Rick and his new party continued to travel east for a few hours until they spotted a treeline a mile or so out in front of them, Rick took out the map of the island and quickly studied it then he used his [cartography] to make a map of the area and determined that the trees they were riding toward were the beginning of a large forest.

Rick raised his voice. "That treeline ahead is a large forest that ends at the edge of a river that flows from a lake to the north. We will ride toward the coast from here so that we can avoid traveling through it." Rick instructed the party.

Who knows what lives in that forest and how much time it will take to travel through it. I think it will save time, in the end, to simply bypass it for now. I am curious what kind of monsters or other animals could be in there, but that can wait for a later time.

Just as Rick had seen on his maps the forest did not grow all the to the coastline and they easily avoided traveling through it after heading southeast a few miles. When they eventually found the southern flowing river they had traveled over four hours since they left the tower and the sun was beginning to set.

They walked north along the river and soon found a decent place to ford the narrow expanse with their mounts. The horses didn't seem to mind the chilly water and they all crossed the river without any trouble.

"It won't be long until the sun sets and there is no real hurry for us to reach the tribesmen. We will stop here for now and head back to the tower to eat and sleep and set out in the morning once again." Rick explained to his party as they gathered around him on the river bank.

Rick dismounted his horse and opened a portal to the tower. The rest of the party also climbed down and took the reins of their horse and led them through the gate with the help Rick using his [Calm Animal] skill and the druids skill of talking with animals.

Back at the tower the animal trainer took the horses over to the workshop and removed their saddle and reins to store them along the wall inside the building for the night. Rick and his party all ate dinner to together in the tower and talked about their journey and future plans to build up the area before they all went off to get some rest for the morning trek. Rick went over to the workshop before going to bed and grabbed the custom made beds for the half-giants and placed them in the barracks. Rick stopped in front of his Tigers and had them all follow him upstairs and find a mattress to lay down on for the night.

Even though Angelica was getting along well with the other women in their group she still decided to share a bed with Rick instead of using one of the empty beds on the second floor. Rick did not mind it at all and let her sleep where ever she chose.

I will need to establish proper housing for everyone after this problem is taken care of. I am sure that some of the men and women will eventually want to sleep or live together and that would not work with their current living arrangements.

If the surveyors can get the main streets and the castle grounds in the center marked out I can then buy additional units to begin to build the apartment buildings for them to live in. Rick thought as he and Angelica prepared for bed on the tower's third floor.

The two of them crawled under the blankets and talked for a few minutes before Angelica drifted off to sleep. Rick disconnected from the game and went to put away his clothes sitting in the dryer and the clean dishes in the dishwasher.

He made some calls to his friends and found out that Ryan, Luke, and Lily all would have their own [Game Gear] capsules within the next few days and would let him know where they arrive at in the world after picking their race.

Once he hung up the phone Rick decided to hop online and check out the website of the game. He saw they described some of the released content in the new update and had a countdown timer for just under ten hours that would mark the official opening of Kingdoms Online.

Rick viewed the forums and read about the adventures and struggles of other players like him who were playing up to now like him. A few had made more videos of places they had been or monsters they fought a couple had even been picked p to play on web tv channels. Rick like the idea and wanted to make his own video as well.

The travel to the ruins and finding the island would make a great video but I would rather keep that secret for now with all the new players joining I don't want anyone finding the island right away. I could use the attack by the tribesmen and our journey to find them.

Rick used his computer to setup the network connection to his [Game Gear] and used the software installed in it to edit a video from the recorded gameplay that is saved in the VR capsules massive hard drive.

He started with a quick montage showing him making his small island in the river and the beginnings of the tower. Then the workers came and he made a quick timelapse of them constructing the buildings. Then the attack came with him sending off the surviving surveyors to send Angelica out to help defend the Settlement.

This is so strange seeing this all from a third person viewpoint now. He thought to himself while editing the video.

In the video, he ran out toward the raiding part and began to shoot arrows as Angelica came sprinting across the eastern footbridge to join him in the defense and retreat of the attackers. Rick then showed how he used his skills to tame the Tigers and interrogate the wounded attacker, but cut it away just as he was thrusting his spear down to a black screen.

The video then faded back with him standing before the new units who sat at the table in the tower. It showed the short mission briefing they had about the attack they missed and his plan to attack them back. The video then had a shot of them all wearing the new weapons and armor as they lead their horses across the footbridge and journeyed east. Rick put a few moments of them crossing the plains and avoiding the woods to soon cross the river and left out the portal spell.

He wrapped up the video for now and went to get some sleep. As he lay in bed he thought about the game and returning to classes now that the holiday was coming to an end. He set his alarm for a few hours and slept until it woke him.

When he returned to the tower the sun was just to starting peak over the horizon staining the blue sky with a fiery orange. Before Angelica and Rick got dressed and headed downstairs the cooks had arrived and began preparing breakfast for the waking workers and settlement defenders.

Rick had the horses prepared and they all traveled through the portal to pick up where they had stopped yesterday after everyone was awake and had eaten breakfast. Rick lead his party along the coast heading east at a trot with the fresh horses for a couple hours. Soon the coast began to bend more toward the south and they started to see more scattered trees and hills inland.

Without stopping Rick used his [Cartography] skill to make a map every few miles until he finally spotted what they came looking for. With the help of a map he just made he and his party changed direction heading directly east and stopped at the foot of a large hill.

"I have discovered the location of the tribesmen's village. We will leave the horses here and climb this hill, from its peak we should be able to see the village." Rick explained to the party.

They all dismounted and tied their horses to the surrounding trees out of sight and quietly climbed the hill. When they crested the peak they saw a large village under a half mile from the hill they stood upon.

This village is much larger than I first anticipated. There must be a near a thousand people who live in that village. We could end up fighting a two to three hundred men not including if any women that make up a part of their fighting forces.

I think instead of a head on attack we may need to draw them into a defensive position. We can establish an outpost on this hill and then decide how to go about this.

Rick had the party gather around the map. "This here is our location on this hill and as you all can see the enemy village is larger than I thought originally. It would prove difficult to outright attack a force of a few hundred with our party size so we will construct defenses here. When we get a foothold here I will then decide on how we will proceed from there."

Rick opened a gate to the tower and brought over handil and his crew, the surveyors, and the half giants and once again explained the situation. Rick instructed his surveyors quickly mark out areas with the help of their Groma to make four walls with towers just big enough for three people on each corner. When the surveyors had marked out all the lines Rick and the druids began to raise the earth making four walls about eight feet high and three feet thick. When they had the walls constructed they raised four small towers of earth on each corner and made a narrow entrance in the wall opposite the village just big enough for two people to pass through at a time.

While the druids constructed the towers he had handil and the stone masons construct a small tower in the center of the outpost from stone blocks. When the tower was finished it had the appearance of a bunker with a long narrow window looking out toward the village. Rick then handed everyone shovels and they dug out a shallow moat around the all the walls. When the trench was finished he open a gate on the shore of the river next to the tower and gave the two giant barrels to fill with water and dump into the moat.

Rick used his recipe to make up twenty [Flame Cannons] and dug out holes in the walls that he fitted them into facing outward. He sealed them snugly into the wall with [Raise Dirt] and then laid out stone pavers along the inside wall that he used to engrave runes into that would connect all of his cannons to one circuit. When the Hadil's crew finished the center bunker he linked the circuit to a switch rune below the window. Now he could look out of the window at the attackers and ignite the cannons when they were in range.

The last thing they had to build was a parapet along the top of the walls and towers for his units to take cover behind from ranged projectiles. Rick's outpost had quickly sprung to life from the design he drew up into a defensible location in a couple hours. As an after thought while Rick decided how to proceed he had the stone masons encase the dirt towers in a stone block covering to strengthen them.

===============================================================

(This is how the tribesmen of the village would see the outpost when attacking it.)

By the time that the sun had risen to almost noon above the outpost people down in the village soon discovered the growing structure on the hill. A mass of people soon formed on the north side of the village pointing at and discussing the outpost that sprung up almost instantly in their eyes. Handil reported to Rick that the outpost had been spotted so Handil and Rick climbed up on one of the towers to look down at the tribesmen. Rick used [Farsight] and watched the angry looking people talking about what was happening down below on the outskirts of the village. Soon Rick noticed that groups of armed men began to assemble around a large well-built older man who appeared to be their leader. Rick with the help of [Photreading] committed the leaders face to memory and drew a decent likeness of him on a piece of parchment in ink just in case he needed to have him, kidnapped or killed later.

The way things are looking down there now I won't need to lure them out they seem to be worked up enough that they will soon be crawling up here. Rick thought as he was putting the completed drawing away.

Just as he had predicted not long after a small force of near three hundred armed tribesmen formed up and began to march on the outpost. Rick had all his units with ranged weapons or magic spread out on the towers and walls. All of the strictly melee fighters took a position guarding the narrow entrance gap in the back of the outpost. Rick sent all of his workers back to the tower and went up into the bunker with his general and Angelica.

"The [Flame Cannons] built into the walls along with the moat filled with water should be enough to keep them off our walls while we attack them from range. I just need you to defend the entrance until they are thinned out or begin to break and run. Then you can lead the troops out to counter attack." Rick instructed his general as the tribesmen gathered up at the bottom of the hill.

He then leaned out the bunker window and yelled to units on the wall to open fire. The archers immediately began firing arrows down into the gathering tribesmen a couple hundred yards below the outpost. Angelica then climbed out the bunker window to the roof and began launching arrows accurately into the mass below in unison with the elves.

The sudden barrage of arrows dropping men around them drew the tribesmen into launching their attack before all of their warriors could make it from the village to assemble. This worked out well for the defenders instead of one large group attacking they would be split into two waves. His four Hero Ranger/Druids had stood two on each tower and cast wind walls behind them that defended them from ranged attacks and added more force to their arrows. Thier attack was relentless the storm of arrows they shot into the attackers killed a man with every release of an arrow leaving a trail of dead on the hillside. If that wasn't bad enough when the attackers were in magic range they began tossing out fireballs and walls of fire that made the attackers turn back to find a safer route.

The Battle Dancers and Hero Knights with having Battle Mage as a second class then joined in from the walls throwing out orbs of lava that when struck someone would throw lava all over them and anyone next to them. The lava was just as nasty as real lava and it ate away at anyone it came into contact with. These attackers also came under attack at this time from the Pyromancer who basically napalmed half the hillside in flames. She dropped meteors and flames from the sky while venting lava from the ground to flow down the hill burning everyone and everything in its path.

The tribesmen's first wave lost almost half their forces, just to reach the top of the hill. This is when Rick put his finger on the rune switch that activated the flame cannons. The smell of burning flesh and screams filled the air leaving only a small amount of unharmed attackers who stood frozen at the sight of their allies being cooked in a wall of flames. After he deactivated the cannons he called Angelica down and they ran out of the bunker to find the general.

"General Sturm lead the troops out and attack the remainder of forces outside our walls then return before that second wave begins their attack," Rick shouted out his instructions as he and Angelica dashed out the entrance toward the remaining enemy.

Before Rick made contact with the attackers his [Black Hand Interrogator] title made some attackers run and others ready themselves for a fight to the death. So with his shield and sword in hand, Rick jumped into battle with Angelica, watching each other's backs the two of them in combination took down ten or more attackers before the general and his troops slammed into the mob of fighting. The two half-giants followed behind completely armored in steel plate carrying an axe in each hand half the size of a man while glowing from the auras the had activated.

Within ten minutes of first making contact outside the walls, Rick's party had finished off the remaining attackers and returned back inside the walls to prepare for the second attack.

Rick went back into his bunker and watched the second wave of attackers beginning to assemble. This group did not only consist of foot soldiers many of them were mounted on horses and a few even rode Tigers like the raiding party had.

They must not have a lot of those Tigers. I am sure they eat a lot of meat that could be used to feed the villagers, maybe that is why they came so far west looking for new hunting grounds to bring in more meat for the Tigers and people who needed it.

Rick then had an idea and quickly left the bunker and called up to the druids telling them to kill one or two of those Tiger mounts each so that they could use [Summon Spirit Ally]. Their eyes all lit up and agreed with him. He then returned to his bunker and yelled out to begin the ranged attack. They handle the defense like last time, but the Elves made their first targets the Tiger mounts killing at least one each before they turned their arrows toward the attacking humans. After they each killed a Tiger they called forth their new spirit allies and sent them charging down the hill into the line of attackers creating chaos.

The mounted attackers had more luck making it up the hill compared to the footmen by circling around to the entrance to launch an attack on the waiting defenders. The two half-giants ran out like a wall of steel and began chopping men and mounts in half. When Rick saw that the remaining troops began to also circle around toward the entrance he climbed the outside wall and began picking them off with his new bow.

Now I see why the elves were so devastating this compound bow can blast an arrow right through them and their flimsy leather and fur armor.

With Angelica right behind him again they cleared out a good portion of the encircling enemy with a stream of arrows and the help of his other ranged units.

"Let's go, Angelica!" Rick yelled out as he suddenly jumped off the wall and ran out to meet the attackers.

At seeing this General Sturm led the other melee unit group to help finish off the attackers. The tribesmen began to make their final stand and circle up as they all instinctively knew if they were captured there would be no quarter given from the large leader of these strangers. Though they fought hard and managed to wound a few of the defenders, Garion the Cleric-Assassin would always appear out of thin air to heal them just as fast as they became injured.

Garion would even between healing spells suddenly appear behind a distracted enemy to instantly finish him off with his daggers. Like a deadly cloud of mist, he stalked the battlefield using [Saintly Strike] and [Divine Detonation] along with his Assassin skills causing wounds that gushed blood or deal out a split second execution.

The two Kitsune Battle Dancers were like watching a live dance performance. They gracefully swayed and jumped through the attackers with their deadly steel sabers lashed out to an unheard beat to cut down the mesmerized barbarians before them. They only wore the dresses Rick made for them for protection, but that was all they needed being untouchable as they were.

Rick them stopped a moment as he watched Angelica dual wielding her platinum swords. She became a tornado of flashing steel while walking into a group of six attackers only yards away from him. All Rick saw was a flashing after-image from her swords and a second later the six men all hit the ground simultaneously. Rick just shook his head and jumped back into the fray not to be shown up. Close to an hour and a half after the first attack, Rick and his party stood together on the hilltop surround by dead and severely injured tribesmen.

They all walked into the outpost together and climbed up on the walls to look down at the mass of people outside the village waiting for news of how the attack proceeded against the strangers on the hill. Rick once again used [Farsight] to examine the crowd and noticed that it was made up of women and elderly for the most part. He spied a few armed men but they were few and far between.

"Alright, great work everyone from what I can see they threw over three-quarters of their fighting force at us. We will now go down there and have a little talk with them if they still feel belligerent then I will inform you all through the [Party Chat] that we will attack. General Sturm will lead you all while Angelica and I fight as a separate force." Rick explained his plan and they began to descend the hill toward the village.

Rick had his group in two lines with the melee fighters up front and ranged fighters following behind. Bringing them to a stop about fifty yards from the villagers, Rick told Angelica to follow him forward and left the others to cover him. He walked forward half the distance between the two groups and began to speak loudly in the old human dialect used by the man he interrogated.

"We are from a settlement about a day ride west of here and were attacked by a hunting party from this village led by a man named Skuld! We have come here to make it perfectly clear that if we are attacked we counterattack tenfold! I want this man named Skuld brought to me and I also want an agreement from your leader that the people of this village will never even approach our side of the island again!"

Rick then spotted the man he assumed their leader from earlier making his way to the front of the assembled people.

"Skuld is my son, I will never turn him over to you, and who do you people think you are to tell us where we may go! How will you stop us of the brave Islet tribe who rule this Island! He yelled back angrily.

Rick laughed out loud for a few seconds so they all knew he wasn't afraid. "How will I stop you? The same way I stopped all of your dead warriors scattered across that burned and bloody hillside back there!" He yelled while pointing to the hill with his outpost upon it.

A sudden wave of screams and cries rose up from the women and children who had family that went up the hill to fight just a couple hours earlier.

Rick then used the party chat. "Kanna the man who I am talking with is their leader I want you to stealth kill him right now don't let anyone know you're there until you strike then quickly return to me when it is done."

While the crowd cried out over the loss of their dead the leader yelled out a response. "How are we to know that they are even dead? I am positive they are up there fighting while your small group snuck down he..gah" He never finished his sentence because Kana was standing behind him in her ninja suit holding both her daggers that were sticking out of each side of his neck.

She then agilely removed her daggers and swiftly fell in behind Rick before anyone realized what had just happened.

As the leader's body hit the ground Rick yelled out. "This is how you will know they are dead, just as that fort on the hill appeared there instantly so can my troops kill you all the same way as I just had demonstrated! Now let me say this only one more time so it is understood! I want Skuld here before me now, and I want an agreement this village will stay away from our side of the island or we will attack you right now and burn this place to the ground! Rick screamed at the crowd angrily as he walked up to stand only a few yards before them with his hand on the sword hanging by his side.

After seeing their tribal chief killed right next to them the crowd went deathly silent and hung on every word that Rick yelled at them. In a daze, they stood there leaderless unsure of what to do looking at the dead body by their feet and back to the large man screaming at them.

Rick simply yelled out to get a response and wake them up. "Do it Now!"

The mass of people panic stricken turned and ran screaming into the village leaving the remaining armed men standing there looking at each other not believing the turn of events. They had once ruled this island for generations past except for the cat people to the far northwest that their ancestors once spoke of but had never seen since they never traveled that far these days.

Rick activated his [Aura of Intimidation] and walked up to the armed men and asked who was next in line to be the leader. They told him it was Skuld and a few of them even spat on the ground after hearing his name with looks of disgust.

"I take it he developed an arrogant attitude because of his father being the tribe leader and began forcing you all to do his bidding since he is next in line to lead?" Rick asked the men.

They all looked shocked at how he might have known but it was a common occurrence throughout history a spoiled heir that takes command too soon become a tyrant to his people.

I could tell that much from what I heard from that wounded man I interrogated. It seemed that this brat forced the party he was leading to attack my surveyors.

"This is what you all are going to do then go into the village and bring him to me. If anyone questions you about it tell them you are doing it to save the village from destruction. Then once Skuld is taken away by me that leaves a vacant spot for a new leader of this tribe and since you all seem to be the only remaining warriors..." He left it hanging at that and saw the gears start to turn as they all had dreams of becoming the tribe's future leader.

With that, they all turned toward the village and marched off together to root out the hated dead leader's son. Rick used the [Party Chat] to call his troops to his position and he led them into the center of the village to stand under an enormous tree and wait for them to deliver Skuld. If they didn't he was prepared to tell Celestia to start dropping fire and brimstone down from the sky onto the tinderbox of a village surrounding them.

I am still unsure of what to do with this guy once I get him. Part of me wants to kill him and the other wants him to rot somewhere dark and confined for a few years. If I turned him over to the guards of Silverhall they may end up just releasing him. I could make a cell to lock him in but that wastes time that could be devoted to building the city.

As Rick silently weighed his options a group pulling a man gagged and tied with a crude rope made their way towards them.

The group of armed men told him that this was Skuld and extended the rope to him. Rick told the two half-giants to bring him over to him in the chat. They both walked over and grabbed him by the arms and carried him over to the tree with the others.

"Now before we leave I will say this, if we are ever attacked by ANYONE from this village again I will come back here with ten times the amount of troops you see and burn this village to the ground and drive you all into the ocean!" Without waiting for a response he turned and opened a gate to the outpost that they all stepped through with their prisoner in tow.

Rick had the prisoner put into the bunker and left him tied up in there while he opened a portal and called all the workers from the tower over to the outpost. He sent them around to gather up all the weapons laying across the hill and asked the elves to use their druid skills to find and bring any stray mounts into the outpost. Rick then stored all the cannons and stone blocks on the walls and towers.

He then chiseled into the stone block of the bunker next to the door. He wrote out in old human not sure even if they could read. "If you attack us we will always retaliate!"

He stored the pile of crude tribesmen fallen weapons as the Druids came back with two more Tigers and eleven uninjured horses. With the help of the druids, they leveled the walls, towers, and filled the moat with dirt only leaving the stone block outpost with its message for future tribesmen.

They left the dead were they fell so that their loved ones could find them and hold a funeral or whatever was their customs when dealing with their dead. Rick opened a portal to the tower, grabbed the prisoner from the bunker, and went back home with his troops to return to the construction of their city.