Starting from here is where you will create Civilization". It was the first sentence heard by over a million different players. A new VR game is released in a more advanced world than ours. A game where the objective is to start from nothing and make something with your own hands much like our ancestors. Build a village, build a city, build a kingdom, forge friendships and keep your friends close. Make weapons and grow stronger. What will our protagonist do in this world? And will the real world affect him in any way?


Civilization #1 Chapter 1 - Read Civilization 1 Chapter 1 Online - All Page - Novel Usb

"Have you heard about the new game?"

"No? What is it?"

"Seriously? It's called Settlement. It was made by the same company who made last year's game of the year."

"Yeah so? It doesn't mean it is going to be as good."

"No no no. Look at the trailer."

"Are you serious! Look at the graphics! I can practically drink that water and feel the heat of those flames"

"YES!!! There are elves!!!"

"Look at that dragon at the end of the trailer absolutely stunning"

โ€ฆ

Settlement, the new game produced by Lotus. I got this game after hearing everyone talk about it on my way back from work. Whether it was teenagers, middle-aged men, or women, all I heard from their mouths was that Settlement is the next-gen game.

"Well, at least I haven't stopped playing games since high school. Might as well jump on the hype train."

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I sat at my desk and turned on my computer, and the familiar beeps and boops filled the room as I slouched in my chair. For a moment, I closed my eyes and thought back to the good old days where I could happily play games every second of every day and not worry about a thing. Everyone around me, friends and family, would always be grinding to improve just so they could rub it in each other's faces the next day.

"I miss them..."

It's been 4 years since my parents passed away in that unfortunate car accident and I have been living alone since. I distanced myself from my old friends and colleagues, and now only work at the local convenience store to get by. I used to be that happy-go-lucky child who did whatever they wanted, from sports to music to camping to playing video games, but now I just sit at my computer playing games after I return from work, sleep and eat.

I shake my head and turn my head towards the computer.

"Enough, no need to reminisce on the past. It's time to look into this game."

I sit up straight, crack my knuckles and search up 'Settlement' in the web browser. I click on the first link which takes me to the homepage of the game. I see the trailer and some other links but I first click on the 'Forums' tab. I can see how active the forum is by the sheer number of upvotes. New posts appear every time I refresh the page, but the most eye-catching one is a moderator pinned post with a title in bold red font.

"Things To Know Before You Play!!" - Elves_or_Nothin

I click on the post and am presented with some basic information about the game.

1. You start with nothing. NOTHING!!

2. The aim of the game is to create a city how do you do it? IDK!

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3. The world is 10 times as large as the earth and incorporates fantasy elements (as shown in the trailer) LIKE ELVES! HOT BLONDE BUSTY ELVES!

4. Players are spawned in random locations

5. There is NO inventory like other games

6. There are NPC humans in the world which I assume you can befriend or maybe enslave?

7. Watch the trailer. IT'S AMAZING!

I will post more when more information comes!!

I close it and go back to the home screen to watch the trailer following Elves_or_Nothin's advice. The video loads and I put on my virtual reality helmet to get the full experience as I wait for the trailer to start. The trailer starts from the perspective of the player observing the environment and listening to the sounds of nature.

I see the clear blue skies, the emerald grass and the soft whispers of the wind fill my ears. It feels like standing in the middle of the North American prairies as the sun washes over my body and the breeze brushing against my skin but then the scene changes.n0๐—โ„ฏ๐“๐šž๐—Œ๐—ฏ.๐“’0๐”ช

Hot, damp forests with large trees and rushing rivers. I hear an unfamiliar language and the neighs of horses as I see two females riding past me close enough to touch. Their skin, spotless, with long pointy ears and waist-length platinum blonde hair. Their mounts were white horses with blue eyes and a silver mane and at the top of their heads was a golden horn. Just as I was about to reach my hand out to touch them the scene changes again.

The salty breeze and the raging waves crashing on the nearby cliffs as I see twin giant waterspouts similar to the ones that occur near Nassau, Bahamas only larger and fiercer. I can feel the force of the winds pulling me into the storm together with various kinds of debris, trees, boulders, and tips of waves bending to the storm. I hear a loud rumble next to me and I look up only to see rocks both large and small come crashing down the cliff but before it lands onto me the scene changes and I see the interior of a cave.

Silence, except for the sound of breathing. No wind, no rain or water, no footsteps. Just breathing. Then the sound of a creature inhaling. Soft and gentle at first, then aggressive and fast only to stop, and then the heavy stomping of a creature echos in the cave and like its breathing, starts low and slow gradually picking up the pace until I can see large yellow eyes and jet black serpent-like slits in the depths of the cave. Crimson red scales, human arm-length claws, large spikes around the skull, and folded wings dashed past me.

I see the edges of flames lick around its mouth ready to burst out and wreak havoc on the world and with a final step outside of the cave it spreads its massive wings larger than its body and raises its head towards the sky. The unbearable heat, the strength of the winds, and the loud roar created by the creature were the end of the trailer.

"Interesting, the realism in the game is definitely top-tier. Elves, dragons, and I bet there will also be the classic goblins and orcs even though it isn't shown in the trailer. What's more, is the environment I can be spawned in any sort of biome from plains to deserts to mountains and a snowy field. It's going to be interesting to see what I can do and what other players can do as well. Well then, let's get ready - it's almost midnight."

I turned off the computer and while I waited for the server to go online I took a shower and quickly ate some instant noodles. Once I had food in my stomach I lay down on my bed and placed the virtual reality helmet on. I look at my ceiling for the last time before I dive into the new world and right on cue 00:00 midnight my vision blurs before being replaced by golden light, fluffy clouds, and a girl. Not that much taller than me but with the addition of white angel wings and a halo. She looks at me with her blue eyes and smiles. She pushes her white hair to the side and speaks to me with her soft angelic voice.

"Starting from here is where you will create Civilization"

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"My name is Ariel, I will be your guide as you experience this new world."

Next to Ariel, a full-length mirror appears and I see myself in it. Short straight black hair, a babyface but dead-looking eyes, skinny arms, and legs. I look away slightly, I can't bear to look at myself and what I had become after my parent's death.

"You may change your appearance slightly, up to 15%."

Ariel's words bring my attention back to the mirror.

"How do I change my appearance and what can I do?" I asked.

"You may change your appearance slightly, up to 15%. You can change your hair, height, body mass and you can do so by imagining yourself in your changed appearance. What you see in the mirror will be how you look in the new world."

I think for a bit and I close my eyes imaging how I want to look and when I open my eyes I see myself 4 years ago. I had a similar hairstyle but a brighter face, still a baby face though. My arms and legs are a little bit more muscular and I look like I was happy with where I was in my life.

"Are you happy with these changes?"

"Yes, I am happy."

I give Ariel a smile and she returns the favor by smiling back.

"What should I call you human male?"

"Ian my name is Ian."

"Then Ian, starting from here is where you will create Civilization. I wish you luck."

Golden light surrounds Ariel and expands to envelop me.

...

After the golden light fades away I finally get to see the world. I could feel the heat from the sun on my back and the clear blue skies stretched towards the horizon. Not a hint of pollution and smoke in the air and soft gentle breezes brush against my body. I look in front of me and observe the cracked, red chalky ground. Small and big rock formations litter the ground with little bits of dry greenery here and there with the occasional tall desert tree. The arid environment made me a little skeptical about how to create a city in this location.

Like in every game there must be a status screen so I thought status in my head and it appeared. The familiar but not so familiar opaque bluish screen.

Name: Ian

Race: Human

Health Points (HP): 10/10

Mana Points (MP): 0/0

Strength: 5

Vitality: 5

Intelligence: 5

Dexterity: 5n0๐ฏ๐‘’๐ฟ๐‘ข๐“ข๐—ฏ.๐•”0๐—†

Agility: 5

Luck: 1

"Ian, are you ok?"

I finally stopped observing the status screen and the environment and turned around towards the voice. A young lady maybe in her late 20s with a flushed face was close to me. She was wearing a dirty greyish-brown one-piece dress with the ends ripped and frayed. Next to her, holding her hand, was a boy around 14 or 15 with sharp eyes and a frustrated face.

"Excuse me miss but you are?"

I replied with a confused look on my face.

The young lady looks back at me with a confused face herself. She tilts her head a bit and squints her eyes looking at me a little worried.

"Don't worry about him Lucina, it must be the heat. Did you see him stop for a bit? I bet he must be regretting his actions."

A loud out of breath male around 30 years old was behind her. He had short reddish-brown spiky hair and a tall stature carrying two bags over his shoulder. Next to him was an old man with a slightly hunched back.

"Howard I was just worried since he wasn't moving plus he did save us from the encampment. It's the least I can do."

"Hey, Ian! Come on, take a bag, let's move."

The loud man, Howard, shoves a bag into my arms and slightly pushes me to the side, and continues moving. Lucina and the other two people follow behind him slowly.

Is this the background of the story? I thought. I sling the bag over my shoulder and follow the group of people. I turned to the old man and started to talk to me to gather more information.

"Are you ok? How long has it been since we left the encampment?"

The old man looks at me curiously for a second then turns away and looks ahead.

"I am fine young lad and as for how long it has been we left last night and the sun is at its peak right now blazing down on us. If you forgot my name, call me old man Hus. The young lady over there is Lucina, next to her is a little boy called Luke but they are not mother and son biologically at least. Lucina takes care of him to the best of her ability. As for the tall bloke over there, that is Howard, our protector and the reason we lived until the day we left."

"I see...I am glad you guys are out of the encampment then."

I look at old man Hus, and I could see a soft smile on his face as he looks forward. I can only guess how happy it would be to leave a place like an encampment.

Though it got me curious, what is an encampment? A place where they were slaves? Or a prison? No, not with a child, then it must have been a place where these people were kept as slaves of some sort but then that raises the question who were their masters? Looking at Howard, he must have been able to resist against most people even though armor and weapons does that mean it was some sort of creatures like orcs or kobolds? Should I just ask?

"Sister Lucina!"

Luke shouting snapped me back into the present. I see Lucina lying on the ground and Luke was kneeling next to her shouting her name. Howard ran towards Lucina and touched her forehead with the back of his hand.

"It's burning hot and she is breathing rapidly and she is covered in sweat. Shit, what do we do? We don't have any medicine if it is some sort of sickness. We can't- we can't be losing people when we just escaped."

"I-I-I'm fine. Just felt a little faint" Lucina replied softly.

"Wait, Howard calm down, panicking won't help. Looking at Lucina she looks like she might just be experiencing heat stroke, after all, it is hot and the sun is directly over our heads. The first thing we need to do is cool her down and give her plenty of water. Look at the tree over there, that's the closest place where we can get some sort of shade and shelter right now so we must hurry over there if we want to help Lucina."

I calmly diagnosed Lucina's condition however, I am not a doctor or a nurse so I was not completely sure if the diagnosis was correct.

"OK, how are we going to get her there? Just lift her?"

Howard bends down to put his hands under Lucina preparing to lift her up.

"Wait! Give Lucina some water first, then give your bag to Luke. Afterward, carry Lucina on your back and run to the tree we will catch up ourselves. Once you are at the tree be careful, check the location before you place her down. Make sure there are no insects nearby, no big rocks either in case something is hiding under it, and check the tree trunk in case of other insects. Once you settle her down, cool her down by fanning her, use your shirt ok?"

"Ok...Ok, I got it."

Howard got out their water sack in his bag and poured water into Lucina's mouth slowly. Compared to his attitude towards me earlier he had a gentler look and a worried expression. After giving Lucina some water Howard passed his bag to Luke while telling Luke to make sure not to drop the bag and I helped Howard position Lucina on his back. He looked back at us with a face of gratitude and with a nod of his head he headed to the shade.

Holding the second bag and making sure Luke and old man Hus was walking with me I spoke to them with a confident tone and a smile.

"Everything will be ok, let's follow them"

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After what felt like 30 minutes of walking towards the tree old man Hus, Luke, and I arrived and saw Lucina drinking water and with a slightly less red face.

"Sister Lucina! Are you feeling better?"

Luke hurries over to her side clutching the bag to make sure nothing falls over.

"Yes, Luke I am fine. I was just-just feeling a little hot is all"

Lucina slowly reaches for Luke's hand and gently holds onto it and then looks towards me.

"Thank you Ian for looking out for me and I'm sorry for causing any trouble."

"It's fine, are you sure you are feeling ok? Any nausea, headaches, or uncomfortable feelings?"

I kneel down in front of Lucina and look at her face as I asked her a couple of questions relating to her health.

"Other than feeling a little light-headed, I am feeling much better than I was when we were walking."

[ Loyalty Points (Lucina) 10 ]

[ Loyalty Points (Howard) 10 ]

[ Loyalty Points (Luke) 10 ]

[ Loyalty Points (Lucina) 10/100 ]

[ Loyalty Points (Howard) 10/100 ]

[ Loyalty Points (Luke) 10/100 ]

What? Loyalty points? And how come I got it from Howard, I don't remember doing anything to him...?

I turn towards Howard and look at him. Noticing my gaze he turns to look at me.

"Ian, I think it might be better to rest here for a bit while we wait for the sun to go down but we should find some proper shelter before night arrives."

Did he just ask for my opinion? Is this what loyalty points do? If so then to increase NPC's loyalty points towards me would relate to how I approach certain situations and whether or not it improves their opinion of me. Making decisions that relate to their wellbeing or helping them when they are in trouble would be the more obvious choices but then Howard's loyalty points increased too. Maybe it increased because Lucina got better, it did look like he cared a lot for Lucina.

"Then let's rest up for a bit. Once the sun is past our heads and going down we should start moving. Although I am not sure of the destination we can figure it out along the way. Let's have something to eat and drink first."

I put the bag down to search through it. I knew there was not a lot inside the bag since it was very light. I see that there is another water sack cushioned between a couple of torn clothing as well 2 pieces of bread. I picked up the bread and passed it to old man Hus, who was already sitting on a rock not too far away, at the same time I took a sip of the water. The water had a weird leathery taste but I couldn't complain since I felt dehydrated. Old man Hus tore a small piece away and passed the rest back to me.

"Don't say anything lad. This is enough."

I looked at old man Hus's determined expression and I took back the bread and passed the water sack towards him.

"At least drink some more water, I know you are thirsty too."

After hesitating for a bit his skinny hands reach for the water sack. He takes a small sip and looks at me.

"Drink old man Hus."

Closing his eyes he drinks a bit more water before passing the water sack back to me. I look towards Luke, Lucina and Howard and see them sipping on a little bit of water and eating some bread.

"They look good together, don't they? The three of them as a family."

I turn back to old man Hus, to see a gentle expression on his face.

"Did you know, Howard was always interested in Lucina but he was too shy to say anything so instead he would always come to her help when we were getting whipped by the orcs. At the same time, Lucina would always take care of Luke's well-being after his parents were murdered by the orcs and behind Lucina's back Luke would give advice to Howard in what Lucina likes to help him get closer. It was like a circle of love and friendship."

"I see, they do look like they care for each other a lot."

Listening to old man Hus talk about the past allowed me to obtain a lot of information. The encampment they were located in belonged to orcs and Luke, Lucina and Howard each had a relationship with one another. This explains why all three of their loyalty points increased when I helped Lucina.

Now that I had something to eat and drink it was time to make some sort of plan. I look around me and saw in the distance a couple of viable locations for shelter. In front of me, I can see a large mesa as well as some green patches near the base. To my left were even larger mountains however they seemed further away than the mesa and of course behind me was another mountain. The orc encampment was in that direction and it did not make sense to backtrack towards them.

"The mesa might be the best location to travel towards. With how far away it is we might be able to get there by nightfall if we hurry."n0๐‘ฃ๐‘ฌ๐‘™๐‘ข๐’ฎ๐›.๐—ฐ0๐—†

I told them that I thought the mesa might have shelter as well as a possible chance of food and water since there are trees near the base of the mesa. I look at each of them as I tell them the plan and Howard nods after I finish talking. He stands up and picks up the bag that Luke was holding on to and slings it over his shoulder.

"Sounds good to me we should definitely hurry though, the temperature drops a lot at night"

I smile at Howard, and pick up the bag I placed on the ground and start to lead the way towards the mesa.

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On the way to the mesa the environment slowly changed, there was more flora and fauna at the same time the rough rocky uneven ground became more sandy and loose. There were cacti, small shrubs, desert poplars and other various forms of flora. At the same time, I could hear the occasional loud high-pitched cry of birds and the sounds of dry grass rustling in the wind. The blazing heat soon chilled to a more comfortable temperature as the sun descends towards the horizon and the looming shadow of the mesa creeps over the ground. The surface of the mesa was rugged and worn down by the wind over time with countless ridges and small caves littered on the walls. Walking closer I could see that it wasn't a single big mesa, there were some taller and some wider creating walls of sandstone.

"Over there, if we follow that path we can get on top of the ledge and then it's just a bit more until we reach that cave."

I follow Howard's finger as he points out our path towards shelter. Once we decided our route we picked up the pace at the same time I saw Luke and Lucina pick up sticks and uprooting dry grass.

"Is this for creating a fire once we get to the cave?" I was curious and clueless about the things needed to survive in the wild. Once I log out of the game I need to search up different ways to survive and how to build different essential items and buildings.

"Yeah we can use the sticks and bit of the grass to start a fire, we have a flint in the bag Howard is holding and we can use the rest of the grass to make a bed so we don't need to sleep on the ground."n0๐’ฑ๐”ข๐‘ณ๐“Š๐—Œ๐’ท.๐” 0๐‘€

Surprisingly it wasn't Lucina that answered me, it was Luke. Luke was a quiet boy throughout the whole time I met him. Only asking if Lucina was ok and speaking softly to Howard to watch where he steps but otherwise he did not say a single word to me. I can only assume it was because of the increased LP.

"You should pick up some as well Ian, the more the better or do you prefer to sleep on the ground?"

"Ah, yeah I will. We should also pick up some larger rocks to place around the fire. That way the fire does not spread towards the bedding."

I pick up branches and rocks from the ground putting the heavier things in the bag while holding onto the lighter objects. We walk towards the path and slowly approach the ledge making sure to hug the side closest to the wall as we walk closer to the cave.

It did not take long before we reached the cave and we finally could rest. The cave was very small. It felt more like a small indent inside the mountain with a small overhang but after a couple of hours of nonstop moving, it was time to sit down and relax. However, it was only me resting.

Luke started to pile the collected sticks and grass, Lucina took the excess grass and spread it around the interior and even old man Hus was doing something. He took some of the thicker sticks and the sharper rocks and started to cut them in half, rolling them to create fiber. He told me he was going to make some basic weapons for us to defend ourselves but Howard and I had nothing to do. So instead, I started to talk to Howard and asked him about the encampment and plans for the future.

...

The sun starts to set and we sit down around the fire Luke made. Old man Hus made 2 makeshift short spears and 1 makeshift ax out of sticks and stones tied together by the fiber he made earlier. When I picked up the ax and the spear, what surprised me was that a status screen appeared showing the equipment status.

[ Makeshift Spear

Attack: 1

A stick and a sharp stone fixed at one end by fiber

Made by Hus ]

[ Makeshift Ax

Attack: 1

A stick and a sharp stone fixed at one end by fiber

Made by Hus ]

[ Loyalty Points (Hus) 10 ]

[ Loyalty Points (Hus) 10/100 ]

It was not a major increase in stats however it was the first weapon I could see and hold. Old man Hus was also happy when I confidently swung the ax in front of him telling him he did a good job making it.

"What are we going to do for the night? Should we do a night watch?"

Howard breaks the silence between us and looks around.

"Will there be animals coming out at night or something?"

Is there where my first battle will happen in this game? Will it be wild animals or magic beasts maybe even orcs or goblins?

"There is a chance. Most magic beasts are nocturnal or have good eyesight at night however the ones we need to look out for are the goblins. They infest the world like rats and attack anything living. However, they are weak but they are never alone."

Howard looks at me as he tells me that there is a chance that goblins would attack us at night.

"Why does it seem like even though there is a chance it will happen it will definitely happen?"

I retorted back jokingly but I immediately regret when I saw the blue transparent screen in front of me.

[ OPENING EVENT - Midnight Attack

Objective - Survive the night

Reward - unknown ]

"How do we defend this place against goblins?"

I sit up straight and ask Howard for details.

"Even though I mentioned goblins it could be anything that comes for us at night. It could be magic beasts, goblins, orcs or even dragons. However, if it is indeed goblins then we just need to survive and slowly wear them out. They are not strong nor fast but they are cunning and large in number. Why are you asking? Do you think we really will be attacked by something?"

"Yes, I honestly do think we will be seeing some uninvited guests. We have reached a new place and we are not familiar with the environment and its current residents so it makes sense that something will not like us being here. We should rest up now though since the sun has just set and when the moon is at its peak we should be awake and prepare for a battle."

I got nods from everyone and after a couple of mouthfuls of bread and sips of water, we lay down on the grass beds. I closed my eyes and rested my body waiting for midnight. Soon I fell asleep for the first time in this game.

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"W...Up...Ia...Wa...Up...IAN WAKE UP!"

I felt a burning sensation on my face when I opened my eyes. I could barely see anything in front of me and I felt so sluggish. It was still dark with the only light being the stars, the moon, and the fire we made before we slept.

"IAN COME OVER HERE!"

I finally snap back to reality and see Lucina and Howard to the side looking anxiously at the path we walked on before sunset. I pushed myself up using my hand and walked over curious at what they were looking at but it was more terrifying than I thought.

I see tens of yellow dots in the dark moving around quickly and slowly. My body shivers and goosebumps form along my arm when I hear the constant chattering and snarling in the distance. I could visibly see Howard swallow his spit nervously in the corner of my eye.

Luke and old man Hus were behind us piling up different sizes of rocks and stones. At the same time, I see Howard pick up a spear while passing another to me.

"Be careful."

He tells me as he gives me the spear.

"What's the game plan?"

"Survive no matter what."

I smiled at Howard hoping to ease his mind a bit but my shaking body did not help. It was terrifying to see who knows how many goblins just crowding around the bottom of the path, scurrying left and right.

All of a sudden, I hear the hurried footsteps in front of me. The goblins were on the move and I could see them running towards us.

Luckily for us the place where we stayed the night only had one path that fit at most 2 people side by side. Since goblins were smaller than average humans it 3 goblins side by side. As they got closer I could finally see what they looked like. Hideous green toddlers with pointy ears and an elongated nose. They carried stone knives and wooden clubs with their only clothing being a loose brown dirty animal skin covering their nether regions. Their mouths were constantly open and I could see their short canines covered in saliva. The constant shouting, cheering and snarling filled the surroundings as they made their way up towards us.

"Howard! Stay on my right, we can use the fact that we are situated on a cliff to push them down so we don't need to kill each and every goblin. I'll do my best to cover you when you go for a wide swing to push them down. Lucina, you need to hold the ax. You need to help us if they move past either me or Howard. Luke and old man Hus throw stones when we look like we are in a precarious situation, do not waste them but do not be stingy either. We can do this. We can survive and see tomorrow."

Just as I finish telling everyone what to do the first goblin has gotten in range of me. I knew in order to raise our morale I needed to act first and show them that we can do this.

I breathe out slowly and step forward, thrusting my spear towards the closest goblin copying the spearmen in movies and games. The tip of my spear hits the body of the goblin and easily pierces its skin embedding itself inside. I pull my spear back hurriedly and green blood sprays out covering the ground and staining my weapon. Quickly, I thrust forward again aiming for the goblin standing next to the goblin I just stabbed. However, it moved to the side pushing the goblin behind it down the cliff and dodging my spear.

Realizing I was in danger Howard finally moves forward and thrusts his own spear towards the goblin I was currently aiming for. The spear pierces through the body of the goblin and lightly grazes the goblin behind it before Howard pulls back his spear. He constantly stabs and swings his pear forward and to the side frantically, sometimes stabbing the body of a goblin two or three times before attacking another one.

I follow his example by stabbing and thrusting my own spear but it seemed like my earlier success was by pure luck. After killing the first goblin, each and every other thrust I did only gazed or scratched the goblins in front of me. The only advantage I had over them was the range of my spear was greater than their knives and clubs allowing me to hit them first and push them back slightly before they could hit me. Even that advantage had its limits as a sneaky goblin used its own kind as a springboard. After I stabbed a goblin in its eye it fell down on its back and another goblin jumped on its stomach, launching itself towards me with its knife aimed for my stomach. I awkwardly moved to the side quickly hitting my back against the wall of the mountain dodging the attack by a hair but now there was a goblin that breached our defense.

Lucina froze as she saw the goblin fly past me and land on the ground. Her throat was dry and her hands were sweaty as the goblin slowly got back up. It smiled at her revealing its yellow canines and started to run at her holding the knife above its head ready to slash down. Her heart raced, she panicked and closed her eyes waiting for her death when suddenly she felt someone push her to the side. Luke ran up to Lucina and shoved her away from danger while tossing a rock at the goblin. The rock hit the goblin in its eye, blinding it and staggering it for a second. Luke grabs the ax from Lucina's hand and swings it towards the goblin. The ax hits the goblin's neck cutting into the side a bit before pushing the body away. Old man Hus then smashes a rock into the goblin once it lands on the ground crushing its head until it was a pile of green blood and brain matter.

I sigh in relief, seeing the decisiveness of Luke and old man Hus made me relaxed knowing that I had support behind me. I continued helping Howard defend the path until suddenly the goblins stopped their advance. They stood in front of us jeering and shouting, swinging their weapons in front of them taunting us to face them. I put a hand in front of Howard stopping him from moving forward. I could hear him breathing heavily, the battle had already taken a toll on him and it didn't even seem like we were halfway to finishing.

"Calm your breathing Howard, take deep breaths when you can. We have a long night ahead of us."

"Yeah...Yeah...I will."

I looked towards Howard worried about his condition only to see that he had various small cuts and bruises on his legs and arms. I can't see his health points but I can tell that it would be in the red.

"Fall back a bit slowly. Let me handle this while you recover your breath. The goblins aren't moving right now, they must be afraid since we killed a number of them already. They aren't stupid they know that if they rush at us they will die."

I slowly step back, one foot at a time while Howard does the same thing until there is a bit of distance between us and the goblins. I could see his knuckles white as a ghost from how hard he was holding onto the spear.

The stalemate lasts for a while longer with the goblins staring at us making various noises but ultimately they could not handle waiting any longer. The first goblin stepping forward created a wave of goblins rushing towards us like a tsunami. They came more frantically than before, angered about the deaths of their kin and hungry for our flesh.

I held my spear tightly and pushed forward stabbing, scratching and sometimes pushing goblins off the side. Howard recovered a little bit during the break and with a loud yell, he grabs the ax Luke was holding and drops the spear at his feet and runs towards the goblins swinging down the ax on the closest goblin and then with a surge of strength pushes the goblin behind it backward knocking a couple of goblins down behind. He yell dazed the goblins a bit and I took advantage of their immobility and stabbed a couple in the head with my spear. If what Howard just did was a skill it would be some sort of CC ( crowd control) skill.n0๐—๐‘’๐“ต๐—Ž๐”ฐ๐‘ฉ.๐“’0๐‘š

It was not long until I could see the night sky turning a little bit orange, hinting that night was almost over but it did not mean that the goblin's attack lessened. They got more aggressive and some were even able to scratch me with their knife or hit me with their club and I slowly lost 1HP each time.

All of a sudden I hear a loud screeching sound from the back of the goblin wave and the goblins at the front move to the side frantically, some even falling off the edge because they accidentally moved too far. A path between the goblins was born and at the end was a taller goblin with a shield, a helmet with horns on its side and a larger club. The night was ending with each second and the event was almost over but it seemed like hours away when the new kind of goblin showed its face. With a yell it started to charge, I positioned myself next to Howard ready to face the new enemy.

Without a second thought, I thrust the spear towards the goblin, hoping to slow down the charge. Blocking the strike with its spear it started to swing its club towards my body. I let go of the spear and dodged back while Howard brought down his ax smashing it against the shield. I picked up the second spear and saw Luke tossing different-sized rocks at the goblin hitting it in the face and body. I quickly rushed back, thrusting the spear forward again, this time aiming for the face. The goblin ducked down and tossed his shield at Howard, making him stop his swing mid-motion while swinging its club upwards towards my face. I block the blow with my spear but in the process, the goblin breaks the spear in half and as it was about to swing again old man Hus pulled me back. We both landed on our backs and were in a vulnerable position but it was as if time stopped. The goblin just looks at us and spits on the ground near our feet and walks back. With a yell, the rest of the goblins retreated and as quickly as they came they were gone.

We survived and the sun's golden rays washed over our bodies and I looked at everyone one by one.

"I told you, we got this."

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Name: Ian

Race: Human

Health Points (HP): 1/10

Mana Points (MP): 0/0

Strength: 5

Vitality: 5

Intelligence: 5

Dexterity: 5

Agility: 5

Luck: 1

I thought about it before but there was no level system in this game even though there were stats. I only had 1HP left, my body was tired and sore. I was out of breath and constantly grasping for air. I had bruises and cuts all over my body and it wasn't just me. After the goblins left, Howard just collapsed on the ground. He looked even more roughed up than I did but at the same time he looked so relieved.

"Howard...Good job."

Howard slowly turns his head towards me and smiles. He brings his fist up towards me and I fist-bump him smiling back at him.

[ Loyalty Points (Lucina) 90 ]

[ Loyalty Points (Howard) 90 ]

[ Loyalty Points (Luke) 90 ]

[ Loyalty Points (Hus) 90]

[ Loyalty Points (Lucina) MAX]

[ Loyalty Points (Howard) MAX]

[ Loyalty Points (Luke) MAX]

[ Loyalty Points (Hus) MAX]

Fist-bumping Howard triggered a series of notifications in front of me and at the same time, another system notification was shown.

[ You can view the status of your Loyal Subjects ]

[ Only those with MAX LP can be viewed ]

[ To do so, you must look at your subject and think of their name and status ]

I look at Howard and think of status following the instructions of the game.

Name: Howard

Race: Human

Health Points (HP): 1/25

Mana Points (MP): 0/2

Strength: 8

Vitality: 12

Intelligence: 7

Wisdom: 5

Agility: 4

Luck: 1

Skill: Roar (active) - 2 MP

So he did have a skill during that time but it could only be used once since he did not have enough mana to cast it again. At the same time, Howard's stats were greater than mine and I could tell during the fight he was stronger and could tank more damage. I quickly look at Luke, Lucina and old man Hus to see their stats as well.

Name: Luke

Race: Human

Health Points (HP): 5/10

Mana Points (MP): 2/2

Strength: 4

Vitality: 5

Intelligence: 7

Dexterity: 4

Agility: 10

Luck: 1

Name: Lucina

Race: Human

Health Points (HP): 8/10

Mana Points (MP): 0/0

Strength: 3

Vitality: 5

Intelligence: 5

Dexterity: 5

Agility: 5

Luck: 1

Name: Hus

Race: Human

Health Points (HP): 6/6

Mana Points (MP): 2/2

Strength: 4

Vitality: 3

Intelligence: 5

Dexterity: 15n0๐’ฑ๐”ข๐‘ณ๐“Š๐—Œ๐’ท.๐” 0๐‘€

Agility: 5

Luck: 1

Skill: Weapon Smith (passive), Armor Smith (passive)

Not so surprisingly, old man Hus had weapon and armor smithing and with his high dexterity he should be able to create better equipment with better materials. Lucina being more or less useless didn't surprise me either since she did not do much during the night however that's not where her talent shines. Her kindness and caring nature create a healing and relaxing atmosphere. Luke's stats surprised me a little bit. He had high agility and even potential to have a skill since even Howard's 2 MP was enough for a skill.

After resting for a bit my HP restored halfway and I started to walk towards the scene of last night's battle. I noticed before when the goblins burst into purple smoke but some things were left behind. Lucina stayed with Howard and old man Hus resting against the cave's wall while Luke followed me down. The closest object was a goblin knife.

[ Goblin Knife

Attack: 1

A short stick tied to a sharp stone]

With all the goblins that were killed by Howard and me, there were only 4 knives. However, as we go down the path and walked towards the places where goblins fell there was one more object.

[ Lucky Goblin Totem Necklace

Luck: 4

A goblin with a coin on its head. It increases the luck of the wearer ]

I wrap the necklace around my neck and walk back up to the cave. Curious I looked at my stats again seeing if there was a change and I was right there was a change.

Name: Ian

Race: Human

Health Points (HP): 1/10

Mana Points (MP): 0/0

Strength: 5

Vitality: 5

Intelligence: 5

Dexterity: 5

Agility: 5

Luck: 5

Equipment: Lucky Goblin Totem Necklace, Goblin Knife

I didn't look at my stats when I was holding the makeshift spear but I can only assume that the 'Equipment' tab appears when I am holding something or wearing something but it does not detect my clothes. Which can only mean my clothes provide no stats and that it would mean it does not appear on the 'Equipment' tab.

Once I finally got back to the cave there was a surprise announcement from the system.

[ Congratulations to those players who survived the night. Here is a leaderboard of the event]

[ 1. SAMurai

2. Kitty

3. Scarlet Witch Sabrina

4. Bleu

5. Devel

6. Helioc

7. Hide-ha

8. SanShiGo

9. Elves_or_Nothin

10. Ian

]

[ These lucky 10 players will receive a gift for completing the opening event to a high degree the next time they login ]

Surprisingly, I got into the top 10 along with a familiar name Elves_or_Nothin. I did not expect to get such a high rating for the first event since all I did was hit goblins for hours. I have to thank Howard for doing so much for me in the fight and even Luke for his occasional backup.

[ There are only 10 more minutes before a forced logout.]

Another message not long after the leaderboard message popped up. Having only 10 minutes left I decided to just rest up and talk to everyone asking about their current condition. Not that much longer, the world turned grey and everyone froze. I close my eyes and when I opened them again I see the familiar ceiling of my room.

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I take off the VR helmet and move towards the bathroom. I took a shower again and looked at my phone 0620. The game only occurred between 0000 and 0600, however you can experience another 24 hours in the game. After walking around for a bit I felt how stiff my body was compared to my in-game counterpart. Since it was still early I changed into shorts and a t-shirt. I exit my house and a drop in temperature causes me to shiver a bit. I start to do some light stretches before jogging and then some light running. Running around the block was harder than I thought and it wasn't even 3 kilometers. I stopped multiple times before I got back home and once I got home I laid down on my bed breathing heavily.

"How can people exercise? It's so hard, so tiring."

I looked at my phone and it said 0730. It took me around an hour to run around the block. I slowly got up and showered again to get rid of all the sweat and then got some toast and butter for breakfast. By the time I finished breakfast, it was 0800. I went to sit on my chair and turned on my computer. I searched for the game site and clicked on the forums tab. The sheer number of posts overwhelmed me, each time I refresh the page tens of new posts appear. At the top, in red bold text, another post of Elves_or_Nothin was pinned.

"PROGRESS day 1" - Elves_or_Nothin

HELLO, MY BEAUTIFUL ELF-LOVING FANS! It is I Elves_or_Nothin and in this post I will recount the first day of Settlement and give me an opinion. Now, if you read my previous post before playing the game you would know some of the bare basics I was able to find out BUT there is just so much more. You spawn at a location, random, and you are not alone. I have talked to other players and found out that you can be spawned with a minimum of 3 NPCs or a maximum of 6 NPCs. Furthermore, there were A LOT of people who did not pass the first night and died. I was one of the lucky few that had 6 NPCs.

I spawned inside a forest of some sort and the graphics were unreal. The attention to detail to even the smallest rock and the quietest of sounds were UNBELIEVABLY amazing. I was however a little disappointed that the NPCs with me were human and not elves but that's ok (It was NOT ok. WHERE WERE THE BUSTY BLONDE ELVES!!!).

I asked some of the NPCs what we would be doing and about their past and found out that they were previously enslaved in an encampment. Cross-checking with other players and finding out the story is exactly the same however the creature enslaving the NPCs was different. I had kobold enslaving my NPCs while others had orcs, dragonewts and even goblins.

After which our party moved onwards and we were able to find a small clearing where we constructed a simple wooden tent by placing fallen logs against each other to form a triangle. Then draped lots and lots of greenery from bushes to moss and BAM shelter done!

As night fell, one of the NPCs got back from hunting and was able to catch a small rabbit and picked up some wild vegetables making a pretty filling dinner. At the same time, I was notified by the system of the first event a night attack which happened between midnight and sunrise. I told my party about a potential attack happening tonight and the 'hunter' NPC set up some basic traps around the camp while at the same time another NPC sharpened various lengths of sticks to use.

Night attack happened as of course, I didn't die! We were facing wolves and with the help of everyone we were able to defend against the onslaught. Right before sunrise, we were met with the 'boss'. It was a kobold dressed in leather pants and a chest plate holding onto a spear. Who would have thought those traps set up earlier actually helped. The kobold stepped into one of the traps and lost his balance and me being the strong warrior I leaped on the kobold and stabbed him in the face over and over until I thought he was dead. Pretty good for me!! After killing the kobold the rest of the wolves dispersed and there was a bit of downtime before the event finished. Once the sun rose the monster corpses burst into purple smoke and loot appeared. Not all the wolves gave loot but I was able to get a few goodies. The kobold however gifted me his chest plate and then the leaderboard screen appeared and I saw myself at 9th place. YAY!

Overall, the game is super good and I will be posting my experience every day I play.

STAY TUNED!!

...

As I was reading the post I compared Elves_or_Nothin's experience to mine. His first enemy were wolves and even though they travel in packs there can't have been as many wolves as there were goblins. This means the system counted the number of goblins I was able to kill and it was similar in value to the number of wolves killed by Elves_or_Nothin. At the same time Elves_or_Nothin could have reached 9th place because he was able to kill the 'boss' of the event. I was unable to kill the goblin with the shield but I still entered the top 10 which means that the 9 people above me were able to kill the 'boss' of the night and everyone below me was unable to or died.

Even though I was unable to kill the 'boss' I still received an item from the night which was obviously different from the standard loot drops. However, I have no idea what the luck stat can do for me at the moment.

It seemed like the rest of the posts were about players either flaunting that they were able to survive or players complaining about dying. I scrolled through the forum a bit more and saw a post that intrigued me.

"Status Screen" - Unpopular Student

Name: The name of your character or NPC name

Race: The race of your character or NPC race

Health Points (HP): How much health you have left compared to your totaln0๐•๐“ฎ๐ฅ๐—Ž๐’๐‘ฉ.๐“’0๐‘€

Mana Points (MP): How much mana you have left compared to your total

Strength: How strong you are, How much damage you will/can do

Vitality: How much health you have and the recovering speed

Intelligence: How much mana you have and the recovering speed

Dexterity: How adept you are at moving your hands, how steady they are when creating weapons or armor

Agility: How fast you are when running, improves chances to dodge

Luck: How lucky you are, can affect migrating to new places, resources and loot

Equipment: Shows what equipment is equipped

Skills: Shows both passive and active skills

Currently, all that is seen in the status screen.

It was not a popular post and was eventually drowned out by the constant rush of new players posting about their experience, however, It helped me understand a little bit more about the game. I can only hope that my increased luck will help me in the long run.

As midday approaches, I went to my job and once I finished I picked up some dinner and went home. I ate the food quickly and rested my mind and body ready for another day in Settlement. Right before midnight I laid in my bed and once the clock turned 0000 I closed my eyes and went back into the game.

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I opened my eyes to see the NPCs who helped me through the first day of the game. I see them chatting happily while eating some bread and drinking water. I was about to talk to them when the familiar blue screen appeared in front of me.

[ Congratulations for being in the top 10 of the opening event!]

[ Here is your reward]

[ Safe Haven Marker]

Once I finished reading the message I felt something unfamiliar in my left hand. It was a bronze-colored ring with a small red arrow pointing forward.

[ Safe Haven Marker

Follow the arrow on the ring to find the closest Safe Haven. A Safe Haven is a place where there is an abundance of food or metal or a location that is naturally protected ]

I put the ring on my left index finger and the arrow starts to spin. It starts to slow down and eventually settles in a direction.

p "Everyone, we need to start moving. We won't be able to live in this cave forever. Let's find a better location to call home."

I address everyone and tell them about what I thought we needed to do.

"Yeah, good idea Ian. After what happened last night we should find a place where we can gather more resources to defend ourselves."

Howard spoke back to me and everyone also agreed. I nodded back to Howard and went to pick up the spear. I held onto the spear and a goblin knife while Howard held onto the ax and another knife. Lucina and Luke both held onto a knife of their own and we picked up our bags ready to set off on our journey.

I led the way and constantly looked at the ring on my hand following the arrow. We traversed through the small cracks in between the mountains and climbed up ledges to get to higher ground. It was difficult for old man Hus to get through some of the climbing but with the help of Howard and me, we were able to lift him up bit by bit. Along the way, Lucina collected some wild berries and placed them in the bag Howard was carrying, adding to our food supply.

After traveling for a while, I could hear the sound of a waterfall echoing in the distance. The arrow was also pointing in that direction which means the Safe Haven was close to the waterfall.

"Just a little bit more, I can hear a waterfall we can rest once we get there." n0๐“‹๐ž๐‘™๐—Ž๐“ˆ๐’ท.๐‘0๐“‚

I give everyone some words of encouragement but I know that they are tired from constantly climbing and moving through rough terrain. Old man Hus was panting and needed Howard to hold him up as they walked, while Luke was sweating and breathing heavily. Lucina was in the same condition and since Howard could not hold onto the bag anymore she offered to hold onto it while she collected more wild berries.

The last stretch of the journey was the slowest as everyone was tired and sore but once we got around a bend what we saw was stunning. The sheer volume of the waterfall drowns out all other sounds and coupled with the magnificent view, it took my breath away. Water gushing out of a hole from the side of the mountain, like a real-life merlion from Singapore, crashing into a deep azure blue lake parting ways into a river gouging out the insides of a mountain. A deep red canyon surrounds the lake and river with small bushes and trees littering the sides. Near the start of the river was a collapsed rock pillar serving the purpose to bridge one side of the river to the other. I don't even know how long I just stood there looking at the scene.

"It's beautifulโ€ฆ"

I hear Lucina's quiet statement and finally snapped out of the trance I turn back towards everyone.

"On the other side, there was a path leading to the top of the canyon. I think that's where we should stay. We would have water from this river and there is probably fish inside it too so we just need to search up there for a good location to set up something to live in."

We cross the rock bridge carefully, making sure to take our time so no one falls into the water and with one last push we walked up the path. The ring cracks and shatters when I reach the top, signaling that the top was the Safe Haven.

I saw a large flat land the size of 3 football fields with tall straight red sandstone walls surrounding the sides. There were towering trees along the back wall and soft emerald grass along the ground. I could hear the chirping of birds pierce through the raging waterfall. The rustling of leaves, the dancing grass and the soft warm glow of the sun made me feel safe.

"Let's go collect some larger branches and pile them in a triangle shape to create a simple shelter. We can create a better house tomorrow but for now, we should rest up and relax a bit."

Once I told everyone to gather wood for a house we split off into the forest to collect material. Looking into the forest is like looking into the abyss. It was dark and mysterious with only the entrance illuminated in light. There can be predators in the forest but at the same time, there can be rare resources inside the forest as well. I gaze into the forest hoping for something rewarding to reveal itself to me but nothing happens and only the forest gazes back at me. I go back to collecting wood and I cut down some vines using the spear to bring back long thin vines to use as rope. Old man Hus and Howard started to construct the shelter while I helped balance and hold onto the branches. Lucina continued to gather more wood, while Luke dug out a hole and covered the edges with dirt and rocks before putting small sticks and dry grass to start a fire.

It took the rest of the day until we finished making a tent-like shelter that fit everyone inside. During that time Luke found some larger rocks and with the help of Lucina carried them towards the fire to place down, substituting for chairs. We all sat down and ate some bread with smashed berries on the top. The berries were sweet and sour and we had an abundance of them allowing us to fill our stomachs for the first time. With the warmth of the fire and a full stomach, we started to discuss our plans for the area.

"I do not have a lot of experience in planning or in construction however, I do have a few ideas I want to implement. First is a fence or a barrier at the edge of the cliff so no one will fall down and then another fence near the border of the forest. The one near the forest has to be more sturdy, it can be made of mud and dirt for now and then just piled up so we have a defense in case something comes out of the forest. At the same time, we should improve our living standard by making cups, bowls, hand tools and then a sturdier house."

I told them my generic plan and after a bit of discussion, we settled on creating the walls first. Luke and Lucina will collect thick branches and vines while Howard will hammer them into the ground and tie them together creating a fence close to the cliff. At the same time, old man Hus will be sharpening rocks and putting them together to create some primitive tools. I would be cutting down vines and small trees for Luke and Lucina to carry towards Howard.

It's not pretty but it's a start for us.

This place will be our home and the start of civilization in Settlement.

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The game ended and just like yesterday, I went on an early morning jog before collapsing on my bed wondering why people exercise again. I checked the forums and saw Elves_or_Nothin post talking about his second day in the game. The post was about him traveling through the forest and all the different flora and fauna he saw and touched. He also described the location where he started to settle down and talked about the reward he got from the system, which was the Safe Haven Marker.

I close the forum and search for methods for making primitive houses and walls. I found various videos on creating houses from fallen logs and branches as well as making mud walls. I went to work and bought dinner for myself from the store and got home and researched more about the construction of houses and walls. Once it was midnight I went back into the game.

I enter the game and the warmth from the sun hits my body, the cool breeze blows against my hair and I see Howard hammering a stick into the ground with a rock. I see Luke carrying a bundle of sticks and vines wrapped around his shoulders walking towards Howard while Lucina walks towards the forest to gather more materials. I walk towards the place where I want to start the wall but old man Hus stops me.

"Take this shovel lad it will make digging easier."

[ Makeshift Shoveln0๐•๐“ฎ๐ฅ๐—Ž๐’๐‘ฉ.๐“’0๐‘€

Attack: 1

A stick and a stone fixed at one end by fiber

Made by Hus ]

"Thank you old man Hus. If possible can you make a lot of similar-sized sticks? I want them the height of Luke and as many as possible. I would also prefer them to be as thick as your wrist."

"Hmm...Lad, I will ask Luke to find me some branches and logs and then cut them down to the size. Do you want them to be a round shape or square-ish shape?"

"Either is fine I am more concerned about their length and height. Oh! Is there anything I can use to carry large amounts of water?"

"Use the empty water sack. I am carving out some wooden cups and bowls so your poles will take a little bit longer if that is okay lad?"

"Yea that's fine I will use the water sack for now."

I walk with old man Hus as we discussed what I needed and then went to grab the water sack. I walked past Howard and Luke and waved at them as I went back down towards the river at the bottom of the canyon. I fill the water sack back up to the brim and then walked back up.

I try to recall the primitive method of creating a mud wall and remembered that I needed to make mud bricks. I could just pile mud on top of each other until I got a wall however, I decided on this method of creating mud bricks because it would be the foundation of proper walls in the future. I dig into the ground near the edge of the forest as the soil was softer and easier to dig. I then move the dirt around into a small hill and then went to create a small hole at the top. I pour water into the hole and slowly collapsed the side of the hill inwards mixing the water and dirt bit by bit adding more water if needed until it was a sticky messy mud mound. I start to use my feet to mix the mud mound around as it was more efficient.

Happy with the consistency of the mud I start to carry them to where I wanted to start the wall. Off to the far right side of the clearing and connecting to the red sandstone wall was the start of the wall. I was able to get Luke to find me 4 flat sticks to form a mold for the bricks. I place them together making a rectangle about the size of a hand and start to put the mud in the mold. I make sure to compact the mud as much as possible before removing the mold and then placing the mud-brick off to the side to dry. I repeat this process monotonously until I use up all the mud I had created. It was tough laborious work but after I finish I could see around 40 bricks.

I go down to the river to wash off the mud on my hands and feet before coming back to the hut to have some food with everyone. Howard reported back to me about the progress of the fence even though I could see how much he had done and surprisingly it seemed like he will finish the fence by tomorrow. Lucina had found some more berries in the forest as well as some fruit that looked like a cross between a banana and an apple. It was delicious and juicy and full of a sweet flavor making me want more.

A loud scream penetrates the atmosphere. I look in the direction of the scream to see a group of 4 running out of the forest. I instantly grab the shovel as it was the closest weapon to me and I see Howard hold the ax looking calmly at the uninvited guests.

"PLEASE! HELP US!"

I hesitate to move forward because I don't know what was chasing them. I watch them intently waiting for what was chasing them to appear from outside of the forest. With a loud howl, I see a golden yellow wolf lunge out of the forest. I move forward and signal Howard to follow me while Luke went to grab a goblin knife. Lucina and old man Hus walked back towards the path in case they needed to escape.

I can finally see clearly who the wolf was chasing, two middle-aged men, one carrying a young woman on his back and a skinny teenager running behind them.

"Get behind us! Carry the girl towards the ledge be careful where you step and Lucina, help him get the girl onto the path. Luke find the other knives and give them to the other man and the kid. Howard be careful the wolf looks pretty strong."

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Its golden fur shines in the moonlight while its slanted amber eyes observe its prey. Each step is cautious and calculating as it walks left and right looking at us. I hold the shovel pointing towards the wolf while Howard stands his ground next to me ax in hand. Luke creeps around to my side with his knife and the 2 new people nervously stand behind us holding onto a knife as well.

"What are your names? Tell me quickly."

I ask for their names under my breath without taking my eyes off the wolf.

"My name is Owen and the boy next to me is my son, Oscar."

"Okay, Owen and Oscar we need to fight this battle or else the wolf will most likely kill all of us without a second thought. I want the both of you to stand a bit far back and to the side. Me and Howard, the guy next to me, will be the main fighters while you two and Luke will only attack once the wolf's attention is on us. Be swift and be careful, attack and then immediately create distance. Okay?"

"Okay." Luke, Owen and Oscar all reply and slowly move back. Oscar took the left side closer to Howard while Luke and Oscar were arm's length apart to the right.

I step forward slightly hoping to gauge the movement of the wolf but then out of nowhere it dashed towards me. It got me by surprise and I barely dodge the first initial attack by jumping out of the way and rolling on the ground. Luckily, Howard swings his ax towards the wolf causing it to stop his attack and retreat momentarily. I get back up as quickly as I can and breathe a sigh of relief. The wolf goes back to walking left and right looking at us waiting for our move.

This time instead of me moving Howard makes the first move. He starts to run at the wolf, yelling at the top of his lungs. The wolf seemed to stagger for second flinching at the yell, while Howard swings his ax at its body. It awkwardly jumps backward but fails to dodge the attack completely. Howard's ax cuts one of its hind legs making a deep gash. Seeing Howard attack successfully I move forward as well, lifting the shovel above my head and smashing it down towards the wolf. The wolf recovered from the stagger dodge the attack but its speed was affected by Howard's attack.

Angered by Howard, the wolf howls towards the moon and the golden fur shines brighter. The damage created by Howard's ax was fixed in a blink of an eye and the wolf looks angrier than before. It leaps aggressively towards Howard, opening its mouth revealing the sharp rows of teeth. Its canines were twice as long as a normal wolf's canines at the same time it was covered in its slimy saliva. Howard rolls to the side and I swing my shovel towards the back of the wolf. As if it had eyes on the back of its head it dodges my strike while at the same time leaping again towards Howard. Caught by surprise, Howard lays on his back. The wolf tries to bite Howard but he fends off the beast by holding the ax horizontally blocking the wolf from biting. I see Owen standing there frozen and shout at him.

"OWEN ATTACK!"

Owen looks at me and then looks at the wolf on top of Howard. He clenches his teeth and then yells out a battle cry rushing forward towards the wolf with the knife. At the same time, I rush towards the wolf as well preparing to swing the shovel at the wolf's head. The wolf notices both me and Owen rushing towards it and realizes the danger. It tries to move away from Howard and escape when Howard grabs its neck from below. Surprised, it tries to shove Howard off and with a hard shake, Howard is forced to release his grip. It was enough though since both me and Owen have arrived next to the wolf. Owen stabs the wolf on its back while I was able to get a full swing on its face.

With how hard I swung the shovel broke into pieces as it lands on the wolf's face and Owen ends up retreating after lodging the knife in the wolf's back as deep as he could. I couldn't continue to attack the beast without any weapons so I retreated and went to help Howard stand up.

The beast snarls at us and howls towards the moon again but is interrupted by Luke and Oscar. Luke slowly moved towards the beast when it was on top of Howard and finally he attacked the wolf when it was least expecting it. Luke jumps into the air and stabs downwards as the wolf raises its head towards the moon while Oscar stabs the wolf in the back. Luke's knife enters the wolf's eye and stabs through instantly killing the wolf. Its blood splashes on Luke and the golden fur loses its shine. The wolf falls to its side signaling the end of the battle.

Unlike before where the goblin corpse burst into purple smoke once the sun rose, the wolf burst into smoke the moment it landed on its side. Replacing the corpse was 5 of the wolf's teeth strung together as a necklace.

[ Soul of the Golden Wolf

Summon the golden wolf to do your bidding.

30-minute duration. 2-hour cooldown.

5/5 uses left. ]

I couldn't believe my eyes. I got an item that summons the wolf we just defeated. While it wolf was not that strong, it had a healing ability as well as being fast and agile. It will become a trump card in any situation however, I was not going to keep it.

"Luke, come here. Wear this necklace. Whenever you are in danger or whenever someone close to you is in danger and you are not able to help them think of the golden wolf while holding onto the necklace. It will summon a golden wolf to help you."

Luke looks at me bewildered by my choice.

"Are you sure? Once I take this I'm not giving it back to you."

"Hahaha! Take it you deserve it for finishing the kill."

Howard comes over laughing loudly and pats Luke's back heavily. Luke blushes slightly and hesitantly takes the necklace from my hands.n0๐“‹๐šŽ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐’ฎ๐‘ฉ.๐•”0๐‘š

"There is a 30-minute duration and a 2 hour cooldown period at the same time it only has 5 uses so be mindful and don't waste it ok?"

Luke nods his head and slips his head through the necklace confidently.

"Now then, I haven't properly introduced ourselves to you, Owen and Oscar. My name is Ian and this is Howard and Luke. Next to your other two friends are Lucina and old man Hus. Will you join us?"

Owen and Oscar both look at each other. They had just experienced running for their lives, meeting new people, and then fighting the very monster that forced them to run. It was a lot to take in and in a small amount of time, however, with a smile, they both nodded at each other and looked back at me.

"If you are willing to take us in, we would gladly join you."

[ Loyalty Points (Owen) 50 ]

[ Loyalty Points (Oscar) 50 ]

[ Loyalty Points (Owen) 50/100 ]

[ Loyalty Points (Oscar) 50/100]

"ROBIN! DAVID! Are you guys alright?"

Both Owen and Oscar shout towards the cliff waving and walking towards the group of people. Lucina and old man Hus stood up and walked towards us asking if we were ok. At the same time, the two new additions to the group also appeared behind them. Everyone gathered around the fire and I can finally see their faces. Owen looked like a caring dad with short messy brown hair. Oscar looked like a spitting image of his father, Owen, the only difference was his skinny figure. David, the man carrying the woman, was a tall, bald muscular man with a gentle face. Robin was a tall brunette with a determined expression on her face. Her legs were covered in bloodied rags, most likely from the wolf biting her.

"Thank you for helping us. I am sure Owen and Oscar have already introduced themselves but I'll do it again. My name is Robin, I am Owen's wife as well as Oscar's mum and this is David, a close friend of the family. We were attacked in the forest as we were migrating from shelter to shelter, finding a place to live."

"No problem Robin. My name is Ian and this is Howard and Luke next to me. With the help of your husband and son, we were able to kill the wolf that attacked you. You have already met Lucina and old man Hus when you were by the path behind you."

After a quick introduction, Lucina suggested we share a meal. Using a large wooden bowl old man Hus carved out, she boiled water and various vegetables found in the forest to make a simple vegetable soup. The meal warmed our stomachs and slowly everyone opened up to each other. Laughter and chatter filled the air until everyone got tired.

I wake up early and go down to the river to wash. As I was cleaning myself I heard footsteps behind me. I turned around to see David and said my greetings.

"Good morning, I see you are also an early bird."

"I wake up early to train my body. How come you are here?"

David wades into the river and starts to splash himself with water. Water droplets cling to his tanned skin and glitter in the light.

"I am making a mud wall and it takes a long time to finish so starting early always helps."

"Is it possible for me to help you in exchange for letting us stay here?"

David looks towards me with a worried expression, nervously gulping his saliva.

"I had already asked Owen and Oscar to join us after the fight and they replied yes. However, I am curious looking at your build. How come you did not fight?"

David sighs and sits down on the bank of the river.

"If I told you I was afraid, would you believe me? I mean look at me, I have large muscles, I am tall but I am afraid of battles. I am afraid that with the wrong step I could die."

He puts his head in his hands as he tells me his fears. I kneel in front of him moving his hands away from his face and making him look at me.

"If I told you I was afraid, would you believe me? I was afraid that I would die but I stepped forward to protect the people behind me. Did you know I only met them a day ago? But even, so they have helped me and when danger strikes I must help them. Lucina cannot fight and old man Hus is old and frail. Howard, me and even Luke are the only ones capable of fighting"

I looked into David's eyes as I spoke to him.

"I-I-I can't do the same things as you. I would run the moment it looks dangerous."

"If you really could run when it gets dangerous why did you carry Robin? You could have left her and ran faster and further."n0๐“‹๐ž๐‘™๐—Ž๐“ˆ๐’ท.๐‘0๐“‚

"I...I don't know."

I stand up and pat David's shoulder.

"Come, you said you would help me with the wall. Follow me."

I walk up the path half expecting David to not follow but after I got halfway up I see him stand up and jog towards me.

[ Loyalty Points (David) 50 ]

[ Loyalty Points (David) 50/100 ]

Nice! Got David to believe in me more. I am starting to understand the Loyalty system, by helping with their problems I can gain lots of points straight away.

Once I got to the top, I saw everyone waking up. I said good morning to everyone and asked Robin, Owen and Oscar about the things they can do.

Oscar normally foraged for food and scouted the surroundings, Owen knew how to fish and construct houses and Robin was a hunter/trapper before she got injured. I asked Oscar to follow Lucina and Luke in gathering resources. I told Owen if he could fish down in the river before for lunch and I asked Robin if she could keep old man Hus company since she could not walk. Afterward, I carried the water sack down to the river while David held the wooden pot and explained the process of making the mud bricks.

The morning rolled by with everyone completing their tasks and right before the game ended Howard had finished tying the fence together. Now, we have some sort of barrier to protect us from walking down the cliff and while it was a little flimsy I felt a little bit more safe walking near the edge.

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n0๐“‹๐”ข๐‘™๐‘ˆ๐‘ ๐‘ฉ.๐’ธ0๐“œ

It has been 6 days since the start of the game, I have been coming online every night and working with everyone throughout the day. Working on the wall with David had been my mission since we settled down next to the forest above the canyon. After 6 days of hard work, we had finished the wall and connected a simple wooden gate. At the same time, Robin had recovered from her injury a bit enough for her to walk around and help with gathering some resources. Old man Hus had also made various tools and weapons, including daily essentials like bowls, cups and utensils, wooden swords, stone axes, spears and a couple of simple bows and stone arrows. He also worked on wooden shields, chest plates and so we had something to protect ourselves in case of another attack.

Owen had been using traps in the river below to catch fish, allowing us to eat a more balanced diet. Howard had made a large mud house, big enough for everyone to stay in, using the same method I used in creating the wall. The old shelter was used as a storage house. Lucina, Luke and Oscar stockpiled various fruits and vegetables found in the forest, sorting them out in wooden pots.

During this time, I constantly talked to the new members in order to raise their loyalty points. Owen and Oscar's points rose quickly, while David's rose at a steady rate by constantly talking to him and working with him. Robin however, was more difficult since she liked to solve her problems on her own. I was stuck on her loyalty points and could not progress no matter how much I talked to her so I gave up and decided to deal with it later.

[ Loyalty Points (Owen) MAX ]

[ Loyalty Points (Oscar) MAX ]

[ Loyalty Points (David) MAX ]

[ Loyalty Points (Robin) 50/100 ]

With the max LP I was able to see their stats.

Name: Owen

Race: Human

Health Points (HP): 14/14

Mana Points (MP): 0/0

Strength: 6

Vitality: 7

Intelligence: 5

Dexterity: 5

Agility: 5

Luck: 1

Name: Oscar

Race: Human

Health Points (HP): 10/10

Mana Points (MP): 0/0

Strength: 5

Vitality: 5

Intelligence: 5

Dexterity: 8

Agility: 8

Luck: 3

Name: David

Race: Human

Health Points (HP): 20/20

Mana Points (MP): 0/0

Strength: 15

Vitality: 10

Intelligence: 5

Dexterity: 5

Agility: 5

Luck: 1

I knew David was strong but I didn't know how strong he was until now. He had almost twice the amount of strength as Howard at the same time only slightly lower vitality. However, his cowardly nature can only be cured by himself.

As I was about to be logged out of the game I was greeted with the blue transparent screen.

[ Hello everyone! It has almost been a week since Settlement has been released and it is time for a second event!!]

[ Second Event - Invasion

Objective - Survive the invasion or Destroy the enemy encampment

Reward - Unknown ]

[ The event will go live tomorrow however, there will be a grace period between the start of the game and the start of the event! ]

I read the message and once I finished I was logged out.

I wake back up in my room thinking about the second event. Most likely it was a continuation of the first event meaning I would be up against goblins again. With more people and a base to defend survival will be easier however, with the option to destroy the enemy encampment it would mean that to get to the top 10 I would need to complete this side of the mission. Completing the survival mission would be the easy route and destroying the encampment would be the hard route.

I think about different scenarios throughout the day but I was unable to come up with a feasible plan. I can only improvise on the stop and ask for advice once I go back into the game.

The day goes by and once midnight hits, I return once again to Settlement.

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The moment I got into the game I called everyone to gather around the fire. The fireplace has become a place of gathering, whenever there was an important topic everyone would gather and discuss. This time I needed to discuss the coming event.

"Ok, since everyone is here now I would like to talk about something. I feel like sometime today we will have some uninvited guests. It has been a week since the goblins' last attack us at the cave and we have not heard of them since. I have a feeling they will be coming for us today which was why I prioritized defense and weapons. Where they will come to attack us? I don't know so I want everyone to be alert. The forest and below us are the only places where they can attack us so just for today we will not be going out. We will use the supplies we have hoarded to get by and prepare for the attack. Any questions?"

I see everyone will worried expressions and after letting everyone digest the information, Robin raises her hand.

"I know defending this place would be good but what if we attack them first? If we attack them we can bring the fight to them and at the same time if it goes bad we can retreat back to behind the wall."

"I would love to attack them however, we don't know where the encampment is and how far away it is from us."

I reply to Robin and I was surprised by her suggestion. Her suggestion correlates to one of the objection completions and it would most likely be the one worth the most.

"Ian, if I may interrupt. I think I know a general direction of where the encampment is."

Oscar raises his hand and speaks out after I finished talking. I give him a surprised look and then a curious look.

"The encampment is in the forest. I saw tracks of goblins yesterday as I was out foraging for mushrooms. I didn't mention this because it was a little further out than I usually go to find food. Naturally, I didn't think it would be a problem but now that I think about it I went to that location before and I didn't see any goblin tracks."

"Wait, if that is the case then...The goblin tracked you."

I got a dumbfounded look from Oscar. I explain what I meant to him as well as everyone else.

"If you didn't see the tracks the first time you went to pick mushrooms in that area but see tracks the second time there are a couple of possibilities that happened. One, after you walked in that area and left a goblin walked towards the same place and found your tracks. Two, they are in the area originally and you going to the area was a coincidence. Three, the tracks are a bait and they are luring us towards that spot to ambush us."

The first two points I said made sense to everyone but once I said the third point they all froze. David and Owen swallow their saliva nervously, while Howard let out a long sigh and Robin did a low whistle. Oscar had his mouth open not knowing what to say and the rest stayed silent.

"At least this shows they are coming from the forest and not from below us. We can prepare our defense for the forest side. We need to first light up the area. On the top of the walls, we should prepare torches and nearby it replacement torches for when it goes out. The only people that can use a bow and arrow are Robin and Howard so we need you guys on alert and shooting from above the wall. The ones on the front lines will be Owen, Luke, Oscar, David and me. While Lucina and old man Hus will be lighting torches when needed and passing more arrows to Robin and Howard. Is this ok with everyone?"

Everyone nods towards me and starts to move to prepare for the attack. We have no idea when we will be attacked so the faster we move the better.

Howard moves some of the bigger rocks near the wall as a replacement stand allowing him to look over the wall. He also moved a rock further away for Robin and then gets started in placing torches on the top of the wall. The torches were made of thick wooden sticks and tree resin wrapped at the top with dry grass and vines. Once a spark from a flint sets off the flammable material it burns for an hour before needing to be replaced. Lucina gathers extra torches and arrows placing them at various points near the wall. Old man Hus gathers the armor and weapon he placed inside the mud house and starts to equip us with them.

[ Stone Spear

Attack: 3

An improved version of the makeshift spear.

Made by Hus ]

[ Stone Ax

Attack: 3

An improved version of the makeshift ax.

Made by Hus ]

[ Wood Chest Plate

Defense: 3

A wooden log carved out to fit the chest of the wearer is tied around the body by vines.

Made by Hus ]

[ Simple Bow

Attack: 1

A bow made from an elastic piece of wood and a thin vine as the string

Made by Hus ]

[ Stone Arrow

Attack: 1

An arrow made from stone and wood

Made by Hus ]

I armed myself with a stone spear and equipped the wood chest plate. I also took a goblin knife for extra measure. Owen and Oscar took a spear and chest plate while David took the ax but since he was too big the chest plate could not fit him. Luke took two knives even though I told him to put on a chest plate he said it was too bulky and hard to move in. It made sense to me as a gamer since Luke's stats were leaning towards agility making him more of an assassin or thief rather than a warrior.n0๐“‹๐”ข๐‘™๐‘ˆ๐‘ ๐‘ฉ.๐’ธ0๐“œ

I had the lowest stats compared to everyone else so I made sure that the equipment I put on was secure.

"Owen, Oscar, David and Luke. It will be fine. Trust me and trust each other. Always call out your position and what you are doing. If you engage with the enemy shout out that you have and when that happens if you are free then go help. I will stand at the front, behind me will be David and Owen and at the very back will be Oscar and Luke. We will stand in a triangle-like formation at the gate."

I walk away from them but stop to look back after a few steps.

"I trust you guys with my back that is why even though I am the weakest one out of all of us, I will stand in front of you. I will show you a brighter tomorrow."

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"Wait lad, I forgot to give you something."

Old man Hus comes running out of the shelter holding a wooden shield.

"I know I made more however they are not equipable at the moment. Lad, I do not want you to depend on a shield that might break after a small hit. This is the only one I was about to make. I made it so you can sling it around your back. Cut the strap away when you go into battle and lad be careful out there."

Old man Hus passes me the shield while looking into my eyes. I could see his eyes get a little watery and his fragile hands seem to shake a bit as he held the shield.

"Don't worry old man Hus. Nothing will get past us."

I pat his shoulder and give him a reassuring smile before walking away and towards the gate with everyone.

[ Wooden Shield

Defense: 5

A rectangular shield made from roughly cut woodland tied together by vines. Made by Hus ]

I walk towards the gate with everyone else behind me. Howard and Robin were already stationed at the wall and Lucina and set up a couple of fires behind the wall to relight any torches. The sun was setting and the evening glow washed over us. I stare intently past the gate and into the forest. The forest seems to stare back and the shadows of the trees bend and twist into the darkness of the forest. I could hear David and Owen nervously swallow their saliva, and Oscar anxiously shifting his weight from one foot to another.

All of a sudden the blue screen appears in front of me.n0๐“‹๐”ข๐‘™๐‘ˆ๐‘ ๐‘ฉ.๐’ธ0๐“œ

[ Have Fun! ]

A small message from the system sparked a series of events. The forest moves like a tsunami, the rustling of leaves and the various howls and shouts fill the quiet atmosphere. It was like a night market inside the forest but with one loud shout, it quieted.

A tense atmosphere fills in and the forest is silent. So silent I could probably hear bug move a rock. Seconds felt like years and minutes felt like decades. I grip my spear tightly and lower my body balancing on the soles of my feet.

,m I see a glint from the forest as if something shiny was there. A soft whistle in the wind could be heard. Then a thud.

I felt like I had just gotten punched in the chest. I stumble back a bit and see an arrow stuck in my armor. I silently thank old man Hus for making the wooden armor for me. I open my status screen and see that I took no damage, I let out a sigh of relief but that relief lasted shorter than I would have wanted. The forest came back to life and the howls and yells once again fill the air.

Yellow dots appear from the depths of the forest. Goblins. Hundreds of goblins. Their green skin, yellow teeth, pointy ears and nose appear one by one from the forest.

Robin was the first person to retaliate, sending arrow after arrow towards any goblin. Some killed the goblin straightaway, others hit their arms, legs, and body and some outright missed. Howard quickly followed suit and started to send out arrows.

"With the number of goblins, we can't stay behind the gate. We need to open the gate and stand our ground right at the front."

I shout at the people behind me and started to run towards the gate. I open the gate and stood at the front. The first person to stand next to me was Luke. He had been with me from the start. Albeit quiet, Luke was reliable and I felt glad he was next to me right now. Oscar and Owen were next to follow standing nervously to the right of Luke. They looked at each other and laughed slightly before shaking their heads and looking forward. The face looked a little less nervous. It seemed like they had accepted their fate but they are here to make a stand.

David looked at the four people in front of him. He looked at his weapon in his hands and looked around him. He saw the woman he was carrying a couple of days ago sending arrows upon arrows to a crowd of goblins. He saw a man who he help build a wall between the shelter and the forest. He saw the small green monsters running towards him from the forest, all of them half his size if not even smaller. He remembered the conversation he had with that man and he thought.

"What if I run away right now? No one would know that I ran away, they would be too busy with the goblins."

But even with that thought, he found his feet moving forward not backward until he stood on that man's left. He left out a nervous breath and heard the man talking to him.

"See, it wasn't that hard right?"

I knew with David's cowardly personality that there was a chance he would run away but I believed in him and waited for him to stand next to me. With everyone at the gate ready and willing I shouted at the top of my lungs.

"RUSH AT THEM!! OFFENSE IS THE BEST DEFENSE!!"

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My legs move as soon as the words came out of my mouth. I dash towards the closest goblin and stab forward with my spear catching it off guard. The sharp stone end of my spear pierces through the skull splattering green blood and brain matter behind the now dead goblin. I retract my spear and take a few steps towards my next target swinging my spear at the goblin. I could hear the bones of its arms crack when I hit it with the wooden body of my spear. Quickly, I turn my spear around and stab its head killing it in one swift motion. I started to retreat a bit after killing the second goblin and instead aimed for a goblin that was already injured. It had an arrow in its shoulder but it was still running forward in a crazed state. I run towards the goblin and was about to stab it when David pulled me backward.

I feel the bridge of my nose get cut and then a thud. An arrow came flying at me from the forest and embedded itself in the wall.

"Didn't you say be careful? Why are you rushing at them?"

David pulls my stunned body back towards the group. Owen and Oscar were trying their best swinging their spears around in front of them. Cutting the goblins arms, legs, body but unfortunately not doing enough damage to kill them. Luke was running along the outside wall swiftly placing a knife in a goblin's head one after another, retreating instantly when he was about to be surrounded.

p "If we do not attack them when they are separated and running from the forest we will eventually lose. Once they group up there will be too many of them to face all at once and there is a chance they might be able to climb over the wall too. It might seem crazy but the best place to fight them is when they have just exited the forest but that opportunity is already gone so the next best thing is the area between the forest and wall. Once they reach the wall the space between each goblin gets smaller."

I explain my thought process to David while stabbing the closest goblin. We had retreated to Owen and Oscar and helped them take care of the goblins next to them, however more and more goblins were congregating towards us. Luke started to face them head to head rather than running around them as well since he was losing ground.

"We are not looking too good Ian."

I hear Owen talking to me and I glance in his direction. His lower body was covered in goblin blood and he was breathing heavily. Oscar next to him was a little bit better, it must be Owen doing more than normal to make sure he protects his son.

"Owen, I know it is hard but keep attacking no matter what."

I reassure Owen and at the same time, I decided to take a risk.

I step forward stabbing in front of me multiple times aiming at the space in front of me rather than the goblins. I make big swings and deep thrusts and any unfortunate goblin that was in my path got sliced or punctured. I move forward until I was about 10 steps away from the rest of the group and shouted at the top of my lungs.

"COME AT ME!"

The goblins nearest to me looked at me and snickered. There were 6 goblins within arms reach of me. I swing my spear around like a mad man keeping them away as best I can while screaming. I started to attract more attention and 6 goblins slowly became 10 goblins and then 15 goblins.

On the bright side, the goblins near David and the rest were less and were quickly defeated by them. I could see them handing any stray goblins that I could not attract but I had more things to worry about. I unsling my shield and carry it with my left hand while holding my spear tightly with my right hand. I squat down ready and constantly shift around poking at the goblins that moved closer to me. I knew this stalemate would not last long and the balance shifted to the goblins side really quickly. 4 goblins ran towards me ar different directions. I swung my spear around frantically hitting 2 of them with the body of the goblin and luckily hitting the other with the tip of my spear but 1 goblin was free to attack me. Its knife went under my shield and stabbed my thigh. The sharp pain from my leg caused me to wince a bit but I quickly recovered and bashed the goblin away with my shield. I open the status quickly to observe my HP.

Name: Ian

Race: Human

Health Points (HP): 8/10 (Bleeding Lose 1 HP every 30 minutes)

Mana Points (MP): 0/0

Strength: 5

Vitality: 5

Intelligence: 5

Dexterity: 5

Agility: 5

Luck: 5

Equipment: Wooden spear, Goblin Knife, Wooden Chest Plate, Wooden Shield, Lucky Goblin Totem Necklace

A new status effect was seen next to my HP and was slightly saddened by the status effect. I lick my dry lips and prepare for the next attack from the group of goblins, hoping I can avoid the next attack properly.

The group of goblins surrounding me grew impatient and they all started to run at me in all directions. Knives were in the air ready to be swung down and some knives crept along the ground waiting to strike. I couldn't defend against all of them and I seemed to have accepted my mistake for pushing forward without any help.

"HAAAAAAHHHH"

From behind, I hear a loud yell. A yell I was familiar with. The goblins seem to stand still like statues. Their knives hang in the air just a bit more before they drew blood.

Howard used his skill and at the same time rushed towards me with his ax followed closely were David and Luke. They killed the goblins behind me and stepped around in front of me pushing the goblins away.

"HAHAHA! Ian, it looked like you need some help."

Howard come next to me with a beaming smile, he had helped me once again with his skill.

"Don't worry Ian, this time I won't run away."

David reassured me but I could see his shaking hands and legs.

"That's right Ian, watch. Summon Golden Wolf!"n0๐‘ฝ๐žฎ๐ฟ๐“Š๐“ˆ๐‘.๐’ธ0๐—†

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Luke grasped the tooth in the middle of the necklace. As he finished saying the chant the tooth became enveloped in a golden light. It warped around the tooth detaching itself from the necklace and forming a golden ball. The ball morphs into the shape of a wolf before dissipating revealing the golden fur underneath. With a loud howl at the sky, a golden wolf appears next to Luke.

Name: Golden Wolf

Race: Beast (Wolf)

Health Points (HP): 50/50

Mana Points (MP): 10/10

Strength: 15

Vitality: 25

,m Intelligence: 15

Dexterity: 8

Agility: 25

Luck: 5

Skill: Moonlight Renewal (active) - 2 MP, Pounce (Active) - 1 MP

It bears its fangs at the closest goblin instantly biting the neck before pouncing on the next goblin. It travels from goblin to goblin killing them with a single strike.

It wasn't before long when the goblins in front of the wall died. Due to the strength of the golden wolf and the pressure it exerts the goblins stopped running towards us and instead stayed in the depths of the forest. It was the first time we had a break from the constant attack. Although I was still worried about the goblin archer. The two arrows that the archer shot towards me could have taken my life.n0๐—๐‘’๐“›๐‘ˆ๐’๐“‘.๐’ธ0๐•ž

I gathered everyone near the gate making sure to close it before talking.

"We have two options. Stay here and defend or split up and attack while defending. The first option is without a doubt the safer option. The second is extremely risky because we can end the fight by destroying the encampment however, by splitting the up we lose a lot of defense here as well as potentially sending the attacking party to their deaths. For those that want the second option put up your hand."

I gave everyone a little bit of time to think about the two options. After a bit, it seemed like everyone made their decision. Robin, Howard, Luke and myself had put their hands up. I was the last person to put up their hand and once I did David asks me a question.

"Do you think the second option is the better option in order to survive?"

I look back at him and shook my head.

"No, if I was thinking about only survival then I would choose to defend against the goblins. However, I am thinking about the future. If we can defeat the encampment we will be able to take the resources from the encampment at the same time there might be hidden gems there. Items that will enhance our lifestyle or enhance our strength. At the same time, this is all a guess. There might be nothing there and I just made everyone go through hell and back but it's a risk I am willing to take."

David still shakes his head.

"I don't understand. We don't have the resources to attack and defend how do you propose we do it?"

I smile at David and tell everyone my plan.

"It might sound hard but I think we have a chance. With the number of goblins that attacked us from sunset to now, there would have been hundreds of footsteps meaning it would be an easy task to backtrack towards their encampment. Oscar will be leading the way especially since he knows where the general direction might be. Luke will be the weapon or more importantly, it would be the golden wolf. However with only 30 minutes before the golden wolf disappears we will need to time the attack wisely. We have already used it once so we know what to expect. Then there is me, I will make the decisions on moving forward or retreating."

Everyone looked at me as if I was a ghost.

"Wait, how is this a plan it sounds like suicide."

Owen broke the silence with a sarcastic tone.

"It does not SOUND like suicide it IS suicide"

Oscar did not agree with the plan at all and expressed his disbelief at my words.

"No, I think it is the best option we got."

Everyone looked at Robin. She stood there with one hand on her hip looking at us with a face of disinterest.

"Honey, stop being a bitch. You are the best tracker we got and if we want to find the goblin's encampment only you can do it. You need to grow a pair and go out into the wild. Furthermore, we need to repay Ian for helping us when we needed it most."

Robin walked over to Oscar and stands right in front of him.

"Mum...I-I can't just go out there knowing I am going to die."

"You are not going to die. No is, I'll make sure. The moment there is any danger I will voice the order to retreat and the 3 of us will go back to here and defend until the goblins stop attacking."

I look straight into Oscar's eyes as I speak to him. Not wavering a single step. With a sigh, Oscar reluctantly agrees and Owen looks at Robin giving a doubtful look. Robin looked slightly annoyed before she walked over to Owen and punched him in the chest.

"BE A MAN OWEN. You better defend this place with your life."

I gulp nervously looking at the interaction between the two thinking I should never get on Robin's bad side.

[ Loyalty Points (Robin) 10 ]

[ Loyalty Points (Robin) 60/100 ]

"Ok, here is the plan once again. Howard, David and Owen will be defending the gate. Robin will provide support from the wall and Lucina I want you to help Robin out whenever she needs it. Luke, I know you did not say anything during that conversation so I assume you know what is happening. I want you to stay behind me. If we get into extreme danger I want you to call for the golden wold immediately otherwise wait for my signal. Oscar, lead the way."

With a nod from everyone, Oscar, Luke and I set off for the goblin encampment and into the depths of the forest.

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It is the dead of night and we just entered the forest. The canopy covers the sky allows only small rats of moonlight to touch the ground. It was the first time I was so entering the forest past the edge. It was strangely calm. Only the sound of rustling leaves and small twigs snapping under our feet can be heard. It was very odd since there were so many goblins just moments ago scurrying across the forest floor. I see Oscar crouch looking intently at the ground.

"This way, it seems like they were retreating. Not too sure of the number of goblins running away but in the group of footprints I can clearly see a larger footprint. It looks to be twice the size of a goblin. Did one of them evolve into a hobgoblin?"

"What is a hobgoblin?"

Luke asks the question on my mind softly. The only information I knew about hobgoblins was from other games. Usually, they were just larger versions of the goblins and are slightly smarter and stronger compared to their counterpart.

"I only know from what mum told me but hobgoblins are an evolved species of goblins. There are 3 versions of them and it usually correlates with their strengths. She told me that they can specialize in strength, agility and magic."

"Magic? As in like magic like fireballs and stuff?"

It was the first mention of magic in the game and it also proved that magic existed in this world. Although I had my suspicions that magic existed there was no information that it as confirmed.

"Yes, fireballs and stuff but I don't know what a hobgoblin that knows magic can do or what they would look like."

"Hmm, I think we are not dealing with a mage. There is a higher chance of strength or agility-based goblin because of what happened at the wall. There was no magic used instead, it was a simple bow and arrow. It means the hobgoblin is proficient in archery which might lean it towards agility-based. Let's keep moving forward Oscar."

Oscar nods towards me and starts to move forward again only this time more slowly. He looks around the ground in front of him more often constantly checking broken branches or areas in the trees before advancing. I don't rush him and I calmly wait for his judgment before following him. Luke follows me closely behind trying his best to make as little noise as well.

After walking deeper into the forest we finally arrived at the area where Oscar first say goblin prints.

"Okay, there are two sets of footprints here. From my memory the goblin prints I saw before leading towards the left but from what I see right now I see more footprints towards the right. I cannot see the hobgoblin prints for some reason though. Did it wander off from the group or did it get covered by the number of goblins..?"

"Wait, Oscar did you just say there are no hobgoblin prints?"

"Yea, why?"

"Shit, MOVE!"

I rush from where I was standing and pushed the confused Oscar. The place where he was just standing was suddenly pierced with an arrow from above. I look up to see a goblin twice the size of a normal one. It was crouching on top of a thick branch holding onto a bow and slung on its back was a quiver. It had slightly smaller ears than other goblins and its nose was smaller. It wore something similar to a red beanie and dirty brown rags around its waist. At the same time, it had a disgusted expression and soon it turned away and jumped from branch to branch. It disappeared from the tree and into the darkness.

Oscar was breathing hard while he was on the ground. I can only imagine what was going through his mind right now. I stand up and grab his arm pulling him up I pat his back, dusting the dirt and dead leaves off his back.

"Are you ok?"

I look at his face carefully looking at his expression. Oscar opened his mouth but couldn't say anything. He looked around a bit not knowing what to say until he saw Luke. He saw Luke, standing still looking in the direction of the archer hobgoblin.

"I'm fine. Let's keep moving, we should follow the footprints to the right. There are more goblins that way but it is most likely where they are staying."

Oscar looked different. He still had a worried expression but it looked more calm and ready.

"Okay, lead the way."

Oscar nods his head slightly while moving towards the right and we follow him onwards deeper into the forest. We follow the footprints for a little bit more until we get to a clearing. There were small wooden tents huddled around a large fire. Loud yells and the clanking of rocks fill the air. There was a large rock near the fire and on top of the rocks was a single hobgoblin. It was the same one from before and it was shouting at the goblins below him.n0๐—๐‘’๐“›๐‘ˆ๐’๐“‘.๐’ธ0๐•ž

"We got to the encampment but now what?"

Oscar nervously asks me as he observes the encampment in front of him.

"We need to look for an opening or somewhere to attack from but we need to make sure we have a retreat path."

"Ian, what if the form of attack was the golden wolf appearing?"

"Hmm, I think that idea is perfect Luke. Now come here let me talk to u about how we are going to do this."

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I slowly crawl along the ground towards the closest tent. I held onto my spear and shield and carefully crept closer to the tent. I make sure I made as little sound as possible. Behind the tent, I got up slightly and crouch walked to the next tent drawing closer to the large rock. The noise from the goblins shouting at each other drowned out the noise from my footsteps. I could see the hobgoblin's face as I got closer. It was wearing a wide grin as it looked down at the goblins a look of superiority could be seen.

There were 6 tents and a large rock surrounding a large fire. I could see a large pot hanging above the fire, from a couple of large poles. Clouds of steam could be seen above the pot and a single goblin was stirring the insides of it. There were goblins holding weapons hopping from one leg to the other dancing around the fire. Some yelling and shouting while eating some sort of meat. Pieces of the meat would spray over other goblins every time they yelled. It was like a chaotic mess around the fire.n0๐—๐‘’๐“›๐‘ˆ๐’๐“‘.๐’ธ0๐•ž

I stay quiet slowly moving behind tents inching my way towards the rock. Suddenly, a goblin turned the corner and walked behind the tent. Its eyes were closed and it was whistling softly as it walked further away. As silent as a cat, I stay still and unmoving. The goblin walks past me and I leaped on it. Stabbing the back of its throat with the spear while pushing his head down to the ground. I kill it as quickly and quietly as I can making sure no other goblin notices my presence. I move back behind the closest tent and let out a sigh of relief.

It took a bit of time to get to the rock and during that time I had killed 2 more goblins that wandered away from the fire. I looked up and saw the hobgoblin grinning. I lick my lips and swallow my saliva while I held onto my spear. I draw the spear back and aimed for the hobgoblin's head. I step forward and tossed my spear. Unfortunately, I stepped on a branch and the sound made the hobgoblin turn behind. He sees the spear fly towards him and awkwardly twists away. The spear barely grazes his shoulder and he falls down into the crowd of goblins.

I curse under my breath and start to sprint away. I hold onto the shield tightly with my left hand while grasping the goblin knife in my right in case something unexpected happened. Not long after I could hear the sound of goblins chasing after me. Their iconic screeching and yelling filled my ears and made the hairs on the back of my neck stand.

I sprint faster and faster, I can feel my heart beating louder and harder than ever and as if my luck couldn't get worse I had run into a dead end. Since it was dark and there was only a limited amount of light I couldn't tell where I was running and I didn't even know I had run into this dead end. In front of me and to my sides were the walls of a mountain towering over forest. I turn around to see the crowd of goblins slowing down and spreading out covering any path of escape. I smile weakly at the group of goblins and went into my battle stance. I can see their nasty grins and smug faces as they surround me, some were taunting me with their weapons while others licked their lips revealing a disgusting set of teeth.

The group of goblins parted in the middle and the leader of them appeared, the hobgoblin. The hobgoblin walks forward confidently and the moonlight shines on his body as if he was a saint. Its bow was replaced by a thick wooden club, twice the size of its arm. It spits in my direction and that was when I recognized it. The hobgoblin was the goblin with the club and shield during the last attack. It had evolved, became stronger, faster and bigger while at the same time earning the rights to lead a group of goblins. I laugh nervously at the goblin looking at him intently ready to react to any of its moves.

It leans forwards and pushes off the ground hard enough to leave a small indent on the ground. It dashes forward and swings the club upwards and then smashing it down. I block the strike with my shield but underestimated the amount of raw strength of the hobgoblin. I could feel the blow throughout my whole body. I see the hobgoblin wind up for another attack and quickly sidestep the blow. At the same time, I counterattack stabbing forward with my knife. The hobgoblin rolls away and the knife nicks his nose. It looks at me pitifully and starts to laugh. Its wide grin grew wider and its eyes bulge out of its sockets and with a crazed laugh pounces towards me gripping the club with both hands swinging it down from the sky creating a cloud of dust as it lands. With such an obvious attack I step back dodging the blow but I couldn't stop the follow-up attack. The hobgoblin leaped towards me hitting me square in the chest cracking and breaking the wooden chest plate. I bring up the status screen to see how much HP I had left.

Name: Ian

Race: Human

Health Points (HP): 3/10

Mana Points (MP): 0/0

Strength: 5

Vitality: 5

Intelligence: 5

Dexterity: 5

Agility: 5

Luck: 5

Equipment: Goblin Knife, Wooden Shield, Lucky Goblin Totem Necklace

With only 3 HP left I was very worried but despite how dire the situation looked right now, I smiled.

"LUKE NOW!"

Hidden on top of a ledge above a golden light flashed and a golden wolf jumped down. Standing next to me was once an enemy but now my friend. A confident smile spread across my face as I saw the hobgoblin's surprised expression.

"Hey hobgoblin, get ready because it is our turn."

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I back off and run towards the mountain and start to climb. I grab Luke's hand and swing myself onto the ledge. Looking behind me I see the golden wolf fighting against the hobgoblin and the goblin army.

The wolf dodges the hobgoblin's strike and bite's its arm ripping it from its body. At the same time, the wolf is hit by multiple goblin knives and its golden fur is dyed in crimson blood. It leaps backward and howls towards the sky and as if the moon answer's its call a silver ray of light falls down on the wolf. The crimson blood fades away and its golden fur shines even brighter. It growls at the goblins and leaps towards the closest one ripping its head apart before swiping its paw at the next one.

The hobgoblin slowly retreats from the golden wolf while ordering for more goblins to attack the wolf.

"Ignore the goblins! Attack the hobgoblin!"

I hear Luke shout an order towards the golden wolf and in response, it howls and leaps from the ground and towards the wall. Jumping from the side of the wall forward landing behind the goblins and facing the hobgoblin. The wolf leaps forward with its jaws wide open aiming for the hobgoblins head. The hobgoblin dodges to the side and raises its club hitting the wolf on its back. Due to the failed attack, the wolf was now surrounded by the goblins and was eventually overwhelmed but it did its job. Injuring the hobgoblin as well as decimating part of the goblin army.

I let out a sigh of relief glad that the plan worked out but we were still in danger. Looking at the army of goblins only numbering in the twenties and an injured hobgoblin I decided to take a risk.

"Luke let's jump down and try to kill them all."

"WHAT?"

I look at Luke with a very serious expression while I see his dumbfounded and confused face.

"I'm serious. You and I jump down right now. The goblins won't expect a thing and we would be able to quickly kill the closest ones lowering the amount we have to face already."

"Wait, no wait are you sure it would be 2 against like 20 something."

"Trust me, we can do this."

As I say those last words I jump down and quickly ran towards the closest goblin. I stab the side of its neck instantly killing the goblin and grabbed the knife that dropped from its hands. I toss the knife at another goblin and run towards it stabbing its body. To my side, I see Luke finally jumping down and killing goblins. He was swift and mobile running around goblins stabbing their neck or chest not missing a beat. The goblins started to realize that they were being attacked and started to fight back. I make sure to block as many attacks as possible since I was still low HP but running on adrenaline I kept pushing myself to kill goblins.

I was lucky with a lot of the attacks barely dodging some slashes from goblins and barely blocking the club swings. I could hear the yells and shouts of goblins all around me as their blood sprays over my body.

Finally, it was only the hobgoblin left. I look at my status and look at Luke's.

Name: Ian

Race: Human

Health Points (HP): 1/10

Mana Points (MP): 0/0

Strength: 5

Vitality: 5

Intelligence: 5

Dexterity: 5

Agility: 5

Luck: 5

Equipment: Goblin Knife, Wooden Shield, Lucky Goblin Totem Necklace

Name: Luke

Race: Human

Health Points (HP): 2/12

p Mana Points (MP): 4/4

Strength: 6

Vitality: 6

Intelligence: 8

Dexterity: 4

Agility: 15

Luck: 1n0๐”ณ๐žฎ๐—…๐“ค๐“ˆ๐‘ฉ.๐“ฌ0๐—†

Equipment: 2x Goblin Knife,

I did not notice before but Luke's stats had changed. He gained more strength, vitality, intelligence and agility. If there was a level system in the game then he would have leveled up. I was curious about why his stats had increased but there were more pressing matters.

The hobgoblin was breathing heavily in front of us, bleeding profusely from its shoulder were the golden wolf had ripped his arm from. I couldn't believe it was still alive but even so both me and Luke were low on HP too.

This time I can't take any risks. I lick my lips and squat a bit while bringing the shield in my hand in front of me. Luke backs up behind me and to the side ready to strike. It was a stalemate, with both parties staring at each other intently.

The hobgoblin grew impatient and screamed at us. It raised his club and charged towards me. No tricks, no feints just a straight charge. I remember the previous battle at the cave where the goblin had attacked last time.

I toss my shield at the hobgoblin blocking its sight with the shield while I jumped and rolled to the left. I toss a spare goblin knife at his face while I slashed at his feet. Being distracted by the shield and having one less arm the hobgoblin was hit by both knives. Luke pounces on the hobgoblin from the other side placing his knife in the neck of the hobgoblin before jumping away. With a look of horror and disbelief, the hobgoblin fell to the ground breathing its last breath.

[ Congratulations for defeating the boss and completing the second event!]

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n0๐”ณ๐”ข๐“›๐’ฐ๐“ˆ๐—ฏ.๐” 0๐‘€

All around Luke and I were the bodies of goblins, some with their neck pierced others with stab wounds in their chest. I plop down on the ground, exhausted from the battle while Luke leans against a tree.

"Luke, we did it. Good job!"

I look at Luke as congratulate him on the victory but he looks back at me and shakes his head.

"I'll talk to you in the morning. I'm going to rest here."

Luke slides his back down the tree and closes his eye once he is on the ground. I pick myself up and walk towards him sitting down next to Luke and closing my eyes as well. A wave of fatigue hits my body and the last thing I see is the silver moon in the sky before darkness.

I hear someone talking to me and feel my body shaking. I open my eyes to see Oscar. He had tears in his eyes and was desperately calling my name.

"Oscar...You are ok."

I had made Oscar stay at the encampment while Luke and I executed the plan. He was there to kill off any stray goblins as well as running back to the rest in case another group of goblins had split from the hobgoblin and attacked us. Looking at his body it seemed like he had encountered some goblins too. There were scratches and green blood splattered across his body and his wooden chest plate was missing.

"Ian are you ok? How is Luke? What happened here? What do we do now?"

Oscar bombards me with a series of questions but my head felt like a mess right now.

"Oscar, Oscar please can you quiet down for a bit. I'll answer your questions in a bit let me rest up."

I noticed the moon had barely moved since I last saw it before I collapsed from exhaustion which meant that Oscar had found me quite recently.

"No, no, no what if there are more monsters? We need to get out of here as soon as possible."

I had just realized what Oscar said was very reasonable. There was a chance that other monsters would appear. I slowly pull myself up with the help of Oscar and woke Luke up afterward. Luke's sleepy and exhausted face tried to fight the movement from the two of us but eventually, he calmed down. With Luke on his left and me on his right, Oscar held the two of us up while he slowly walked away from the scene of battle.

I don't know how long we were walking but it felt relaxing. The forest even though dark and mysterious had become more peaceful.

Oscar led us back to the rest of our people. I could hear Howard's loud voice as he runs towards us helping carry Luke, while I see Owen and Robin asking Oscar if he was ok. I sit down next to the gate and closed my eyes listening to the constant chatting between people as they ask about the goblins and our safety.

"Good job lad."

I barely open my eyes to see old man Hus next to me. He placed his hand on my shoulder and looked at me nodding his head slightly. I couldn't find the words to reply to him and only nodded my head back. I can feel the warmth from everyone around me and I smile looking at the scene. I lean my head back against the wall and fell asleep, this time I was undisturbed until I woke up naturally.

I woke up inside the mud house with Luke and Oscar next to me, the two of them still sleeping soundly. I get up slowly and walk outside I see the sun reaching the peak of the sky while the log-out message had just appeared. I go to sit down on a rock next to the fire and looked around me. I can see Robin and old man Hus making arrows, Lucina holding a basket woven from vines and leaves walking towards the forest, Howard and David standing near the gate looking ready to pounce on even the smallest threat. It feels like one whole big happy family and at that moment I thought of a name for this place but since the game was shutting down I decided to tell them next time I log back in.

...โ€ฆ..

I open my eyes to my familiar ceiling and take off the VR helmet. I stretch my body more than normal since I felt a little more stiff and sore. Even though there is no damage on my body from the game I could still feel the places that got hit by goblins. After stretching I go on my morning jog. After a week of jogging around my block, I find myself less tired and out of breath by the time I was home. I have a quick breakfast of eggs and sausages go on my computer ready to see the posts on the forums. Instantly I am greeted by Elves_or_Nothin's red post.

"Second Event was HECTIC!" - Elves_or_Nothin

HELLO MY BEAUTIFUL ELF-LOVING FANS. It is I Elves_or_Nothin and in this post I will be talking about the second event. To give a rough recount of what has happened before the event. I was attacked by wolves in the first event and survived. Found a next place to settle down in the middle of the forest. Set up some simple forms of shelter and gathered food and water. My people made lots of traps through the immediate surroundings to catch food and deal with large predators but then the second event came. We were again attacked by wolves but this time they were accompanied by more kobolds. Now, these guys were scary! They had bows, spears and axes while my people were still using simple sticks and stones but luckily we were able to defend against them and the kobolds retreated. GO ME! The 'hunter' NPC suggested we chase them and obviously I accepted that proposal. We chased after them until we found their encampment. There were so many kobolds but the scariest one was this kobold with a hood over its head and a big staff. IT WAS A MAGE KOBOLD! Players we have confirmed MAGIC IS REAL! It chucked a big fireball towards us and all of us dodged it by the skin of our teeth. There was so much fighting but once again your boy survives and kills the kobold mage. However, after the battle, my people and I were very tired so we retreated back to our camp and rested before returning to the encampment the next morning. We got a TON of loot too. Some armor and basic weapons and wolf teeth but the best one was the staff.

[ Kobold Staff

,m Magic Attack: 5

Intellegence: 5

Mana Regenertation: 1 MP every 30 minutes

Skill: Fireball (Active) 5 MP

A wooden staff imbuded with a lesser fire spirit ]

THIS STAFF IS CRAZY!!!!!! After looting it was the end of the game. Most likely when we log back into the game there will be some sort of leaderboard hopefully, I am still in the top 10!

I read Elves_or_Nothin's post as well as a couple of others recounting about their event. I found out that most people only survived the event rather than destroy the encampment since destroying the encampment meant killing a boss-level monster. The loot Elves_or_Nothin received from the kobold mage made me curious about what my loot would be and I was excited for the rest of the day anticipating my return to the game.

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[ Congratulations to these players who have gone above and beyond ]

[ 1. SAMurai

2. Scarlet Witch Sabrina

3. Devel

4. Helioc

5. Kitty

6. Bleu

7. SanShiGo

8. Hide-ha

9. Ian

10. Elves_or_Nothin

]

[ While other players achieved spectator results. The top 10 will receive a greater prize for their efforts. The top 50 will also receive a prize however, will not be mentioned on the leaderboard.]

The blue screen appeared in front of me the moment I logged back into the game. I see that the leaderboard had changed compared to the previous leaderboard. However, SAMurai is still at the top. I can only imagine how strong he is or how strong his NPCs are. As I was thinking about the leaderboard another message appeared.

[ You will now receive your reward. ]

[ Please choose one:

(1 - 5) Strength

(1 - 5) Vitality

(1 - 5) Intelligence

(1 - 5) Dexterity

(1 - 5) Agility

(1 - 5) Luck ]

Surprisingly, the prize this time was a stat increase. The only way to increase the stats of players is from equipment but now there is a chance to increase stats. However, which is more important right now? Strength will increase my damage but that can also be increased by the attack stat from weapons. Vitality will increase my HP in case I get hit too much. I don't have any skills to use the MP so intelligence is unnecessary. Dexterity is also unnecessary since I am not building any weapons. Agility could be important for running or for dodging. While luck is something that I wasn't sure of. I already had an increase of Luck from the goblin necklace but I do not feel the increased luck.

"What if I got luckier?"

I spoke quietly to myself as I select Luck from the blue screen.

[ Congratulations you have received 5 Luck ]

I was stunned for a bit. I got the maximum value from the reward and my luck increased to 10. Was the increase in luck from the equipment what helped me get the maximum reward? I could not help but think the two were related but I did not have long to think as I heard footsteps behind me. I turn around to see Oscar and Luke walking out of the house.

"You two wash up and get something to eat we need to go back to the encampment and the place where we defeated the hobgoblin to collect any loot."

Both of them nodded towards me and walked off towards the river in the canyon. I could hear them chatting about last night's adventure as they walk away.

"David, Lucina and Robin get ready we are going on a small trip."

David and Robin got their equipment while Lucina got a couple of large woven baskets. She seemed to have made a couple more since yesterday but I was glad she made more, it would make it easier to transfer some of the loot. Thinking about moving things I believe I should invent the wheel here to make some carts and wheelbarrows. I can get old man Hus to cut out wood and make some rough versions of carts but that will be for another day.

Everyone eventually got ready and we set off. We follow Oscar as he leads the way towards the dead-end first since it was closer compared to the encampment. Once we got there we saw the loot on the ground and made sure to pick up everything.

[ Goblin Knife

Attack: 1

A short stick tied to a sharp stone]

[ Goblin Club

Attack: 1

A short slightly thicker stick]

[ Hobgoblin's Club of Rage

Attack: 10

Vitality: 5

Skill: Rage (active) - 5 MP

A large wooden stick fueled by the rage of the previous holder]

There were 10 goblin knives and 8 goblin clubs which David carried in his basket. I walked over to the hobgoblin's club and when I touched the club I could feel the wrath and rage of the goblin. My mind was filled with rage for a split second before it disappeared.

I pick up the club and swing it around before moving on towards the encampment. Robin and Lucina chatting along the way about the bright flowers along the forest floor while Luke silently shadowed them. Oscar was busy leading the way and checking for tracks while David and I were in the back talking about the events that happened after I left. Only a few stray goblins had come towards the gate and were instantly silenced by Robin's marksmanship.

"Everyone, we have arrived at the encampment be careful I am not sure what is still here."

Oscar warns us as we got to the encampment. There was still smoke from the fire last night, coming from the middle of the encampment, and the 6 tents were still there. It looked like a ghost town. We slowly move forward with Lucina in the middle, Oscar and David at the front, Robin at the back, and Luke and I on the sides. It seemed like there was no danger in the encampment anymore. We spread out and quickly raid the tents picking up anything that might be useful.

I walk towards the tent closest to the rock and out the corner of my eye I see something golden half-buried under the rock. I walk towards it and dig around it revealing a small golden box. I grab the box and a message appears.

[ Congratulations you are the first player to find an Ancient Ruin ]

[ An Ancient Ruin is an item that can give the player various benefits ]

[ Since you are the first to find an Ancient Ruin you may choose from these benefits]

[ Please choose one:

Population

Statsn0๐‘ฃ๐‘’๐“›๐‘ˆ๐—Œ๐•“.๐œ0๐—†

Resources

Equipment

Artifact ]

I was shocked when I saw the system message and I couldn't help but speak my mind out loud.

"Is this part of the increased Luck? Or was this always supposed to be here? What do I choose?"

I have no idea which benefit to choose and what they would bring for me. Does population mean I get NPCs from the box? Will I get to increase my stats like the previous reward? What does it mean by resources? Do I only get one piece of equipment? What is an artifact? There were so many questions that ran through my head. I sit down and stare at the blue screen and the golden box. I put my hand under my chin and think intently.

"I have to choose wisely."

I psych myself up and taker a deep breath. I clear my mind of the questions and look at each benefit closely one by one and try to figure out the reason behind each benefit.

Population usually means increasing the NPCs however I find it unlikely that NPCs would appear from a box. This means that it either increases the chances of random NPCs finding me or it is an item that summons NPCs. This would be good regardless because I need more people for a village, town or city.

Stats should mean the increase of stats just like the previous award. The difference is most likely the system randomly increases a stat rather than me choosing one. I don't think I would need this since I won't be at the front lines all the time.

Resources are very ambiguous. It could mean food, water or even raw metals. I don't need food or water and metals can't be processed yet so getting resources might end up being a waste.

Equipment would mean getting a piece of equipment. No matter how good the stats are in the equipment it only helps in fighting monsters rather than improving the lifestyle of everyone.

Lastly is the artifact. Looking at all the previous options the artifact is most likely an item that gives a buff. It could be anything as well which makes it hard to choose since the effect might be useless.

A hard decision for this ancient ruin but at least from how the system worded its message it means there are more ancient ruins yet to be discovered.

"What do I need the most right now?"

I look around as I silently said those words. I see everyone picking up random objects that the goblins had before. From stone forks to random pieces of animal skin to stored fruit. I think back to the base and remember there are only 2 people there. With most of the people here helping me the base ends up vulnerable. Thinking about that I decided to choose Population.

I tap on the blue screen and selected Population. The golden box opens and an orb is inside. I pick up the orb and the description of the orb appears in front of me.

[ Goblin Spawn

Place the orb in the ground at a location desired. A goblin house will be erected. Goblins that spawn from this house and are MAX LP.

1 Goblin / Day ( Max 30 Goblins ) ]

The golden box crumbles into dust and my face starts to twitch, I couldn't hold back my grin. I couldn't believe my eyes. With this orb, I can solve problems with manual labor as well as be able to send out scouting parties to search deeper in the forest without risking the NPCs' lives. I hold onto the orb and went back to the test of the group since it looked like they have finished searching the encampment. We had gained from this encampment 15 goblin knives, 5 goblin clubs, 50 pieces of animal skin, some fruits and various stone utensils.

Following Oscar back towards the base I ending up thinking about the name for the base. For a whole week, there was no name for the place and I could hear other people refer to the place as a base however it would be easier if there was a name attached to the place. I rack my brain trying to think of a suitable name and not before long we had come back. Howard greets us at the gate and helps Lucina carry the basket full of animal skin. We gathered all the loot near the fire and started to store away the loot. Placing the weapons in a wooden barrel, animal skin inside the mud house and storing the food in the shelter. The stone utensils were collected into one basket and placed next to the weapon barrel.

Using this opportunity I raised the question that was on my mind.

"Does anyone have a name for this place?"

Howard shrugs his shoulders and moves off to the side carrying more weapons to be placed in the barrel. Luke and Oscar stay silent while old man Hus looked like he ignored the question. David and Robin just waited for me to say something else while Owen looked at everyone not knowing what to say until Lucina spoke up.

"Isn't the name something you should decide Ian?"

I look at Lucina confused. I reply to her.

"Why me?"n0๐‘ฃ๐‘’๐“›๐‘ˆ๐—Œ๐•“.๐œ0๐—†

"Because you helped everyone here. You find us this place, saved Robin, Owen, Oscar and David. Stepped forward in the battle last night even though you knew yourself that you were not a fighter. You have more than enough qualification to decide the name since everyone here whether they voice it or not thinks of you as our leader."

I could see some small nods coming from the group as I look around.

"Even so, I don't know what the name should be. Does anyone have any suggestions?"

"Ian, just take your time to decide. Or think about what this place means to you?"

Lucina gives me some advice and while I thought about it my thoughts came out of my mouth.

"This place means home to me or a safe haven. Living here lets me feel the warmth of the sun in the day. It allows me to hear the rushing water from the waterfall next to us as well as the voices from the forest. The words I think of when I think of this place are home, safe, waterfall and forest. So maybe the name of this place should be something to do with one of those words."

After giving this a moment's thought I smile.

"I will hereby declare this place we live in to be called HavenFall."

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Once I had chosen the name, old man Hus brought out a long piece of wood. He took out a goblin knife and I wrote down the name HavenFall on the wood. Howard and David picked up the wood and went towards the gate. Placing it between the gaps of the wall above the gate. Our place now had a name and anyone that comes near it can tell that this place is HavenFall.

Oscar and Luke rested up chatting near the fire while Robin and old man Hus were discuss about improvements to her bow and arrows. Owen went down to the river to catch some fish for dinner while Lucina went into the forest to forage for more vegetables and fruits. At the same time, Howard and David were building another mud house next to the first mud house. Everyone was moving forward towards a goal or relaxing making me happy inside since I did not need to tell them to do anything allowing me to get to my own devices.

I hold the Goblin Spawn orb and walk towards the corner of HavenFall. Near the edge of the cliff and next to the wall I place the orb in the ground as per instructions. It shines blue before melting into the ground. The orb turns into a blue liquid which starts to spread out covering a rectangular area. I step away from the area and after a few moments, the edges of the rectangle start to move upwards towards the sky. It forms a dark blue box before bursting into blue smoke.n0๐”ณ๐”ข๐“›๐’ฐ๐“ˆ๐—ฏ.๐” 0๐‘€

Once it clears I see a small wooden cylindrical structure. It had a red curtain covering the front a grey animal skin as the roof. It was the same height and about twice the size of my body. I reach my hand out to grab the red curtain to look inside when a system message appears in front of me.

[ Goblin Hut

Spawns 1 Goblin a day.

23 : 59 : 59 ]

The red curtain seemed to be immovable and the hut itself looked very run down. Thinking about it a bit more I went to Howard and David and asked them to make a smaller version of the mud house next to the Goblin Hut. They were confused with my request since they never heard of a Goblin Hut so I brought them to the location.

"How does that make goblins?"

"Not sure Howard I got it from the encampment. The goblins that come out of it will however be friendly. I will explain it more at night when we have dinner with everyone."

Howard and David ask a few more questions before I left them to make the house.

Now it was time to plan for HavenFall.

At the moment HavenFall only had a storage house (shelter), a mud house, a fence next to the cliff, a mud wall, a wooden gate that looked like a couple of logs between the wall and the Goblin Hut. There was a lot of space since the area of HavenFall was very large. Currently, the houses were closer to the cliff and the wall was only 2 houses from the forest which was on the other side of HavenFall. It takes about 10 minutes to walk from one side to the other side.

While HavenFall was very long it was not the widest place. Only able to fit about 10 houses between the mountainous walls that surround HavenFall. I walk around the whole place thinking about what to put and how to improve HavenFall. Some problems I thought about were food and defenses. Our source of food at the moment was fruits and wild vegetables from the forest and fish from the river. While it is readily available now there will is a chance that this game has a seasonal system. Once winter arrives in the game then food will become harder to acquire. A reliable source of food is need something like potatoes or onions.

Lucina has harvested some variations of potatoes from the forest so maybe we can start a farm. As I walk along the edge of the cliff I find the location is good for a farm. It had a lot of sunlight and since the river is only below so obtaining water for the crops would be very easy. After plowing the ground and maybe adding soil from the forest the place would end up being a farming district but that would require a bit of time.

As for our defense with only a wall, there really wasn't much of a defense. As I walk towards the wall I think about ways to improve it. I think back to other games I played before that had castle defenses and thought about building a moat or a trench in front of the wall. I also thought about spikes placed in the trench and along the wall.

I walk past the gate and look back at the wall from the outside. I see the hard work put into the wall. Each brick is placed into the wall made by hand and another layer of mud on the outside to smooth out the appearance. A roughly build gate bridging the gap of the wall with a sign above it displaying the name. It looked like a cheap impersonation of a gate but I felt warm looking at it.

I need to replace the gate with a proper door or even a draw bridge if I decide to create a trench although the more I look at the wall from the outside the more I feel creating a trench would benefit HavenFall. Creating a deep hole would make it harder for enemies to attack HavenFall. At the same time, it would make enemy attacks be more focused at one point rather than spread out since there are not enough people to defend the whole stretch. In the trench could be spikes or water or even both.

Behind the wall, I think having some watchtowers would benefit as well. Having a place snipe from would help Robin when she uses her bow. I can see a couple of possible locations for a watchtower. Having 2 at the gate would pose as an immediate threat and having one at each end to take care of the flanks.

I had a lot of ideas in my head for improving HavenFall but after walking around the place the best thing to implement is a farm and then the trench. I walk back towards the fire outside of the mud house and see everyone already gathered walking for fish to be cooked. Lucina was also cooking a vegetable soup over the fire steering the pot full of various kinds of vegetables.

Since everyone was gathered here I start to explain about the Goblin Hut and my plans for the future. I asked Lucina to gather the potatoes tomorrow morning in order to sort them out at the same time I asked her to see if any other vegetables could be replanted. I explained to men about creating a trench at the wall. I also explained that the goblins that come out of the Goblin Hut will be another addition to our family and there will be no discrimination.

Everyone slowly took in the information and accepted the plans making me relieved that there were no objections. I can only wait now until tomorrow for the goblin to spawn and see its capabilities.

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The next morning arrives and I wake up to a beautiful sunrise. The golden rays illuminate the canyon below glittering off the surface of the water. Another day in Settlement and another day closer to civilization.

After a bit of time, everyone else starts to wake up and they start doing their daily works.

"Ian, do you want to come with me to look at the vegetables. I also told old man Hus to make some hoes in case we are making a farm."

Lucina walks towards me while pointing towards the storage.

"Yes, lead the way."

We walk towards the storage and I could see a couple of wooden pots next to each other. Lucina bends down and lifts the lid of the barrels showing me the food inside.

"There are only 4 wooden barrels with food inside them. The first one has mushrooms that Oscar harvested further from the edge of the forest. The second contains root vegetables a few potatoes and wild carrots. We usually eat this in the vegetable soups I make for dinner. The third and fourth are fruits food on trees. I am unfamiliar with a lot of them but most of them have been sweet and juicy."

"Well from what we have we can potentially replant the root vegetables and we can try planting the seeds from the fruit and see if they will bear fruit. The place in the corner of HavenFall near the fence looks like a good place to start a farm. We would just need to build a more secure fence maybe another mudwall near the edge for safety. Then we plow the ground and mix soil from the forest into the ground. How does that sound Lucina?"

"It sounds good but I'm not sure how to proceed with the planting process."

Lucina had a worried expression as she told me about her problem.

"It's fine for now keep finding more vegetables I will get Howard or David to start on the mud wall while I wait for old man Hus to make me a hoe. I will start tilling the field once I get a hoe."

Lucina nods her head and heads off with a woven basket in her hand towards the forest. I also see Oscar and Luke walk towards the forest accompanying Lucina. The two boys seem to have grown closer together after the goblin encampment incident at the same time I also see Howard and David making mud bricks off to the side. I had previously told them to make a small mud house for the first goblin companion and they were diligently creating mud bricks and placing them on the side to harden up in the sun. I walk over towards them and started to help out while waiting for the log-off screen.

...

Morning in the real world. My routine is still the same. Morning jog, breakfast and check the forums. The forums have mostly been about random things in the game from talking about an animal or a flower to about an NPC's stats. The forum is flooded every day with new players talking about their daily deeds.

I turn my computer off and decide to go on a walk since today was my day off. I live in a suburb in New Straya, a country part of New Oceania. Earth had now become 4 nations, New Oceania, EuroNation, Asiafreeca and Ameri. New Straya is part of the 4 states of New Oceania. It is a new state with a lot of construction in the works. If you move closer to the middle of the state there are more cranes and more skyscrapers. I live on a more humble side of the state with only a one-story house and quiet streets.

Deciding to do something different I walk towards the train station and board a train to the city. The train ride was quiet with only a few other people sleeping or on their phones. I decide to lean back into the seat and close my eyes thinking about the next steps in Settlement.

After an hour's train ride, I arrive at the city. Stepping outside of the train was like stepping into another world. The hustling and bustling of the platform overwhelmed me. People were pushing and shoving each other trying to get onto the train before the door closes. I squeeze myself through the crowd and escape the train station. I rarely leave my suburb and have never gotten used to the chaotic scene of the city. The front of the station was as crowded as the platforms for the trains. Hundred of people crossing the streets, constant chattering everywhere and the sound of horns and exhaust pipes.

I walk towards a gaming store 2 streets down the main road. As I turn the corner I was finally able to escape the main bulk of the crowd and with fewer people around me, I could finally breathe more freely. I walk inside the store and then I see a huge display at the front for Settlement. A whole wall dedicated to the game with various mythical creatures that were shown in the trailer around the title of the game. I could see a group of people crowd around the side of the wall talking to each other.

"How's Settlement for you?"

"Did you clear the second event?"

"Who is SAMurai?? He topped the leaderboard twice in a row!"n0๐‘ฃ๐‘’๐“›๐‘ˆ๐—Œ๐•“.๐œ0๐—†

"I came top 50 this time!"

"NO WAY! What were the rewards??"

"Increase one random stat by 1 to 5. I got Strength increased by 2."

"Man, I wish I can see the elves."

I stood near them placing my phone to my ear eavesdropping on the group. I was not sure if I should approach them or talk to them even though. However, that last comment made me wonder if one of those people was Elves_or_Nothin.

As I stood there contemplating whether I should approach them another customer entered the store. A girl with long crimson hair tied in a high ponytail wearing a scarlet tank top, short denim shorts and white sneakers. She was sucking on a lollipop as she looked around the store with a lazy expression.

"Over here, Sabrina!"

The girl looks towards the voice and her expression changed. She storms over and kicks a tall lanky guy with brown hair and glasses.

"Don't yell my ign like that you elf-loving dumbass!"

"OWW! Don't kick me, you idiotic witch!"

"HUH?? I guess you want to be beaten up."

The pair start to curse at each other and from the way they acted I could tell they were part of the top 10 in Settlement, Elves_or_nothing and Scarlet Witch Sabrina.

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Who would have thought that my trip to the city would bring such surprises? It seems to me that the two of them are quite close to each other. The other people seem to be unsurprised by their interaction as well, is the whole group close? After a short argument between Elves_or_Nothin and Sabrina the whole group moves towards the back of the store. I follow them as they walk towards the back but they start going inside a private room.

"Hey, are you also a Settlement player?"

One of the other people noticed me following them and called out to me.

"Ah, yeah I am but I'm not doing too well."

"That's fine come in with us half of us are here for some help anyways."

It seems my luck stat from inside the game has followed me to the real world. I quickly move to catch up with the rest of the players and enter the room.

The room looks like a private booth for gaming. It had computers on the sides of the wall and a couch at the far end. There were only 7 people in the room including me and they had already sat down at the computers looking towards the front where Sabrina and Elves_or_Nothin were standing. I chose to sit at the chair furthest from the front and waited.

"Ok, since there are no more people here let me introduce myself. My name is Evan, I am also Elves_or_Nothin and this is Sabrina, Scarlet Witch Sabrina. We usually play MMORPGs or VRMMORPGs and usually, we create a guild called ScarletElves you may or may not have heard of us before. However, Settlement is different from traditional games and there has been no confirmed contact between players even though it has been a week since the game has been released. I reached out on the forum to see if there were any willing players that wanted to meet up and here we are today. Thank you for coming."

Evan steps to the side and Sabrina walks forward.

"Now that Evan had gotten the introductions through I want to talk about what we have found out about the game. The game is a big sandbox, whatever you do will impact the game in some sort of way. Upgrading your own character is extremely difficult. Knowing the next step to proceed with the game is also difficult. So what do we have? A game that gives you almost no direction other than the events."

Nods occurred here and there as Sabrina talked to everyone and I too agreed. The game was very loose in its gameplay allowing a lot of different gameplay styles.

"From the information in the forum as well as our own experiences we have been able to make some findings. Each player is slowly creating a village and establishing their own territory. Players can be found in any biome. The NPCs are stronger than the players and they also gain stats. The NPCs seem to obtain stats by doing certain activities that would benefit them. For example, a player has found that one of his NPCs goes for a run every day and after a week his vitality increased by 1 and his agility increased by 2. There are wild monsters in the world and they do not have a set spawn however, certain biomes like forests have an increased chance of encountering a wild monster. We also found out that monsters can evolve into a stronger version of their selves however we do not know the condition or reason for the evolution. Does anyone else have anything they want to add?"

After speaking, Sabrina looks up at everyone in the room. She looked relaxed but at the same time, she looked anxious. Nobody spoke for a while and as she was about to speak one of the guys spoke first.

"What is the objective of gathering us here?"

"The objective is to share information so we can flesh out more of the game. Eventually, there will be interactions between other players and then there will be conflicts in territories. Forming an alliance early will benefit all of us."

Evan talked back to the guy that spoke. The guy did not have a response so he kept quiet. I saw Evan sigh before allowing Sabrina to continue.

"Both Evan and I are in the top 10 and while we haven't told the forum about the reason there is some speculation between us. The first event was survival and to obtain a higher ranking you would need to kill more monsters or kill the mini-boss. I was unable to kill the mini-boss however the monsters I fought were slimes and they were very easy to kill. I had 5 NPCs with me and one of them was able to make spears which we used to kill a lot of slimes. Whereas Evan was unable to kill a lot of wolves but managed to kill the mini-boss. In the second event, both of us were able to defeat the boss of the encampment. Despite this, I went up in ranking but Evan went down. This means the number of monsters you kill also correlates to the ranking and since I was able to kill lots of slimes in the encampment I went up in ranking."

"I have also spoken to SAMurai and he told me the reason he came first was that he was killing lots of weak monsters. The biome also mattered in which monsters we met. I met slimes in the plains, Evan met wolves in the forest and SAMurai said he was located near a river and grassland."

Sabrina and Evan took turns in talking about their experiences and by listening to them I gained a lot of information. Everyone started to open up about their experiences through the first week of gameplay and until it was my turn to speak.

"Hey bro, you haven't really spoken this whole time. Want to tell us about your game experience?"

I didn't know what to say. Should I lie about my experience? Or should I say the truth?n0๐ฏ๐šŽ๐‘™๐“Š๐ฌ๐›.๐’ธ0๐—†

"Sorry, I have just been listening to everyone talk about Settlement. Umm, most of the things I experienced have been said by one of you guys already. I spawned in a wasteland biome and walked with my NPCs towards a canyon. There we have created simple structures and survived both nights. Nothing too special happened during the game."

I told part of the truth and sprinkled some lies in between in order to make it less suspicious. I did not feel right about lying to everyone since they were so nice in sharing their information but at the same time, I did not want to reveal my identity to random people. However, if it was just Evan and Sabrina I would tell them my identity and form a three-way alliance.

The talk ended after a bit more discussion and people started to leave one by one in order to go home and rest before entering the game. The last people to leave were me, Evan and Sabrina. After I check to make sure there was no one outside eavesdropping on us I turn around to the pair.

"Evan and Sabrina I have something to tell you."

"Go ahead."

Both of them spoke at the same time and both had curious expressions.

"I lied before about my experiences with the game. I'm actually Ian, part of the top 10."

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"WHAT? Yo-"

Before Sabrina could yell any louder Evan covered her mouth.

"Quiet you dumb witch. Can't you tell he doesn't want other people to know wh- ARGH!"

Sabrina bit Evan's hand hard and pushed him away. Then proceeds to walk towards me, getting right up to my face.

"So. What did you want to talk to us about?"

"I want to propose an alliance between the 3 of us. I did not trust the other people in the room since they have nothing to show that they can deliver. However, I trust the 2 of you since you are in the top 10 as well. Now don't get me wrong I'm saying this to put down the other people here. They were all great people but Settlement is a huge game."

After recovering from the bite Evan joins in the conversation.

"Ian, I get what you are talking about but isn't more people better?"

"Not necessarily better. Having more people will allow for a better flow of information about the game but trust is harder. In other games, you only need to trust them to show up for a guild war or donate there were very minimal things needed to do but in Settlement you need to trust them with your location once the world develops to a point where we can travel long distances. Imagine you tell someone here the exact location and they use this information to gain more benefits. The people here are just people on the internet. They have no connection to you."

I explain to the pair my views of the gathering and future views of the game.

"I don't like how you approached the situation. Evan and I were here to help people not deceive them."

"Sabrina, I was here to get information from other people. I already post a lot in the forum to help people as well as showcase a little about the game other others who might be struggling but ultimately I don't get much information back from them. The players here did give me some insights into the rest of the game as well as approximate locations for where they are situated. Don't hit me for saying this but I got them to come so I could find out if there are people near me."

Sabrina turns to Evan and clenches her fist.

"WHAT? I thought we were here to help."

"We are helping them by giving them information about how we succeeded but I am worried that someone is near me and they attack me. We haven't had any incidents of PVP yet in the game but I don't want to be the first."

Sabrina swings her fists in the air in frustration and then turns back to me.

"Sit down. Let's talk more about things and YES I agree with the alliance."

"I agree to by the way. Let's work together Ian."

Evan brings his hand out waiting for a handshake while Sabrina walks towards the couch. I grab Evan's hand and give him a firm handshake.

"Let's work together."

...

After a long chat with Evan and Sabrina, I finally start to head home. I get on the train and collect my thoughts. I told them about my experiences with the goblin encampment and the golden wolf. I mention the Ancient Ruin and for them to keep an eye out for anything golden. I also tell them my location and what equipment I have managed to acquire. Afterward, they told me about some of their equipment which they were able to obtain. Evan had found a bow called Wind of the Forest which used air instead of arrows and Sabrina uses a Staff called Flames Embrace. They did not mention this equipment because it was their trump card but since I revealed about the Ancient Ruin they returned the favor. I was also able to find out more precisely their surrounding environments.

Evan is in a vast forest with trees as tall as skyscrapers and wide as houses while Sabrina is in the plains with only minimal trees and bushes. From Sabrina's location, she can see a mountain range on the horizon as well as a forest near the mountain range. Evan had not searched his surroundings as much since it could be dangerous. He had been attacked by various monsters outside of the events. Even I haven't seen too much around HavenFall however with the addition of the goblins soon I will be able to start scouting after securing the defense of HavenFall.n0๐’ฑ๐ž๐’๐”๐’๐“‘.๐—ฐ0๐“‚

Once I got back home I made some dinner and went into the game at midnight. I went to help out with the mudhouse for the goblin and was able to finish it right in time as I hear some rustling from the Golbin Hut. The immovable curtain was spread to the side and a small green goblin walks out.

The goblin was different from the goblins which we had faced before. It had a gentler face and walked out of the hut hesitantly with small steps. It had its hands together and looking around confused until we locked eyes. Terrified it walked back a couple of steps and fell on its bottom.

"Are you alright? My name is Ian. You are?"

"I-I-I'm sorry!"

The goblin turns covers its face with its hand.

"Wait. Why are you so afraid of me?"

"D-D-Do y-y-ou not re-m-m-meber me? Y-y-you defeated me b-b-before?"

"Are you the hobgoblinโ€ฆ?"

The goblin nods his head slowly.

"I see. Well, now I am not your enemy but your friend. Will you help me?"

The goblin had a scared and confused look on its face as it looks at me.

"Y-y-you will n-n-not kill me?"

"I won't kill you. Look behind me, this house is yours for now."

"You really will not kill me right?"

"No, I won't. Now, what is your name?"

The goblin stands up and shakes his head.

"I do not have a name."

"Hmm, then I will call you Gobi. Welcome to HavenFall."

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After showing Gobi around HavenFall and introducing everyone to him we finally sat down around the fire and I explained about his job.

"Gobi, you are the first goblin to reside in HavenFall and while everyone is ok with you so far just be careful and slowly build up your reputation. People are generally cautious towards monsters and while I have spoken to everyone about it I am still worried. If you help them and stay on your best behavior everyone will eventually accept you wholeheartedly. Furthermore, every day there will be more goblins until there are 30 goblins in total. I want you to be the leader of the goblins."

"Why me?"

"Because you are the first goblin to come out of the Gobin Hut."

Gobi had a nervous expression as he hung his head down.

"I-I-I don't know If I can do it."

"You can. You already lead a goblin army before. Leading 30 goblins will be easy for you. Furthermore, I am here to help you."

"Wh-What do I do?"

I pat Gobi's shoulder and give him a reassuring smile.

"Let me tell you my plan."

After a long talk with Gobi I was finally able to explain to him the plan for HavenFall. Creating a trench in front of the wall, placing spikes in the trench and along the wall, making another wall to replace the fence and starting a farm. There were a lot of to-dos and having Gobi lead the goblins that will appear soon will help. I asked Gobi to be in charge of excavating the dirt near the wall and slowly forming a trench and replied that he will gladly do it as well as teach the goblins that will appear soon on their duties.

Old man Hus walked towards me after Gobi moved towards the wall with a shovel.

"Young lad, I was able to make the hoes for you as you requested. I also improved on the weapons and made a few more armor and shields."

"Thank you old man Hus. I got another project for you."

"Tell me lad. What do you want these old bones to make for you?"

I simile as I look at old man Hus.

"I want you to make a wheelbarrow."

Old man Hus had a confused look on his face after I told him what to create. I got a stick and started to draw out a rough image of a wheelbarrow.

"It's simple, I need an efficient way to transport lots of dirt and buckets and bowls are not that efficient. A wheelbarrow is a cart with 1 wheel at the front and 2 supporting legs and arms at the back. Do you think you can make it?"

Old man Hus scratches his chin as he thinks about the design.n0๐—๐‘’๐‘ณ๐ฎ๐’ฎ๐”Ÿ.๐’ธ0๐“‚

"This circle thing here at the front you called this a wheel. What is it and how do I make it?'

It was my turn to be dumbfounded. This game's NPCs do not know about the wheel.

"Umm well, that is a problem. I assumed you knew about making wheels but since you can't do it...I know, let me help you. Let's find the material first in order to create everything."

In order to make a wheelbarrow I need wood however without sufficient tools to cut the wood into certain shapes and sizes the needs to be some improvisation. I walk towards Luke and Oscar who had just come back from foraging in the forest.

"Hey, you two can you help me search for some things in the forest. I need a lot of straight sticks and vines, the more the merrier. Also, I will need a solid piece of wood something big maybe a stump would be good that way we do not need to chop down the trees. Bring me all of that as soon as you can."

The boys nodded towards me and went off into the forest to search for the materials.

"How are we going to make the wheelbarrow lad?"

"For the wheel, I thought of using a stump. We just need to cut away the roots and smooth out the edges then we make a hole through the middle. We can make a hole by constantly drilling a sharp stone through the middle. The sticks are going to be the body of the wheelbarrow and the vines are what holds everything together."

"Interesting concept lad. I will be waiting for the boys to come back in order to create this wheelbarrow with you. For now, I will rest up in the house."

"Okay old man Hus."

I wave old man Hus goodbye and move towards Lucina and Robin who were starting to til the farm. The two girls swung the hoes into the ground pulling the dirt towards them before repeating the process one step backward.

"Are you alright with tilling the ground?"

My voice seemed to have startled Lucina as she jumps forward a bit tripping over the ditch she had just created.

"I'm sorry for scaring you, Lucina."

I quickly kneel down to help Lucina to her feet.

"It's fine sorry for jumping around. As for your initial question, I only have the idea of pulling the ground towards me then repeating it. I'm not sure if this is even correct. Robin said she would help but she has no idea as well."

"Hmm, I see you have marked out an area for the field. I think what you need to do is till one row and keep the dirt on the side then once you till the next row fill it with the first from the first row. You repeat this and once you get to the last row you use that dirt to fill the first row. Tilling the ground is used in order to move the soil from the bottom of the ground upwards. Also, I think it would be good to mix some of the soil from the forest since the vegetables that we foraged came from the forest. Maybe one of you would collect some dirt while the other tills one row and then you swap?"

"That's a great idea!"

Lucina's eyes lit up after I suggested a way to improve the field and Robin had a gentle simile on her face.

"Come follow me Robin for now let's go to the forest we should dig the soil that is closer to where the vegetables are found. Let me show you!"

Lucina grabs Robin's hand and they walk towards the forest happily chatting to each other. I'm glad that everyone is happy and with this, it seems like HavenFall is slowly moving forward one step at a time.

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It was not long until Luke and Oscar came back with bundles of sticks and vines. They dropped off their findings before taking a shovel and ax to go get a stump. They informed me that the stump they are getting happened to be relatively round which made me excited to put the parts together.

Old man Hus and I got to work placing sticks next to each other to measure out a good size for the wheelbarrow. I cut off the tops of some sticks in order to make a more uniform length as well as shave down the sides of some of the sticks making them more smooth. Old man Hus had different shaped stones for different uses and I was surprised with some of the hand tools he also made. He had made small knives for carving and made a sandpaper-like device by placing a really rough rock in a box made out of sticks. It looked like a whetstone of some sort but he told me that he uses the tool in order to shave down edges of branches or armor in order to make it more smooth.

After making sure all the branches were ready old man Hus started to weave the vines in between the tops and bottom of the branches. Although there were gaps in between the branches he told me that we can use mud to close the gaps and attach another layer of branches on top. While this addition will add more weight to the wheelbarrow since Howard or David have high strength they will most likely be the ones to move the dirt.

While old man Hus was connecting the sticks together I went to make a pile of mud as well as check on Gobi. As I walk past the gate to the far right next to the mountainside I see a small green creature shoveling away by itself. My chest tightens and I felt guilty. Looking at the scene was like looking at a bully victim. It didn't feel right when I saw Gobi shoveling dirt away. I quickly walk over to him and surprised him with a shout.

"AAAAHHH!!"

Gobi jumped in fright and I laughed out loud looking at his reaction.

"Gobi, I think you did enough digging. Come help me with a project."

I pull Gobi up from the hole he had made by digging and took some of the dirt and placed them in a woven basket with me to make mud. Gobi followed me back towards old man Hus. Old man Hus had finished connecting the last sticks together making the base of the wheelbarrow. It was squarish and about as long as two people standing close to each other. He had also made the sides of the wheelbarrow but they were still not attached. I asked Gobi to mix dirt and water together to make mud while I get two long sticks and place them diagonally across the base of the wheelbarrow. I held onto them tightly while old man Hus tied the middle together and the ends to the base. I flip it around and Gobi spread the mud on top making sure to even it out as much as possible. Right on cue Luke and Oscar had return carrying a large stump about the size of a watermelon.

Since there was no way to precisely cut out a smaller cylinder shape from the stump I had Gobi cut shave the bark off the side while I cut off any roots. Old man Hus went to get a spear since the hand drill he had made before was not going to be efficient in creating a hole through the stump. The spear he bought back had a smiler head and he had attached another stick near the end shaft connected by a vine. The vine wrapped around the spear and connected to both ends of the stick. It looked like a meter-tall version of a hand drill.

I asked Howard to come over and try to operate the spear drill and funnily enough it was working. It was slow but steady progress and the spearhead slowly descending into the stump.

While Howard was busy drilling, Gobi went to make more mud and I helped old man Hus connect the sides of the wheelbarrow together and attach the legs and arms. It took the whole day before the form of the wheelbarrow was completed and tomorrow Howard should be done with creating a hole through the stump to create the wheel. I asked Luke and Oscar to gather more thick sticks in order to create an axle and once night fell everyone including Gobi gathered by the fire.n0๐—๐‘’๐‘ณ๐ฎ๐’ฎ๐”Ÿ.๐’ธ0๐“‚

"Today is the first day we have a new member of HavenFall. Gobi will be the leader of the goblins that come through the Goblin Hut and together all of us will create a prosperous place to live in. Right now we are like a small village, not even a town but together I can see a time where we will have rows of houses, streets and a multitude of races living together happily. That is what I envision HavenFall will be. A place where everyone belongs."

Everyone cheered including Gobi and with a lucky haul from Owen we had our fill on fish and vegetable soup. It was a good night with lots of laughter and cheering.

Morning soon came and everyone was back to work. Howard and David took turns drilling the spear into the stump to create a hole for the axle. Lucina and Robin slowly tiling the ground while Owen helped by mixing the soil from the forest into the field. Luke and Oscar took over the duty to forage for some food and large pieces of wood. While old man Hus, Gobi and I created another layer of mud on the wheelbarrow.

Right before it was time to log out David had successfully drilled through the stump and with the help of Gobi and Howard we were able to sand off the sides of the stump to make a smoother surface for the wheel. Old man Hus carefully slotted the axle in the hole and then tied the ends to the wheelbarrow and it was finally completed.

I pick up the arms of the wheelbarrow and lift the legs off the ground and with a push the wheelbarrow moves. The first one to scream with excitement was Gobi.

"W-W-WE DID IT!!"

Like a tsunami, everyone who contributed starts to shout and cheer. I push the wheelbarrow forwards curving it around and moving it backward testing the structure and it works. Everyone took turns in moving the wheelbarrow and with all the excitement Howard lifted old man Hus into it. Driving old man Hus around towards Lucina, Robin and Owen.

At that moment a blue screen appeared in front of me.

[ Congratulation on completing 3 technologies.]

[ You have unlocked the Technology Tree. ]

The message disappears and another blue screen appears afterward.

[ Technology Tree ]

[ Completed

- Archery

- The Wheel

- Masonry ]

[ Partial Completed

- Pottery ]

The screen displays a tree-like map where the 'Completed' were highlighted and the 'Partial Completed' were half highlighted. Both were in a shape of a rectangle with the name of the technology in the middle and a small icon symbolizing the technology next to it. Branching out of the rectangles were lines towards black rectangles. Between some black rectangles were vertical lines sectioning different parts of the tree.

It is a new screen and since Elves_or_Nothin and Scarlet Witch Sabrina did not mention it then it must mean they have not completed 3 technologies yet. However what defines completing a technology?

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n0๐’ฑ๐ž๐’๐”๐’๐“‘.๐—ฐ0๐“‚

After coming out of the game I went for a jog and at the same time, I scheduled a meeting with Evan and Sabrina. I checked the forum after my jog and did not see any new information which means either people have not found out about the technology tree or people are hiding the information. Hiding the information is a perfectly valid strategy to get ahead of the rest of the players since there are a lot of black rectangles which means there is a lot of technological milestones.

I decide not to think too much about it until I meet up with Evan and Sabrina. I instead look up information on the creating of pottery. Since it was partially complete that means that something the NPCs in HavenFall correlated to pottery. It might be referring to the wooden bowl created by old man Hus. So I searched the internet for information on creating clay pots and other uses of clay. Surprisingly, I found out that clay can be found in canyons and near river banks which means there is a change that the river below HavenFall has clay. With the addition of clay, we can make pottery and structures. There would be less reason to create mud walls and houses because clay can be used to create bricks. I keep researching more on the applications of clay until it got closer to the designated meet-up time.

I take a train to the city and walk towards the game store where I see Evan and Sabrina arguing in front of the store. I wave towards them and said my greetings.

"Why is it every time I see you two I see you both arguing? Are you both dating or something?"

"NO WAY WOULD I DATE THIS GUY! It's this elf-loving idiot's fault. He told me the meet-up was 2 hours ago and I've been here since."

"HEY! HEY! I said I was sorry. Plus I got you some ice cream."

"WHATEVER LOSER!"

Evan sighs as he looks at Sabrina pouting next to him.

"Ian, let's go in you said you wanted to tell us something important?"

"Yea, lead the way."

We all walk toward the private rooms again and after closing the door I got straight to the point of the discussion.

"Do either of you know about the Technology Tree?"

The pair showed confused looks before shaking their heads.

"Okay, well in the game I discovered a new feature. The Technology tree appears after you have completed 3 technological advancements. In my case, I achieved Archery, The Wheel and Masonry. Let's call the new feature Tech Tree for short. The Tech Tree is extremely big it has a lot of uncovered technologies waiting to be discovered and implemented. I do not know which ones you both had achieved but once you have done 3 you will unlock it. I suggest we all share whenever we achieve a technological advancement, that way all of us can proceed through the Tech Tree. Any questions?"

Evan and Sabrina stayed silent for a bit before Evan proposed a question.

"What are the terms of completing a technology?"

"I don't know yet. I plan to test it tonight. The game shows partially completed technologies too which means that so long you are on the right track you can figure out the rest of the technology. My partial technology is pottery and tonight I plan to find clay and create a wooden pottery wheel to create a clay pot. Hopefully, this succeeds and the pottery technology will be completed. I achieved The Wheel technology by creating a wheelbarrow. You can create something similar that uses the wheel and I would assume the technology will be completed."

"Hmm, I can only think of Archery completed for me since one of my NPCs made a bow and some arrows. However, nothing comes to mind when I think of technological advancements"

"That's fine Evan, I wanted to tell both of you this information because I do not think I was the first to find out about the Tech Tree. The system did not reward me for coming first which means that someone else has done this and not shared the information."

"THOSE SNAKES! Even though Evan puts so much information on the forum. "

I jumped a bit back after Sabrina's sudden outburst. It seems she cares about Evan a lot more than she shows. After more talking about the Tech Tree and methods I used to potentially achieve my advancements we parted ways and I went back home. I had dinner and relaxed in bed before going back into the game.

Once back in the game I still see everyone celebrating. I smile as I look at the scene before me and my body felt warm. I let everyone celebrate a while longer while I went over towards the Goblin Hut. The next goblin is to spawn in 10 minutes so I decided to stay nearby. Gobi noticed me heading over towards the Goblin Hut and he followed as well. I inform Gobi again about his leadership duties and the importance to guide and integrate the new goblins into HavenFall. The goblin's tasks will be to dig up the trench while Howard or David will shovel the dirt into the wheelbarrow and transport it towards the cliff edge in order to create another wall. Luke or Oscar will be gathering thick pieces of wood from the forest while foraging for more food. Owen, Lucina and Robin will be tending to the field and slowly expanding it to create 4 fields of equal size next to each other.

Once the new goblin came out I introduced myself to him and let Gobi handle the rest. Old man Hus was sitting near the fireplace sharpening the spearheads. I walk towards him and proposed a new project for him.

"Old man Hus, now that we have created a wheel how about we create something else that uses the wheel."

"What is it lad?"

"It's called the pottery wheel. We will find another piece of wood much like what we used for the wheel only this time we need it thinner. We then dig a hole and place a log over the hole and create a hole through this log. We then create find two sticks, one needs to be hollow to some extent and one needs to fit inside the hollow stick. We attach the solid end to our wheel and insert the stick through the hole to make a stationary axle and the wheel can spin around horizontally. We then make another hole near the edge of the wheel where we can put jam another stick there to turn the wheel. It will be faster than turning it by hand as well as more convenient. What do you think old man Hus interested?"

Old man Hus thought for a bit while scratching his chin before smiling and looking at me.

"Lad, you have some very interesting ideas. I don't know what this pottery thing is but it will eventually be something I will be doing too so this is just the first step. Leave the construction to me I will ask Luke to help me find the materials."

I nod at old man Hus's words and move off towards the river. It's time to find some clay!

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Thinking back to the research I had done before coming back to the game I start to search along the river bank for clay-like soil. Further down the river, I notice the soil color changing from a red to a greyish hue. The following instruction on the internet I bend down and touch the soil and notice it had a different texture to the dirt and soil I had previously been walking on. It was glossy and smooth with an almost plastic-like texture. I further test out the clay by going towards the river and cupping water in my hands and then spreading it over the clay wetting it and then digging into it grabbing a handful. I knead the clay into a ball and notice that the ball tends to resist breaking as well as feeling sticky. I simile to myself since I had just discovered natural clay.

The next step is to transport and store the clay which will become a problem. There is no way to store the clay without the use of an air-tight container, the next best thing would be to dig up the clay when needed.

"Well no big deal, let's make a small stone kiln here and see if I can make a clay pot."

Remembering the tutorials on the internet, I start gathering large stones and place them in a rectangular formation make sure to leave space in the middle for wood. I mixed some mud to secure the rocks on top of one another and continued to pile them around until they were knee height. I made a small hole at the bottom on one side so I could feed it with more wood when needed and another closer to the top where I have placed some flat stones between the sides to make a stone bridge. It looked like a two-story house with two holes one at the bottom and one near the top. The roof of the kiln was made using thin flat stones as well by covering the sides with mud I eliminated the small gaps.n0๐’ฑ๐ž๐’๐”๐’๐“‘.๐—ฐ0๐“‚

I after making the kiln I went back up to HavenFall and gathered some tinder and wood. I lit one of the branches I found on fire and carried it back down to the kiln where I tossed the tinder at the bottom and lit them up with the branch. I slowly fed it with more small sticks slowly increasing the temperature.

Now it is time to make the clay pot. I found another flat stone to use as a table and gathered some of the clay making sure to wet the surface of the stone before placing the clay on top. I kneaded the clay together into a ball and started to wedge the clay. Wedging is the method to push air out of the clay and it is similar to kneading bread dough. Placing the clay on the stone and pushing down and forwards before picking it up turning it on its side and repeating the steps. I constantly added a little bit of water each time when I felt like the clay was becoming dry and slowly wedged the clay. The less air in the clay the better.

Since it was my first time and I had only seen videos online on the process I did not know when to stop wedging. I kept doing it until I felt satisfied with the job before tearing a piece and flattening it into a circle. This circle is the base for HavenFall's first clay pot. I score the edges with a stick and precede to tear off another piece from the clay ball and roll it out into a long sausage shape. I add more clay in places and make sure to keep it wet before scoring it again on one side. I place the clay coil on top of the base and squeezed the ends together to form the full circle. I repeat until I used up all the clay and I was able to create a pot 7 coils high which I end up placing to the side in order for it to dry.

For the rest of day, I kept making different-sized pots and cups while maintaining the kiln's temperature by adding wood every so often. I had made 11 small cups, 2 small bowls,3 large bowls and 1 small pot using this method. To help with the drying process I placed it near the kiln in direct sunlight until sunset. It was time to fire the clay pots. I place the clay cups and bowls on the flat rock which I had suspending in the middle of the kiln carefully making sure they do not touch each other and then put in more wood. I went to wash off all the dirt and clay and then went back up to the main fireplace. I could smell the fish cooking and the vegetable broth and after such a hard day's work, I was famished.

I talk to Lucina and Robin about the farm and they informed me that they have tilled one section and planted different sized cuts from the potato-like vegetable. They will continue on the second field tomorrow when they wake up. Luke and Oscar had brought old man Hus the material for the wooden pottery wheel with only needing to create the holes and smoothing down the wheel left to do. Howard had got to work by digging the dirt and transporting it to the far side of the cliff edge where David had started to make the mudbricks. Gobi had named the other goblin Gomi and they both were having fun digging the trench with Howard and interacting with the other residents.

Everyone was doing their part in making HavenFall a better place and it made me feel warm inside. Before sleeping I made sure to add more wood into the kiln and all that was left was to wait until tomorrow to see the result.

Tomorrow came faster than normal and the first thing I did was rush to the kiln. I could still feel the heat from the ashes radiating out of the holes and carefully with a long stick, I nudged out the clay pots. I could see from the top hole that some pots had burst into small pieces but there were 5 surviving pots. 2 small cups, a small bowl, a large bowl and the small pot had survived the kiln. The moment I held the clay pot the familiar blue screen greeted me.

[ Pottery Technology Completed.]

There was no reward but the message itself was rewarding. With this, we can create more pots and hopefully create large kilns to fire larger clay structures. Once old man Hus has finished with making the pottery wheel there will be no need to create a clay pot from using coils the production will be faster as well. Training a goblin to be a potter may even be better since they have smaller hands and longer fingers. New ideas ran through my head but first I needed to wash off the pots. I went to the river and carefully rubbed off the ash on the pot and once it was completed I see my grayish brown clay cup. It was rough to touch and did not look pretty but this is the first step towards civilization.

I bring up my creation to show old man Hus since he will be creating something similar to this using the pottery wheel.

"Incredible lad. It is very different front the wooden cups I had made. The texture is rougher but it feels more solid. With a little fine-tuning in the design process, you can make any shape for the cup. This is fascinating and you say with this pottery wheel you want me to make I can do something like this?"

"Old man Hus, with the pottery wheel you can make something even better. You can make it smaller, thinner, taller, wider. You can make it a different shape. There is an endless amount of designs."

"Well, well, well what are we waiting for? LUKE, OSCAR hurry up and start digging a hole and quickly sand off the bark of the log. Smooth it as quickly as possible I want to get to work as soon as I can!"

I laugh at the scene. Old man Hus seemed to be acting like a child with a new toy.

"Old man Hus while the boys do that why don't I show you where to get the clay and how to fire it in the kiln."

"Lead the way lad!"

Occasionally missing content, please report errors in time.

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For the following week, everyone was busy in HavenFall. Luke and Oscar finished making the pottery wheel and I helped old man Hus create some simple clay pots, cups, spoons, plates and large pots for storage. Afterward, Luke and Oscar went to help David complete make a larger kiln next to the small kiln I had made and once they had finished they helped David complete the wall. Lucina, Robin and Owen were able to finish tilling 4 fields as well as plant different crops in each field taking. Howard and the increasing goblins were able to finish digging the trench and a simple wooden bridge was placed in front of the gate served as the only passageway. Wooden spikes were placed randomly in the trench and through many trips, the trench was filled with water.

HavenFall had a lot of protection with a moat, spikes and a wall at the front. The steep mountainside enclosing the sides and the cliff with only one path at the back. Completing the wall at the back was the only task left to properly secure HavenFall from enemy attacks and now that that was finished I was confident that if there was an invasion or a horde of enemies the residents of HavenFall could stay safe and fight back.

During this time, old man Hus had created more weapons and armor in between the pottery-making sessions.

[ Improved Stone Spear

Attack: 5

A sharpers stone and a more solid shaft make a better spear

Made by Hus ]

[ Improved Stone Ax

Attack: 5

A bigger head and a sharper blade make killing easier.

Made by Hus ]

[ Stone Chest Plate

Defense: 5

Placing large flat stones and securing them with wood and vines protects the chest.

Made by Hus ]

[ Wooden Bow

Attack: 3

Having the right wood sometimes helps in making a better bow

Made by Hus ]

[ Improved Stone Arrow

Attack: 1

An arrow made from sharper stone and sturdier wood

Made by Hus ]

[ Stone Knife

Attack: 4n0๐’ฑ๐‘’๐“๐‘ข๐“ˆ๐‘.๐” 0๐Œ

Improving the goblin knife with a sharper stone

Made by Hus]

[ Goblin Wood Chest Plate

Defense: 4

Making a smaller wooden chest plate but with better wood and craftsmanship

Made by Hus ]

[ Stone Shield

Defense: 10

A rectangular shield made from stone and wood tied together by vines.

Made by Hus ]

Old man Hus asked Gobi about the preferred weapons of goblins and found that most used knives or clubs due to the simplicity of the weapon and also disregarding armor and shields. I overheard the conversation and told old man Hus to make knives and wooden chest plates for the goblins. Since there will eventually be 30 goblins I asked old man Hus to slowly make the chest plates while prioritizing the weapons first.

At the moment, there were 8 goblins and after finishing digging the trench Gobi gathered them to do some training. I asked Gobi to do this to create a more organized troop. Since Gobi was the leader of the goblins they quickly followed his orders and started to some basic training. Running most of the time and simple swings with spears. I had looked at the stats and unsurprisingly there were weaker than me, even Gobi was about as strong as me. His stats must have downgraded from dying.

Name: Gobi

Race: Gobin

Health Points (HP): 10/10

Mana Points (MP): 0/0

Strength: 4

Vitality: 5

Intelligence: 5

Dexterity: 5

Agility: 6

,m Luck: 1

Race: Goblin

Health Points (HP): 8/8

Mana Points (MP): 0/0

Strength: 3

Vitality: 4

Intelligence: 5

Dexterity: 5

Agility: 4

Luck: 1

I have seen the effect of training as Luke, Oscar, Howard and David had participated every day with the goblins and their vitality had risen by one. Even the goblins had increased their vitality by one as well. However, no matter how much effort I put into training I did not get any increased stats. It must be a game mechanic and it was unfortunate since there was no way to make myself become stronger other than using items and equipment.

Since HavenFall is in a good spot now it was time to start a new project, scouting the forest. Luke and Oscar have been into the forest every day and have mapped out parts of the forest however, they never go too far in case there were hidden dangers. The furthest they went into the forest was the old goblin encampment. Unfortunately, we were unable to take the structures with us and the encampment disappeared soon after the event.

This time, I had a plan since more goblins were appearing from the Goblin Hut every day I wanted Gobi to stay back and take care of the new goblins while Luke, Oscar and 6 goblins were to scout out further into the forest. After telling the boys and the goblins my plan they took got 3 woven baskets and filled them with some food and water and set off in the morning. The plan was for them to go beyond the goblin encampment and search for anything, whether it be more food resources, animals, predators, encampments or landmarks. I needed to know more about the area surrounding HavenFall and the only way to find out was searching bit by bit.

It was only the next day when the scouting party had already come back. They had already met with some trouble and it was not too far away from the goblin encampment. Surprisingly enough it was an old enemy, golden wolves. There was a pack of golden wolves past the goblin encampment across a river. Luckily, the scouting party was downwind and on top of a small hill so the wolves were unable to sense them however not too far away from the pack was the alpha wolf. It had a large lightning-shaped horn, shining silver fur around the neck and sparkling golden fur for the rest of the body. It was twice the size of a normal golden wolf and its paws were as big as a goblin.

With another stroke of luck, the alpha wolf was sleeping in a cave with 5 golden wolves resting nearby and with a glance at each other the scouting party retreated. Instantly coming back to HavenFall and reporting the situation.

I requested the scouting party to rest up for the day and depart once again in a different direction.

"I want you guys to scout another location, follow the side of the mountain and avoid the wolf den as much as possible. Do NOT go near the place. We were able to kill one of them that last time but there is no need to take the risk and fight with them again. Do I make myself clear?"

With nods from everyone, I was able to feel calm about letting them go back out to scout the forest but deep down there was a slightly uncomfortable feeling in my chest. I can only hope that they run into no troubles and make it back in one piece.

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I can still remember the disturbing and grotesque scene in that encampment. Screaming and yelling mixed with laughter and cheer. Puddles of deep crimson blood litter the ground, filled with bits and pieces of flesh. You can see parts of innards, ears, fingers and teeth floating about in the red sea. The smell of iron, urine and feces fills your nose and even if you vomit only acid and water come up. I was only there for 2 days and I had already seen so many women tortured, men slaughtered and monsters laughing at their achievements. Lucina was lucky. It was mere coincidence that she had not been chosen yet and Howard was lucky to even survive retaliating against those monsters. Old man Hus huddled away in the corner sheltering me from them but still, I can hear, I can see and I can smell everything.

Every day, someone died. Every day I prayed for a way out. For a way that these people I know can survive. Then one day it happened. A man not tall, not short, not muscular, not skinny just as average as they come. He came from outside the encampment and like a ghost weaved into our prison and convinced us to move. To rise up and escape and so we did. We followed him and we ran.

Now, he leads us. He takes care of us. He makes sure that we have everything we need to survive and now he asks me to help. Help him in his quest to create a safe haven for us.

I am with another man, Oscar, and a team of 6 goblins. I do not know how to lead them around, frankly, I do not care. I just want everyone to be safe and after we search around we return.

Oscar is in the front looking at tracks and trying to spot any potential dangers while the 6 goblins were following behind him whispering to each other. I can hear them talking about the forest. The emerald green leaves, the bronze trunks and the golden sunlight creeping through the canopy. They talk about the bizarre flora, touching them sometimes and sometimes being yelled at by Oscar. However, I remain at the back. Silently watching and listening.

I have spoken to Oscar a lot through the past few days and have gotten to know him well. He is a kind but scared individual. Despite this trait he wants to prove to himself, prove to his parents and prove to Ian that he can do it. He is constantly worried that his actions drag everyone down. To me, he had found a goal to pursue and that is more than enough. Likewise, I too had a goal. I want to be strong. To be faster than a wolf. To be stronger than an orc. To be smarter than a wizard. To be kind like Ian. I had a goal and I will do my best to achieve it.n0๐“‹๐‘ฌ๐“ต๐”๐“ˆ๐.๐•”0๐“ถ

Throughout most of the day, we follow Oscar slowly moving through the forest while hugging the left mountain. This mountain the gigantic, with its peak reaching for the clouds and luckily for HavenFall it was on our left making it a natural wall.

We follow the rocky surface, staying inside the edge of the forest. I take note of the change in environments as we walk further and further away from HavenFall. There were fewer trees and a thinner canopy. The ground became rocky and uneven and there was a slight elevation.

"Luke! It seems like the forest ends around here and we enter a more mountainous terrain. It took us about three/quarters of a day to reach here and since the sun is setting I think we should find somewhere to rest up for the night."

Oscar steps on a boulder and talks to me from the top as he looks around trying to find a place to rest up for the night. The 6 goblins looked around aimlessly copying Oscar but to no avail. I step closer to Oscar and looked towards the mountain.

"We should look for a cave along the mountainside or at least there will be some sort of overhang."

Oscar nods and calls the goblins over to follow him. Like a mother goose and her children, Oscar leads the way with the goblins following behind him closely. The mountain did not provide us with the shelter we expected and night had already fallen. Walking in the dark is dangerous but with little choice, we had to stop progressing. I made a small fire with some twigs and dead leaves scattered on the ground while the goblin and Oscar moved some of the bigger rocks together forming a wall. At least this way the wind coming from that direction would be blocked.

We stay close to each other staring at the flickering flames. The warmth from the fire escapes us drifting away in the wind. With not much left to do I slowly close my eyes and try to sleep.

After some time, I open my eyes. The small embers from the fire glow softly like a beating heart. To my right I see Oscar sleeping and next to him were the goblins all huddled up together. I stand up and stretch my back and arms letting out a small groan as I do. Nothing in front of me but darkness. I turn lethargically to check the surroundings behind me.

"..."

Two glowing yellow eyes with black slits in the middle. A round body and limbs as huge as a tree trunk. A log in its hands with armor reflecting the moonlight. Raging tattoos across its scarlet body. Its fangs as long as half its face emerging out of his mouth as it smiles almost reaching its eyes. Its eyes become upside-down crescent moons as it stands there looking at me.

My feet are frozen at the same time they feel like jelly. I could do nothing but stare at this creature as it stares back at me. Smiling like it just found a new toy. Seconds pasts and then minutes and what felt like hours. My forehead drips from cold sweat and I gulp nervously.

What do I do? What do I do? That question keeps running through my head. What do I do? What do I do?

It moves. With its right foot, it steps forward.

WHAT DO I DO? WHAT DO I DO? WHAT DO I DO? WHAT DO I DO? WHAT DO I DO? WHAT DO I DO? WHAT DO I DO? WHAT DO I DO? WHAT DO I DO? WHAT DO I DO?

I scream internally, sound fails to escape my mouth. It's moving closer one step at a time but I can't do anything. I watch move towards me but then it clicks in my brain. Oscar is here too. It's not just me. If that thing comes closer it won't be just me in danger. I have to move. I have to do something. I have to tell Oscar to move. I have to inform the goblins to do something.

But I can't.

I watch as it moves towards me.

Until it towers over me.

I can smell its horrible breath as it exhales above me. I stare up at its eyes. Those crescent moon-shaped eyes look down on me. The tips of its mouth reaching towards its ears. Those fangs creeping closer to the top of its head. I can see the intricate tattoos on its body. Serpents, lions, fish and man.

It leans forwards looking at the rest of the scouting party quickly before turning back to me. Its face, right in front of me.

Close enough to touch me.

Then it opens its mouth. Slowly.

"Hello, there...boy."