The morning came with the slight breeze from the sea and in a small, shabby hut, the first rays of light illuminated the surroundings.
In the corner of the hut, Arthur woke up groggily and shivering. Turning his head in confusion as he expected to see the familiar roof from the familiar, comfortable bed.
I sort of wished it was just a long dream. Holding his hand on his stomach, he could feel that now would be the time for the usual breakfast.
Standing up, Arthur cautiously looked around at his surroundings while reminding himself that he could not afford to be careless.
With a slight push, he opened the door and peeked outside.
The sun had already risen in the sky, the wind was calmly blowing from the sea and the grass was rustling in the tune of the wind.
Walking with light steps, Arthur arrived at the small stream of water, took a few large gulps of water before sitting down on a nearby rock. “I guess it’s time to get to work, the altar is not building itself…”
Rolling up his sleeves and placing the stone axe firmly between his trousers and belt, he went on to gather all the stones he could and wondered what surprises the altar could bring.
“15 units.”
“20 units, 10 more to go.”
Taking a few small breaks in between of lugging the stones into the pile of resources, Arthur saw in his peripheral vision a small notice while carrying a piece of large stone towards the pile.
Strength increased + 1 (13→14)
“Woah!” With an exclamation, he almost dropped the rock on his feet and quickly regained composure.
I can increase my basic stats with regular work? What about intelligence and spirit? And what about the secondary attributes? There’s so much to discover.
He dropped the stone on the pile with a heavy thud and started to compare his strength after the upgrade.
I wonder how much difference there is when comparing from before and after?
Arthur pondered for a minute or two, but he knew that he shouldn’t waste his strength and time on anything extra, so he pushed his curiosity on the back of his head and continued his resource gathering.
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“Phew, all done. Now to see what this thing does. Construction. Build altar.”
Arthur saw the familiar construction placement and saw the shadowy, translucent outline of a platform. He then confirmed the placement and saw an additional message.
[Are you sure you want to construct: Altar [Special] here?]
Without hesitation, he confirmed the placement and saw the pile of resources disappear in front of his eyes and the stony platform started to construct itself.
Well, this is convenient. I was already prepared to sweat blood and tears moving large slabs of stone but this saves me the trouble.
Minutes passed and the stony altar platform was starting to form. 9 Grand pillars rose from the outer edges of the altar platform, and a pedestal took shape in the middle. Arthur's eyes were fixated on the mystical symbols located on the base of the pillars. What do they represent? Why were there inscriptions only on the bottom part? What was the pedestal’s function?
Special building: [Altar] Constructed
"Choose your destiny'' - ???
“Choose your destiny?” With doubts in his mind, Arthur walked next to the pedestal and felt a strange energy enveloping him. The light dimmed around him and the pedestal glowed with light.
He paced his hand instinctively on the pedestal and saw a somewhat different translucent screen.
“Huh?”
With a dumbfounded expression, he saw rows upon rows of different job titles. Pirate, merchant, bandit, adventurer, blacksmith, researcher, botanist and so on.
Now I see why the man who sent me here told me to build an altar quickly. It was to get a specialized job. But what do I really want to be here?
Troubled by the amount of choices, he was feeling a bit lost. It was not that Arthur was indecisive, but in his opinion there was too much at stake here.
I can only now rely on the good ol’ elimination round. First of all let’s get rid of all the professions related to robbing, murder and crime.
Spending a good half an hour, Arthur started to narrow down his path until he had only a few choices left.
Hunter, adventurer, farmer, settler, explorer. Farmer and hunter would probably be the best choices to get food and stability, but there are drawbacks as well.
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Explorer and adventurer sound interesting, but I know next to nothing about this world so it would most likely be extremely dangerous. How about the benefits of being a settler?
After pondering long and hard, he didn’t receive any hints or explanations from the system, even after voicing his concerns out loud multiple times. Why is it so stingy with any help? It assisted me with the construction options, but was it a one time deal?
He knew in his heart that this choice would shape and lay foundation to his future, so Arthur was struggling and hesitating with his decision. Scratching his head and lightly pulling his hair, he made his decision.
“Fine, settler it is.” After confirming his choice, the altar gave a light hum and a strange sensation enveloped Arthur for a moment.
In a blink of an eye the sensation was gone, leaving Arthur a bit dumbfounded.
That’s it? No special fanfare or congratulations, nothing?
Feeling a bit underwhelmed, he looked over his status board and saw an added skill and his job was changed to settler.
“Create settlement? And I can use it only once?”
While trying to figure out what exactly the skill does, Arthur felt the same tremors from before.
The grand pillars and the altar were sinking back to the ground at a visible rate. In a hurry, he ran away from the altar and gloomily looked at the altar disappearing. That was his 30 stones that were sinking back into the ground.
Arthur comforted himself with the fact that he got his job, so it could be said that the altar had filled its purpose.
He had a nagging feeling that he should use his “Create settlement” as soon as possible. With that as his primary focus, Arthur scanned the nearby area around him.
After searching and deciding a suitable, flat and open position, he used his new skill.
With a strange feeling that something had happened, the skill faded into nothing like dust in a wind before his eyes.
Standing in the open, verdant grasslands, the dumbfounded Arthur felt like his hopes and dreams were taken away as time passed.
“This is a scam! I want a refund…” Feeling upset at the anticlimactic skillusage, he fell powerless on his buttocks and sighed deeply. The seconds rolled out slowly, and the warm wind seemed to drop in temperature while the expectant light faded in his eyes.
“Ah f*** it. I wasted too much time on hoping for something special…Did the system give me a dud skill?” Muttering with a dejected tone, he made up his mind to make a fishing rod and try to gather some food.
Propping himself unsteadily with his right hand, he suddenly felt the ground tremor under him and suddenly his heart sprouted a hopeful feeling.
The ground continued to quake and crack for minutes, until something bursted out slowly from the ground in the position Arthur had used his "Create settlement" skill.
A simple semicircular arch with approximately 3 meters in diameter and 5 meters tall, placed firmly in white marble pavement came into his view.
[Name your settlement.]
“Uhh…I have always been terrible at naming things. Let’s go with…Stormhold.”
[Settlement established successfully!]
[Hint you can see settlement related information by calling “My settlement”]
“My settlement”
[Population (1)]
[Population growth +5 / day]
[Income -]
[Specialties -]
[Fame- 0]
“Huh? Population growth?” With some wonder in his voice, he unconsciously muttered and at the same time the semicircular arch flashed with mysterious purple, swirling light.
Focusing his full attention on the arch, he nervously tensed his muscles and grasped his crude stone axe.
Looking anxiously at the arch, he waited on what was to come. Soon enough, 5 blurred shadowy figures came into Arthur’s view. The figures walked out of the swirling light and looked around themselves curiously.
Who are they? Friends? Foes?
In his heart, Arthur had a guess who they might be, but he wanted to be sure.
He decided to adopt the attitude of wait and see before rushing into any conclusions while staying alert.
While the newcomers seemed to be regular humans, 4 men and 1 woman, what Arthur had seen during his last 24 hours exceeded the commonsense definition of normal.
Trying to appear calm and collected, he kept his silence and nervously observed the newcomers.
The strangers had noticed him a while ago, and murmured amongst themselves before they approached Arthur. Please be friendly, please be friendly.
Murmuring quietly in his heart, he could already feel his palms and the back of the neck getting a bit sweaty.
“Hello, you must be the settlement leader?” The oldest looking man of the group greeted Arthur with a neutral expression.