I took a few moments to relax and refocused on the new trait. Elemental seeds wasn't really a good descriptor and I had no idea what it could do. I kind of wanted to meditate on the trait to see what it was and move the pattern into my core, but I simply didn't have time. I also had an awful feeling at the bottom of my stomach that something else was going to happen. I guess at least I will have an interesting birthday.

One thing that was good about this new trait is that I have an easy solution to get my mind skill to level 35. Getting past 34 has been really difficult and I’ve been feeling the same thing with some of my other abilities and skills. I think I’ve been having an easy time levelling everything thanks to my knowledge, but it seems the easy days are soon over.

I think I can get past those hurdles, but I need to focus on specific skills more. But I’m currently being stretched thin as I have so many things I need to concentrate on. Hopefully, this situation won’t last for long, and I can get back to doing what I like the most.

That being said I have been enjoying everything I’ve been doing it's just too much too fast and on top of that I’ve been not getting any skills related to my tasks. I know it’s because getting rulership and social skills is the hardest thing to do but it still sucks. Apparently, even kings that have ruled for 30 years might not get their rulership skills past basic.

When I heard that story, I thought it must be a lie but now that I see how my skills have been slowing down I can kind of understand it. Still, that king must have been quite stupid or just didn't want to learn how to rule.

I shook my head to clear it as I’ve distracted myself long enough. I started to run again towards the village. My desire to find out what my new trait did burn in me, but I knew it wasn’t something urgent.

When I got close to the village and noticed how the guards readied themselves. "Son of a bitch." I instantly knew that there was news and it seemed to be quite important. What is wrong with today? It started so well, and the horses were quite beautiful to see and then it just started to go downhill so fast. Was it because I forgot that it was my birthday? Is that my punishment? I slowed down and walk towards the gate knowing something was going to be laid upon my shoulders.

“Sir, a letter arrived from the Thorn Rose Company. It requires your immediate attention. Written on it was urgent and it was addressed to you specifically.” said the young man who I remembered wanting to become an expert wielder of the mace. An odd choice amongst others who mostly favoured the sword.

“Thank you, Guard Phillip, I’m going to my office to read the letter now, but I need to speak with George so send him up there as soon as someone can get the word to him, and the situation is quite urgent so make it fast.” I gave him a nod and quickly moved towards my office.

David was waiting outside my office with my letter. He didn't say a word just handed it to me and quickly left. Apparently, he didn't want anything to do with it and I could understand as he was quite busy.

Our merit system plan was not working out how we planned. It was a good idea to make some trial runs without informing the others as it turns out we had a lot of bug fixes and balancing issues to fix. Some people were getting too many merit points for too little given to the community and we also had problems the other way around.

But we were slowly working through the problems. Sometimes I still thought that perhaps just going with coins was a better idea, but I did want the benefits of the merit system.

The biggest problem that we found was that we didn't want the points to just come out of nowhere and not have any tangible substance. If the points didn’t have any physical equivalents inflation would be quite bad. But we were slowly getting to a point that we would be happy about.

I had to do things fast, so I didn’t waste any time and started to open the letter. I didn’t know what would await me but hopefully, it wouldn't be too bad.

To Rich Dirt

We have not met directly but my name is Tom Harbinder. I am one of the leaders of the Thorn Rose Company. I have been informed that you are a fighter that has good defensive capabilities but can also deliver damage. My Company has been offered an opportunity to dive into a Raid Dungeon. But this particular one requires skill sets that my company is currently short on, and you could fill that missing part.

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I know that this is short notice, but we would need you at the marked location that's added to the map that was included with this letter by the end of the week. I do not want to mark down our dealings as this letter might be intercepted but be assured that if you can perform the needed task the compensation would be quite immense.

If you do choose to join us and you can be fast enough to make it here, please break the small paper that has a cross pattern on it that way we will know that you will be coming.

Hope to see you face to face sincerely Tom Harbinder.

Well, that was interesting but what is a Raid Dungeon and why has nobody mentioned anything about them to me before? I heard a knock on my door. “Come in,” I said in quite a loud voice while getting up and preparing to go to my farm.

George peeked in with a questioning look in his eyes. “One of the cows is in labor so we should hurry and quickly get to the farm.” I could see his eyes going wide and we both started the jog downstairs and soon with our movement skills we were on our way.

The letter was tucked into my shirt, but I didn't know what to do about it. From face value, it seemed like quite a good offer but there might be quite a lot of politics behind that letter that might make this a bad choice no matter what I select.

For some reason, I didn’t think it was that deep and not meant to hurt me directly. But I couldn’t make my decision before I knew what a Raid Dungeon was. Perhaps a person besides me knows about them.

“Hey George, what do you know about Raid Dungeon?” I could see his concentration break a bit almost making him stumbled. He needed to work quite hard to keep up with my speed even though I had slowed down quite a lot.

“Well, I haven’t seen one but I have heard lots of rumours about them.” I indicated for him to continue, and he did, but it was quite hard to understand what he was saying because he needed to take a breath between every word. “Raid Dungeon are basically a more dangerous version of regular dungeons, but they are not bound to one location and when you have delved them enough, they will disappear moving to somewhere else.”

“If you don't clear the Raid Dungeon all the monsters break out and devastate the surrounding land. While dungeons are delved with teams of no more than 10 otherwise the dungeon might throw all its might against you Raid Dungeon can go up to 100 delvers before the same thing happens. I don’t know much more but I know that if you don’t go with the maximum number allowed then most likely everyone will die.”

I let him get his breathing back before I pushed the speed up again. That sounded kind of interesting and made me wonder about the dungeon systems of this world a bit more. There was a lot to learn, and it would be quite important for future development. Moving at my top speed I should not have any problem making it there I could even spend a few more days here but I still would want to think more about this.

Crossing into my own land always felt great and the surge of energy was quite nice. The wolves were keeping a good watch and our approach was quickly discovered. I was quite glad to see them again although I had last been here only yesterday. I wanted to go check on the berry bushes and trees that I had planted as they were my pet project this spring but there was no need as I always knew their status.

Getting here took longer than expected but we were only needed if something went wrong as the cows that I had had not been bred for so long that they couldn't give birth themselves. But I did help the mother with some energy that I gave to her while trying to soothe her.

She appreciated it and it gave her more energy to do what was needed. By the evening we had welcomed a new member to our farm a new female calf. She had a little bit of trouble getting up, but she still did it quite quickly meaning that she was quite healthy.

It was a beautiful sight if you are not troubled by blood and body parts. There were notifications waiting for me to look at, but I didn't want the distraction as the goblins were almost here. When I had walked to the river and washed myself up a bit I finally noticed that the feeling in my stomach had not disappeared after I read the letter. That was kind of weird and when I was almost across the bridge, I could hear an owl sound.

At first, I didn’t think it weird but then I heard it again closer, and I started to look into the skies. From the South, I could see a ghostly owl flying towards me. Instantly I began to prepare for battle but the next thing I noticed made me freeze and all my battle preparations slowly melted away. The owl was carrying a package. All I could do was breathe out slowly so I could control my anger. I just had to wish this wasn't bad news.

Perhaps the bird will just fly by me, and it was meant for the goblins but no. The owl started to slow down but instead of landing it bombed me with the package. When I caught it I could see the owl being blown away by the wind and it soon disappeared without a trace. The package itself was wrapped in brown paper and there was string holding it together. It was a small box and written on it was.

By The Court of The Young

To Rich Dirt

Another three slow breaths in and out. Who the hell is The Court of The Young? Why do they know me by name? And for earth's sake, why did they send me a package? Today just couldn't give me a break. If the Goblins brought some bad news like a new horde was coming to attack them I was going to murder something.