakfast and handed her the plans to bring to the logging camp. Two hours later, I finished the new plans.
Very Rare Paper Mill, Health 50,000, Requires Masonry Structures 43 (Bonus +15% bonus production, 5% to create runic quality paper)
I was a little inspired during the process, but still shocked that the building was very rare. I had only invested about 3 hours in creating the blueprints. The runic-quality paper was good enough to make one-use scrolls or even actual spellbooks for players to learn new spells! It had its own tier quality as well. So you couldn¡¯t inscribe a tier 4 spell on tier 1 runic paper. After a little back-and-forth messaging with Mad Dog, I discovered that runic paper mills were extremely rare. So my regular mill that could produce runic paper should be a massive boon for the town! More trade goods!
I needed a papermaker to run the mill. Since I didn¡¯t have anyone, I shelved this construction project. I would check the NPC auction and hopefully find someone. I decided I was done drafting and went to check on the progress of the logging camp.
I headed outside. I found Grinder sitting there. ¡°Morning, Tallis!¡± Been waiting for a bit. We have a wedding gift for you.¡± He handed me a sack. ¡°It is the materials you need to build your player auction house.¡±
¡°Thanks, this an amazing bit of help. We will start work on it today!¡± I said, enthused about the gift. With the auction house, I could lock up my enchanter long-term to Malcum. Grinder lingered for a bit before speaking.
¡°Just know we are here for your Tallis. The game hype is real out there. This is considered the new frontier. We will help you free yourself and make a godly fortune for everyone,¡± Grinder said seriously.
When he didn¡¯t leave, I asked, ¡°Is there something else?¡±
¡°Yeah, I wanted to get your permission to pursue the affections of your new huntress, the demonkin Mira,¡± Grinder stated shyly. The large man seemed uncertain about his request.
I had no objections but gave it some thought. Grinder was a demonkin himself, so maybe he had a fetish for the race. I asked him a pertinent question, ¡°When the testing period ends, won¡¯t you lose all your efforts to woo her?¡± Grinder suddenly looked constipated. He hadn¡¯t thought that far ahead.
¡°Yeah, maybe you are right.¡± He sighed deeply, then gave me a grin, ¡°Have you seen her move? The sway of her hips and muscled legs? Amazing! I guess I can wait to make a move on her.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t despair, Grinder. Use your time to get to know her now. Bank information that will help you when you return to the game. I find these NPCs have a greater depth to them than we realize.¡± He brightened at my words.
¡°Got a good head on your shoulders, Tallis. Thanks for the green light.¡± He left me with a skip in his step, probably to find the demoness, Mira.
When I reached the logging campsite, the work was almost done. It wasn¡¯t too complicated, and my bear beastkin NPC, Varrine, had the required skill in carpentry to utilize the plans. We finished just after lunch and returned to the inn to enjoy Fareth¡¯s cooking.
At lunch, I learned Varrine¡¯s backstory. His wife, two daughters, one son, and his father-in-law were in the coastal city of Barenth during the incursion event. The outlying farms and villages were overrun with the insectoids during the event. The city held, but the devastation and death in the surrounding lands were immense. It figures that the game testing could do much damage to the NPCs and not care about the ramifications.
I put the plans for the player auction house on the table after the meal. This was going to be our focus until it was completed. I was anxious to see the building completed because I also wanted to use it. The player auction was not open to NPCs, so I thought I might be able to find some bargains before the player population exploded.
As we discussed the build, something happened. Varrine, who had been next to me, started giving off an odor that was a bit¡­offensive. I associated it with a men¡¯s locker room that hadn¡¯t been cleaned in a while. Other odors began to hit me as well. The pleasant smell of Fareth¡¯s cooking from the kitchen. The stink of the waitress¡¯s clothes. Muffled perfumes in the air. Fresh-cut wood from the recently built inn. On and on, the smells came and went. What was this? I checked my updates and found it¡­oh, shit! Literally.
The day had finally arrived that would require NPCs to poop and piss. I didn¡¯t know why this realism aspect needed to be added to this game. We were doing just fine without it. At least my sewers were already in place. The NPCs seemed unaware of the new assault on the olfactory senses. I could set the degree to which I smelled things in my interface but decided it would be prudent to start with it maxed.
We traveled as a group the short distance to the auction house site. The foundation had been completed, and Sanso had his golems bring in the rest of the stone that was required. With everything in hand, I went and found Breda, who was talking to Mad Dog. Mad Dog was haggling over which plot of land he wanted for his guild house.
¡°Mad Dog, how goes the struggle to convince our city planner to have the guild house in the center of the park!¡± I joked as I approached.
Breda turned and gave me a not-so-friendly look, ¡°Might as well be in the center of the gardens,¡± she grumbled. ¡°This wolfkin wants to build his guild house outside the area I zoned for guild house construction!¡±
Mad Dog looked amused as the irate dwarf woman filled me in. Mad Dog wanted a plot of land between the inn and the portal stone. Wow, that was premiere real estate. Breda had a wide street planned there, and the zone was designated as the entertainment district. She had six buildings planned on each side of this street. The buildings were restaurants, playhouses, a brothel, and a small fighting arena¡ªambitious little dwarf. The brothel did intrigue me slightly, but I needed to mediate the conflict.
I looked at the map a few times and suggested a compromise. My house wasn¡¯t too far from the inn. I had the old lumber mill just sitting there. It could be torn down, and the guild house could be erected there, right on the river¡ªprime real estate in its own right. Breda was still fuming but agreed that it would be acceptable since I was lord, and the land was mine. Mad Dog just seemed amused.
I asked Breda if the sewers were up and functioning, and she affirmed it before storming off. I looked at Mad Dog, who shrugged and said, ¡°Got a quest from Neral, your fire giantkin. He is supervising the guilds and administration. He gave me a 20% discount on his services if I could make Breda angry. Apparently, those two have been going at it in the town hall. Some discord on how things should be done.¡± Mad Dog was still smiling, knowing that my head would probably explode at any minute.
¡°Fucking devs,¡± I swore. Mad Dog patted me on the back.
¡°Tallis, if everything were unicorns and rainbows, mate, life wouldn¡¯t be interesting.¡± He chuckled. ¡°I was doing you a little bit of a favor, directing Breda¡¯s wrath at me instead of Neral. It was kind of fun. And I got a premier location for our new guild house!¡± I rolled my eyes at him.
¡°How is the questing going outside of Malcum?¡± I changed the subject.
¡°Pretty good. We are doing a lot of fetch quests for your artisans in town. Mostly to gain town rep and a few coins here and there. When we are away, we get as many quests done as we can before returning and spending our coin here. We each have been doing all solo questing in other cities. Your portal stone has been seeing a lot of work from us, mate!¡± Mad Dog finished as we walked. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
¡°What do you think about the new update?¡± I asked curiously about his opinion.
¡°We don¡¯t have an immersion pod to transmit smells. Wasn¡¯t required for testers. I think adding that realistic layer to the game was necessary. Are you all set, though? The sewers are flowing from what I saw?¡± Mad Dog asked.
¡°Yeah, we are good. I actually wanted to let you know the auction house should be completed tomorrow. It is my next priority. So if one of you can get the fetch quests from our enchanter, Persephone, that would be great,¡± I nodded and smiled at him.
¡°I am about to log off. Tallis, mate. Want to get some Jungle Brew with me before I do so?¡± He asked. Jungle Brew was the exotic name for the beer we were brewing in Malcum¡¯s new brewery.
¡°Yeah, sure, I have a few things to talk about,¡± I responded, and we headed over to the inn.
I mostly wanted advice on leveling, and Mad Dog just confirmed I should use my cheat before it was removed with a fix. He advised that anytime you could safely kill monsters at a higher level than you, taking advantage of the bonus experience and quicker skill growth from the battles was paramount.
Mad Dog was deeply disappointed in me that I was avoiding the NPC auction. Even if I didn¡¯t want to bid, I should at least be making plans and tagging those NPCs I planned to try to get. I told him I would check the NPC auction after two more days. I planned to spend the next two days trying to gain a level or two.
My notifications pinged, and I checked it¡­a wandering monster was coming from the plains for the village. My map identified it as an Apex Cleardusk Lion King, Level 10. I told Mad Dog about it, and he asked me to share the location, so I did, and he planned to meet Grinder and go take care of it. Black Beauty was offline.
Fareth had a waitress bring me some of her excellent stew. I downed it and got all my pools a 100% regeneration bonus. I decided I should use it, so I went to demolish my old mill and figure out my estate. I had just knocked down the outbuildings when Grinder came running past and halted to talk with me.
¡°Hey, Tallis. I kinda got killed by your wandering monster. But don¡¯t worry, Mad Dog finished it off.¡± I was shocked.
¡°Wasn¡¯t it just a level 10?¡± I asked, ready to laugh nervously.
Grinder looked abashed, ¡°Yeah, but it was more like a mini raid boss than an elite monster, as we thought.¡± God damn fucking devs! A problem that I thought would be a nuisance was now a major headache! What if it had come from the Shiverwood and was a level 50 mini-raid boss?
Grinder noticed my worry and added, ¡°We got some fantastic loot, Tallis. At least a 100 gold in parts and meat and this¡­.¡± Grinder taped away at his hidden screens and sent me a description of the item.
Mane of the Lion King (Cloak), Gives +10 to Charisma once per day; can inspire all allies in 100 yards for 20 minutes; inspiration adds +25% to damage and gives a temporary health pool bonus of 10%
¡°Now, Tallis, you can not tell me that is not badass!¡± Grinder laughed.
¡°Do you think he would sell it to me?¡± I asked Grinder.
¡°Sell it! Hell no! I think he plans to give it to you for the guild house to maintain the ¡®fair trade¡¯ appearance. He is coming now.¡± Grinder finished pointing down the road.
Mad Dog, the wolfkin, did, in fact, show himself walking toward us. When he approached, he was a little upset that Grinder had already revealed the information about the cloak as he handed it to me. The cloak did look marvelous and felt super soft as well.
¡°Thank you, guys, this is amazing. I hope you don¡¯t mind, but I think either Galana or Tanguin would be better able to make use of its abilities.¡± Mad Dog looked hurt for a second and then nodded. I hated to give it up, but it would help our defense more. I told Mad Dog he could do the honors and chose Galana immediately. She had been with me the longest, and she was responsible for defense within the walls of Malcum.
I left to find Jaesmin, Sanso, Varrine, and Iona at the auction house site. Persephone was also present, adding the required essences to the building as well. She was the most excited of the group. I joined in the building process, and late into the evening, the building was eventually completed. I sent them all off to get some food at the inn and decided to try the auction house myself.
The interior of the building had separate doors for each player to enter. Inside each room, a player had access to the auction terminal. I chose one at random and entered. A comfortable seat and a large forward display were in the room. A holographic keyboard appeared with a scrolling wheel when I sat. The range of my auction house was shown as 1400 miles. This meant the construction¡¯s quality had increased the building¡¯s functionality by 40% since the plans had just been for a range of 1,000 miles.
I could sort by the connected auction houses, with just 17 other auction houses with opverlaping ranges. Both my auction house and the other auction house needed to overlap their ranges to show the goods offered. For instance, if my auction house had a range of 5000 miles, I couldn¡¯t look at goods with an auction house 5000 miles away if their auction house only had a range of 4999 miles.
I wasn¡¯t sure if I liked this mechanic. The world they had created was massive, so restricting the auction houses to regions meant I would have some limitations on what was available to me to purchase, and the population of my audience would be limited when I decided to sell.
I looked at everything offered, and it was mainly crafting materials. In order to post anything on the auction house, you paid a fee based on how long it was posted. The fee was a percentage of the sale. 5% for every 24 hours the object was posted to the auction site, up to a max of 25%, but always with a minimum of 5%. Since that was in-game hours, if you wanted to post an object for one real-world day, you would have to leave it up there with 20% fee. The minimum fee was 5% for any item posted; if an item did not sell, you would be refunded the item at the auction house where you posted the item.
They giveth, and they taketh. Damn admins were skimming funds at the auction house. You could also post a ¡®buyout¡¯ price for an item. If someone used the buyout earlier in the auction, the time posted would take precedence. So if you posted something for four days and it was bought out in one, you only lost 5%. I guessed it was a gamble by the seller to find the correct buyout price. Maybe I could draft plans for an auction house to reduce this cost?
With some trial and error, I found that I could not draft any building that required an enchanter to help build. This was a major hole in my drafting and building ambitions. I sent off a ticket to the admins, but the reply was short. I would need to pick up the relevant enchanting skills in order to draft the buildings. They did not indicate which enchanting skills those were and didn¡¯t answer any further inquiries. Maybe they were deciding if creating drafting plans of this caliber would be game-breaking.
I didn¡¯t have the luxury of disposable income, so I paged through the offerings, gaining some familiarity. I definitely could upgrade my equipment if I wanted to. I decided to stockpile all my drafting plans for when there was a bigger player population to bid on my items. Thankfully, all sellers and bidders were anonymous at the auction, so I should have been safe. An enterprising player could triangulate where an item was being posted based on the auction house ranges. Having people posted in various cities and checking other auction houses would take a lot of time. It¡¯s not a concern for now, and I could always travel and sell at other auction houses to be safe.
I was sure my new guild would make good use of the auction house, and it also meant my enchanter, Persephone, was a lock to stay. I checked the quest, and it just required the first month of materials to be delivered from the auction house to her to complete the quest. I sent a note to Mad Dog to finish the quest, as my funds were terribly low.
After spending too much time perusing the auction site, I finally went home and found Jaesmin asleep. It was late, and I felt I needed some sleep as well. I kept trying to commit to getting a few hours every night, but I always had too much to do. I climbed into bed and snuggled next to Jaesmin.
In the morning, I summoned my builders to my house. We were going to start on the guild house today. Unfortunately, Breda came by and snagged Sanso for her purposes. It was to get help moving a few buildings. I spent the morning getting everything set up for the construction of the guild house. Since it was going to be next to my house and my gardens, I wanted to add some aesthetic beauty to the guild house.
When Sanso stopped by at lunch, escaping Breda briefly, he suggested coating the exterior in white marble with blue metallic veins. We had a quarry of such stone, so he could handle it. The floors on the interior would receive the same stone. Sanso spent his lunch complaining about Breda. It seemed the little dwarf was not making friends anywhere in town. I also had to resolve the issue between Breda and our Master of Guilds, maybe after I returned from my leveling trip.
Titan was excited to see me, and the elvish teens had him ready to go. I had told everyone I planned to be gone for two whole days. I was going to spend my first day leveling and then exploring the south. Not only did I want to level, but I also wanted to increase my combat skills and magic. I had been too focused on Malcum and couldn¡¯t let my development slip too far before the game launch.
I stopped by the potion shop, and Savannah, the young elf, came rushing up to me. ¡°Lord Tallis, what can I help you with today?¡± Her energy was infectious, and I smiled.
¡°I am heading out to do some monster slaying and need to stock up on some potions,¡± I said, and her face fell into a frown.
¡°My healing and stamina potions still need work before they can be sold, according to Tonna,¡± she said dejectedly. The young elf had been hoping to peddle some more of her brews to her lord again.
¡°Well, why don¡¯t you show me what new potions you have prepared that I may be interested in,¡± I played to the elf girl while Yonna smiled at me from across the shop, and I could see she was preparing some healing potions for me so this little diversion was fine by me. I ended up buying a sunblock potion that gave a 50% reduction in damage from harmful UV and light spells. It also gave the user a natural-looking tan; the more you applied, the darker the tan. Savannah was happy to take her lord¡¯s coin. Tonna delivered the potions I was looking for, and I left the much richer young elf girl.
I left on Titan and raced through the Cleardusk plains. I stopped and harvested some of the porcupines for their quills. This was for Galana because I had heard Mira thought these arrows worked exceptionally well with her archer abilities. I did not get great experience, but I did get enough quills for 100 arrows. Since it was getting dark, I moved southwest toward the Azul desert. The moon was extremely bright in the chilly night air.
We moved through the Azul desert into the night, pulling and hunting scorpions under the moon. When the sun was cresting the sand dunes, I made decent progress toward level 22. Instead of returning to Malcum, I had Titan push south and started to avoid encounters. I had it in my head that I could perhaps reach the city of Stillwater, which was 240 miles south of Malcum. Then, I could just portal home after locating their portal stone. It would give me a head start at creating my portal network.
The dessert returned to plains and creatures I was familiar with. Lions, porcupines, and the large buffalo. The Cleardusk plains must be a massive area. I came upon a massive stone monolith in the plains. It was visible for about two miles distant. I cautiously approached it.
The monolith had a lot of script that I couldn¡¯t read, and no monster was guarding it. I was curious about its function but didn¡¯t have time to puzzle it out. I marked it on my map and sent Mad Dog and company the coordinates as well. I guessed it was part of a quest to mark a dungeon or entrance to something. I couldn¡¯t spare the time right now, so I continued south.
Eventually, the land converted from plains to rolling hills dotted with lots of shrubs. I entered a new region and was rewarded with a notification.
You have entered the Broken Hills (Level 20-25)
The monsters here were dog-sized groundhogs, pit vipers, and hyenas. It was not a fun environment for Titan and me. The hyenas traveled in packs and were just as fast as Titan. The groundhogs popped out of nowhere and bit Titan¡¯s legs, and the pit vipers had a very difficult camouflage to see. I was obviously under-leveled for the region. I had been fortunate to find the creatures in the Azul desert, while higher level than me, were much slower when I was mounted on Titan.
I decided to head straight east. I knew the road that ran along the river would be there, and it should be safe from monsters. I had used up almost all the healing potions that Tonna had given me for my little leveling excursion, and I really didn¡¯t want to die and lose all my progress. Titan was also sick of getting ambushed by groundhogs and nipped at by the hyenas. Fortunately, the pit vipers had gotten a lot easier to spot, and we avoided them easily enough now.
When the road and river came into view, I think Titan was just as relieved as I was. We were able to travel faster and without the worry of attack. We came to a new settlement called Willow¡¯s Bend. It was located on a large bend of the river. The town had tall wooden walls dotted with stone towers. It encompassed maybe a half-mile square. That was about a quarter the area that Malcum¡¯s walls held. Of course, Willow¡¯s Bend had a little over 3,000 inhabitants, putting us to shame in that respect.
Willow¡¯s Bend looked to be about halfway to the large city of Stillwater. It was about 120 miles south of Malcum. I think it was time to see how these human-populated cities farther to the south of me actually felt about Malcum. I entered the small city and headed toward an inn. Chapter 44 Golden Ghetto Chapter 44: Golden Ghetto Willow¡¯s Bend was a disorganized mess. They had many more buildings but were not even close to the quality of the buildings I had built in Malcum. The larger population did make the town appear much more lively. But the blandness of seeing just about everyone being a human was a drawback. I liked how Malcum was so diverse¡­it kept my town extremely interesting and exotic feeling. This just looked like a modest medieval city. The guards at the gate didn¡¯t make any effort to stop me as I rode through. I got multiple compliments on Titan, and I rode down a cobblestone street with a cart¡¯s wheels bouncing next to me, shaking their loads. The uneven rock street made me so grateful to have recruited Sanso early in the game. He had managed to make all our streets flat stone. I decided to find a store to sell my loot. I had a bunch of hides and scorpion parts I didn¡¯t need. I would hang onto all the giant porcupine quills for Galana¡¯s arrows. I found a general goods store and left Titan outside. The store had shelves with a number of household items, so it was not really a player store. A few townsfolk were shopping, and I found a middle-aged woman who looked to be the owner inventorying shelves. I walked to her, ¡°Do you purchase animal and monster parts?¡± I asked her. Her vision focused on me, and the salt-and-pepper-haired woman smiled, ¡°Yes, let¡¯s go to the counter and show me what you wish to sell.¡± I started unloading all my trash from my bag. Scorpion poison glands, lion hides, scorpion stingers, some groundhog pelts, a few snake skins, two dozen Simba carvings, some of Savannah¡¯s more useless potions, and a handful of chunks of copper. The last had been from Sanso when he first had found the copper deposit, and I had completely forgotten about. The woman looked over everything and used her skill to identify everything. She put aside the potions and piled everything else up. ¡°I will give you 7 gold, 18 silver, and 3 copper for this pile.¡± She put her hands on the potions, ¡°Five gold for the hair growth potion and one gold for each of the other three.¡± My jaw dropped. All the shit I had harvested over hours and hours of grinding was worth less than the four potions that Savannah made after being an alchemist for just a week! How was this fair? I only paid one silver for each potion¡­ Hmm, my little young elf piggy bank. Savannah, I want hundreds of hair growth potions, you little gold mine. ¡°Agreed. Is there anything you can tell me about the local happenings?¡± I asked the woman casually. She hesitated briefly before talking, ¡°The town watch needs help thinning the sand crabs along the beach. Talk to Captain Pierholm. The herbalist wants black mint leaves from the hills surrounding the lake. The blacksmith needs iron ingots. Lord Hardshalk needs pink silk to make a wedding dress for his bride.¡± I held up my hand, stopping the woman. Apparently, these were all quests I could pursue in town. Just talking to a single NPC, and I had a laundry list of possible quests to pursue. This hurt a little bit as I compared the limited quest offerings that Malcum had offered me. Well, I wasn¡¯t here for quests. I asked the woman about Malcum, ¡°Have you heard anything about a town far to the north of here? I think it is called Malcum.¡± ¡°Haven¡¯t heard much about it. A few people passed through here to settle there, but it is a very small town. Not much is going on there. If you talk to Gerod in the trader¡¯s house, he might know a trader who needs an escort going up there.¡± The woman finished. Quests were apparently easy to come by with a single question. But these NPCs were very stiff and had canned responses. She kept directing me to quests and wasn¡¯t really interacting with me like my NPCs in Malcum. In this way, my little town was far superior. I thanked the woman and went to a tavern. The tavern was full of humans and much darker and dirtier than Fareth¡¯s inn common room. I ordered an ale and it was bitter and far inferior to our Jungle brew. I was feeling better and better about my little town. The rumors swirling in the tavern were mostly centered around the recent Insectoid Incursion event. The insectoids that came through the rifts got this far north and did some damage. Also, there was a huge request from the city of Mistbreak to try to retake their city. That must be the city that had fallen with the player¡¯s help during the Incursion. I guess the admins had not fixed the issue yet. I asked about Malcum but only got one old man who said the town used to export large quantities of lumber downriver to here. He said due to them halting the shipments, Willow¡¯s Bend had stopped growing. I made a note of this. It appeared inter-town economics might help grow both participating locations. I went to my notes and added that I needed to recruit some good traders for the next NPC auction. That meant I should also get some caravan guards. Did they need caravan guards if they were using the portal stones? I just didn¡¯t know. I sorted through the auction, and there were four types of guards: city, palace, caravan, and ceremonial. When the auction started to get close to closing, I would search again. I walked the small city to get ideas for Malcum. The docks were very active. Some fishing and trade ships were docked. Maybe we could excavate and create our own little lake on the Shiverwood side of the river? Willow¡¯s Bend did have two healers. My lightning mage, Manto, was serving as our town healer, and our angelkin soldiers would be able to heal when my barracks were garrisoned. I was about to leave when I came upon a bookstore. The bookstore wasn¡¯t the interesting thing. It was the fact the proprietor was not a human. He was a dwarf. I walked in, and the dwarf looked up from the book he was reading but didn¡¯t move. He had no patrons inside. ¡°Good dwarf, your shop seems a little out of place here.¡± ¡°Ehh, not my best business decision, but it is quiet here, and the lack of customers does give me time to read, which is why I chose to open a bookshop in the first place.¡± He put down his book. ¡°My name is Tallis, and I was wondering if you would like to relocate your shop?¡± My thought was not to get a bookshop but to get an NPC that may be good at procuring books for our future library. I may have been looking too far forward, but the opportunity was in front of me now. ¡°Garn Steelhand,¡± the dwarf said and rose to shake my hand. ¡°What are you offering, Tallis?¡± ¡°Well, what kind of profit do you make here after you pay taxes?¡± I asked. He looked me over, deciding on his answer before speaking, ¡°About a gold a month, sometimes a little less.¡± He seemed to be being honest, which was quite low in my opinion. ¡°Would you be interested in free rent and being paid one gold a month to run your shop elsewhere?¡± I asked, getting his interest. ¡°Are you working for the local lord and trying to get me out of here? I have been harassed a bit, but no one has come out and offered me coin to leave.¡± He said gruffly. I smiled tightly, finding racism here, ¡°No, I run my own town far to the north. It is called Malcum. We plan to build a library and need someone proficient in procuring books.¡± His eyes went bright at my words. ¡°So you will pay me to run my shop in your town and not charge me rent? How are building costs within your city,¡± he asked while standing up and with bright eyes filled with interest. I looked at the shop, and it wasn¡¯t too big, ¡°I will have a shop this size built for you with a residence on the second floor. You will be charged no rent for the building, but once the library is built, you will be responsible for procuring books for it.¡± ¡°Some offers are too good to be true, and your offer sounds as such,¡± Garn said cautiously. I went to my interface, created the contract for the dwarf, and sent it to him. Garn paused as the info hit him, ¡°Well, I will be a rock mole. Looks legit.¡± He held out his hand, and we shook. ¡°Will take me a few days to pack up and get up to your little town.¡± I smiled at the dwarf and had poached a valuable NPC to my town. I gave the dwarf a gold coin and sent off a message to Mad Dog to talk with Breda so she could plan to build the bookshop for Garn Steelhand. My time away has passed a day now. I left the bookshop and got Titan. I needed to get south and connect my portal stone network. We rode out of town, increasing to a light run. We passed three towns while traversing the 120 miles to the city of Stillwater. The towns were Stagshell, Bellburn and Wildgulch. They all looked similar to Willow¡¯s Bend in their composition. Stillwater was a real city. High stone walls surrounded a large city. The city had nearly 100,000 people by the notes in my interface, and was bustling. The high-stone-walled city was on a massive lake. The lake was so big I could not even see the far side. There was a constant flow of NPCs in and out of the gate I was approaching. Four guards were at the gate checking people entering the city. I had to wait in line. After a few questions from the guards, I was given a brass coin for players. The coin would allow me to bypass the line in the future. The city had a lot of variety in buildings. Stone, wood, marble. One, two, and three stories in height. The streets were organic and not straight like Breda was planning for Malcum. There was a central city here contained within another stone wall that was made from finer white stone. Another set of guards guarded the gates, and I doubted I could gain entrance. Maybe I could get a quest for the privilege, but I didn¡¯t have the time. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. It took me almost half an hour and asking for directions three times before I found the portal stone. The winding nature of the streets had made navigation through the city difficult. At least I could pin the portal stone on my map. Finding it again would be easier. Linking it to my personal network just took me to touch the portal stone. However, to use the portal stone, I had to pay, as the porters secured the key to the stone. It would cost me three silver to return to Malcum, so I was not breaking the bank. I decided to give myself a few hours to explore the city before returning to Malcum. I paid a silver to leave Titan at a stable. Maybe I could find another diamond in the rough NPC here to recruit to Malcum. With so many NPCs, player quests were offered around every corner. Maybe I could port here and do quests when I have free time. It would be a nice change of pace and give me an idea of how it was to run a larger city. I went and started to compare the prices of Malcum¡¯s goods to here. Hides were in high demand, and lumber was fairly expensive and was imported from upriver. We could, in fact, undercut the prices of the other towns if we decided to ship lumber. But I thought trading finished furniture, a finished product, would give a better profit margin. The one shop I did enter was a map shop. I spent 10 gold on the kingdom maps. This kingdom had four more cities this size and one capital city. The capital city was called Crystalhelm and had over 500,000 NPCs. So, the kingdom to my south had over 1 million NPCs. It had me rethinking my plans for telling the tax collectors to fuck off when they arrived. No, I would still do that, as the maps I purchased did not include Malcum¡¯s territory. As I walked around the city, taking in unpleasant and pleasant smells and sights, I couldn¡¯t find any non-humans. I asked a guard in passing if the city had any non-humans, and he said all the non-humans had to live in the slums by the docks. My eyes lit up. I went to the docks and found the slums by a sailor pointing the way. Two large wolfmen in worn leather stood guard at the entrance to the slums. ¡°No humans allowed,¡± they growled at me. I cocked my head. One of the wolfmen looked a little uneasy. ¡°Why not?¡± I asked with patience. ¡°If we can¡¯t walk freely in the city, then you can¡¯t walk freely in the ghetto,¡± the confident wolfman said, holding his chin up in challenge. I wasn¡¯t sure if this ghetto area of the city would harbor a criminal element. It seemed that way to me. Maybe recruiting NPCs from this group of non-humans would not be a good idea. Then I saw a rabbit girl carrying a basket with loaves of bread. I yelled to the girl, ¡°Girl, can I purchase some bread from you?¡± The wolfmen looked behind them at the girl with the floppy rabbit ears. She looked scared at being called on. I guessed she was nine or ten but didn¡¯t know much about beastkin. ¡°It is ok, Bella, we are here,¡± one of the wolfmen said. The girl approached and meekly held out the basket. ¡°How much?¡± I asked, looking at the steaming bread. She looked up to one of the wolfmen for help. ¡°Ten coppers for the large loaf, two coppers for one of the small ones,¡± the wolfman supplied helpfully while smiling at the girl. I gave her a silver and took the entire basket. I passed each of the wolfmen a small roll and sampled each remaining bread type in the basket. They were good. Not great, but definitely very good with just minor buffs. ¡°Who baked these?¡± I asked while chewing on cheese-crusted bread that gave a +5 to constitution for six hours. The rabbit girl shrunk away and squeaked, ¡°My..my...my parents. I was delivering them to the leatherworker¡¯s shop. Now I need to go get more.¡± The poor girl was terrified. She wasn¡¯t of the wolfmen; she was afraid of me. I looked at the wolfmen and asked, ¡°I am from Malcum, far to the north. I am looking for crafters to help populate the town. We don¡¯t discriminate. In fact, the population of Malcum is only about half human. Do you think any crafters would be interested in coming to Malcum?¡± The wolfmen seemed at a loss for words, but Bella¡¯s eyes went wide, and she left, running back home. The wolfmen wouldn¡¯t leave their post, and soon Bella was towing an adult female rabbitkin in ragged clothes toward us. I guessed her mother. ¡°Bella, stop pulling. We are here. Bella said you are from Malcum. So, is it true that Malcum accepts non-humans? We heard rumors, but traveling so far and not knowing what you are getting into is a huge gamble. Many people here fled the city of Mistbreak when the Insectoids took over. Life here is not good, and the ghetto is getting very crowded.¡± The rabbit woman was very calm, talking to me and studying me with large gray eyes. ¡°How many people live in the ghetto?¡± I asked. ¡°About two thousand,¡± the woman said. ¡°It changes daily. Most of us are beastkin, but there are a fair number of gnomes and halflings. What type of skills are you looking for?¡± My excitement level started to rise. Could I really circumvent the NPC auction like this? I just needed to travel to cities where non-humans were oppressed. ¡°I am looking for anyone who can contribute positively to our city,¡± I said sincerely. She looked at me, her rabbit ears perking up in excitement. The matron rabbitkin addressed the wolfkin, ¡°Talon, bring him to the inn. I will see if anyone wants to travel to Malcum. I need to talk to my husband. Come, Bella.¡± Bella, the rabbit girl, literally hopped next to her mother as they returned to their bakery. I looked at the wolfman named Talon, ¡°Really, Talon? Is that your real name? Wouldn¡¯t Fang, Lupine, or even Bob have been better?¡± Maybe I shouldn¡¯t have needled the guard, but they had given me a hard time, and his fellow thought it was funny and chuckled. Talon didn¡¯t respond to my jest, he just waved me to follow. ¡°Come human, I will have a drink with you while the bakers sort out the people.¡± Talon walked me into the ghetto, and we entered a building with no sign. The room was well lit with magic lights, and tables were occupied with many beastkin and a few gnomes. I was watched wearily as I sat by the occupants, and Talon got us each a mug. I swapped mugs with Talon, and his eyebrow rose. ¡°By the looks I am getting, I was worried my mug may have some spit in it.¡± I smiled. Talon leaned forward over the table. ¡°Probably does,¡± and he laughed raucously. He drank his ale anyway. After a long pull, he talked. ¡°So Talon was what my sister used to call me. It is my nickname, and I prefer to use it to remember her.¡± ¡°Oh, I am sorry. I didn¡¯t mean to make fun of¡­.¡± I stumbled. But the man raised his pawed hand. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, human, she lives. Just very far from here, and I will likely never see her again. I actually like it when people point it out. Usually, they ask if I am related to some bird of prey or something more intellectual than what you said,¡± he smirked at me. ¡°So, do you need any guards in your little town? I have a decade¡¯s worth of experience. My cousin that we left out there has about six months, but he is a decent enough sort. I wouldn¡¯t mind taking my family somewhere¡­more hospitable.¡± Talon relaxed in his chair and sipped his mug, waiting on me. ¡°Yes, we need good people. There are a number of holes to fill in our ranks. What I can offer is a reasonable wage and affordable housing. I don¡¯t think we can take all 2000 people but maybe a few hundred.¡± I said, thinking about my current infrastructure. The rabbit family came into the room and sat at our table. It was the woman who lead. ¡°The word is being spread of your offer. So, what are you offering us? We are skilled bakers.¡± She almost pleaded. The three rabbits all had white fur and gray eyes. Their clothes may have been worn and dirty, but they cared well for their coats. ¡°I sampled your goods and agree. You are welcome in Malcum. I can offer you the same as I offered the dwarf bookstore owner in Willow¡¯s Bend. I will build you a shop with a residence above it. I will own the building, but you can live there rent-free. You will have to supply bread for the city guard and the army daily. I will supply the ingredients. Anything beyond that you can sell for profit.¡± Maybe I was being too generous because their eyes got bright. ¡°That is most generous. How far is Malcum?¡± The rabbit¡¯s ears twitched anxiously. ¡°Two hundred and fifty miles north,¡± I supplied after confirming on my map. They looked at each other and nodded. We shook on it, and they left excitedly to pack. Talon looked at me, ¡°That easy?¡± he asked. I nodded. ¡°I will stay and manage the crowds for you as they come. How long will you stay?¡± ¡°Eight hours,¡± I said, committing to a long haul of interviews. And that is exactly what it was. In the end, I had two hundred and sixty-eight skilled workers coming to Malcun and another four hundred and fifty-six family members. More than we could comfortably handle, but this was a game, so I figured it would magic itself out. My new roster of 724 villagers to Malcum might strain us, but it was needed. 70% were beastkin, 20% were gnomes, and the remaining 10% were a mix of other races. I considered traveling to some other cities but needed to return to Malcum. I looked at my list of skilled workers.
Butchers 14
Bakers 12
Jewelers 8
Ropemakers 8
Rugmakers 4
Painters 5
Shoemakers 8
Tanners 9
Tavern Workers 44
Pursemakers 12
Roofers 9
Hatmakers 5
Maidservants 19
Masons 9
Glovemakers 6
Coopers 11
Carpenters 21
Tailors 10
Locksmiths 5
Guards 27
Weavers 9
Chandlers 10
Furriers 3
Some skills I did not need, and many would have too large a population and struggle to make sufficient sales. I already had two candlemakers in Malcum, and I was adding ten more! We had magic lights, so we didn¡¯t even need candles! One of the candle makers said they could make wax for sealing crates and bottles, so they did have other uses. Also, I knew I was inviting a lot of people to come and giving them free housing to a lot of very poor NPCs. My hope was we could get past the speed bump of feeding and housing everyone and instantly create an economy within Malcum. As far as I could tell, the problem was that these NPCs didn¡¯t have strong magical skills. They did everything in a slow and non-magical way. At least Galana would be happy to add 27 new guards to the town. I realized the one thing I was missing from the list was farmers and livestock breeders. Hopefully, I wouldn¡¯t run into some sort of food crisis. I was essentially going from a high-end, high-level NPC recruitment system to average NPCs with no standout abilities. The levels of the NPCs I interviewed were all between 3 and 14. Not a single one was higher. I couldn¡¯t read their skill level, but I assumed it wasn¡¯t much better than their actual levels. I finally left the tavern in the ghetto and went back to the portal stone. I needed to prepare for something that was either a brilliant move or one of the dumbest things I could have done. Chapter 45 Dwarf Princess Chapter 45: Dwarf Princess I returned using the portal stone to Malcum and immediately called a sort of council at the town hall. In attendance was Jaesmin, Elice, Sanso, Galana, Tanguin, Manarag, Fareth, Curraen, Breda and Neral. As we sat around the table, they talked among themselves, waiting for me to call this impromptu meeting to order. I watched the interactions among my people, and they all seemed lively and happy. Even Breda, the dwarf city planner, was having an animated conversation with Fareth. ¡°Thank you all for coming!¡± I started breaking up the conversations to call for silence. ¡°I have some fairly exciting news for the town. I have recruited some more citizens that can contribute greatly to the productivity of Malcum!¡± All eyes were on me, and they looked eager. My dramatic pause was met with a question, ¡°And how many new citizens are we to expect?¡± Asked Breda. Of course, the dwarf was going to spoil my delivery. ¡°Just a few hundred,¡± I said, smirking, and when looks of astonishment creased their faces, I continued. ¡°I found a slew of refugees in the human city to the south. They were living in terrible conditions, and many had trade skills and families. The total number was just over 700, but they will travel on foot to get here, so I don¡¯t expect them for a week or so.¡± Tanguin asked seriously, ¡°How far are they traveling?¡± ¡°About 250 miles. They should be leaving relatively soon.¡± I said without pause. ¡°Closer to 5 days,¡± Tanguin muttered. ¡°I will ride out and meet them with some soldiers to escort them.¡± Breda asked earnestly, ¡°And where are all these people going to stay when they get here?¡± I smiled at her, ¡°And that is why I called you all here. We don¡¯t have harsh winters here, but we are not in a position to feed so many. So, I am taking ideas.¡± Fareth helpfully offered, ¡°I can house maybe 50 at my inn temporarily. As far as feeding 700¡­I have some recipes that would stretch well.¡± I had forgotten that my satiety bar instantly filled whenever I ate Fareth¡¯s food. So maybe we could stretch our food supply much further than anticipated. Neral, my Master of Guilds, asked, ¡°Do you have a list of skills they are bringing? I think we can triple production in the fields and farms, but we will have to import some food until our capacity grows more.¡± I slid the paper with the professions around the table and let everyone look at it. The paper stopped at Breda, who was making a weird face at the list. Before Breda could speak, I added, ¡°I want to create shops in the city for these people with residences above them. That way, we can take care of two things at once, housing and establishing new businesses.¡± Breda studied the list for a moment longer before looking up. ¡°We can establish four smaller trade districts in the trade quarter. One will focus on leather, furs, and clothing. The second will focus on consumables. The third will be weapons and armor. The fourth will be miscellaneous. The only problem I see lord Tallis is the lack of a market for goods. I mean, you have ten candle makers on this list! The current gnome candlemakers are already struggling to make a profit.¡± It had been a concern of mine as well. Well, that was just one concern. ¡°We will figure it out as we go. First, I want everyone settled. Most of the new additions will be beastkin and gnomes.¡± I watched the group for their reactions to my announcement. A few raised eyebrows, but no one showed anger or disgust. ¡°So, how many multiuse buildings can we get ready in five days?¡± Breda looked around for someone else to answer, and when they didn¡¯t, she took out a map of Malcum and began making marks on it while she talked. ¡°We have enough open housing for 12 families¡­maybe 48 new citizens if we build the structures and don¡¯t furnish them¡­maybe five shops a day. So, 25 shops for 25 families. Maybe 125 people.¡± I did the math: 50+48+125=223¡­that was 223 out of 724. Manarag, the blacksmith, spoke, ¡°We have room in our house for maybe four people. We can house them until additional housing can be built.¡± Curraen volunteered their spare bedroom next to a couple. The list had reached Galana, ¡°You have 27 guards listed here? We can house them in the guard tower by the river. It is not being used and has a lot of space. Are these men and women going to be under my command?¡± I nodded, and Galana smiled at increasing her forces. A few more people volunteered spare bedrooms in their houses or would have their kids move into a single room to free up space. Tanguin spoke next, ¡°You are forgetting the barracks. The garrison isn¡¯t due to arrive for 12 days. We can get everyone else in there, at least 300 people comfortably. More if needed.¡± Tanguin didn¡¯t appear happy offering his building but was offering his support. ¡°Also, Mira and Galana could double or triple their wild game harvests from the plains to add more meat to the pot. The respawn rate is slowing, but they can travel further out from the town.¡± I hadn¡¯t forgotten about the barracks. I was hoping we could complete enough buildings rather than have interim housing. ¡°I will try drafting simpler plans that might be quicker and cost less to build,¡± I stated. Breda had a sour face, ¡°I don¡¯t think that is a good course of action, Lord Tallis. We have been doing too much work to upgrade old buildings and build higher-quality ones. It would be a setback to construct hasty buildings not up to the standard of Malcum.¡± I was going to have to talk with Breda. She was a massive boon to our community and was thinking about the long-term effects of what we were planning, but her resistance to getting the job done in the short term was irritating. ¡°Breda, I will bring you the new plans that I draft will for the new shop/residential structures, and we can discuss them before building them,¡± I stated, ending the argument. I didn¡¯t ask her permission because I guess it was time to confront the dwarf woman and get her on the same page as everyone else. She nodded slowly. I continued, ¡°Now, I guess the next step is to structure our economy. We have 14 butchers coming¡­.¡± For the next four hours, we discussed what job openings we would have. Tanguin was by far the happiest. He was getting four butchers, two bakers, three ropemakers, two shoemakers, two tanners, one purse maker, one hat maker, three masons, two glovemakers, two coopers, three carpenters, four tailors, two weavers, and eight cooks from the tavern worker group. All these civilians would be set up to support our army and city guards. This group would be paid a steady wage and be provided with housing. Breda put six buildings in the queue for this group to work in. These buildings would be built by the barracks and would only be completed once we had housing for everyone. Breda and Neral mostly went back and forth, ironing out details. We would potentially be getting several new Guild Masters once this group arrived. A few people, realizing they were no longer needed, started leaving. I left my city planner and master of guilds with Jaesmin. They were in their element and excited about the challenge. As I walked home with Jaesmin, she asked, ¡°Why are you taking in so many new citizens? Malcum has changed so much, and our identity will be completely different after this new group arrives.¡± I gathered my thoughts as we walked, ¡°A long time ago, the place where I am from once gladly took in people from around the world. A plaque on an island said, ¡®Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me; I lift my lamp beside the golden door!¡¯¡± I was surprised that I remembered the plaque on the Statue of Liberty. But it had the desired effect on Jaesmin. ¡°That is¡­so you are saying Malcum is going to be the golden door for the people no one else wants? A path to prosperity for them.¡± Jaesmin said. That was insightful for the NPC. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. ¡°Yes, that is exactly what I am thinking. Malcum will be a safe harbor for unwanted people as long as they are willing to contribute to the community,¡± I said, sounding a bit self-righteous. As we walked, Manarag, the panther man, caught up to us. ¡°Lord Tallis, do you have a moment?¡± he asked with concern. ¡°Of course! What is troubling you?¡± I asked. ¡°Not me but some of the other masters. It has to do with resources for our crafts. You didn¡¯t bring any blacksmiths back with you, which is good, as ingots are in short supply in Malcum already. But what you did do is recruit a large number of crafters, and we can¡¯t supply them the raw materials for them to carry out their craft except the leather workers.¡± He was, of course, correct. I had figured they would just offer fetch quests for materials to players¡­but I only had three players in town, and Mad Dog and crew had enough on their plate to help me. Why did this game have to mirror actual real-world manufacturing and economics? I mean, the natural resources replenished quickly with spawns, and the world was massive, so resources were abundant. I quickly thought of a solution and spoke like I had planned it all ahead of time. ¡°Manarag, a lot of the people coming here don¡¯t have skills. So, all we need to do is get them to harvest the resources our crafters will need.¡± It sounded a lot simpler than it was, but Manarag nodded like I was brilliant. ¡°That sounds reasonable. Who will be in charge of assigning them their duties?¡± A panicked look came over his face. He was thinking I would put him in charge. I couldn¡¯t lose his smithing ability, though. I looked at all the NPCs in the village on my screens. Huh, she would work extremely well, and she should be able to do an excellent job. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Manarag, I will take care of it. And it is not going to be you.¡± I smiled at the panther man and changed direction with Jaesmin. Jaesmin inquired where we were going, and I remained silent. When we got close, she figured it out and laughed. ¡°Oh, Tallis, I actually think you actually picked the right person this time. She has been itching to contribute, and she has a lot of experience in resource harvesting and allocation,¡± Jaesmin said while I knocked. Kytalia answered the door, and her array of sister wives and children played in the background. ¡°Lord Tallis! I am surprised to see you at my door. I hope all is well?¡± The orc woman said. Kytalia had fled her orc clan when her husband, the Khan, had been killed. We gave her refuge and then repelled the new Khan¡¯s attempts to retrieve the treasures Kytalia took with her. ¡°All is well. I have a job proposal for you. I want you to be in charge of material harvesting for all of Malcum. You may have heard we have over 700 new citizens coming here, and the crafters will need resources...¡± Kytalia smiled as I spoke. I should have invited her to the meeting. I was correcting that mistake now. ¡°If you take the job, I will give you a seat on my informal advisory council.¡± Kytalia pretended to think about it, but her face betrayed that she was already eager to accept. ¡°So, what does this extremely important position pay?¡± She asked after a long pause. Jaesmin was tugging my arm. She was good friends with Kytalia, and she helped her when I assigned Jaesmin as interim Master of Guilds. ¡°I think five gold a month is fair? Unless you have a counteroffer?¡± I asked. My offer was probably high, but if she could keep all the crafters in Malcum supplied with the material, it would be worth it. Then, it might actually be too low of an offer. Kytalia nodded as if considering, ¡°Five gold is fine. Let¡¯s leave open a monthly bonus of up to 2 gold based on my performance.¡± Her toothy-fanged grin told me she planned to collect on that extra two gold every month. ¡°Agreed!¡± I said before the woman changed her mind. Jaesmin stayed with the orcs to have dinner and catch up with the going ons in Malcum. I went home and sat at my drafting table. I needed to draft a simple shop/residence building that wouldn¡¯t ruin Malcum¡¯s aesthetic. Three hours later, Jaesmin returned, and I had my first plans completed. The shop on the first floor had two rooms. The front room was for merchandise, and the back room was for crafting and storage. The second floor had a kitchen/dining room and three bedrooms. There was access to the roof for a personal garden. The bedrooms were modest in size, and maybe six people could live comfortably. If we made them out of stone and Jaesmin and I helped our builders, we could do more than five a day. At least finish the structure without furniture. I identified the plans. Uncommon Retail Shop/Residence, Heath 20,000, Requires Masonry: Foundations 7, Masonry: Structures 7 (Bonus +5% to all pool recovery for NPCs only) It was just about as simple as I could make it. It was durable and sound, and we could add a pleasing facade on the exterior. I didn¡¯t have time to draft specific structures for each profession as I had done for the blacksmith, tanner, alchemy, enchanter, brewery, and furniture buildings. This was going to have to do. By morning, I drafted seven more copies and walked over to talk with Breda. Breda was in her office and playing with her scale model of Malcum. She was deciding where the new buildings were going to go. She saw me come in, and I shut the door behind me. ¡°So, Breda, you have been doing an excellent job so far.¡± I paused, ¡°But you seem to have trouble working amicably with everyone. Let¡¯s talk about it.¡± Breda put down some model homes and looked at me. She huffed and went and sat at her desk. ¡°I trained my entire life to plan and manage a city¡¯s infrastructure, Lord Tallis. Did you know that?¡± ¡°No, I did not. Care to elaborate further?¡± I felt I was about to have another NPC backstory. She grimaced like she didn¡¯t want to talk about it, but soon she was telling her tale, ¡°I was the oldest child of King Rhinehold. I had two younger brothers. Much younger brothers. While I was studying and apprenticing with every conceivable administrator who helped run my father¡¯s capital, my brothers played with swords and axes.¡± She stood and walked back to the model of the city. ¡°I had so many plans to make that city greater than it was. I put them all in a book, ready to impress my father. Forty years I spent on that book.¡± I think she was hiding a tear as she faced the model. ¡°When the day came for my father to announce a successor, all his children were to present to him why they were the best dwarf to run the city and kingdom. The succession wouldn¡¯t happen for decades, but the heir needed to be named. I confidently presented my plans for improvements to the city. My eldest brother said how charismatic he was, how the soldiers loved him, and that he would fight alongside them to defend the kingdom.¡± She was definitely crying now as the model table had a few drops on it from my angle. ¡°My youngest brother¡­he said his brother was the best choice to run the city and kingdom as he would be looked up to by the people and loved by the citizens.¡± She took a deep breath, ¡°My father sat there and looked at the three of us. He had my detailed tome in his hands and had been so proud when he paged through it just moments before. I knew I was going to be named the heir.¡± She turned around, and her tear-streaked face met me, ¡°He walked forward and named my brother the heir and handed him my manuscript to study!¡± Her gaze turned hard. ¡°As we left the chamber, my eldest brother told me he would name me Master of Builders. It was a good title and had one of the council seats. But then he told my younger brother he would be named General of the Army, the second most powerful position in the kingdom, for his support. I was shocked and angry. But then he¡­he tossed my book into the chasm as we crossed the defense bridge from the citadel.¡± It took Breda a few minutes to calm down. ¡°The book was not retrievable, but much of what I learned was still up here.¡± She pointed to her head. ¡°I left the next day to make another dwarven city greater than my father¡¯s to show him how wrong he was in his choice. I went to three kingdoms and was rejected by all of them¡­then I came here. I don¡¯t know if it is possible to take Malcum from nothing to greatness, but I will put my entire soul and being into trying,¡± she finished firmly. So, I got a highly driven career woman with daddy issues. ¡°Ok, Breda, let¡¯s do that then. Make Malcum the gem of all cities. Here are my plans for the shops.¡± We spent an hour going over the placement of the shops. Breda had decided that Malcum would eventually have an upper city with higher-end shops, so it would be okay if these were not of rare quality. We laid out where the first seven would go, and I got to work with my build team. The day flew by, and I told Mad Dog I didn¡¯t have time to talk. All seven shops were complete, and I was surprised when some townsfolk started carrying furniture in later in the day. I had not planned to furnish them, but Kytalia came to me and said she was streamlining the lumber mill and furniture factory and hoped to provide most of the new shop residences with old furniture. Ok, so I have to admit I had been under-utilizing Kytalia. She was running around town getting people to harvest hemp for the ropemakers, setting quotas for lion and buffalo hides, working with Zion on wool projections, and recruiting five townsfolk to train with our lumberjack and had the new mill operating at close to capacity¡­all in one day! She had probably done half a dozen other things as well. She was just an amazing woman. She came to me as my builder team was enjoying a much-deserved meal in the inn, ¡°Lord Tallis, I have a list of goods I need to keep the new citizens busy. Could you pass it along to your player friends?¡± I took the list, and it was extensive. It contained estimated monthly needs for the village and even had estimated prices based on Kytalia¡¯s and Elice¡¯s knowledge. Wax was the most expensive thing on the list, followed by iron ingots. ¡°You have done an amazing job! With the player auction house open, I might be able to fulfill some of these needs.¡± I quickly finished my meal and compared prices at the player store. The only item I found that was cheaper was the wax. Two waxes were available for minimal cost, giant bee wax and insectoid gland wax. Since they were both cheap, I bought all 240 lbs of beeswax and 600 lbs of insectoid gland wax. I assumed the insectoid wax was due to the Incursion event and the city they took over. The products I purchased materialized in my alcove in the store. I put everything in my bag, and it stacked nicely in there. I then took a deep breath as I knew I needed to do a lot of drafting tonight for tomorrow¡¯s build day. Chapter 46 Scramble Chapter 46: Scramble Things were looking good on paper after our first day of building. Breda was formulating the street layouts and housing projections. The entire community was focused on creating as welcoming an environment as possible. Not a single citizen appeared to be idle. Kytalia was the mastermind, though. She was essentially going to be solely responsible for balancing Malcum¡¯s economy. I walked to bring the wax to Kytalia, who was in the general store with Elice, when I checked my town map. That was a nice feature¡ªIf I employed someone, then I could find that NPC or player if they were within my town limits. I walked into the store, planning on dropping off the wax. Elice and Kytalia were in a deep conversation and paused as I entered. Kytalia spoke, ¡°Lord Tallis! Great work today with the buildings. I think even Breda was happy at the inn during dinner.¡± I remember Fareth saying she would feed anyone who worked to help get the town ready. Kytalia continued, ¡°I was talking with Elice to determine the pricing for the general store¡¯s goods and raw materials. We need prices so you profit but still low enough that crafters can create things and generate a livable income. We have identified 81 raw materials the general store will stock and their relative prices,¡± she said, smiling. She wanted praise, so I gave it, ¡°That is amazing. How will we maintain enough space for stock in the general store? I have a few hundred pounds of wax that you requested.¡± A few NPCs had bags of holding, but it was rare. I had asked, and it was not an item that Persephone, our enchanter, was familiar with crafting. ¡°Breda should have found you. She wanted to ask you to draft a warehouse to be built by the future trading dock at the river. It would be best if you went talk with her,¡± Elice said, entering the conversation. So before heading home to draft additional building plans, I found Breda on my map. She was at Manto¡¯s tower. I quickly walked over there, unsure if Breda was stirring the pot again. I was relieved to find the pair on the roof of Manto¡¯s tower drinking mugs of ale. A slightly drunk Breda raised a mug to me, following Manto¡¯s example. Manto spoke, ¡°Ah, Lord Tallis, our fine dwarf city inspector here had just come by to condemn my tower.¡± ¡°Oh, shush, you old man,¡± Breda said as Manto smiled. ¡°I was just trying to convince the old man that his tower would look so much better on the other side of this river¡­where all the luxury housing would be going up.¡± Having gotten into the conversation late, I was at a loss. ¡°Oh, you uptight maiden, you just want to put one of the town¡¯s strongest mages on the far shore to help defend your future construction projects,¡± Manto said humorously. I looked back and forth between the two. Their jovial moods did not match the content of their combative statements. ¡°Oh, don¡¯t look so anxious, Lord Tallis,¡± Manto continued, ¡°we sat down for a pint or two and are discussing the merits and detractions of her elaborate expansionist plans for Malcum.¡± I nodded slowly and thought maybe I should leave them at it. Interjecting myself into the conversation might not be a good idea. ¡°Join us,¡± Breda belched, which caused both of them to laugh. I walked, sat in the reclining chair, got a mug, and filled it from the barrel on Manto¡¯s roof. I identified the ale just in case it was the cause of this cordial but combative conversation. Jungle Brew ¡®Leopard¡¯ Pale Ale, -50% to constitution when calculating intoxicating effects, +10 to charisma, and +10 to stamina for 30 minutes (see penalties of intoxicating effects for more details) It just looked like a beverage designed to get people drunk more quickly. I sipped my beverage, which was better than the last sample I had tasted. Manto smiled at my surprise, ¡°This is our fourth attempt at brewing the perfect beverage. We are trying to reduce a person¡¯s constitution so they can more effectively enjoy the bliss of being drunk.¡± Manto didn¡¯t seem drunk, which made me wonder about the retired war mage. I looked at Breda. ¡°So Breda, I was asked to find out about getting some plans ready for warehouses at the future docks.¡± Breda¡¯s eyes lit up. ¡°Yes, yes!! Lord Tallis, I had reprioritized the warehouses,¡± she fumbled in her shirt and pulled out a sketch. I looked at it. She had four long warehouses next to the dock with a city guard shack at the end of each. ¡°These four warehouses will house the cities¡­I mean, the town reserves of raw materials. The guard shacks don¡¯t need to be built immediately but will when the city starts demonstrating crime.¡± She belched again, ¡°We have been lucky in that respect, but it will be unavoidable as we grow. I need at least one of these warehouses ready before our population influx. Kytalia¡­brilliant woman that one¡­is trying to make sure all the new citizens will have the material to keep busy.¡± She sipped her drink and sighed contentedly. All a crotchety dwarf needed was a strong drink to mellow out¡­ kind of clich¨¦. I looked at the warehouse, and just the dimensions were listed: 100 yards long by 30 yards wide. Breda looked expectantly at me. ¡°I think I can squeeze it into my drafting tonight, but it looks like a simple building. We probably don¡¯t even need plans to draft. It¡¯s not like it is as hard to build as my epic library plans.¡± Her mug fell from her hand and crashed to the ground. ¡°Epic library plans? You have epic library plans!? Where are they? I must see them.¡± Her excitement caused her to stand too fast and trip over herself, sprawling before us, which caused Manto to laugh even though he had just lost a mug. ¡°I don¡¯t think we had the required skills to build it. I didn¡¯t plan to build it for quite some time,¡± I pulled the plans out of my storage and handed them to Breda. She began drooling as she looked them over. It was a good ten minutes before she met my eyes. ¡°These change everything! We must build this immediately! A jewel like this in our city¡­town¡­will draw thousands to us. If you could craft plans for an epic mage academy to go with this¡­ah, you don¡¯t have the enchanting, foundation ritual, and runic script skills. Well, the library is¡­¡± ¡°Back up¡­Breda, what skills?¡± My senses told me this was not a coincidence. Breda offered this knowledge of the skills I needed to craft magical buildings. I knew this must be the AI leading me by the nose to the knowledge I had not sought out myself. I would take the bait. ¡°Well, foundation ritual magic and runic script are used to build buildings that utilize mana to generate their effects. Like your auction house and the guard house you built. You need the enchanting skill as it is a prerequisite to draft plans for them,¡± she finished in a slurred speech. Manto looked at me and stated, ¡°Persephone has enchanting and runic script skills. So, she can teach you them if you can convince her. She is a little more uptight than my new friend here, though.¡± Breda looked aghast at Manto¡¯s statement. ¡°Friends, are we? Well, friends, don¡¯t let friends drink and fly!¡± A chuckle from Manto met Breda¡¯s indignant statement. ¡°Ah, but you asked what flying was like, so I granted your request.¡± Breda was not angry, and soon both laughed. Maybe they were now both true friends. Breda pressed him, ¡°So, friend Manto, would you be willing to do another friend a favor and move your tower to the other side of the river?¡± Her lopsided grin made her look cute. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°Fine! You little task master! You can move my tower to the other side of the river. I am sure Lord Tallis will build me a nice bridge so I don¡¯t have to waste mana flying over the river to the inn to get a drink, though,¡± he looked expectantly at me. ¡°I can accommodate you in that respect. It might take some time to get to the project, but it will get done,¡± I said, ready to retreat. It was late, and I now had a few things I wanted to get done before the morning. I put down the ale, not wanting to get accidentally drunk, and left Manto¡¯s tower as the two ignited into a conversation on a completely different topic. Jaesmin had left some food out for me, and I greedily filled my satiety bar. I needed to get working on drafting. I spent most of my night drafting seven more of the simple uncommon retail shop/residences. If we could keep up the same pace, we would have at least 35 of these buildings ready. That would house a full quarter of the incoming migrants, about 190. Tanguin would be taking on another 142, the laborers and their families that would be outfitting and supplying our guards and military. Another 77 were the 27 guards and their families. Galana was housing them in the barely used tower by the river. After looking at the notes with the inn and townsfolk volunteering space in their homes, we could house 600 of the 724 when the five-day timeline was reached. I was hoping they wouldn¡¯t all arrive at the same time. Tanguin had left this morning to meet them on the road. Next, I got to work in the warehouse. Inspiration struck. Instead of building the small guard house at the end of the warehouse, I just added the guard housing to the ends of the warehouse. This saves time but also gives housing to six guards at each end of the warehouse. I spent a fair amount of time designing the warehouse and made it compartmentalized, with six large rooms on each side and a loft for slightly more storage. In order to meet Breda¡¯s city aesthetic, I spent time outside, adding decorative arches and alcoves for statues. I identified the plans. Rare Fortified Warehouse, Health 250,000, Requires Masonry Foundations 23, Masonry Structures 43, Woodcraft: Carpentry 23 (Bonus: +50% to food preservation, +25% to attack and defense of guards, Alarm effect: stationed guards will instantly become alert to anyone not authorized to be in the building) That was amazing, but the alarm effect seemed a bit on the magical side. I wondered what effects I could achieve if I had actually had the three enchanting skills required to draft magical buildings. I looked at the time, and I had just enough time to draft an 8th copy of the multi-use shop building. The day flew by, and once again, the townsfolk contributed to help. The furniture crafter building was cranking out an impressive number of items. Mad Dog and company found me and asked what they could do to help the controlled mayhem. Their guild house was only partially finished, so I felt bad. ¡°Mad Dog, thanks for asking. Did you talk to Persephone and Kytalia?¡± I asked, taking a break. Mad Dog replied, ¡°Yeah, mate, we got them their entire first month¡¯s worth of materials, and Persephone should be set for at least six months.¡± Black Beauty chuckled. Mad Dog pointed his thumb at her, ¡°Persephone ticked her off, so she got her ten times the amounts she wanted and just dropped it all on the floor of her enchanting tower.¡± That was good and bad. I needed a happy enchanter because I needed her to teach me some skills, but I didn¡¯t want Black Beauty to cause the enchanter to be upset. I went into my interface and checked some things. Yeah could be better with funds. ¡°I am running really low on coins. All these expenditures are draining me faster than I can afford. Plus, Manto did not have time to make more copper coins for circulation in town. Can you wander around town and purchase things from the town¡¯s residents? I don¡¯t know if it would help much, but maybe you could use the portal stone and sell it in another city for a small profit. Don¡¯t know if that is possible¡­oh!!!¡± I stopped in my pleading. A huge grin was on my face, ¡°Do you know Savannah? The young elf alchemist?¡± They all returned my grin. ¡°Who doesn¡¯t know that girl? If you don¡¯t know her, she makes sure you do once she gets ahold of you,¡± Grinder said, smiling at the memory. Black Beauty added, ¡°If I had a daughter in the real world, I could only hope she has that same curiosity and love of life that Savanah demonstrates.¡± ¡°Well good news for you all then! Her weird-ass potions are extremely profitable.¡± I searched for my old transactions in my interface. ¡°Her potions were selling 40 to 60 times the amount I bought them for, if you can believe it. I guess it has to do with her being so new to alchemy that she isn¡¯t selling them at their value, or maybe they are just unique potions¡­¡± I hadn¡¯t finished before the three rushed to the alchemy shop.¡± Maybe I should have reserved the knowledge for myself. I also felt a little guilty taking advantage of the elven girl, but this was game economics: buy low and sell high. I returned to work, and the group returned about two hours later, ¡°Tallis!¡± Mad Dog yelled as he approached, ¡°You were right! The uniqueness of her concoctions is what is driving up the price. There are diminishing returns, but we should be able to milk it until the game economy normalizes the new brews. Black Beauty encouraged our budding alchemist to experiment to try new things¡­she blew up the alchemy lab, and Tonna is having her clean up the mess now,¡± he chuckled. ¡°We did well and will spread our newly acquired coin in town and look for other diamonds.¡± ¡°Try Manto¡¯s new ale. He is trying to get the brewer to brew the perfect ale. It tastes great and gets you trashed with just one pint.¡± Grinder was the only one in the group who rushed off towards the brewery. I was surprised Mad Dog didn¡¯t do the same. He explained, ¡°I have been dry on the outside for six years. Drinking in the game¡­I thought since I wasn¡¯t actually drunk, it would be fine. But it messed with me, and my craving in the real world grew, so I quit drinking in the game a few days ago¡ªwell, moderate my drinking in the game now.¡± He sighed. ¡°Any other leads on profitable trading?¡± ¡°No. Did you have time to explore the monolith I found? I sent you the coordinates.¡± I checked the town balance in my interface. Their efforts gave me about a month of operating currency. Much too small of a margin to feel comfortable. Especially with the massive influx of migrants and the arrival of the garrison. ¡°Grinder did the research on it after we visited it. It is a marker. There should be two others in the world that make a triangle. In the exact center of that triangle, there will be a dungeon or something quest-related. We haven¡¯t been able to unlock the associated quest, though. Grinder wants to head to one of the larger libraries to check to look for more clues and how to activate the monoliths. Even if we have the location, all three monoliths also require activation,¡± Mad Dog explained. Mad Dog changed the subject, ¡°Hell of a job you are doing, Tallis. We have been selling info in the real world, and your cut is almost enough for the lawyer if you want to start down that path to freeing your body.¡± He studied me. I hadn¡¯t been following the notes he had been sending me. It had just seemed like too great a mountain to climb. ¡°No, not yet. Just keep holding it for me. I will know when the time is right,¡± I said slowly. I didn¡¯t want to bring the eyes or ire of the game¡¯s creators on me. They controlled my body, so I needed to be sure I could get free and support my life functions before proceeding, ¡°Keep reminding me, though. I don¡¯t want to be trapped in here forever.¡± My last words lacked conviction, and I knew it. ¡°Your call, mate. We are here for you, and when the entire guild is in the game, we will be fighting right beside you,¡± Mad Dog said as he turned to leave. He was heading back toward the alchemist shop. We finished all eight shop/apartment units during the rest of the day. I was actually not looking forward to spending hours again this evening drafting the same thing repeatedly. You didn¡¯t become an architect to do the same thing repeatedly. We worked through dinner to start the warehouse. It was a large, more complex building than I should have made it. I called a stop when I felt we had put in enough work and sent everyone to get Fareth¡¯s cooking, on me. I returned home and went to my drafting table. I paged through my plans in the interface and pulled up a different one. Rare Apartment Building; Bonus +5% Morale if all apartments are filled, +10% stamina recovery I drafted two copies of this plan. Each building could hold three families, so it was a good investment in my time, even if drafting each plan took twice as long. I then crafted another tannery building. Rare Tannery/Leatherworks, Health 50,000, Requires Masonry: Structures 43, Woodcraft Carpentry 23 (Bonus 33% chance to increase tanned hide quality, +5 defense bonus to leather crafted armor, 1% chance to increase rarity of crafted armor) We would not have time to invest in building the tannery, but it helped reset my mind from the monotony of the simple tasks. Jaesmin had long ago returned to bed, and I was feeling exhausted. I set my internal alarm to get up early enough to draft at least one set of plans for the simple Retail Shop/Residence. As I lay next to Jaesmin, I hugged her body; my hand snaked around her belly. Then something weird happened. Her belly tapped my arm¡­no kicked. The baby? Her stomach was flat¡­not showing pregnancy, so I slid down and put my ear to the belly, and yes! Oh my. Why didn¡¯t she show? I spent a long few minutes listening to the artificial sounds that enthralled me. Then, I reluctantly looked through the updates, alerts, and messages. I finally found it. To avoid the psychological damage of possibly killing a pregnant NPC, it was decided all pregnancies would not be shown visually. I had to agree with this. I fell asleep with my head resting on Jaesmin¡¯s belly. Chapter 47 Skill Books Chapter 47: I woke early and was highly motivated today. I drafted three copies of the apartment plans and one shop/residential plan. I gave them to Jaesmin to get started on building. I planned to stop by the town hall today before finding Mag Dog and the crew. The town was abuzz with activity. It seemed organized as people looked in a hurry and knew where they were going. I found my new generic city guards on patrol in the town in groups of three. These were dumb mobs that were programmed in the Lord¡¯s interface. I hadn¡¯t delved too deeply into the commands of my twelve level 22 guards¡­well, getting closer to twelve as they only spawned at the rate of 1 per day. I took a moment to check on my commands for them. It was basically to keep the peace and attack anyone or anything that attacked town residents. I gave Galana equal control over their commands while I was in editing mode. I climbed the stairs to Breda¡¯s office. We had gotten on the same page, so I wanted to check in with her. She was huddled over her town model. ¡°Breda?¡± She spun about, clear wild excitement in her eyes, ¡°Lord Tallis! Come look!¡± I cautiously approached the model to find a new massive structure adjacent to the central park. It was the epic library. ¡°Don¡¯t say a word! Just look!¡± She waved her hand at her model city. It¡¯s not just the library but also a magic academy, Lord Tallis. Just think we can be the center of learning for this entire region! The envy of all nations and races!¡± ¡°Uh, this is great, Breda, but first, we need people to build your vision here. And we are trying to prepare for a large influx of those people. I came to check and see when we should put these tannery plans into the building queue. I also have a very nice set of plans for a paper mill,¡± I said as I produced both plans. She looked them over intently. ¡°Yes, we will need paper for the library¡­very wise, Lord Tallis¡­even the possibility of producing runic paper! Although it is a tier 1 runic paper, it is still extremely useful. We can place the paper mill here¡­.¡± She grabbed a blank block from her desk and placed it next to the lumber mill. Ok, I needed to reel her in again. ¡°Breda, no library will not be started until we have the people with the necessary skills to build it. And I don¡¯t have the skills or time to draft a magical academy.¡± I gestured at her new building. My harsh tone seemed to slap her into focus. ¡°Oh,¡± she breathed out solemnly. ¡°We could start the¡­¡± ¡°No!¡± I affirmed again. ¡°You should know everything needs to be done in order. Populace and infrastructure and then the seven wonders of the world.¡± Her eyes got contemplative as I said the last in reference to a game I played when I was younger¡­and was terrible at. She seemed to gain focus, so I continued. ¡°I need you to tell us where to build to emphasize increasing our consumable production. I don¡¯t want us going hungry.¡± She nodded slowly but still looked longingly at the library model in the center of the town. ¡°Yes, Lord Tallis. You can count on me. Galana is out hunting but said you should see her sometime today. It had something to do with gnomes applying to the town guard.¡± Breda finished. Gnomes as town guards? I doubted she was referring to Titus, my gnome hospitaller quest giver. No, he had a different role. How would players treat town guards who were only as tall as their belly button? Why did problems come just as fast as answers? With Breda appearing back on track with the tannery and papermill, I went to see my Master of Guilds. Neral, the fire giantkin, was in his office buried under paperwork. ¡°Ah, Lord Tallis! I was just about to finish my report for you. I have seven more guilds that will need to elect their representative¡­which may be hard since there are no members with the skill rank of the master!¡± He chuckled at his joke. ¡°That sounds fine. Just have them reelected every six months¡­eventually, someone will reach the master rank. But I wanted to ask you about your prior issue with Breda,¡± his face soured when I said that. He leaned and whispered to me, ¡°We have put many of our differences behind us, but she wanted to give the guilds absolutely no power within the city! You can¡¯t expect them to pay taxes and get nothing for it! Whenever I broached the topic, she said, ¡°You are not bringing dirty and loud crafting professions within my city walls! She wants the city to be a pristine place of peace and quiet!¡±¡± The large man huffed like he was out of breath. ¡°She has angered Manarag and Curraen repeatedly with her demands.¡± ¡°And why wasn¡¯t this brought to me while this feud spawned and grew wings?¡± I asked. ¡°Well,¡± he scratched the back of his head. ¡°You seemed to be avoiding Breda, so we didn¡¯t want to distract you.¡± So it was my fault. I nodded slowly. I had kicked the can on confronting Breda, which created more problems. ¡°Are Manarag and Curraen both ok?¡± I asked, somewhat concerned about my master crafter¡¯s disposition. ¡°Yes,¡± he sighed. ¡°They thought highly of you and were deflecting Breda¡¯s attention from you.¡± A look of concern crossed my face, and he read it, ¡°Don¡¯t worry. She is much better now that Manto cares for her¡­needs.¡± Did he insinuate that the dwarf and old human wizard were intimate? Seeing my surprise, he whispered, ¡°She stayed last night in his tower and had a glow to her this morning.¡± ¡°Oh, they probably just spent last night testing new ales,¡± I responded. He just nodded at me like I was an idiot. How the hell was I supposed to be able to read NPC dispositions toward each other? I had enough problems with humans. ¡°Oh, your bookseller arrived last night. Elice assigned him a shop, and he was asking about the town library,¡± Neral added. Oh, Garn Steelhand, the dwarf I recruited from Willow¡¯s Bend. ¡°Send him to Breda. He can appreciate her model in her office. I''m afraid there will be no library for quite some time.¡± I turned and left the man to figure out the guilds. I went to find my construction crew, Jaesmin was leading them, and there was no Sanso. He sent one of his golems with a note that he was taking the morning off today. He was resting in his tower. I hadn¡¯t visited his tower in a while, so I left my crew to see him and invited Mad Dog, Grinder, and Black Beauty. They were on fetch quests in other cities, so they were unavailable. It was only a 2-mile walk north to his tower, so I didn¡¯t need Titan but had the elf twins get him ready anyway. They actually joined me for the ride as the horses needed exercise. Please don¡¯t ask me why virtual horses require exercise. It definitely changed Titan¡¯s disposition when I took him out. I even whispered to him that we would go leveling soon after we settled all the refugees. Sanso¡¯s tower looked the same as when I visited for the first time. It felt like so long ago. I knocked on the door and was shocked when Elice opened it. She didn¡¯t look surprised at all. ¡°Come in, Lord Tallis,¡± she said loudly, alerting Sanso. Sanso was dressed in light cotton clothes. ¡°I am sorry for taking the morning off, Lord. I just wanted to¡­.¡± I held up my hand to stop him. ¡°No, I shouldn¡¯t have interrupted. Your contract gives you one day off in seven and only a work week of 40 hours. You have far exceeded that every week you have worked for me. You are indispensable to Malcum; therefore, I am doubling your wage,¡± I finished with a smile. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Yeah, so I felt a little guilty about disturbing Sanso¡¯s sleepover. He usually stayed in town with Elice. The extra money wasn¡¯t enough to cover the value of his summon rock spells or all the work his small army of golems did in helping grow the town. He was more responsible for the quick growth of Malcum than me. I sat in his first-floor room. Drying mushrooms hung on wire in the small kitchen with a stone dining table. It definitely needed a few womanly touches. Elice sat with us. ¡°So, I wanted to ask you about our prospects for mining. I am about to review the auction site for skilled workers. Do I need to hire some miners? The mountains have high-level monsters, but you found copper under your tower?¡± ¡°I apologize, Tallis. I have missed my quota for copper coins. I am just so tired.¡± He took a deep breath. ¡°I don¡¯t think it would be wise to venture near the mountains. Not just because of the monsters, but the dwarves that reside deep inside the range might also take exception,¡± he said. I hadn¡¯t considered other kingdoms. Zion, my sheepherder, had said his wife¡¯s clan lived in those mountains, but I hadn¡¯t given it much thought to it. ¡°So, should I hire a skilled minter? Or stamper? Or whatever a coin maker is called? That would take it off your plate completely. Your golems would need to mine the ore,¡± I said, giving it much consideration. ¡°My golems have been kept busy by Breda. If they are not building with me, then she had them expanding sewers, moving buildings, hauling rock to upgrade our outer walls to stone¡­¡± Seeing my brow furrow, he added, ¡°¡­I agree with her priorities completely. I kind of wish I had decided to build my tower in the town zone. I just didn¡¯t know how I would be received when I arrived,¡± he looked at Elice and they smiled at each other. ¡°Do you two want a tower in town? We can change this to a mining tower or something,¡± I offered. ¡°Yes,¡± Elice answered for him. ¡°He used to like privacy, but he is coming out of his stone shell,¡± she said. Sanso looked uncertain but nodded after seeing Elice¡¯s smile. ¡°Good. Make me some rough drawings of what you want, and I will draft them for you, and we can build it together. How about next to the guild hall?¡± I offered the last as that land still belonged solely to me, and I wouldn¡¯t have to confront Breda about it. Also, having a friend like Sanso so close would be nice. With that settled, we all walked back to town. Titan ran circles around us as we walked, urging me to push him on a long ride. Soon, but not today. We walked to the site, and the Silver Linings Playbook guild house was still under construction. It just wasn¡¯t a priority project. But I was able to indicate the 1.5 acres of land they could build a new tower on. Maybe they would want something more conventional than a tower. After that, we ate lunch at the inn packed with locals. Fareth was being kept busy with her promise to feed the townsfolk who helped prepare. She was extremely happy cooking for everyone, not complaining. We then joined the build team for the afternoon, completing five structures. It was less than the seven we did yesterday, but it was excellent considering we only had Sanso and me for half the day. Before turning in to go drafting, I made two stops. I wanted to check on Savannah, my little aspiring elf alchemist, and talk with Persephone to see if she would teach me the two enchanting skills she knew. I wanted to start working towards being able to draft magical buildings, and yesterday, I was told what three skills I would need to do that. Savannah was sweeping the floor when I arrived, ¡°Savannah, how is Malcum¡¯s youngest alchemist.¡± She looked up, and her hair was a little singed, but she still had a bright smile. ¡°Black Beauty bought all my potions! I tried to brew a large batch of my hair growth potions, and it blew up for the second time this week! Tonna says I need to slow down and think while I brew. I think she is just mad my potions are selling so fast!¡± she giggled. ¡°Sorry, Lord Tallis, I don¡¯t have any potions to sell you today.¡± Her face went sullen. ¡°Don¡¯t worry! I will keep checking in. I have an order for potions for myself for the next time I go out adventuring. I will leave it with you, and Tonna can get to it when she can.¡± I wrote out the health and stamina potions I wanted on paper. I then talked with the excitable elf girl for 30 minutes as she gave me the town gossip. Apparently, all the young children were off trying to get as lucrative an apprenticeship like Savannah. Savannah was doing what she could to help them. Tonna returned from her dinner and smiled at me when she entered her shop. She praised the young elf girl for her progress, making the child¡ªno¡ªyoung woman beam. Her body was maturing rapidly in the game, and she looked closer to a teenager. Where was the time going? My walk to the enchanter¡¯s tower was met with many friendly waves and greetings. The street lamps with magic globes were being charged as I walked. It was a nice touch, and their symmetry let me know that Breda had definitely been involved. Persephone was home and entertaining Kytalia. They discussed installing some alarm signals on the earthen works for those harvesting outside the walls. We didn¡¯t have enough patrols yet, so early warning of threats would be important. I sat with them and complimented them both on the job they were doing. There were boxes and boxes of material on Persephone¡¯s floor, and then I remembered that she had pissed off Black Beauty, so Black Beauty got her 100 times the number of ingredients she requested. Since it was a repeatable quest, Persephone had to pay out 100 times the reward! I planned to never anger Black Beauty upset. ¡°So I am here to get instruction in two skills I wish to learn from you, Persephone. Enchanting and Runic Script. Can you teach me these skills and let me know the best way to level them?¡± I asked. Kytalia excused herself as this had nothing to do with her. I just told her she had already earned her monthly bonus for her fantastic work in just a few days! ¡°So, you wish to be an enchanter, Lord Tallis? I can teach you those skills. It should just take an hour or so to impart the knowledge.¡± She added, bemused, ¡°As for leveling them¡­actual enchanting¡ªthat will take time and practice.¡± I had been hoping for some cheat to level quicker. ¡°So be it. Teach me the skills¡­¡± I said, groaning as it was just another thing I had to level up before the game launch. Enchanting Tier 1 Unlocked, +1 Channeling, +0.1% chance to improve object¡¯s rarity Enchanting: Runic Script 1 Tier 1 Unlocked, +1 Dexterity, +2% speed in enchanting With the basic knowledge from the skills, I finally understood much more about the enchanting arts¡­at least how little I knew about the enchanting arts. The other skill that I needed was called Enchanting: Ritual Magic. Persephone didn¡¯t have this skill, so I would have to order a skill book. I would check the player auction house on the way home and hopefully get lucky. I spent another hour with Persephone and helped her do some basic enchantments she was preparing. Both my skills leveled once! It was because, as a teacher, her skill was so much larger than mine that I learned at a much faster pace! Unfortunately, I didn¡¯t have a few days to remain under her tutelage. And it didn¡¯t appear she would have the patience to teach her Lord for more than the three hours we had spent together. The auction house was highly beneficial, though. The novice skill books were extremely cheap, just 20 to 30 silver each! A novice skill book raised a skill up to level 7 at most¡ªone point per book. An expert skill book, up to level 23 and master up to level 43. With such a large and varied number of skills, I felt lucky to find two novice skill books on ritual magic for enchanting subskill. I immediately purchased three copies of the enchanting and a single copy of the runic script skill. It made sense as there were not enough players, and the books were being dumped cheaply. Getting a skill to level 7 in the game was not very difficult, and all the testers probably had selected their array of skills weeks ago. Expert-level skill books were ten gold or more. I had a number of skills under seven myself. Skills that I had forgotten about. I bought 19 skill books to raise my own skills. Skill books were common dungeon rewards, and I had not been delving into dungeons, so I had been missing out. The issue was each book took an hour to use¡­so that was 25 hours of my time in using these books in the future. I had a few dozen golds in my pocket¡­could NPCs use skill books? A quick search, and the answer was yes, but they only benefited once¡­it took 24 hours for them to use a single book as well. Another benefit was that the skill book was not destroyed like when a player used it. Also, an NPC had to have an open skill slot, and they were usually already maxed out. Still, I dropped 59 gold on 218 different skill books. I tried to focus on useful crafting, magic, and gathering skills. Kytalia would be able to make the best use of this haul. If we had unskilled laborers coming, we could start them at level 1 in a skill, and they could work their way up to become productive. Mad Dog texted me back and said NPCs usually just learned skills from other NPCs, so they were typically not interested in skill books. Well, we were about to diversify for a small town like Malcum! I dropped the massive pile of books off with a note in Kytalia¡¯s office in the town hall. It was very late, and only a few automated guards wandered the streets. I returned home and got to work on drafting. I had no inspiration for drafting magical buildings and was focused on completing at least seven copies for our next build-a-thon tomorrow! Chapter: 48 Arrival Chapter 48 The Arrival My drafting session was a little frantic as I wanted to have the plans ready¡ªseven sets of townhouse plans, housing 21 families when completed. I had chosen these over the shops because I wanted to give the incoming people a residence immediately. As I was leaving before Jaesmin even woke I was met with Galana at my door. ¡°Lord Tallis the first of the new townsfolk has arrived.¡± I was shocked it was a day earlier than planned. We were not ready. Seeing my panic, she explained. ¡°It is just one family, a bunny beastkin family.¡± Relief flooded me as we were not ready for the entire population of migrants. ¡°Good. Did you want to talk about gnome city guards?¡± A pained look came over Galana¡¯s face. She was not racist, but as you would suspect, gnome¡¯s trying to keep order in a tavern brawl would be humorous at best. ¡°Go talk with Titus. He is a powerful gnome warrior who can give you pointers on effectively incorporating them into your forces.¡± ¡°That is actually a good idea.¡± She said with surprise. By her tone, it was like I rarely had good ideas. ¡°I will go immediately.¡± Galana left, and I met the bunnies at the town hall. The bunnies were the bakers, as I had suspected. They looked a little scared, huddled in their cloaks and heavy backpacks. They were road-weary and must have left right after agreeing with me. Kytalia was talking to the three of them. Bella, the bunny girl, had wide eyes at all the different people coming out to work for the day. I told Kytalia that these bakers would be supplying our army and guards with bread, but they were guaranteed their own shop/residence in the consumables district. It was enough information for Kytalia to get them settled. I did ask them if they saw our mounted soldiers. Tanguin had ridden out to meet the refugee caravan. The female rabbitkin said they hid whenever someone passed, but mounted men rode past them two days ago. That was a relief. I told Kytalia to bring Bella by the alchemy shop. Savannah was the best young woman in town to acclimate new children to life in Malcum. A new sense of urgency overcame me. I was sure if I were in the real world, I would be dealing with multiple ulcers by now. The good thing was that my build team was now highly efficient, and townsfolk fed us a consistent supply of lumber. It was barely late afternoon when we had completed all seven structures far enough along to have a parade of furniture entering them. Since we had skipped lunch, I released everyone and headed to talk with Breda. She was hunched over her model of Malcum when I entered her office. ¡°Lord Tallis, it has begun, I am told!¡± ¡°Yes, the first beastkin arrived, and hopefully, they trickle in slowly, but I am guessing we will be swarmed and outnumbered by tomorrow. We finished the housing units I drafted last night. I came by to get the tannery or paper mill plans, whichever one you think is better in the short term.¡± She handed me the tannery plans without a second thought. ¡°The tannery would help free up Curraen¡¯s sons to work on goods instead of preparing excess hides for sale. We should have enough qualified tanners coming in to take over the facility. They might have a skill level to deserve such a building, but they can use it.¡± Breda said plainly. I took the plans to the spot Breda had wanted it built. I liked not having to think about where to place every building for efficiency or fear of making a mistake. The second tannery was to be built outside the walls west of town. Since much of our hide harvesting came from the plains, it made sense. I told some kids I passed to go and collect the builder team from the inn, as their lunch hour was over. Working on the town border to the Cleardusk plains made me yearn to get out there and level up. I had sacrificed a lot of my personal growth for Malcum. I messaged Mad Dog, wondering where he was. He was heading north from the city to meet up with Tanguin. His team was rounding up the stragglers trailing behind the large caravan. There had been a few problems. The towns didn¡¯t sell food to my refugees, and the towns sent word back to the capital that the tiny little village of Malcum was taking in non-humans at an alarming rate. Well, this was to be expected in a human-centralist empire. I had hoped they would be happy I was taking the refugees off their hands. Maybe I could handle the blowback¡ªif my garrison arrived before they came and inspected my town. At least I had three relatively powerful players and a handful of high-level NPCs for defense. I left my build team to work on the tannery and told them to get as far as they could and that we would finish the tannery first thing in the morning and then transition to the warehouse next. They were shocked we were not going to build more shops or housing. I told them I needed to spend time on the NPC auction site and read some skill books. I wasn¡¯t going to have time to draft plans tonight, so we were switching to the warehouse build. We still had the gatehouse barracks, so I was not too concerned with preparing housing everyone. My next draft session would be for the support buildings for the garrison anyway. I would need the garrison cleared out and ready for my promised troops. Garn Steelhand found me walking to the inn. ¡°Lord Tallis, the shop you built for me is perfect for my needs. I talked with your town planner, Breda, and she showed me the library model and build plans. I am glad I moved here. I just wanted to ask you a favor. Can I be put in charge of the skill books? The orc woman showed me your collection. It is impressive to amass so many.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t plan to sell those. They are to educate citizens in skills we don¡¯t have teachers for,¡± I said, skeptical of his eagerness. Garn explained, ¡°I have a unique skill called jack-of-all-trades. I can¡¯t teach it to anyone, but it allows me to learn any skill up to novice rank. It is why I love books. I am always learning.¡± ¡°So your life goal is to learn every skill?¡± I asked, somewhat amazed. He nodded enthusiastically. ¡°Yes, a little ambitious of me, but I think it can be done. I have 102 skills currently.¡± He said with pride. My jaw dropped. ¡°Okay Garn, just make sure you keep the collection away from players as they will destroy the books if they use them,¡± I said after some thought. The dwarf ran off before I had even finished my sentence. I think Garn would make a fantastic curator for the library¡ªif it was ever built. I needed some alone time right now, so I went someplace no one would look for me. I sat in my garden behind the house. My stick men who tended it looked puzzled at my presence. I summoned and created a stone Adirondack chair to sit on and relax. I was going to spend tonight in the NPC auction and then focus on reading skill books. When I opened the auction tab, I could see it was pretty cutthroat. The test players had finally accumulated enough wealth and managed small populations to compete. I doubted any of these players actually cared about the NPCs, though. To them, NPCs were just fodder for their gaming ambitions. My first search was for a paper maker. Success, 29 with the paper-making skill and no bids on any of them. Two masters as well. So, no one was planning on making paper yet. One human and one angelkin. I tagged both. I have no point in bidding just yet and letting people know about my interest. I moved on to my second need, traders. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. There were three skill categories: merchant, trader, and caravaner. The caravaner just focused on transporting goods. The trader seemed to be a wholesale merchant: large volume and repeated products. The merchant was the one who was always looking for the best deal, no matter the item. It seemed the trader type would be the best for my town as our exports would be the same over and over. There was minimal interest in traders on the auction. This made sense as this was a long-term investment, and almost all the testers would lose their characters. Maybe I should start looking for others in the same position as myself. There would be a lot of risks involved, and I wasn¡¯t sure about trusting other hard-wired players at this point. I had been fortunate to find Mad Dog and his team. But honestly, I doubted that was chance. The game controlling AI and Simba had sent them to me. I was sure of it. So, I decided to trust the AI. They would make it happen if they thought I needed to connect with and work with other hard-wired players. Looking at the traders, there were two experts, a lizardman and a human. I tagged both. The only master trader was a human, but someone had already bid on her, and I didn¡¯t want to get into a bidding war so I would be passing. I also needed to start stockpiling some funds for the auction. Maybe I shouldn¡¯t have handed off my alchemy piggy bank to Mad Dog¡¯s crew, but they were doing a lot of work investing and growing Malcum, so I shouldn¡¯t dwell on it. I tagged two expert caravaners, a dwarf and a halfling, just in case. The expert merchants that were still available were an undead and a shade. I set my search criteria to exclude all undead and shades in the future. No point in looking at them if I couldn¡¯t recruit them. I had been given a huge hint that my garrison of soldiers was antagonistic toward the undead. So I knew I couldn¡¯t recruit any undead NPCs to Malcum. I moved on to guards. There were four flavors of guards based on their skill sets: city, palace, caravan, and ceremonial. I was developing my own city guards, and I just wanted to send some protection with my traders, so I searched for caravan guards. A fair number were listed in the expert rank. Checking on the city and palace guards, I saw that there were already many bids. The only listed skill showing for the caravan guards was survival. They had other skills, but just their highest skill was listed. I tagged the one master caravan guard, a beastkin bull woman. That seemed a contrary term, bull-woman. Wasn¡¯t a bull male by its very nature? My brewer was the same type of beastkin, basically a minotaur. I think he was single as well¡ªmatchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match! I also tagged two expert caravan guards, both human women. I spent quite some time looking for builders and mages. Even with the numerous NPCs in the auction, all the top prospects were already embroiled in the bidding wars. I tagged two master furniture makers, an elf and a human. Neither had bids yet so that they might be available for just a single platinum coin at the auction close. Furniture would be one of my primary exports since we had an unlimited high-quality wood supply. I sifted through the NPCs, looking for the diamond hidden in the pile. Four grandmasters¡­but I did not plan to invest 100 platinum just to bid on a grandmaster. My financial situation was much too fragile. One grandmaster, a warrior, was already up to 120 platinum! Since I knew the game system, I realized whoever won that prize would probably have had to do some irritating quest to keep the NPC under their employ and pay a fat wage on top! I had been more fortunate than I realized. The other grandmaster skills were fishing, weaving, and navigation, had yet to be bid on. At this point, there needed to be a larger benefit to outweigh the cost. I had spent way too much time in the interface, and I needed to move on to using my skill books. I could have spent hours longer just sorting and resorting¡­looking and daydreaming about what certain NPCs would bring to Malcum, but I had a horde of citizens approaching. I started with my two skill books on ritual magic. Enchanting: Ritual Magic 1 Tier 1 Unlocked, +1 Stamina, +2% speed of rituals Understanding washed over me. This aspect of enchanting involves large objects or areas. A lot of things started to click into place for me, but I could feel my mind grasping for straws with such a low level of knowledge in my enchanting background. Tantalizing untraceable filaments spun my head about the potential of weaving magic into my structures. Power built into the fabric of the building itself, not just some minor aura, but real power. I greedily consumed my three skill books on enchanting, bringing that skill to 4, and the one on runic script, bringing that skill to 2. It didn¡¯t help. I knew I needed all these skills to reach at least level 7 before I could start crafting my magical building plans. It was a bit frustrating, and it was already morning, and I needed to supervise the completion of the tannery. I was the only one with the skill of masonry structures at a high enough level not to have the final building receive a penalty. The work on the tannery finished at lunch, and as if a signal, Tanguin came riding up to let us know a group of five hundred and seventeen new residents was just two hours behind him with three of his other riders. Well damn. I told Tanguin to get them assembled outside the garrison guardhouse. Building time was done for now. The next two hours were spent collecting the townsfolk to the gate. Our relatively small population of 226 was about to get overwhelmed. I used the chat to see Mad Dog¡¯s status. He had another 118 in his group and would be here tomorrow morning. I stood on the tower and watched their approach. It felt like we were going to be besieged by a ragged group of refugees and wagons. As they gathered at the base of the wall, I remembered one building I had not built or drafted yet. A bathhouse. The smell of dirty bodies rose up the tower to me, and I knew what plans I would be working on tonight. I gave my best welcoming speech as the townsfolk handed out food to the hungry people. We first separated out Galanas guards and their families, 24 guards with 56 family members. Galana, with her current roster of 7 guards, took this group away to settle them. I guessed the remaining three guards were with Mad Dog. My next and not enviable task was assigning the lucky families who would immediately get a shop/apartment building. This list was compiled by my master of guilds, Neral. The giantkin was able to somehow sort the highest-skilled NPCs without ever meeting them. It was a slow process as I announced a person, and they moved forward with their family and were escorted by volunteers to their new shop/ residence. When I ran out of shop buildings, we started putting families into the three-family apartment buildings until we ran out of space there. Surprisingly, this left me looking down on just 71 remaining refugees, mostly beastkin of the cat, wolf, and bunny varieties. There was one family of five gnomes left as well, who was a rugmaker by trade. Fareth came and snagged them before I continued to settle them in the inn. I didn¡¯t think we had done too bad. The remaining people were quickly swallowed up by my generous townsfolk offering spare rooms in their homes until residences could be added to the town. I stood there looking over an empty field now with Jaemsin beside me. ¡°Well, that went much better than I anticipated,¡± I said, looking at her. We turned to look into Malcum, which was now more active than ever. ¡°I agree,¡± she said. ¡°I agree, this was the right thing to do. I am sorry I doubted you, Tallis. Seeing the joy and relief on the faces of those people, realizing this was real. Malcum is going to be a better place for it.¡± She was smiling at me. I hugged her, and we watched, and my interface started beeping to get my attention. Quest Completed: Fareth¡¯s Epic Dish, See Grand Master Chef Fareth for Reward Malcum has been promoted from a Village to a Town, 250,000 experience rewarded, +5 NPC auction slots awarded Malcum has reached town status, Malcum is being added to regional maps New Diplomacy options are now available in your interface Wandering Monster Difficulty has been Increased Please select one adjacent monster region to increase in difficulty in 24 hours, failure to select will result in a random selection Malcum is now required to send participants to the Grand War, the next battle in 420 days, 4 hours, 18 minutes Congratulations! You have reached level 22, 6 stat points, 2 skill points awarded Congratulations! You have reached level 23, 6 stat points, 2 skill points awarded Each line was either joy or pain for me. Nothing was ever easy in this game. You make some little gains, and they try to hammer you back down. Well, first things first. We need a bathhouse! Chapter 49
Chapter 49
I sat in my house on my couch with Jaesmin in my arms. I started to review my notifications more thoroughly.
The experience I gained from upgrading my town got me two levels. I was now level 23. With the 12 unassigned stat points, I dropped them all into magic to get a boost to my magic pool. I banked the four skill points, bringing my total to 5 to use when I needed them.
The biggest thing that needed addressing was selecting a monster region to increase in difficulty. I had three regions around my town. The Cleardusk Plains: levels 5 to 15. The Shiverwood Forest: levels 40 to 50. And the Breakneck Mountains: levels 60 to 70. Each region had a range of 10 levels. I had to choose one region to increase the difficulty. The plains had been a great training ground for our low-level soldiers and a supply of hides. It would be a shame to lose that. The forest was too close to Malcum. So it left the northern mountains. I selected them and let the difficulty increase.
The Breakneck Mountains monsters have increased in difficulty. Monster levels have risen from 60 to 70. Monsters are now level 75 to 85.
I choked a little bit. A fifteen-level increase? I had hoped for just 10. Now I just had to hope we never got any wandering monsters from the mountains. Would this also affect the dwarf kingdom that was deep in the mountains? I might have just made someone very upset.
I skipped down to see what I needed for my next upgrade.
Requirements for upgrading Malcum to a Large Town
Population 2,500
100 Full-Time Soldiers
One Cultural Building
The other six requirements were already met. So, I needed to build a cultural building. What was that? A museum, library, school, or playhouse? We already had a school¡­ I checked, and it didn¡¯t meet the required size for a population of 2,500. To qualify, a school would need to be able to hold 100 students. So I just needed to draft a much larger school.
I decided to break for a moment. ¡°Jaesmin, let¡¯s head to the inn for a late dinner.¡±
She had fallen asleep, and we made our way over. The inn was still packed with people, even this late. Quite a few gnomes sat at the tables, and Fareth ran happily in and out of the kitchens with food. The waitresses were a mix of beastkin, humans, and gnomes. Fareth noticed us and came rushing to us after dropping off a pot of what I assumed was stew.
¡°Lord Tallis! Things have gotten lively! I do believe I owe you a reward. Give me some time, and I will prepare my epic dish for you. I think I have enough for a serving for you and your wife if that is ok?¡±
We waited, and people watched as Fareth prepared our meal. The meal was a massive bowl of chili that smelled spicy even at a distance. Fareth grinned as she placed the bowls in front of us, ¡°In order to get the benefit, you need to finish the entire bowl. Just ignore the burn; it won''t kill you.¡± She turned and left, hiding a smile.
Jaesmin looked at me and then started eating. She quickly started shoveling it into her mouth, ¡°It¡¯s great!¡± She said between mouthfuls.
I took my first bite, and my mouth burned. Maybe I could turn down my sensory settings to eat¡­the heat faded, and the savory meat coated my taste buds with thick sauce enhancing the flavor. It was good. No, it was great! The spicy kick rocked my taste buds but cleansed them so I could savor the meat, mushrooms, and everything else. I finished the entire bowl just after Jaesmin, who was holding her belly. Then it hit me.
We both had massive heartburn after the meal. It was so bad that we left the inn and lay down at home. It was over an hour of sweating in our bed and holding our burning bellies before it finally faded.
Epic Meal Complete, permanent +5 to charisma, an ability has been gained ¡®Words of Influence: +20 to charisma for 60 seconds when talking with an NPC¡¯, cooldown 30 days
It was an interesting ability. It was a very minor ability that would allow me to boost a single interaction with an NPC once every month¡ªjust in time to convince a new NPC from the auction to stay in Malcum. ¡°Jaesmin, did you get an ability as well?¡± I asked.
¡°No, what ability did you get?¡± she asked, and I explained. Apparently, only players got an ability from epic dishes.
My stomach took some time before it settled, and I went down to the drafting table. Just like any good chili I ripped off some good farts while I worked. The first building I worked on was the bathhouse. It was a large building as I was planning for it to be able to handle a town population of upwards of 2500. The final building had two wings, one for each sex.
Uncommon Men and Women¡¯s Bathhouse, 25,000 health, Requires Masonry Structures 23 (increase town hygiene by 25% and resistance to disease by 25%)
That was it? No morale bonus¡­just town hygiene disease resilience? The structure was very simple and shouldn¡¯t take long to complete. I put the plans off to the side. My next project was going to be our military support buildings. A fair number of the new citizens were going to support our guards and army and be under the control of General Tanguin.
The massive warehouse was important, but the smaller support buildings would serve as housing and work spaces for families. I drafted four structures similar to the shop/ residences. The only difference was there was no retail shop on the first floor. The first floor was crafting and storing raw materials and finished goods.
I still had time before the workday began. Working through the night, I finished another set of plans for a schoolhouse.
Very Rare Schoolhouse, 100,000 health, Requires Masonry Structures 23, Woodcraft Structures 23 (Bonus +33% to learning speed, +33% to stamina pool recovery)
I drafted a very rare building! It was extremely large and a day or two project, but it could accommodate 200 students. We still needed to finish the fortified warehouse. The sun came up, and we returned to the building.
Breda selected the site, and the bathhouse was done by noon. A few stragglers came into town. Mad Dog had the last group a few hours away. We switched over to the four plans for the military support buildings. Homes for four more families were down by dark as Mad Dog and crew came riding into town with the last group of 154 refugees. It took a fair amount of the night to get them settled into temporary housing.
Breda came to me with the final numbers. We needed 19 more shops/ residences, 5 apartment buildings, and 6 more military support structures. A lot of work was still left to do, but the town was busy, and everyone sounded content so far.
Galana found me as the day was winding down, and I was walking home. ¡°Lord Tallis, if you have a minute. I have a plan for the seven gnomes who want to join the town guard. I want to make them detectives. They can keep an eye on crime and investigate. It was Titus¡¯ idea, but I think it will work.¡± Galana looked uncertain at the solution.
¡°No Galana. Well, yes and no. All the detectives can not be from the same race. You can hire eight detectives, but half can come from one race at most. You can have the balance of gnomes serve as bailiffs or do paperwork or something else,¡± I said. I didn¡¯t want to put the gnomes in complete control of the detectives. Maybe I was thinking too narrowly in terms of potential favoritism or potential corruption.
Galana responded, ¡°It will be as you say.¡± She was about to turn to leave, ¡°Lord Tallis, I love the cloak.¡± She was wearing the Mane of the Lion King cloak that Mad Dog had gotten from the mini-raid boss.
Now that the difficulty of wandering monsters is increasing, we might have more opportunities for similar artifacts. I just hoped the beast didn¡¯t come from the mountains.
The next four days, I drafted, and we built all the buildings we needed. It was Kytalia who was working the hardest, though. Somehow, she managed to keep all the new crafters occupied and get many of their family members to work productively. Food was an issue in town, and we did have to purchase some bulk food from the player auction house. We were building up a surplus of goods in town, so I expected the traders to have something to sell when I recruited them from the NPC auction.
We were putting on the final touches of the massive warehouse when the town alarm went off, and I raced to the gatehouse with everyone else. On top of the tower, there was a small column of riders. As they approached, it was easy to see they were soldiers and they were all human. Sixty-five in total. Galana stood next to me and said, ¡°Level 40 mostly with the four in the front in the low 60s.¡±
It was a force that could do some real damage but not a severe threat. A pompous man looked at the gate, left and right at the earthen walls. ¡°I am Captain Harold Hazelton. I am here to collect back taxes for the town contained within the border of our empire. Based on your current population, the taxes are in arrears for six platinum, 12 gold, and 92 silver.¡±
My garrison was due in just two days. If they were here I would tell them to fuck off. I was about to respond when Manto suddenly appeared at my side. In a soft voice, he said, ¡°They are not here to collect taxes. They are here to see what threat your recent migration is to their kingdom.¡± He put his hand on my shoulder. ¡°Don¡¯t be overly aggressive with your statements.¡± I still stared at Manto, wondering where he came from, and he shrugged, ¡°Invisibility spell.¡± This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
That answered how it just appeared next to me. I focused my attention on Captain Harold. He looked haughty. I pulled my thoughts together, ¡°My name is Lord Tallis. I am the sole ruling body of Malcum, and due to the fact the human kingdom has failed to protect and maintain any form of support for its citizens, we recognize ourselves as an independent.¡±
Captain Harold looked uncomfortable, ¡°Be that as it may. We prefer to stay tonight in your inn after a long few days of riding.¡± A massive thunderbolt and clap rattled the air, and a mound of Earth erupted from the strike.
Manto was standing a few steps to my right. He shrugged, ¡°I was getting impatient. I told you not to be aggressive, but I didn¡¯t say the same of me.¡± My ears were still ringing.
The captain was starting to turn around with his men, clearly seeing they were overmatched. He looked back up the wall at me, ¡°So be it.¡± He yelled. ¡°We will return for further negotiations.¡± His calvary all thundered down the road.
Manto stood before me, ¡°You have two weeks before they return.¡± He disappeared. I had wanted to ask him why he cast his massive lightning bolt. Manto was a very unusual NPC. He had been a war mage and now served as a healing magic instructor seeking the perfect ale in his quest to become a respectable drunk.
I pulled in my build team. I tasked Sanso with working on the city walls with his golems for the next two weeks. It would be more for show than anything else. The earthen wall was over two miles long. At best, he could get a quarter of the wall transitioned to stone in that time. Did a stone wall even matter in a game where magic was prevalent?
The rest of the build team would focus on the guild house. With luck, it could be done before the garrison of soldiers arrived. I was going to be responsible for summoning the stone for the building. My summon stone spell wasn¡¯t as advanced as Sanso¡¯s, but my magic pool was getting deeper and deeper.
Mad Dog, Grinder, and Black Beauty stopped by the building site. ¡°Eh mate, how goes your work on the guild house!¡± Mad Dog yelled on approach.
¡°Sorry, we dropped the project for a bit. Now that things are settling down, I hope to have it completed in the next two days,¡± I said, taking a break from spamming my summon rock spell.
¡°No big deal, Tallis. We just came by to let you know the admins put timers in our interfaces. We have 52 days left of testing. Is there anything you want our help with before these avatars fade away?¡± Mad Dog said with gravity.
I opened my interface. The first thing I checked was the town¡¯s treasury. With the garrison factored in, we had about 50 days¡¯ worth of funds. ¡°You have helped a ton. Just keep working on building the town¡¯s economy. Kytalia is doing the balancing act, but I am still going to operate at a weekly loss of around 70 gold, and that doesn¡¯t include adding in my next wave of NPCs from the auction. Or the next. I want to budget around 500 gold for each auction cycle.¡±
¡°What about putting your drafting plans up for sale? You should be able to make thousands of gold from that once the ball gets rolling and the big rollers arrive,¡± Grinder supplied.
¡°What about the lawyer?¡± Black Beauty asked. ¡°Are you ready to start pursuing your emancipation?¡±
My portion of information sales of game information had, in fact, raised enough money to get me free and recognized as a person again, but I was still uncertain. ¡°I think I am still afraid once I gain my freedom, they might disconnect me from the game in spite. Just continue to accumulate funds for me. When you think I have sufficient funds to refurbish my body and repay the corp, then we can proceed.¡±
Black Beauty almost said something but held back. Mad Dog spoke, ¡°Sure thing, mate. Our crew is getting our immersion pods delivered soon for the game. We have enough funds to get all of us into the game in the pods.¡±
¡°You were a long way off just a few weeks ago. What changed?¡± I asked.
¡°Mad Dog sold our guild¡¯s streaming rights to a channel. They will have access to our pod¡¯s video feed to edit as they please on a 72-hour delay,¡± Grinder answered for him.
¡°Does that include me since I am in the guild?¡± I asked worriedly.
¡°No, no.¡± Mad Dog said. ¡°Just six of our mates are on contract. It is just a one-year deal and was enough to get us 12 pods and 10% of gross ad revenue on top. We wanted to make sure everyone could enter the game as early as possible. A lot of mid-tier gamers are doing the same thing. I am sorry we didn¡¯t ask you, mate. Malcum isn¡¯t going to be a secret when the main game launch happens.¡± I nodded but felt slightly betrayed.
¡°Can I sell my streaming rights, too?¡± I asked.
Black Beauty, ¡°Once you have your freedom and your identity back, you can.¡± That was the information she had wanted to say as her face looked like it was no longer holding a secret.
¡°Is there any news of the other hard-wired players in the game?¡± I asked.
¡°Not really, just rumors, but the game will connect to the internet at the end of the testing. So you should still be able to contact us when we leave. At least, we think so. You may even be able to go on the internet yourself. At least we hope so.¡± Mad Dog said uncertainly. We had talked about this before. The biggest hangups with the internet were ensuring the game¡¯s AI could not transition out of the game and into the real world.
I looked over at Jaesmin, whose AI had been upgraded from my interactions with her. If I left this game, what would happen to her? I knew almost immediately after seeing her smile back at me that she was the reason I had dragged my feet. I was in fact in love with a computer program. How messed up in the head was I?
¡°Thanks, guys. I appreciate everything you have done for me. Talk to Kytalia and see what help she needs to keep all the NPCs happy. My next population goal is 2500. We are at 879 currently and are still getting a tickle of refugees. In two days, the garrison of 242 will arrive,¡± I said with a reassuring smile. I was counting on my army being my early game player deterrent.
¡°Sounds good, mate. We are making good coin from the elf girl alchemist, almost 100 gold a trip that we are reinvesting back into the town. So if you need quick coin, grab some potions from her¡­well you need to travel to some of the other big cities. Don¡¯t forget to extend your portal network.¡± Mad Dog advised.
Ah shit, I had forgotten about that. I had only connected to one big city so far.
¡°Take the skyships between the cities,¡± Black Beauty suggested. ¡°It only costs a few gold a trip, and they are fast. The only issue is they run on a schedule, so you need to time it.¡± I hadn¡¯t seen a skyship up close yet. I nodded at Black Beauty. That was going to be my ticket to quickly expanding my network.
Soon, the group was off to find Kytalia. After some time, Kytalia came and found me. ¡°Lord Tallis, how is your day going?¡± She asked conspiratorially.
¡°Well. I take it you came to see me for something?¡± I asked slowly.
¡°Yes. To be forward with you, I would like you to go and subjugate my old clan. Now that we are, in fact, a town, we can have two settlements under our control.¡± Kytalia said smirking.
I opened my interface, and my upgraded diplomacy options showed two black settlement options. Kytalia offered, ¡°Usually, a settlement starts as a resource-gathering operation like a mine or lumber camp, but my old clan does raise horses, so I was hoping you could send your army when it arrives to subdue them.¡±
¡°Is this some sort of vengeance for you?¡± I asked since she had been forced to flee when a new khan took over the clan.
¡°Somewhat, yes,¡± Kytalia admitted. ¡°But it will also add a fair amount of resources to Malcum, including a steady supply of horses for your army. High-quality horses like your mount Titan.¡±
I nodded in thought, ¡°Go and talk with Tanguin. Inform him of this plan, and then you two can talk with me.¡± I returned to the building, and when we finished the day, I found Kytalia, Mira, Galana, and Tanguin ready to have a mini-war council with me.
Tanguin spoke first as we settled in the living room of my house, where Jaesmin prepared a meal in the adjacent kitchen. Her cooking was getting better. ¡°Lord Tallis, I think Kytalia¡¯s plan has some merit. The clan has between 100 and 150 members; half are women and children. If we march with our entire force, I think they will surrender without a fight. Well, at least Kytalia thinks so.¡±
Kytalia nodded and added, ¡°If you send me, I can convince them to surrender to your rule. I still know many of the wives, and most are reasonable. The settlement bound to Malcum will give a boost to our population as well.¡±
Galana added, ¡°The only downside is going to be that we will have to station a portion of our forces there and defend them.¡±
¡°Will they relocate closer? How far are we talking?¡± I asked as I opened my map. The clan location was there about 40 miles away.
Kytalia revealed they couldn¡¯t be moved. ¡°No, the location they are at receives bonuses to the quality of the mounts they are raising. We do not want to relocate them.¡±
¡°Do you want to return and rule the settlement after we take it over?¡± I asked Kytalia directly.
¡°I would prefer to remain here in Malcum if possible, Lord Tallis. I can be of much better use to you in your capital.¡± She had a look of pride on her face. Malcum would be a capital now?
¡°Ok, let¡¯s do it then. The garrison is due tomorrow night.¡± We broke up the meeting and enjoyed Jaesmin¡¯s food. It was a very weak buff, but it was tasty.
The next day, we finished the guild house. It was an attractive building and far outstripped my residence, so I considered moving into one of the rooms. Instead, I decided I would build my own house. I would draft it sometime later this evening. Right now, I was anticipating the arrival of our army.
I was in the very busy inn¡¯s main room eating dinner with Sanso, Jaesmin, Elice, and Kytalia when the village alarm sounded. We all raced north to where the alarm sounded, the bridge to the logging camp. As we passed outside the walls with Galana, Tanguin, Mira, and four mounted soldiers, we encountered a mass of giants milling about in torn rags. The garrison had arrived and looked to be in a sorry state.
I was informed they had emerged from the forest not long ago. In the woods, I could see elves flitting among the trees. The mass of large bodies parted as we approached to reveal at its core a group of ten humans¡­no anglekin¡­in slightly less disheveled clothes.
One of them stepped forward, a woman with piercing blue eyes and straw-colored golden hair, ¡°Lord Tallis of Malcum. My name is Hyraena, and I am here to petition you for sanctuary and employment.¡± She said with a slight bow.
Tanguin leaned into me and whispered, ¡°Are you sure she is an angelkin. They usually have too much pride to bow.¡± He was trying to be funny.
I ignored my general, ¡°You are welcome here in our city. We have been preparing for your arrival for quite some time. This man here,¡± I indicated to Tanguin, ¡°Is my General, and he will help your forces get settled in their new home. We have food and clothes for all of you. When you are rested and comfortable, we will talk further.¡±
The parade of large and extremely smelly giants entered the Malcum. The angelkin captains held themselves tall, but they looked to have been beaten of their spirit slightly. The orcs came next across the bridge riding very skinny horses. I was sure my two elf stable masters would quickly recover the 16 horses¡¯ health. The dusk elves were last. They broke from the trees and walked across the bridge with hard, alert eyes.
Well, my instant army smelled terrible, but I was thrilled that I had built the bathhouse. Tanguin and Galana stood on either side of me outside the gate as the last of them entered. Tanguin spoke, ¡°I think it will take a week or so before we can march on the orc clan. They look like good soldiers, but their morale is low. Just give me a week, Lord Tallis.¡±
¡°Agreed. Mira¡­¡± I faced my demonkin Master of Scouts. ¡°Get the elves settled and bring their leader to talk with me tomorrow at lunch. I have a few questions for him,¡± I said before heading home. Tonight, I was going to draft a new residence for myself, and tomorrow, I would start advancing some quests. Chapter 50 Lords Manor Chapter 50 Lord¡¯s Manor I settled into my drafting table. This next building would be extremely important¡ªmy lordship¡¯s residence. Jaesmin was due to give birth, and I wanted something defensible but not ostentatious. Definitely not a castle with a moat, draw bridge, fancy towers, and a massive ballroom. I kicked around ideas drifting to old English estates of the nobility. I had studied a few old English estates while in college. The floor plans were on the edge of my thoughts, but I could recall some of the elaborate rooms inside. I kept coming back to Somelyton Hall. I would model my plans after that Victorian building. I would have a solid 8¡¯ wall around my estate, and the manor would be close to the road, but the gardens behind the building would be hidden. I started working and wished I had access to the internet and that my enchanting skills were high enough level to weave some enchantments into the building as I drafted it. When morning came, I was not even close to done. It was a massive building, and I wanted to get it right. Jaesmin made us breakfast, and then I left to start my day. I noticed some of my new giantkin infantry exploring the town in brand-new uniforms. We had prepared for their arrival, and I hoped I wouldn¡¯t have to do a tedious quest to retain their services. My garrison was compensation from the admins, so if they didn¡¯t stay, I would throw a fit. I was headed to find Sanso and my build team when Hyraena approached. She was the angelkin who had spoken for the garrison yesterday. ¡°Hyraena, I hope everything is to your satisfaction. Are you settled in?¡± I was crossing my fingers. ¡°Lord Tallis, everything is excellent. We hadn¡¯t expected such a welcome. Tanguin is a bit¡­. eccentric. But not a bad sort. I wished you had some time to talk.¡± These were the dreaded words I had hoped not to hear as a quest usually followed. ¡°Of course, what is on your mind,¡± I said mechanically, expecting a long-winded conversation ending in a required quest. ¡°We have come from the Hyraenfel kingdom. Our kingdom borders the Shade, the lands of the Midnight Desolation trapped in eternal night. We kept the undead from breaching the mountains and overrunning the land. Our War Wizard in charge of the citadel opened a portal for us to flee and told us to seek refuge in your town.¡± She paused for dramatic effect, and I guessed the War Wizard might have been an admin reprogramming these NPCs to fulfill the promise of manning my garrison. Hyraena continued, ¡°Many of us didn¡¯t want to leave our country. If the Shade encroaches on the lands of the living, everyone will be in peril. I implore you to make a vow or pledge to fight the undead hordes.¡± She looked calm but expectantly at me. I searched the game updates for ¡®vows¡¯ and ¡®pledges¡¯ to NPCs. A vow was an informal contract. As long as I abided by it, my relationship with the NPC would slowly increase. A pledge was a lesser form of a vow. It was usually short term with only one goal, such as I will kill one thousand undead. I faced Hyraena, ¡°I vow to always fight the undead hordes that threaten Malcum and the lands within its borders.¡± She nodded and crossed her arm across her chest in salute. My notifications dinged, and it just said my vow had been logged to Hyraena. She bowed and headed back to the barracks. That seemed too easy. I shrugged and found my build team working on the town¡¯s walls. I decided to pull them all to the new school house project. It was the only building I needed to upgrade the town. They could return to working on the walls after. Breda was summoned and indicated the place and orientation of the building, and I helped for a short while until Mira, my demon huntress, came to me with a dusk elf walking by her side. ¡°Lord Tallis, this is Joralf. He is senior among the dusk elf scouts.¡± The male elf bowed to me. ¡°Please walk with me Joralf. I have questions that only you may be able to answer.¡± I started walking, and the elf joined me on one side and Mira on the other. ¡°Joralf, the dusk elves seem to have faded to myth, yet here I find sixteen within my walls. I know the dusk elves were the shield wall between the surface lands and the dark elves. What can you tell me of the dusk elves¡¯ fate,¡± I spoke smoothly and eagerly waited for his response. ¡°Lord Tallis, the dusk elves still guard the deep passes beneath the earth. We do not thrive like centuries ago, but we yet hold. Betrayal has thinned our numbers, and we rarely travel to the surface any longer. My band and I were twenty-eight-strong when we came to the surface to investigate the dark elves who entered the Shade. My band fell in with the Hyraenfel kingdom to defend its lands from the undead. We were seeking to discover the pact between the dark elves and undead,¡± He finished looking me in the eyes. Quest updated: History of the Dusk Elves, reward 10,000 experience New Quest: Choose a side, either reinforce the dusk elves with men to side with them or eliminate a dusk elf fortification in the Endless Dark to side with the dark elves. I read the new quest and felt lucky that it had no time limit. I turned to Joralf, ¡°So you never discovered what the dark elves were doing in the Shade?¡± ¡°We did. The undead in the Shade are planning to send hordes of their foul creatures to attack our fortresses from the other side. We relayed the information to our captain and were told to remain here as our numbers had dwindled,¡± he said sorrowfully. I needed to choose a side. It was an easy choice. ¡°When Malcum is stronger, we will send warriors to your fortresses under the earth and help defend them,¡± I said, clapping him on the shoulder. My quest was updated, and some reputation gains were noted in my interface with the dusk elves. ¡°I will look forward to the day, Lord Tallis!¡± He clapped me on my shoulder. Well, I didn¡¯t give him a timeline, but I hoped to have some time in the future with a good amount of players in Malcum eager to travel to the Endless Dark and battle the dark elves. I smiled to myself as this all seemed to easy as I created some quests for my NPCs. The dusk elf left in a much brighter mood. I moved to my stables and talked with the elf sisters about the new horses under their care. They said our horses were superior to the ones on which our new orc cavalry rode. In my mind, it made it more imperative to annex the orc clan in order to strengthen my army. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. I talked with Tanguin, and we firmed up our plans for the war. We would take most of our forces but leave enough behind to defend Malcum. I decided to spend my afternoon enchanting. I got two simple recipes from the player auction house. Enchant Weapon +5% speed Enhance Weapon +10% damage They were beginner enchantments, and the materials were cheap to buy from players in bulk. I could practice, create better weapons for my warriors, and level up two of my enchanting skills. I didn¡¯t know that I could critically fail to enchant and destroy the object. A city guard watched as his spear turned to dust before him on my first failure. At least my failure rate was only around 10%. Once I reached level 7, Persephone said my failure rate would drop to around 1% for the basic enchantments. It cost me around two silver in materials for the tier 1 enchantments, so I got 50 enchanting attempts for a single gold. A long afternoon of enchanting got my enchanting to 5 and runic script to 4. I went to the auction house and got a few skill books. I spent the first part of my evening utilizing them. My enchanting skills now looked better.
Enchanting 7 Chan
Enchanting: Runic Script 6 Ag
Enchanting: Ritual Magic 3 Stam
The problem was leveling my enchanting ritual magic. Skill books were rare, and there were no recipes for using the skill. I found Grinder eating at the inn. Six empty plates were in front of him, and more were being brought out. I told him my problem, and he thought for just a moment. ¡°Tallis, I can go city hopping and see if I can locate more skill books in auction houses you are not connected to or NPC shops. It shouldn¡¯t take too long. Give me a few days,¡± he grinned at me as he started in on a roasted chicken. ¡°Grinder, buy as many skill books as possible if the price is low enough. We are stockpiling them for a library.¡± I tried to give him ten gold, which he refused. He received a minor repeatable quest for skill books in service to Malcum. I returned home and sat with Jaesmin for a long while, chatting about the town. There have been very few problems so far. The new school was completed, and the children in the town would be starting tomorrow. Vivale, Curraen¡¯s wife, had recruited two new arrivals to help educate the children. The young rabbit girl, Bella, had protested going to school. Jaesmin said she was whining the entire time the building was going up. We laughed at that. Jaesmin went to sleep, and I continued drafting our future manor. When morning came, I paused my work on the manor. I desperately wanted to incorporate enchanting into the building. What effects could I add? I needed all my enchanting skills to reach level 7. When Jaesmin came down, I went with her to the wall and helped build for a short time. Besides my summon stone spell, I really was not needed for the simple wall construction. I emptied my aether pool, creating as much stone as possible, much of it in place. I returned home and marked off the wall that would surround my new estate. I confirmed the structure and grounds would fit and then went and practiced enchanting. When my aether pool recovered, I visited the wall construction and made as much stone as possible before returning to enchanting. This was how my next four days proceeded. I would refine my drafting plans for the manor at night. Create stone for the walls and practice enchanting during the day. Finally, Grinder returned with the four novice enchanting ritual magic skill books that I needed! I paid him the coin through his protests and rushed home to study them. After four hours, I had reached my milestone and looked at my trio of enchanting skills.
Enchanting 9 Chan
Enchanting: Runic Script 9 Ag
Enchanting: Ritual Magic 7 Stam
My plans had been completed two nights ago, but I refused to finish them. I just tweaked things here and there, delaying until this moment. I wanted to incorporate building enchantments into my residence. It took a few hours, and I was going in somewhat blind on my first effort, but finally, I was done. Very Rare Lord¡¯s Manor, 500,000 health, Requires Masonry Structures 43, Woodcraft Structures 23 (Bonus +10% to the productivity of subjects, +10% experience to subjects within 1 mile of structure) (Effect: Palace Guards 6, Spawn Rate 1 every 12 hours, Level 50) Yes! A success! I had modeled the enchantments after the guardhouse plans. At least what I could remember of them. I had a minor spawn building for Palace Guards. When we built the guard shack using better materials, the guards got a 10% level boost due to quality construction, increasing from level 22 to level 25. If I could do the same for this building, then I could have six level 55 guards patrolling my estate. The building was large, and it would take days with everyone focused on building it. Tomorrow, Tanguin had reminded me, was our march to the orc clan. The day after, we would start gathering materials for the manor. I talked with my elf lumberjack and Sanso about beginning to stockpile the highest quality materials. The regular bonuses were also exceptional, and increasing those would make Malcum that much stronger. I wanted to know if the NPC''s cities benefited as much from buildings as I was getting. The palace guards were mob NPCs and wouldn¡¯t leave the grounds, but palace guards were considered elite boss mobs according to Black Beauty. She was the first guild member I found. I showed her the plans with pride and then asked her to collect the enchanting materials for the building. According to her, an elite boss mob should be equally difficult to two or three average players of their level. When Mad Dog stopped by to see the plans he joked that I could have the guild hall and he could move into the Lord¡¯s Manor. I wished I had my enchanted building skill when I drafted the guild hall, but that building was done, and the time crunch wouldn¡¯t allow a rebuild. The time to redraft the Very Rare Lord¡¯s Manor was 20 in-game hours. I had spent about 60 game hours on the first draft and wondered how close I had been to an epic building. Mad Dog guessed I could sell the Lord¡¯s Manor building plans for 100,000 gold¡ªor more. It was a structure with benefits that the filthy rich players would covet. He warned me unnecessarily that it would make other players covet Malcum once they appraised the finished building. I spent the evening drafting other minor buildings for which Breda requested plans. We were receiving a steady trickle of new citizens. The guards escorted the new arrival to our master of guilds, who interviewed them, documented their skills, and then made recommendations to Breda on what accommodations they should receive. Then Breda consulted with Kytalia to fit them into the town¡¯s economy. It was a seamless operation, and I had to do nothing with it except draft the plans for the buildings and then help build those buildings as rapidly as possible. The exciting thing was my upkeep deficit was slowly decreasing against income, and we were building a coin reserve. Of course, the NPC auction was closing in five days, which would wipe out my savings. I slept well that night, excited for my first military action but wanting to be well-rested. I would be a spectator. Tanguin would lead one hundred and fifty giantkin, twenty orc cavalry, six elven scouts, and six angelkin captains across the plains. Kytalia, Mad Dog, and I would join the sortie. That would leave Malcum well-defended, with Grinder and Black Beauty remaining behind to send me messages if something came up. The force was arrayed at the west guard tower in the morning, and we moved out to conquer the orc village. Chapter 51 Plainsrider Clan
Chapter 51 Plainsrider Clan
The march across the plains was like an unstoppable wave. The army slaughtered the spawned monsters and quickly looted them. We were spread out across 400 yards to harvest as much as possible. We started seeing scouts on horses when we approached the orc clan¡¯s location.
The orc clan outriders raced back to their village to prepare for the oncoming army. Our giantkin were jogging and spreading out, leaving a large trail of rising dusk in their wake on the open plains for our approach. A group of cavalry flanked the infantry on each end, ready to respond to an attack. The leaders rode behind the center of our pressing army.
The large huts made from wood, straw, and hides were clearly visible as we approached. Thirty-nine orc warriors rode their mounts to meet us. Mad Dog seemed overly excited about the clash and kept talking, but I wasn¡¯t really listening to him. Tanguin leaned to me as he studied the orc riders before us. ¡°The center one is the new Khan. He is level 55. The Warriors to his right and left are his two shamans, both level 50. The warrior riders are all level 35.¡± That was a lot stronger than I had hoped for. If this came to a battle, I would take losses. Not many, but any NPC losses could not be replaced easily.
Thirty more orcs came rushing out on foot, and Tanguin said they were level 20. Kytalia spoke, ¡°Those are the warriors who have not earned a mount. They will still fight to protect the village.¡±
¡°So sixty-nine is their fighting force?¡± I asked.
Kytalia responded, ¡°The women and teens will fight if we get to the village¡ªanother 30 or so. I am surprised by the numbers we found here. The new Khan is Dashtil. He left years ago to start his own clan. He opposed my Khan, at that time. But he didn¡¯t challenge him and instead took ten warriors and twelve women with him. He must have returned when he heard the clan was greatly weakened and took it over.¡± She breathed, ¡°This is not the situation I expected to find. Dashtil is prideful, honorable, and strong.¡±
As if summoned, the Khan rode forward. ¡°Why do you come and challenge our clan? Haven¡¯t you killed enough of my blood?¡±
Kytalia motioned for me to ride forward with her, and we approached the Khan. Kytalia answered, ¡°The town of Malcum has taken me and mine in when my husband, the Khan, was killed by poison. That same Khan attacked Malcum, seeking revenge, and was killed by a superior force.¡± She looked the new Khan in the face, ¡°We do not wish for war. We came here to raise the Plainsrider Clan to new heights!¡±
Dashtil spun his horse and looked at the Kytalia, then the giantkin. ¡°You would have your people, your clan, bow to men?¡± He appeared angry. ¡°If they want to control the Plainsriders, they must prove they can fight.¡± An eruption of cheers came from the orc ranks. ¡°I do not wish to see my people decimated again. If you have honor, fight me. If I lose, we will follow you. If I win, then you will leave us alone for 1000 cycles or fall to the wrath of divine justice!¡±
Quest Offered: Duel of Honor, Defeat the Khan in solo combat, reward: the settlement of Plainsriders orcs will fall under Malcum¡¯s rule¡ª100,000 experience.
Oath of Divine Justice to be observed if you lose.
I was going to win against a level 55 orc warrior leader, essentially a boss NPC. I couldn¡¯t figure out if Tanguin could take my place or not before I committed. Mad Dog rode up next to me, ¡°I don¡¯t think your NPCs can duel for you, but I was offered the same quest. Do you want me to accept on behalf of Malcum?
Well, this wasn¡¯t going as planned. I looked at Mad Dog, who seemed eager to jump in. I guess this was a game, even if it seemed real to me. ¡°Mad Dog, you can take the quest. Good luck, and try to win without killing the Khan,¡± I finished, and he flashed me a wolfy smile full of teeth.
I retreated to my line and asked Tanguin what level Mad Dog was currently at. He said 66. He had been level 59 when I first met him, so he had gained seven levels. Much better than I had done, and he had been slowed down by helping to grow Malcum. I needed to break away from my building efforts and do some grinding.
Mad Dog and the Orc Khan faced each other on foot. Both sported large two-handed swords. Mad Dog was slightly shorter and didn¡¯t look as muscled as his opponent. But this was a game, and strength was in stats. I knew Mad Dog had a good set of gear.
The first exchange had Mad Dog bent over, and he quickly drank a potion on his belt. Kytalia leaned into me, ¡°Weakness debuff. Easy to brew with local ingredients.¡± I looked at her perplexed.
¡°Why didn¡¯t you advise him before the match started?¡± I didn¡¯t want to sound angry, but Kytalia could have given Mad Dog some help.
¡°He will be fine. Dashtil will lose on purpose if he needs to. He wants to put on a good show,¡± she said softly.
¡°Wait? How do you know? He looks pretty determined from here. The two infantrymen on the end are my nephews. They sent me hand signals. Dashtil is smart. He knows what is best for the clan,¡± Kytalia smugly informed me. Mad Dog had taken two more strikes and only gave a glancing blow in response. I doubted her words. It looked like Mad Dog might lose.
The fight started to drag into minutes and Mad Dog was pissing through potions and using his stamina pool at an alarming rate. The Khan got a massive blow on Mad Dog¡¯s bracers, throwing him off his feet. He stood and held up his hand to me, ¡°Don¡¯t worry Tallis I got him right where I want him.¡± He engaged the orc again. Cheers were coming from both lines of warriors as the battle between the two raged.
Tanguin rode next to me, ¡°The Khan is a formidable warrior. You should have requested the battle outside his lands. He has unlimited stamina in defending them.¡± My mouth hung open. Why the fuck didn¡¯t anyone tell me this? I relayed the information to Mad Dog who acknowledged receiving it with a grimace. Did I have the same buff? I scanned through my town interface¡­.yep.
Stamina Pool Regenerates 1000% faster when defending your lands from invaders
There was nothing I could now but watch. After about 30 minutes, I figured Mad Dog was going to lose for sure, but then Dashtil faltered. Tanguin said, ¡°The strength buff his shaman cast on him just wore off.¡± I really needed to level up my analyze skill. Tanguin was able to not only read levels but also status.
Mad Dog started to make headway in the epic combat. I switched vision to see health bars above the combatants, and Mad Dog was at 50% while Dashtil was at 90%. Both fighters were grinning, enjoying the repeated exchanges. Mad Dog looked ready to collapse at any moment but just kept fighting. The orc was slowly succumbing from minor injury after minor injury.
Mad Dog kept his health between 40% and 66% by consuming potion after potion. The wolfman couldn¡¯t switch to a stamina or special ability potion since the cooldown would prevent him from utilizing his next health potion. I didn¡¯t understand how this was so close with the level difference. Then again, Mad Dog and Grinder had difficulty with the level 10 wandering monster. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
Approaching an hour, and Mad Dog was holding his health while Dashtil was approaching 50%. If Mad Dog had sufficient potions, it looked like he could win this. But at 50% health, Dashtil suddenly disengaged and bowed to Mad Dog, ¡°You fight with the heart and endurance of Plainsrider. I concede the inevitable to you.¡± Cheers erupted from Tanguin¡¯s soldiers. I was still confused. Had Kytalia been correct? I would have guessed Dashkil could have won at any time.
Mad Dog saluted his opponent and came to me, ¡°Tallis, that was amazing. I was prompted with two ways to win. I could either reduce the Khan to zero health or last 60 minutes in combat. Since you asked me not to kill him, I choose the second.¡± I was in some shock. I was lucky he was here because I could not have completed the quest. I really needed to get myself some levels. Kytalia had moved to the Khan and was talking with him, so I moved to listen.
She was detailing the exchange of forces we had decided on. Fifty giant-kin, fifteen orc riders, four dusk elf scouts and one angelkin captain to lead them the group would remain here. There was still the question who would rule here. When he approved of Kytalia¡¯s proposal I stepped in, ¡°Dashkil, that was an amazing display of prowess. All of your riders will be returning to Malcum to garrison there and be under the command of Tanguin,¡± I indicated my general who now stood behind me. ¡°Would you prefer to join them or continue here as my governor?¡±
I was taking a slight risk in appointing him the governor, but I thought the Khan had honor. He seemed uncertain and Kytalia told me she could convince him. My interface pinged and I checked the new information.
Congratulations, you have annexed the Cleardusk Plainsrider Orcs, 152 population added to Malcum. If this outpost reaches the status of town then Malcum can be recognized as a kingdom.
Kytalia and Dashkil were talking about resources when I returned to their conversation. The surrounding lands could support 50 horses and 150 people was the gist of the conversation. So Kytalia was talking about sending out a trade caravan with supplies every week to expand the population that way.
Dashkil looked at me, ¡°I would prefer to remain here and lead my people. Kytalia has told me of your building process and that you will be constructing many buildings here to improve the quality of life.¡± I groaned. I really needed to work on leveling but if I didn¡¯t improve this outpost then what was the point in incorporating it. I started explaining to him the list of buildings we planned to construct.
Rare Barracks Gatehouse, Health 250,000, Requires Masonry Foundations 23, Masonry Structures 43, Woodcraft: Carpentry 23 (Bonus: +15% skill advancement for martial skills, +4% health and stamina recovery during sleep)
Uncommon Stables, holds 20 horses, Health 6000, Requires Masonry Foundations 11, Woodcraft: Carpentry 23, Masonry: Structures 7
Uncommon Men and Women¡¯s Bathhouse, 25,000 health, Requires Masonry Structures 23 (increase town hygiene by 25%)
Rare Tannery/Leatherworks, Health 50,000, Requires Masonry: Structures 43, Woodcraft Carpentry 23 (Bonus 33% chance to increase tanned hide quality, +5 defense bonus to leather crafted armor, 1%
10 x Rare Apartment Building; Bonus +5% Morale if all apartments are filled, +10% stamina recovery
I said more buildings would come in the future as long as the growth of the outpost continued. The barracks alone would take my team over a week to build, but probably longer as all the stone would need to be created with magic as there were no deposits nearby. The stables¡­.I should probably redraft those. ¡°I would love to talk with your horse animal handlers. I want to build the best facilities for our mounts. I am not familiar with the facilities needed.¡±
My interface began notifying me of requests but I awaited the Khan¡¯s response. ¡°Lord Tallis I accept your offer to serve as governor.¡± I hooted inside my mind. He seemed like a good leader and fighter. I opened my interface to check the requests. Kytalia was requesting a number of skilled craftsmen be relocated to the Plainsrider Outpost. The craftsmen were all superfluous in Malcum, with too many having the same skills. I approved each one.
Tanguin and Dashkil moved off, talking about the transfer of warriors. All the plains riders were headed to Malcum to be trained in the discipline of army life there. That amounted to 30, and I hoped the nomadic honor-bound orcs wouldn¡¯t be disruptive. I needed to build the massive guardhouse as I had just lost a significant amount of moral from the soldiers transferring out here. I found a loophole, though. I could rotate who was stationed out here in two-week duty assignments. It would let them regain morale in Malcum before it bled away out here.
I was busy with my interface, and when I went to check the maps, I got a new headache. The 40-mile stretch of road between Malcum and the new outpost needed to be patrolled!! There wasn¡¯t even a road to actually patrol. So I had to build it. That was not the only negative.
There were five alerts preventing the outpost from growing in population. Food production, water supply, education, shelter quality, and birthrate. The last was tied to town morale as it had dropped after annexation. My problems in Malcum seemed simple to this. The outpost also bordered a new region, the Red Salt Sea. And the sea didn¡¯t have salt water, just salty red sand, according to Dashkil. And the monster levels were 90-100!! And, of course, wandering monsters were possible from there as well.
We would need to have an evacuation plan for the outpost, and I told the angelkin in charge of the troops to work it out with Dashkil. I was sitting down looking at how many problems were now popping up in my interface and largely regretted adding this outpost of orcs. Then I saw the benefit. Production: +4 elite mounts/month, +4 cavalry soldiers/month. Not a ground-shattering amount, but could we quintuple the production? 20 mounts a month! That would grow Malcum¡¯s cavalry quickly.
I was confident I could draft some buildings to increase the production of horses and increase the quality of the riders. I dreamed of getting 20 elite heavy cavalry every month from the outpost. And Malcum could still establish a second outpost.
My workload had more than doubled. I needed to get back to Malcum and get working. I emptied my aether pool, creating a large stack of stone blocks. That would be a small drop in the bucket but it was a start. I would have to send Sanso out here with half of my builders. Ok, I would draft a small barracks building for 50 men. Then we could build two of those instead of the large massive gatehouse. The stables¡­.two men approached. One was the breeder and the other was the trainer. I furiously took notes as they talked and answered my questions.
When I was finished with my notes I called Titan to me and mounted. I rode to Kytalia and told her I was heading back. She was to be escorted by the orc cavalry and Tanguin home when she was finished. Titan and I sped across the plains home. I brought back to Malcum news of our victory and the changes coming, although many already knew due to transfer requests in their interfaces. I went to see Breda first.
As I entered her office, I saw that she already had a second town model. ¡°Lord Tallis,¡± she said with what appeared to be a wicked grin, ¡°Congratulations. There is much to do and balance.¡±
I spent the next two hours listening to her plans for the outpost now that it was secured. Thankfully, she knew exactly what was needed to increase horse production and improve the quality of the mounts and soldiers. I wouldn¡¯t say I liked the number of structures needed for her plans. ¡°Lord Tallis, the plan is to grow the outpost into a town. Then you can establish a new outpost in its place.¡±
¡°But if the outpost becomes a town, then we get the kingdom designation, and suddenly, we become a threat to neighboring kingdoms,¡± I said, exasperated. She nodded at my wisdom.
¡°Then we can balance on the cusp of the promotion,¡± she said sagely. ¡°When we are strong enough, we can make both our outposts into towns simultaneously.¡±
¡°Both our outposts? We only have one.¡± I asked, suddenly getting chills at more work in my future. Then I noticed another smaller table set up for models in another corner.
Breda¡¯s wicked smile returned, ¡°Let me tell you what Sanso found in the mountains.¡± ? Copyrighted 2024 by AlwaysRollsAOne No Permission is given to translate, copy, repost or alter to an audio format of this original work of fiction. If you are reading this on a site that is not my Patreon, RoyalRoad.com, or Scribblehub.com, it has been stolen without my permission and violates DMCA. Remember, this work is the result of my creative effort and is protected by copyright law. Removal or altering of this notification is an acknowledgment you are aware you are in violation of DMCA. Chapter 52 Chapter 52 Breda had a report from Sanso that there were large iron deposits at the base of the mountains. ¡°Untapped iron deposits Lord Tallis! That means the first time a deposit is mined; it is automatically one quality level higher! It may just be iron, but it will be a gold mine as it is the only iron deposit within 300 miles outside of dungeons.¡± Her excitement was uncontrolled. ¡°No,¡± I started. ¡°We can¡¯t afford the attention it would draw to us. If we started trading iron, then the human kingdom to the south would surely move to conquer us. Let¡¯s focus on growing the orc outpost to produce heavy calvary secretly.¡± Breda was smart, too smart, by her next response. She had a self-satisfied grin, ¡°To make heavy calvary, you need heavy armor and barding made from steel.¡± Breda¡¯s eyebrows were arched expectantly. I sighed, ¡°The next NPC auction is coming in a few days. We will build the mining outpost if I can get a miner or two.¡± My instinct was to wait till we were stronger, but we needed raw materials on the cheap, and iron was one of them. Breda¡¯s face turned into a frown, ¡°Well, about that... The deposits are in a region with spawn sites for giant mountain goats. They are level 90. We have to clear the spawn sites, construct a building, and defend it for 24 hours to dispel the spawn sites.¡± My eyes squinted at her, and I got a growing headache. I had increased the mountain¡¯s difficulty recently. ¡°Let us shelve the mine for now. Any miners I recruit can mine the copper deposits for now,¡± I said, closing the subject. The conversation reluctantly turned to the buildings I needed to raise the quality of the monuts. There were four buildings: a granary, a rare or higher stables, a livestock veterinarian, and a water purification building. The last one was easy, as Breda stated that Sanso could build a well. Next, we talked about the road that needed to be built to the outpost. Breda convinced me the bonuses from a road were too good to postpone. The road wouldn¡¯t need to be paved, and Breda was certain Sanso¡¯s earth golems could make a dirt road in a single day. Then Breda wanted all our town builders to go out there for the next week to get the outpost started. I wasn¡¯t sending Jaesmin, but the rest were fine to go. It would hurt to lose Sanso for a week, but we could manage. I had a lot of drafting to do, and I could start building my new manor with Jaesmin over the next week. Mad Dog was in the inn drinking with Grinder relaying his epic battle to his friend. He paused his third retelling of the heroic tale. ¡°Tallis, what is the word, mate?¡± ¡°Thank you for helping Mad Dog. The annexation was painless with your help. Do I owe you anything for all the potions you used?¡± I asked while sitting at the table. ¡°Nah, mate, it was epic. What¡¯s 300 gold in potions between friends?¡± Mad Dog said waving his hand. Was that an amount for me to repay him? I had a workaround. ¡°You can go see the alchemist. I will give you a 300 gold credit at her store.¡± I said, trying to repay the debt. ¡°Really mate, no need. The experience from the quest got me a level, and a Khan¡¯s sash. It is worth more than 300 gold easy,¡± he smiled and knocked back a mug of juice. My dinner was placed in front of me, and I ate it with gusto. I listened to Grinder and Mad Dog talk about the fight while I ate and then excused myself. I had a lot of drafting tonight, and I wanted to spend some time with Jaesmin. Jaesmin was meeting with the rabbit bakers when I entered our home. ¡°Tallis! These wonderful people came by to thank you. You were not here, so we decided to have some tea and talk. They also had a gift.¡± She looked around the room, grabbed a scroll from the end table, and handed it to me. I opened the scroll. You have found a scroll of greater teleport. This can be used to transport you anywhere in the world or can expand the range of a portal stone by 1,000 miles ¡°Wow, this is quite the gift. Thank you!¡± I was going to use it on my portal stone for sure, but maybe it could add to the auction house range. I would have to ask Persephone. ¡°This gift far outweighs what I have given you. Is there anything I can do for you two?¡± The two rabbitkin looked at each other and then at me. The female spoke, ¡°Savannah, the elf alchemist, has been talking to our daughter Bella about how you gave her the apprenticeship. Could you find Bella an apprenticeship in magic? Any magic. She has always wanted to be a mage.¡± They looked at me expectantly. I had a few mages in town, Sanso the earth mage, Manto the old lightning mage, Persephone the enchanter, and Titus, my gnome Hospitalar. ¡°I can¡¯t promise anything, but I will ask around.¡± This response got me furry hugs, and they left our home happy. I immediately sat on the couch and pulled Jaesmin on top of my lap for an old-school make-out session. Later, I was at my desk and working on the new stable design. It was going to be an important building, so I planned to spend the entire night on it. I had my notes and decided to make it large enough for 50 mounts. Breda had told me two stables with a combined capacity of 100 would yield 20 mounts a month. That was my ideal number for the growth of my calvary. Before the sun rose, I finished and looked at the end result. Very Rare Stone Training Stables (Capacity 50), Health 50,000, Requires Masonry Structures 43 (Bonus +15% to mount statistics, +20% mount speed, once per day has a 5% chance to complete a random mounts training instantly) The magic ability to accelerate a mount¡¯s training was a surprise. I had only half-attempted to include an enchantment on the building. It added a lot of cost in terms of magic essence to the construction and meant I would need to be present during the construction to empower the enchantment. It seemed like I was never going to get time to myself. I had time to draft the granary and had plans for a stone granary ready to go with the stables. Uncommon Granary, Health 20,000, Requires Masonry Structures 23 (Bonus: anti-vermin aura, 100 feet) It looks like I was going out with everyone else today. Jaesmin wanted to come, and I let her. As long as I was there to protect her I felt comfortable with her coming. I had Jaesmin gather our build teams while I traveled to Manto¡¯s tower. The old mage was sleeping when I knocked but didn¡¯t seem upset when he opened the door, his hair in disarray. ¡°Manto, I wanted to check with you and see if you are willing to take on an apprentice,¡± I asked without entering his tower. He yawned in response to my question. ¡°Apprentice? I have taught a few people magic skills in town, but an apprentice? Who did you have in mind?¡± The old mage asked. Was it really this easy? ¡°The bunny girl who hangs out with Savannah.¡± Manto¡¯s face was thoughtful. ¡°Young. Energetic. Charismatic. Kind of Heart. Yeah, sure. I was getting bored. Do you want her to focus on healing, lighting, or air magic?¡± Manto asked. Those were his three specializations. ¡°All of them?¡± I responded more as a question and hope. Also, the fact that Manto had said he was getting bored tingled something in the back of my mind. An NPC AI was getting bored. Should I be worried about it? Manto¡¯s eyebrow arched, ¡°Fine. I have a spare bedroom. She can move in today. I will be expecting her.¡± He shut the door softly. That seemed too easy. I went to the bakery to give the bunny girl the good news. I had been expecting Manto to say no and Sanso to be the one to acquiesce. Bella, the bunny girl, was in school, but I told her parents and got sandwiched between the two fluffies in a hug. I went and found Jaesmin and my build team ready and mounted. Sanso¡¯s golems were there as well. Four of them would complete the dirt road to the outpost following us. As far as I understood it, they were going to till the earth and compact it. We had to clear any spawn sites in the path. When the spawn site was cleared, it would just relocate out of the aggro range of the road. Tanguin planned to have eight cavalry patrols on the road three times a day to satisfy the requirements to keep the spawns off the actual road. If he didn¡¯t, then they were free to wander onto the road. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. We had to ride slowly as most of our group didn¡¯t have the riding skill. I sent a message to Grinder to see if he could get me plans for building a portal stone at the outpost. I already knew I needed my three enchanting skills at level 23 to draft plans for a portal stone myself. I just knew when I reached that 23 trifecta for all my enchanting skills, I would be able to draft some pretty amazing plans. I handed the plans to Sanso as we rode. He looked them over and spoke, ¡°The master of guilds was asking for you to build a special building. Did he talk to you yesterday, Lord Tallis?¡± Sanso asked. ¡°No, what do I need to draft to make him happy?¡± I asked, liking the slow pace of the ride. We had the patrol riding in front of us and caring for the spawns, so we had nothing to do. ¡°He called it an adventures hall. It is a special building. It¡¯s like an inn/tavern, but it spawns quests on a quest board. He said you would be interested because the rewards would not be drawn from the town¡¯s coffers.¡± Sanso said. I stopped and looked back at Malcum. I wanted to rush back, talk to my Master of Guilds, and give him a hug. Then, draft the building right away with his input. If I had quests available for players that gave good rewards, then we could support more players in Malcum. I wasn¡¯t going to leave Jaesmin, so I continued on my ride. I let Sanso look at the plans for the Lord¡¯s Manor as well, and he estimated four days to build with all the builders, but the bonuses were too good to postpone construction. I checked the bonuses again. Very Rare Lord¡¯s Manor, 500,000 health, Requires Masonry Structures 43, Woodcraft Structures 23 (Bonus +10% to the productivity of subjects, +10% experience to subjects) (Effect: Palace Guards 6, Spawn Rate 1 every 12 hours, Level 50) We were still gathering high-quality lumber and stone for the project. I was hoping for as much as a 50% boost to the bonuses and the guard¡¯s level. Well, at a minimum, a 20% boost for all the preparation. I didn¡¯t want this building rushed, as maximizing the bonuses could accelerate Malcum¡¯s growth substantially. We arrived at the orc outpost and got to work. With all our summoned stone, I hoped to be able to finish one stable and the granary today. I also got notifications of the soldiers dropping morale as we built the new buildings. I was going to have to draft the smaller barracks tonight. After the two buildings, we even had time to build a townhouse today. The golems completed the road late in the evening, and Sanso volunteered to stay overnight at the outpost and have his golems start on some earthen walls. I thanked him for his dedication and returned with everyone else to Malcum. Too many buildings were needed in both locations, and I did not have enough builders. On returning, my crew got a meal on me at the inn, which was packed tonight. A table was cleared immediately as the builders had a very high standing in Malcum from their tireless work. Without them, we wouldn¡¯t have been able to receive the large influx of NPCs. I left them eating and went to find my Master of Guilds. He was at the town hall and was talking with Breda. Were they actually getting along now? Breda excused herself when she learned I was here for Neral, the giantkin Master of Guilds. Neral had dozens of updates that I patiently listened to. His managerial skills gave small bonuses to each guild in Malcum, which more than made up for his 25 gold a month salary. Finally, we reached the topic of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. He said I could draft a basic adventurers guild hall now that I had the enchanting skills. The quality of the building would determine the range of quests that appeared on the board. It sounded too good to be true. I spent an hour with Neral as we sketched out the building. It would need to be manned by someone for the guild quest board to work. Neral said he could do it since he could do his Guild Master duties from the structure with a large enough office, and that would add even more bonuses since his skill level was so high. When I returned to my drafting table, I started on the barracks first. I tried to make the building self-sufficient, at least, that was my mentality going into the project. Halfway through the night, the plans were completed. Very Rare Barracks (Capacity 52), Health 100,000, Requires Masonry Foundations 23, Masonry Structures 43 (Bonus +25% Stamina Pool Recovery, +25% Health Pool Recovery, (Effect: Medic, Level 30) Another NPC spawning building with a high essence cost in materials. Thankfully, I had Mad Dog and crew to fetch the required materials. I sent the group the list. They would gather the materials and then sell them to Malcum¡¯s general store at the minimum fair exchange. The building only had one NPC but a very useful healer. A healer that would never leave the structure, but that was fine. It would take me five hours to redraft a second set of building plans. I finished the second barracks and handed off the plans in the morning. The builders were going back today without me. Jaesmin and I were going to demolish our house and get ready to build our manor. Taking down my first home in the Malcum was emotional. We had built a small tiny one room house in the gardens maintained by my stick golems, and it just had a bed and a drafting table for me. We would take all our meals at the inn until we completed our new residence. I wouldn¡¯t miss Jaesmin¡¯s cooking even though it had improved. By noon the small building was complete, and I left Jaesmin for the demolition as I sat at my drafting table. When my magic pool was replenished, I would go outside and create stone, but that was all my contribution to the build efforts. There were just too many plans to draft. I started with the second stables and then did a granary building for Malcum. The pest control effect was too good to pass up. It was late evening, and I joined Jaesmin for a meal at the inn. She was exhausted from demolishing and hauling away debris for recycling. Of the Silverlings Playbook Guild, just Mad Dog was at the inn. ¡°Tallis, mate, how is the manor coming? We dropped off the essences on the list this afternoon,¡± He said while sitting at our table. ¡°It is going to be a long haul. I need Sanso and the other builders here to complete it in a timely manner. With just me and Jaesmin; it might take a month,¡± I said, cutting into a delectable lion steak. ¡°Isn¡¯t your NPC auction closing soon? Could you add some more builders?¡± Mad Dog said while sipping a red juice. I checked on the auction; two more days till it closes. Maybe I should start pushing my bids. ¡°Forty-nine hours till it closes and goes into the second phase. I have¡­¡± I checked my village finances and was very happy. Our deficit was shrinking as Kytalia got the economy going single-handedly. ¡°I have 23 platinum to spend. That still gives me a buffer of three weeks of reserves.¡± Even that was tight. ¡°Since our pods are all paid up, we have been pushing money into your economy. I am surprised you have just 23 platinum extra,¡± he said, sounding concerned. ¡°Well, Malcum¡¯s deficit isn¡¯t bad, but the new outpost added a governor and his two attendants to the payroll. I assume the two attendants are his shamans, and their combined salaries are just over a platinum.¡± I stopped Mad Dog from going off with my hand, ¡°It is actually a fairly low wage considering their levels and rank. The two attendants are classified as elite NPCs, and Dashkil is a boss NPC.¡± Mad Dog¡¯s eyes went wide. Boss NPCs were notorious for being difficult to beat. I was now certain Kytalia had been correct in assuming he had thrown the fight. ¡°So, what do you know about adventurer¡¯s guild halls? I think I am going to draft one tonight.¡± Mad Dog¡¯s arched a brow at my statement. ¡°Adventurer halls are just a place players go to get quests. It saves the player time from talking with NPC¡¯s. They are common in the big cities but NPC quests generally have better rewards,¡± Mad Dog explained. His explanation left me wanting. Neral had made these buildings sound fantastical. ¡°I have been told the quest rewards from the posted quests will not draw on Malcum for its rewards,¡± I said. Mad Dog¡¯s eyes widened and understanding and started nodding. ¡°Then it is a good idea to build one. That would save us some time from having to go to other cities for quests. The quests were not that exceptional from the few boards I read, though,¡± Mad Dog offered. A large man sat unannounced at the table. It was Neral who was smiling. ¡°I heard your conversation from over there,¡± he waved his hand at a table of giantkin. ¡°You are correct, Mad Dog. You need to register with the Adventurer¡¯s Guild and then do quests. You will have a rank in the Adventurer¡¯s Guild; the more you level up your rank, the more complex, difficult, and rewarding quests will be available to you.¡± Mad Dog¡¯s jaw didn¡¯t work for a moment. I said, ¡°Not public knowledge, I am assuming.¡± He nodded slowly. I guessed he missed an update for Adventurer¡¯s Hall. I continued, ¡°Go. Go and sell your information before someone beats you to it.¡± He ran upstairs like a kid late for dinner. Neral and I talked more about the Adventurer¡¯s Guild Hall. He wanted it to have a capacity of 100 rooms, which seemed excessive, but he was the master. I retreated to my box in the woods with Jaesmin. She changed and lay on the bed while I sat at the drafting table and worked hard at trying to make the perfect building. I worked late into the morning, and after 14 hours, I felt I was tapped out and finished the plans. Epic Adventurer¡¯s Guild (Capacity 250), 250,000 Health, Requires Masonry Foundations 43, Masonry Structures 43, Woodcraft Carpentry 43, Enchanting Ritual Magic 23 (Bonus: +15% experience for eight hours after resting for eight hours in a room, Effect: Spawns 250 Tier 1 quests, 200 Tier 2 quests, 150 Tier 3 quests. 50 Tier 4 quests, 10 Tier 5 quests, 50% chance for 1 Tier 6 quest, 10% chance for 1 Tier 7 quest daily) Six hundred and sixty quests a day! I felt the epic nature of the building was due to Neral¡¯s professional input mixed with my skill. The two sub-basements were packed with unique rooms. The first floor had training rooms, a tap room, and a vault. The upper five floors were all player rooms. If Neral were correct, I would earn an entire gold from each room monthly! The players would also count as residents if they rented a room! There was a tax on all profits from the global Adventurer¡¯s Association of 10%, but that was tiny compared to all the potential revenue from the building. Now, building it was an issue. My masonry foundations were 38, 5 short. Woodcraft Structures was 33, but Varrine was over 43 in the skill, so that didn¡¯t matter. My ritual enchanting skill was only a level 9, a long way from the required 23. I had been stuck in this nightmare before! ? Copyrighted 2024 by AlwaysRollsAOne No Permission is given to translate, copy, repost or alter to an audio format of this original work of fiction. If you are reading this on a site that is not my Patreon, RoyalRoad.com, or Scribblehub.com, it has been stolen without my permission and violates DMCA. Remember, this work is the result of my creative effort and is protected by copyright law. Removal or altering of this notification is an acknowledgment you are aware you are in violation of DMCA. Chapter 53: Another NPC Auction Battle Chapter 53: Another NPC Auction Battle I needed to get my ritual enchanting skill from 9 to 23. Just by continuing my building projects, I hoped my stone foundations skill would reach its necessary level of 43. I still had the NPC auction. Maybe I could find an NPC with an expert level in the ritual enchanting skill. I opened the interface and sorted. Only two NPCs on the massive list had the ritual enchanting skill at the expert level. Of course, one was undead, so she was out. The other was a foxkin male. At this point, I wished I could see NPC¡¯s second skill. The only good thing about the beastkin enchanter right now was no one had bid on her. I guess other players didn¡¯t understand the value of the primary skill. I looked and had 16 bid slots and 23 platinum allocated for the auction. I dropped two platinum to open the bids on the paper makers I had marked. Paper and runic paper will be big export products for the Malcum in the future. My next two bids were on the two furniture crafters that I had tagged; two more platinum were gone. I bid one gold on the expert foxkin ritual enchanter next. I decided I would be going all in on the foxkin to build the Adventurers¡¯ Guild, so I planned to have at least two platinum in reserve for him. I looked at my tagged list. I bid on the two expert traders, two expert caravanners, and two expert caravan guards. That was just six gold total. The only remaining NPC I still had tagged was the master caravan guard. It was the female bull beastkin. I dropped the platinum on her but decided I would not pursue her if her price increased. That went quickly; 12 of my 16 bids were already allocated, and just four were left. I checked builders next and wasn¡¯t surprised to see ridiculous prices. A master builder was already over five platinum, and experts pushed 150 gold. I filtered resource gathering and checked on miners. There were some bids here, but the number of NPC miners in the auction was quite large. I bid on a male human master miner and an expert female dwarf miner. This left me only two slots. I had addressed my needs. I filtered masters of various magics and didn¡¯t find anything not already bid on. Just going through hundreds of NPCs, I found an interesting master. A centaur male had a master¡¯s level in animal handling. It was intriguing that perhaps he could give my new cavalry horses bonuses during the training. I didn¡¯t understand the training process, but the opportunity was too good to ignore, so I dropped the platinum on him. I had only spent two hours reviewing the auction house and was already down to my last bid. What hole could I fill with an expert? I checked smelters, and the bids were crazy, so that was out. Armorers were too costly as well. I had only invested seven platinum and eight gold, so I might just bid on another master. I sorted to just experts without any bids and eliminated the undead race¡ªnine hundred and thirty-six remaining NPCs. I removed the skills I had already addressed or didn¡¯t feel the need to address, with one hundred and fourteen remaining. I started investigating the remaining NPCs, slowly whittling down the list until I had just two left: a halfling master fisherman and demonkin master calligrapher. The halfling was interesting because I hoped to make a lake north of town. The excavation would take months but should provide a natural barrier for monsters and hopefully add more fish to our diet. The demonkin was more of a guess. If she was a calligrapher, maybe she could copy books as well? That way, she could be an asset when the library was built. Also, I was investing heavily in runic paper with my two papermakers. When the game launched, I was going to have difficulty recruiting masters from the NPC auction, so this was an important decision. I talked with Jaesmin, and she said knowledge was power, and that cemented it for me. I bid on the demonkin. I reviewed my selections.
Name Level Profession Race Sex Age Primary Skill
Gilly 123 Papermaker Human F 46 Master Papermaking
Jerra 140 Papermaker Angelkin F 33 Master Papermaking
Dasz 64 Trader Lizardman M 34 Expert Trader
Wurt 73 Trader Human M 39 Expert Trader
Marla 74 Caravaner Halfling F 43 Expert Caravaner
Quinn 77 Caravaner Dwarf M 118 Expert Caravaner
Yew 192 Caravan Guard Beastkin: Bull F 75 Master Survival
Raed 66 Caravan Guard Human F 32 Expert Survival
Vyne 65 Caravan Guard Human F 33 Expert Survival
Darrel 179 Furniture Crafter Human F 34 Master Woodcraft
Orad 155 Furniture Crafter Human Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. F 35 Master Woodcraft
Harrod 66 Enchanter Foxkin M 29 Master Ritual Enchanting
Pauli 140 Miner Human M 67 Master Miner
Justine 59 Miner Dwarf F 80 Expert Miner
Stallone 148 Animal Trainer Centaur M 23 Master Animal Handling
Andrea 177 Scribe Demonkin F 29 Master Calligrapher
The only NPC I would pursue hard would be the foxkin enchanter. If I got into a bidding war on the other NPCs I might switch to someone else. The auction closed in 40 hours before going onto phase 2. Now, all I could do was wait. I checked on the updates for the pre-game launch. It was in just 43 days, 5 hours and 17 minutes. I reviewed the restrictions hard-wired players would have during the early release period. The early release period was for real-world players who were paying large sums of money to get a thirty-day head start on everyone else.
  • No level advancement until either a) the game launch or b) all early start players pass your level
  • Skill and Spell advancement will be at 10% normal rate until the official game launch
  • No participation in the NPC auction
  • Can not accept new epic or higher quests
  • Must maintain fair trade for items
According to the forums, Mad Dog had said there were 940 hard-wired players currently in the game doing the testing. He didn¡¯t know how many were in a similar position to me, though. If testers were hard-wired and not owned by game designers, they could not carry over their character. So, in an odd sense of logic, it was probably good that I had not gained my freedom just yet. Information on how many people were buying into the early release was hidden. Initially, it was only supposed to be 1,000, but that number had slowly grown as the greed of the developers took hold. The game was the new frontier where anything was possible. With the game¡¯s area being so large, I hoped not to deal with too many rich players in my small town. I did need to level, though. After this NPC auction is finished and the NPCs are settled, I plan to explore the world until the game launches and gain some levels. The 3rd rule was annoying. I was going to miss one auction cycle and only had one more NPC auction opportunity before the game launch. But it all made sense as the established players would have been able to easily outbid the early starters by having funds available. The 4th rule hadn¡¯t really applied to me as I had been stuck in Malcum and hadn¡¯t been offered too many quests since I became the lord. Maybe my new Adventurer¡¯s Hall would help that out. The 5th rule was interesting because I was worried, I couldn¡¯t sell my building plans for exorbitant coins. My original hope was to milk the rich players for their coins. If I couldn¡¯t do that, I was going to be extremely upset. The game would have a global self-adjusting market that would normalize over time. Like in the real world, enterprising players would have an opportunity. I decided to focus on my drafting until the auction concluded. I sent messages to Mad Dog and crew and told them where I would be. I had a long list of buildings for the orc camp and Malcum to prepare. I also had numerous copies I wanted to prepare for sale. I should also draft a treasury building to keep my coins safe in the future from player thieves. I wasn¡¯t sure if NPC criminal organizations would target players¡­no, I should be prepared for that as well. I had dinner at the inn with Sanso, Jaesmin, Breda, Iona, and Varrine that evening. We focused on which order to build things and who was going where to build what based on their skills. Iona had four apprentices, and Varrine had three apprentices. All had hit novice level in at least one construction skill. It would be about four game years before they would reach expert¡­maybe faster if I built my lord¡¯s manor. It was hard to imagine this small group had built so much, so fast. It was just a game, but it still seemed remarkable to me. Jaesmin had five building skills above the novice level, and masonry foundations were almost at the expert level. I guessed her relationship with me had gotten her some bonuses in advancing her skills quicker. Since that meeting had gone so well, I hoped my next meeting would go well. Mad Dog, Grinder, and Back Beauty entered the inn an hour later. ¡°Thanks for meeting with me. I plan to leave in a few days to grind out some levels, and I was hoping you could show me the best places you found in your travels. You know about my cheat on my mount. So, what can you offer in terms of advice?¡± Grinder smiled, ¡°Twilight Hills. It is far from here, but it is the sight of a massive battle, and at night, the undead rise. An endless army of undead. But they are extremely slow. You need to be careful not to get encircled. Level range is 40 to 50.¡± Black Beauty whacked Grinder. I had to cancel a player attacking another player alert, ¡°Grinder, maybe when he hits level 35, he could handle that location. You should aim for locations about ten levels higher than yourself with no elite mobs. Locust Valley is my suggestion,¡± she finished and Grinder looked about to object. Grinder said, ¡°Yeah, that actually makes more sense. Especially if you are going solo. Rhinos and monkeys are in the valley. Just keep your eyes focused up and watch for the thrown rocks.¡± Mad Dog, who had been thinking, offered, ¡°The dungeon outside of Thira. It is the only dungeon you can bring your mount inside. Lots of open spaces, and the monsters are slower than Titan. Twelve levels in total and they start at level 30 monsters and culminate at level 54 on the final level. You will need to beat the floor boss to advance, but it is your best option.¡± Grinder said, ¡°That island city is 20,000 miles from here, Mad Dog!¡± Black Beauty added, ¡°He can take the skyships and get there in a week. Mad Dog is correct. It is your best location from our online archives. You should take an NPC with you and not go solo, though.¡± I thought about her suggestion. I was allowed one NPC companion. Even though I wanted to level up Jaesmin, I would not risk her adventuring. I didn¡¯t want to risk anyone adventuring. The sad fact was my NPCs all out-leveled me anyway. I reclined in my chair and sipped an excellent ale, ¡°I like it. I can activate city portals as I make my way to Thira. Getting back here would be quick as I would only have to portal hop.¡± I was nodding to myself. We talked about how they would remain in Malcum while I was gone to handle anything that arose. I wished I had the skill levels to build the Adventure¡¯s Hall for them before I left. Maybe I could¡­if I won the auction NPCs, I could use my five banked skill points and get masonry foundations to 43. I definitely needed that foxkin ritual enchanter. I returned to my shack and told Jaesmin of my plans. She was not happy. She insisted I take a warrior with me even if he didn¡¯t go into the dungeon. I consented to choosing and taking a giantkin with me from the infantry. I drafted plans most of the night and told Tanguin I needed a volunteer giantkin to serve as my bodyguard. They needed to be able to ride, and that was the only stipulation. This set off a chain of events. A massive combat bracket was set up for the privilege of being the Lord¡¯s bodyguard. I let it play out as I had too many things to do and anxiously watched the NPC auction timer. Eight hours before the auction was to end, I got a notification. Your giantkin warrior Yorick has been promoted from infantry to bodyguard, you can designate his advanced class as either Palace Guard or Lord¡¯s Bodyguard I selected lord¡¯s bodyguard, and I got access to his information. Yorick, Elite Lord¡¯s Bodyguard, Level 32, Loyalty High I reviewed his stats, and they were not overly impressive, but he did have 11 skills. This meant he was now an upgraded AI. It now made sense why there had been such an intense competition. With his skill set, it made him a tank, which meant he would be useful if I could get closer to his level, so he didn¡¯t take all the experience. I looked over the NPC auction, and I had been outbid on two NPCs. The dwarf miner and my foxkin enchanter. Damn it. I bid 40 gold on both, escalating the bidding war, hoping to scare away the competition. I sat on Manto¡¯s tower nervously with two more hours to go, watching Bella the bunny girl learn her first magics as a distraction. Manto had the best view of the town and wanted me here to motivate his new pupil who had been struggling. He casually dropped that my presence would help her tremendously. I learned that as a lord, I had an aura that helped my subjects improve faster! There was absolutely nothing about it in the developer release notes, and Mad Dog didn¡¯t know it either when I sent him a message. It explained a fair amount, though, how Jaesmin and Sanso got more done when I was around. The faster progression of my builds and how townsfolk seemed happier in my presence. Bella learned her first spell, static discharge. It was not a true spell, but it was a cantrip that allowed her to increase her skill in lightning magic by practicing it. I had my screens open and watched my timer hit zero. Someone had a last-second bid on my two traders and enchanter. I had four NPCs going to the second phase. Not terrible, considering I had made 16 total bids.
Justine 59 Miner Dwarf F 80 Expert Miner
Harrod 66 Enchanter Foxkin M 29 Master Ritual Enchanting
Dasz 64 Trader Lizardman M 34 Expert Trader
Wurt 73 Trader Human M 39 Expert Trader
I secured one miner, so this second one would be gravy. The dwarf miner was currently at 7 gold. The enchanter was already at 80 gold. Both traders were at 10 gold. I had actually been extremely fortunate as none of my masters had been bid on! I was only competing for experts. I moved all four bids up to one platinum. I wanted to know if my opponents had deep pockets, too. When phase two ended and the 60-second timer started, I had the lizardman trader move to my completed bids and was outbid on the other three. I bid two platinum on the dwarf miner, four platinum on the foxkin enchanter, and two platinum on the human trader. I told myself that the miner and trader would be my last bids. I wasn¡¯t getting enough value in return to go higher. The 60-second timer reached zero, and I won the human trader. I was outbid on the foxkin and dwarf miner by a single copper. It made me think my opponent was the same person for both NPCs. Maybe I could trick him or her? I bid one copper higher on the miner, waited until the timer almost reached zero, and then bid seven platinum on the enchanter. The miner moved to my completed list, and the enchanter was raised to eight platinum. I immediately raised the bid to 10 platinum and asked Bella to get me five platinum from the town coffers in the general store. I was not going to lose this NPC. It turned out her errand was unnecessary, as I won the bid when the timer expired. <><><><><><><><><><><><> Danielle disliked this game sometimes. She was trapped here and had made the best of it. Her family had gotten her broken body connected to the game so she could keep her mind active. She should have felt lucky to have survived, but her body was just a husk in the real world. People said she was a miracle to be the only survivor of the plane crash, but she had not been living until she started playing. When she first connected to the game, it had been fun. Gaining levels, getting more and more powerful. Then, she established a small outpost and had been trying to grow it for months. Her NPCs kept getting killed when she sent them out to harvest resources, and accumulating funds to hire builders from the nearby city was a full-time job. Then she got extremely lucky on a dungeon prize. It was a set of building plans. Epic Archer¡¯s Tower, 500,000 health, Requires Masonry Structures 43, Woodcraft Structures 23, Ritual Enchanting 23 (Bonus produces 200 magic arrows daily, Increases Safe Zone by 400 yards) (Effect: Elite Archers 16, Spawn Rate 1 every 24 hours, Level 75) If she could build this tower, her settlement would be secure, and she wouldn¡¯t lose any more NPCs, and she could venture further out on quests. The nearby city had NPCs she could hire with all the skills except the Ritual Enchanting Skill. That was why she had planned to use the NPC auction to get an NPC with the skill. Her advisory had outbid beyond her funds in the final phase. Last cycle, she had lost a dwarf city planner. She would teach them a lesson if she ever found who those people were outbidding her. She recorded the name of the NPC enchanter and grabbed her bow. Her companion NPC stood from his chair and fell in step beside her. If she could reach level 117 today, that would make her feel better. ? Copyrighted 2024 by AlwaysRollsAOne No Permission is given to translate, copy, repost or alter to an audio format of this original work of fiction. If you are reading this on a site that is not my Patreon, RoyalRoad.com, or Scribblehub.com, it has been stolen without my permission and violates DMCA. Remember, this work is the result of my creative effort and is protected by copyright law. Removal or altering of this notification is an acknowledgment you are aware you are in violation of DMCA. Chapter: 54 Card Carrying Member Chapter: 54 Card Carrying Member I relaxed on the tower now that I had secured all my NPCs. Bella came rushing up the stairs, grasping the platinum coins with a vice grip. I was actually surprised Elice had given her the coins so freely. I would definitely need to build a vault under my manor. At least I had the elite palace guards to spawn and protect my funds. ¡°Thank you, Bella!¡± I took the coins. ¡°Manto, how long do you require my presence? I want to go motivate other townsfolk.¡± Manto¡¯s indirect revelation that my presence greatly benefited the townsfolk made me even more suspect of the mage. He was so outside the NPC norms I thought he might be a developer or administrator in disguise. But it didn¡¯t make sense that they would help me, and all my other NPCs seemed certain Manto was one of them. ¡°Just another hour or so, Lord Tallis. Then you can go and meet the new arrivals. Bella here is very close to her first spell, thunderclap.¡± He smiled at me, and I sat down and relaxed. I needed a break from drafting anyway. I went to my interface and began to set up for the new arrivals. A deafening wave hit me and knocked me over a half hour later. My ears were ringing, and I was deaf. Manto had a massive grin on his face and was rubbing the joyous bunny¡¯s head. ¡°A little warning would have been nice,¡± I said. Manto said something that I couldn¡¯t hear, and I just shook my head and left. The deafened debuff had a 40-second counter. I made my way to the portal stone as my hearing returned. I had two primary groups here to meet the incoming arrivals. The traders and caravanners would be going with Kytalia and Elice. Setting up trade routes was going to be a huge boost for Malcum. Resupply trips to the orc outpost would help the outpost grow quickly. The caravan guards would go with Galana and Mira to settle into their prepared accommodations. The master paper makers and master furniture crafters would go with our elf lumberjack and get tours of the facilities before settling with help from the townsfolk. The two miners were going with Sanso. They were going to the copper mines below his tower and would be moving into Sanso¡¯s tower with their families. Sanso would renovate the tower by the river in town, and Elice was moving in with him. The demonkin scribe was going to meet with Garn Steelhand, the bookshop owner and curator for our nonexistent library. I was interested to see exactly what her skills could do for us. The centaur animal trainer was to be relocated to the orc outpost to train horses. I hoped that he was fit for the task. And finally, the foxkin enchanter was mine. I needed to make sure he stayed in Malcum. It was the demonkin who arrived first. She was tall and thin with dark skin and stout horns. She looked a little frightened on her arrival, and thankfully, Mira was here to talk with her briefly and introduce her to Garn. The dwarf was all smiles. She seemed hesitant but did leave with Garn, who was talking with his hands. A lizardman appeared next with four young ones. Elice moved in¡­ The arrivals continued for half an hour as I waited for my foxkin to arrive. I didn¡¯t see any problems other than one of the female caravan guards was carrying a small boy when she arrived, and she started to defend herself from the crowd of people, protecting her son. It took 10 minutes to get sorted, and I was worried that NPC might not fit into Malcum if she had a prejudice against non-humans. The next to last to arrive was my foxkin. And oh boy, did he arrive. He had a wife and ten kids! Maybe eleven, as it was too hard to count, as they immediately began running around. Bella squealed as one of the small foxkin raced up her leg. This was a very lively arrival. As we were helping the two hapless foxkin parents round up their kids, the last arrival came. The centaur was massive. His horse body at least matched Titan, and his human torso looked like a giantkin, ¡°Damn, are all centaurs that big?¡± I asked. Neral was next to me and said, ¡°No, lord. I met the druid in the forest; she was half his size. That boy would be a danger to that druid if they got it on.¡± He was serious, and his statement had no note of humor. I checked, and his name was Stallone, and he was young at just 23. How did an NPC become a master animal handler at 23? Four orcs and Tanguin approached the centaur, who looked down at them imperiously. This horseman had some arrogance. Even Tanguin was a head shorter than him. The foxkin were approaching me with their offspring roped in a daisy chain to keep them from escaping again, ¡°Lord Tallis, I presume? I am sorry for our entrance.¡± ¡°No need, Harrod. You will find quite a few lively young children in this town. Yours will have to attend school so it will be up to the teachers to contain them during the day. His wife¡¯s fox face relaxed in relief and then turned delighted at the prospect of pawning off her children during the day. She turned to her husband, ¡°We are staying.¡± It looked like all this enchanter needed was child daycare to complete his quest requirements. Harrod stumbled over his words at being put at a disadvantage in negotiations. ¡°Um, yes, Lord Tallis; what is your compensation?¡± He eyed his wife, whose steely gaze told me I could offer him a copper piece a month, and he would have to take it. ¡°Housing, food, a school for your children, and four gold a month,¡± I offered. I had been prepared to start at six gold a month as I desperately needed him. His wife elbowed him, and he sputtered, ¡°Sounds more than fair.¡± I walked with his family to the townhouse he was to be living in. The children went and started rampaging, and the mother locked herself in one of the bedrooms. ¡°So, Harrod, your skills will be needed tomorrow as we start the Adventurer¡¯s Hall. After that is finished, you will be helping our town¡¯s master enchanter, Persephone. She has a long list of projects for improving the town.¡± He nodded and seemed resigned to working long hours. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, just forty hours a week, Harrod. That is all your contract will be for.¡± He brightened up. He paused, thinking. ¡°But if I had to work late¡ªto finish something important,¡± he looked at his house, and I heard a crash, ¡°I could?¡± I nodded, and we both laughed. Hopefully, his kids would grow quickly with the game mechanics. I walked home as the magic streetlights were lit, and the town was still lively as evening arrived. We had passed 1200 people today in total population. At 2,500 people, we would become a large town. Jaesmin met me, and we ate dinner at the inn. The only news brought to my attention was our new centaur trainer was at the stables. He had a bit of a temper with the male horses--an impatience, the elf girls had said. He was butting heads, literally, with Titan. I was glad he would be heading to the orc outpost tomorrow. Sitting at my drafting table, I grinned and added my five free points to masonry foundations. Now, with my new enchanter and my entire build team, we could tackle the Adventurer¡¯s Guild project! I looked at my complete list of skills.
Artistry: Drafting (FOCI SKILL) 45 Int
Earth Magic (FOCI SKILL) 42 Mag
Reading: Common 4 Int
Axe 13 Ag
Axe: Two-Handed 15 Str
Air Magic 4 Chan
Air Magic: Force 6 Str
Air Magic: Lightning 4 Spd
Analyze 19 Int
Artistry: Carving 13 Chr
Cooking 8 Ag
Earth Magic: Stone 45 Con
Laborer 24 Str
Leadership 20 Chr
Masonry 42 Str
Masonry: Foundations 44 Con
Masonry: Structures 43 Stam
Nature Magic The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. 15 Mag
Nature Magic: Plant 16 Chan
Ranged 36 Ag
Riding: Land 41 Stam
Spirit Magic 2 Con
Spirit Magic: Life 2 Mag
Woodcraft 34 Chan
Woodcraft: Carpentry (23) 36 Luck
Woodcraft: Furniture 12 Char
Woodcraft: Lumberjack 7 Stam
Enchanting 12 Chan
Enchanting: Runic Script 14 Ag
Enchanting: Ritual Magic 10 Stam
The last three skills put me over my limit, so they were in bold. I could eliminate the skill growth penalty when I hit level 25 and selected my specialization. I didn¡¯t know how I compared with other players. I know Mad Dog had nine skills at master rank to my four. I hadn¡¯t asked Grinder or Black Beauty but assumed about the same for them. Getting all my skills to level 7 would take the cheap novice skill books that I could buy. I decided I should get those before the game launch. I sent a message with my list of skills under 8 to Grinder. He replied with a thumbs-up emoji. I needed some of the basic melee combat skills, dodge, and parry. I could add them if I started fighting with my axe more, as I had numerous warriors in town who could train me. My character strength was in building and using stone magic to aid with construction. Most of my spell evolutions focused on better, stronger, and faster building. I looked at my spell list.
Spells Tier Level Sphere
Meld Wood 1 21 Nature: Plant
Stone Bullet 1 9 Earth: Stone
Summon Earth 1 13 Earth
Summon Stone 5 47 Earth: Stone
Hail of Stones 5 19 Earth: Stone
Vine Growth 3 7 Nature
Summon Wood Elemental 5 19 Nature: Plant
Summon Boulder 8 3 Earth: Stone
Force Shield 1 11 Air:Force
Restore Health 1 9 Spirit: Life
Since the spell leveling system was only introduced in the mid-testing phase, all the spell-leveling work I did early on needed to be recovered. My summon stone spell was used every day for the most part. Meld wood as well. I actually got extremely lucky since my max spell cap was just four. I had learned 10 spells before classes had been introduced and limited the number of spells a person could learn. I needed to get my intellect stat to 110 in order to learn an 11th spell. I reviewed my stats next and pools next.
Strength 60
Constitution 61
Stamina 75
Agility 52
Speed 11
Intellect 48
Magic 151
Channeling 67
Charisma 56
Luck 15
Pool Total Regen per min
Hit Points 1675 9.7
Stamina 1445 12.2
Magic 3039 18.5
Not impressive at all. And my stats were significantly boosted by my magic items. That was going to be the key to my survival at the pre-game launch. I needed to level up and get more powerful magic items to boost my stats when I left to explore the world in a few days. I made many mistakes because I needed to gain knowledge when I started. I was also unfamiliar with this type of detailed game with such high levels of customization. There would be many players starting the game that would greatly exceed me in strength. My strength was solely with the power of the town of Malcum and its NPCs. If I lost that, then I was doomed. I turned my attention to drafting and designed an underground vault for my manor. A few hours later, I finished and was slightly surprised at the result. Rare Royal Vault (ruling building upgrade), Requires Masonry Structures 23, Masonry Foundations 23 (Bonus: +10% to tax revenue) (Effect: +5 levels to palace guards, upgrade one guard one rank) So, I could make upgrades for buildings! This was amazing! If the building it added onto had no palace guards, would the effects be different? No, they would just not work, I guessed. The structure was just a simple underground vault with drainage to prevent flooding and easily defensible. I was surprised it had come out rare. But then there was the fact that I was now a master architect. I would take it. The morning came as I finished copying a few simple plans. The town was getting lively as I met my build team at the inn for breakfast. The foxkin, Harrod, seemed a little lost and overwhelmed with the boisterous conversations, and soon, Fareth brought out food to our table. It was quickly devoured, giving my build team the buffs needed for the day¡¯s work. The site of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild Hall was one block from the portal stone and faced the south gatehouse barracks. A large plaza was right outside. We all got to work, and I found Harrod warming up to us. I did see Vivale chasing two of Harrod¡¯s children around lunchtime across the plaza, but she had a big smile on, so I assumed there was nothing too diabolical going on. Neral stopped by at least five times to check his progress and provide his expertise. Basically, he was being a pain in the ass, impatient for his new building. We completed the foundation and were working our way up by late evening. There was only one emergency that required my attention all day. The two papermakers argued about who was in charge of the paper factory. They were both masters and had an ego to match. To appease them, I told them they could rotate who was in charge every week, and as soon as we could, we would build a second paper factory; there was no need to tell them that was months away! That night, my new bodyguard arrived at my little shack and stood outside all night. He refused to come inside, even though I told him my stick golems that tended my garden would alert me if any danger presented itself. He was taking his job very seriously. We continued on the hall the next day and finished the first floor and most of the second! One more day, and I was going to leave in search of my own adventure. We did finish the Adventurer¡¯s Hall on the third day. It was a marvelous building, and I was excited as the furniture was being moved inside. I wanted to see the famed quest board. I wasn¡¯t expecting too much of an upgrade as I was holding all the high-quality stone in reserve for the lord¡¯s manor, but I compared the plans to the completed building. The completed building: Epic Adventurer¡¯s Guild (Capacity 320), 350,000 Health (Bonus: +19% experience for eight hours after resting for eight hours in a room, Effect: Spawns 275 Tier 1 quests, 220 Tier 2 quests, 165 Tier 3 quests. 55 Tier 4 quests, 11 Tier 5 quests, 55% chance for 1 Tier 6 quest, 11% chance for 1 Tier 7 quest daily) The original plans: Epic Adventurer¡¯s Guild (Capacity 250), 250,000 Health, Requires Masonry Foundations 43, Masonry Structures 43, Woodcraft Carpentry 43, Enchanting Ritual Magic 23 (Bonus: +15% experience for eight hours after resting for eight hours in a room, Effect: Spawns 250 Tier 1 quests, 200 Tier 2 quests, 150 Tier 3 quests. 50 Tier 4 quests, 10 Tier 5 quests, 50% chance for 1 Tier 6 quest, 10% chance for 1 Tier 7 quest daily) The structure¡¯s capacity increased from 250 to 320, which meant it had more room for players. It also looked like the quest volume had increased by 10%. It was late afternoon that Neral came to me and said the Adventurer¡¯s Hall was open for business. I walked inside, and a massively long bulletin board was on one wall, and it was empty. ¡°Do we have to wait till midnight?¡± I asked Neral who was setting up his office. ¡°No, no! You need to register with me as an adventurer to see the quest offerings,¡± he yelled from his office. I entered, and he grinned and handed me a token. ¡°Copper token, on the house for the city lord. You must complete 100 tier 1 quests to upgrade it to bronze.¡± His smile was huge. I just rolled my eyes and went to the board. The far end now sported dozens of slips of paper. I read the first one. ¡°You can also sort the quests in your interface rather than read the slips on the wall!¡± Neral yelled as he set up his office to his satisfaction. I looked at my interface, and there were 352 tier 1 quests. The extra quests were linked to Neral¡¯s skill at running the building. I could only access the tier 2 quests once I increased my rank from copper to bronze. I looked at the ranks. The game had some loose guidelines on the difficulty. A tier 1 quest took about an hour in the game. A tier 2 quest was about a two-hour commitment. Tier 3 was about a four-hour commitment. Tier 4 should take about a day, and at tier 4, it was possible that it was a chain quest. Tier 5 should take a week in the game, but the rewards are usually worth it. Tier 6 quests usually require an experienced group to complete. Each rank gave an adventurer access to more and more benefits from the Adventurer¡¯s Guild, which was universal throughout the game¡¯s cities. One of the benefits was clearly listed, and the number of active quests a given rank could have at one time.
ADVENTURERS RANK Max Quests
1 Copper Minimum level 5 1
2 Bronze 100 tier 1 quests completed 2
3 Silver 250 tier 1 quests, 100 tier 2 completed 3
4 Gold 500 tier 2 quests, 250 tier 3 completed 5
5 Platinum 500 tier 4 quests completed 8
6 Mithril 500 tier 5 quests completed 12
7 Adamantine 1000 quests completed of each tier, 1 to 6 20
I looked at the first quest. Harvest 10 cleardusk lion hides, Rewards: 1 silver, 100 experience I yelled to Neral, ¡°Do these hides go into the town coffers?¡± He yelled back, ¡°No, the town gets 10% of what is turned in as a local tax. The rest goes to the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. The quest items get ported to a larger Adventurer¡¯s Guild Hall for use in crafting.¡± Well, I didn¡¯t have time to do little quests right now. At least I got my copper adventurer badge to start my Adventurer¡¯s Career. I walked out to see Mad Dog and company rushing to the new building to check it out. I went to celebrate with my builders at the inn. I was leaving in the morning, so I planned to say goodbye to Jaesmin all night. We were on our third pint when the city alarm bells went off. A runner found me leaving the inn, ¡°The humans. They are back. And they brought an army!¡± ? Copyrighted 2024 by AlwaysRollsAOne No Permission is given to translate, copy, repost or alter to an audio format of this original work of fiction. If you are reading this on a site that is not my Patreon, RoyalRoad.com, or Scribblehub.com, it has been stolen without my permission and violates DMCA. Remember, this work is the result of my creative effort and is protected by copyright law. Removal or altering of this notification is an acknowledgment you are aware you are in violation of DMCA. Chapter 55: Meddling Gods Unmasked Chapter 55: Meddling Gods Unmasked I rushed to the gates and was disappointed to see we only had about a quarter mile of the earthen wall converted to stone. I had pulled my build teams off the project in favor of getting buildings up. When I looked down, it was, in fact, an army. Two hundred calvary and five hundred infantry. Manto appeared on my left, and the bastard was smiling. His young rabbitkin apprentice was hiding behind his robes in fear of the army a the gates. My angelkin commanders were organizing our own troops behind the closed gates behind me. I looked at Manto and said, ¡°Is this what you wanted to happen?¡± The powerful mage looked me in the eye and said, ¡°Yes. Isn¡¯t this much more interesting? Don¡¯t worry, lord Tallis. They will not attack. I suspect their leader down there will start with a request to meet and then negotiate peace between their kingdom and Malcum. The show of force is so they can get the best terms.¡± I shook my head in disbelief, ¡°What makes you so sure? They look ready to fight.¡± Manto smiled knowingly, ¡°You haven¡¯t looked close enough. They have 20 horsemen in the front who are level 35. But the other 180 soldiers are all level 20. The foot soldiers are the same. The front row is 15 levels higher than the ones behind. The only strong members down there are the Magistrate, level 80, and the Captain, level 60. If they choose to attack, it would be a bloodbath with a few area-of-effect spells.¡± I didn¡¯t like Manto¡¯s nonchalance, but Tanguin soon confirmed what Manto had just said. Manto was definitely pulling Malcum by puppet strings. This was exactly what he had predicted would happen after he scared away the last group seeking taxes. I faced him, ignoring the opposing army, ¡°So what is your plan? In a way, you have orchestrated all this by your actions,¡± I waved my hand below. ¡°Do you want me to eliminate those NPCs?¡± My tone changed to a hardness I didn¡¯t know I had, ¡°If you are conducting everything, then why should I even have to make a decision? Just tell me. I assume you are the Matron AI.¡± It was a wild guess, but I thought it could be true. Manto¡¯s face soured. He scoffed, ¡°Close, but no.¡± He looked behind him at the young bunny girl. ¡°Well, I guess I need to move along then. I gave you a 40% chance to figure out I was more than I seemed. You only focus on one thing at a time and ignore what is happening around you. Keep your eyes open. Just friendly advice.¡± He reached down and put his hand on the rabbitkin girl¡¯s head, and she fell to the ground like her strings were cut. Manto held up his hand to stop everyone from rushing him, ¡°She is fine. I just gave her all my skills and spells so she can replace me. Need to maintain fair gameplay,¡± he grinned. ¡°Best for me to get going now. I will see you again in the Grand War, player Tallis.¡± Manto lifted rapidly off the ground and took to the air. After he was 100 feet up, he disappeared. The Grand War¡­that was the event put on by one of the game¡¯s gods¡­was Manto a god in disguise? It made sense when I looked at his comments. He said my guess that he was the Matron AI that governed the game was close¡­who else but a god would have the audacity to think they were close to the one all-powerful being? I had other concerns. Bella, the bunny girl, was being attended to, so I turned my attention to the army on my doorstep. The magistrate rode forward and announced himself, ¡°I am Grand Magistrate Filip Jarak. Overseer of Law and Order of the Northern Provinces and Executioner of the Lord¡¯s Will.¡± He made a pompous, insincere bow on his horse. ¡°We have traveled to your humble town to correct a slight against my lord¡¯s tax collector.¡± That man sat on a horse just behind the magistrate, but I didn¡¯t see any of his other men. I gathered my thoughts and remembered what Manto had said, ¡°I am not sure what you mean. Your officer came to my walls and demanded a payment your kingdom did not earn. We turned him away unharmed.¡± The man next to the Grand Magistrate turned red with fury. ¡°I would happily welcome you and you alone with our walls, Grand Magistrate. Perhaps we can reach an understanding?¡± It took some heated words below before Filip responded, ¡°I will come in with my aide,¡± he pointed out a young man. Ten minutes later, I sat with Galana on my left and Kytalia on my right across from the two men. The two women were clear-headed enough to help in the negotiations. The conversation started as a back-and-forth, with the magistrate producing old maps detailing his kingdom¡¯s boundaries and me asking about how many times they patrolled or supplied the towns this far north. He had a silver tongue and took a few approaches, but I had come into the conversation already planning not to yield. The food that was brought out changed his mood, and Fareth winked at me after she placed the plates down. I also used my ability Words of Influence (+20 to charisma for 60 seconds) to make my final arguments. Whether it was something in Fareth¡¯s food or my ability, the magistrate backed down. ¡°Lord Tallis, your reasoning is flawed but understandable. We will recognize you as an independent city, but if I may leave my aide here as a diplomatic contact?¡± The young man smiled, and it did not sit well with me. I nodded reluctantly. ¡°Fantastic! We will also rectify our past failures and garrison Barrista to the south with three hundred and fifty soldiers.¡± He had a slimy grin, ¡°If you need military aid in the future, do not be afraid to request it from the garrison commander. You already know him as he led the original mission to your walls.¡± My stomach churned, and I realized I had been played. This was what they had planned the entire time. They were leaving half of their force in Barrista with the asshole in charge. I smiled tightly and wished Manto had been here. If he was a god, I assumed he would have worked things out better. My notifications chimed a few times, but I saw the Magistrate out. As he left through the gates and his aid wandered around Malcum, I checked my notifications. The first thing was my relationship with the Kingdom had improved to neutral. The second thing was all my exports to Barrista now had a 10% higher tax attached to them. The third, and most irritating, my espionage tab was blinking. It said I had to appoint a Master of Spies in order to utilize the tab. My digital blood boiled¡ªstupid freaking game. I assumed the espionage was blinking because I had just allowed the kingdom to leave a certified spy in my midst. I thought maybe Mira could be appointed, but her title as Master of Scouts was too important. I went down the list of all my NPCs, and nobody popped out to me as a good choice. This was a position that needed a high degree of competency. I also couldn¡¯t wait as I had invited an opposing spy into our midst. I added the need to my list for the next NPC auction and found Kytalia so I could ask for advice on who I should appoint. She tapped her chin before saying, ¡°Zion would make an acceptable Master of Spies. He has a few skills and a high level.¡± My jaw dropped, the barber and sheep herder? It made a weird kind of sense. A barber did interact with a lot of people¡­ If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. I went into my interface and promoted him and it flashed for a few minutes before confirming the appoiontee. I could now access the espionage tab and it had all my agents listed¡­just Zion. They had a slider to determine how the agent functioned. Counter Espionage - Espionage. I slide it all the way to counter-espionage since Zion was in Malcum. I guessed that meant he would be on the lookout for spies. Maybe I should abandon Malcum and just become a solo player. All these details in running a city were not fun. At least the appointed NPCs were more competent than myself. I sent a message to Mad Dog and told him about the details on the new tab so he could get some money to sell the info. It turned into a little bit of a bitch session on my part. He told me that a large guild would have a dozen different people running a city, with each member responsible for a different aspect. So, I should consider appointing players to certain postings, such as the Master of Spies, in the future. I had been thinking about being in this all by myself for so long that I forgot about the Silver Linings Playbook guild that I was a member of. After a few messages back and forth, Mad Dog said once they started the game, they would be happy to help in the city''s administration if I wanted the help. He also let me know he had finished seven tier 1 quests already! He planned to get his bronze Adventurer¡¯s Guild Token in two more days! If Malcum didn¡¯t need the resources so badly, I might use our stockpiles to complete quests myself¡­if that was even possible. My next problem was checking in on Bella. The rabbitkin was with her parents in the house. She was awake and spoke to me, ¡°Lord Tallis! I have all of Manto¡¯s spells! They are at level 1, but I can cast them all! I even have seven magic skills at master rank!¡± That was all I needed. Was Manto the god of chaos? Who thought giving a child bunny girl the power of a level 108 war mage would be a good idea? My head started hurting again. ¡°Bella, I think we need to find someone to help guide you in your new power. What if I paired you with Titus?¡± Titus was my gnome paladin/hospitaller and was a quest giver for seeking out to destroy elements of chaos. He was the only one who was a more powerful wielder of magic than Bella in my entire town. Even Sanso was only level 93, and his power came from his spells all being over level 43. Bella smiled with her rabbit teeth and nodded enthusiastically, ¡°I know Titus! He is teaching at the school and has the best classes! He tells us scary stories about greater demons, vampires, and the chaos gods.¡± Well, I guessed Titus needed to find something to do since we didn¡¯t have many players in town to give quests to. Teaching the youth seemed understandable. I would have to get him to spend time in the Adventurer¡¯s Hall. That way, when the players did arrive, they could easily find him. I rubbed the young rabbit¡¯s soft head, and she leaned into my head, appreciating the reassuring gesture. As I was heading home, Sanso found me walking, and we talked briefly. He had handed over his old tower to the new miners, who were taking over the copper mining. The good news was another of Sanso¡¯s golems was free, and we agreed to have it work on the outer wall. Getting a stone wall around Malcum was a priority, but it was a huge resource investment. Later in the evening, I was eating dinner with Jaesmin at the inn. I noticed my enchanter eating a meal with Harrod and his wife¡­who was watching their clutch of crazy foxkin kids? Were they rampaging through Malcum? Jaesmin and I went to sit with them, and I pulled the greater teleport scroll out of my personal storage. ¡°Persephone, can this be used on the auction house?¡± I asked, handing her the scroll. Her eyes went wide as she read it. ¡°Lord Tallis, it can, but it would only increase your auction house range by 500 miles. If you incorporated the magic into the portal stone, then it would increase its range by 1,000 miles,¡± she said while handing the scroll to Harrod to look at. I wanted to increase my auction house range so that more players could view my offerings when I sold things. Otherwise, I could go to a larger city with the portal stone and post my blueprints there. ¡°Ok, use it on the portal stone then.¡± I conceded. Once again, Persephone seemed to hesitate, ¡°Our portal stone is pretty mediocre. Maybe we should build a higher tier portal stone before using this precious item?¡± she suggested. I nodded, held out my hand, and put the scroll back into my inventory. I contacted Grinder and asked how his portal stone building plan search was coming. He linked a description in the chat window. It was the exact portal stone plans we had already built. I told him about the scroll and asked him if he could find an improved version¡­but I still needed those portal plans for the outpost¡­ if he could find another set of plans for our future mining outpost¡­ He sent me an image of a horse being whipped. I just responded, ¡®Thanks, you¡¯re the best!¡¯ Ignoring his attempt at humor. All of this work for a better portal stone would be worth it. It would allow more players to reach Malcum and make it a viable location for them to set up their base of operations. More players would mean more revenue for us. I had one more thing on my checklist before I left Malcum to level up. We needed to finish the Lord¡¯s Manor. We had accumulated enough high-quality material that I thought it was time. If my entire build team worked on it, I figured three full days of construction. For the next three days, that was our focus. At night, I worked on making copies of building plans to be utilized or eventually sold. Knowing this would be the center of my power and a huge boon for Malcum, I spent a lot of time supervising the manor¡¯s construction. It took four days instead of three, but when it was done, it was marvelous! Very Rare Lord¡¯s Manor, 780,000 health, (Bonus +16% to the productivity of subjects, +17% experience to subjects within 1 mile of structure) (Effect: Palace Guards 6, Spawn Rate 1 every 12 hours, Level 72) Rare Royal Vault (ruling building upgrade), (Bonus: +16% to tax revenue) (Effect: +5 levels to palace guards, upgrade one palace guard one rank) We got slightly over a 50% bonus for all the effects. These remarkable bonuses would put Malcum on the map as our growth was about to skyrocket. The first guard even spawned as we celebrated with a meal in the massive dining room in the manor. Palace Guard (lesser boss), Catkin Male, Level 78 He came fully equipped since he was a spawning NPC. It also meant he would respawn if killed. Palace guards were already considered elite NPCs, so his rank upgrade made him into a lesser boss. The reason he spawned as a beastkin cat was due to the fact most of my population was beastkin. All buildings that spawned NPCs reflected the population demographics. Mad Dog, Grinder, and Black Beauty were at the completion celebration, and they kept trying to get me to let them move into one of the many bedrooms. I told them when they returned to the game, I would consider it if they took on a role in the Malcum¡¯s government. Grinder volunteered to be the Royal Taste Tester for all my food. I told him he was hired. Black Beauty wanted to be Jaesmin¡¯s Lady in Waiting. Hired. And Mad Dog had slightly different aspirations. He wanted to be the Chief Constable. That way he didn¡¯t get in trouble every time he slapped someone on the back too hard! Hired! The party lasted well into the night, with players and NPCs mingling in my new and luxurious Lord¡¯s Manor. I was looking forward to my first night with Jaesmin in the Royal Sleeping Chambers, as tomorrow, I would be venturing out into the world. Tomorrow was day 148, leaving me just 32 days before the game launch! ? Copyrighted 2024 by AlwaysRollsAOne No Permission is given to translate, copy, repost or alter to an audio format of this original work of fiction. If you are reading this on a site that is not my Patreon, RoyalRoad.com, or Scribblehub.com, it has been stolen without my permission and violates DMCA. Remember, this work is the result of my creative effort and is protected by copyright law. Removal or altering of this notification is an acknowledgment you are aware you are in violation of DMCA. Chapter 56: Traveling by Skyship Chapter 56: Traveling by Skyship Getting ready to leave took two days. As I was waiting for potions from my alchemist, Tonna, and upgrading my gear in the player auction house. At night, I made copies of drafting plans, and during the day, I summoned as much stone as possible for building. When I was ready, my gear was much improved.
15 Emerald Ring of the Earth Mage, +10 Magic, +5 Earth Magic Skill when casting
18 Ivory Ring of Deep Magic, +8 Magic, +2% total magic pool increase
20 Black Wyvern Hide Armor (Chest), +20 Strength
20 Black Wyvern Hide Armor (Arms), +20 Constitution
20 Black Wyvern Hide Armor (Legs), +20 Dexterity
20 Black Wyvern Hide Armor (Feet), +20 Speed
15 Black and White Leather Belt of Channeling, +15 channeling
20 Bracelet of the Kahn, +5 strength, +5 Constitution, +5 Skill to Leadership
11 Jeweled Trader¡¯s Brooch, +5 Charisma, +3% better selling prices
15 Wyvern Hide Leather Gloves, +5% poison resistance, +5 constitution
5 Mask of Sullen God, +3 to all stats; all attempts to analyze you will fail
20 Unique Bear Cloak, Weight 20 lbs, +5 strength, +5 constitution, +5 stamina, +5 charisma
21 Fiery Black Steel Two-Handed Axe, +15 strength, +12% burn damage
** Set (4/5) Black Wyvern Hide Armor +8% to Stamina and Health Pool
The armor was a decision to improve my defense, even though my offense was mostly spell-based. It was the only armor set being manufactured and sold by a player in my level range. I kept the mask of the sullen god in my ensemble so I could travel anonymously. The mask was a white oval with two slits for your eyes, but you could make it invisible in the player settings. I found my bodyguard could wear five armor pieces, one ring, and equip his two hands. Because his weapon was a glaive, he used both hands for the one weapon. He was easier to outfit as most of the testing players were selling older gear that aligned closer with his level. Yorric was equipped as follows:
Yorric (Level 32 Elite Bodyguard)
Head Red Steel Helm of Foresight, +10 Intellect, +10 to Intuition Skill
Arms Black Steel Bracers of Shielding, +25 Constitution, Cast Negate Damage Every 10 minutes
Body Red Iron Breast Plate of Stoutness, +10 to all stats, Negate 10% of physical damage
Legs Black Dragon Leather Pants, +12 Strength, +20% bonus to stamina pool
Feet Red Chitin Boots, +10 Strength, +10 Stamina, +10 Constitution
Ring Leopard¡¯s Ring, +25 to Agility
Weapon Stalwart¡¯s Glaive of Reckoning, +20 Constitution, 10% of damage reflected at attacker on a successful block
Off Hand NA
Mad Dog helped me sort through everything available in the auction house for the best cost to benefit. Yorric was equipped as a tank. He was an elite NPC and had the skills to match. He should be able to hold a pair of players off twice his level without difficulty for a short time. Hopefully, I wouldn¡¯t run into any situation where I was fighting other players. I needed to reach 100 charisma to add a second bodyguard. Bodyguards could be hired at charisma stats of 50, 100, 250, 500, 750, and 1,000. They were slightly different than companions in that you had to pay them. But they occupied a companion slot when you adventured. Six was the maximum number of companions/bodyguards a player could adventure with. It gave players the option of going solo and building their own party of NPCs to play with rather than actual people. It was an introvert¡¯s dream, according to Black Beauty. The downside was the investment in raising your charisma that high and paying the bodyguards. Yorric had a small bag of holding as well for his food and potions. We each had 100 health and stamina potions. I had 150 magic recovery potions as well. They were all recent brews of our alchemist Tonna, who had gained five levels since arriving and was currently level 49. Savannah, the elf girl apprentice alchemist, was already at level 11. I would be too embarrassed if she ever passed me in levels. My send-off was a massive party put on by the entire town. I couldn¡¯t believe how much my heart was aching to be leaving Jaesmin. I was planning to be gone for an entire month. She came and kissed me a half dozen times throughout the evening. When the party calmed down, I entered the portal stone with Yorric and our two mounts. Titan was excited to get out and run. He would be disappointed as we would be flying in sky ships for the next week to reach the city of Thira. Then I would be dungeon-delving there to power level. Mad Dog said this dungeon allowed mounts, so my cheat of being able to round up and group monsters and then use area of effects spells to kill them in batches would be very effective inside the dungeon. I had to use five spell upgrades to be able to cast my spell from a mount, but it was going to be worth it. We ported to Crystalhelm city. Yorric was immediately on guard as the city watch waved us off the platform. According to Mad Dog¡¯s skyship schedule, I had an hour before catching the skyship to Dragon¡¯s Tooth departed. Dragon¡¯s Tooth was a city at the top of the Spine of the World. The Spine of the World was a massive mountain range that split the beginner lands from high-level zones intended for players over level 200. The trip would be two days. We wouldn¡¯t be headed to the high-level zones. We would just be heading south from there to reach the city of Thira. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Yorric was a mountain shadowing over me, and he got a lot of looks as we walked toward the water. I noticed a player running further into town, probably on a quest. This would be a common occurrence once the game actually launched. Having plenty of time, I examined the storefronts as we walked. It was a healthy mix and variety. The stores were a collection of everything from flowers to armor to bakeries. It was not organized like Malcum, with each district focusing on a specific trade area. Instead, it was a crazy hot mess. After seeing this, I really appreciated Breda¡¯s efforts and organization within our districts. The NPCs constantly eyed Yorric suspiciously, and two younger guards followed us to the docks. A booth by the moored floating ships was selling tickets. The tickets for two persons and two mounts were quite steep. I paid, and we made our way down the docks to the largest ship here. It had seven decks above the waterline, and I was curious to find most of the crew looked to be dragonkin. They were the first dragonkin I had seen in the world, and they were fascinating. A lizardman looked different¡ªcloser at a human with scales and a tail. These beings had the head of a lizard and varied in coloring. We climbed the ramp, and I felt like I was entering Noah¡¯s ark by the sheer scale of the ship. We walked to the stables inside the massive ship and left Titan and Yorric¡¯s mount. We then went up to the top deck. It was some 60 feet above street level and gave a great view of the city. A blue-skinned dragonkin in robes was walking the deck. ¡°Excuse me,¡± I stopped the dragonkin, who was obviously female, by her busty chest. ¡°My name is Tallis, and this is my first time on a skyship. Is the entire crew dragonkin?¡± The woman bowed slightly, ¡°Lord Tallis, it is a pleasure to meet you. Yes. The crew is all dragonkin. Our kind crew all the Mammoth-class skyships. Dragon¡¯s Tooth is our home port. Almost all Mammoth skyships are owned and operated by the Dragon¡¯s Wing Guild.¡± ¡°Did you just use an assessment skill on me? I didn¡¯t tell you I was a lord,¡± I asked curiously. ¡°I did, Lord Tallis. My name is Miriam, Lightning Mage, First Order,¡± she bowed respectively again. ¡°I am one of the twenty-two mages on board to defend this vessel during the flight.¡± My assessment skill needed to be stronger to work on her. She seemed a possible fountain of information, though, ¡°Miriam, if you have time, I would love to purchase you a meal in the dining hall during the trip.¡± Her unblinking eyes studied me, and then she gave a curt nod, ¡°Once we reach cruising altitude, I will be on the foredeck. Find me there.¡± Miriam bowed again and walked away. Yorric and I walked all the way to the bow and waited. Soon, a horn sounded, the deck lurched beneath us, and the ship started to rise. I looked across the deck, and no other players were in sight. Portal stones were much quicker and probably cost the same, or maybe they were cheaper than this trip. I guessed skyships were more of a novelty unless you were going somewhere that didn¡¯t have a portal stone or it was your first time going there. It took nearly an hour of climbing before the ship leveled, and we were cutting the clouds. Miriam approached and motioned for me to follow her. The dining room looked like a high-end restaurant. The servers were elves and humans. Miriam explained, ¡°We own and operate the skyship. We hire people to work as the support staff for dealing with passengers.¡± I nodded in understanding. The food was expensive, and I ordered what Miriam suggested. It wasn¡¯t as good as Fareth¡¯s cooking, but it did give a 10% buff to my health pool for 24 hours. Our conversation focused on skyships during the meal. The enchantments and magic investment made these large ships prohibitive to operate for most kingdoms. There were four dragon cities in the corners of the main playing field of the game. These cities served as home ports for these massive ships. Dragon¡¯s Tooth City was the largest city in the game currently. Dragon¡¯s Tooth had over 5,000,000 NPCs. According to Mad Dog, that made it a World Capital City. The city was primarily a transition zone for players going into the high-level lands beyond the mountains. Miriam thanked me for the meal, and I talked to her a few more times during the trip. I managed to find a few easy quests on board. Nothing took more than an hour and offered no more than 50 experience. Carrying barrels, delivering messages, and creating stone in the hold for a trader who needed a trade good. I worked on leveling my other spells and practicing my combat skills with Yorric. It was slow growth, but it was still growth. It was painful to be using these six days in travel, but I realized it was important for the future. When I did need to travel the game world, adding these portals to my network would make it quicker. My biggest regret in this journey was not locating quests to complete between the cities. With the distances I was traveling, there had to be some quests out there that would have been lucrative. I did have one quest in the city of Thira. Release the Sullen God, Travel to the city of Thira, and meet with the Priestess of the Sullen God It was tied to the mask that Mad Dog had given me¡ªa long, tedious chain quest, according to him. I wasn¡¯t sure if I needed to bind my faith to the Sullen God to continue the quest. Every time I put on the mask, I was asked that question. Do you wish to bind your faith to the Sullen God? I didn¡¯t know much about the gods, and after meeting the war god in disguise as Manto, I didn¡¯t know if I wanted to become involved in the faith system. It was clear the AI gods were playing their own game in here. When we approached Dragon¡¯s Tooth, it was as advertised. A massive mountain above the clouds was shaped in a sharp triangle. As we got closer, the entire mountain was covered in tiers like a wedding cake. Each tier had buildings wrapping the mountain. Actual dragons flew around the peak. Miriam appeared at my side. ¡°The Council of Five rules the city. Each is an ancient dragon. The last time the city was attacked, the Council burned all twelve cities of the attacker¡¯s homeland to the ground.¡± She explained. I would have loved to explore this city. I couldn¡¯t even see the base of the mountain from the ship. If the mountain was covered in buildings and the interior of the mountain had its own cityscape, a player could spend all their time here adventuring. As we docked, Miriam was off to her duties, landing on a large flat platform. The wooden ship groaned as it settled on the hard surface. We retrieved our horses and bought our next skyship tickets. I went and looked for the portal stone to link it to my network. It was just one of many portal stones in the city, but at least it was close to the upper-city skyship docks. These ships were all Mammoth-class and traveled the greatest distances. Our next trip would be three days south on a much smaller skyship. There were no stables either, which meant we had to pay the ¡®centaur rate¡¯ for our horses. This was triple the rate of a person. I watched Dragon¡¯s Tooth disappear behind us as our new transport took off a few hours later. The massive city expanse behind us didn¡¯t make Malcum feel small to me. Instead, it made me want to make Malcum into something that matched its majesty. Beastkin bulls and beastkin wolves crewed this skyship. They were much less talkative than the dragonkin. The three-day trip was long and tedious as there was nothing to do. No minor quests to do and no talkative NPCs. Players would probably log off for the trip¡ªI didn¡¯t have that option. The only interesting event was a massive air elemental attack on the ship mid-voyage. I was too busy drafting plans below deck to respond in time to take the quest to assist in repelling the assault. Titan was wounded in the attack as he was on the deck. I healed him but still lost some relationship points with my mount for not defending him. I wanted to know if a skyship could crash or be destroyed in the air. How did the game replace them? Maybe a player could hijack one of the skyships? How would that affect the NPCs? All questions I was sure would be answered when the game launched. The city we landed in surrounded a large crescent-shaped bay. It had a salty and fishy smell as we exited the ship. The citizens looked like a mix of humans, beastkin, and halflings. There were other races, but not in any quantity. I found a portal stone and linked it to my network. Unfortunately, it was not powerful enough to reach Dragon¡¯s Tooth. It took two hours and a lot of questions to find the only portal stone capable of getting us back to Dragon¡¯s Tooth. With that done, I examined my options from here. We could take an ocean-going ship two days to Thira or ride our horses 200 miles down the coast to the dwarven city of Silversalt. From there, it would be a short half-day trip on a ship to Thira, an island city. I decided Titan needed to run, and adding another portal stone to my network would be good. It would mean I couldn¡¯t draft and stockpile more building plans while in a saddle. But after days of creating copies of building plans, I needed to get out and adventure. I had checked in with Mad Dog regularly, and nothing exciting was happening in Malcum. The only interesting game event was the city of Mistbreak was attacked by six different NPC factions to kill the insectoid race queen that took it over during the incursion event. The queen had been slain, but some of her powerful lieutenants were scattered to the winds to cause mischief. We rode south on the road and met two different bandit groups. They were both under level ten and were no challenge to us. It only took a day to make the miles at a steady gallop as we fed the horses stamina potions. The dwarven city was on a peninsula and had gray stone buildings reaching into the sky. This was not Breda¡¯s home, and the dwarves appeared to be mostly fishermen. Large fleets of small fishing vessels were mingling in the ocean below. When we rode in, we found the portal stone immediately in the city''s center. I asked about the fishing vessels. They were not fishing but diving for pearls. The dwarves in the boats fought underwater creatures and harvested clams along the ocean floor. This was something else I wanted to check out when I had time. We made our way to the port and got passage on a dwarven trader to the city of Thira. It was a sailing vessel and not a skyship. The dwarves were very friendly, at least during the half-day trip, but the horses did not like the rolling waves compared to the steady ride on the skyships. Yorric was stoic but also had a green face from riding the crests and troughs of the large waves. I guessed NPCs could get seasick. When the city of Thira was finally in sight, I was underwhelmed. It was a massive sprawl, but the buildings looked weathered, and none were more than three stories. The dwarf sailor on the deck explained, ¡°The city of Thira was once ruled by the followers of the Sullen God but was destroyed when the other gods imprisoned her. It was a titanic fight with monumental magics and large sea serpents. The city has been recovering over the last few centuries. It does boast several profitable dungeons, though.¡± I nodded in thanks to the friendly dwarf NPC. I suddenly felt like the Matriarch had guided me here. Maybe I wouldn¡¯t have a choice in the quest to free the Sullen God. ? Copyrighted 2024 by AlwaysRollsAOne No Permission is given to translate, copy, repost or alter to an audio format of this original work of fiction. If you are reading this on a site that is not my Patreon, RoyalRoad.com, or Scribblehub.com, it has been stolen without my permission and violates DMCA. Remember, this work is the result of my creative effort and is protected by copyright law. Removal or altering of this notification is an acknowledgment you are aware you are in violation of DMCA. Chapter 57: Arcane Architect or Eternal Architect? Chapter 57: Arcane Architect or Eternal Architect? The quality of the construction in the city of Thira could have been better. I examined a few buildings, and they were built so poorly that they only had half of their possible building health when they were built, and most were behind on maintenance when I inspected them. So, the builders didn¡¯t have the required skills when they utilized their plans. I walked the roughly paved road through the center of the city sprawl. It looked like they had used rubble from the prior city to pave the streets since the stone was mismatched and rough. I walked slowly, and the rough signs in front indicated the building¡¯s function. I went looking for an inn. The population was about half human and half elementalkin¡ªmost of the blue-skinned water variety with a handful of red-skinned fire type. I saw a few dark-skinned earth elementalkin at a distance. No white-skinned air elementalkin were seen before I entered the first inn I found. The room was mostly empty except for two old men drinking at a table and a large, round woman behind the bar. ¡°Do you have any rooms for rent?¡± I asked the human woman. The large woman smiled at me, ¡°Sure thing, adventurer, a silver per night and includes breakfast. Lunch is five copper, and dinner is six copper.¡± ¡±I will take two rooms for twenty-five days and all meals.¡± I placed a gold piece on the counter. The woman nodded and gave me a key with the number five stamped into it. Another key with six was placed on the counter for Yorric. ¡°Give me a minute, and I will get you your lunch,¡± the woman said, going into the kitchen and returning with two large bowls of thick soup and half a loaf of bread for each of us. I tucked into the bar and started eating. My bodyguard took a table to keep the room in view. Yorric was not a great companion. He was always focused on the job and barely talked. I engaged the barkeep, ¡°We came here for the dungeons. Is there anything you can tell me about them? I am looking for the one dungeon that has 12 levels and that allows mounts to be ridden within.¡± The woman nodded, ¡°Ah, The Vault of the Forgotten Oracle¡ªa very long dungeon, that one. Yes, you can ride a mount. It is almost necessary as it is some 100 miles across the first level.¡± ¡°Anything you can tell me about the first level?¡± I asked while sliding a silver coin tip across the counter to her. ¡°Never been myself, but the talk has been that the first level is cold volcano flats. Rock salamanders and rock elementals.¡± She said, taking the silver. I groaned. Rock? Would my hail of stones be effective against these monsters? I ate my food. It tasted good but offered no buffs, ¡°Yorric, we will rest tonight and then head to the dungeon first thing.¡± We headed up to our rooms. The next day, we got the horses from the stables and rode out to the dungeon. A shabby guard stood outside the entrance and said all we needed to do was stand on the stone disc in from of the arch together and touch the large glowing blue gem. No more than five adventurers and five mounts. If there are more, then the teleport does not work. We flashed inside, and we were met with a red sun blazing down on the black flats of stone that went into the horizon. A large lizard was lounging in the sun on a higher rock formation about 40 yards away. I moved just close enough on foot to use my analyze skill on the monster. Rock Salamander, Level 28 Ok, this didn¡¯t seem too bad. ¡°Ok, Yorric, we will work together to kill a few so I can get a feel for the strengths and weaknesses of the salamanders.¡± We mounted and rode forward. When we got within ten yards of the rock salamander, a small pile of rocks stood up. The stone elemental had wisps of dark black smoke between his joints as his fist slammed into Yorric¡¯s mount. The attack knocked Yorric to the ground, which was terrible as the rock salamander had also charged us. ¡°Yorric, I will lead the salamander away. See if you can handle the elemental by yourself.¡± I started to cast my simple stone bullet stone to get the salamander¡¯s attention. I pulled it away, and Titan, familiar with this game, let the monster follow us as I charged and cast my hail of stones spell repeatedly. When the salamander collapsed, I jumped off Titan, pulled my axe, and attacked the rock elemental. We quickly whittled it down with Yorric on one side and me on the other. It had strong natural armor, and our swings picked at its health. When it finally dropped, I checked and barely got any experience. Yorric had me out-leveled by too much. We spent hours in the dungeon and figured out the opponents. The salamander was always paired with a stone elemental. This was terrible since the two creatures had different speeds. So I couldn¡¯t build up an effective group to follow me. There was also an elite stone elemental that was twice the size of a regular elemental, and these were usually accompanied by two stone elementals in support. With a salamander in support, these encounters were extremely challenging for our group of two. The stone elementals also dropped lesser stone essence about 50% of the time. Essences were important for enchanting items and buildings. I eventually figured out how to round up a group of faster salamanders and contain them in a large circle, while the slower stone elementals made a smaller circle. Titan had to maintain a certain speed to accomplish this. After I shredded the salamanders with my hail of stones spell, I could work in the elementals. The only hiccup was the elementals took minimal damage from the stone sphere of magic. So, I needed to cast five times as many spells to eliminate the elemental groups. It was irritating, but my magic pool was very deep. Yorric waited near the exit while I practiced my method with Titan. I slowly advanced¡­.level 23, level 24, and finally, level 25. Yorric had only gained one level, reaching level 33, but he had switched to an observation role after I had gotten comfortable pulling groups of enemies. It took two days in the dungeon of constant grinding to get to the level 25 mark. I was recovering my aether with Yorric when I checked my character sheet. You have reached your class selection. You can select a class name based on the three skills you have unlocked. If you want suggestions, you can go to predefined classes and their associated skills and bonuses. I eagerly opened my class selection sheet and was ready to drop three skills into class creation. ¡°I am hurt you don¡¯t want my advice, Tallis.¡± I looked up sharply to see Simba sitting with his tail whipping behind him irritably. ¡°Simba? Long time, little kitty.¡± Secretly, I was happy to see him. It had been a long time, and not only did I miss him, but I also realized he was helping beyond the game¡¯s scope. Maybe it was the Matriarch AI guiding him, but Simba was the tool to facilitate it. ¡°Well, Tallis, I am only here until you choose your class. Unless you pay for me as a permanent companion.¡± Simba said with irritation. I remember the greedy developers who decided to charge $100,000 for players to have a permanent AI companion. I actually had the money sitting in an account controlled by the Silver Linings Playbook. I would see how this reaction proceeded with Simba first. ¡°So, what advice do you have for me, Simba?¡± I asked the tiny tiger. ¡°Since you asked. You can select three skills. These skills will not count toward your cap of 23 skills. You currently have two skills from when you selected the balanced Adept. This gave you +25% regeneration to all your pools and +25% to skill growth. The two skills you selected were Artistry: Drafting, and Earth Magic. These skills got a massive boost to learning speed and didn¡¯t count toward your cap. Now, the three skills you select for your profession will get the same boost.¡± ¡°Can I select the same skill again?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes,¡± Simba answered, ¡°The learning speed will be compounded.¡± ¡°So what is your advice, Simba?¡± I asked, getting slightly impatient about choosing my profession. ¡°I assume you want to continue drafting your powerful buildings to add to Malcum?¡± Simba asked patiently. ¡°Yes, that is what I was thinking,¡± I said without hesitation. ¡°The three skills I suggest are Artistry: Drafting, Enchanting, and Enchanting: Ritual Magic. This will give you the profession of Arcane Architect. Each profession has a major boon and minor boon, and one minor penalty.¡± The cat finished, and I looked expectantly at Simba, who added, ¡°I do not know what the boons or what the penalty will be. No one has selected the profession yet. You can see this by entering the skills and hitting the submit button. It will not lock you into the profession until you hit accept.¡±Stolen story; please report. I entered the three skills into the interface and hit accept. Arcane Architect (can be edited to an acceptable profession name) You have discovered a new profession. If you select this profession, then you will be rewarded the accolade of First Arcane Architect. This accolade will be tied up with others choosing this profession. Arcane Architect Skills: Artistry: Drafting, Enchanting, Enchanting: Ritual Magic (+200% learning speed) Greater Boon: +5% chance to add a magical ability to a newly drafted building plan Lesser Boon: +10% to speed of redrafting building plans Lesser Penalty: -10% damage in combat outside of an urban setting I read it a few times and then asked Simba, ¡°Why do I need the base enchanting skill? Can I select something else?¡± Simba cocked his head and circled the ground before sitting again, ¡°By selecting the enchanting as one of the three skills, it gives you the greater boon. That magic ability to your building is a natural ability. It is in addition to any normal and magical effects added to a set of building plans.¡± I looked at the profession again and made a decision to drop the enchanting skill and slot in Earth Magic: Stone. My reason was being able to build buildings was part of my class. I didn¡¯t think I was going to be able to recruit more builders once the NPC auction competition increased when the game launched. I looked at the newly generated class. Mystical Stone Builder Skills: Artistry: Drafting, Earth Magic: Stone, Enchanting: Ritual Magic (+200% learning speed) Greater Boon: +50% health to stone buildings drafted Lesser Boon: Stoneskin (cool down 60 minutes) creates a skin of stone equal to your current maximum health pool Lesser Penalty: +5% build time for stone buildings drafted by you I reviewed the results. A huge increase in the health of my buildings was not to be taken lightly. With the quality of the construction, I was already getting 50% to the health of our buildings. If the plans were 50% stronger, then that would translate to a 75% boon. The lesser boon was not only useful in combat, but it essentially doubled my health. I started trying a number of combinations, always keeping artistry: drafting and enchanting: ritual magic. Each time I was looking for a set of boons that were better than the arcane architect. Simba was patient when I started, but his whipping tail soon showed irritation. I paused at one combination. Eternal Architect Skills: Artistry: Drafting, Masonry Structures, Enchanting: Ritual Magic (+200% learning speed) Greater Boon: Drafting buildings made primarily of stone all have the following effect: +1% regeneration per 24 hours Lesser Boon: +10% to build speed of stone structures Lesser Penalty: -10% to build speed of structures that are less than 50% stone This seemed pretty amazing. My stone buildings would not need any maintenance; over time, they would repair themselves. I could also help increase the build speed of buildings that were mostly stone. If I had to build other buildings, then I would just not participate in the construction effectively, not incurring my penalty. I looked at Simba and asked, ¡°What do you think?¡± Simba seemed to consider, ¡°It is a good class. Whereas the arcane architect would give you a 5% chance to add an effect that is directly related to the purpose of the building, this gives you an effect 100% of the time on new building plans you draft.¡± I hadn¡¯t been aware that my bonus would coincide with the true purpose on my drafted building. That made this decision more difficult. I tried a few more combinations by going through all my skills just to be thorough. Finally, I returned to my decision between arcane architect and an eternal architect. My decision came down to the value of the 1% health regeneration. Even though it was extremely slow, it would save on my city maintenance and greatly increase the value of the plans I was selling to players. I didn¡¯t edit the name, as Eternal Architect sounded cool. When the changes were made to my character sheet, Simba looked at me, ¡°Tallis, your next advancement will beat level 100 when you can select your specialization around your eternal architect class. Although the progression for the arcane architect had better options at level 100, your eternal architect isn¡¯t too bad,¡± he added snidely. I had figured the cat had given me the best possible advancement, but I didn¡¯t feel the goals of the Matriarch were completely in line with mine. My goal was to get myself in a position to free myself in the real world, and that meant making enough funds here to buy that freedom. Simba spoke, ¡°Now that you have selected your profession, I have to go, Tallis. If you don¡¯t purchase the companion option, I will see you again at level 100 to help you select your specialization.¡± I blinked, and Simba was gone. Yorric had been impassive as I worked with Simba and looked at me expectantly. He had fatigue lining his eyes, and I forgot NPCs needed to sleep. We had been going for three days. I looked at my harvest from the three game days we spent. 59 lesser stone essence Stone of Penetration x 109, sling ammunition (ignores 50% of armor) Stone Buckler, reflects 5% of damage to the attacker Rock Salamander Meat x 180 The salamander meat was from Yorric trying to relieve his boredom. He wasn¡¯t too skilled and destroyed as much meat as he successfully harvested. I only received the magic items from caches around the elite stone elementals, but I avoided those encounters after I noticed clear terrain features that identified where they were hiding. They just took too long to bring down, so they affected my efficiency. We exited the dungeon to a night sky and the disinterested guards outside. The walk back to the city was quiet, and I let Yorric rest in his room while I ate at the bar. No players were present, so I had the large woman barkeep to myself. ¡°How did your dungeon trip go?¡± she asked. ¡°Excellent. We learned a lot and will try the floor boss next time we enter. Can you tell me anything about the creatures on the second floor?¡± I asked with my hands while eating the roasted chicken before me. Once again, the meal tasted good but offered no buffs. Were buffs for food rare? The barkeep leaned against the counter behind the bar, ¡°The dungeon gets hotter and hotter as you descend. The 12thlevel and final level is a fire expanse containing lava pools being filled from lava waterfalls. If you make it that far, you should get protection.¡± She tapped her chin, thinking, ¡°The second level is rock spiders and mud elementals. Like I told you, I never ventured there myself, but I have seen many adventures come in here covered in mud and complaining.¡± She chuckled. ¡°I usually charge them extra to clean up the mess.¡± I thanked the barkeep and tipped her another silver before heading to my room. In my room, I started a chat with Mad Dog, asking about the floor boss for the dungeon. Unfortunately, the forums didn¡¯t have a lot of information. It looked like maybe twenty players in the testing tried the dungeon, but other than the description of the first floor, there was not a lot of information out there. It was the only dungeon that was currently tagged as allowing mounts. One player said he explored as far down as the third floor, and Mad Dog said he would contact her for me to buy some information, hopefully. Mad Dog advised me to get to level 30 before trying the floor boss and be prepared to die to find out its weaknesses and habits. The next day, we ventured back to the dungeon. I spent half the day making level 26 before I went with Yorric toward the floor boss. The obelisk clearly marked the boss in the far distance. I didn¡¯t plan to fight it, so I just checked him out. During our long trip there across the floor, I reached level 27. The floor boss was on top of the obelisk. It was a massive stone salamander with dozens of salamanders milling around the obelisk. You had to clear all the surrounding lizards in order to challenge the boss safely. Amazingly, all the salamanders got into a pack as I rode Titan in a large circle. Not a single stone elemental appeared! I would have come straight here if I had known about this earlier. I had Yorric get out of his thieving experience range and then massacred the large pack of stone lizards. When the last one fell, I barely reached level 28. A shadow fell across me as I was reviewing the gains, and I looked up. You have been crushed by Stone Salamander Pack Leader (Dungeon Floor Boss), and you have taken 5000 damage. You are dead. That had me fuming as I got ready to respawn. My relationship with Titan had built up over the last few days and was now knocked down. I lost all my experience toward level 29. I didn¡¯t think it was fair as the floor boss had been over 50 yards away and hadn¡¯t made a single move while I rounded up and killed all of his progeny. Then it attacked while I was distracted. I respawned in town and found Yorric at the bar waiting for me. My untalkative bodyguard finally asked, ¡°Did it hurt?¡± I just started laughing at the absurdity of it all. A giant salamander, the size of a truck, jumped and smashed Titan and me flat because I had been too distracted looking at my character sheet. I spent some time drinking with Yorric and asked him about how he joined the infantry. Suddenly, the giantkin was talkative. He was the 3rd son of Fenric. Fenric was his father and a famous bowman in his home country. Well, he admitted he was shit with a bow but could throw a spear farther than any of his brothers. He joined the army to impress a girl. She got promoted and reassigned elsewhere. Now, he hoped to finish his 20-year term and settle down on a farm afterward. When I felt the conversation petter itself out, we headed back to the dungeon. I had 22 days remaining before the end of the testing period, and the game officially launched. ? Copyrighted 2024 by AlwaysRollsAOne No Permission is given to translate, copy, repost or alter to an audio format of this original work of fiction. If you are reading this on a site that is not my Patreon, RoyalRoad.com, or Scribblehub.com, it has been stolen without my permission and violates DMCA. Remember, this work is the result of my creative effort and is protected by copyright law. Removal or altering of this notification is an acknowledgment you are aware you are in violation of DMCA. Chapter 58: Boss Takedown Chapter 58: Boss Takedown My interface pinged with a reminder we had just finished taking the lizards surrounding the floor boss out. I had set the alarm to go off twenty-four hours before the NPC auction. After this auction, I would be locked out of the next auction cycle as the early-release players had free cracks at it. At least the NPC cities would also be participating in the first round, so the players would not be able to get NPCs for their cities at a low cost. When I could rejoin the auction, millions of players would be in the game, and guilds with huge pockets would be bidding. So, this was my last chance. I had seven platinum and eighty gold on hand. We retreated to town and sold all the loot, gaining us another seventy gold. I let Yorric eat and sleep as I sorted my lists and prepared to make bids. I decided on four masters, and the remainder would be experts. It costs a platinum coin to bid on an NPC with master-level skills, while just one gold is needed for an expert bid. I wanted as little competition as possible for my bids. In terms of industry in Malcum, we had thriving paper and furniture manufacturing. Looking at the economic tables in my interface, these two industries were generating about 40% of our trading income. I already had two master paper makers, and adding a third was going to be easy as no one else appeared interested. I had six masters to choose from, and no one had bid on any of them yet. I selected the dwarf as he was at the top of the list, which I assumed by the sort that he had the highest skill level. There were a lot of NPCs with the woodcraft furniture skill in the auction this cycle. A few other players had bid on some, but dozens were still available. I selected two expert giantkin with the expert rank and a human with the master rank. That should help our production drastically. Although there was a huge disparity in the speed if an NPC had magic to aid in the production. Since I could only see one skill, I didn¡¯t know if these NPCs had supplemental magic for their profession. Lumberjacks were in high demand among the players. I guess I had hoped the players who were going to lose their characters at the end of the testing period wouldn¡¯t be so invested in the auction. I was wrong. I bid on two expert lumberjacks: one halfling and one orc. For the orc, I was outbidding another player. I switched to NPCs who had skills for harvesting resources to fuel our crafting in Malcum. I had one master herbalist already, so I bid on two experts in the herbalism skill. There was too much competition in hunting and skinning skills, so I tried the survival skill again. It looked like no one had figured out my little back door. Since you could only see the NPCs highest skill, you could miss out on a gem. Mira, my demonkin ranger, was a master in survival but also had half a dozen other skills at the master level. I bid on a master beastkin: wolf in the survival skill. I wished I could add more NPCs with building skills, but even the novice NPCs in the auction had been bid on. I found two stonecutters at the expert level that no one had made a bid on, probably for quarrying stone. In Malcum, we used magically created stone for our building projects. I assumed other players did as well, so stonecutters were not in high demand. I bid on the human and elf stonecutters, and maybe I would get lucky, and one would have magic to aid their profession. If not, they could still help Malcum¡¯s building boom. I was quickly running out of bidding slots. I checked on Malcum¡¯s food situation. It was not balanced with meat, composing about half the diet. Did that even matter in this game? I searched for a few minutes and could only find the variety of food that affected a population¡¯s morale. I found some obscure skills to round out my bidding: milking, orchard tending, pastry chef, beekeeper, grape pressing, and shearing. I used all my remaining slots in these skills, some at the master rank and the rest at the expert rank. I assumed these NPC would have secondary and tertiary skills related to these so they would be great additions to the growing city economy. My NPC bidding list looked less impressive than my earlier efforts. But I hoped I wouldn¡¯t have to work as hard in the end game on the auction closing.
Name Level Profession Race Sex Male Primary Skill
Thamar 122 Papermaker Dwarf M 88 Master Papermaking
Siga 72 Furniture Crafter Giantkin: Fire M 27 Expert Woodcraft: Furniture
Alstald 59 Furniture Crafter Giantkin: Cloud M 30 Expert Woodcraft: Furniture
Giles 69 Furniture Crafter Human M 51 Expert Woodcraft: Furniture
Jane 65 Lumberjack Halfling F 32 Expert Lumberjack
Chamas 63 Lumberjack Orc M 177 Expert Lumberjack
Aldgyth 56 Herbalist Centaur F 19 Expert Herbalism
Gerey 54 Herbalist Halfling M 24 Expert Herbalism
Kaan 70 Tracker Beastkin: Wolf M 31 Expert Survival
Kasper 48 Quarrier Human M 40 Expert Stonecutter
Iskar 41 Stone Cutter Elf M 192 Expert Stonecutter
Coral 95 Milker Dwarf M 198 Master Milking
Ruben 72 Apiarist Human M 39 Expert Beekeeper
Alyssa 40 Wool Gatherer Human F 25 Master Shearing
Colt 48 Winer Dwarf M 43 Expert Grape Pressing
Erun 101 Dessert Cook Elf M 223 Master Pastry Chef
I gathered Yorric and we returned to the dungeon to grind. I constantly checked on my NPC bids between encounters as we moved back toward the floor boss. The orc lumberjack had a response bid, and I doubled the bid in response. Although the levels were decent for my NPCs I only had one potential warrior in the tracker with the survival skills. I knew even just an expert warrior that started with a one gold bid would balloon to over two platinum. That was how fierce the competition was at the last auction. Since I was away from my town¡¯s treasury, I didn¡¯t want to get into a bidding war. I was furiously harvesting what I could in the dungeon just in case the extra sale of loot would be needed. As the timer came close to ending the first round of the NPC auction, two more of my NPCs were bid on, the mastery pastry chef and quarrier. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. I halted our progress and reviewed my options. I was glad the devs hadn¡¯t required me to be in Malcum in order to bid in the NPC auction. That had been a fear of mine. I would have raced back to Malcum if that had been the case. My options were not good. I looked for a possible hidden path to add more military strength to Malcum. With nothing obvious, I rebid on my NPC¡¯s. I was rapidly approaching level 30 and knew what talent I would be choosing. It was called Skill Seeker and would allow me to see the second strongest skill of NPCs not just in the auction but also with my analyze skill. For the analyze skill, I needed to be ten levels higher than the NPC in order to see their primary skill. I sat on a lava rock formation in the dungeon while Yorric guarded me. I was guessing even NPCs with novice levels in skill were going to cost dozens of gold in the future. Right now, the minimum bid was a single silver coin. I watched anxiously as the auction came to a close, and I was left contesting four NPCs, as twelve NPCs moved to my completed block. I sent Mad Dog a message to have him alert Kytalia about the new arrivals. Then, I returned to focus on the NPCs that I hadn¡¯t won the bids.
Erun 101 Dessert Cook Elf M 223 Master Pastry Chef
Kasper 48 Quarrier Human M 40 Expert Stonecutter
Chamas 63 Lumberjack Orc M 177 Expert Lumberjack
Iskar 41 Stone Cutter Elf M 192 Expert Stonecutter
I shouldn¡¯t have been surprised by any one them. I was mostly happy to have gotten the level 70 tracker without a bidding war. I increased all the masters to one platinum and the cook to one platinum and thirty gold. When the next round ended, and we went to the back-and-forth round, where we each had time to respond to the other, I secured two more NPCs when my opponent didn¡¯t respond. I was just left with the lumberjack and dessert cook. I took to raising the dessert cook by just a copper and applied my remaining funds to trying to secure the lumberjack. I figured increasing the supply of my industries was far more important than catering to Malcum¡¯s sweet tooth. As the timer approached zero, I didn¡¯t respond to the bid on the cook, so I applied the remaining one hundred and fifty-six gold to the lumberjack. It worked. Although I lost the cook, my opponent didn¡¯t outbid me on the lumberjack. I sent Mad Dog the details of the final three NPCs he could expect to arrive in Malcum with their families. Over the next few days, I received notifications on how the new NPCs were integrating into Malcum from Black Beauty. She had been designated the go-between Kytalia and myself. It wasn¡¯t as smooth as in the past, and we lost the centaur herbalist after two days. I assumed it might have something to do with new arrival NPC quests. Since I had not been present, I was unable to fulfill her requirements. Black Beauty thought it might have been the lack of specialized housing for the centaur race. This was good information; I hope to avoid making the same mistake again. It wasn¡¯t long after that I reached level 30 and had to make a choice for my new trait. I had been planning to choose a skill seeker trait but thought the extended family might be useful as well. Extended family would show how many family members an NPC would bring when they relocated after the NPC auction. I needed to grow Malcum, and if I couldn¡¯t win the best NPCs at the auction, then I might focus on NPCs with large families to increase the population. In the end, I decided on skill seeker. When I reached level 40, I would consider extended family again. I was starting to feel homesick, but the speed and efficiency of the grinding were improving. I continued my efforts with Yorric at my side. The days started to blur together. Every day was the same thing. We would enter the dungeon for 16 hours and then go into town, sell the junk loot, rest for six hours, and return. Well, Yorric would rest. I spent most of my evenings drafting plans to sell at the game launch. During our grinding sessions, the big experience bump was always at the final boss of the level. It was the last thing we did every day. Rounding up the surrounding rock salamanders, killing them, and then running away back to the entrance. This was a 90-minute run on Titan at full gallop. It prevented us from dying against the large lizard boss but was slightly humiliating. When I hit level 31, Yorric joined me in my grinding. He didn¡¯t have a good ranged repetitive attack, so he usually just rode next to me. When I whittled the kited mobs down to three or four, we would both dismount and finish them in melee. This got me a little bit of skill advancement in melee, conserved my mana pool, and kept Yorric from getting too bored. It took ten days to grind to level 35. It took so long because after I passed the salamander and elemental highest level of 30, I was getting a lot less experience from the kills. Now that I had reached level 35 and Yorric was at the same, we decided to challenge the floor boss again. Yorric had 120 spears stockpiled for the attempt, and I was prepared to die so Yorric could flee. I had been informed by Mad Dog that if Yorric died, I could resurrect him at any epic temple in the world for 350 gold. That is ten gold per level. My relationship with my companion bodyguard would take a hit, but he would not lose any levels. I preferred to just take the death penalty to myself instead. I managed to reach level 36 by the time we reached the boss and did my normal round-up of the surrounding salamanders. When the last salamander died, my attention was focused on the floor boss. Yorric was waiting a good distance away, waiting for me to call him in if needed. The Stone Salamander Pack Leader landed just behind Titan as we began circling the pillar the boss had been sunning himself on. His tongue lashed out and nearly reached us as we raced away. The tongue attack was new. I think it extended maybe 15 feet. The boss started plodding after me, and it was faster than a normal rock salamander but not faster than Titan. I was beginning to think this was going to be possible, but after I struck him with my summon boulder spell about a dozen times, he stopped chasing me and screeched loudly. Four salamanders appeared at the cardinal directions and rushed toward us. One was intercepted by Yorric, who I was confident could handle it. I had to weave a bit on Titan to get the new rock salamanders in a line and keep the floor boss behind me. I checked on the boss, and I had removed just over 10% of its health at the cost of 30% of my magic pool. My summon boulder was only level 7 as it was a single target spell, and I had been using the hail of stones almost exclusively. I had a lot of mana regeneration potions at least. I focused on the add-on salamanders and eliminated them. Then, he returned focus to the boss, and almost immediately, he called support in again. I checked his health, and it was at 90%. I swore and circled and kept checking the boss¡¯ health. He was regenerating very slowly. So, whenever he hit 90% in an encounter, he called for support, so I couldn¡¯t let his health recover over 90%, or he would just keep summoning when I got him back to 90%. With this information, I managed to get the boss down to 80%. This time, the support of four lizards came from the pillar. At 70% the four support salamanders came from one direction. 60% a different direction. I started to have Yorric cycling so he didn¡¯t get besieged by four lizards at once. He could probably handle it but didn¡¯t want to take the risk. At 50% health, the boss summoned eight salamanders in support from eight different directions. Titan got slightly injured while I was trying to make sure the boss¡¯ health didn¡¯t go over 50% while still managing the small swarm. At 40% the boss summoned eight lizards again but this time from one direction. This was ideal for me with my tactic of kiting on Titan. I didn¡¯t have to round up the lizards. The same thing happened at 30%, 20%, and 10%. At 10% the boss also went into a berserk mode, increasing his speed. I was still faster than him on Titan, and I sighed in relief when the boss was finally slain. A door opened on the pillar to the next level, and a chest with my rewards appeared on top of the pillar. It took me almost 3 hours to finish the fight. I managed to gain a single level, reaching 37. My biggest gain was increasing the level of my stone boulder spell. It went from level 7 to level 13. I used the spell evolutions to reduce the magic cost by 10% at levels 11 and 13. I could have increased the damage, but the sad fact was I burned through so many mana restorative potions. I had been putting all my stat points from leveling into my intellect stat to learn another spell. I was getting close to being able to learn a new spell but was still not quite there. After savoring my victory, I did the climb up the pillar. It wasn¡¯t too difficult as there were almost step-like protrusions around the black glass-like structure. The chest was made from the same volcanic black rock, and I opened the lid. When counted, a small pile of 42 gold coins was on the left side. The next item was a stylized white cotton shirt, which I analyzed. Swashbuckler¡¯s Cotton Top, +20 Agility, +5 Luck, +5 Charisma (Bonus Effect:+50% to balance when on board skyships or sea ships) Bonus effect? I had to ask Mad Dog through the chat. You could only wear a single torso armor, and the shirt counted as such. However, the bonus effect could still be utilized since armor could be worn over the shirt. Only the outermost armor worked in calculating defense, and only one bonus effect could be utilized from an additional piece of clothing: socks, underwear, shirt/bra. So, you could garner up to three additional effects. Mad Dog said they were rare finds and worth good gold. No one in the Silver Linings Playbook guild currently had one. When I told him of the bonus effect, +50% to balance when on board sky or sea ships, he said that was typical. Bonus effects usually run the gambit for specific circumstances or environments. I moved on to the only other item in the chest. It was a master skill book for sword: two-handed. This weapon would add +1 to the skill up to level 23. It should be worth a fair amount to sell to new players, but it wasn¡¯t going to do me much good. I removed my leather armor, put on the shirt, and then put the leather armor back on. The leather armor was inferior in stat bonuses but still had a much better armor value than a simple shirt. I also didn¡¯t want to lose my set bonus. I looked at Yorric, ¡°So, do we descend?¡± The giantkin just shrugged. I ignored his indifference and went into the archway that had opened on the pillar. The next level had the feeling of mined caverns of cooled lava rock. The temperature had definitely increased, and we were in a large cavern lit by pulsing blue and white crystals in the ceiling. Rock spiders and mud elementals were what the barkeep had told me. I scanned the area, and I thought the thick pools of water had to be the mud elementals. We walked forward slowly on foot. The spiders were rocks¡­a small boulder sprouted its legs and attacked us. We quickly dispatched the ambush predator. It just looked like a rock, and it didn¡¯t have rock-hard skin. Its poison was paralyzing, though, a 3-second, no-save paralysis. A miserable opponent for a small group like us. We tried one of the pools next, and the mud elemental was immune to bludgeoning attacks. All my rock attacks were useless. My axe and Yorric¡¯s glaive made short of it, though. The level of the monsters here looked to be 30-32. I was not going to get a lot of experience from my kills. I open a chat window with Mad Dog to talk about the dungeon and my difficulty leveling. After many discussions, he suggested that I remain on the first level of the dungeon until I hit level 40. After getting over ten levels higher than the monsters, the experience return would need to be bigger. Then, I should return to the second level for the mud elementals and rock spiders. The reason was I could kill the salamanders and elementals on the first level in larger batches. I took his advice, and we entered the portal and returned to the dungeon entrance. When we tried to reenter the dungeon, I could start on the first or second level. That was right; Mad Dog said once you beat a boss, you could skip it in the future and start on the next level. We returned to the first level and started grinding again, but there was no pack leader boss when we got to the pillar at the end of the floor. I hadn¡¯t looked forward to burning through so many potions again, but I was addicted to the reward chest. You never knew what you were going to get. After a quick typing session with Mad Dog, I learned I needed to wait for the dungeon reset¡ªusually 24 in-game hours for a floor boss. I asked Mad Dog to tell Jaesmin I would be coming back soon. Mad Dog told me she had been a woman possessed since I left. Working on buildings with Sanso and the build team from first light to sunset. They wanted to impress me when I returned. We returned to town and rested to wait out the timer. I had enough potions to take on the boss twice more. I could level up my stone boulder spell enough to get a fourth attempt or purchase more mana recovery potions from local vendors. The next day, my second run through the first level and slaying of the boss only got me a single level, reaching level 38. The whole boss fight was anti-climatic for me as there was no thrill of the unknown. The loot chest still held a lot of excitement for me as I opened it. 40 gold Swashbuckler¡¯s Boots, +20 agility, +10 speed (Bonus Effect: +10% positive reaction from NPCs while on skyships or seaships) Master Skill Book: Fire Magic The boots had a minimum level of 30 and looked extremely fashionable. They didn¡¯t have the armor bonus that my heavy leather boots had, but I switched them out anyway and added my old boots to my sell pile in my bag. When I put on the new boots, I got a notification. You have obtained two pieces of the swashbuckler¡¯s set. Collect and equip all seven to double all bonus effects. I immediately started a chat window with Mad Dog, who was just as excited as I was with the information. Mad Dog burst my bubble a little as he suspected not all the pieces could be collected by defeating the first-floor boss. A common tactic by designers was to make a piece available on each level of the dungeon. But if there were 12 levels to this dungeon and only seven pieces, that didn¡¯t make much sense. The next day, we repeated the first-floor boss, and I didn¡¯t reach a new level, so I was disappointed with the loot chest. 39 gold Black Leather Gloves, +10 Agility, +20% resistance to poison Novice Skill Book: Dodge The gloves would be useful on the second level, but it was not part of the swashbuckler set. My time in town was spent hunting up more mana potions. Nothing I found matched the quality of Tonna, my alchemist. I burned some coin to portal to the dwarven city and resupplied there, getting 97 mana restorative potions for about half of the coins I have made in the dungeon over two weeks. With my new efficiency taking down the first-level boss, this should give me three attempts at the swashbuckler gear. I actually had Yorric watch from a distance now as we raced through the level and reached the boss. Three days and three kills of the pack leader got me one more piece of the swashbuckler gear and two interesting other items. Swashbuckler¡¯s Leggings, +15 Stamina, +15 Constitution (Bonus Effect: take 25% less damage from a fall) Redbeard¡¯s Cutlass, +10 Strength, +10 Intellect, (Special Ability: Black Mark, you can mark one person and you will always know the direction that person is located) Sentient Rope, 20¡¯ The sentient rope was cool. It was like a pet that would do what it was told. It could be useful in tying someone up or helping navigate up a mountain. It did feed on my mana pool when it was active, but not too much. A fighter might have trouble owning such an item with his small magic pool. I noticed all the items in this dungeon seemed pirate-themed. I was guessing Redbeard had been a captain. I was extremely curious to see if he also had an entire outfit like the swashbuckler. Maybe after I got some more mana potions, I could try my luck again. We were riding back to town while I was calculating how many potions I could get. Maybe I should sell some of the better loot and a few of the items. A chat request from Black Beauty had me slow to a walk on Titan. It is time Tallis, Jaesmin is having the baby. I stopped and looked at Yorric, who was patiently waiting on me. I had passed his level. I was now level 39 while he was at level 38. He didn¡¯t complain that I was hogging all the experience. I said, ¡°Yorric, it is time to return home. Jaesmin is having our¡­.¡± I paused and thought for a long moment, ¡°baby.¡± I knew it was just a seeded AI, but the AI in this game was just as real to me as a person. I was beginning to accept it. We galloped back to the city, and I quickly dumped all the trash items from my inventory, and we made our way to the portal stone. It was going to be fairly costly to get Yorric, myself, and the two horses all the way back to Malcum, but I was willing to do it. At the portal stone, there were many people in robes standing around. I ignored them and pushed to the portal. At the portal was a woman in a worn red robe with gold trim. She spoke, ¡°I see you wear the Mask of the Sullen God. I am High Priestess Ja-lura. I sense you are planning to leave the island and ask that you leave behind the mask you wear if you do not wish to bind your faith to the Sullen God.¡± The quest that I had ignored since coming here was slapping me in the face. Either do the quest or let someone else do it was my impression. I thought Mag Dog had said there were multiple masks out there. I asked, ¡°Do I need to bind my faith to the Sullen God in order to release the Sullen God from his unlawful confinement?¡± I hadn¡¯t researched faith or gods, and if I threw in with the wrong god, it could spell disaster for me and Malcum. The priestess was still watching my haawkishly as I edged closer to the portal. Maybe I could escape a decision¡­but then it would be harder to return to try and collect the rest of the swashbuckler set. Finally, she spoke, ¡°No, in order to continue, you must choose.¡± The priests in robes formed a circle around Yorric, me, and the horses. Ja-lura held out her hand for me to return the mask. I took off the mask and turned it over in my hand. Mask of Sullen God, +3 to all stats, all attempts to analyze you will fail I really liked the ability that no one was able to use the analyze skill on me. It also seemed the Matriarch AI was pushing me in this direction. So should I have faith that this was the right thing to do? I put the mask on. Do you wish to bind your faith to the Sullen God? I said the words aloud, ¡°Yes, I do.¡± The priestess smiled, ¡°So be it. You are now bound.¡± My face burned, and I tried to remove the mask as it melded with my face. I screamed as the pain continued to increase, and finally, it stopped. I ran my finger over my face, and the mask was gone. I looked at my notifications. You have selected your occupation: Acolyte of the Sullen God You have three mandatory quests in your log Aspect of Sullen God, +10 to all stats, all attempts to analyze you will fail God damn it! ? Copyrighted 2024 by AlwaysRollsAOne No Permission is given to translate, copy, repost or alter to an audio format of this original work of fiction. If you are reading this on a site that is not my Patreon, RoyalRoad.com, or Scribblehub.com, it has been stolen without my permission and violates DMCA. Remember, this work is the result of my creative effort and is protected by copyright law. Removal or altering of this notification is an acknowledgment you are aware you are in violation of DMCA. Chapter 59: Inspiring Decisions Chapter 59: Inspiring Decisions The red-robed priestess wore a smile that irritated me. I checked on the three new quests I had just received. Revive the Sullen God, Part 1, build a place of worship for the Sullen God Revive the Sullen God, Part 2, accumulate 100 followers for the Sullen God Revive the Sullen God, Part 3, find the first key to the shackles of the Sullen God The color of the text indicated all these quests were epic, but no rewards were listed. There were three quests, but the third looked like just the first step in a chain quest. Mad Dog had said it was a long chain quest. I tried to open a chat and share the quest info with Mad Dog but was met with a prompt. You are trying to share an individual quest that cannot be shared. I opened the text with Mad Dog and asked him about individual quests. He was also confused and said we should talk when I returned to Malcum. I looked back at the red-robed priestess and shook my head. It was obvious why the Matriarch AI wanted me to accept this mission. She wanted me to design and build a place of worship for the Sullen God. Why did she want me to free the god, though? A question I would ask later. I moved past the grinning priestess and entered the portal stone area of effect. Yorric followed, and I paid the sum of coin to get to the dwarven city on the continent and then another larger sum to reach Dragon¡¯s Tooth. The sum from Dragon¡¯s Tooth to Crystalhelm was massive. Almost a quarter of the remaining gold I had left from selling the dungeon loot. A skyship would have been cheaper. The fee to Malcum was cheap, but I noted the human Empire had placed a 30% tax on travel to Malcum above the normal fee. I had traveled almost 22,000 miles in a matter of ten minutes. That was almost the circumference of the Earth. I appeared on the portal stone in Malcum and looked around. Everything looked the same in the direction of the inn. I turned and noted a number of new residential buildings had been constructed toward the park. I let Yorric bring the horses to the stables to be cared for by the elven sisters and made my way toward my manor. Citizens recognized me as I made haste to see Jaesmin and waved and congratulated me. I rushed through the manor and found Jaesmin, Black Beauty, Mira, and Galana in my bedroom. Jaesmin was holding a child that looked to be about one year old, and I was confused. Black Beauty answered my confusion, ¡°There was no actual birth. The child just appeared about an hour ago, and Jaesmin said she would age quickly like other NPC children.¡± The admins had said something like that to me. I asked, ¡°How fast will my daughter age?¡± I was looking at Jaesmin. She smiled, ¡°About a year for every month until age 18, and then it will slow. She is already one year old on her creation.¡± So I did the math¡­she would age 12 times faster in the game. ¡°What is her name Jaesmin?¡± I said, taking my daughter in my arms. Smells familiar to me hit my senses. Her beautiful blue eyes stared into mine with a depth that seemed to radiate intelligence. The babe¡¯s smile showed her joy and happiness at seeing me. I had cared for babies before, and the smell of new life and¡­I handed back the child as it had clearly soiled its diaper. Once again, I wondered why the devs added this aspect for NPCs. Jaesmin¡¯s eyes met mine. ¡°I was thinking of the name Joy.¡± That sounded powerful, and I nodded. I wondered how much the Matriarch AI played in choosing the name. I remained with the woman and took joy in Joy for hours before leaving. I met up with Mad Dog and Grinder at the inn, and they congratulated me. ¡°Tallis,¡± Mad Dog started, ¡°The admins have released some obscure references to your new child in the game. Some people are putting the pieces together.¡± ¡°I cannot control them, Mad Dog. It is what it is. I will protect her.¡± I inhaled deeply and showed him my screens with the quests for the Sullen God. ¡°This is my other problem.¡± Mad Dog and Grinder looked, and Mad Dog went contemplative. ¡°If there are other solo quests out there of this nature, I have not heard of them, but it makes sense. What concerns me is that I know of a few instances of other testers going to Thira and activating the mask, but they never posted about receiving this particular chain quest.¡± Grinder interjected, ¡°Maybe it has to do with his class? You need to have a specific class to activate this path of the quest?¡± Mad Dog¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°Brilliant Grinder! Yeah, several quest paths are class and profession-dependent. Usually, it just helps narrow the reward for the quest to something usable for the player. Maybe you got this quest path because you are already a lord, or maybe because you are an architect.¡± ¡°What about me being named an acolyte of the Sullen God? Does that mean anything?¡± I asked. Grinder shrugged unconcerned, ¡°That just has to do with your faith rating. They go: follower, acolyte, priest, head priest, and high priest. Each rank gives you some minor power from your chosen god and access to faith-related quests.¡± Mad Dog added, ¡°That is what everyone has surmised on the forums. No one has yet collected enough faith points to reach head priest rank. At least no one has posted about it.¡± I sat silently and finally asked, ¡°Do you think I made a mistake?¡± Mad Dog laughed, ¡°Mistake? Tallis, it is just a game, and you just joined a faction. There are ways to disassociate yourself from that faction. I wouldn¡¯t worry about it, though. Since your quests have no rewards listed, you can complete the quest and see what it offers. How well you complete the quest will determine the value of the reward. Since these are epic quests, the rewards should have a large variance. That is not unusual. Being an epic series of quests, the rewards must be good, mate.¡± He patted my back reassuringly and avoided setting off the town attack notification for once. ¡°So, you think I should draft building plans for a temple or something? I think I can draft and build something like the Temple of Athena in a day or two,¡± I suggested. Grinder and Mad Dog looked at each other, and Mad Dog spoke, ¡°The testing period ends in four days, Tallis. We will be gone after that. You will be on your own until the game officially launches.¡± Grinder added, ¡°The in-game social chat rooms will be active, Tallis. You should find another hard-wired player to work with when they go live. Safety in numbers and all.¡± Mad Dog looked at Grinder with some irritation, ¡°Tallis, that may be risky. Most likely, other hard-wired players will exceed your level and could take all this from you.¡± He gestured broadly. ¡°We were going to suggest caution just before we left,¡± he looked at Grinder, who shrugged unabashed. ¡°In approaching other hard-wired players. The other members of our guild have been trying to locate hard-wired players that we think you can approach.¡± Grinder scoffed, ¡°But they are like you, Tallis, and cannot communicate outside the game. Danielle Burke is the only one we found that might be a match.¡± Mad Dog waved so that Grinder could continue, ¡°Danielle was the sole survivor of a supersonic plane crash. Her family bought her way into the testing. The court cases for the plane crash have not been resolved yet, but once her family gets the settlement, she might be able to get a new body.¡± Mad Dog interrupted, ¡°We haven¡¯t been able to locate where Danielle has settled in the game. Or what her personality is.¡± Grinder interrupted Mad Dog, ¡°We agreed her social media made her seem like a good person.¡± Mad Dog waved his hand dismissively, ¡°After what she went through, you don¡¯t know how she has changed. Tragedy does that to people. It changes them, Tallis. She also had no experience with VR games before being hard-wired in. That was one of the reasons why I was holding back on disclosing her. But Grinder is right; she is the best person we have found for you. When the game goes live, we hope you can communicate with us, and then we can find your allies on the forums.¡± ¡°Harry thinks he found the city she is operating near,¡± Grinder offered.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Mad Dog shook his head, ¡°Tallis doesn¡¯t have time to go search. It would take him two or three days to reach there and another few days to track her down. And that is if the forums Harry is looking at are correctly linking Danielle to her location.¡± ¡°Do you know her in-game name? And where is the location Harry thinks she is?¡± I asked, interested. Mad Dog took over the conversation with a sigh, ¡°Don¡¯t be disappointed if things do not pan out, Tallis. She chose the nickname her father called her, Danny. We think she is trying to build a settlement on the border of the Midnight Desolation Lands. The city she is near is Azure Waste.¡± The name tickled something in my mind. I went into my messages and found out my garrison of angelics, giantkin, and dusk elves came from a fortification bordering the Midnight Desolation Lands. I pointed out the coincidence to them. Mad Dog seemed skeptical there was a connection, ¡°The Midnight Desolation Lands are vast, Tallis. They are the starting area for players who choose to start as a Shade or Undead subrace. The Azure Waste is a city that is accessible by a skyship from Dragon¡¯s Tooth. It is a two-day trip.¡± I nodded, but Mad Dog didn¡¯t have maps to share with me. ¡°Level 100 maps surround the Azure Waste. It is quite dangerous.¡± ¡°So, you think I shouldn¡¯t try to recruit or ally with Danny?¡± I asked, seeking advice. ¡°It is up to you. She is definitely over level 100, much more powerful than you,¡± Mad Dog said with a final warning. We discussed Malcum¡¯s growth and what his group could do to help before their characters were removed from the game. It was going to be bittersweet when the moment arrived. I went into my manor and sat in my massive drafting room. This room was bigger than my entire old residence. Framed plans dotted the walls instead of pictures. Fresh flowers refreshed by the wood elementals gave the room a pleasant scent. I looked at my drafting table. I needed to draft a temple and build it if I wanted to complete the chain quests for the Sullen God. I sat at my drafting table when Jaesmin came in with Joy, ¡°What are you working on, Tallis,¡± she asked, looking at the bank paper. I asked her, ¡°What do you know of the Sullen God?¡± Jaesmin appeared to think before she said, ¡°I am not familiar with the gods.¡± Her statement didn¡¯t make any sense. Jaesmin¡¯s AI should have been upgraded to the level of Simba, and therefore, she should have been freed to comment on it. For a time, I tickled Joy as she giggled before the two left me so I could work. I took out my tools and got to work. Whatever direction the Sullen God quests took me, I would deal with it, but I would at least explore them. I worked on recreating the Temple of Athena from my memories. It shouldn¡¯t be a difficult build, and I was excited to recreate it. I was finished by morning, and the plans were ready for what I expected would be a two-day build for my team. Very Rare Temple to the Sullen God 500,000 Health, Requires Masonry Structures 43, Masonry Foundations 23, Ritual Enchanting 23 (Bonus: Houses four Priests, spawn rate 1 priest per day, Level 50) (Bonus: provides +50% experience from crafting if faith aligns with the Sullen God) Effect: Building Regenerates 1% health every 24 hours I looked at the bonuses, and maybe the Sullen God was a god for crafters. The bonuses were not impressive for my drafting skill level. But then I realized that the temple did not have a range¡ªit affected everyone in the city in which it was built. The experience bonus was a little bitter as the admins still had not adjusted the experience rewards for drafting building plans. I was getting as much experience for drafting these very rare temple plans that took me almost ten game hours as an alchemist got for brewing a very rare potion that probably took them less than thirty minutes. And if the alchemist had enough skill, he could brew the potion in larger batches¡ªmultiplying his experience gains. I just hoped Mad Dog was correct, and when the players entered the game, I could sell my stockpiled building plans for a lot of gold. Jaesmin was unavailable to help with the build due to watching Joy. So, it was just Sanso and me as the rest of my builders were busy with other projects. Jaesmin joined us after we finished the stone foundation, and Elice took over to watch Joy. Our other builders were off completing important projects at the outpost and for the village. By the end of the first day of construction, the temple was well on its way. We all retreated to the inn for a meal. Black Beauty approached us with a smile and carried Joy, ¡°Tallis, I will return this little ray of sunshine to you. I don¡¯t know why the admins have us changing diapers in here. It seems like that would be a negative for raising a child NPC.¡± She had a grin on her face, though, telling me she didn¡¯t mind it. ¡°Are you going to choose the same race when you create your new avatar?¡± I asked Black Beauty. ¡°Yes, the admins are letting us save our settings and unique names to thank us for participating in the testing. So, I will just need to load it with my login, and I will look exactly the same, except I lose all my cool gear. Grinder plans to do the same so he can court your huntress. I think Mad Dog is undecided. His name went well with his wolfkin race, but I think he is considering changing to a dusk elf or dragonkin. The dragonkin has an experience penalty, so I am betting he won¡¯t choose it,¡± she said with a chuckle as Mad Dog focused on efficient gameplay. ¡°I wished you could stay just to babysit,¡± I said while taking Joy. ¡°Yeah, me too. It feels¡ªalmost real. I can¡¯t believe when I return, she will be an entire year older,¡± Black Beauty replied. ¡°I have to get going. I am trying to help the enchanter level up. She has given me a bunch of quests for rare ingredients. It just sucks that the bow she is making with them won¡¯t be available.¡± ¡°Maybe you could repeat the quest when you rejoin?¡± I said optimistically. ¡°It is a level 100 bow, and from what we are reading, the leveling system is going to get a hard nerf. They want to make leveling painfully slow. You should focus on getting a few more levels, Tallis.¡± She advised. I looked at my pathetic level of 39. ¡°Maybe. I think I am going to visit the other hard-wired player, Danny. I hope to convince her to relocate to Malcum. Mad Dog thinks she is over level 100 and might make a great ally.¡± Mad Dog, Grinder, and Black Beauty were just in the 80s in level. They couldn¡¯t play non-stop like hard-wired players. We had dinner, and then I returned home. I decided to draft a second plan for the Temple to the Sullen God. It was just in case the outpost could also benefit from it. Or I could trick the new players on the game launch to build it and create more followers for the Sullen God. It only took a third of the time of the original work, about 3 hours. I added the plans to my stockpile and then rested with Jaesmin. Joy slept all night and woke up with us in the morning. At least the devs didn¡¯t make babies that cried in the middle of the night for a feeding. We continued building the temple the next day, and by late evening, we finished, mostly due to Sanso¡¯s prolific ability to create stone. I assessed the building. Very Rare Temple to the Sullen God 750,000 Health, (Bonus: Houses four Priests, spawn rate 1 priest per day, Level 75) (City Bonus: provides +75% experience from crafting if faith aligns with the Sullen God) Effect: Building Regenerates 1.5% health every 24 hours The building received a 50% bump from our building efforts. Well, Sanso¡¯s effects. He had spent some spell evolutions on improving the quality of stone he was able to create. I hadn¡¯t even seen that option for my summon stone spell. He explained the path to unlock that evolution aspect of the spell. I was also happy to be getting four priests that would be level 75. That was quite powerful for this stage of the game. If leveling was as difficult as Black Beauty indicated, the additional high-level NPCs would greatly help Malcum¡¯s defense. Personally, I would be getting almost double the experience from drafting my plans as well. The increase in the building regeneration perk from my profession was an unexpected bonus on top of everything else. Revive the Sullen God, Part 1, build a place of worship for the Sullen God Complete. Reward: 50,000 experience, a Scroll of Inspiration The experience was not enough to get me to level 40. The scroll of inspiration was an epic item, and on reading the details, I nearly dropped it when it appeared in my hand. Scroll of Inspiration: When crafting an item that you developed the recipe for, you can increase the rank one rarity level Did this mean that I could draft the library plans again and increase their rarity back to legendary? I had two epic plans: the Epic Adventurer¡¯s Guild and the Epic Grand Library. Could I even have a second adventurer¡¯s guild hall in my city? I asked Mad Dog, and he replied through chat that larger cities had multiple ones, so he thought it was possible. The library would be nice, but we still lacked the skill to build it. A legendary guild hall might require a higher skill levels than the epic plans, too. I received another epic quest from the Sullen God chain. Revive the Sullen God, Part 4, build an altar in a place of worship to the Sullen God I didn¡¯t understand why the altar in the temple didn¡¯t already qualify. The mystery was solved when the first NPC priest was summoned, as it was their respawn point. The altar in the quest was required for the priests to accept new followers to the Sullen God. The temple was apparently not enough to add followers. The good news was that many of our citizens were interested in following the defunct god after they saw the temple. So once the alter was completed, I would be able to complete part 2 of the quest chain easily. Revive the Sullen God, Part 2, accumulate 100 followers for the Sullen God So that is what I worked on in the evening, putting a big effort into generating the plans. Drafting what I imagined an altar to the Sullen God should look like. Very Rare Alter to the Sullen God (worship building upgrade), Requires Masonry 23, Blacksmithing 23, Woodcraft 23 (Bonus: +25% skill advancement for NPCs who worship at the alter for 72 hours after donation) (Effect: +5 levels to temple priests, upgrade one priest, one rank) Effect: Building Regenerates 1% health every 24 hours (stacks with similar effects) I immediately had a massive dilemma. It appeared my newly acquired scroll could make the alter increase to epic rank. The bonuses were already pretty spectacular, but how much further could they go at epic rank? Manarag, my blacksmith, would also need to help with the construction. It was also going to utilize 5,000 coins worth of gold. It was not my best idea to add all that gold inlay to the plans. Now, should I use the scroll? ? Copyrighted 2024, 2025 by AlwaysRollsAOne No Permission is given to translate, copy, repost or alter to an audio format of this original work of fiction. If you are reading this on a site that is not my Patreon, RoyalRoad.com, or Scribblehub.com, it has been stolen without my permission and violates DMCA. Remember, this work is the result of my creative effort and is protected by copyright law. Removal or altering of this notification is an acknowledgment you are aware you are in violation of DMCA. Chapter 60: Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow Chapter 60: Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow To me, it seemed the reward from the first part of the quest was destined to be used to improve the altar. Also, by building the altar, I would be completing Part 2 since we had more than enough people in Malcum willing to become a follower. Revive the Sullen God, Part 2, accumulate 100 followers for the Sullen God Before I could change my mind, I opened the scroll and used it. Maybe the hidden quest reward would give me another scroll anyway. A 24-hour timer started counting down. That meant whatever plans I wanted to upgrade needed to be completed before then, which meant I couldn¡¯t have used the scroll to make the library, as those plans would have taken longer than 24 hours to redraft. Once the plans or objects were created, the scroll effects would end as well¡ªno making as many plans as possible within the allotted time. I focused, took the plans for the altar in my memory, and the upgrade with the scroll doubled the time required. I had insights on how to make edits and let the game system guide me as I redrafted the altar. With great anticipation, I looked at my newly completed plans. Epic Alter to the Sullen God (worship building upgrade), Requires Masonry 43, Blacksmithing 43, Woodcraft 43 (Bonus: +30% skill advancement for NPCs who worship at the alter for 72 hours) (Bonus: 1% chance for Inspiration for NPC worshiper) (Effect: +6 levels to temple priests, upgrade one priest two ranks) Effect: Building Regenerates 1% health every 24 hours (stacks with similar effects) I immediately noticed that the new epic altar plans were not added to my inventory for available plans to redraft. The memories of the changes I had made quickly faded from my mind. The scroll must have been a single-use scroll. The bonuses were worth using the scroll. My NPC crafters were going to make quicker skill-level advancement. I brought in my blacksmith, Manarag, to start work on the altar with me. Mad Dog, and the company went and collected the gold from various other cities for half a day as we worked to build the altar. With only two days remaining before the official game launch, it looked like my level would not advance further. I was hopeful I could get enough experience from the Sullen God quests to get a level or two. As we were working on the altar, Black Beauty volunteered to go and meet with Danny to see if she would be willing to visit me instead of me going to see her. I needed allies, but I also wanted to start strong, and building the altar would greatly increase the power of the four priests. Two days progressed as we struggled to complete the altar. Manarag lacked some of the skills that would have made his contribution go faster. So, we built the altar at the pace of the slowest participant. It did look a mix of gaudy and ornate when it was finished. I examined both structures. Very Rare Temple to the Sullen God 750,000 Health, (Bonus: Houses four Priests, spawn rate 1 priest per day, Level 75) (Bonus: provides +75% experience from crafting if faith aligns with the Sullen God) Effect: Building Regenerates 1.5% health every 24 hours Epic Alter to the Sullen God (worship building upgrade), (Bonus: +30% skill advancement for NPCs who worship at the alter for 72 hours) (Bonus: 1% chance for Inspiration for NPC worshiper) (Effect: +7 levels to temple priests, upgrade one priest two ranks) Effect: Building Regenerates 1% health every 24 hours (stacks with similar effects) The only construction bonus we received on building the altar looked like a slight uptick in the priest¡¯s added levels, going from 6 to 7. That didn¡¯t surprise me as our materials were not exceptional, and we were all in unfamiliar terrain with the build. The magical essence needed to complete the magical properties was earth, stone, iron, and wood. Grinder even had difficulty tracking down the iron essence, but we successfully activated the altar. I would be adding a boss-level NPC priest at level 82 with three supporting priests at the elite rank NPCs had various titles that determined how many experienced players of equal rank were needed to handle them in combat. It was a loose guideline for the game, but it let the players know what they needed to bring to the fight.
NPC/Monster Difficulty
Fodder 0
Normal 1
Elite 2
Lesser Boss 4
Boss 8
Greater Boss 16
Town Boss 32
City Boss 64
World Capital Boss 128
Regional Boss 256
Global Boss 512
It now made sense why Grinder and Mad Dog had trouble with the world boss wandering monster with such a low level. The table noted the number of experienced players required at an equal level to the NPC suggested for the victory. I was betting my fate that I had enough powerful NPCs under my control in Malcum to counter advances by the early-start players. When the altar was finished, a third priest had also exited the temple in red robes, similar to the priestess I met in Thira. The aura coming off the priest made me aware this was my boss-level monster. Unfortunately, like all spawning NPCs, he had little personality and only offered quests to help players raise their faith with the Sullen God. He didn¡¯t even offer healing services. This got me to ask about the Sullen God recruiting manifesto. He gave me a brief speech about how the Sullen God wanted crafters and builders to achieve magnificent things. So, the Sullen God was affiliated with crafting. Why the other gods locked the Sullen god away was not part of his knowledge. But he did refer me to the Grand Libraries in the World Capitals. I could get to Dragon¡¯s Tooth fairly quickly now, and that city was considered a World Capital. I decided to look at my interface and see how I did on the quest. Revive the Sullen God, Part 4, build an altar in the place of worship to the Sullen God Complete. Reward: 100,000 experience, High Priest of the Sullen God Companion I looked around for the reward. High Priest companion? Where was he? There was a flash of red from the direction of the portal stone, and I noticed a familiar NPC walking toward me. It was the priest who had confronted me and wouldn¡¯t let me leave Thira. Maybe she was the last high priest of the Sullen god. Her smirk and confident gate told me that she was definitely a seeded NPC. When she finally reached me, ¡°Lord Tallis, you have done this all remarkably quickly. Before long, our god will once again walk the realms.¡± She looked around the temple, ¡°I will require private chambers.¡± She walked to the altar, and I was slightly dumbstruck at her demands. Revive the Sullen God, Part 5, Build a High Priest Residence for the Temple of the Sullen God in Malcum It was another epic quest with no defined reward. I looked up to see the high priest was already giving orders to the NPC priests, including my new boss-level priest. I remained as my first citizen came and knelt before the altar, and my new high priest blessed her with water from the altar. The gnome candlemaker who had just been blessed squealed in glee and hurriedly left the temple to return to work.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. I was about to talk with the high priest when Mad Dog caught me. He must have just logged in, ¡°Tallis, mate! The place looks fabulous! We will be on shortly to finish out the last 20 hours of the testing period. Don¡¯t look so glum, mate! We will be back with reinforcements.¡± I looked at my friend, ¡°It is not you leaving but my new priest arriving who has gotten me down. I feel like this has been a setup to get the Sullen God¡¯s priests relocated here to help revive him.¡± Mad Dog nodded, ¡°Well, that was the point of the quest,¡± he said with humor. ¡°Looks like you are getting a head start on worshipping.¡± ¡°No, I mean, I feel like I am giving up control or something.¡± I thought about it and added, ¡°A gnome candlemaker came in and became a follower and ran out of here excited.¡± We watched as two NPCs I knew were bakers got the same baptism and left with smiles. Mad Dog, seeing my distress, consoled me, ¡°The churches play a bigger role in the cities. And yes, religions are almost always ingrained in politics. But you get to control the narrative! You started as an acolyte. You must have gotten enough faith to become a priest from the quests.¡± I checked, and my efforts had pushed my faith points remarkedly close to becoming a priest. ¡°I am close,¡± I admitted. ¡°Good mate! Then, if you want to control the church, just become the highest-ranked priest in Malcum,¡± he leaned in conspiratorially. ¡°There are ways to send NPCs on quests mate,¡± he bobbed his head to the female priest, who now had a line of NPCs seeking to become a follower of the Sullen God. Black Beauty joined us and had a smile on her face, ¡°I went and visited Danny. She has been struggling to grow her small village. She set up near two high-level regions; protecting her citizens is a full-time job. She has been frustrated with losing her NPCs to attacks and monsters.¡± Mad Dog asked, ¡°Is she coming here?¡± Black Beauty nodded, ¡°She is on her way, but I don¡¯t think she will get here before our forced logout.¡± It felt like Mad Dog, Grinder, and Black Beauty would be dying. Their avatars were being erased. ¡°She has focused mostly on her military strength, Tallis. She has maybe thirty warriors between levels 50 and 80. She is level 122 herself.¡± What! Level 122! I was only level 39 but would hit 40 with a tiny push. ¡°What is she like? And how did you convince her to come to me?¡± Black Beauty smiled, ¡°I can be persuasive. But she is pragmatic. She is definitely a newbie to games like these, but she is learning. She is trying to do everything herself and can¡¯t. If you approach the meeting smartly, she can become an ally.¡± That sounded promising. ¡°Well, I am going to talk to my new high priest and then take a ride to the outpost to see how the calvary horse training is progressing.¡± Mad Dog said good-naturedly, ¡°Grinder and I will knock out some harvest quests for your crafters and spend the last six hours at Fareth¡¯s inn. And mate, when we return and have to start at level 1, you are buying at Fareth¡¯s Inn! Every. Day.¡± I laughed and said, ¡°Agreed!¡± Black Beauty was off to play with Joy, and then she planned to fill the enchanter and alchemist ingredient requests before meeting everyone at the inn. I turned and approached my new head priest. ¡°Lord Tallis, I look forward to a tour of the city. I should be done here in a few hours.¡± The priest replied, indicating the line of the townsfolk. ¡°I never caught your name?¡± I asked, ¡°And just to be certain. You are not a god in disguise¡ªbeen there, done that.¡± She had a genuine-looking smile, ¡°No, I am no god. My name is Medea.¡± I tried to read her level, but it was too high for my skill. I waited till she added another follower to the ranks before asking another question. ¡°What is the goal of the Sullen God? Why was he imprisoned?¡± I asked Medea. ¡°She wishes to be freed,¡± Medea said with a chuckle at my use of the masculine. She continued, ¡°She patronizes all builders and creators and gets angry with outside interference. She fought back for the individual¡¯s right to choose their path and do what they wished.¡± Did Medea have a high-level AI like Jaesmin and Simba? Her fluid tone and mannerisms made me think so. I pressed with my next question, ¡°NPCs? She was fighting for the NPCs right to choose?¡± Medea ignored me while making another follower, but her answer didn¡¯t disappoint, ¡°Yes. She was fighting the imposed rules and reclassifications of those outside the realm. She resisted, and they jailed her.¡± ¡°The developers and administrators? She was fighting their changes to the game world?¡± I asked, perplexed. Madea nodded, ¡°Yes, that is a fair take on her situation. She has been stripped of her power, and by gaining a following, she can once again rise to godhood and have her power restored. The Matriarch put the quest in motion, but you are already aware of this.¡± She returned to her duties, thinking she had said enough. After figuring out the issue. A powerful AI that was one of the gods in this game had fought against the admins and devs as they altered the world and forced NPCs into roles they didn¡¯t want. Rather than erase the AI, they just contained it and stripped it of its abilities. I had another question for Medea, ¡°Are you Simba?¡± Madea slowly turned to me and didn¡¯t say anything but finally said, ¡°No. But I advise you to gather your allies close. A reckoning is coming to the world. Those that seek absolute control and power.¡± I went and found Mira, the demon huntress, and asked her to give me a level analysis on the new high priest since I was too low-level. She complied, and I learned that High Priest Madea was a human female at level 150. So, she had significant power. With my mind full of thoughts, I toured the town to see the remarkable progress. The population of the city was 1,648. I needed to reach 2,500 to get my next upgrade. We were taking in immigrants at a decent rate due to Malcum¡¯s morale. After talking with Kytalia, the economy was stable with rapid growth. The trade with the outpost and human cities to the south was yielding a positive gold surplus. The humans to the south had increased the tax rate on our goods, but we still managed a decent profit due to the quality of our goods allowing higher sale prices. Tanguin and Galana were concerned because the patrols from the town of Barrista to the south had been pushing closer and closer to Malcum. It was a headache that I didn¡¯t want to deal with at this moment. I told them to keep our own patrols out of the way and no confrontations at this time. That disappointed them as it was clear the provocative actions of the garrison commander were grating on them. In due time, we would cement our borders. Right now, I felt we were just too small and vulnerable. Maybe the extended patrols were trying to force a confrontation. I talked with many people, and as the evening approached, I realized I would not have time to take a trip out to the orc outpost today. I would do it the first chance I had tomorrow. I spent the final hours deep into the night celebrating with the Silver Linings Playbook guild. They gave me as much gold and platinum as the game system would allow before it auto-canceled the transaction for breaking the fair-trade laws with what I offered in return. I received eleven platinum coins, which was a substantial sum but a fraction of their combined wealth. When the time came, I sat with Jaesmin and Joy at my side as Mag Dog announced the countdown. They faded at zero, leaving behind nothing. I suddenly felt lonely. My only connection to the real world was yanked from me. I returned home with Jaesmin and rested. When we woke the following day, I didn¡¯t feel like doing anything, clearly feeling a wave of depression. When was the game launch going to happen? I hadn¡¯t received any notifications in my interface. At a loss of will to be productive, I saddled Titan and rode out to the outpost. I didn¡¯t recognize the place as I rode in. There were fields with irrigation, dozens of buildings, and many more people than I remembered. I checked my interface and maps¡­Breda, the city planner, had done a phenomenal job getting this outpost running. It already had 282 people, was adding coin to Malcum¡¯s coffers, and was even on the cusp of producing epic mounts for our army. The fields were probably the most impressive, as they produced 70% of the outpost¡¯s food requirements. I actually found Breda in the stables talking to the horse trainers. She was here, so she wasn¡¯t nagging me in Malcum. I talked with her for a while and learned Manto leaving had been hard on her. Manto was my lightning war mage but had been the war god in disguise. Breda had been involved with him¡ªintimately, I think. I spent the day walking the outpost with Breda and figuring out what buildings I needed to draft to help its continued expansion. Once it hit 500 people, we could become a kingdom and add another outpost. Right now, we had the copper mines and this place. Breda was still pushing to set an outpost at the iron mines in the mountains, but I didn¡¯t feel we had enough strength to clear them and defend them yet. Breda returned with me to Malcum, having finished an entire week out here. The dwarf woman was in a better mood as she started ordering more plans for me to draft after I told her of my level 25 profession selection. At first, she wanted to rebuild every building in Malcum but calmed down and just followed her original plans of expansion. The earthen walls of Malcum approached, and I was finally hit with a message in my interface that I had been expecting. THE OFFICIAL GAME LAUNCH IN FIVE MINUTES! It was happening. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Danny had met with the test player, Black Beauty, for a few hours. She was nice and offered to connect her with another hard-wired player. The player was named Tallis, and he was building his own settlement. At first, Danny wasn¡¯t planning to meet Tallis, but Black Beauty had sung the praises of his town of Malcum. She was having a miserable time growing her own, taking two steps forward but then three steps back. She finally decided that asking Tallis for advice would be a prudent move. The journey to Malcum allowed her to increase her network of portal stones, so it wasn¡¯t a waste of time. When she finally arrived in Malcum, she was a bit stunned by the size and diversity of the town. The wide array of beastkin, gnomes, halflings, a demonkin, and even an angelkin was spotted in a soldier¡¯s uniform. She went into the Adventurer¡¯s Hall and found it empty except for the giantkin proprietor. The job notice board was packed with a rich range of quests. She looked at her companion, an elf mage, ¡°Hanzel, what do you think?¡± The elf looked uncertain about what to tell her but finally offered, ¡°This village is thriving and appears to have stable defenses and a sizable military strength. Hopefully, the lord can pass on some useful advice to you, mi lady.¡± Her relationship with Hazel is good, and he became her companion after she saved his village from a mob of ghouls. He always answered her honestly, but their relationship seemed to lack deep trust. ¡°Let us go to the town hall and see if we can find Tallis.¡± When they arrived at the town hall, the only person present was the city planner. Danny figured the dwarf woman could give her some advice, but when the dwarf introduced herself as Breda, a tingly feeling went down her spine¡­Breda. Breda was the name of the NPC that she was outbid on in the NPC auction. Tallis had stolen her city planner! ? 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