Five distinct figures appeared on the portal and Arthur’s mouth curled a joyful smile.
‘Finally, the timing was exquisite.’
After a cursory glance over his shoulder to look at the blabbermouth, he turned his undivided attention to the quest log.
[Quest: Upgrade settlement into a village] ✔
[ Requirements - reach 100 population (100/100) ✔ ]
[- 40 small huts (40/40) ✔ ]
[- Workbench ✔ ]
[- Well ✔ ]
With no fanfare or special effects, he saw that the last checkbox completed itself with a checkmark.
‘Complete quest!’ Commanding mentally, he felt a rush of dopamine running through his veins as the expectations rose with each passing second.
With a slight rumble of the ground, Arthur saw in his vision a box informing him that he gained a new title as the ground nearby the summoning portal shook.
Title - Village chief Fulfilled condition : Establish a village Allows upgrading of the gate of summoning
Job selection available for the villagers
''The more the merrier''
“Huh?” The happiness came out quicker than he thought. Arthur bursted into a grin as he read through the system message. The title itself was not important to Arthur, but the benefits that came with it were massive.
‘Finally, I can confirm the relationship between jobs and experience.’
When Arthur saw that the new people coming from the summoning portal were terrified, he quickly realized that he should maybe have explained the situation beforehand to them.
“Don’t be afraid! The shaking of the ground is made by me in a sense. Sorry about it.” With a somewhat apologetic smile, he tried to remain calm and confident.
The new villagers turned their confused and afraid faces towards Arthur and gradually calmed down under the encouraging and welcoming shouts of the villagers surrounding them.
“What's going on here? Where is this?” The new villagers asked.
“Don’t worry, you’ll be safe here. I am Arthur.” With a slight pause, he glanced at his changed job title from his status and continued. “The village chief of Stormhold. Welcome!”
Arthur noticed Jonathan in the crowd and motioned him to come. “Jonathan, do you mind taking over the introductions here? There is much for me to do with the village upgrade…”
“Uhh, fine I guess.” After some hesitation, Jonathan nodded and led the newly summoned villagers away.
Mentally giving himself a high five, he successfully avoided meeting new people AND could shift his thoughts towards upgrading the settlement. With the shaking of the ground becoming greater each passing moment, Arthur was startled by the sudden turn of events.
The area that the summoning portal occupied suddenly rose from the ground and expanded away from the small huts.
New, white stone tiles formed a geometrically perfect rectangle, and from what Arthur could tell, a roof supported by ancient greek style pillars and walls rose from the ground.
With his hearing, Arthur could hear some of the villagers murmuring the expansion to be a miracle.
‘Miracle? It’s just an upgrade made by the system… Feeling that somehow this line of thinking was wrong, he started to think from another perspective.
I kinda can see why they would think so. Making something out of nothing is something extraordinary, but I have just been looking at this world from the narrow perspective of a former game enthusiast.’ As Arthur looked at the building rising from the ground and saw the amazement and wonder in the villagers' faces, he felt that his outlook on this world had been far too easy going and reckless.
Yes. Every single one of those villagers had a life and personality of their own, not just some NPC that he could control from behind a screen. They had uphills and downhills in their lives, just as Arthur did.
So what if they did not remember much from before, they still had a unique life in a strange world.
What if something bad had happened and people had died, wouldn’t he have been directly responsible for it? ‘I am sorry, everyone. I will try my best to grow into someone dependable from now on.’ Apologizing mentally for the whole village, he made a resolution.
‘I have to correct my thinking while I still can. Now that it’s possible for the villagers to have jobs, I have to be prepared for everything.’ Ending his worries here, a quote back from earth ran through his mind. If you want peace, prepare for war. And thus Arthur made up his mind to establish a self defense force for the village.
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The atmosphere quieted down as the villagers sensed that the upgrade to the village was about to be finished. The seabreeze that was usually present during the day, disappeared and the rustling of the grass stopped. Arthur and the rest held their breaths as the summoning gate seemed to gather an energy of sorts and a system notification appeared before Arthur.
[Select the color of your borders.]
With many thoughts running through his head, Arthur hesitated only for a moment before calling out “Purple”.
[Border color selected successfully.]
[Establishing borders.]
With a brilliant beam of light towards the skies above, the surrounding villagers looked into the skies and a faint feeling of pride rose up to their hearts. An inexplicable feeling that told them they were…home.
All the villagers looked reverently at the beam of light and saw that it was slowly changing color towards a purplish hue.
Seconds passed slowly, and wind was once again starting to blow from the sea, making the grass rustle gently in the tune of the breeze.
“What is that?” One of the villagers shouted out.
A purple ring expanded from the base of the beam of light, growing exponentially and enveloped the land.
Arthur had a guess in his heart and quickly sprinted towards the stairways to the gate of summoning. After all, now that the gate had risen 6 to 8 meters in elevation, it seemed like a natural watchtower.
Atop the stairways, Arthur saw that the purplish colored ring was still expanding far from the village at a rapid rate. According to his estimates, the borders had already spread near the sea and for some parts of the forest. ‘I see, it is like this.’
When he lost the sight of the borders expanding, he heard another notification.
[Borders established]
[- 25% crops maturing time]
[+ 10% productivity.]
[+ 20% rested bonus]
[+ 15% research speed]
[+ 10% attack & defense for defending troops]
“Jackpot!” Exclaiming loudly, he tightened his fists and laughed out loud.
This attracted some attention from the villagers, and quiet murmurs occurred in the crowd. Jonathan made his way to Arthur with the new villagers in tow.
“I can assume we have some good news for the upgrades, hmm?”
“You could say so, there are still a few things that I am not quite sure about but so far everything is positive.” Arthur turned towards Jonathan and explained briefly on the benefits of a village before asking his opinion about the rested bonus.
“Hmm, basing my guess on what I know, it should be a greater recovery or something similar…” Gently scratching his gray beard, Jonathan answered thoughtfully.
“I am thinking something similar, good. I have to check something, so teach them well about our way of doing things here.” Having read Jonathan's intentions about dumping the new villagers back to him, he quickly escaped from the scene without leaving Jonathan any room to argue. ‘Don’t try to pull a fast one on me Jonathan, I just promised that I would be dependable, but that is that and this is this.’
Arthur walked inside the newly risen building that rose from the ground with light steps.
While marveling at the craftsmanship, he remembered the time he selected a job.
The building gave him somehow different, but still similar vibes. The inscribed patterns on the pillars and the walls were still indecipherable to Arthur, but he strongly believed that one day he would get to know what the texts meant.
The building itself reminded Arthur of an ancient temple. From what he could see, there were some traces of greek, roman, egyptian, mayan and other civilizations. Since Arthur didn’t specialize in ancient cultures, it was useless for him to try to make any speculations about the origin or meaning of the temple.
Aside from the temple itself, there was only the pedestal for the job chance, so he didn’t waste more time alone and went back. ‘I don’t have to think too hard about this. I can just send a few people here to check out what jobs they can get and take it from there.’
Descending the stairway, he thought back on the benefits brought by the borders and realized the importance of security.
Back in his schooldays, it was taught that a man called Maslow developed a theory for human needs. At that time Arthur scoffed and cursed the teacher, thinking: “Why would I need to know this.” But now he regrets his own laziness and indifference.
‘It went something like first food and essentials, then security and after that all the happy and creative stuff. I can’t skimp on food or security. They will be the foundations of my village.’
Dividing the problem he faced into two categories, he started to make a plan with small milestones, namely militia and farming.