Chapter 21_Novice Gamer A Progression LitRpg

CHAPTER 21 DAY 19

Gina was gone when I woke at noon. A note in the kitchen said she had class and there was a chef’s salad in the fridge for me. I ate it and then had cereal as well. I fed Flicka, not sure if Gina fed her. Flicka was acting hungry anyway but the dog food was not what she was looking for.

Flicka followed me to the trailers. I planned to work three hours today. I worked slowly being lost in thought about what Daedalus would do tonight. I ordered two chicken parm subs to be delivered. My work on the trailers was sloppy and I was getting upset with myself. I decided to do the mindless work. I loaded the trailers with the finishing materials, wood flooring, wall siding and the lighting units. I left at 5:00, not quite working three hours.

Gina left a note saying she was at the restaurant. I remembered her saying she was still scheduled to work two days this week and four days next week. She had given her two week notice but the manager reduced her hours at her request. She was going to be around 2:00am when the clean up was done.

She had left me some sandwiches in the fridge and a container labeled ‘rabbit stew’. I had never tried rabbit stew so I heated it and ate it. Where did she buy rabbit? It was ok but I preferred beef. Flicka got half of the stew for dinner.

I went to the Cocoon and logged in.

The first thing I did was go collect my funds from the auction house. Fifteen gold, ninety-nine silver and sixty copper. A successful sale. My plan today was to take care of my stone magic problem. Because my earth skill was only at 3 I couldn’t raise my earth: stone above 6. I went to the earth master mage. I was shocked, the cost was up to nearly seven gold and that was with my half off! The game economics were acclimating to demand. Well I needed to make this investment. I bought two skill books for Magic Earth skill. I then purchased stone rain, which was an improved form of hail of stones.

I returned to the room. Gina’s avatar was on the bed. I used my magic pool to make +5 constitution ring and exchanged it for a strength ring. Then I put on my intelligent rings. I then read the two skill books and the hail of stones.

Earth Magic 4 +1 Channeling, +2% damage Earth Spells

Earth Magic 5 Tier 4 unlocked: +1 Channeling, +2% damage Earth Spells

Looking through my bag I pulled out the Summon Earth II and left it on the desk for Gina.

I put back on my magic rings. I left a note for Gina to contact me in game when she logged in and the spell was on the desk was hers. I transported to the island. I found Celina in her house. She let me know she was making 20-30 silver a day selling potions in Bluewater. She was using the funds to help prepare the village for defense against the goblins. I told her to continue the effort and she helped me find Kilinith.

“Good to see you Daedalus.” Kilininth greeted me. “Things are going well. The archers you had trained have turned back one goblin attack already.” What! The goblins attacked? Apparently a party of 12 goblins tried to make a sneak attack. The cat scouts spotted them and the archers took ambushed them, killing five goblins before the rest fled. Nice job.

I asked her what the name of the village was and I learned it did not have a name. They just called it home. “Ok, it is now Panthera.” She seemed to like the name and said ‘it was so’. Then she got serious.

“The clans have been discussing electing a leader. Normally this person must be member of a clan. But I put your name forward.” She waited for me to respond. I had to think this through. She interrupted my thoughts, “With your recues we have 197 cat people, 17 elves and 4 humans in our village. Everyone has agreed to let you lead us.” She paused. “Will you lead us?”

Was this because I had increased my charisma? I wasn’t sure what I would be getting into. It couldn’t be bad, but I was a little worried about being responsible for almost 200 lives. What the hell, why not? “Sure, I will do my best to protect the people of Panthera.”

You have named leader of a population, a new menu is now available.

10,000 experience for being named the leader of a settlement

100,000 experience for being named the leader of a village

Ding! You have gained one level. You have 5 stat points and 2 skill points to distribute.

Wow I was distracted. So much was happening. I saw Tara walking toward me from the shore line with Gwyn. I stumbled through a thank you and handed Kinilith the +5 strength ring from my bag. “Take this. I hope you will advise me with your wisdom and intellect.” She accepted the gift.

Your relationship with Kilinith has increased to Friend

Gwyn yelled to me, “What happened the village is now named on my map?”

I waved at her. “Yeah I named the village and the clans put me in charge. I have a new menu to work on. While I am doing that organize an assault of the goblin port. I will join you when you are ready.”

I sat down and opened my new menu. I tried to figure things out. Apparently 20 NPCs constituted a settlement. Two hundred made a village. The next step was town which required one thousand NPCs. Being the leader of a town would give me 250,000 experience. How did I recruit NPC’s. I found a recruitment menu. It took me twenty minutes to figure out how it worked.

It was a player auction, highest bid wins. The countdown timer showed a little over 30 hours. Currently no bids were shown. Did that mean I was the first player to control a population?

There were a few thousand NPCs but you could refine your search. Each one had the name of the NPC, race, number of dependents, temperament, and three highest skills. I had to go to the internet to look up the four temperaments, sanguine (optimistic and social), choleric (short-tempered or irritable), melancholic (analytical and quiet), and phlegmatic (relaxed and peaceful). From this I wanted to focus on sanguine NPCs for recruitment. I first sorted for race, beastmen with cat subspecies. Seven available NPCs. Only two had the sanguine temperament. The skills were not that strong but I tried to place a bid. I found the minimum bid was a silver. Both were also females. I needed male NPCs for the village as women outnumbered the men 3 to 1. One of the cats was a male with phlegmatic temperament had a strong magic skill. A placed a bid on him. I noticed a counter had dropped from 10 to 7 as I had made my selections. I must be limited to just 10 bids. It made me want to focus on skills and not try to satisfy racial structures. I resorted by primary skill. There were two with level 29 skills, one was masonry and the other was carpentry. I bid on both as Gwyn was motioning for me to join them on the beach. Everyone was here. I had five more bids. We needed soldiers. I decided to focus on sword skill. I selected the top five sword skills with sanguine temperaments not focusing on the rest of the skills. Good enough for today. I wondered if these NPC were birthed by this process or if they came from elsewhere in the realms?

Name

Race

Sex

Age

Family

Temperament

Primary Skill

Secondary Skill

Tertiary Skill

Prospa

Beast:Cat

Sanguine

Pottery 7

Cooking 4

Weaving 4

Tanguin

Beast:Cat

Sanguine

Farming 9

Animal Husbandry 6

Nature Magic 4

Manarag

Beast:Cat

Phlegmatic

Spirit 11

Spirit: Life 9

Nature Magic 5

Farerth

Human

Melancholic

Masonry 29

Lifting 4

Running 4

Valerie

Elf

180

Sanguine

Carpentry 29

Nature Magic 11

Nature: Plant 7

Gertrude

Dwarf

128

Sanguine

Blade: Medium 21

Shield 12

Heavy Armor 10

Jayn

Human

Sanguine

Blade: Medium 17

Shield 9

Heavy Armor 6

Lyons

Human

Sanguine

Blade: Two Handed 16

Heavy Armor 12

Neral

Halfling

Sanguine

Blade: Short 16

Stealth: Hide in Shadows 11

Stealth: Move Silently 11

Barret

Human

Sanguine

Blade: Medium 14

Shield 9

Heavy Armor 14

I did make an error I saw. One of the swordsman was apparently a thief. Oh well. I closed the menus and went with Gwyn. Harrash was waiting with everyone else on board his new ship. I noticed two other ships were being built, the same design as Harrash’s. “Harrash I see you are helping the cats.”

“Aye. They are good people.” He replied.

“You can return home to Bluewater Bay. We know the elf town has been destroyed and the person I seek is being held captive by the goblins.” I said while helping Harrash with the boat.

“Nah, I got me a new shack here. Maybe you could get me a translocation bracer so I can get my things in Bluewater. I’d pay ya of course.” Everyone just stared. I heard some whispers from my guild mates. Apparently NPCs were not allowed to buy certain items and Harrash was trying to circumnavigate the game by getting me to buy it for him.

“Sure no problem. I will do it next time I am there.” I ignored the looks of the players and got into our strategy. Without Cleina we had a team of 5 and 4. We would keep the same groups. Our goal was to free as many slaves as possible. I sat down and opened my stat page. I had 15 points from my leveling. I added 10 to magic and thought for a long while. Being in the control of the village I was going to have a lot of NPC interactions. I added 5 points to charisma. It was lazy but oh well. Then I had 6 skill points. I took a while trying to figure out the best combination. I finally decided.

Enchant 12 1 Channeling

Enchant 13 Tier 7 unlocked: +1 Channeling, can prep objects to receive tier 7 enchantment

Enchant: Imbue 11 Tier 6 unlocked: +1 Magic, Tier 6 imbue spells can now be learned

Enchant: Imbue 12 +1 Magic

Enchant: Imbue 13 Tier 7 unlocked: +1 Magic, Tier 7 imbue spells can now be learned

Earth Magic 6 +1 Channeling, +2% damage Earth Spells

I was happy with my choices. I was also really close to leveling my earth magic again. I cast summon earth over the waves and watched as a pile of dirt sank beneath the waves.

“If you are gonna waste magic then you use it to make me a ring or two.” Harrash muttered.

“Sure Harrash, what do you need?” I replied evenly.

He looked at me, thinking, “I could use a pair of strength rings.” Then everyone the ship erupted with requests.

I put up my hands, “Ok, how about this. I will make everyone a ring for this expedition. Just one though. I don’t want to burn through my magic potions.” I drank a fortify magic potion before starting on the ring orders. I finished a ring for everyone before land fall.

Earth Magic 7 Tier 5 unlocked: +2 Channeling, +2% damage Earth Spells

Earth Magic: Stone 7 Tier 5 unlocked: +2 Constitution, Tier 5 stone spells can now be learned

New title unlocked: Novice Earth Mage

Cool. I changed my characters title to novice earth mage. I had never selected novice enchanter, fearing people would harass me to enchant items for them. It seemed my guild had picked up that duty anyway.

We landed a little closer to the farms than in the past. The group was much more powerful than the last time I was here. We mauled two goblin scouting parties. The first farm fell quickly as well. The second farm was empty. The third farm had a dozen goblins and numerous slaves. Some were children. My new stone rain spell was dishing out massive damage. It was almost too easy. The fourth farm had another dozen goblins. We wiped them and moved on to the port. The slaves had all headed back to the ship to wait for us in stealth.

The goblin port was definitely less active than last time I was here. We were bleeding the goblins. Good news. After observing from a distance we determined that a larger building held the slaves. My group was to attack the other side of the port and draw the goblin forces away while Madre’s group would free the slaves and escape. I decided to use my water breathing spell on everyone. And we moved to the other side of the inlet. We surprised the goblins on the dock wreaking havoc. I targeted spellcasters when they revealed themselves and the fighters held off the soldiers. Tara acted in support. Soon everyone it was getting oppressive and we retreated into the water again.

We circled around and met up with the others. They had freed sixty seven people! Great. We moved back to our boat. I acted as a screen with Joker and Gaia in the back. We had some goblins in pursuit but after you killed one of two they held back waiting for support. It was a great raid. At the ship we had 83 people in total we had saved. The players each took back four people using the translocation bracelets. This left Harrash 55 for his boat. Too many. He was going to have to make two trips. He squeezed 35 people onto his boat and the other twenty were to head to the far side of the island and await pickup. We hoped the goblins would have given up by now. I decided to stay not transport my 4 and instead wait for Harrash to return. So I led 24 people through the woods.

I had about 4 hours to wait. Plenty of time to work on some things. I did not put on my intellect rings as I didn’t want to sacrifice my magic. Instead I just learned +6 magic, +6 constitution, and +6 intelligence. I was a little perturbed that I didn’t have +7 stat spells. I would half to get them on my next trip. I made seven emerald ying yang rings with +6 magic. Unfortunately after making them all I was down to my last magic potion and stopped there.

I went and scouted for the last 30 minutes and finally Harrash showed up. We loaded everyone on board and left. As we sailed away I had some people interested in returning to Bluewater Bay and I took four of them there.

I went to the auction house and place my old seven rings up for sale at 3 gold each. As I was searching what players had posted all my rings vanished and I collected the coin. There was nothing posted for a reasonable price so I closed my interface. I stopped by Grant’s stall, ad yes he had a stall to himself now. He had two young urchins close at hand and his stone wares were displayed. He smiled and we chatted a bit. He was becoming quite successful. He had four employees now and business was booming. I restocked my supply of stones from Grant.

It was getting dark in game. I went to the Union Hall and went to Katrina. I sat down for some late dinner with her and told her of our success against the goblin port town. Her friend was not in the group we rescued but I said we would question the prisoners and see if I could find out more information. After the meal of rabbit stew and cheese bread we got to business. The stew was good and I wondered if that is where Gina got the idea. I bought minor bind III, magic +7, constitution +7 and charisma +7. It was 2 gold for each spell. Things were getting expensive and I was glad I had the 50% discount!

I thanked Katrina for her time and the meal and went to my room. Gina’s avatar was still on the bed and had not logged in yet. I sat at the desk and pulled out my stones and gems. They mingled with Gina’s disarray but I am sure she wouldn’t mind. I took off my strength, constitution and charisma rings. I put on three of my +4 intellect rings. I then learned the four new spells. I had enough magic to make a single ring. I choose to use a tier 2 emerald and make a +7 magic ying-yang ring and bind it. I looked through my things looking for something to do while I waited for Gina. I had the flame dart spell. It was just a tier 1 spell and I had already upgraded it. I used the spell scroll, spending the 30 minutes to add it.

It was 2:47am in the real world. Maybe Gina had decided not to log in.

I was contemplating logging out and going to sleep when Gina stirred.

“Hey there!” she said as she sat up.

“Hi Gina. I was just getting ready to log out. I left an earth spell on the desk for you. I wanted to show you my new village though!” I relpied.

“Village?” she asked.

“Yeah, I have a small village, Panthera. It is small and underdeveloped but everyone is good people. Or NPCs. Ready to go?” I asked Gina.

“Sure!” Gina said, “But I only want to spend an hour as I need to get some sleep before class so lets make it quick.”

“Cool, I am tired as well.” I touched her and translocated to Panthera. It was early morning and the NPCs were just stirring. Gina was enthralled with everything. She ran down the beach and back. She started talking to people. I yelled to her to lock the village stone to a translocation stud. I left to go see Celina.

She was happy to me. She had some potions ready for me. As messy as Gina was, Celina was organized. She had potions stacked for sale and others for me. Her ingredients were all organized. Cases of empty vials were on a separate shelf. I chatted with Celina for a few minutes. She had to pick some things up in the village that people wanted her to sell. I walked over to ‘my’ potions that Gina created. She had 48 magic potions for me. I added them to my stock. She had an assortment of other potions for me as well. Fortify magic, fortify constitution, battle potions and fortify intellect. I put them all in the bag.

Before logging out I decided to update my rings, including my intellect rings. When I finally logged out I let Flicka out and went to bed. I woke alone.

Walking around the house Gina was not in the capsule and checking outside her car was gone. She must of already left for school. I checked my mail, nothing important. The fridge had no food other than an apology note from Gina. Guess lunch was a pint of Chunky Monkey B&J. I decided to take a run with Flicka.

We went on a hike/run around the property. I checked on the camp sites, barns and employees. Amanda was a little upset because she had seen Gina at my cabin. It was none of her business and I brushed it off. I looked over the trailers. The exteriors looked good, my work was inside was a little behind schedule. I spent an hour moving things into the trailer. I looked at the new trailer. I pulled out my phone. I ordered materials to build it.

I went back to my cabin and showered. I cut a steak and some veggies up and made fajitas. Flicka got more than her fair share. I ended up drinking two Guinness with the fajitas and it gave me buzz. I was a bit dehydrated or drank too quick. Either way I felt good getting into the Coccon.

I woke in Celina’s house. ‘My’ potion rack had a dozen magic potions on it. Celina was nowhere to be seen. It was night and I had two hours before our guild start time. That gave me enough time to head to Bluewater and put my old rings up for sale.

I decided to put my emerald ying yang +6 magic rings on the exchange. I had seven of them and after looking at prices of similar items put them up for $800 each. It was the top end price and I noticed other enchanters were starting to catch up with me. I went over to the auction house and put my four old intellect rings up for 75 silver each. I put the +5 charisma ring up for one gold. The +5 constitution ring was quite valuable. I put it up for two gold.

I purchased 5 cheap translocation bracers. I planned to give them to NPCs. I then went to go see Dolan. Even though I had some magic potions I figured I would pick up a few extra. The greater magic restoration were 11 silver each. Guess inflation hadn’t hit too hard yet. Dolan even said he would sell me 10 potions for one gold as a ‘good’ customer discount. The greater potion had a base magic restore pool of 2500. With Zolan’s skill the potions were over 2800. I bought 20 potions for 2 gold, as it was a good deal.

I had 30 minutes before my translocator cooled down. I went to Grant’s stall and chatted with him while I made some rings. I finished three rings and Grant was enthralled by the process. The third ring I made was a +7 strength ring. I had Grant put it on and bound it to him, a gift for his hard work. His eyes popped and he flexed his muscles. I teleported to Panthera leaving him there in wonder.

When I arrived in Panthera I sat down and made six more rings in the dark light by torches. The guild members started showing up. Celina came out of the woods with two young catmen. They had bundles of plants and mushrooms. Celina waved and went to her house. I made one more ring while everyone gathered around. I had a +7 magic ring for each of the mages and +7 constitution rings for the warriors. Celina joined the group and I gave her the last ring. As we were discussing our raid plans Gina showed up. Everyone looked a little uneasy until I introduced her to everyone. When Gina said she was staying at my cabin I saw the jealousy on Gwyn’s face.

We decided Gina would join Madre’s party for the raid. On the voyage over Madre would instruct her on tactics.

I remembered I had a translocation bracer for Harrash. I pulled it out of my bag and handed it to him, “as promised,” I said. He grunted a thanks and put it on.

The entire group looked pretty bad ass. I definitely would be afraid to run into them in a dark alley anyway. I spent my time enchanting a few blades with +25% damage. I then started to bind everyone’s magic gear. Everyone was appreciate and asked what they could do in return. I just said they could buy my some magic potions when they were in town. Celina looked hurt by the statement. She had been working very hard to keep me supplied. I smiled at her as I said, “Celina has been producing hundreds of potions for me but the demands of keeping you are equipped is draining even her efforts.” It seemed to have a little effect as she weakly smiled at me as a thank you.

I played with some of my other stones. I mixed and matched and enchanted some +2 constitution rings. I was looking for a ying-yang type discovery but I didn’t find anything and ended up with 10 rings.

We landed fairly close to the port city, near the first farm. Our fear of the goblins was very limited. There was no one at the first farm. The second and third farm were both empty as well. The fourth field had ten women harvesting and twenty goblins guarding them. The battle was messy as the goblins spotted us before we could prepare. Our healers functioned well. Gina was a little lost but did ok. Fortunately our healers were on the ball and after a slug fest we prevailed.

We moved to the port and the large goblin galleon was anchored in the center. The activity seemed to indicate they were evacuating the port town. We pulled put into a group and discussed the situation. Harrash estimated there were 250 goblins between the ship and town. Harrash wanted to take the galleon. Everyone else thought their numbers were too great. I came up with the plan of sneaking onto the deck and then holding the deck from the goblins below and the row boat evacuating the ship. We watched the deck for a while, about 30 goblins were always present. The anchor was on the stern and fortunately away from the activity. With everyone under water breathing spell we could get on the deck and deal with the goblins in waves. I divided up my magic potions among our mages. Everyone of the mages drank a fortify magic potion. I gave my 19 health potions to the warriors. We moved to the water and submerged as a group. We got to the anchor and climbed one by one. When we got six on deck the goblins noticed and it was on!

The six held our beachhead and eventually we had all 11 on deck. We formed our lines. The tank and warriors in front held the growing number of goblins. The mages charged AOE spells and did there damage. The healers in the back kept the warriors alive. It was now a war of attrition. The goblin bodies were piling up. Two goblin healers almost turned the tide before we could take them out. An important looking goblin, probably the captain, rushed past our warriors. He came right for me. I yelled to the guild to stay focused on the rushing goblins and backed up drawing the goblin captain with me away from the party.

I tried to cast spells but this bastard had too much health. I was going to lose at this close range engagement. I had been overconfident. I hoped the party could win this. Celina and Harrash would flee into water if it went south with others guarding their escape. I wished I had someway to stop all the hits I was getting, immobilize the bastard. Wait, I cast summon earth with all my remaining magic. The goblin was in mid swing when he was encased in earth. His hand holding a scimitar was all that protruded as it struggled. I smiled and drank a magic potion. I turned my attention back to the goblins. They were beginning to break now that their leader was down. Soon they were fighting to get off the ship. We were going to win!

We had killed more than half the goblins, mostly due to the fact the ship’s deck created a confined environment for our AOE spells. The battle was one. We had cleared the warriors and the only thing left was goblin cannon fodder and they were fleeing. We secured the large deck and the hatches. Then I sent our Gwyn, Carrie, Tara and Grey Eagle below to clear the lower decks while we guarded the open deck. It took a while but eventually we had the entire ship. There were 82 slaves on the ship. Mostly men. The captains quarters had maps of the seas and islands. My player map automatically updated. I now had all five goblin ports of call, well four as this one was finished. I left the women to divide up the booty, but I told them that the ship was going to captain Harrash.

I talked to the freed slaves letting them know that we were bringing them to Panthera. Thirty two of them were catmen anyway and were excited to return to their families. Twenty eight were elves and I told them there was an elven community of freed slaves as well. Everyone was welcome to stay. There were six beastmen bulls. They could be called minotaurs but the game didn’t designate them as such. They were huge and they all swore on their honor to guard and defend the Panthera with their lives to serve their blood debt for freeing them. The remaining 16 were all human. They were divided on where they wanted to go. Well they could decide when they got to Panthera. We saw some slaves wandering around on shore, confused. I sent a boat to pick them up. With the goblin leaders killed the slaves were free. We brought 42 slaves on board. I also sent Madre, Joker and Tara to sail Harrash’s small boat and the 10 women waiting there back to Panthera.

Harrash found a few sailors in the freed slaves and we got under way. He was hoping to make Panthera before dark but most likely it would take a little longer. I had Gray Eagle transport himself and four catmen back to Panthera so they would know we were coming on the galleon. We met up with the small boat out on the water. On the trip back I got my share of the treasure. 11 gold, 29 silver, large bag of various gems and two items. I checked the gems first, apparently I had gotten all the gems they had found so I could use them in enchanting. The two items were a nice looking sword and some sunglasses? Scimitar of strength, when wielded +10 strength, +250 health, damage 60. Glasses of night vision, provides vision equal to daylight in all conditions, can see through magical darkness, +5 intelligence. Both were excellent items. I attached my scimitar to my back with my long sword. I put the glasses on and I could not tell the difference even though they were shaded. They kind of looked like aviators. I cast bind on both items. The sword was a tier 10 and I was not able to bind it. The glasses were only tier 5 and I was able to.

I enjoyed the trip back to Pathera. I spent time talking to the prisoners trying to find out information about Katrina’s friend, Dyana. Most of the elves knew her but had not seen her since the attack. I did learn she was taken aboard the Blackflame, one of the three goblin galleons that wiped out the elf town. I went to check the goblin captain logs and found where the ship made port. I was getting close! It was an island about 70 miles north east. Now our next target.

It was dark when we dropped anchor off the shores of Panthera. A huge feast and celebration was already beginning. We got everyone to shore and joined them. Harrash was not happy about leaving the ship empty and undefended but oh well.

There were three huge bonfires, lots of dancing, lots of food, lots of reunions and lots of reunion sex. I joined everyone for an hour and talked with Kilinith. She was drunk and partying with everyone else. Celina was partying with a lithe panther male. Celina dragged over the panther, his name was Gravin, he was the master alchemist we had just rescued. I wandered away after a lot of thank yous. Gina was crazy dancing by a bonfire with two male elves. The rest of the guild was also enjoying themselves. I decided to log off.

It was 2:39am. I took care of Flicka and made some ground turkey and mac n cheese. I made a lot of food and gave Flicka a helping of cooked ground turkey. While cooking/eating I grabbed my laptop and read the game forums. I focused on the enchanting forums first. Scanning for a while it was clear no one was putting their secrets up just yet. Looking for players controlling NPC populations I didn’t find anything. There was the rumor that a player guild had started settlement. That got me worried, would this group come in at the last second and outbid me on the NPC auction? I decided right then I would be logged in and ready when the counter was finishing. The most popular forums revolved around players videos posted online. The discussion revolved around tactics, new locations, and items. Someone had claimed to have found an artifact that gave +50 to all stats. I checked the guilds, the most powerful guild was currently the Olympians, with 2,128 members. I then went to an economic wiki on the game. It listed the prices of items over time and projected values for the future. Basically a commodities report for investing. I was ok with math in high school. I looked to see what my +7 magic/+1 channeling rings could sell for. In game they were worth about 7 gold right now and it was forcasted they would be worth around 5 gold in sixty days. Comparatively the real world value was $500 and in sixty days that would drop to $100 it estimated. A blog explained the forecast by indicating those individuals with the money to spend on virtual items would dry up and/or advance in level to buy more powerful items. I had guessed this already but never really thought of the economics. There was a note in the blog that suggested the deflation would hold as the game was still adding players at an astonishing rate. It estimated 25 million people would be playing the game by the one year anniversary. There was some talk that there was research in downloading consciousness of people into the game but it was 3-5 years off. Another interesting blog had articles on people who had become obsessed and logged in to the game 16 hours a day, the limit a Cocoon would function in a 24 hour period. It was 5:31am when Gina came out of her Cocoon.

“You left early,” she said as she went to the fridge for some food. She started making a salad.

“Yeah, I wanted to think a little. It was a great party though.” I said. Gina was in a nightgown and her hard nipples made buttons on it. I was distracted.

“Your guild is awesome, can I join? I asked Gwyn and Joker but they said you were the guild master.” She said with a sly smile on her face as she prepared her food.

“Oh, yeah. No problem. I will send you the invite request. How is your enchanting coming?” I asked her.

“Very good. I have a plan to spend four hours a day and I should clear $500 to $750. I plan to enchant four days a week, adventure two days a week and take one day off.” Gina said as she sat down with her hastily prepared salad.

“How much time have you allocated to preparing my meals?” I asked jokingly. Her fork stopped halfway to her mouth.

“Is it ok if I just buy the fresh prepared store meals for you? I mean I could cook but I was doing some of the work at the restaurant and I am almost done working there. I wanted to focus on my classes and balance it out with my gaming. I also thought I might be able to run track this spring. I have not trained in a year but I miss it. I wasn’t good enough for a scholarship but when I was a freshman the coach said I could easily be a walk-on.” Gina had talked slowly thinking out each sentence. She had locked eyes with me while she had talked as well.

“Gina as long as the food is good I will be fine. I like helping you.” I was still thinking and added, “but I want your lasagna at least once a month!” I said trying to lighten the mood.

“Oh you think I am going to be here another month!” she blurted with a smile and slide into my lap. We kissed for a bit. “You look tired and I assume I look like shit too. We should get some sleep.”

Well we eventually did get to sleep.

When I awoke Gina was snuggled next to me Flicka was on my pillow whining. She had to go out. “OK lets go girl.” I got up carfully to not wake Gina and went outside. I smelled like sweaty sex. I put on my running shoes and took Flicka for a run. We went swimming and on the way back I raced Flicka home. Flicka was very happy with the exercise and I noticed my own abs were getting a little insulation. We went to the trailers and I worked on them till 5:00pm. I got a fair amount done and was happy even if it was another short day.

Back at the cabin I realized how hungry I was. In the fridge was chicken parm and ziti. I put it in the oven to heat while I showered. It was a long shower and when I came out I remembered the food. I was a little overcooked but good enough. Flicka was lying down. She was exhausted from the long day and also the fact it was really hot. I tossed some ice cubes in her water dish which made her get up and get some water. I ate the food and drank an entire half gallon of OJ. I couldn’t believe how hungry I was. Before I knew it the time was 6:00pm. I went to log in but first put the AC unit on in my room to make Flicka comfortable.

I was on the sandy ground in the village. Someone had put a pillow under my head and a blanket over me. I got up and surveyed everything. People were busy building and organizing. People smiled at me as they passed. I opened up my Panthera management menus. The auction for the NPCs ended at midnight EST so I had about six hours. So far no other bids were showing. I was worried, maybe bids were hidden and then revealed at midnight? This caused me to up my bid for my two master NPCs. I increased my bid for each master to 4 gold. I copied the screens of the 2,010 NPCs as I was curious if the list renewed, depleted or replaced successful bids.

No one from the guild was here. The party must of burned them out. I opened the layout of the village. If we were going to grow this village into a city it would have to be well organized. An edit interface opened up. All I had to do was think and focus on what I wanted to edit it on the map.

I started with a massive breaker wall. Giving us protection from weather and enemies. The wall would be a six hundred yard half circle. The only entry would be a one hundred yard gap. The wall would be 200 feet thick and extend 60 feet out of the water. I put two towers flanking the harbor entrance and added barracks inside the walls with windows and balconies facing toward the harbor. I made everything appear organic and as ‘pretty’ as I could. I extended the wall on land to enclose one square mile of land for the ‘future’ city. I laid out the city streets next in a web pattern. I built a twenty story tower in the center of the web and called it the guild hall. I added parks next to give it an ‘organic’ feel. The adjusted the web to divide the city into six districts. The first piece of the faced the harbor and I labeled it the ‘harbor’ district. I populated it with buildings for the district; warehouses, taverns, inns, and small factories. The next district was the merchant district. Then I built two residential districts. The next district was the military/administration. It had only a few buildings and mostly parks. The final district was manufacturing. I zoomed out and made two exits on the walls. I extended the roads and laid out farmland covering a third of the island. The interface estimated 15,000 inhabitants. It looked good, if a bit rough. I kept playing and it reminded me of a city builder game I played in high school. I was refining and trying to balance everything. Things like putting the blacksmiths and tanners near the walls in the industrial manufacturing district to limit smoke and smell to the rest of the city. I started to designing individual buildings out of stone. Then I started editing the large tower in the center. The guild hall was important. I was lucky to noticed the time, I had four minutes before the NPC auction ended. I switched over menus saving my progress.

I displayed only my bids and watched them like a hawk, ready to over bid at any second. Finally the timer ended and I got a game message.

NPC auction ended. Your successful bids will appear at your populations translocation stone.

The NPCs and their family began to appear. I walked over to them to greet them.

“Welcome to Panthera! You are on a beautiful island! We are building a strong and supportive community here and I hope you are as excited as I am to be here!” It was an impromptu speech and I hoped with my high charisma it went off well. I motioned over Celina and the master elf archer nearby. “This is Celina and Persephone they will help you and your families get settled in. I am Daedalus, the leader of this community.” I pointed at Kilinith. “That is Kilinith, she will also help you resolve any problems you might have.” I chatted with the newcomers. I gave each of the five warriors two +2 constitution rings, introduced them to the cat militia and my new minotaur bodyguards. The entire village started helping the new people get settled. Most of them had luggage which I considered a good sign.

I let them go. I sat back down with my interface and opened the NPC auction again. There were 2,010 NPCs. I compared it with my list and they were all new. I then figured something out. I could bid on 10 NPCs so I guessed there was 2,000 NPCs plus the number of bids available to players. As long as that 2,010 did not go up then I had monopoly access. I didn’t like the fact that it listed my village on the bids. It would give other players info on me. I was also a little pissed I had lost 8 gold due to paranoia. The timer was counting down again, 119 hours 23 minutes. So every five days the list replenished. I guessed the 2,000 NPCs not selected went to the other cities to replenish numbers? It seemed like a good guess. But then wouldn’t all the player controlled cities eventually get the best NPCs and the NPCs ruled cities would get the crappy ones? Time would tell. Right now I had work to do.

I refined my search again by skill level. There were four masters in this group, an enchanter, a butcher, a tailor and a painter. I bid the minimum 1 silver on each. Next I scanned the list and found a unique skill, city planning. The NPC only had it at level 8 but still I bid on him. What did we need for our city to grow? People, food, builders, soldiers, basically everything. I sorted by family next and a Halfling cook was at the top of the list with 21 family! The halfing matriarch was sanguine as well so I bid on her. I didn’t know the skills of current people so I went to talk with Kilinith for a while.

She was already setting up farming plots and organizing forest harvesting. Good. How was the food situation. We should be ok with current population. Then I showed her my city plans. I had to pull out a blank scroll and project the image for her to see it. She looked around and back to the paper many times. I told her we had someone who was coming in the next group in five days to help lay things out. She nodded a little dumbfounded. “We trust you Daedalus but this seems a little…grand.” She finally said.

“Aim high I always say.” I never say that but I wanted to encourage her. She said she would follow the plots of farmland on my plan. She would do her best to lay out the streets as well. She suggested an architect and fisherman skills to add to the village. Duh I should have thought of that. I found two architects, one with a skill 18 but choleric and the other with skill 12 and sanguine. Easy call, if I was going to have to work with this person it was the sanguine personality. I then sorted by fisherman and selected the top three sanguine personalities. I sorted and looked at my bids.

Name

Race

Sex

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Age

Family

Temperament

Primary Skill

Secondary Skill

Tertiary Skill

Curran

Human

Phlegmatic

Enchant 31

Enchant: Imbue 22

Enchant: Knowledge 14

Tilda

Dwarf

101

Sanguine

Butcher 29

Animal Husbandry 9

Axe: One Hand 7

Manto

Human

Phlegmatic

Tailor 29

Farming 7

Merchant 7

Vax

Gnome

Choleric

Artistry: Painter 29

Artistry: Sculpting 21

Alchemy 11

Darai

Elf

277

Melancholic

City Planning 8

Farming 3

Nature Magic 3

Gilly

Halfling

Sanguine

Cooking 18

Butcher 11

Farming 8

Jerra

Human

Sanguine

Architect 12

Masonry 7

Woodcraft 5

Orad

Beast:Cat

Sanguine

Fishing 11

Craft: Nets 9

Sailing 7

Dasz

Dwarf

Sanguine

Fishing 10

Sailing 9

Swimming 6

Varrine

Human

Sanguine

Fishing 7

Swimming 7

Swimming: Diving 5

Looks like we would have an instant Halfling community. That artist looked a little crazy too. But how could I pass up a master. NPCs with master level skills could teach others the skill in one hour at level one. Ok I was done for now. Two of the guildies, Tara and Joker, had popped in and I told them I was logging out. I told them to plan to assault another goblin port island or maybe go cleanup the one we just wiped. I was not going and would be ‘managing’ for the next five days.

I logged out. I went outside with Flicka. I started to think of my next moves. I wanted to take 5 days to organize the town and get my concept of the city going. I needed to wait for the NPC with city planning to arrive to really start building. The city editing tool was really fun and I knew I was going to be playing with it everyday. You could design a building to immense detail or just put down stock buildings. I knew I had only scratched the surface. I was so wired I couldn’t sleep. I walked the half mile in the moon light with Flicka to the unfinished trailers. I got the portable lights and got to work. Around 10am my hunger took over and I ordered two white pepperoni pizzas and two steak grinders. Delivery would not be until 11am. I had a trailer complete with the electrical, heating and water. I started on the insulation and finishing work. I had built a number of these things and the work went fast. Flicka got one of the steak grinders and I ate one of the pizzas and the other grinder. By 4pm the trailer was 90% done. The floor needed two coats of urethane and I decided to clean an put one down before retiring.

Gina was waiting in the kitchen. She had lasagna in the oven. I put the second pizza on the table and got out plates. Gina started to tell me about her day. She had to work the next three nights at the restaurant because someone had a death in family but after that she only had one day next week and she would be done! So far she had made $4,250 in the game and she was also having a lot of fun doing it. Although making rings over and over again felt like she was working in a sweat shop. I told her to try making other things like earings, amulets and bracelets. She got excited about the prospect and went upstairs to her room to research making them. I got the finished lasagna out of the oven and ate a third of it. Gina was still upstairs when I went into the shower. I had hoped she would join me but she didn’t come down. Clean and refreshed I still did not feel fatigue, I was expecting to get hit any second now.

I was debating, Cocoon or bed? I choose Cocoon. It was early morning and the activity level in Panthera was twice the usual. Everyone had purpose. Carrie was walking around by herself and I talked to her for a bit. They had rescued 48 men yesterday. Apparently there was a mine in the goblin port we had obliterated. They had killed a few dozen low level goblins as well. She guessed there was perhaps 50 goblins left scattered over the island now. Well that was good news!

I found Harrash. He was training new sailors for his galleon. He was planning to sail soon to Bluewater to sell the cargo in the hold for the First Architects. I wondered. I tried to send Harrash an invitation to the First Architects. He received it and accepted but he was not listed as a member, but as a henchman. He was thrilled, the most I had ever seen the dwarf. I got a chance to check his skills now, he had a broad array. It looked like he was a fisherman/thief/sailor. Well at least he appeared to be on our side.

I went to find my new masonry and carpentry masters. The elf woman was building a temporary house and I hopped in to join her. My real world knowledge was helpful and it only took me 40 minutes to acquire the skill.

Carpentry 1 Tier 1 unlocked, +1 Stamina

I worked for another 30 minutes before excusing myself. I then found the mason and worked with him for an hour. He was directing a bunch of men laying the foundation for a new house. I joined in and an hour later I had the skill.

Masonry 1 Tier 1 unlocked, +1 Strength

I excused myself again and went to see Celina to pick up my potions. The master alchemist was there working away. We talked for a bit. Apparently Celina had left to sell items in Bluewater Bay. The rack with potions for me had 30 magic potions which I grabbed. The master handed me three vials. They were an advanced form of fortify magic, adding 40 magic for 4 hours. So four times the effect but for half the time. These would be great for my enchanting work. I thanked him and asked if he could make one of these a day for me and put them with Celina’s prepared works. He would do it for a silver per potion. I handed him a gold and said let me know when it was time for me to pay for the next hundred. I had rescued the cat and he was charging me? I was sure it was a big discount but really?

I realized that I had no where to go. I normally slept in Celina’s house but now that the master had returned? Before returning to my room in Bluewater I handed the extra translocation bracelets to Kilinith and trusted her to get them to the people who could do the most good with them. I guessed she would give them to scout leaders, that way they could quickly get back to the village with warnings.

I went to Bluewater. I stopped in with my old friend Grant and purchased some stones. Then I went to the auction house and picked up slightly under 9 gold from sales. It made me open access to my bank statement, yes I had roughly $5,000 from the sale of the rings on the exchange. It had taken two hours for them all to sell. Well I had a whole bag of new gem stones to try out.

I went to my room at the Union Hall. Gina was not here but her mess was. I went to the city and bought a new desk and leather padded chair for me. The desk was big and I had to slide the bed against the window to get it to fit. The desk also had a back splash with a bunch of drawers, the reason I choose it. It allowed me to organize everything.

I had three really big stones, probably tier 3 or tier 4 stones. Two were diamonds and the third was a ruby. I decided to make them into amulets as those stones on rings would be unwieldy. I drank my new fortify magic potion and got to work.

Diamond ying-yang amulet, +7 magic, +1 channeling, +15% effectiveness of spells

Holy crap! All spells! This amulet was a casters wet dream. I used the other diamond to make a second one. I was guessing the ruby was health. I made the amulet a constitution amulet.

Ruby ying-yang amulet, +7 constitution, +1 channeling, +15% health

It was a tough decision which one to wear. I took off my emerald amulet and put on the diamond one. I tagged my old amulet, +5 magic, +1 channeling, +2% magic pool for $650. The diamond amulet $2,500 and the ruby amulet I planned to give to either Carrie or Gwyn. The $2,500 was probably pushing the envelope of its value but if it didn’t sell I would give it to you one of my guild mates.

I had six tier 2 emeralds. I updated my 5 emerald rings and my charisma ring next. I planned to put my old rings up for sale at $500 each.

Earth Magic: Stone 8 +1 Constitution

I had one tier 2 diamond in the bag as well. I made a +7 constitution ring with it. I replaced it with my +5 strength ring. I would give that to Gwyn when I saw her.

I had three tier 2 sapphires in the bag and everything else was just tier 1 gems. I made them into +9 magic rings for the spellcasters in our guild. I had about 3 hours of game time left. I went to place everything for sale. While I was there I looked over what was available. Two items caught my attention.

Brown Wool/Felt Fedora Hat, +2 Earth Skill, -25% casting cost of Earth, Earth:Stone, Earth:Metal spells

The hat was listed for only 4 gold and I snatched it right up.

Dagger of Wind, +2 Air Skill, +5 Intelligence, +5 Stamina

It only functioned when it was drawn and the price of 10 gold was not worth the investment. If it was half that I might of bought it because I could of used the stamina in combat.

I decided to buy livestock for the city. I went to a broker in the city and sat down. He was a shifty looking man and I was quite certain that the player influx had not helped his profits yet as I was the only person with a population. He was offering chickens at 5 copper each and I talked him down to 4. He wanted 10 silver for a cow and I got him down to 8. The pigs were 2 silver each and I didn’t haggle. Sheep and goats were 1 silver each. I placed an order for:

200 chickens, 10 cows, 50 pigs, 200 sheep, 100 goats

Merchant 1 +1 Charisma, +1% better prices

In total 4 gold and 88 silver. I told him a galleon was coming in and the animals were to go on it. I posted on our guild page that I had purchased the animals and to let Harrash know to pick them up and transport them back. As I was getting ready to leave the broker asked if I wanted to buy any feed? Damn. I ended up dropping another gold piece for enough feed to last the animals three weeks.

Pleased I went back to my room. I spent my reminder time lying on the bed in the room and using the city interface. I started editing here and there but focused on the center tower the most. It kept getting bigger every time I edited it. I ended with a 30 story building. The top had a garden. The top five fours had 4 suites each. Floors 4-25 had 24 rooms each. They were spacious and had a balcony. The game would set them up just like my room in the mage hall. No need for climbing stairs here.

Before logging out I checked and made sure the NPC auction hadn’t changed. It hadn’t.

I went to sleep after taking care of Flicka and eating. I slept late and only spent a few hours on the trailers.

I didn’t run into Gina but she left a hearty steak and potatoes meal. I ate it cold and gave some to Flicka.

I showered and then went and scanned the forums. There were five major battles going on other continents. Two were PvP, the other three were monster armies. The battles were drawing most of the players to participate. There were currently over 5 million players in the game. I felt good.

My next few days were spent enchanting, editing the maps, and buying supplies for Panthera. It was really a count down clock for the NPC auction. With 29 hours to go on the auction the NPC pool went up to 2,013. I settlement had been established somewhere. Fortunately the NPCs they bid on were all archers. I knew you could not change a bod unless someone outbid you so my selections were safe.

I made a little over $25,000 from my item sales. The prices were dropping fast as competition started showing up. I also increased my personal gold to over 60. I had purchased a warehouse full of supplies for the village worth 20 gold. Mostly building and crafting materials. The farm animals were also ready to go. Harrash had come into port and was not happy about the farm animals stinking up his ship after he had just gotten the goblin stench out of it. Deal with it. My efforts over the days did earn me some skill increases including alchemy because I had to start buying ingredients to make potions because Celina couldn’t keep up.

Alchemy 3 Tier 3 unlocked: +1 Intelligence, safely brew tier 3 potions, +1% to potion effectiveness

Alchemy 4 +1 Intelligence, +1% to potion effectiveness

Artistry: Gem Crafting 3 +1 Agility, can work with up to tier level 4 gems

Artistry: Sculpture 5 +1 Charisma, work is improved

Enchant 14 +1 Channeling

Enchant 15 +1 Channeling

Enchant: Imbue 14 +1 Magic

Merchant 2 +1 Charisma, +1% better prices

Merchant 3 +1 Charisma, +1% better prices

I was actually getting pretty sick of enchanting. As Gina had said it got boring. Bouncing back and forth to Panthera relieved some of the boredom. I even managed to get the cows back so they wouldn’t have to go on the ship. The guild was prospering. I had given the +9 magic rings out to the mages and the +5 strength ring to Gwyn. I had also made +7 constitution rings for everyone as well with tier 1 rubies. I eventually did use up all my precious stones but felt the $25 k was worth it. The guild had been to the next goblin island. They had killed a fair number and were leveling up well. I didn’t tell them about my leveling plans. Grow the town size and get the experience bonus. Finally the day had come for the new arrivals. I was in Panthera watching the NPC auction, making sure no funny stuff happened.

NPC auction ended. Your successful bids will appear at your populations translocation stone.

I had prepared the village for the arrival at midnight and everyone was excited as the new NPCs began appearing.

250,000 experience for being named the leader of a town

Ding! You have gained one level. You have 5 stat points and 2 skill points to distribute.

What? I had been hoping for an even 1 million experience. Well I couldn’t complain I guess. I assigned my stat points to magic and my skill points to keep my enchanting going.

Enchant 16 +1 Channeling

Enchant: Imbue 15 +1 Magic

I hid my disappoint as I met the newcomers. Harrash was still two days from getting back but still had enough for a good sized party. During the party I met with my new city planner and architect. I pulled out 30 massive pages and laid them before them. I had the pages ‘printed’ in Bluewater for some silver. Darai and Jerra were engrossed in the plans. I asked them to make suggestions and left them to discuss it.

I greeted all the new arrivals and then sat down by a small outdoor cooking fire. I wanted to see the NPC auction. I now had 15 bids and the total available NPCs was 2,018. The first thing I did was sort by skill. There were two masters in the group. One was an order magic mage and the other was a spear master. I bid on each of them. I noticed the other town had just bid on two high end swordsmen and an archer. He had already used his three bids. I guessed wherever he was he was hard pressed for defense. Actually I clicked on his town in the NPC auction house bid and the map of the world shown a flashing green dot on the center continent. Shit! That meant anyone who could access the auction house could find me!

I wasn’t sure what skills would be most needed. We had a lot of building to do and I planned on a lot of stone work so I sorted for earth and stone magic. I bid on the top 3 with sanguine temperaments.

I started searching through the sanguine temperaments looking for gems. I found a brewer, blacksmith, baker, and cobbler with high skills. I bid on them.

I went looking for large families and found two with sanguine temperaments. I bid on both. I was down to only 4 bids left. I decided to hold off until my city planner and architect told me what they needed. I noticed I could put someone else in charge of the NPC recruiter. I wasn’t going to do so just yet as I was having too much fun. I went out and joined the party.

I logged off.

After taking care of Flicka and eating I slept for six hours before heading to the trailers. Gina was up and made me an omlet. She had been sleeping upstairs for the last few days in the room. On the way down I noticed the pool liner and surrounding area was almost down. The guest house was framed and sided and roofed. I planned to do the electrical myself. My friend had completed the exteriors and did a good job. I gave him a $4000 bonus for his work and effort. Then I asked him to build the 9th one as well. He could do it on an hourly basis. I had no plans to finish it anytime soon. Myself I had 4 trailers completely finished except for some minor touchups here and there. Today I moved them to their slabs and connected the water and electrical. Renters had to buy the propane for heat. I spent the day getting them in place and leveled. The toilets were composting toilets with a urine run off. The free septic was already done. It was an eight foot ditch filled with crushed stone. A pipe was inserted into the crushed stone for the water from the shower and sinks and the urine. It was very bio-friendly. The solid waste from the toilet had to be emptied into a composting pit. It was not rough living at all as the units although small were very comfortable. The cost for rent, heat, water and electrical was almost half that of an apartment in the city. Some students even dual occupied the units reducing cost further.

Another day of work and those four units would be ready for renters. It was 6:40pm when I got back to the cabin with Flicka. Lunch had been two grinders and dinner was orange chicken made by Gina. It was the first time she had made Chinese and it was good. She was already in the game. She was making about $700 a day now. She was acing her classes and always in a good mood. Summer was a two months away and Gina was talking about earning her tuition for her junior, senior and medical school. She was optimistic. Prices were falling and only the constant influx of new players was holding prices.

I logged in and the town was busy. I found my city planner and architect pouring over the plans I left making notes. “Daedalus! Your city is fantastic but we have come up with some suggestions. First there is a concern with the city level. It is only 32’ above the water level. We think we have a solution. We will build the sewer system first above ground and then put the city on top! It is really an amazing solution. It would get the city 20’ higher above the water line and allow for stronger foundations and cellars. We will direct the sewer run off here,” she pointed to a line a mile from the city. “We have enough grade to get it that far away. We will need to purchase a water generator.” Huh? A confused expression on my face let her know she had to elaborate. “Well there will not be enough rainfall for a cistern and being on an island there are only streams. So a water generator usually can produce enough water for 500 people a day. Add the animals to that and you will need more than one. The enchanter Curran said he can make one but needs supplies if you don’t want to buy one. I suggest that as the supplies should cost one tenth as buying one outright.”

“Sounds good. Cheaper the better. What about work force to build this city? I can bring in 15 or so people every week. Who should I be hiring?” I asked.

“Curran will need about 2 gold for each water generator. Which is a great deal. As for builders I would suggest mostly earth and stone mages. Stone mages that can cast both summon earth and the earth to stone spells. You will need a master stone mage to cast harden stone. Your central tower will definitely require that. Really any building over three stories made of stone needs a hardened stone foundation. You have 27 such buildings currently in your plans. This project is so exciting! We shared your plans with some of the people and they are ready to go! It will take 100 years to build but it is definitely a project worthy to devout to.” She finished.

I sat down digesting. “Ok let’s do this then. I will hire as many earth mages as possible. I think we should add an academy or something for them in the plans.” I looked at the paper. Notes were scribbled everywhere. Some changes were made already. It was going to be difficult if I had to keep printing plans. That was when I was in for a shock. Darai cast a spell and a 3D image of the city appeared. She rotated it and zoomed in and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. She was talking but I was just focused on the representation of my city. In the air above the city was demographic information. The number of workers for each job skill and the size of the population the city could sustain. In its current projected form the max sustainable population was 29,488. That was twice what I was shooting for so I was happy with the number. We continued to talk and I agreed with all the proposed changes. During the discussion I opened the interface and selected four more earth mages. When Darai zoomed out to the whole island I got an alert.

UNIQUE SKILL: CITY PLANNING 1 +1 Charisma, +1 Intelligence

This special skill is a must for any city leader and opens new menus in city management. “It takes hundreds of hours of planning and work to develop the skills to lead a city.” With this skill you can create a special 3D map for NPCs to view. Requires 10 Magic per hour to sustain.

Great this was the skill of kings! I looked at my recruits. I liked what I had selected. I hoped no one came in and tried to steal them. Time would tell.

Name

Race

Sex

Age

Family

Temperament

Primary Skill

Secondary Skill

Tertiary Skill

Brow

Human

Phlegmatic

Order Magic 34

Order: Law 33

Order: Command 12

Titus

Human

Melancholic

Polearm: Spear 29

Shield 19

Light Armor 18

Jugge

Beast: Bear

Sanguine

Earth Magic 19

Earth: Stone 17

Earth: Metal 11

Yew

Beast: Bear

Sanguine

Earth Magic 19

Earth: Stone 17

Nature Magic 10

Sanso

Elf

177

Sanguine

Earth Magic 11

Earth: Stone 10

Nature Magic 7

Kassta

Dwarf

Sanguine

Brewer 21

Wine 19

Nature Magic 9

Marl

Halfling

Sanguine

Baker 19

Cooking 16

Farming 7

Quinn

Human

Sanguine

Cobbler 22

Leatherworking 18

Animal Husbandry 5

Wurt

Human

Sanguine

Blacksmith 23

Earth: Metal 10

Earth Magic 5

Darrel

Human

Sanguine

Farmer 7

Animal Husbandry 4

Fishing 3

Iona

Elf

152

Sanguine

Water Magic 14

Water: Ice 10

Water: Mist 7

Raed

Dwarf

198

Phlegmatic

Earth Magic 21

Earth: Stone 20

Riding 8

Vyne

Human

Melancholic

Earth Magic 17

Earth: Stone 14

Masonry 12

Gladera

Human

Sanguine

Earth Magic 7

Earth: Stone 7

Spirit: Life 7

Colt

Dwarf

Phlegmatic

Earth Magic 7

Earth: Stone 5

Earth: Metal 4

I was listening but started to think. I needed more earth mages and also I needed alchemists to make potions to keep the earth mages going! I needed to make magic rings as well. The larger their magic pool the better they could work. How were these NPCs being compensated? What made them want to stay? My answer came in the city planning screen. It gave me every NPC in the city and their stats. It also had a loyalty bar. All the loyalty bars were high right now. The only low ones had to do with ‘lack of entertainment’ and that was mostly the children.

I let them know they could redesign the buildings aesthetics all they wanted but before changing a buildings function or moving it to let me know. I left them to do their work. In five days when the seven earth mages showed up the real work would begin.

My next five days would be busy. I would make sets of ten +7 magic ying-yang rings with a +7 magic ying-yang amulet for each earth mage, the master enchanter and master order mage. I was a little pissed at myself for using up all my gems. I decided to try to get some more emeralds from Kilinith. After spending time on pleasantries she said she would have her daughter go harvest some emeralds for me and they would be ready in a few days. I persuaded her to let me go with her daughter.

Beetrice was the young cats name. She was only 4’ tall and appeared to be in her early teens. She had two daggers on her belt and a small pack. She didn’t really seem to like me very much by her demeanor. I followed her as she ran through the woods.

Running 2 Tier 2 unlocked: +1 Stamina, 2% slower loss stamina when running

When we got to the shore she pulled out a small canoe. It was familiar. It was the same canoe we had used to reach the scaling dungeon. We took the canoe to the island a mile away. I followed Beetrice to a tiny cave opening far from the climb to the dungeon. I had to crawl on my stomach to follow the girl into the mountain. After 40 feet the passage opened and we could stand. Beetrice pulled a lantern out her pack and lit it. The walls sparkled with green flickers. Beetrice pulled out a chisel and hammer and started working gems out of the wall. “Keep an eye out for rats and crabs.” She said. I watched her work for a few minutes and then pulled out a dagger and started to try to pry out a stone myself.

“That won’t work!” Beetrice yelled. She stomped to her pack and pulled out another chisel and hammer and tossed them at my feet.

“You don’t seem to like me very much. Why?” I asked the young cat. I had to repeat the question again before she turned on me and screamed.

“Where are my brothers and father! You brought back many people but not them, why!” She was crying now. So she was angry that I had not saved the rest of her family.

“We are still looking for your people. I hope we do find them.” I had picked up the chisel and hammer but had not started working. “Everything I am doing is to make sure no one ever comes to the village to take anyone ever again. Including mining these emeralds.” She finally stopped crying.

“Then we better get to work,” she said as if nothing had happened.

I tried to get chisel out a few of the larger stones but just kept breaking them and getting tier 1 stones. After the third one I was frustrated. I put down the hammer and chisel and watched Beetrice work. She was only targeting small stones. I tried casting stone shape on the stone holding the emerald and pulled out a tier 3 stone. It was like picking a stone out of a stream. I smiled. It was faster and I was getting the emerald in perfect condition. I searched and found the largest stone I could. Two rats came out of the corner. I fried them with a flame spear each. I found the stone I wanted, it was half the size of my fist when I withdrew it. It was a tier 8 stone! Unfortunately I needed a tier 7 ability in gem crafting to use it. I put it in my bag. I moved and looked for stones that were the right size of for tier 3 or 4 and focused on those. I was getting 12 stones to Beetrice’s one.

Mining 1 Tier 1 unlocked, +1 Stamina, +2% mining speed, can harvest tier 1 gems

I was obviously taking a short cut here. The cavern ran deep into the mountain but Beetrice said not to go in too far. The gems would repopulate in six months time. Wow, an endless supply of emeralds! Although we were only in the mines for four hours total my mining skill level jumped to level 3! It probably had to do with my high quality stones and the number of stones.

Mining 2 Tier 2 unlocked, +1 Stamina, +2% mining speed, can harvest tier 2 gems

Mining 3 Tier 3 unlocked, +1 Stamina, +2% mining speed, can harvest tier 3 gems

I had harvested over 200 emeralds and Beetrice had another 31 for me. Most of my stones were tier 3 as well. We definitely did some damage to the cavern. I would guess we harvested about half the stones in the area! We headed back to Panthera before I logged out. It was 9:12am.

I was tired and after eating and taking care of Flicka showered and went to bed. I woke at 3:44 in late afternoon. Flicka was curled under my arm pit. I stretched and decided to run and go for a swim rather than spend any time on the trailers. I decided to have some fun and went to the rope swing. Flicka loved chasing me as swung down and out over the water. We played until the sun set.

At the cabin I showered and was happy to run into Gina. She has made bacon cheesburgers and a side of coleslaw. We talked about her courses and it was obvious she was trying to get me to take some classes. Did she know I was essentially a millionaire? My assets were around 4 million, most of that being the land and the camp sites. I didn’t mention it.

I went to take a shower and asked her if she wanted to join me. She gave me a sly smile and we headed off together. The shower was great and I was refreshed and ready to play! I told Gina to meet me in Panthera as I had some materials for her.

In game I was lying on a bench under the sun when I logged in. I yawned reflexively. I went to a table and pulled out my enchanting stones and gems. I had the bag of gems that Beetrice had mined. Those were Gina’s gift. Celina spotted me and came over to talk. After pleasantries I asked her if she could bring out my stock of potions she had made. She did and I was impressed with the four cases of potions.

Gina walked over from the translocation stone and I passed her the bag of gems. She looked inside and was practically jumping for joy. She had to return to Bluewater to get supplies once her bracer recharged. She went off to talk to some friend NPCs.

As I was working on the rings people came up to me and talked. My city planner and architect took a lot of time. They didn’t slow me down with my enchanting though. I found a way to use a tier 4 emerald on the ring. The ring came out wide and I was able to shape the emerald around the ring, essentially putting an emerald ring on the outside of the ying-yang ring. It looked pretty cool. I had 12 tier 4 emeralds and almost 100 tier 3 emeralds. It almost felt like cheating on how easy it was to acquire them. I didn’t feel at all guilty though. Once again I was updating and binding new equipment. Curran came over and watched me work for a while, impressed with my skill. He gave me some pointers and I gave him a full set of +7 magic rings. He was only wearing two rings so I knew he could use them. We talked all day about the finer points of and it helped improve my skills. It was basically a lecture by him and I didn’t know such a method existed in game to improve skills. Yes a NPC master could teach a level 1 skill in an hour but I thought it ended there. I had a productive day.

Artistry: Gem Crafting 4 +1 Agility

Earth Magic: Stone 9 +1 Constitution

Enchant 16 +1 Channeling

Enchant: Imbue 15 +1 Magic

I gave Curran 10 gold to buy materials for the water generators before he left. He had made his own translocation bracer and Gray Eagle had already taken him to Bluewater to set it up.

That is how the next few days went. I did manage to finish all but two of the trailers as well. The only issue was the NPC auction had increased by 6. Meaning two more settlements had been completed. One of the settlements had bid on two warriors and a builder type. The other one had not and I was guessing he or she was going to try to outbid me on some of my NPCs. When the night finally arrived I was watching it like a hawk. My plan was to bid ten gold for whoever the bastard tried to steal, hoping it would break his bank. Then it happened, with 20 seconds to go in the auction he bid on three of my NPCs in successive order at 2 silver each.

I responded with my 10 gold response for each then switched to all NPCs bids to see where he would go next. He with 3 seconds left he picked three archers but I made sure to get the location of his village, it was 1932 miles away. If he tried this again I would sail there and ‘recruit’ my NPCs in his village.

NPC auction ended. Your successful bids will appear at your populations translocation stone.

Without hesitating I searched the new NPC list. First I sorted by skill level. Three masters, Fire Magic, Brewer and Woodcraft. I placed a 1 gold bid on each of them. I needed an alchemist I picked the top one with a sanguine temperament. Next I scanned down the list looking for gems. I placed a bid of one silver on talented mages of spirit, air and chaos with sanguine temperaments. That completed, I then selected the top nine Earth mages left for one silver each. I skipped over two choleric ones as I was not interested in them. I did all this in less than a minute. The list looked strong. Six other NPCs were bid on. Once again they focused on defense. The hold out was the player who had tried to steal my NPCs. I bet he was going to try the same thing again. I needed to make some gold for the battle five days away. I also expected many more players to start coming establishing. As soon as it hit the forums there would be an explosion. I had been lucky so far as my bidding opponents did not have the financial capital I did. I expected that to change as well.

Name

Race

Sex

Age

Family

Temperament

Primary Skill

Secondary Skill

Tertiary Skill

Ament

Beast: Bear

Phlegmatic

Fire Magic 35

Fire: Heat 30

Fire: Light 20

Thamar

Human

Melancholic

Brewer 29

Wine 20

Water Magic 10

Siga

Gnome

Melancholic

Woodcraft 29

Lumberjack 12

Carpentry 8

Ahstald

Dwarf

202

Sanguine

Spirit Magic 24

Spirit: Life 24

Spirit: Death 14

Giles

Human

Sanguine

Air Magic 22

Air: Force 22

Cooking 12

Chamas

Beast: Cat

Sanguine

Chaos Magic 21

Chaos: Destruction 20

Spirit: Life 19

Jane

Human

Sanguine

Alchemy 16

Herbalism 14

Cooking 10

Aldgyth

Elf

268

Phlegmatic

Earth Magic 27

Earth: Stone 26

Nature Magic 14

Gerey

Dwarf

101

Melancholic

Earth Magic 21

Earth: Metal 21

Blacksmith 12

Here

Halfling

Sanguine

Earth Magic 20

Earth: Stone 17

Earth: Metal 16

Aldwic

Dwarf

Sanguine

Earth Magic 19

Earth: Stone 16

Diplomacy 10

Warne

Beast: Wolf

Phlegmatic

Earth Magic 10

Earth: Stone 8

Analyze: NPC 6

Anet

Human

Melancholic

Earth Magic 9

Earth: Stone 9

Earth: Metal 9

Erun

Halfling

Melancholic

Earth Magic 9

Earth: Stone 9

Fire Magic 8

Breda

Dwarf

Sanguine

Earth Magic 7

Earth: Stone 7

Locksmith 5

It looked like a perfect recruiting page for our needs. I turned my attention to my new arrivals. The 72 new NPCs were mingling and the party was starting. I managed to talk to most of the NPCs before bringing the mages to meet with me, Darai and Jerra. I had Darai show the 3D city and explain the construction plans. I asked all the mages to commit 4 days out of 7 to building. In exchange they would get the rings and amulet I had made for them. After they looked over the rings it was very easy to get them to commit. I had them. I sat back and listened as Jerra went into the plans for beginning construction. The first step was to build a raised road down the planned length of the city. This road would be 150 wide and have structures on either side of the road. It was going to be important to get elevation correct for the eventually sewer and aqueduct system. The aqueduct would start in the center of the city under the guild tower. The water generators and basin would be placed there.

The mood was great and everyone was gung ho to get started. My work was done. I had enough rings for two more mages and decided I would make enough for the new arrivals and then go adventuring. I knew magic potions were going to be in high demand for construction.

I now had a temporary tent and cot. I went there and logged out.

It was 2:34am. Gina was still logged in. I took Flicka out and sat by my new pool. I turned on the built in lights and went for a swim. My first swim. Flicka joined me and I worried the chlorinated water would make her sick. Well she would eventually learn. I got up and walked through my ‘guest’ house. The exterior was done. Inside the supplies for electrical and plumbing were there. The HVAC was not here? Shit. I went to get my phone and checked, yes there it was. An email from a week ago. The pallet had fallen off the flatbed truck. The replacement was due to be delivered in two days. Well I had two-three more days finishing the trailers and then I would start this project. I walked up the steps to the bedroom loft. There was stacks of wood paneling for the walls. I lay down on top of the stack and Flicka settled next to me and I fell asleep looking out the skylight.

I woke a little stiff but in good spirits, my phone said 11:02am. I went to the cabin and ate three bowls of cereal. Flicka got the milk. I went to the trailers and inspected each of the finished trailers. Four looked good to go! Paint dry, all the finishing touches installed. I sent four emails about a meeting tomorrow at 4:00pm to sign contracts and inspect the trailers. I walked through two more trailers. One needed another coat of urethane and the other needed the gas range installed and connected. It was still backordered with two other units. I spent an hour urethaning the floor. I moved on to the last two trailers. One trailer was the one that was the pain in the ass shorter one. Everything needed to be recut and was taking extra time. I left it alone. The eighth trailer needed the wood paneling for the walls and ceilings installed, hardwood floors and then I could do the finishing touches. I got to work of the ceiling first. It went quick. Then I started on the walls. After three hours I was done. I started on the flooring. It was an oak floor. With no issues I was done in less than two hours. I did a light sanding of the floor and cleaned it. I got the urethane and did the floor and steps. All good for today. It was quitting time.

Dinner was on the stove. Chicken cactetore and rice. Gina was already in the game. I ate and then showered. Flicka was eating the food that Gina had left for her when I came out of the shower. I drank a beer before I logged in.

I was in my tent. I exited and was astonished at the progress. Then had already built a two hundred yard long raised road the fully intended starting width! I walked over and watched the mages work. They were all wielding this strange stone staff. I walked over and asked them about it. Apparently our enchanter had made them. I asked to inspect one.

Stone Staff of Construction, Summon Earth requires 50% less magic, Earth to Stone requires 50% less magic

I went to find Curran. Apparently he could imbue an item to reduce the casting cost of any two spells he knew. This was going to make thing go a lot quicker. I saw the cat children running potions to the earth mages. They were making steady progress and I knew it would level their skills. Curren asked if he could make me something. I looked at my gear. What could a master enchanter make me. I asked if he could improve my cloak or make a new one. He said no problem he found a seamstress in Bluewater that could make a quality cloak he could enchant. He then got down to business and asked what his future was in Panthera. I pulled up the 3D map. Mine was not quite as impressive with my skill at level 1 but it was still detailed enough. I zoomed into a building and said this was his magic shop to do with whatever he wanted. He nodded, studying the building. It was near the center of the city and was two stories with a garden on the roof. The first floor was open for the shop and the second floor had three bedrooms, living room, kitchen and large office/study. He seemed pleased and nodded. I would have my cloak in a few hours and he actived his bracer.

I wondered around talking to everyone. The farmers were doing quite well on the outskirts. Trees had been cleared and crops were already yielding do to nature magic. The farm animals were a little further out and they were also doing fine. We had seven fishing ships working! The entire community was working together. When we went to a coin economy I hoped everything would hold together.

I went and got the updated city layout plans from the city planner and architect. The buildings looked more refined and the sewer system was fairly simple. The entire city was basically a wheel. The center of the wheel was elevated and therefore gravity would run the aqueduct and sewer. The aqueduct was the overflow from the basin. Every house would have fresh running water. Things were going well. The brewer, Kassta, was already setting up shop. She asked me for permission to buy some grapes for a vineyard as well. The ingredients for ale could easily be shipped but grapes for wine you wanted fresh grapes. Ok how much money did she need? 2 gold, no problem. I gave her the two coins and trusted her to take care of the rest. Harrash was running supply runs to Bluewater. His crew was up to 66. Twenty of them were our village archers. The minotaurs were severing as primary security for the town with the militia. Brow, the order mage, was taking lead of training and setting up patrols. He was quite old but vibrant for his age. I ended up having a glass of brandy with him. He was very knowledgeable. Apparently he had run a city guard of 6,000 men before coming here. I wondered how the game set NPC backgrounds, were the NPCs from other parts of the realm. Brow said he was from a far away land when I asked. Ok so they were all immigrants then.

I had spent have my game time and hadn’t gotten anything done. I decided I want to go adventuring. I was getting ready to leave when Curran came up to me with a beautiful black cloak that had a dark silk blue lining. He handed it to me.

Curran’s Black Silk Cloak of Magi, +20 magic, +15% magic pool, +15% health

Wow, how did he get these stats? He went into describing something called compounded cast. It cost tons of magic but with the rings I had given him he had improved on his specialty cloak. The issue is the cost in materials was around 2 gold and the enchanting takes an hour. He then cast bind on it. I thanked him for the precious gift. He said if I didn’t want health he could add +15 to either intelligence or stamina if I wanted. No, this was perfect for me. I gave him 20 gold as payment for the cloak. I asked him to make two cloaks for the best earth mages. He said he would make eight more cloaks. We argued a little before I relented. He said he was having fun and wanted to help were he could.

I collected 10 magic potions and walked out of the village alone. I ran to the scaling dungeon. The dungeon should have refreshed after 72 hours. The guild was way off on their mission on the goblin island with Harrash’s small ship. As a travelled up the shoreline two of the minotaurs were following so I stopped and waited. When they approached they said they had won the honor of travelling with me as my bodyguards. I tried to convince them the village needed protecting more than I did but they would not relent. I eventually yielded and added them to my party.

Balcur, Novice Axeman

Race: Beastman, Subspecies: Bullman

Description: Black fur, black eyes, 7’7”, 362 lbs

Level: 8

Strength 30 Carry Capacity, Small Hit Point Increase, Damage Increase on Physical Attacks

Constitution 22 Hit Point Increase, Hit Point Regen

Stamina 28 Stamina Pool Increase, Stamina Pool Regen

Agility 18 Improved Defense Rating, Ranged Attack Bonus

Speed 12 Movement Speed

Intellect 4 Learning Speed, Small Mana Bonus

Magic 0 Mana Pool Bonus

Channeling 0 Mana Pool Regen

Charisma 1 Interaction Bonus with NPCs

Luck NA not available to NPCs

Primary Skills (over 4+)

Axe: Two Handed 16

Medium Armor 8

Blade: Two Handed 7

Lifting 7

Running 6

Heavy Armor 4

Alertness 4

Gaeurn, Novice Axeman

Race: Beastman, Subspecies: Bullman

Description: Dark Brown fur, blue eyes, 7’5”, 370 lbs

Level: 9

Strength 21 Carry Capacity, Small Hit Point Increase, Damage Increase on Physical Attacks

Constitution 40 Hit Point Increase, Hit Point Regen

Stamina 22 Stamina Pool Increase, Stamina Pool Regen

Agility 21 Improved Defense Rating, Ranged Attack Bonus

Speed 10 Movement Speed

Intellect 5 Learning Speed, Small Mana Bonus

Magic 0 Mana Pool Bonus

Channeling 0 Mana Pool Regen

Charisma 6 Interaction Bonus with NPCs

Luck NA not available to NPCs

Primary Skills (over 4+)

Axe: Two Handed 14

Light Armor 14

Lifting 13

Running 8

Tracking 6

Hunting 6

Singing 4

The two minotaurs followed behind me as I walked. They were both very competent warriors and should make my dungeon delve easier. I tried to talk to the two warriors but their short responses and focus told me it was not going to be productive. I did hand Gaerun my goblin cloak of fortitude and Balcur a +7 constitution ring. They thanked me but did not open up their conversation much. I decided to run and soon we were at the beach that faced the island. We pulled the canoe and got in. The minotaurs were clueless and I had to paddle us across. The canoe was overloaded and we almost tipped a few times. The minotaurs were scarred so I guessed they didn’t know how to swim.

We pulled the canoe to the cliff and hid it in the bushes. The minotaurs had trouble climbing but eventually got to the steps and we climbed to the entrance. I burned half of my magic pool making two +7 constitution and gave one to each of my companions. The plan was for me to attack with range and the minotaurs would form a wall in front of me. We moved on the shortest path to the boss since I had already mapped the dungeon. The minotaurs collected the loot and held it to be divided later. The boss fight was not difficult. The one piece of boss loot was kind of useful, belt of the fungi king +10 constitution, +5% health. I looked at my two warriors and handed the belt to Balcur. I had barely had to heal the minotaurs during combat as I had been quick to take down the monsters. I probably could of sold the item for an easy $1000 or given it to one of my guild mates but thought to reward the loyalty of the NPCs with me. Now both of my companions had health scores over 1,000 and I felt good heading into the scarab level.

We made steady progress and only got into trouble once when Balcur got surrounded by four while I was focusing on two other groups. His health dropped under half before I had turned to heal him. The rainbow scarab boss went down quick even with its earth resistance. My spell power was much higher than last time I was here. I walked to walls and looked at the sapphires. There was the same number as before. They were not like the stones I had mined. They were loosely embedded in the wall. That is why it had been so easy to gather them last time we were here. Balcur handed me another piece of loot, Greaves of the Rainbow, +2 to all stats. They looked like colored glass. Gaerun received the item and my relationship with him improved. I pulled out some rations and water and shared it. I had a few hours of play time left. We descended down to the next level.

It was warm and humid. The first room contained frog men wielding spears. There were four of them. I managed to get one short AOE before they moved to engage us. My bodyguards did their job and held them at bay. These critters had a lot of health but other than that not difficult. The good thing was these humanoids had human equipment we could bring back to the village. We started moving from room to room. The only issue was the gray frog men who cast spells. The first time we encountered them the cast ice bolts directly at me while the fighters engaged. I took 300 damage before the minotaurs finished the fighters and moved to occupy the mages. I made sure to target the mages first from there on out. The groups were between 4 and 6 and we moved from room to room. After twenty rooms we came to the boss room. Two larger gray frog men stood behind a massive nine foot tall muscular and stocky frog. I analyzed the creatures.

Frog Chief Level 9 Health 5000 Magic 50 Damage 150

Frog Shaman Level 4 Health 350 Magic 250 Damage 25

Frog Shaman Level 4 Health 360 Magic 240 Damage 25

I stood back and charged my stone rain spell. When it reached a point where it would do 1000 damage the chief charged. He moved out of range of my AOE. I could no longer get all three. I had to decide between killing the shaman of damaging the chief. I had to decide quick and choose to kill the shaman. The chief crashed into Balcur doing a slam attack for 312 damage. Both minotaurs began hacking away. I started healing as fast as I could.

The minotaurs went on the defense and were able to block most of the attacks. This allowed me to alternate spells of healing and damage. The slam attacks by the chief were not block able. After a slam I had to focus heal to keep up. Slowly we began to drain the chief’s health. The chief used an ability that allowed him to frenzy and double his attacks when he got to half health. I also had drink a magic potion at this point and both minotaurs started losing health. I moved closer to absorb some attacks. The fight got messy. The chief started making arcing swings that did less damage but hit two of us. We were going to lose. Then the two minotaurs dropped their axes and grappled one arm each of the chief. The frog struggled and dragged the minotaurs around but couldn’t attack. I switched to flame spear and pelted the beast to death.

We were all at around 20% health. The minotaurs were breathing heavy and sagged to the floor. I cast healing spells and returned us all to full health. It would take some time for their stamina to recover from the battle. I searched the loot. Forty eight silver, not bad. Green tights of the frogman, +10 stamina, +5 agility, doubles swim speed, nice item. It was a little gaudy. They were fluorescent green. I didn’t want to look ridiculous in these things. The last item was hand axe of warrior, +10 strength, +5% health. I put the axe in my pack. This would a great item for Harrash.

I decided to try on the tights for the hell of it. I took my pants off. I tried to put the tights on but had an alert that I needed to removed my beige loin cloth first. It was good news if this replaced my undergarments, that way I could wear my pants over them and wouldn’t look too ugly. I put the pants back on and checked myself out. You couldn’t even tell I had the tights on. Cool, they were mine now.

I had a half hour before log off time. I decided we should try the next level. I could of sworn the minotaurs looked skeptical. We went down the shaft at the back of the boss room. It was a massive chamber below. It looked like there were large flying eels moving above. There were dozens of them. Maybe this was not a good idea.

I analyzed one on the eels.

Level 6 flying lightning eel Health 200 Magic 200 Damage 50

I cast a stone rain that got three of the eels. The rest of the eels began turned to attack us. Maybe thirty of so. I decided it was time to leave. As I was walking up to my bodyguards one of the closer eels turned into a lightning bolt and shot through Gaerun. After passing ‘through’ him it turned back into a flying eel. More eels began striking both minotaurs. Before things got too out of hand I transported us back to Pathera.

Both minotaurs were around 60% and would of probably been dead in another few minutes. I told the minotaurs to hand out the gear we collected and they could split the coins between each other. One of the cats said a temporary residence had been made for me on the ‘highway’. I climbed a temporary staircase to the ‘highway’. My temporary residence was a two story stone building. One of the many that lined a four lane street. It was incredible. They had extended the road more than 20 yards since I was here five hours ago but they had added two dozen buildings on top. People were already moving in.

My house had a stone bed, table and four chairs. Not much to look at but a place I could lay down and log out.

Alchemy and herbalism

176’ of 400’

Amulet for gaia, 6 rings for everyone, amulet

Daedalus Mage (fire and earth)

Gwyn Warrior

Tara Mage (air and spirit) gwyn’s younger sister

Carrie Paladin

Celina Alchemist

Madre Mage (water and chaos) middle aged women

Joker Archer ( ) 6’5” toned body

Harrash Warrior/Thief

Gray Eagle Warrior ( ) 5’10” college student male

Gaia Mage (earth & nature) female elf

Iron to Steel Tier 3 Earth: Metal, 100+ magic, convert 1 pound of metal per 100 magic

Flame Dart Tier 1 Fire: Heat

Fireball, requires Fire Magic Tier 5 & Air Magic Tier 5, range 300 feet, magic cost 250, damage 250, AOE: 40 foot radius.

Auction House fees?

Chapter 21

目录