The next morning after she had finished the chores, she dived right back into the game. She had the bow stance to practise which she did, until her arms were too weak to pull the bow anymore. Then she went down the path to the tree lot to water and see to all the young trees, which were growing at a rate that was just unbelievable for any place other then a virtual world.
After that was the harvesting of the wheat crops, then the planting of half the oats she had waiting. Natalie made sure to weed and water the Blueguards, they would need another day. Threshing the wheat from the stalks was fun at first but her already tired arms were soon labouring under work. She had a bit of fun trying to make a real haystack out of the stalks, but soon gave up and just placed them all into the storage shed, it had more then enough room for it.
She was standing outside the shed still when she heard her name being called, it sounded like Brack. She walked out to the entrance and sure enough Brack was waiting by her sleep shack with Minstrel.
"Hi guy's," she called. "What are you two doing here? I thought you would be in your pods with your tutors?"
"We have an hour before that starts so we thought we would get that quest going, the one with the Tier 1 animal husbandry scroll in it." Minstrel answered. "You said you didn't need it for that quest anymore so we came to get the wheat you said you had been growing for the quest, where do you keep it?"
Natalie's mind was a blank as she struggled to process what Minstrel had just said. She looked at Brack but he was just standing there looking around and waiting as if what they were asking was just an everyday event. No big deal, why shouldn't they come get the wheat she had brought and grown?
"No," Natalie said flatly. "If you two only came into this Village to be my brothers so you could milk me of all the work I have done to play around in the game? Then no this isn't just a game for me!"
They were both staring at her in astonishment by the time she had finished her rant. She was breathing hard and shaking, she could hear Sam's voice as he quietly supported her, letting her know he was there as well. The cat was out of the bag now she knew. They would tell her parents about this, she started to internally curse her lose tongue.
"Just go." she said tiredly. " I have a lot to do, and I can't afford to slack off, if you remember your schooling you will also remember what I have to face, just to get normal rights when I turn 18."
She looked at her brothers they were standing there still, but now they wore concerned looks on their faces. They turned and left, she didn't know if she was grateful they hadn't said anything or perturbed because they left so silently.
"Sam what have I done?" She moaned. "I shouldn't have said anything, I could have just gone and brought more seed wheat."
"No Natalie, do not regret your outburst,"Sam said. "What they have been doing is wrong and by the shame on their faces, I would say you had what they intended to do, exactly right."
"They are my brothers Sam," she said despondently.
"Yes and as your Older brothers, who do indeed know what you face," Sam replied. "This was a cold and calculating little ruse they had planned. Maybe they didn't realise just how much this game means to you or how much you need what it offers, but they certainly do now. You will not have to worry about your parents knowing this, they wouldn't dare tell them."
"I hope so Sam," she said. "I really do hope so."
Natalie sat for a long time on her little cot in the shack, trying to bring her racing mind back to a semblance of calm. Sam was right she finally admitted to herself, that had needed to be done. She had seen the signs of it when she had been telling them what she did to advance in the game before they joined, she just didn't want to face it.
Natalie pulled the last scroll out of her inventory, maybe she should activate this, it was the last one here at this Village. Also checking out what it would change in her sanctuary, might be just the diversion she needed right now.
"What do you think Sam ?" She asked. "Activate this now? Or wait for a bit longer until I have harvested all crops?"
"This is the last week Natalie," Sam replied. "You will have to use it soon anyway if you wish to keep it when the game officially starts next week. Or had you forgotten that they will be wiping the servers? Only soulbound items such as that will be transferred to the open servers."
"Oh I had forgotten about that is it coming up that quickly already?" She asked surprised. "Oh no... that means Molly and all the others will be reset, I gave Molly a Chance Berry, she had two seeds from it, will she lose those after reset? Sam they won't know who I am."
"No they won't," Sam said quietly. "But at least you will have the Sanctuary and Chance Berries, as for Molly it would seem she will be reset and from what I understand of those berries you have, you might have just lost the only chance you had to give seeds of them to anyone else. The developers are allowing all Beta testers to keep soulbound items and your berries are soulbound."
"I'm not sure if I can sell the seeds," Natalie said. "I will have to ask Molly about that, from what she said when I gave her the berries, it seems like that isn't allowed with those."
"Will I be able to keep this avatar?" Natalie asked. "Maybe a change might be a good idea if they are resetting that as well."
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
"The information has already been released, all levels on your avatar will be reset, and yes you can chose a different one if you desire to," Sam replied. "But this avatar will be there in case you just want to continue."
"The Sanctuaries levels in the copper ranks, will that be reset as well?" Natalie asked. "Am I just wasting my time with it?"
"I will check that for you, they have an article about Sanctuary's and Groves." Said Sam.
Natalie waited, feeling a bit nervous, having the Sanctuary at a rank 5 Copper Tier 1 would be a huge advantage in the main game. If it was reset back to basic, well at least she would have all of them, and clear knowledge of how to raise the Tiers and ranks of them.
"It's ok Natalie, so long as you do activate it today, if you haven't done it by this Thursday then you will have lost that scroll." Sam said. "This Thursday is the cutoff day for all soulbound items any done after that will not be processed forward into the release of the main game. You have two days left."
Natalie looked at the scroll she was holding, then decided she would activate it, she unrolled it until she could see the power word then placed it on the ground. Natalie closed her eyes and spoke the word, she waited for a few minutes, then opened her eyes to a system message.
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Congratulations
You have obtained a Soulbound Sanctuary
Animal Husbandry
Tier 1
5/15 Copper
Due to the base Farming Sanctuary being of a lower Tier it has been merged into the Animal Husbandry Sanctuary Tier 1 Rank 5 Copper
Due to the fact the Farming Sanctuary has already merged with at least four other Sanctuaries of a similar level it still remains as the Base Sanctuary but has absorbed the rankings of Animal Husbandry and has gained the Tier level 1 Copper
Farming Sanctuary
Tier 1
2/20 Farming
5/15 Copper
To raise the Rankings of your Farming Sanctuary you may use five farming levels to raise the ranking one level higher, this resets your farming down by five levels
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Congratulations
For having gained all Sanctuaries in the Beginner Village Wooddale during the Beta your Farming Sanctuary Tier 1 Copper is now account bound this Item will transfer over to the main game once released all levels, rare materials, plants, and achievements will remain with the account bound Item and will themselves become account bound.
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Natalie stared, all the plants as well? What did that mean? She looked around at her vastly different Sanctuary, it was now Huge! Each of the farming plots were more like fields and she had gained six more of them. Her storage shed was now very large and standing near it was an equally large Barn with animal pens around it.
The sleeping shack had become a small two roomed cottage, the little rickety tool shed was now larger and well made. The alchemy shed was now bigger with a fenced in area with five original sized garden plots around it, each containing one of the plants she had been growing.
Natalie could see the Chance Berries but the plot they were in was full, she had only been growing 7 plants. The other small plots had Sundaisys, Healberries, Blueguards and Yellowdells.
The 10 fields stretched out to the left of the Sanctuary, two of them had crops growing, one of wheat and the other of oats. Both looked ready for harvest, Natalie wondered how she was supposed to harvest all that by herself?
She walked over to the field and reached out to touch some of the heavy wheat stalks near her and promptly received a notification.
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Your Wheat field is ready for harvest. Do you wish to harvest this field
Yes / No
Once harvested your wheat will be placed into the storage barn.
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Natalie selected yes, instantly with a golden flash the field was bare, she was delighted automatic harvesting! Did it also automatically plow and reseed? Natalie was a little disappointed that when she went onto the field, she received no notification about plowing or reseeding it.
In fact close to the Barn she could see an old fashion plow that could be pulled by horses, at least it was one of the more advanced types with multiple plow tines and a place for her to sit while driving the horses pulling the plow.
Natalie then walked over to the field of oats and harvested it as well, no need to chance either crops failing, when she was right here, at least harvesting was going to be simple.
Thinking about the harvesting, Natalie decided to harvest the small plots around the Alchemy shed. As she walk in though the gate to the small plots she received another message.
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Seed Garden
From each of these garden plots you will receive 100 seeds once at each harvest, every two days. The plants in these plots can not die or be replaced. You can not sell any of the seeds you receive from this plot and they must be planted within a day of receiving them or they will lose potency and die. You may sell any of the seeds that result from planting them into other areas, but seed drops from replanted seeds will be based on the rarity of the plant it came from. This plot will not give any usable plants, it is for seeds only.
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Natalie was reading this, her eyes getting bigger 100 seeds? That was more then she received from the crops before, it also didn't clear up her questions, since the Chance Berry's were in that section, was it implying she could sell the seeds if she got some from planting them in one of the fields?
Natalie didn't harvest them, if she only had a day to plant them, she would wait, none of the fields were ready for crops just yet and with the wipe coming there was no point right now.
"Sam do I have enough time left to walk to the Village?" asked Natalie. "I want to talk to Molly about those berries."
"Yes Natalie you have time, you still have two hours before dinner," Sam replied. "You really must try to remember to logout at lunchtime Natalie, it is not good to miss a meal at your age."
"I missed lunch?" Natalie was surprised. "What happened to the day?"
"You were thinking so hard earlier, after your brothers visit." Sam said. "You needed the time to calm down, then when you did start to move again you just didn't stop, lunchtime came and went while you were upgrading the Sanctuary."
"Upgrading the Sanctuary only took a few minutes," Natalie said confused. "And it hasn't been quite an hour since I did that."
"Natalie you were in the centre of a golden glow that slowly expanded out to encompass the entire Sanctuary, this process took 4 hours," Sam told her. " I could not see you or interact with you the entire time."
"4 hours!" Gasped Natalie. "Sam for me it was only a few seconds. That must be the soul binding and account binding, I just hadn't realised it would happen like that."
"Yes that does make sense," Sam said. " They would have to bind it to your account both server side and account side, paint the code it is saved with so it's easily recognised and won't be wiped when the servers go down at the closing of the Beta."