Chapter 5: The Founding

The masterful work of original epic poetry- The Aeneid is thought to be the first work of oral poetry written down. It revolves around King Caesar, as a representation (being highly fictional) of his journey to reach the first city that was founded far to the west, as we know now as Rome, and how he found the wolves to be his ally. It is relatively certain that King Caesar wrote this great work by himself. Of course, there is the occasional conspiracy theorist who thinks King Caesar is a reincarnator from a higher technological society, but let's not dwell in childish fantasies in this book...

-Analysing the Greatest Works of Literature, by Marcus Cicero

Apparently there was a backup to the system I case one of its wielders were close to death. And so it teleported me to an island, an island that seems to be utterly deserted, without much food or water. Of course, I was forced to place my flag here, to start my empire in this forsaken place.

Although, would it be that bad? I mean it's an island so I could easily insert the history of my civilisation and I would be far, far away from any of the troublesome Westeros Politics and armies that would sooner stab me in the back than aid me. So I guess it was the best decision, sending me here to the uncharted island. With this system, within a few years, I would be able to build a nation that rivals even the modern world!

[Quest Completed! The full Forge of Empires System is yours to wield!

Installation time: 24:00:00]

I stared, deadpanned at the screen in front of me. Of course, it requires 24 hours to install, 24 hours where I had no food nor fresh water. God this is going to suck, especially without my nice VR game to play with.

With nothing to do as of yet, I went along to survey the island. It was actually quite big for an island, of course, I couldn't exactly see the narrow strip of land that connected this island to another landmass when I first arrived. The landmass couldn't exactly be called small nor large, but it was enough to suit my needs. I had an inkling this island was like the Planetos equivalent of the Caribbean islands, a gateway to another continent, but that will remain to be seen, once some of the more advanced maritime technologies became available to me during the colonial era.

Ironically, I could see seven hills in this conjoined island chain, reminding me of the legends of Rome back on Earth. A little river curved its way through the middle of two of the smallest hills, leading eventually to a flat plateau covered by grass and some animals. The flora and fauna reminded me quite strongly of Earth. I could see all the sought after, familiar vegetables and fruits hanging from trees and shooting out of the ground. Though their exact likeness remains to be seen.

I picked up a fruit that looked vaguely like a peach and took a bite. Note to self, don't pick up and eat fruits from the ground. Although it tasted quite good, just like a peach just a little less sweet, it was filled with bugs, and half rotten. The Pitt was also quite a lot bigger than I expected, causing me to crunch my teeth, quite painfully, on the rough surface.

After that incident, I climbed one of the trees and started eating some peaches. They may be no peaches of immortality but they at least kept the hunger and thirst away. I checked the time left for the installation and it was still a good eight hours until it finished. So I just sat on a tree and dozed off.

When I woke up in the middle of the night, I was instantly glad that I had slept on a tree. Below the tree, there were two strange creatures that reminded me of wolves, just bigger and blue looking. They were growling at me even from below the tree and strangely enough, I could smell the scent of ozone. I paled. The system was still a few hours away from being installed and who knew what strange powers these wolves had. I was no great animal lover back in my old life.

But then again there was the internet back on Earth and almost everyone knew the right way to at least approach a dog. Mind you that usually took some food, which I did not have, but hopefully, these peaches will do the trick.

I slowly climbed down from the tree, hands raised to show non-aggression. The wolves clear eyes followed my movements but made no bid to attack, although their hackles raised and were looking a lot more ferocious than they had previously seemed. I held out the peach in front of me and placed it down on the ground, then walked away, making no sudden movements. The wolves slowly approached the peach and sniffed it cautiously, then started fighting over it. I was surprised, as last time I checked, wolves ate meat, not peaches, so the peach was really a peace offering of sorts. Now I had no real idea to proceed, I did not factor in, either magic wolves that like peaches or magic peaches that everyone likes into my calculations.

So I placed down another peach and waited. The wolves came closer, but still far enough to get out of my range if needed. The second peach was gone. When I placed down the third peach, they were all but tamed, coming close enough for me to pet and that I did. (I know this probably isn't how you tame wolves, and it would probably take longer, but magic maybe?). They sat down obediently, their tails wagging slowly and pelts shining a bit more than previously. Was that the effect of the peach? I wondered. Anyway, with that out of the way, I went back to sleep the rest of the night away.

[Congratulations, the full Forge of Empires system is installed, but first, are you a boy, or are you a girl?]