Chapter 58: Second Chances

Eli walked through his house in a simple white t-shirt and sweatpants, hair still wet from the recent shower. Passing by the living room he double checked to see his Mom was still in the Simbox. He stepped up to the box and was about to press the Simbox communicator until he spotted text on the small monitor stating she was asleep.

“Where?” He mumbled to himself curiously before letting out a long yawn. He looked at his Simbox for a moment, then the couch, and contemplated where to sleep. Before that, another curiosity overtook him and he walked to his schoolbag, still sitting on the floor by the door. From it he pulled out a loose paper and his pencil and sat down at the kitchen table.

On the paper he quickly wrote down the symptoms and names of several common illnesses without any difficulty, then took a deep breath and flipped the page over. He began drawing a sketch for blueprints to a bridge. The attempt ended nearly as fast as it began with no sense of measurements coming to him, what structural rules he had to follow - it was all gone from his mind and the end result looked like the doodle of a bridge a 7 year old would draw. He took a shot at carefully drawing a symbol of Eirene and it was barely recognizable.

“Selena’s right, that’s weird.” Eli pulled away from the paper as if it was cursed. “Am I building the bridge, or is the game building it and just letting me think it's me?” He asked himself while tapping the eraser to the table. Part of him thought it didn’t matter, but another part of him thought it might be important to understand how it worked in the future. He knew he’d need to be able to craft incredible equipment to reach the top, so would he be crafting it? Or would the game’s skills do it and just make it seem like it was him?

For the moment he decided to push it to the back of his mind until he had more information. He stood up from the table and headed back to his Simbox. As he climbed in, he heard a light snoring coming from his Mom’s Simbox and couldn’t help but smirk to himself as he booted up his own Simulation.

Aegis reappeared in the game world on the ledge overlooking his land. It was later in the afternoon now, and below he saw both Pyri and Lina fast asleep on the back of the empty cart, using their packs as pillows. Despite the elegance of Pyri’s avatar, she was snoring loudly with her mouth open wide and drool trickling out.

“Oh, you’re back?” Rakkan asked from behind Aegis’ causing him to spin around. He was making his way out towards Orm with his battle axe and longsword in hand.

“Yeah… you? You’re awake already? It was only…” Aegis did quick math in his head. “3 hours ago, right?”

“Four. Four hours of sleep is enough.” Rakkan replied coolly. “I dig the bridge, by the way.” He commented. “I’ll be done with the trees by sunset if you need me for something else.”

“Got it.” Aegis nodded to him before taking a seat on the ledge once more. He decided to plan out what to build next, and like it hadn’t left, the ideas of how to build a small house flooded into his mind. “Weird.” He mumbled to himself as he laid his head back in the grass. Staring up at the cloudy sky while thinking helped him clear his head and plan out the finer details of where he’d build training grounds and a forge, and other buildings he’d possibly need. The possibilities of making thousands of gold and getting rich by carefully building up the land still sounded intriguing, if the streaming thing didn’t pan out… and with thoughts of grandeur, his mind trailed off into sleep.

“Hey, I hate to disturb your beauty sleep…” Darkshot nudged Aegis awake by gently bumping his leg with his foot. Aegis opened his eyes to see a darker sky above, tiny droplets of rain beginning to trickle down on them. “You didn’t build anything with a roof yet though.” Aegis sat up and stretched, glancing down below he no longer saw Pyri and Lina sleeping in the cart, instead were tending to the lagnok’s, while Amlie was back in her farm field messing around with the plants.

“Right.” Aegis yawned as he got to his feet. “I know what we gotta do.” He said mid yawn. “We’re heading to Orm, c’mon.” Aegis shouted over the ledge down at the three girls. All of them looked up from what they were doing after hearing his voice.

“Okay, coming!” Amlie shouted back.

“You were snoring!” Pyri mocked him with a chuckle, causing Aegis to roll his eyes despite her being too far to see.

“I’ll get the rented horse!” Lina said while running after the horse and cart they’d brought with them from Orm. The horse was reluctant to leave the abundant grass paradise, but she eventually got it and the empty cart up the ramp where the others gathered.

“Where’s Rakkan?” Amlie asked.

“He’s finishing off this road, we’re gonna help him.” Aegis yawned again. “The leader of the Night Hunter’s paid a visit. She said when the road’s done, she’ll add Rene to the Kingdom. That’ll let us hire a guard, so I’ll try to get one or two to look after the land while we’re logged out or exploring, so we don’t need to worry about thieves and such. I’ll probably need some buildings for them, but once that’s done, we should start getting some real leveling in.” Aegis explained as they walked.

“Okay.” Lina nodded.

“Finally!” Darkshot cheered. “I mean, it’s been fun helping you build things, and I look forward to the Tower of Light and Dark being constructed.” Darkshot corrected himself as he got a look from Aegis.

“At this point I’m just going to keep the default name for whatever I build you. ‘Tower’. It’ll just be called ‘Tower’.” Aegis grumbled back.

“Add a THE to the front and it’s actually kind of cool. THE Tower.” Darkshot shrugged.

“That’s not cool at all.” Amlie commented.

“Whatever, the point is, I’m looking forward to diving into a dungeon.” Darkshot replied.

“Good, then let’s finish this.” Aegis pulled from his inventory a bunch of copper shovels and axes, handing them out. Pyri and Darkshot looked at him confused until they saw Aegis move to the trunk of a tree that Rakkan had cut down and used his character's strength to uproot it and push it to the side of the would-be road within a few strikes of his shovel. Darkshot let out an audible sigh when he looked down the path of chopped trees ahead of the and saw just how many stumps would have to be uprooted.

“You don’t need those stumps for crafting, right?” Pyri asked curiously as she watched Aegis work.

“No, not really usable.” Aegis shrugged back.

“Put the shovels away then. You’ve got a Wizard in your party.” She grinned as she pulled out her staff. “Cinderbolt.” Pyri chanted, and a dark red streak of fire shot from the end of her staff at one of the tree stumps.

“I’ve never heard of that spell before.” Amlie watched in awe as the red flames quickly burned the stump to ash, down to the roots.

“Won’t that start a forest fire?” Aegis asked apprehensively.

“Nope, I control the flames. C’mon, let’s go!” Pyri cheered before casting Cinderbolt a few more times to clear the way, but stopped after the 11th shot. “Okay, out of mana, your turn again.” She waved Aegis and Darkshot forward.

“Got my hopes up and everything.” Darkshot grumbled.

“Seriously.” Aegis joined in. The rest of the evening for the five of them was more hard work, but the gains in strength and constitution from uprooting kept them motivated, and Pyri was enjoying the experience she was getting for her Cinderbolt spell and mana regeneration. The rain storm picking up momentum ended up making their jobs easier as well, and around Sundown is when they caught up with Rakkan as he was clearing the last bit of trees at the tree line around Orm village.

“Ah, it feels like forever since we were here.” Darkshot cheered at the sight of the village.

“Should I put this all in the cart?” Rakkan asked as he motioned to the final stacks of logs he’d gathered.

“We’re returning it, so let’s split the logs in our inventory until we can bring it back to Rene, so no one has to carry anything around manually.” Aegis instructed, and everyone started grabbing the logs and vanishing them into their game inventories. As they did, Aegis went into his Land management menu and saw the Road in the list of structures.

He renamed the [Road] to [Road to Orm] and registered it as one of his structures. Once he had, he got a notification.

Trade route established! A trade route [Road to Orm] has been established between [Rene] and [Kingdom of Kordas]. A menu for managing trade routes has been added to the Land Management menu.

“It’s finished.” Aegis let out a sigh of relief. “I was worried this wouldn’t be good enough.” He motioned over the plain path through the forest they’d made, seeing the quality of the road was only 2% in his interface. “I’ll talk to Sapphire and let her know the road is done, and try to recruit a guard for the land. Lina please return the horse so we don’t waste gold on weird fees, everyone else, sort out any stuff you need for dungeon exploration.” Aegis spoke to the group.

“I’m going to try to buy some seeds and farming tools.” Amlie said excitedly.

“I actually need a hand with something. Would you two mind?” Pyri motioned to Rakkan and Darkshot.

“N-not at all m’am.” Rakkan replied politely.

“It better not be something weird.” Aegis said apprehensively.

“Of course not, I’m not weird.” Pyri said defensively.

“Sure.” Darkshot shrugged, and the three headed into Orm separately from the others. Once inside the village proper, Lina split off to the stables while Amlie headed to the townsquare, leaving Aegis to find Sapphire under the stormy sky. Other players didn’t seem bothered by the rain at all, but the NPCs were all indoors making it easier to navigate the city, and eventually Aegis spotted Sapphire down one of the main roads of Orm, she was in the process of scolding two gnome players who had their heads down looking at their feet.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

“If I catch you doing that again, you’ll regret it, understand?” Sapphire finished.

“Y-yes Sapphire.” They both said in unison as children would.

“Good, now scram.” She shouted, and the two of them took off running. Once they were out of her view she pulled a carrot from her inventory and was about to bite it before spotting Aegis. She paused to look at him for a moment, then bit it anyway - the crunching sound was inaudible over the sound of the rain splashing down around them.

“Just how much did you hear?” Aegis asked.

“All of it... It’s a rule of our guild, we have to tell Quinn. But she decides what to do with what we tell her. You don’t need to worry.” Sapphire assured him. “C’mere.” She motioned Aegis out of the rain to stand under the overhang shelter of a nearby shop. “Being a demihuman bunny has lots of perks, but rain in these ears really sucks.” She complained before suddenly shaking her head rapidly as a dog would to get as much water off of them as possible.

“The way you helped out the Orc was really nice. I think you are a good person who is just angry about some things. You should let the anger go.” Sapphire looked at him seriously for a moment before breaking the mood with another carrot bite.

“Thanks for the advice…” Aegis sighed as he looked down at his feet for a moment. “The road is done, Quinn said to tell you?”

“Oh, yup.” Sapphire replied while pressing some buttons in her interface which to Aegis just looked like she was waving her fingers in the air. “Done.”

[Rene] has been invited to join the [Kingdom of Kordas] of the Kalmoore island. Accepting this invitation will subject your land to the laws of the [Kingdom of Kordas]. [?]

[Accept] [Decline]

Aegis hit accept confidently and got a notification that Rene was now a registered part of the Kingdom of Kordas.

“There, it’s done. That was easy enough.” Aegis shrugged.

“Quinn said you’re only allowed to take 5 guards from Orm, and only if they want to go with you. Orm’s a bit short handed lately, because… well, you know why.” Sapphire explained.

“I’m free to recruit whoever?”

“Yep.” Sapphire shrugged back.

“Okay, thanks.”

“Good luck. Oh, here, a congratulations carrot for joining the Kingdom.” Sapphire pulled out another carrot from her inventory.

“Th…thanks.” Aegis took it reluctantly, causing Sapphire to smile wide before grumpily stepping back into the rain and disappearing into the streets of Orm. Once she was gone, Aegis headed with purpose down the streets of Orm with a clear destination in mind, ending up outside a small house near the western outskirts with a cart parked out front. Off to the side of the house was a very small fenced off field with a shelter built on the far end for an old grumpy looking horse that sat underneath it, shielded from the rain. Aegis could see lanterns glowing inside the house from the curtain-covered windows and stepped up to the door, giving it a loud knock.

After a few seconds the door swung open to reveal a beautiful young lady with Long brown hair with [Tinsel - Level 3] above her head in white text. She looked much healthier and happier than when Aegis had last seen her, and she smiled curiously at him.

“Yes, how may I help you?” She asked politely. It was at that moment Aegis realized that she had no idea who he was - when he’d saved her his name was Winter and he looked completely different.

“Ah- well,” Before Aegis could finish, a human male with dark brown hair joined her in the doorway. [Farlion - Level 10]. Aegis hadn’t seen Farlion without his guard armor on before, but was expecting him to look older.

“Is everything alright?” Farlion asked.

“You’re off duty right now?” Aegis asked him, trying to ease into a conversation with them as he accepted the fact they’d have no idea who he was.

“I’m off duty permanently.” Farlion replied with a disappointed stare. “If you’d like to report a crime, you’d best find an on duty guard. There’s a guard station a few buildings up the street that way.” Farlion pointed Aegis in the direction he’d need to go. Once he had, he prepared to close the door, but Aegis stopped him.

“W-wait, no, I’m not looking for a guard, I was looking for you.” He stopped as he and Tinsel looked at him curiously. “Why’re you off duty permanently? Because of the kidnapping thing?” Aegis asked.

“How did you know about that?” Farlion looked at him anxiously, Tinsel with wide eyes.

“Ah- well, I’m a friend of Winter. He told me about you.”

“Oh, Winter!” Tinsel’s face lit up. “How is he?”

“He’s doing alright.” Aegis held back a chuckle.

“To answer your question, yes.” Farlion replied dejectedly. “The captain said he couldn’t trust me anymore.”

“Who’s there dad?” A young boy's voice called from behind them as he pushed between Tinsel and Farlion. [Luca - Level 1] sat above his head in white text, he looked no older than 10. He had short brown hair like his father, but eyes like his mom. Seeing the kid, Aegis’ mind quickly flipped on its head.

“Just a friend of the man who saved your mom.” Farlion smiled.

“Oh, hey mister, I’m Luca.” He stretched his hand out to shake Aegis' which he hesitantly obliged.

“So what can we help you with?” Tinsel smiled, and all three looked at Aegis expectantly.

“W-well, actually…” Aegis paused.

“Are you going to give dad his job back?” Luca asked excitedly.

“He can’t do something like that.” Farlion ruffled his son's hair.

“You still want to be a guard, after everything that happened?” Aegis asked him curiously.

“It’s… it’s all I ever wanted to be. But I failed to protect my own family, and…” He turned to Tinsel who put her hands on his shoulder comfortingly. “It led to a lot of people getting hurt. I was too weak, so I can’t blame the guard captain for firing me.” Farlion looked to his feet. Aegis looked at the three and after some thought, let out an elongated sigh.

“Do you want another chance?” Aegis asked, and he looked up at Aegis with intrigue, as did Luca and Tinsel. “To be a guard?”

“Y-yes, but how?” Farlion replied as he looked in the direction of the guard post down the street.

“Not here in Orm... I’m the Land owner of Rene, it’s a new encampment but I'm building it up and I need someone to protect the land and keep order while me and my companions aren’t there. It’s not much right now, but it could be dangerous in the future…”

“Dangerous?” Tinsel hesitated.

“How far from here is Rene?” Farlion asked curiously.

“It’s almost a half a day on foot, but, I don’t want to separate family. I could build a house for you all to live on Rene, if you want. Rent free, in return for your services. You’d be the only guard, but you’d also be the only resident, for now. I mean, apart from me and my companions.” Aegis shrugged. He wasn’t quite sure if this offer would be considered good or not, but seeing how all three of their faces lit up with excitement, he got the feeling he may have over-offered.

“R-rent free? A house just for us?” Tinsel whispered into Farlion’s ear in disbelief.

“Dad, you can be a guard again?” Luca asked excitedly.

“You’re serious?” Farlion asked him.

“Dead serious. But you’ll need to get a lot stronger, I’ll build up a training grounds and expect you to work hard, so you’ll be ready for anything.” Aegis replied, looking at his level of just 10.

“Yes, of course my Lord. When should I start?” He asked eagerly as all eyes were on him again.

“W-well… as soon as you can I guess? Do you like this house? Should I build something like this?” Aegis asked as he eyed the building up and down. Tinsel quickly motioned him inside to let him get a better view.

“Y-yes, it’s small but it suits us.” She replied happily. Aegis saw that it only had 1 separated room, the small building’s kitchen and living areas were all a single room, the only separated room was a single bedroom off to the side.

“I want my own room though.” Luca interjected.

“Luca.” Tinsel whispered angry at him while flicking his ear.

“What? Just saying…” Luca grumbled back at her. Looking at the structure, Aegis could feel his Architecture skill at work, and within seconds he understood how it was built and how to recreate it. It was just wood, nothing complicated, but Aegis still felt amazed by the fact that he knew he’d never be able to reconstruct something like this in the real world, at least not without great difficulty. In a similar way, the furniture’s woodworking was all easy for him to understand as he wandered around their simple cozy wooden home, illuminated by a few lanterns hanging on hooks on the walls.

Of all the furniture, the bed looked the most challenging for him, and he started working out in his head how to use weaving to make softer furniture. Once Aegis had taken it all in he peered out the side window at their farm field and the horse.

“The horse is yours?” Aegis asked.

“Yup, his name’s Grumble, he’s old but he’s still strong.” Farlion replied.

“Ok… I’ll do my best to have something in the next day or two. Whenever you guys are sorted out, you can head to Rene. There's a road leading straight to our city that way..." He motioned in the direction of the road outside. "Try to make it quick though, we’d like to head out to a nearby dungeon as soon as possible."

“Yes my Lord.” Farlion politely bowed.

“J-just call me Aegis. Lord sounds a bit weird.” Aegis replied back shyly.

“Of course, Aegis.” Farlion corrected himself. “And thank you. Thank you for giving me another chance.” Farlion bowed again. Seeing their smiling faces, Aegis couldn’t help but smile himself as he left their home to trek once more through the rainy streets of Orm. “Is this really a game?” He shook his head to himself as he made his way to the outskirts of Orm. He couldn’t think of anything else he needed to grab despite double checking, so prepared himself to make his way back to Rene. Before he’d even made it out of the village proper, Lina and Amlie spotted him and rushed to catch up.

“I got a lot of vegetable seeds and cotton seeds!” Amlie said excitedly while waving a few small leather pouches around in front of Aegis.

“Good… did you get everything done in Orm?” Aegis turned to Lina.

“Yup.” She smiled. The three were soaking wet from the rain but not a single one of them made a comment about it. As they continued to walk out of the village, they spotted Pyri, Darkshot and Rakkan already making their way back to the road to Rene as well.

“Hey, you guys are done already as well?” Aegis called out to them.

“Yup!” Pyri cheered back, while Rakkan and Darkshot very obviously avoided eye contact with Aegis.

“Mom, did you do something weird?”

“Nope, of course not. C’mon, let’s go!” She spoke gleefully as she led the group on the walk back.

“Wh-what about you, you get us any guards?” Darkshot tried to change the subject.

“Yeah, I got one, they’ll be coming to Rene soon…” Aegis eyed him up and down to try to get an idea of what was going on. Amlie and Lina were also observing the boys curiously. “I’ll need to build a house for them though… so we'll start with that as our first real building.”

“Finally.” Darkshot let out a sigh of relief.

“And after that, a stable for my future horse.” Pyri squeaked to herself excitedly.