Vern was enjoying himself, which surprised him. He hadn't had fun playing any of these new-fangled MMOMGPTQ whatever. Too complicated. But this one was easy. You logged in and pretended it was real. He could handle that, and it was nice to be away from the endless meetings with one member of the board of directors or one of their flunkies. And constant work of checking up on the various team leaders scattered around the game to see if they were accomplishing anything.

Billy was one of the few that he knew was getting things done, and that made it worth logging into the game, instead of using a program like Virtual Office to meet with his managers. Billy damned well knew how to hold a meeting, drinking beer in front of a roaring fire. A very, very, big, roaring fire. The barn and smokehouse were now a huge pile of coals slowly burning down. It would take another couple of days to burn out. He didn't understand all this talk of daemons and quests, but it was obvious that Famco was behind it all. They'd sent in a team to test Billy, and Billy's team had handed them their heads and got a reward from the game.

The other thing Vern was enjoying was the distinct lack of brown-nosers. He'd had a long talk with Billy and this Ozzy fellow about what had been happening in the area. He'd gotten a concise report on Famco's attempts at sabotage and spying but with none of the deferential treatment and sucking-up that was so common in corporate managers. Billy had his people well-trained.

Ozzy had some ideas for a new barracks to replace the flimsy huts; his suggestion was to 'go medieval.' Build a stone building with thick outer walls with all of the windows and doors on the inside facing a central courtyard. It would give the workers more protection from monsters, goblins, or sabotage by another corporation. Vern and Billy liked the idea. If it worked out, they could send the plans to other groups.

Billy also liked Ozzy's suggestion that the work crew build the new housing after hours. They would put in an 8 to 10-hour day and then a few more on their housing. Better for the bottom line and a good incentive to get the job done faster. They wanted to design their own homes, and ACME wasn't paying them to do it.

Later, several other workers joined their group. Other than making sure their beers got refilled, they hadn't seemed to show Billy or Vern any special treatment as they sat and drank. Sifting through their idle talk had filled Vern in on several subjects such as how many new calves were born each week, profits at the tavern, dangers on the local roads, and how to increase profits from the Legion fulfillment contract.

They'd even sketched out the plans for all the new buildings and corrals. Billy just had to nod his approval. It was more and more obvious how Billy was accomplishing so much. Vern wondered again how Billy had put together a crew like this in less than an hour. All the other managers assumed he'd done it ahead of time, but Vern knew he'd been as surprised as the rest of them. Yet somehow, he'd handed in a stack of contracts for competent workers almost immediately. Vern's gut told him there was more to it. Could Billy have had insider knowledge and only acted surprised?

The Contract Worker project was an overall success. Back on earth, this workforce was just part of the under-nourished poor living in cramped habitat blocks and eating artificial food. Most of them were also in poor health with little or no access to healthcare. But here they were all physically superior people who could work 16 hours a day with little complaint and do the work of three people. As they settled into their roles and got some experience they were working faster and faster.

All of the ACME crews were doing an adequate job, but Vern didn't like adequate. He wanted the rest of the teams to do as well as Billy and he wanted Billy to get that city opened up. Still, he had to admit Billy had accomplished a lot in two weeks.

- 160 acres of land cleared for crops, fields laid out, irrigation dug, and crops planted.

- The fulfillment contract with the Legion was bringing in double profits.

- Half a million board feet of timber ready for construction.

-Tanning, leatherworking, and quarrying started.

- Half ownership in a local tavern that was turning immediate profits.

- Three miles of road that Caesar would be proud of.

Sure, some small setbacks like a Daemon burning down half of what they had built. But from the look of things, they'd have that sorted in a couple of days. The road was a little overkill for this area, but a huge asset in the long run. Corporate Building Points were part of the contract with the AI. The more civic improvements a corporation accomplished, the more Building Points they earned. Those could be redeemed for small plots of land in the cities, or to improve their areas. Vern had been delighted when Billy earned him their first points.

[ACME Corporation has earned the following for their Northern Division: Corporate Build Points x 30 for the construction of 3 miles of road that meets specifications for 'Road of the Emperor's Legions'. As per their contract, ACME Corporation may redeem build points for additional land and special buildings.]

Vern was sure Billy wouldn't mind his crew building a bit more road.

=*=

Ozzy was feeling better by around ten in the morning and ready to get to work. He'd sat listening to Vern and Billy talk for a couple of hours. Vern seemed in no hurry at all to do much more besides watch the bonfire where the barn used to be and slowly sip some beer. Ozzy had used the time to talk with Ben, Rolly, and Suzette, carefully moving the conversation around to highlight what they had been working on.

Ben and Rolly had whipped together some charcoal sketches of new buildings and a layout for them. Vern was focusing on the city and Billy was focused on Vern. It wasn't difficult to get approval for the plans. Billy wasn't a micro-manager. Show him you could do something, stay out of his hair, show results and he was happy. Ben had seen this when he set up the tanning operation and he'd filled in the others.

Ozzy stood up, stretched, and cracked his knuckles. "Ok folks, let’s get some work in. The gloomy clouds from dying should be off of everyone. We'll get some folks to head up with Mr. Billy and Mr. Vern to the end of the road and we can go over the building plans with everyone else. We’ll have a quick meeting and get to work on the new barn and smokehouse."

Ozzy waited until they were away from Billy and then asked the others some questions. "So, you all got a chunk of points?"

Suzette and Ben nodded. Rolly said, "Oh yeah, 18 points each. I like fights like that. Can we invite Timmy and his crew back for another one?"

Suzette didn't like that idea. "I don't trust those creeps. They work for Famco and one of them deliberately tossed fireballs at you guys. I was so pissed when Ben told me about that."

Rolly shrugged, "Yeah, but Ben took care of that. And we won in the end. If he hadn't been an asshole, we might have had to share experience with him. It all worked out great. Even got some points for some of the other guys. Not as many - I think Jorges said he got 6 points and so did the half dozen other folk who helped out at the end, setting up the trap."

Ozzy stared off for a few seconds and then said. "Let’s grab those people and have a talk - tell them what we know about spending points. And make sure they know to keep quiet about it around Billy. Remember, we signed an NDA and can't talk about the first list we saw. Keep any discussion of skills to just what each of them can see."

Quickly enough they had a crew heading out with Billy and the folks they needed gathered around. Ozzy started off the conversation. "We wanted to talk about the skill points you all got. They have a lot of uses." It was a bit awkward. When they killed the wolf boss they hadn't mentioned the points and abilities to anyone. Now to explain how they knew so much, they had to come clean about keeping the info to themselves.

Cham stood up with his hands in his pockets. "Yeah, about that, see Jon and I sort of figured this out a while ago, but kind of kept quiet about it. Guess we should have filled you in."

"You did? How?" Now Ozzy was confused.

Jon continued. "We were logging through a stand of apple trees. Good wood for carving, making timbers and smoking meat. All of a sudden the damn tree that I whacked started moving. It was thrashing with limbs and tossing rotten apples at us. We both started whacking at it with our axes and finally killed the thing after hitting it a dozen times each."

Ben was intrigued, "Your axes worked as weapons on it? We fought a wolf but we sucked badly. Everything we did was counted as a default weapon."

Jon nodded, "Oh, yeah, for us too, we couldn't kill a hedgehog with them. We still don't have a weapon skill. The only thing the two of us had done for a week was chop trees. We've each gotten a couple of points in STR and DEX. That seemed to help. We missed a lot, but trees have a hard time dodging, and we weren't getting the default weapon message. Eventually, we split it down the middle. Here, look."

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[Congratulations! You have chopped down 'Bad Apple', a level 2 Named Boss Treant.

You have earned 2 Enhancement Points.

You have earned 200 experience in your class.

You have earned 200 experience in STR.

You have found a sturdy branch made of ancient apple wood.]

"We've run into more of them. Seems like every other day we'd run into another annoyed tree. Elmer Elm was level 2, Sassy Frassy was level 3, and Rotbranch was Level 2. We each have 15 Enhancement points now; 9 from killing treants and 6 from that Daemon."

Chad spoke up. "I bought Identification 1. It showed me that treants are vulnerable to axes. So even though we were only doing 20 damage plus another 10 for STR, that got doubled to 60. After we put some points into STR and gained some more experience, it got a lot easier. I'm at 7 STR now and Jon is at 6. Sorry about keeping quiet. We kind of had a good thing going and were worried about the bosses finding out."

Suzette laughed. "Oh, aren't we all a bunch of idiot gamers? We did the same thing. Time to come clean. Did anyone else kill a boss?"

It turned out that they had. Amy had been picking away at an exposed iron seam they found in the quarry when a big chunk broke off and she got attacked by some sort of elemental. Her pick hurt it badly and it was slow. She killed it by continuously running around it and whacking it from behind.

[Congratulations! You have shattered 'Rubble, the rock that walks!', a level 2 Named Elemental.

You have earned 2 Enhancement Points.

You have earned 200 experience in your class.

You have earned 200 experience in STR.

You have found a perfectly round pebble.]

Jorges had been attacked by a living flame out of his forge. The fight hadn't lasted long. He'd up-ended his quenching tank on it and killed it with water.

[Congratulations! You have terminally soaked 'Fiero', a level 2 Named Boss Elemental.

You have earned 2 Enhancement Points.

You have earned 200 experience in your class.

You have earned 200 experience in STR or DEX.

You have found a rough fire crystal.]

A few people only had the 6 points from the Daemon, while others, like Chad and Jon, had quite a bit more. The list of skills they could each bring up was nearly the same, with different skills at the end based on their jobs. More points to spend seemed to unlock more expensive skills. Some people had been offered unique skills that seemed to be based on their jobs. Jorges could force stamina into his forge to increase the heat of the fire.

[From experimenting with a fire crystal, you have unlocked the skill: Flesh to Flame.

This skill allows you to raise the temperature of your forge by feeding the fire with your stamina. Be careful not to feed too much into the fire or you'll make an ash of yourself Cost: 2 Enhancement Points

Flesh to Flame is a tertiary INT-based skill.]

Chad and Jon had both been offered an upgrade to logging.

[You have unlocked the Enhancement: Timber!

This ability allows you to fall trees 15% faster per rank. Cost: 2 points per rank. Max 5 ranks and a decrease in felling time of 75%.

Additional: Treants, Wood Golems, and similar creatures take an additional 20 points per hit from your felling tools.]

Each of them had taken two ranks so far in Timber!, cutting 30% off their work time and making treants easier to kill.

There was a distinct difference between Named bosses and Elite bosses from what they could tell. Chartok had been a level 5 Elite and p tough, with a lot of health and necromantic spells. The Daemon was a level 7 Elite and just scary as hell. The fact that Amy had killed a Named boss by herself meant they were much weaker, and they gave fewer points. It was interesting how they also seemed to drop trade skill items and not loot chests.

Ben started taking notes about skills and costs from each person. The group decided to meet up again on their next day off and have a longer discussion. For now, it was time to start rebuilding a barn

Everyone was in the tavern late that night. Suzette was working her job as a Barmaid. Ozzy was technically also working, but no one was causing a problem so he sat, talked, and slowly sipped on an ale. They were still discussing how to spend their points. Ben was holding off on spending his points until he could have a good chat with Matthias.

Rolly also said he needed to talk to someone but wasn't saying more than that. "Sorry guys. I'm just tired. I need a good night’s sleep. Hell, or a few days of sleep. I'll catch up with you in the morning." He headed off to where he slept in the pasture, checking on Betty and Ferdinand on the way. Squirmie was anxious for some sleep too.

Ozzy and Ben both watched their friend leave, puzzled. Ben voiced the question in both of their heads. "Why would Rolly need so much sleep when we have a skill that helps with that? Think he's up to something."

"He is, but I think it's what he's always up to: Training animals into pets that will adventure with him. He was depressed at first about not having a dog. I think he's trying to spend a lot of time in the pastures and train a calf into a pet. They grow up quick and trust me, a sedge beast is something you don't want to mess with."

Suzette and Ozzy headed to their room after closing up sometime after midnight. Suzette said she had a bunch of stuff to tell Ozzy, but first wanted to see how he was spending his points. From experience, she knew that as long as he had points to spend and choices to make, most of his brain would be focused there. It wasn't that what she had to tell him was earth-shattering important - she just liked having his full attention.

"What are your thoughts? I notice you've put on a lot of muscle and that helps in fights, but you said something about needing to balance it with CON?"

"Yep, if I hadn't died in that fire I'd have been laid up for a couple of days, or longer, with pulled muscles everywhere. Originally, I was going to push STR as high as I could, but I'm rethinking that until I can raise my CON. And since I have 1000 experience points that go into one or the other, I've considered dumping it into CON and raising my cap until I can even them out. My experience in STR is just over 1000 and with the cap raised, I can see I need to get to 1500 for the next point."

"That sounds like a start. If you don't have a good balance between the two, fights will get more awkward. Nothing is going to let us compete with regular players, with no armor or weapon skills, so we need to play to our strengths. That looks like stats and hopefully grinding out more enhancement points. I doubt that any player is killing as many treants as Jon and Cham."

"Makes a lot of sense, but I have to wonder if the lumberjacks are fighting trees, the miners are fighting rock elementals, are you going to fight animated beer mugs?"

"I hope not. Mopping up the tavern each night is tough enough as it is. I'll figure out something, or our group will have to do more adventuring on days off. At least you can look forward to more meat monsters." She grinned at the surprise on his face.

"Not wanting to think about that. Let's get back to spending points. I'm putting all 1000 points into CON and spending 2 points raising my cap and my last level of Spirit of the Bear." As soon as he spent the points, his muscles tightened up, as if struck by lightning. The intense pain only lasted a second and then eased off, leaving him feeling relaxed. Suzette was staring at him and smiling.

"That looked painful, but I like the results. You don't look so over-muscled any longer. You're tighter and have more muscle definition without the bulk. You know there are people in the real world who'd pay a billion dollars for abs like that in just a week?"

He looked at his shredded shirt and tight abdomen. "Yeah, but they wouldn't like the part about burning to death to get them."

"True. What's next? You have 14 points left."

"Damage dealing, I'm thinking. I was considering buying the first level of Melee Damage, but I see more options under One Fist of Iron.

One Fist of Iron 2 Cost: 10 Your unarmed attacks do +20 damage instead of +10.

The Other of Steel Cost:10 You can strike once a round with each fist and a critical hit stuns your opponent.

"Oh, take the second one. You can come back for extra damage later but always go with the extra attack. Interesting you have an upgrade. Maybe because you took the first level? Or more points? I can see we'll all be reviewing our options after every fight."

"Done, and four points left. Does anything look different? My hands feel a little bigger."

"Just slightly, maybe? But I can see a shine of magic on them."

"Four points left. I think I'll just save them for a bit. Your turn. Tell me what the hell happened during that battle."

She produced a bottle of wine and poured them each a full mug. "It's a weird story..."