Grarl woke up.

Jason panicked.

He was sleeping on the floor with a blanket over him, the other three were on the floor beside him. While Grarl was relaxed, Jason saw half-orc faces staring at him. Faces that were disturbing to first wake up too.

At first, he was afraid. He leapt to his feet, frantically looking for the door out of the room, but there were three large bodies between him and the door, and Nunda was startled awake as soon as Grarl bolted upright.

Then he thought he was in a dream. He was telling himself that he was half asleep, that his brain was dreaming this up even though it looked, felt and smelled so real.

Nunda looked at him with concern. She raised her arm, hand out, as if to say to him, “Calm down, everything is okay.”

At that point, Triuk sat up, rubbed his eyes, then said, “Are you okay Grarl?”

Then he remembered he was in a game. These were, almost certainly, NPCs playing their AI part in the story. The graphics were so real Jason’s mind was unable to tell the difference between real life and this game.

Grarl answered, “Yeah, I am okay, I just had a crap dream.”

Triuk nudged the head patting orc while saying, “Masin, wake up, we have things to do.”

Masin sat up, considered the room, rubbed his eyes then stood up.

Jason looked at the three of them and wondered, “What the hell is real?”

"Welcome to day two of your game. In the real world, ten minutes has gone by."

He knew what was real as soon as the kind female voice entered his head. Anna, the one who tricked him through omission.

They all made their own morning moves. Jason was a little surprised that morning routines for them all included cleaning their teeth. They each had a twig of some fashion that they chewed the end of, then used their fingers to rub the fibers along the teeth.

The twigs had a fresh scent. Masin noticed Grarl watching, he put his hand into the pack, removed a twig and threw it to him as if it was obvious what he was thinking.

Grarl brushed his teeth as a half-orc for the first time. By the time he had finished, he decided to keep doing it as it was surprisingly refreshing and rhythmic as a morning routine.

Each dressed, put their leather armor on and prepared for the events of the day. Grarl asked, “What is the plan for today?”

Triuk answered, “See the Mayor to confirm the land usage. Get some supplies, I need a warmer top. Then we walk for three hours to the new location and figure out what needs to be done.”

Masin said, “And while we are with the Mayor, Grarl, and please don’t take this wrong, but you need to say nothing, and doing nothing but stand there are look pretty.”

Nunda laughed while Triuk smiled.

Grarl said, “Fine, I will say nothing.”

Following the lead of his new friends, the left the room and through the common area. The bar tender was there, he smiled to them all until Grarl walked by, then he said, “That will be 3gp for everything. They said you were paying.”

The other three bolted through the exit.

Grarl said, “Here, have four.” He placed the gold pieces on the bar then followed the others.

You now have 16gp.

When he made it out the door, the cool breeze hit his face. Grarl ignored their laughing while enjoying the idea of returning the favor later on.

Nunda led the way through the plaza, down the main street until they reached the Mayors Office. Jason was surprised at how small the town was. They were about to enter the small building when Triuk made a rapid side track into a clothing shop.

He said, “I need something to keep me warm for winter.”

Grarl looked at the other two then said, “I need to look as well.” With that Grarl and Triuk entered the tailor shop. Grarl had no idea what he was looking for before he entered, but when he did, he was surprised at the selection and found what he was wanting.

Grarl walked straight to the wall, pointed to a surprisingly well-made leather trench coat and said, “I want that. How much?”

“4gp.”

He put it on, but it was too small. The tailor said, “For 1gp and one day to alter it, it will fit you perfectly.”

Grarl was staring at the trench coat, imagining how he would look awesome in it, when he saw a cowboy hat beside it. While it looked out of place, and the idea that even having it there felt wrong, it bought the hat as well, to pick up the next day after alterations were made for his big head.

Triuk bought a standard winter coat and stood there wondering why Grarl was so excited by the trench coat.

Grarl happily paid the 6gp for the coat, hat and alterations.

You now have 10gp.

The left the shop together, both pleased with their purchases, although Triuk said, “If you simply bought a winter coat, it would have been far cheaper.”

“True, but a trench coat and hat looks a lot better.”

Triuk replied, “Who cares how we dress, everyone will still hate us.”

“Don’t care what others say or think. I like it, it looks good.” Grarl walked past Nunda and Masin, opened the door to the Mayor office and entered. He approached a young man sitting by a desk. He was a little surprised at how similar this looked to the real world, probably a lack of imagination on the part of the designers.

“I want to see the Mayor.”

The young man looked intimidated, but he held his ground. The door opened again so Triuk, Masin and Nunda could walk in. Triuk said, “What he means to say to say is the Mayor called for our audience, can you let him know we are here.”

“Names?”

“Triuk is the only name he needs.”

With that, he left the room, walked a short corridor and through a door. When he disappeared Triuk said to Grarl, “Seriously Grarl, no talking, and I mean it.”

Grarl was opening his mouth to say something when Nunda whacked him in the ear.

It hurt.

Grarl didn’t say anything.

The mayor came out of his room, walked the short corridor to them, and thought they were all being polite for a change.

“Thank you for coming in, I will keep it short mostly because I can’t stand your kind. But since you have a good offer, I will accept it. The land is to the North near the orc tracks and where most of the attacks occur. You own the land, can do what you want on it, in exchange for vastly reducing, if not eliminating the hostilities that is going on up there.”

Triuk said, “This is a good arrangement.”

The Mayor said, “This doesn’t make any of you good guys, nor does it appease how vile your kind are, this is a business arrangement only. As we agreed, the land is yours, the longer you maintain a stable peace, the more land I will allow. Grow your guild, build a barrier between our species, and your kind can have whatever it is that you think peace is and a place to call home.”

“And the help?”

“I have found ten excellent builders. They will work for you for two weeks and you will pay them a total of 20gp. Upfront. If the bail out on you, I will refund the money and jail those who ran.”

Triuk smiled, “We have a deal.”

The Mayor didn’t return the smile, he simply swung around and returned to his office.

The young man in the office said, “The builders are already waiting for you at the North Gate.” Triuk thanked the man.

The Orkin left the building together as Masin said, “We have the beginnings of an Orckin home.”

Triuk said, “Yes we do. Now, there is the small matter of finding 20gp, Grarl.”

Grarl said, “I only have 10gp left.”

Triuk looked to the other. They emptied their pouches and they came to a total of 21gp. Triuk took a single gold piece out, pocketed it, then pouched the rest.

You have 0gp left

There seemed no reason to wait around, so they went to the North Gate, paid the builders, neither of whom seemed overly pleased about the deal, other than the double pay.

With that done, they spend the rest of the morning walking the path to their new home, dubbed “Orckin Home” by the time they were halfway there.

While Jason was enjoying the walking, as he watched the new farmlands and forest in the distance, he also was considering what it was he was doing.

He had no real plan, he had no real idea where to find the Save Point. He had deduced it wasn’t in a safe place, which meant it was almost certainly in a place where some moderate evil was lurking that required killing to earn the reward of going back home.

It sounded about right, and since he had no other ideas as to the location, that was the thing he was going to be looking for.

He also decided that since this is a role-playing game, all he needed to do was hang out with a group of adventurers, level up by killing some monsters, collecting some loot and having a generally good time while here.

He also decided that he was concerned about Maree entering the game. He was making many guesses, but the one he wanted the most to be correct was Maree turning up in such a way as to be able to connect up with him.

All he needed to figure out is what will Maree be when she makes her character.

With that in mind, he was hoping she stayed true to her normal type and selected being a Cleric.

By the time he had thought that through, they had made the location of their home. A flat area, enough trees to make a decent house and a small wall around it, a river and enough peace to fill a lifetime.

Masin didn’t waste much time. He was the foreman, and he played the part well. Over the course of the afternoon trees had fallen, some were being shaped and put into place.

As the sun dipped below the horizon, a pair of humans approached the Orckin.

Triuk summoned them over since they looked nervous about approaching. He asked them, “Are you here to look or ask?”

“Ask.”

“Then ask.”

The young woman said, “We heard you are here as protectors. Well, you know about the orcs, but did you know about the zombie and skeleton problem?”

Triuk looked at Grarl and said, “Shall we go zombie hunting tonight?”

Grarl grinned, “I was hoping you would say that.”