“Easy, now!”

Adam stood back and watched. Eight men in four teams hauled on ropes that were attached to pulleys high in the trees outside the fort walls. Carl gave hand signals from near those pulleys to make sure pressure was even.

“More on team one, team two, ease off.” The left-hand door had started to twist in place, which would have prevented them from lifting it smoothly. The two teams listened and the door straightened out. “Alright, ease it up. Three and four, keep going.”

A long moment passed, then the doors came to a rest against their temporary home, a framework meant to hold the massive twelve foot doors until the hinges were finished being installed. Adam gave a nod, and teams one and four broke away to start on the hinges. The other two teams took up the slack by splitting to a single man per rope, but they were only there to keep the doors steady with gentle pressure. Five minutes later, the last man gave a thumbs-up.

“Alright, let the ropes go.”

Carl put pressure on the low side of the ropes and they fed through the pulleys until they fell to the ground some thirty feet below. He gave another hand signal, and the ropes were removed from the doors.

“Let’s test it.”

Each door was gently pulled, and every man and woman present watched as they swung slowly, yet silently inward.

“I can’t believe we had hinges drop as a loot reward,” Liz said. She stood next to Adam’s shoulder, watching with her arms crossed over her chest.

“Yeah,” he said with a laugh. “Almost feels like someone is looking out for us. Except, you know, the part where we’re trapped in what appears to be a literally infinite forest full of horrifying hostile creatures.”

Liz nodded. “If we ever get out of here, I’m putting some therapist’s kids through college. Maybe the grandkids too.”

He glanced at her. “You good?”

“Eh,” she said with a one-shoulder shrug. “The nightmares are about as bad as the fights. But I am sleeping most nights.”

“Raven helping?”

She shook her head. “She has them too.”

Adam sighed. “Yeah… I get it. I’m not really getting many nightmares. Actually, I don’t think I dream much. But Kyra’s been having some rough nights lately.”

They stood in silence for a while, watching as the last touches were put on the doors.

“At least we got all this help.”

“Weird, though,” he said. He glanced around. “Why do you suppose…”

“Why do I suppose what? Adam?”

He turned fully around, looking toward the center of the fort. It was larger than they had needed, but he had accounted for growth. It was part of what had taken so long. They would be able to fit at least three dozen small one-room huts in the fort, as well as two or three larger buildings. He could envision a meeting hall and warehouse for storing goods. But that wasn’t what grabbed his attention. He gently turned Liz’s body with a hand on her shoulder until she spotted it too.

“What is that?”

“I don’t know,” he said. He started walking toward it. “But I’m going to find out.”

A crystal spire had started growing from the ground. At the rate it was emerging, it had started just a minute or so before.

“Do you suppose it has something to do with the gates?”

He shook his head. “Liz, I have exactly as much information as you do.”

“Yeah, and I’m trying to speculate.”

“Sure,” he said. “It could have something to do with the gates.”

They stopped about ten feet from the crystal. It looked like a quartz, with smooth sides and sharp angles, but it was the wrong color compared to any he had seen before. He’d heard of black quartz, but this was not quite like that. Where black quartz looks like glass tinted so deeply it was opaque, this looked like clear quartz with a view into space. It was a deep black with shining stars far away, glittering in all the colors he’d ever seen in the sky. It was simply mesmerizing.

Liz took a half step forward and reached a hand out. “What is it?”

“Either very important, or very dangerous… or both.”

She stopped moving, then let her hand fall back to her side. “Dangerous?”

He nodded. “Don’t you feel it? This thing has some serious power.”

Even as they watched, it continued to push out of the dirt. It was nearly silent, at least, compared to the sound of two dozen people running around doing construction.

“Maybe it has something to do with the number of people we have now?”

She nodded slowly. “Yeah, that sounds right. We only had five people until three days ago. Then, what, twenty people all showed up within a day of each other?”

“Yeah, that was weird.”

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Stupid lights.”

“Hey, Kyra’s lights saved our lives every time.”

“Stupid animals attacking us constantly.”

“Okay,” he said with a small laugh. “That I agree with.”

“What do we do?”

He took a step toward the crystal. It was almost three feet tall, just about even with his hips. It had started to garner more attention from the other survivors in the settlement.

He glanced back at her, then the people gathering nearby. “I’m going to touch it. Everybody, be on the ready. If I go crazy, put me down. If I explode… well, I guess, don’t touch it.”

“What if you shit your pants?”

Adam looked around, saying “Who said that? I’m not gonna shit my pants. What the hell, dude?”

Someone else piped up. “What if it makes us shit our pants, and you’re fine?”

“Okay, folks, let’s stop worrying about pants shitting and focus on the present. Everyone be ready.”

Liz took a few steps back and readied her bow, though she kept the arrow pointed at the ground. She nodded to him. Kyra ran up then, sticks in her hair.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“Taking the risk so nobody else has to.”

“If you die, I’m bringing you back to life, again, so I can kill you myself,” she said and she crossed her arms. She stood across the crystal, only a few feet away. She made no effort to close the distance, however. He looked at her and waited. Her eyes were hard, but then they softened. She nodded, though it was a tiny movement.

“Adam–”

He reached out and rested a hand on the crystal. The world vanished from his senses, and he found himself floating in the void he had seen through the sides of the crystal.

Tutorial #20:

Settlement Obelisk. Welcome to the Settlement Obelisk! You have fulfilled the requirements to found a town.

Requirements: an enclosed area of at least 500 square meters, and a permanent population of twenty or more sentient beings. This is the minimum to found a settlement. With this, you can declare ownership of a region, manage settlement related functions, accept or exile citizens, and more.

This Obelisk can be upgraded. Requirements to upgrade to a Village Obelisk: enclosed area of at least 2500 square meters, and a permanent population of one hundred or more sentient beings.

Would you like to name your settlement now? This cannot be changed until the Obelisk is upgraded.

Adam floated in the void, thinking over the sudden new information. It had filled in one of the earlier number he had been missing, too. Carl had slowed on gaining new tutorials. The monster was level ten, and had been there for a few days. He rarely interacted with anybody, keeping to himself whenever he was in the fort.

“Well,” he mused aloud. “We’re in a forest, there’s a river nearby, it all appears to be some sort of pocket universe… ha, I can’t be as lazy as some companies. Pokun is right out. Latin is always fun, but anytime I do that, I get people whining. Still, Silva has a ring to it. But Forest what? Nox… Silva Noctis? Forest of the Night? Silnoct? Silvox?”

He continued to muse while talking over options.

“Shadows? Umbra… what’s the declension? Umbra… umbrarom? That sounds right. Silva Umbrarom. It has some gravitas to it, but that’s a mouthful.”

He shook his head. “Maybe something else. We are potentially the last people. We appear to be the first settlement. First stand, last stand, the enclave… no, that’s too Fallout. Ooh, I think I know what to name it.”

He snapped his fingers, and mentally put the name in. The system asked for confirmation, and he accepted. A moment later, a small menu popped up.

Settlement menu:

Citizen List

Citizen Actions

Quests

Settlement Supplies

Building Blueprints

Region Ownership

Expansion

Curious, Adam selected ‘region ownership.’ The screen changed.

Region: unnamed.

Ownership: 1.3%

Amount required to declare partial ownership: 10%

Amount required to declare sole ownership: 70%

Amount required to set region policy: 51%

“Huh. Well, guess we need to put people to work. I wonder how we claim ownership of the region. And what, exactly, denotes ownership.”

He returned to the first menu, noting down the options, then opening the Expansion menu.

Current Obelisk level: Settlement

Next level: Village

Area: 507/2500 square meters

Population: 25/100

Adam made sure to memorize the requirements, as simple as they were, and then left the menu. He floated in space for a moment, enjoying the blissful, weightless silence. Then he mentally chose to exit the obelisk.

“Don’t do anything stupid,” Liz said.

“All done,” he replied, giving her a wink. Everyone had a window pop up simultaneously.

Welcome to Verdant Fort, the newest settlement in the tutorial. You have been granted citizenship. Settlement leader: Adam Cortez.

"At least it's not Latin or something," someone said.

A separate window popped up for Adam.

Elect a second in command?

He dismissed the prompt. That would lead to an argument, and he wasn’t ready for that.

“Alright, guys. Let’s get back to work. We’ve got a lot to do, if we want to make this place a real home.”

Kyra and Liz closed in as the rest of the villagers went back to their work tasks.

“What happened? You froze for a split second then started talking again,” Liz said. She put the arrow back into her quiver and slung the bow on her back.

Kyra grabbed Adam in a fierce hug. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

He hugged her back. “Me too, Kyra. As for what happened, it was kinda cool. I dunno, maybe you should try it.” He gestured at the crystal, which was still moving upward, though at a significantly reduced pace. It was almost even with his ribs.

Liz looked at him, then the crystal, and back at him as if for confirmation. He nodded, then she reached out and touched the crystal. He waited a moment for her to see everything.

“What’s supposed to happen?”

“Huh? Hey, Kyra, can you try?”

A little window popped up in his vision before he finished speaking.

An unauthorized user is attempting to gain access to Settlement Obelisk: Verdant Fort. Grant user: Elizabeth Kieran access?

An unauthorized user is attempting to gain access to Settlement Obelisk: Verdant Fort. Grant user: Kyra Donoghue access?

Adam allowed both women access, and they both went stiff for a moment. Then they were back and he grinned.

“Pretty cool, right?”

“Absolutely the fuck not,” Kyra said as she punched him in the side. “That was terrifying!”

Liz shrugged. “I dunno, I thought it was nice. Floating out there… it was like being in the ocean at night.”

Kyra turned with her mouth open and stuttered before finally shaking her head and shouting “EXACTLY! That was awful!”

“Don’t like the open water?” Adam leaned down and planted a kiss on the crown of her head. She swatted him away, still irritated that he hadn’t warned her.

“No, I don’t. I… I never learned how to swim.”

Both of them looked at her in shock.

“Well, we need to fix that,” Liz said.

“Agreed. Let’s go to the river, we can discuss what we’re going to do for the fort as we walk.”

“I’m not skinny dipping with you two,” Kyra said. She took a step back and crossed her arms in defiance.”

“What’s the matter,” Liz said with a wink. “Don’t want to see all this?”

Adam laughed. “Or this?”

They both adopted saucy poses, as if they were modeling for a photographer. Kyra fought it for a moment, then burst out laughing. “You both suck.”

“That’s my specialty. C’mon, let’s get going.”

Kyra tucked into Adam’s side, and Liz started walking alongside. Raven appeared out of the shadows nearby and took her spot at Liz’s side. A few paces later, Adam spoke up.

“I wonder if the blueprints menu has a bathhouse.”