System Message:

Woodhaerst is no longer besiege. Production penalties are canceled.

Thaddeus sat on a stool. After reading the message, he knew Felix was dead. The criminal was probably a husk drained of all blood.

But to his surprise Commander Davis, now he lay slouched and shackled against inside a stone prison at the bottom of his keep. The commander’s eyes were a mix of anger and disgust.

"If you know wants good is for you, you'll let me go," Davis warned.

"I'm afraid, I must hold on to you. You are my guests until I know whether your bounty or ransoms is greater," Thaddeus said diplomatically.

Turning his face away from Thaddeus in frustration, Davis commented, "If I am your guest, bring me a warm bed, better food, and company."

"Very well I'll let the guards know," Thaddeus agreed, getting up to leave.

Outside in the corridor, Thaddeus instructed the guard. "From one on bring him an extra piece of bread, and straw for bedding.”

"As you command, Lord Brown," the guard saluted and ran off to inform Captain Joseph.

Outside the barrack Thaddeus looked at the damage from the wall. Arthur, Mathew, and Sean were already working with a group of people to replant the farm. Hunter, Andrea, and Marcus were constructing a new Hunter's Lodge. Oscar and the laborers were rebuilding the animal pens. Everyone was hard work with warm jovial smiles on their faces.

The four-day siege seemed long forgotten in their memories. But the prairie and forest were decimated. Thaddeus wondered if his picturesque landscape would ever return.

Feeling the gentle breeze, Thaddeus had a strong intuition that everything would return eventually. Life and death were natural cycles of nature. Life had to die, so new life could be created.

Why the lumberjacks worked on failing the charred trees, Thaddeus wondered if the forest would continue to autogenerate as it had. Yet his analyze skill yielded him no information. While the added clearance would help with the village’s planned expansion, he still missed the trees. Without the forest nearby, he or his character felt an uncomfortable anxiety. This was a feeling he wasn't used to experiencing.

He left the village and walked to the forest. He waved to the lumberjacks hauling good quality fallen trees to the sawmill. As he walked through the scared woodland received a message.

System Message: Home in the Woods

Unclaimed forest. Would you like to build your Druid Grove here? (Y/N)

Thaddeus chose yes and watched as a new screen appeared.

System Message: Home in the Woods II

Please select from the following choices: restoration or regrowth. Restoration returns the forest to its previous state. Regrowth allows you to select flora and designates its location.

He chose restoration. Regrowth would be too time-consuming. After choosing restoration, his lips and arms moved to produce some arcane spell like a video game-generated cut scene. He could feel his body resonating with nature, and green energy was expanding out from his fingers. He looked like Grandmaster Yoda when he summoned force emerald lighting. Energy moved spread over restoring the destroyed. He and the lumberjacks watched as new trees sprouted, grew, and rose like giants.

After 30 minutes, half a mile of the endless forest was restored. With his low intelligence and willpower, this was all he could do. He was built to be a tank and had no desire to change this built this late in the game. He decided that for 30 minutes once a day, he would restore the forest until it was back to normal size.

System Message: Home in the Wood III

Please name your grove.

“Great Bear Forest,” Thaddeus announced modeling the name after the Great Bear Rainforest in Canada. After naming his grove, a screen appeared with an inventory of animals entering and exiting. He also found he could restrict access to animals, people, and monsters.

Quest: Call of the Wild.

The seven kings of the forest are happy with the decision to restore their homeland. Dhruvah invites you to visit him and learn to polymorph. Do you accept (Y/N)?

Thaddeus accepted the quest but decided to wait until the villagers were finished with the repairs. His first stop was the farms. Arthur, Sean, and Mathew were hard at plowing and planting.

“I’m afraid, we’ll miss the second harvest, Lord Brown,” Matthew said sadly.

“What matters is that the people are safe. We still have plenty of grains in the silos and crops in my spatial ring. Know that I appreciate your hard work,” he said encouragingly.

“I can’t believe they burned the farmland he built with his own hands and was blessed by the goddess. I would be enraged. Lord Brown is really different, isn’t he? He cares so much for our lives and so little for his crops. Every lord I’ve worked for has been the reverse. My life’s never been more worthy than a cabbage. To think he cares so much, it’s truly wonderful. I thank the goddess, I raise my family here,” Sean uttered.

The rest of the farmers nearby nodded their heads in agreement.

Next Thaddeus’ visited Oscar, Marcus, and Nathan who worked dug posts and nail planks to make fences.

“The animal pens are coming along nicely,” Thaddeus complimented.

“Thank you, Lord Brown,” they said in unison.

Off in the distance, he could see the children watching the chickens, goats, and sheep graze. The younger children chased each other with warm smiles on their faces, while their older brothers lay on the ground speaking with each other.

Finally, he walked to the Hunter’s Lodge. Andrea and Hunter were hard at work, albeit struggling. Without the builders’ help, these two would have been lost. Moreover, he could tell Andrea and Hunter were getting in the builders’ way.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“I appreciate your help reconstructing the Hunter’s Lodge,” Thaddeus lauded the builders before calling Andrea and Hunter over to him. A move the builders appreciated.

“I want you to track down and find any mercenaries and thugs, that might have fled. I want to know if they are dead or setting up roadblocks down the hills. Take my horses and report back to me in two days’ time. Buy what you need to and set off at once,” Thaddeus commanded handing them a silver each for the trip and expenses.

“Yes, Lord Brown,” they bowed and ran off.

After finishing his inspection, he walked to Sleepy Coyote for a hot cup of coffee. When he walked inside Cassian was sitting alone at a table by himself.

“A cup of coffee Phoebe,” he said before sitting down next to friend.

“Lord Brown, what do I owe the honor?” Cassian joked.

“How’s your general store?” Thaddeus asked.

“Ah, mass panic is always good for business. When you announced the siege, people flocked to my store for groceries. I’m glad you’re here. I need to buy more vegetables from you. I didn’t want to bother you during the siege,” Thaddeus said.

“Same here, your usual will be out in a few minutes,” said Phoebe bringing Thaddeus a cup of coffee and a plate with bread and honey.

“When did you get honey in stock?” Cassian asked jealously.

“Arthur brought it to me. It’s the lord’s honey after all, why shouldn’t he be able to eat his own honey? Ah, while we’re on the subject. Lord Brown, could we set up a deal to buy honey from you?” Phoebe asked nicely.

“Just wait a minute! You interrupted our conversation. In addition to buying vegetables, I also want to buy your honey reserves. If you only sell it to me, I’ll buy it from you at a markup,” Cassian said diplomatically.

“You little shit,” Phoebe yelled. “I asked to buy honey first, and you want to cut in line!”

Of all the village relationships, these two had the weirdest friendship. And coming in second place were the most dangerous couple, Hunter, and Andrea. The Village gossip mill had no idea what to make of these two pairings. The first like shouting at each other accusingly, and the second were rarely seen, and when seen, rarely spoke. The only exception is when the trained villagers how to use a bow at the archery range.

“Here are the vegetables, you both need to work out a deal on honey with Arthur. Tell him to report back to me, when the negotiations are over,” Thaddeus said exchanging crops for 12 silvers.

“Have you heard the news?” Travis said walking into the inn.

Thaddeus, Phoebe, and Kira all looked at and checked the forum. Plastered on the front of the forum was a live stream of the Civil War in Redwood. In fact, there were live streams for all the cities and towns, including his own.

‘Eh,’ Thaddeus thought. He forgot to turn off his live feed during the siege. There was also Phoebe and Travis’ live stream alongside his, under the heading Siege in Woodhaerst.

Thaddeus turned on the live stream of Redwood as he sipped his coffee.

…

After fighting local guards for two days, the Odin, Mythical Guild Master, and rebel forces finally invaded the City Hall. From there, Odin left a portion of his guild to guard the building, while they searched for a hidden entrance to the castle.

In the boiler room, a guild member found a trap down on the floor that led to the sewers. However, the sewers under the City Hall were the same as those that ran under the castle.

Odin slowly walked along the sewers in front of Level 260 former Emperor Regulus Conifer. The rebel network gave him schematics of the sewers under the castle. According to the rebel leader, this was the hidden passage that led into the castle.

After traveling for a day, fighting rats, the guild finally saw the staircase. Climbing up the staircase, Odin slowly opened the door with the Architect’s Key. A key they found in a hell-level dungeon led to this chain quest.

Cracking the door open, and peaking outside, Odin found himself in an adjoining kitchen cellar. It was quiet. Barrels of domestic and imported wine and beer were stacked neatly on top of each other. Slowly, the emperor, guild, and rebels made their way out from the sewer into the cellar.

Leaving only a few guild members on guard duty, the rest enter the kitchen. When they arrived, the chef and kitchen staff were hard a work preparing dinner.

Motioning to attack, Odin and his guilds surprised the busy staff and quickly bound and gagged them with rope and transported them to the cellar with the guards.

With the kitchen clear, they slowly moved along the palace walls, dispatching guards as quietly as possible until they made it outside the throne room.

To their amazement, a company of 200 knights guarded the entrance to the throne room. With the element of surprise gone, Odin yelled for the charge. Using his semi-mythical sword, he won at the auction, and litany of destructive spells, Odin slaughtered higher-level knights.

Everyone watching the live stream could tell Odin had some sort of limit breaker. His sword aura glowed red, and his bottomless mana easily showed that he was the number one player and the world’s protagonist. But Odin wasn’t the only miraculous player, Mythical had a burly beast of a tanker, deadly archers, destructive mages, and a heaven-defying Priest of Hestia. Moreover, they were stacked with legendary equipment, alchemy potions, and legendary artifacts.

Thaddeus had almost forgotten the joy of watching guild battles. With the emperor in the middle, the guild and rebels encircled the king. Every now and again, Odin would shout out “Advance!” Hearing the word, the guild and rebels took one step in the direction of the throne room. Yet, despite their best efforts, more palace knights arrived to reinforce their comrades.

At the start of the Civil War, the Mythical Guild and rebels combined had over 20,000 fighters. By the time, they defeated the palace guards and opened the throne room, less than 200 players remained.

“Brother how dare you usurp my throne and imprison me. Today, I seek vengeance!” Emperor Regulus shouted.

“My how you’ve grown. You know I visited you. But after six months, I grew tired of seeing how impotent you’d become. I chuckled that I ever feared you once. Mages kill him!” Emperor Raymond shouted.

“Your majesty, we swore to your ancestors that we would remain impartial,” said an old woman.

“Useless. I guess I’ll have to kill you myself this time!” Emperor Raymond shouted.

The two level 200 emperors grabbed their swords and engaged in a fierce battle in the throne room. Chunks of floor and ceiling debris littered the throne room. As the sword fighting intensified, the throne room window shattered. As the sword fighting reached its climax, Emperor Raymond sliced his older brother’s back with hidden a dagger.

Emperor Regulus collapsed to one knee holding the laceration with his hands. Blood flowed out of his body from places. It was clear, he was out of practice with a sword.

“Ha-ha, I knew it. All that time in a cell made you weak. You and our father were so easy to fool. Goodbye dear brother,” he sneered bringing his sword down on his brother’s exposed neck.

“You killed father!” Emperor Regulus roared angrily. Narrowly dodging the cleaving sword, he rolled out of the way and sliced off his brother’s feet at the ankles.

“Argh!” screamed Emperor Raymond in terror as his crippled body dropped to the floor.

“For the high crimes and treason, I sentence you to death,” Emperor Regulus decreed before decapitating his brother.

…

Thaddeus finished his coffee and put it down as the live stream ended. He quickly scrolled to the comments where thousands of people were commenting.

“…Is Mythical Guild recruiting, please accept me.”

“…If you get accepted, let me hug your leg.”

“…Like Mythical Guild wants leg warmers.”

“…Ha-ha, ‘You killed father,’ did you see that cool dodge,”

“…I’m still laughing at the Emperor Raymond cringe line

As he scrolled through comments, a message flashed on his screen.

System Message:

Your fraction was victorious. New enthroned Emperor Regulus Albus Aurelius van Conifer has temporarily appointed your affiliate Mythical Guild governance of Redwood. Emperor Conifer was pleased to receive your loyalty and your city’s siege defense. Due to your loyalty and performance, Emperor Regulus Albus Aurelius van Conifer promoted you to Baron and increased your land holding.

Thaddeus was shocked. He was a Baron now. Moreover, he pulled up the map on the screen and saw his village could now be expanded over the river.

System Message: Regional Announcement

The Civil War has ended. Emperor Regulus Albus Aurelius van Conifer and his faction were victorious. He decreed all settlement lords in opposition to him, defunct, and their land claims revoked.

Hearing the news players and NPCs in Woodhaerst celebrated alike, but when they heard the next announcement, they were stunned.

System Message: Local Announcement

Emperor Regulus Albus Aurelius van Conifer promoted Thaddeus Brown to Baron and expanded his land holdings across the river.

Cassian looked at Thaddeus in disbelief. “Is it true? Just now the gods announced, the new emperor promoted you to baron?”

“Congratulations, Baron Brown. I’m going to work on a new song in your honor!” Kira chirped.

“Congratulations,” Phoebe and Phillip compliment.

Soon the villagers rushed to the inn to congratulate him and call him Baron Brown. Thaddeus thanked them, but being a Baron meant his sleepy little farmstead would grow in the future.