Two hours later John walked into town. It was a little more than an hour till noon and lots of people were packing up their stalls in preparation for their lunch log out. Bypassing most of the stalls he found his way over to Ex and Sally, who both had stools now.

“Hi John!” Sally exclaimed while Ex just gave a sedate wave.

“Hey Sally, Hi Ex, I brought you something,” John said as he appeared the life stone he’d just made.

“Excellent!” Ex said as he took it, his brows then went up in surprise. “Five thousand mana? Nice!” He disappeared the stone into his own inventory. “So, what brings you into town today?”

“I need more bodies. I’m ready to actually start growing things now, so I need to fertilize a couple plots an get some seeds into the ground,” John explained.

“Great! I’ve got lots of bodies already!” Sally said happily.

“Really?” John asked, surprised.

“Yeah, we hit level 10 yesterday and she took Bigger on the Inside again. She now has 200 inventory spaces that each hold 200 items,” Ex said.

“And I got an upgrade to my Dragon’s Breath ability! I can now mold its area of effect to exclude creatures and objects!” The draconid fairly bounced in her seat.

“That’s really cool! I didn’t even know you had a dragon’s breath ability.” John said.

“Yeah! Draconids get Dragon’s Breath and Scales as starting abilities, and then there are a bunch of racial feats you can take!” Sally spoke excitedly.

John smiled and then looked to Excelsior. “You get anything fun?”

“Nah, just upgrades to Bigger Pool and Dynamo, I’ve got a pool of 1,500 now, and I regenerate 75 mana per minute,” Ex said.

“Nice! I wish I had that much mana, it’d make building my road so much easier,” John grumbled.

“You’re building a road? Why?” Ex asked, looking perplexed.

“Because I got a quest I can’t refuse,” John explained. “That henge I was building? I turned it into a shrine, and the deities weren’t particularly happy with the way I did it. Now they’re demanding I build a road all the way to town.”

“Oh wow! What did you do to anger them?” Sally asked.

“I made them share a shrine, they both sent me quests to dedicate the shrine to themselves, and I dedicated it to both of them at the same time,” John continued.

Ex snorted. “Sounds like they got what they were asking for.”

“Right? Still, I’ve got to keep them happy or they destroy the shrine”

“Oh! And it has your special tree in it!” Sally exclaimed.

“Yup,” John agreed.

“Well, nothing for it but to build a road I guess,” Ex said.

“Easier said than done, it’s gonna take me at least a week of work,” John complained.

“Eh, could be worse, you could be building it by hand, that’d take forever,” Ex pointed out. “Wait, you are using magic right?”

“Yes, I’m using magic,” John said, slightly waspish.

“Then suck it up!” Ex said, unphased.

“Bah, how many corpses do you have?” John asked, changing the subject abruptly.

“Forty! All rodents today!” Sally said.

“Great,” John said as he took out ten coppers and passed them to Ex while sally started appearing bodies onto the dirt of the street.

Reaching down John started disappearing the bodies into his own inventory. After a few moments the exchange was over.

“Thanks,” John said.

“No problem!” said Sally.

“A pleasure doing business with you!” Ex said with a grin.

“Alright, I’m going to head back to the farm before I have to log out,” John said. “I’ll see you both later.”

“Bye John!” Sally exclaimed and waved.

“Later,” said Ex.

With that, John turned and headed back out of town.

***

After logging back in John sat himself down to make more mana stones. He needed forty thousand mana all told for the cleansing ritual, ten thousand of each life, death, fire, and water. The first two hours of work were entirely uninterrupted, leaving him with a ten thousand mana life stone. As he was about to start the second stone, however, a noise from outside caught his ear. Frowning, he stood up and started up the stairs of the cellar.

As he ascended he heard the noise again, it sounded like talking. He came out of the cellar and looked around. It wasn’t until he looked towards the shrine that he found what had captured his attention. It was a small knot of people standing in front of the Gateway of Worlds, they seemed to be discussing something. John walked that way and as he got closer he could make out details.

All of the people were dressed similarly, with military style uniforms and long cloaks with some form of insignia on it. They were looking around warily, hands on their weapons of which no two were alike. The moment they spotted John was clear, as their attention swiveled swiftly in his direction, then, as if deciding he was no threat, they went back to scanning the area.

“Hello?” John said as he approached.

Their ongoing discussion immediately stopped and one of the five turned to look at him. She was a young-looking Orc. “Are you the groundskeeper?” She asked bluntly, and without preamble.

It took John a moment to process that, not yet used to his new position. “Er, yes.” He said finally. “You’re the Knights Magi then?”

The woman nodded. “We are indeed, what’s the wall meant to keep out?” she asked as the others continued to watch the grassland cautiously.

“I had a rabbit problem,” John said.

Slowly they let down their guard. “Rabbits? You’re kidding right?” she asked.

“Unfortunately no, the matriarch was a real pain in the butt to kill.”

A couple of them scoffed at that, but the orc woman just frowned. She then took out a small stone and looked at it for a moment. The stone flashed green and she put it away. A few moments later a large section of the air behind the group seemed to cut away, and in its place was an image of a walled courtyard filled with young people of all races wearing similar uniforms (but insignia free cloaks) and carrying large packs. Behind them John could see several wagons.

“Oh…” John said, as he realized what was about to happen.

The first group of people came through and stepped quickly away from the portal, only to be swiftly followed by the next, and then the next group. All in all, there were around five groups of ten followed by two large wagons which appeared to be filled with supplies. Finally a last group stepped through, Two men and three women, all of them clearly older than the previous groups. As they exited the portal closed behind them.

John looked around at the groups, which were now milling about, trampling down the grass and in general looking unsure of what they were doing. The five, John couldn’t help but think of them as ‘adults’, approached the original invaders and had a low conversation with them for a moment. The young orc woman gestured in John’s direction and the newcomers looked over at him. He waved awkwardly, and one of the newcomers, a large, eight-foot-tall giant of a man, came walking slowly over.

“So, you’re the Groundskeeper?” He rumbled, looking unimpressed.

“Yep, that’s me. I’m John.” He held out his hand and the large man took it.

John immediately regretted going for the handshake, as the large man tried earnestly to grind his hand to dust. John gritted his teeth and squeezed back, surprised at how well he was holding up under the vice like grip. After a moment the man grunted and released the stranglehold.

“Not as weak as you look,” He didn’t sound impressed, just surprised.

“I did clear all this land myself,” John said calmly as he decided whether or not this was going well.

“Don’t mind him,” said an older Catfolk woman with steel-gray fur. “He doesn’t like anyone who can’t press their own weight.” She strolled up and eyed John critically.

The large man grunted. “It’s not that I don’t like them, it’s simply that people can, and should, be better. It’s not hard to raise your stats without points, it’s just time an effort.”

“Not everyone needs a strength of one hundred Axia. Common folk get by just fine with the stats the gods gave them all the time,” The catfolk woman said.

“And they’re wasting potential,” Axia growled, but seemed more annoyed than upset. “And then some of them waste more by spending precious points on increasing their statistics. How many points has our groundskeeper wasted to get his strength as high as it is?”

“105, though that was at character creation and I didn’t know I was wasting them. After that I saved all my points for feats, of which I purchased four, if you must know,” John said waspishly.

Axia looked taken aback, the woman just laughed. “Ha! He’s got you there, maybe you shouldn’t judge our groundskeeper by how young he looks, eh? I’m Helen, a pleasure to meet you mister….?”

“John, forgive me if I don’t shake your hand, I’m still recovering from an earlier encounter,” John said, eliciting another laugh from Helen as Axia had the grace to look uncomfortable.

“Well, first thing, can you tell us where your land ends so we can start getting set up? We hope to have a barracks up by sundown, but we’ll need to claim and clear some land,” Helen explained.

“That’s easy enough, I left the claim spikes in the ground since I haven’t finished clearing this section yet. Makes it easy to know where to stop,” John said as he led the way past the shrine to where he had a claim spike stuck into the ground. “The other spike lines up with this one, about 520 feet to the east.”

“Excellent, Axia, please go get the work details ready, I’m going to go over some things with mister John,” Helen said, then watched quietly as Axia trotted off to do as he was bid, she then turned back to John. “Now, there are some things we need to discuss,” she continued and started walking back toward the entrance to the shrine. “First, tell me everything about this… Gateway of Worlds.”

John cleared his throat uncomfortably and she raised a brow and chuckled. “Uncomfortable with the name? Good, it’s pretentious and far too grand for this structure. Your fault, I presume.”

“Well, it was either name it something that fit all three gods involved, or lose everything I had. So…” John trailed off and shrugged.

“So you shouted the first thing that popped into your head that might work. Could have been worse I suppose. What three deities did you dedicate it to? Ledos is one of them, obviously, but who else?” Helen came to a stop in front of the shrine.

“Ira and Thuana,” John told her.

“Hmmm, interesting choices. What drew the attention of the two goddesses? Not the structure itself, certainly,” Helen said.

“No… not exactly, come on.” John waved for her to follow and then walked into the shrine. With a gesture he parted the inner wall to expose the sapling within. John stopped dead, the sapling had grown a bit since he’d checked it that morning, almost by a full three inches. Worry gripped him. That was too fast, was the tree’s quality going to be that low?

“Hmm interesting, a Prismatic Sapling with a space affinity. But why… Oh! You’re trying to grow a tree that makes portals! Ambitious!” Helen sounded both excited and entertained. “What have you fed it so far?”

“Uh, a Crude Void Serum, a Potion of Blink, a Portal Serum, and I seeded the soil with about a quarter pound of Void Stone. It was all I could afford, and the Portal Serum was a reward from Thuana, just like the ritual in effect here was a reward from Ira,” John explained.

“Hmmm… What else are you going to do? I take it you don’t have much money or you’d be shoving magical trinkets down this tree’s throat like there was no tomorrow,” she deduced.

“I’ve had a thought, but… it sounds kind of stupid,” John admitted.

Helen snorted, “You see all those squires running around? Each of them isn’t much older than you look. I train about fifty of them each year, and each and every one of them has a stupid idea or three they want to try. You can’t say anything stupider than what I’ve already heard, so spit it out.”

“I’m… going to try and tell it what I want,” John said a bit hesitantly.

Helen’s brows went up. “Tell it what you want?”

“Well, magic, at least so far, seems to change based on intent. Like, I was able to make this marble because I impressed my will upon the magic, right? So, I was thinking I could feed it space mana and… imprint my desires on the mana?” He half explained, half asked.

Helen looked like she was thinking it over. “It’s… not something I’ve ever heard of anyone trying. But you’re right, a lot of magic can be changed with intent, though not all of it. Hmmm.” She seemed to think about it for a moment. “Well, we’ll have to see how it goes I suppose,” she said finally.

John just nodded uncertainly.

“Now,” she continued, “tell me what your plans are going forward.”

“My plans? Well, I need to get some crops in the ground pretty much as soon as possible, I was hoping for the day after tomorrow, but I don’t have enough time to make all the mana stones I need now, so I guess it’ll be two days before I can get them in the ground. I also have a quest to build a road that I need to complete, and I’m going to need to spend some time with the tree each day,” John explained.

“I see, tell me about the road quest,” she said.

“Well, I got a quest to build a road from here to Runic Rock. I’ve got twenty-five days left to complete it, I could just build a dirt trail but… well, the goddesses are already displeased with me, and the reward is variable, so I figured I should do the best job I could,” John told her.

“And what would your best effort look like?” Helen pressed.

“Well, I need to dig a road bed about five feet deep and seventeen feet wide. Compact the dirt at the bottom so it’s solid and mostly level, then fill it with a foot of fine sand, then a foot of fine gravel, followed by a foot of large stones. Then cover the entire thing in about a foot of stone, normally I’d use cement but I don’t think I can create that with the Create Earth spell. After, I’d cover the very top in pavers, slightly elevated in the middle to cause water to run off to the sides. Finally line the sides of the road with a raised curb,” John quickly outlined.

“And why not just lay down solid slabs of stone from here to Runic Rock?” Helen inquired.

“Because without a foundation they’d sink and drainage would be an issue. This way the road has a solid bed and drains adequately,” John said.

Helen nodded thoughtfully. “Good design, now tell me how you’re going to execute it.”

“Well, I need to claim the entire stretch from here to Runic Rock, then expand my domain over it, after that it’ll be relatively simple uses of Move Earth and Create Earth to clear out the road bed and then generate the required materials. Once it’s inside my domain it shouldn’t take me more than three days to complete.”

“Oh, Domain was one of your feats then? Interesting, not many people get that one. How long will it take you to expand your domain that far?” she inquired.

“About four days,” he said.

“You’ve got a lot of work laid out for yourself,” Helen noted.

John shrugged. “I only have until near the end of winter to prove I can make money doing this, and the quest is non-optional, the failure clause is the destruction of the Gateway of Worlds.”

Helen made a disgruntled noise, but gestured for John to continue.

“Well, I’ve currently got no way to grow crops during the winter, so I’ve got to get them growing now. As it is I’ve only got two and a half months of growing time left,” he finished.

“Hmmm,” Helen hummed thoughtfully. “Have you considered hiring out the road building?”

“Hiring out to who? One or two of the citizens of Runic Rock might be able to build a road, but if so they’re not in a hurry to pave even their own roads. The other players certainly aren’t interested in the labor required. And even if I did hire it out, how do I know they’re going to do a good job? It’s not like anyone here is beholden to an official organization I could complain to about quality,” John said.

Helen nodded. “And if I said that I could make the squires do it?”

John looked at her for a long moment. “No,” he said finally. “Not if it’s not part of their duties already or I’m paying for it.”

Helen bobbed her head from side to side. “You could argue it’s a requirement of the Knights, as it’s our job to protect the shrine.”

“I could, doesn’t make the argument right. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love it if you built the road, ecstatic even. But I’m not going to waste whatever of your good graces I might have trying to get you to do things that are blatantly for my personal benefit,” John explained.

Helen nodded again. “A good answer, how much would you be offering in compensation for construction of a roadway?”

John considered for several minutes in silence. “I don’t know,” he said finally. “I honestly have no way to determine the value of such a service, not in a world where magic makes the labor so easy.”

“Also a good answer. As for the amount of money it would cost to have a road like the one you described built, it’d be around a gold per mile, more if you actually import the materials to make it and had them laid by hand,” Helen explained.

“Why would anyone do that?” John asked, perplexed.

“Because the system takes into account the amount of effort you put into something. Things that pour your time, money, and effort into have an intrinsic value that can’t be found in something you just magicked up with a spell, and the system rewards accordingly,” she explained. “Now, all that said, if I offered to let you pay us to build you a road, would you accept it?”

“Yes,” John said without hesitation, he’d been watching the squires working for some time now, and they’d nearly cleared an area twice the size of his farm and shrine combined. He could even see some of them working on structures together.

Helen followed his gaze and nodded. “Some of the first spells we teach them are for use in building. Sometimes the knights are called to places like this, where there’s precious little infrastructure, and they need to be able to build their own shelters and prepare living spaces. You have my promise that the road will be built right.”

“Thanks,” John said gratefully. “That’s a load off my mind.”

“I think we’re going to get along just fine John. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go check in.”

John bobbed his head as she walked toward the newly cleared area, he then sighed in relief, and headed back toward his cellar.