The rest of day 16 turned out to be the most nerve wracking uneventful day I had ever experienced. I kept glancing over my shoulder, afraid that I would run into one of the Shadowguards and get ganked. It did not happen. I saw them plenty of time lurking around. Especially Hei seemed to be the one most frequently keeping an eye on me. Hunting low level rabbits near the gate. Since I knew they favoured skills like Disguise or Hide Identity I started using Observe on anyone getting close to me.

Disguise let them take on a random appearance for a while, when it levelled up to higher tiers, the user could decide on the appearance, as well as change their display name, class and so on. Hide Identity allowed them to change the name they displayed when people used Inspect or Observe on them. On higher tiers it could also change level and class. If Observe was higher level than their skill, it revealed the truth.

Day 17 was much the same, just more nerve wracking because I saw that the other Shadowguards had been levelling up quickly, a couple of them had even reached level 10. My only solace was that they would be having basic classes, since I knew of no hidden class trainers in Blackport, with the exception of the Temple. And there was no way they could have built up enough of a reputation to take one of them.

Just to be certain, I kept my eye on the Announcement Panels, to see if they got any first achievements in Blackport. They did not. When evening came around on day 17 I had about had enough. Walking around waiting for the proverbial hammer to drop was intense and taking a lot of my focus.

On the way to my room I had bumped into a man, and out of reflex I had cast Observe. I had been rather surprised when his features melted away, allowing me to see that the man was in fact Hei. It also earned me 100 XP in Observe.

Something came over me when he had demanded that I apologized. I had been walking around waiting for something to happen, and right in front of me, I had the chance to give a bit of payback. Instead of apologizing I had given him a big smile and said, “I think that you bumped into me, Hei.”

The shock on his face was delightful, but I had immediately started regretting saying it. It revealed that I could see through his trump card. I had hurried up to my room and logged off.

What followed was the daily torture in the gym, as well as a lengthy session of “Please help me with this game” with Alicia. The other kids had caught on, so I spent time helping them with their assorted games as well. With all that I had barely managed to squeeze in any training at the range. To my dismay the others turned out to have better hand to eye coordination than me, and even after just a couple session they were shooting better than me. They had been cheating a bit though, and when I stayed logged in at night, they continued to train.

Logging back into the game, on the morning of day 18 in the game had me filled with anticipation. Instead of letting Ed’s party go to the training area I stopped them and told them we were running the ancient outpost.

“Why?” Blaze asked.

“Because when we’re finished with the run, I’ll have enough reputation with Blackport’s Lord that we can buy property for a guild house,” I said.

“Isn’t it just a waste of money?” One-Eye questioned.

I took a second before giving him my reply. “No. Sure it might cost us some now, and time for the Phils to build it, and it’ll definitely cost something in maintenance.”

“Then why do it, aren’t you the one who’s all gungho about getting people out of the Coffins?” Blaze protested.

“Because in the long run it’ll save us money. We waste collectively three golds and five silver each day on renting a room at the inn. When we grow, it’ll cost us even more. Besides once we got an official residence, you’ll start being offered guild quests,” I explained to him.

“Okay, enough chatting, let us go do this thing so we can get us some more quests, the ones at the Association are just boring generic quests. Kill this amount of critters, fetch this amount of resources,” Ed said and started ranting. We made our way to Ilat’s gazebo with Blaze and Ed complaining about the available quests.

Because of time dilation, we only spent thirty minutes in there, and when we finished the quest I got a few prompts notifying me about the change in reputation. However, I only paid attention to one of them.

Your Reputation with the Lord of Blackport has been increased by 34 points. Your Reputation makes them Like you.

Raise your reputation to 450 for Friend

Lower your reputation to 225 for Acceptance

Current Reputation: 228

It was my two latest achievements making it possible. Without the Threshold being lowered by ten percent, or the ten percent increase to reputation gains world wide, it would have been at least one more day; if not two.

Turning to Ilat I said with what I hoped was a humble tone, “Excuse me for interrupting.”

“It is no bother, you and your guild has helped me a lot these past weeks. What is it that you seek?” the floating wizard asked.

“I recently picked up Runesmithing, and I heard you were a great Runesmith yourself. Would it be possible to learn a few runes from you?” I asked, feeling I should have a hat in my hands to twist and squeeze. That would complete the image of me begging.

“You heard correctly. But please don’t take this the wrong way, I hardly know you enough to trust you. Give it some time, and when I find you trustworthy I’ll send you a message, if you have not found someone else to teach you at that time,” the old wizard explained carefully.

I was not terribly disappointed, I had already been 99% certain that my reputation was not high enough. I would need it to be at least Friend or Close Friend before he would teach me. Giving him an understanding smile, I said, “Thank you, I look forward to that day.”

“So, what’s next?” Ed asked when we started walking away.

“You go about your daily grind, and I’ll go buy a property. Then I’ll get Philmore to supervise and hire some Locals to help him.”

“Can we afford that?” Robin asked.

“I donated five platinum the other day, and if worst comes to worst, I got another four platinum on me. I think we should be fine, otherwise I’ll figure something out,” I said.

Back at the main plaza they split off to go back to training with the others, while I steered towards the Lord’s Manor. Once there I was questioned by the guards for a brief second before being let inside.

The foyer was just large enough to accommodate two benches, which I was instructed to sit at, waiting for the Lord’s senechal to have a moment. The wait was luckily not long, only a handful of minutes or so. An old man, who was using a cane to get around, entered the foyer and asked with a low but authoritative voice, “What can I help you with?”

“I was hoping to buy some land and build or convert any existing building there into a guild hall,” I said. Hoping that I remembered correctly about how much reputation was needed.

“Follow me then,” he said and started hobbling down a corridor. As we were walking he asked, “Is there a specific section of the town you’re looking to settle in?”

“The northeastern section.”

That made him stop and look at me. “Are you certain? It’s the poor section of our town, not a lot of houses there are fit for being a guild hall.”

“I was thinking of buying a couple of neighboring grounds and pull down the old houses, and then have a new one built.”

“That’d be terribly expensive, not sure our carpenters have enough wood to build a new one.”

“That’s not an issue, we’ve two loggers in our group, and one of them will build it with some hired help,” I said. I saw no reason to hide that information.

“Well that would certainly cut down the cost,” he said and stopped in front of an open door. “Here we are.”

I followed the old senechal into a cramped office. Lots of shelves along the wall, filled with rolled up maps and scrolls and an empty table in the middle of the room. No chairs, and the height of the table indicated it was meant as work table used standing.

The senechal spent a few minutes looking through the shelves before he found what he was looking for: A map and a scroll.

Rolling out the map he weighed the corners down with some iron weights he pulled from his inventory. He then unrolled the scroll and started studying it. Every few seconds he would take a red, green or blue stone and place it on the map, until every house on the map was marked with a stone.

“The red stones represents houses not for sale. Blue represents houses for sale, but with squatters in them, and green represents empty land or houses,” the senechal explained. “See anything you like?”

I had not even had a chance to look over it, so I chose not to answer and instead taking a better look at the map. There were some green stones, but they were all next to blue or red stones. The majority of stones on the map were blue. There was only one little corner of the district that was all green. It was across from the Butcher’s shop, and if I bought all three properties, it would make a L-shaped property.

I pointed out the three properties. “I’d like to buy these three.”

“All of the houses have been empty for years, which will lower the price. Three platinum for each,” the senechal declared.

I flinched a bit when I heard the price, it was a bit more than I had expected, but as I said to the others, it was an investment in the future. With just a bit of reluctance I paid the man his nine platinum.

“Splendid,” he said and almost dragged me to another office, where he started filling out a few pieces of paper. After five minutes he handed me a piece of parchment. “Congratulations, Blue Lotus is now land owners.”

I also received a prompt explaining that Blue Lotus was now the first guild to own land in Blackport. Not that it did much, since guild achievements were just for bragging rights. If I had bought it for myself, it was another matter, however, I felt I had made enough of a target with all my achievements so far.

“We’ve an assortment of blueprints for guild houses made available by the Architect Society of Astia, would you be interested in taking a look?” the senechal asked. After I agreed, he started asking questions regarding my requirements.

Number of floor? Basement, ground and first floor.

Size? Half the lot size.

Material? Wood only.

After those parameters and a few others had been hammered out, he found three blueprints that matched my criteria. After perusing them for a few I decided that there was not a whole lot of difference between them. In the end I chose the smallest of the three. Not because I did not want the bigger sizes, but simply because it was arranged better.

First of all there were no need for individual rooms for our members just yet. When we slept, we logged out. Simple as that. Secondly it had a hidden room on the first floor that would be good for stashing valuables. And thirdly, it was the cheapest one, but still cost me four platinum. The other two had been five and six platinum.

After spending thirteen platinum, the guild coffers were down to just one and a half platinum, and more would be spent in the next few days. I would need to either to suspend all other activities for the guild members to tear down the old houses and dig out for the new building. Or I could pay some of our new neighbours to do it. For me it was a no-brainer.

I finally thanked the senechal and made my way to the east gate. I was keenly aware of the Shadowguard who was trailing me. If I did not know what they looked like, I would not have spotted him, but unfortunately for them, I had gotten a good look at all of them.

“Hey Damian,” Phil greeted me when I arrived.

“Good morning,” Nise said with a bright smile, while Philmore just grunted.

“Good morning everyone. I’ve just bought a few properties that I want to turn into a guild house,” I said.

“Sounds good, and I guess you need our help?” Phil asked.

With a nod I said, “Yeah, though mostly your father’s right now.”

“I’m not building no bleeding house. I only build boats,” Philmore immediately said.

“Listen, I don’t really want to turn this into a discussion,” I said sternly as a preamble, “But you’re stuck at five because you’ve two empty skill slots and Carpentry and Logging is the only skills you really use.”

“So what? I’m saving those skill slots for some boat building skills.”

“When you can get them, you’ll have earned other skill slots. Listen, I want you to take Construction, and be our primary builder,” I said, and then stopped him when he opened his mouth to protest. “But that’s only until we find someone else. I don’t need you to take a class for it either. I want you to build boats, but right now we don’t need them.”

He grumbled for what felt like an eternity before saying, “Fine. What’s the other skill?”

“Leadership.”

“Why do I need that?” he asked exasperated. “Makes no sense, got nothing to do with building stuff.”

“Because you can make a party that are all about crafting. Down the line it’ll mean bonuses to crafting when you work on large projects, like say a ship.”

“I don’t like it, but the contract says you’re the boss, and Phil insist you know what you’re doing, so fine I’ll do it,” Philmore finally said.

“Great. Phil and Philmore, would you please come with me, and I’ll show you what I need done?” I asked politely. I had already pressed Philmore into accepting something he was not happy about. No need to put further strain on our relationship by being impolite.

A few minutes later we were in the poor district and I was pointing out the three buildings we now owned and showed them the blueprints. Philmore frowned a lot before saying, “It’s going to be a lot of work for two men to tear down three houses. Sure they’re small, but still. Also, there’s a lot of digging needed for the basement. It’ll take weeks if not months. It’ll also take a long time to get all the planks, slates and supports made.”

“Don’t worry, you won’t be doing much of the tearing down and digging. I need you to concentrate on the materials and building it,” I said.

“Are the rest of you going to do it?”

“No, we’re going to hire some Locals,” I said and sent them back to their work. I made my way over to the Butcher who had been watching my every move as usual. Through the weeks of coming here each day, I had found out that he was the unofficial leader of the poor district. Nothing happened without his say so.

“Damian,” he greeted as usual. Short and to the point.

“Hello. I’ve just bought those three buildings over there,” I said.

“I was wondering what all that pointing and gawking at paper was about.”

“Well, I’d like to hire some of the people from the district to tear down the houses, and dig a basement.”

“Not going to be cheap, a lot of work,” he said with a grin. Always a negotiator.

“I figured, but as an extra bonus they can keep any material from tearing down the houses. They might be able to use it. If for nothing else then as firewood,” I offered. It took us a few minutes to agree on a price of one platinum, but then it would be done in just a few days instead of a week. I had also managed to knock a few golds off the price by offering payment upfront.

When the negotiations were over, he said, “You’re doing a lot to help the people, more than I had expected when I gave you the quest.”

“Well, it’s the right thing to do, and the quest is still ongoing.”

“True, but it’s nice to see some money flowing into the district, besides just what I make.”

“Well, we’re not done investing here,” I said.

“Oh?” He raised an eyebrow questioningly.

“We need people to keep an eye on the property when we’re not here, and during the night.”

“These people are not fighters,” he said with a frown, and a warning tone in his voice.

“And I would not ask them to fight. Just to call the guards if someone sneaks around or tries to break in,” I explained.

“I guess that can be arranged,” he conceded after a minute of thinking it over.

“Great, I got a lot of things to do, so see you later,” I said. After exchanging goodbyes with the Butcher and a few of our new neighbours, I made my way towards the east gate. I was happy about the progress we had made, and for a moment let down my guard, forgetting about the Shadowguard. Of course that was when they struck.

I was making my way through an alley, when an arm grabbed me from behind around my neck. A split second later I felt pain exploding from my back as something sharp penetrated it multiple times. I tried to scream, but it was too late, my health had plummeted with terminal velocity.

Everything turned grey, and a prompt appeared in front of me, but I was not really seeing it. I had lost hours—no days of grinding. Close to twenty five thousand XP spread out over multiple skills. The worst was Herbalism which had been somewhere around ten or eleven thousand, just a bit more than a thousand XP from becoming level 12. Or my Mentor skill which was close to becoming level 2, and I would not be able to level in a while, seeing as Marion had reached level 6 in Herbalism. Making me unable to take her as my student.

Disgusted I turned my attention to my death prompt. It would inform me that I had died, I had lost all XP progress towards my next skill levels and that I would respawn in 30 minutes. Or at least that was what I expected.

You walk the road of non-violence, yet violence still found you. You did not fight back, leaving your class intact. The Gods respects your choice. They grant you a blessing and curses your attackers whose aura grows more Tainted than it usually would.

You have unlocked a hidden feature of your class, Pacifist: When you die at the hands of another Traveller you are given two choices:

1) Normal death penalties.

2) No death penalties, but an extended respawn time to 2 hours.

Which option do you choose?

Well that was a no-brainer. Lose two hours of grinding? Or lose a couple of days grinding? I chose option number 2. The game booted me back to my home screen. I sent a message to the members telling them what had happened, just in case any of them logged off to see what was wrong, before I logged out of the pod myself.

To be honest I was not certain if that was a feature that had been in my previous timeline and I had just forgotten about it. Or it was one of those things that had changed, like Marcus had claimed. I was more inclined to believe it was the first rather than the latter, and it was just something I had missed while working for Index. My focus had been on regional content, not classes, and when I joined Dawnguard, they did not have patience for people who did not fight. Even their crafters would be dragged along to fight and earn XP, so there were not a lot of information regarding the Pacifist class available in their databases.

Since I had an hour in real time I decided to go for a swim. It was not so much swimming, as it was floating around on my back staring at the ceiling and organizing my thoughts. I was interrupted by someone saying something, but because my ears were underwater, it was distorted to such a degree I could not hear it. Turning vertical I looked around and spotted Miss Elleby standing there.

“I asked what are you doing here? I thought you were playing your game,” she asked with a nervous look on her face.

“Someone killed me ingame, so I’m just enjoying the downtime.”

“Oh my, are you alright? What happened?”

“Someone ambushed me and stabbed me in the back,” I said thoughtlessly. “I’m fine, nothing to worry about.”

“Nothing to worry about? You were stabbed!”

“In the game,” I protested.

“And you felt every bit of the pain I bet.”

“Actually it’s dampened by a fair bit.”

“That doesn’t make it okay, I can’t see why you’ve to play a game where you can feel what happens to you. What if you get burned? Drown? All those sounds absolutely horrible.” She sounded pretty upset.

“It’s not that bad,” I said in a soothing voice. “Remember when I was six, and I climbed the shelf.”

She nodded thoughtfully. “Yeah you wanted to reach a book with a fancy looking cover.”

“And the whole thing tipped over, landing on top of me. Remember what you told me when I complained about my bruised ribs?”

“That it was a reminder why you should ask for help instead of being stupid.”

With a wide grin I said, “Exactly. It’s the same here. Without pain we’ll never learn to be cautious or vigilant. If we can’t die, why should we be careful? Because of the pain. Pain is a great teacher, though a cruel one.”

“It’s not the same,” she protested.

“If you think about it, you’ll find that it is,” I said. I could see she would not agree, at least not yet. Instead I steered the conversation towards something less controversial. “How’s Alicia doing? And where’s the kids?”

Miss Elleby looked like she wanted to continue arguing the point, but finally relented. “The kids are attending classes at the moment. And Alicia is coping, but it would be better if her mother was here. The game you introduced her to is helping though.”

“It’s going to be a few more days, we had to invest a lot of the coin we had saved up,” I said feeling bad for Alicia.

“Wouldn’t it be better to get Alicia reunited with her mother?”

“Yes, but I've got to think long term about everything. We had an opportunity open up and we had to seize it. We need to think about everyone, not just one person,” I said.

“You’re probably right, just sounds a little cruel keeping a girl from her mother longer than necessary.”

“It sounds cruel, but wouldn’t it be more cruel to reunite them for a month, and then have to send her mother back to the Coffins?” I asked.

“I don’t like that word,” she said absentmindedly. “But you’re right. That would be more cruel.”

“We’re still establishing, and it requires all my attention and time, but as soon as we got a stable foundation, we should be able to stop worrying so much,” I said and then looked at my wrist device. “Speaking of time, it’s time for me to get back into the game.”