The castle was really spacious and completely built out of black stones.
The keep was undamaged right in the center of the castle. Stone buildings were surrounding it on all sides. On the back, facing the mountain Sam's group could see mines and a quarry.
The houses inside the walls, which could be used right now numbered around 200. All of them needed little reparations which could be finished in a few days.
Around 500 other buildings had accumulated more damage and had to be repaired or rebuilt before they could use them.
The surrounding walls were breached in three places, the rest was intact. Two big watchtowers were placed on the corners of the castle left and right of the north gate.
" This castle is exactly what I hoped for. The people of the two villages aren't nearly enough to fill half of it. The most important problems are easy to fix, damn we can even mine stones and probably steel in our backyard!" Sam spoke out what he was thinking.
The others nodded with happy faces.
" How about we return to Oakhausen, to inform Carl about the news? We should start moving the villagers, supplies and everything else soon as well. We can't let a city like this be standing here unoccupied for too long." Linda came over and spoke.
" Yeah you are right. How about this, all of you return and tell Carl and Rudolph what happened. They should organize the first batch of people and sent them over here. I will guard this position until the first villagers arrive." Sam proposed and the others nodded in agreement. They left shortly afterwards, this way the first batch of people would most likely arrive by evening.
Sam wandered through the city. He looked inside a few buildings but didn't find anything interesting, so he decided to look inside the keep.
He entered through a partially damaged gate and climbed some stairs before he reached the throne room. The 'throne' was simply a big block of black stone, carved into the rough form of a chair. Even though it looked simple, the air around it seemed somehow 'majestic'. Sam stepped closer until he stood directly in front of it.
' It doesn't look like it from afar , but it is easily three meters tall! That is a throne for a true ruler.' Sam thought, while looking at the throne.
After looking through the keep Sam returned to the wall standing on guard. At late afternoon two groups of around 20 people arrived. These were the first batches of people from Oakhausen and Woodchester.
Sam saw Jack leading the people together with Nissa. The villagers were elated to see the castle. Sam stood on top of the gate and spoke " This castle is our new home. A lot of buildings don't need to be repaired, you can choose which one you like. Some of them already have space for shops on the ground floor, please leave them for the people who want to open a store in the future. Please remember, the people of Woodchester and Oakhausen live here together from now on, everyone is the same without any prejudices. We have to be united in these dangerous times. Most likely a lot more people will arrive from the surrounding villages the next days, so please welcome them warmly, they are in the same situation we are in, after all!"
The people nodded in understanding and walked through the gate.
All of them found a building to live in and started to move in. Sam occupied the kings bedroom in the keep to sleep for the night.
Early the next morning Sam returned to Woodchester to organize the next batch of people. The villagers loaded two carts with necessities and left their former homes. Meanwhile, Linda took a group of their villagers and lead them to the castle. They arrived at the same time as Sam and his people.
" We have to repair the walls as fast as possible! This city is our new home, to repair the defenses is the most important thing to do at the moment. Could all the stone cutters present come over here?" Sam stood in front of the villagers giving orders.
Eight stone cutters came forward. They were all men of different ages, but everyone of them had a muscular body with strong arms and wide shoulders. They picked 15 volunteers to help fixing the damaged parts of the wall.
After Sam had explained where to start the stone cutters and helpers left. He met with Jack afterwards.
" Now that we have time, tell me what class and skill you got!" Sam smiled when he talked to Jack.
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Both of them had already known each other before the game started, but after fighting and surviving together their relationship changed from acquaintances and colleagues to comrades and brothers in arms.
Sam was like a big brother In Jacks opinion, that's why Jack did whatever he could to help his friend.
" I already wanted to tell you yesterday, but after all what happened we had more urgent matters to take care of.
My class changed into ' sharpshooter ', that means I can shoot enemies a long distance away, in exchange my rate of shooting slowed down. I tested it yesterday and noticed that I can hit targets from 100 meters away, while only missing one out of ten arrows.
My skill is called ( longshot) and it let's me fire an arrow for more than 250 meters with a 90% chance to hit the target. Improving this skill, furthers the distance I can shoot and decreases the cool down time, which is four hours right now."
" I think this skill will become really op if you can use it more often and shoot further, especially in defense battles!" Sam told him his opinion.
" I sent a few scouts out earlier, so that they can monitor the surroundings and warn us if necessary. Could you return to Woodchester and help to get another group of villagers here? You can take Nissa with you, I know what's going on between the two of you!" Sam smiled mischievously.
" O- Ok " Jack stuttered with a bashful face. " Tell me Sam, what is you plan for the future? I mean, what are your goals? Establishing this new city and living a peaceful life here, until you die?" he quickly changed the topic.
" I want to rebuild this city first, so that we and the future members of our guild have at least one safe place in this new, monster filled world. My main goal is to lead the strongest guild of this planet! At the time we become the strongest on this planet, we can start enjoying our lives! We need to strengthen this city and find new people to join us in order to reach these goals. What do you think about Linda and the twins?
I think they are good and trustworthy people, furthermore we are already living in the same city. I want to ask them if they want to join us. NPC's can join as well, let's add Nissa into our ranks as well!" Sam proposed.
Jack smiled and nodded.
" I talked to them during the mission. Linda seems strong and intelligent. The twins are easy to get along with. Also, their movements during fights are incredible! These two should be able to reach Level 5 without any problems, as long as they find a boss monster.
They kept on asking me a bunch of questions about you as well! I think they are probably interested in you, Hahahaha."
" That's good! This increases the odds of them joining us a lot." Sam laughed and left to search for the three females.
Sam knew that they lived together in one house, only a few buildings away from the keep.
It was around 9 am when Sam knocked on their door. It swung open shortly afterwards.
One of the twins in the doorstep while she chewed on some bread.
" Sam! What a surprise, what are you doing here? Don't tell me...you want to take me out on a date?"
"WHAT?? NO WAY!!!" the other sister screamed and arrived in front of Sam. " You are looking for me right? You were mistaking her for me, that happens all the time!" the twins started bickering, until Linda stopped them. She looked at Sam and said " Please come in first, let's talk inside. Are you hungry? " Sam shook his head, followed Linda into the living room and sat down at the table.
The others took their seats too, staring at Sam.
" *cough*... well, I came to visit you because I wanted to invite you. I don't know if you guys already have a guild, but Jack and created one and agreed to only invite people we can totally trust. I know you for only a few days, however I fought together with you guys and saw the way you care about each other. I think you are good people, who can be trusted and Jack thinks the same, so I came today to invite you into our guild 'Nightwatch' !"
The twins looked surprised but waited for Linda to speak first.
Linda looked at Sam for a long time, then asked " Tell me Sam, why did you hold the bald player, whereby he got hacked down and died during the fight yesterday? I need to know what reasons you had to do something like this."
Sam raised his eyebrows in surprise when Linda started talking because he thought nobody had noticed his actions back then.
' I don't have anything to hide, I will tell them everything and gain their trust.'
Sam started to retell his and Jason's past before continuing " He was a piece of trash, only thinking about himself, who passively killed his comrade by retaining all of the equipment and using it only for himself.
I learned, that 99% of the people only think about themselves. Their comrades mean nothing to them and they will simply forsake their "comrades" in times of life and death.
I will be frank with you, I will kill every single person who tries to harm me or even worse, my comrades." Sam's eyes became cold. " I believe that you guys saw what happens to people when the law stops working! I on the other hand treat my comrades like family, which I would never harm and protect at all costs!"
The females looked at each other. They remembered every single moment of their time in the mall, especially the last moment before they left. The people weren't zombies, but some of them started attacking and eating children and women in more terrifying ways, compared to the zombies.
" My plan is to rebuild this city and establish our guild as the only one here. We can take part in the management of the city and castle and work towards the future. We can house a lot more people in this city, we only have to find and persuade them, to join us.
With more people the walls and buildings could be rebuilt much faster and we could start farming and training soldiers. The options we have are infinite!
I won't rush you, think about it and give me an answer if you are ready."
"No need for that!", " Yeah, as long as Linda agrees the both of us would be happy to join you!" both of the twins said with big smiles.
Linda opened her mouth a minute later and said " I don't need time to think about it too, I decide to trust you,so don't betray my and especially their expectations!" Linda pointed at the twins.
" I promise you, I won't let you down!
Then let me tell you about our plans for the upcoming days."