The Townhall was completed a week ago taking only two weeks before I accept a prompt to okay the building as a town hall. I was spending most of my time doing the building detail by hand with the help of a few others that also like to do things by hand without the aid of the game solving it. When I was brought from Earth to be onboard the colony ship to whatever star system it is going to, it was not by choice. My family was killed while I was shot, and my mother is still at death door, we both of us was taken onboard the ship. My parents and my wife made all the arrangement. Now she is millions of miles behind me bury on Earth with my daughter. It was making me feel like I have abandoned them.

I have played fantasy game online since I was a child but prefer doing things with my hands. Building wells or cistern for families or villages, and repair homes even building them from local material like mud. I felt I was making an impact. I would never have chosen to go to another world when we should have worked toward fixing the world we like on first. It was like we throwing it away like it was a piece of trash and buying something new. It may be why my family chose not to tell me figuring I would not leave without my wife or daughter, and they would be right.

Spending the next hundred years or more or the next five hundred virtual ones in a fantasy world doesn't make any sense when it would have been better to put us in a virtual world where we might learn about colonizing. Allowing us to create a colony from scratch to give us the skill that is required to build and survive in case we crash or cannot use technology. Instead, we are in a world where magic work and the game creates what you need if you only put in a small effort.

Everyone except for a few people seems upset over the fact that Loki has altered their game world and made things tougher. It doesn't bother me because none of this is real. Over the last two weeks, I have died twice, once from a backstab and another from an arrow from out of the darkness through my eye. The unrest in the settlement by a large number of players has increased over the week. I have heard of players heading toward the settlement blaming me and a handful of other players for Loki nerfing their abilities. Nerfing is a tern player use to explain how games creators would change races, classes, and skills to making them weaker. Loki did a lot of that, over ten thousand skills or abilities were changed all across the board so that he can piss off the other AIs which put me in the middle by pointing out in the patch about the settlement of Safehaven. Several players have heard that several ships of players are on their way to wipe us out. Another two groups marching north and another marching from the northeast are planning the same thing. Not sure how we are going to survive this but a kernel of an idea have been in the back of my mind for a week now.

I am staring at the settlement seeing that several of the hovels are near completion. When they are done, there will be twenty-one hovels and four lodges done, three shops, a blacksmith shop, a wizard tower, and a dock. The first Clan Hall is being built at the west gates, at the pace it going it be done in three weeks keeping most of that clan busy, watching Ann helping out in the distance with the planning of the farm plots and reseeding the forest to the west of the settlement. Every time I see her, I feel butterflies in my stomach. She has slowly worked her way into my thoughts a lot over the weeks. Spending hours together talking about the settlement and the future, she too agrees that there is more that could be done than letting everything be done by 'Magic.' In real life, my wife and child not been dead for long, but in the virtual world, its been over a year or more. Ann has been healing my internal wounds, we have not gone beyond holding hands for now, but she has made the hurt less.

Oh, guess I need to talk about my two deaths. Both times I not seen a single AI waiting for me in the virtual heaven or purgatory. I did get in a lot of fishing done while I was waiting on the countdown timer. The first time I was angry for a few hours, after that there is something about fishing on the bank of a river that is relaxing. The second death didn't even bother me. I guess I needed the vacation from building and dealing with all the problems. We never did find out who killed me both times, but it will be a matter of times before they succeed again. I am level five now and took the class of engineer it will allow me to design the settlement more. At level ten, I will be getting the choice to either a structural engineer, mechanical engineer, or a combat engineer. I will decide when I get to that point.

Most of all a part of me wants to start over without all the game mechanic I been feeling like I been cheating, yet we use machinery to build a building, using 3d printing equipment, and robot mining. But are we going to have that when we arrive where we are going or are we going to be beholden to the artificial intelligence to do everything when we get there?

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

Pulling up the menu for personnel at the town hall and pick two masons, two quarrymen, three workers, and a wheelwright all at level one. My most significant buy was an animal trainer. A few moments later, a man walks out with his wife and two daughters. He gave me a bow as his wife and teen daughter, curtsy.

"Your Honorable Mayor I am Jake Stone, and this is my wife Dolly and my daughters Molly and Peggy, we are from Port Dawn, we saw that you have worked here and have come to apply for work. My wife is a candle maker, and my daughters can help her do her work."

Shaking his hand looking over the man, he seems to be about six foot tall bald human with a large red mustache and a barrel chest. His wife is a half-elf, blond hair with a bluish tint, and violet eyes standing about five feet ten inches tall and wispy in body, both daughters have their mother's body and eyes but his red hair.

"Welcome to Safehaven as soon as you get enough stone you can build your hovel over there pointing to a spot next to one of the other hovel. But as soon as your hovel is done come here to the town hall and check the board for any projects that I have posted that need to be done. There is a safe spot to stay in the shelter that is in the sewer over there," pointing to a small building with stairs leading down to the sewers, "I have two guards there that ensure your safety.

"Will we be sharing our hovel?" Dolly asks.

"No you may have neighbors when I upgrade them to duplexes or apartment later as we become a town, but the hovel is yours. As for candle making, I don't have any bees for wax."

Dolly smile and hold up her hand to stop me much to her husband horror, "Don't worry Lord Mayor I have skill in beekeeping if you can loan me a ranger and a soldier to protect me from beasts as well as a wood crafter to make me a beehive I can find and move a hive safely."

"When you settle in, you can post on the board over there a quest to help you." pointing to the work board near the door of the town hall.

Three mountain dwarves walk through the Town Hall's doors, one is a mason, and the other two are quarrymen, all three bow.

"Humphry Bogworth, Mason I heard you need a Mason?" Looking around at the settlement.

"Darin Stoneshear and my brother Digger we are quarrymen just point us to where a quarry is."

Shaking each of their hands and point to the north, There is a rock flat to the north of the settlement about half a mile. I was told that is was a start of a quarry for this settlement and to the northwest along the mountain is a large quarry, but it is occupied by a large goblin tribe and not under our control as of yet. You can stay here at the shelter until a hovel or lodge is built, or you can build a hut at the quarry. You can use the wagon and mules we have to haul the stone here." I said

Humphry nodded, "I make the boys a hut and look over the stone. We could use a few workers to help with loading stone." Both the Stoneshear brother nodded in agreement. About that time, three workers stepped out of the door all steppe dwarves and gave a slight bow.

"Hoken Dirt."

"Dar Hammerfist."

"Jimmy Rockfist"

Turning to Humprey, "There your worker,"

"Come on you Steppy. We got some rocks to look at." waving the dwarves to follow.

Hearing one of the Steppe dwarves muttering a curse under his breath about mountains dwarves and sheep as they walk away. Turning back to the building, a woman steps out with two teenage boys. She looks like a half-jotunn.

"Lela Greengrass, my lord," she curtsy as she backslaps both boys head making them bow as they grumble. "These are my sons William and Walter. I am a Wheelwright, and my son William is my apprentice, I am hoping to apprentice out my son Walter to a blacksmith."

Walter look down and mutter, "Rather be a knight" as his mother slaps the back of his head.

Looking up at all three, both boys are taller than their mother by a foot and she about nine feet tall. "Well I would have to talk with a blacksmith, but I could use a hand with some workers." Seeing Walter frowning, "I am going to require that everyone that of age to train in fighting in case of attacks on the settlement," I said as the boy's eyes light up as her mother frowns.

"If you must have us train that I can't argue with, but I not want my boys to be like there pa. I won't lose a child to fighting! Where do you want us to start working? "She commented.

I pointed over to one corner of the settlement, "I'm going to build a stable and barn over there, but we will be building you a building next if you are okay in staying under the stars at night for a week? If you need to get out of the rains, the warehouse to the south will hold you easy."

She nodded as another person walk out of the hall, Seeing a Hobgoblin in work clothes looking around, almost as tall as a man, but a head that bigger than his body, long pointed ears and hunch over due to his long limbs. He turns to me as the half jotunn walk to the northwest corner.

"Me Hal," pointing at his chest, "I am a worker, ye lordliness. Me, hear you need strong back to work. You feed good? No?" smacking his lips.

"Tarla!" I yelled I should have looked closer at the list of who I could get. Pulling up the menu again, seeing that the cost I pick from was random races list. Shaking my head, no wonder they were so cheap.