Maxwell

I stretched once we got back to the settlement. Everyone had settled down to start supper. The communal mealtime made the citizens seem closer to one another. Spotting the tents, I remembered that I had plenty of wood to spend on a few houses. Pulling up the notes that Rowena and I made, I started to head to where we were going to place our first residential district.

Or at least that was the plan. My nose sent a message to my stomach, and they decided without me that it was time to eat as my stomach gave a massive growl. I chuckled to myself and turned around to head to the supper area. I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast. I would need to take care not to overdo it.

“Care to pour a bowl for me?” I asked the maiden that was serving the meat soup to the rest of the citizens. She gave me a gentle smile before handing me a bowl. It smelt amazing. I ate while walking around chatting with the people. Every was tired but seemed to agree that working hard now was necessary for their safety. Most of them were just glad to still be alive after the goblin raid on their previous village.

The four new members of our little community were… sort of fitting in. I guess it was to be expected but the people didn’t take to them instantly. I would need to create a procedure to integrate new arrivals into the community. Otherwise, it might get to the point where new people will be ostracized to the lowest levels of the community as soon as they arrived.

While making my round, I spotted Levada. I hadn’t really spoken to him since last night. That thought made me realize that only a day had gone by since I started the game. I normally wouldn’t think anything about that level of play time, but when I thought about how I was here permanently. It was quite the surreal thought. I tossed away the idle thoughts and moved over to the elder.

“Levada. How are you?”

“My liege. It has been quite the busy day,” he replied rubbing his arms. I guess he’d been out gathering resources like the others. I should find a job or placement that allowed him a bit more relaxation.

“Sorry for working you so hard. We just need to get established as soon as possible.”

“Think nothing of it, my liege. I saw you cutting down trees with your magic. The least I can do is help carry some stone.”

I patted him on the shoulder. “I really appreciate it.” I left Levada to finish his meal and made for the future residential area. The new wall contained all the territory that I was able to claim. Going out from my manor, I laid out a path that led from the base of the mountain. Since I was able to plan roughly five kilometers worth of area, I had a decent amount of land to work with. Rowena and I had already planned for the first couple stages of the city that we hoped to build here over the coming months.

The path could be queued without committing the resources. Since my construction appeared to burn any resources in their way away. It was glad to see that. Finally, I made it to where we were downing trees today. Since we had planned for the future of the city, we had the workers focus on their area. We got a lot more cleared then planned thanks to yours truly.

Opening the City management menu, I selected the Group housing building. They housed five people. Since they cost twenty lumber units, they were cheap for me but expensive had I not been able to cheat with my Spatial Tear spell. If my cutting method hadn’t worked, I wouldn’t have been able to build enough in one go. I went ahead and placed ten for the future members of the community. We could do individual houses later on down the road.

The resources vanished then one by one the houses constructed themselves in front of me. It wasn’t all at once since my mana had to recover after two of them. The process of the lumber forming into what looked like a log cabin was quite enjoyable to watch. The lines of energy climbed their way over the logs much like the stone and iron from the other constructions I’d done so far.

While my mana recharged, I walked into one of the completed cabins. It was quite big by my standards. I felt it was around twenty or thirty meters squared. There were five separate rooms with one communal room. Checking the rooms, I found they were just large enough for a bed and a chest at the foot of the bed.

I narrowed my eyes when I realized that there was no bathroom. I opened the construction menu and sure enough that facility existed as a separate building. I figured that it was a product of the era this world was based in. Even magic couldn’t solve everything. Scratch that. There was a magic facility for bathing and all the things that go with relieving yourself. It was even pretty affordable, it just cost a mana stone in addition of the resources.

Thankfully, I could upgrade the normal ones into the magic version. Since I was sure health was important, I went ahead and scheduled two of them. One for women and one for men. They required metal and stone and exhausted the rest of those two that we gathered today. Since I didn’t have to hang around for the buildings to construct, I made my way back to the manor. IT thankfully, had a bathroom. Likely because it was for the lord of the village.

The loud flapping of wings as a shadow covered me signaled Greavefeather’s approach. The giant bird landed on top of the manor and hid his head under a wing. I guess the giant bird was going to be sleeping up there tonight. “Sorry. There was nowhere else that could support his weight.” I turned to find Rowena approaching from the tented area. “We snapped like three trees trying.”

I shrugged, not really worried about it. “I don’t have a problem with him. I just hope that he doesn’t fall through the roof.”

“It’ll be fine. They started taking down tents when I left the area. I guess they were automatically informed about the housing.”

“That’s good. I was about to head over there after taking a small break. Saves me the trouble.”

We went into the manor where I settled one of the chairs around the map table. Today had been long and tiring. I was ready just to take a load off and sleep. Before completely going into vegie mode, I assigned three of the guards to patrol the wall. It was the bare minimum, but at least if we were attacked, they would be able to warn us.

“What’s the plan for tomorrow?” Rowena asked taking a seat opposite me.

“Probably much the same. Scout the area, level up, build some buildings. I want to get the barracks up.”

“Yeah. Eight guards are enough for now, but the more people that come to the village, the more we’ll need to cover everything.”

“Yeah. I think I’m going to enlist at least one person from each group of arrivals into the militia.” It might cause some happiness to go down, but I couldn’t afford to slack on this issue. The goblins and who knows what else was out there, could overrun us at any minute.

“You’re the boss.” I laughed and nodded. She was my best friend. If she had raised any complaints, I would have listened. Since she didn’t, she agreed with my decision.

Checking our stores, we were down to two hundred units of lumber, and empty of everything else. We could increase our stone and iron generation with a quarry and mine, but they required both materials and a few other. I was curious since it stated that there was a steady output whether people were assigned or not. Sadly, both required mana stones.

“You’re the expert. Where can we get mana stones?”

Rowena tapped her chin in thought. “Monsters have a chance. The more magical they are, the greater the chance. Dungeons are usually a good place for them to drop. Trade.”

“Each harder than the last,” I commented, leaning back in my chair to stare at the ceiling.

“Pip has actually spotted a few magical monsters. They are just a bit… tough with just the two of us.”

“How so?”

“The monsters have magical abilities. Without a healer, we might find ourselves dead before we even get near the thing. One or two is one thing, but these are traveling in herds.”

“What are they?”

“Kergs. Beasts that are similar to wolves just a whole lot meaner and a whole lot tougher.”

“Alright. Let’s focus on getting to level ten before we aim for mana stones. A bit more hunting should put me in that zone.”

Rowena nodded with an exhausted sigh. “I finally hit level eleven today. I thought it would never happen.”

“Are the monsters too low level?”

“Not quite. I think because you established your village here, the distribution of monster levels changed. Otherwise, this close to the mountain, I have no doubt that the monsters should be much higher level.” She rubbed her head, yawning. She did look tired. “But my main problem is that I’m leveling for three right now.”

“Three?” I asked then realized she meant her birds. I pointed to the roof and she nodded.

“Yep. I have to level them as well. There is already a cliff at ten. Mine is that much steeper. Thankfully, it does have its benefits. Such as, my beasts are plenty worth the cost.”

“As long as you’re good with it. I don’t think changing class is possible.” We were now for all intents and purposes a living part of this world. Unlike before where if you made a bad choice, you could recreate your character. Now, whatever choices you make stick with you for life.

“Thanks. I’ll be fine. Just make sure you remember when you blaze past me.” Rowena yawned again and excused herself. I waved goodnight to her and decided to turn in myself. With a yawn, I laid down on the mat and decided to pull up my status to review it before heading to sleep. Rowena said that I should get a new spell at five, but I hadn’t seen any notifications yet. I was a bit too busy to inspect the menu closer during the day.

--

Name: Maxwell Orfen

Level: 7

Race: Dark Elf

Class: Lord

Specialization: Void Lord

Total Mana: 520/520

Abilities:

Dark Sight

Elemental Magic – Dark, Earth, Fire

Void Magic

Basic Sneak

City Management

Learn Spell: 1

--

I spotted the option at the bottom. Hovering my finger over it, a list of spells came to mind.

--

Void Discourse

Void Manifestation

Void Barrier

Void Compression

Mimic

Banish

--

The list was rather long. The void magic was first, but there were options for my other elements as well. I didn’t get any hints when I hovered over the spells. I could imagine a few based on the wording, but that still left a lot up to chance. The main thing that, while it wasn’t completely, was the fact there were almost no attack spells in the void discipline.

Contemplating what to do, I immediately eliminated the elemental spells. I knew that once my territory grew enough, I would be able to trade for spell books containing those spells. The void however, that would be harder to acquire in the traditional way just given the flavor text I’d seen so far. I sucked in a deep breath then quickly spent the point on the first option.

Void Discourse – You can now speak the language of the void. For most creatures, this will induce short term madness. Allows for the creation of void contracts with Ethereal creatures. Requires mana.

Exciting! I basically got a confusion spell that doubled as a language skill for the void creatures. That was awesome. I closed the menu and decided to test it tomorrow. I made a mental note to make sure Rowena fashioned something to use as earplugs. I couldn’t have her going insane on me while hunting.