A soft, cool breeze flowed across my face as I listened to sounds of seagulls crying overhead on this cold morning. I could hear cascading water on both sides of me in the distance. They were almost drowned out by the ocean wave that was slamming into the rocky beach below me. I smiled as the first rays of the sun warmed my skin. My eyes opened as I stared up into the bright morning sky through the canopy of a large strange tree behind me. Sitting up and looking around toward the south, I saw what looked like a vast sea with multitudes of forest islets dotting the water. Beyond that, on the other side of the cove were more cliffs that faded into the mist to the south. The forest and hills wrapped around to the west, melting into a massive range of snow covered mountains. The mountains to the west flowed to the north, then to the east as far as I could see. From the snow-covered mountains to the north by northeast was the rolling Steppes. Dotted among the steppes were large stone boulders, stretching out to the east and south to the sea.

Dusting myself off, I stood up, taking in my surroundings. I looked over the large tree with fall-like color leaves. Surrounding the tree were crumbling remains of a small settlement. I counted fourteen foundations in all. It seemed like the place had been burn down decades ago. I brought my attention back to the large tree. If not for the large multi-color leaves, I would believe it to be an oak tree. The forest trees to the west, just across the creek, were budding out new leaves. So it was not Fall, and the nip in the air felt more like spring than fall. Stepping up to the tree, I put my hand against the tree's trunk. I got a prompt.

Congratulations you found a Hearthtree.

A Hearthtree this is a cornerstone of a settlement much like a Hearthstone. A Hearthtree or Hearthstone can be a binding location for a player.

You have received experience. Do you wish to bind?

“Yes.” I felt a warm, pleasant glow spreading from my stomach to the rest of my body. A feeling of belonging flowed over me.

Congratulations you have been bound to this location!

I heard a woman’s voice from the tree, “Welcome to Fangor or what was Fangor before the Orcs wiped it out.”

Jumping back looking around the tree I said, “Who's there?”

A tinkling of laughter filled my mind, “Silly mortal! I am the Hearthtree, and you may call me Mesa-la. And this was once a level two settlement.” Sounding sad, she continued, “Now it’s just rubble. Are you a builder?”

“Yes,” I replied, stunned by the fact name of the tree was the same as my deceased daughter.

“Hmm, you are a dwarf.”

“Steppe Dwarf,” I responded crisply.

“So you are, and rude, too.” The tree swayed a little, “If you wish to claim the Hearthtree, you need to prove that you are worthy of me. Build three hovels. Kill the previous settlers that are the walking dead, called Draugr. They walk this place at night. Kill the Root Orms that have been eating my roots,” Mesa-la said.

Four quest prompt appeared before me.

Biting My Roots

Kill 10 Root Orm.

Ten ratlike creatures are digging and eating Mesa-la roots causing her harm.

Reward: Experience, ten silver, and a reward.

Build Three Hovels

Build three hovels to protect you and others from the weather and hostiles creatures.

Part one of the requirements for claiming this settlement.

Reward: Experience, ten silver, and a reward.

Build a Shelter

Build a place to live to protect you from the elements and other nasty things.

Reward: Experience, ten silver, and a reward.

Put the Previous Inhabitants to Rest

Collect 30 ash fill urns from Draugr.

Reward: Experience, ten silver, and a reward.

"Before I accept, why do you have my daughter's name?" I demanded.

"A woman smaller than you healed me as I lay broken after the orc raid. She called me Mesa-la and told me that I should wear the name of her granddaughter with pride."

"My mother is alive here?" I ask shocked.

Are you Jack Grayston? Mesa-la asked.

"Yes," I said weakly.

“She is alive but not able to be in the game at this moment. I have a message for you. After I tell you, I ask you to look over the quest and ask no more of your mother from me, please," she said.

A prompt screen appears.

Jack, my son I am safe but severely injured. I heard about your problems and have asked the AIs of the ship to put you here. Follow your dreams and keep Mesa-la safe. I will need to go into a deep sleep until they heal me enough to come here. Be safe and do not ask about me. Mesa-la will forget everything that has transpired. Do not ask about me. I will come to you. Be safe my son, love you always.

The screen faded away as I digested the fact that my mother was here and healing. It would take a while to accept the fact that my mother wanted me to protect a tree that was a representation of my daughter.

"Jack, do you wish to accept the quests," Mesa-la said.

Numbly, I looked over all the quests, “Why would I want to build here? You just told me that this settlement was destroyed by orcs, so as far as I know, this could be a bad spot to build.”

“Well, there are mines north and east of here. A forest to the west and two creeks that run deep on both sides of you as they flow into the sea. Which, by the way, have some of the best fishing. Let me see, just south of you is the deepest area for thirty leagues in all directions. Merchant ships can make port safely in this islet cove, which also makes this area a safe harbor during storms. It is why there was a settlement here. To the southeast is a sea marsh with lots of ingredients for alchemy, but a nasty place with the marsh gases, hot springs, and monsters.”

“Oh, and watch out for the lizardmen. There are several clans there that fight amongst themselves and against other races.” She paused, as if in thought, “you are about a hundred leagues* by road from at least two small kingdoms. One kingdom is to the northeast, and another kingdom is to your southwest on the other side of the Stonespike Pass in the Stone Mountains, where the once great Stonespike

Dwarven clan lived. Most of them today are just surviving, warring with each other and against the trolls.”

I paused for a moment before saying, “I accept all four quests.” Wiping tears from my eyes, I happened to spot a rat-like creature scurrying around a foundation a few yards away. Not seeing any weapon near at hand, I decided to check my inventory. Sure enough, there were my armor and weapon.

Inventory Armor Defense weight Durability Damage Equipped Backpack 20 slots 0 5 lbs equipped Breastplate leather 5 3 lbs. 10/10 equipped Pants 3 2 lbs 10/10 equipped Gloves 2 1 lb 10/10 equipped Boots 2 2 lbs 10/10 equipped Belt 2 slot 1 2 lbs 10/10 equipped Light Hammer Blunt MIGHT 10 5 lbs 10/10 5 equipped Dagger Blunt/Piercing MIGHT 5 10/10 2/4 equipped x5 healing potion (10 points) Backpack Chopping ax +1 to woodcraft, MIGHT 5 10/10 2 equipped Camping kit: tent, blanket, flint, pot, skillet backpack Lantern backpack Ten jars oil (stackable) backpack Wineskins equipped Wood saw +1 woodcraft backpack x20 rations backpack Rope 20 feet backpack

Lifting the hammer, I gauged the weight in my hand. I liked the feel of the balance to the weapon. I maybe I would have to find a spear if bashing the vermin over the head was not my style. Squinting my eyes, I tried to get a better look at the Root Orm.

Congratulations! You have acquired the skill, Inspect.

INSPECT: this skill is used to check an item, creature, or player stats — the higher the skill, the more detailed the information.

Root Orm

Level one

Hit point. 10

Root Orm is a rat-like creature that burrows into the ground around trees, bushes, and gardens. Root Orms tend to destroy all plant life. If the root orm is left alone without recourse, they can multiply and wipe out large areas of land.

Lifting my right hand and pointing at the root orm, I chanted, “Incandescent!” A bolt of flame shot from my hand and struck the root orm for five points. My mana also drops five points as it squealed and ran towards me. Swinging the hammer, I slammed it into the ground as I missed. The root orm bit my right leg, causing three points of damage after the defenses. I slammed the hammer down on the rodent head with a critical strike, causing it eight points of damage.

You have killed a Root Orm! 1/10.

Great. No experiences points for that. I leaned down and touched the root orm to loot the meat and a tail. One down, nine more to go. I carefully crouched down and moved to another foundation so as not to spook any root orms. Peering over the foundation, I spotted

another root orm nearby and fired another flare, and received three prompts.

You have killed a Root Orm! 2/10.

You have acquired a skill point in Stealth!

You have acquired a skill point in Backstab!

I was feeling pretty good with myself. It was noon when I finally got the last root orm. It had taken me about an hour to find it and then it was digging at the roots of the Hearthtree. It also left me with three health points and two mana points when I finished the quest.

Quest completed 10/10 Root Orms killed!

Walking up to the tree, I said, “Done with the quest on the Root Orms. Is there a reason why I did not receive any experience for killing the Root Orms?”

“Thank you! I was getting worried with them eating my roots.” Mesa-la said. Ten silver coins pushed to the surface of the soil in front of the tree. “Creatures killed for a quest does not produce experience since there is already a quest reward for killing them. You get the experience when you turn in the quest. You also receive experience for first kills of creatures. The game system rewards for people questing not for grinding. Does that answer your question?”

I nodded, “Yes it does.”

“I have three items you can choose from; a copper dagger, a copper shovel with no handle, or a copper pot,” she said.

Oh great! Another pot would be nice, but I already had one in the camping gear. Don't need a dagger right now, “I will take the shovel,” I said, thinking it will help me with some digging once I had a handle made.

A Broken Bronze Shovel Durability 1/20. You have received experience.

“If you get a handle on that shovel I have a quest for you,” Mesa-la said.

“I’ll let you know when I get a handle put on.” Looking up, I saw it was about noon, “I think I will start my shelter.” I walked over to a twenty by twenty square foot stone foundation to the south of the tree, about fifty feet away. I could see that the stones were not all above the ground. Getting on my knees, I began to clean off the top of the rock. I could see that the foundation wall was three feet wide. I sat back to take a better look at it as I realized what it was.

“Oh! They were going to put a tower here!” I walked around to the west of the tower foundation. Searching around for a few minutes, I found that the foundation was a ten by twenty square foot foundation of a building. "Okay, need to see if the Stonewall spell is an all or nothing spell.” At that point, a prompt about the stone wall appeared.

Stone Wall

This spell can produce a ten foot by ten foot by one cubit foot wall for ten mana, or one cubic foot of stone can be created for one mana point. The wall can increase in thickness equal to the caster's level in cubit feet which raises the Defense and Health of the wall.

Per cubic foot

Defense: 1 point + level (2)

Health: 2 x level (2)

Note: A level three spellcaster can cast a three-foot-thick wall for a Defense of one plus the level of three times the thickness of the three feet of wall for a total Defense of twelve and the Health is two times the caster level of three, times the width of a wall of three feet equals eighteen Health. So a three-foot-thick wall is twelve defense and eighteen health.

I concentrated on casting a spell producing one cubic foot of stone on top of the foundation. “Maceria

Lapidum Destructa.” One cubic foot of stone appeared while using only one point of mana. I was happy enough to do a fist pump and recast the spell again, placing the next stone against the first. I reached down and checked both stones and saw that there was a two by one cubit feet of stone now. Instead of two separate stone, the spell merged the stones! It also seemed to have fused the stone to the foundation stone.

“Yes! Now I can build a doorway and windows opening." I did another fist pump. I noticed it seemed that it cost more to do this block by block than doing a solid wall. But first I needed the first floor of the building with no openings to keep out any aggressive monster. I had to stop to rest every ten minutes for meditation to rebuild my mana pool. It took almost til sunset to finish the last wall. The building was ten feet by twenty feet by ten-foot-tall. I draped a twenty-foot rope over the top and melded the middle of the rope to a piece of stone at the top to secure it in place. I climbed back down the rope and started throwing dead limbs and bushes inside the building. I pulled up the rope and draped it over the top to keep anyone from climbing up. I just sat there, watching a beautiful sunset to the west before dropping down inside the building. Ten minutes later, I had a small fire going in the corner to take the chill out of the spring air. I spent another thirty minutes chopping up the branches into a nice stackable pile. Glancing up and seeing the stars above, I pulled out the blanket and laid it in the corner. Next, I put the skillet on some coals and toss two root orm meat on to cook them.

You acquire the skill Cooking.

You can now cook without burning water!

Fried root orm steak + 1 DEFTNESS, +1 FORTITUDE.

It took me a bit to make myself want to bite into the tender meat. Surprise by the taste as it seems to melt into my mouth, I realized it had been a long time since I had tasted of meat since it was ration on earth. Sitting back against the wall and sipping water from the waterskin, I enjoyed the fire and watched the embers rise out of the room.

I jumped up in surprise upon hearing a creaking noise and a scraping of metal against the wall behind me. I reached for my Hammer and slowly stood up, listening to the sound of metal scraping as it moved around the building. The noise finally quit after a few moments. I put the Hammer back into its holder at my belt and started climbing the rope. Looking over the top, I saw several skeletons walking around aimlessly. Two of them carried bows, and another one walked with a bronze short sword and shield. Sliding back down and sitting against the wall, I muttered, “thirty draugrs.”

“Need to figure out how to kill thirty draugrs without killing myself.” Looking at the west wall, I saw a faint light along the top edge of the wall. I quietly climbed up the rope, looking toward the east. A large moon three times the size of earth's moon had risen. I saw more skeletons walking around before I lowered myself back down to sleep.

*A League is an Ancient Roman mile of 7500 feet or 1.4 miles.