Once outside the cave, Dean pulled up the status page for his new kingdom. He was inundated with different notifications. The first page asked about a tutorial, which would probably force him to build a few different buildings first. He skipped it so that he could start by building a spawn point and defenses against the coming invasion.

The next set were several quests. Unlike typical quests, it didn’t require him to accept them. They were already active.

City Quest: Build a Civic Center

Reward: 250 City XP

Resources Produced: Honor

City Quest: Build a Woodsman Camp

Reward: 150 City XP

Resources Produced: Lumber

City Quest: Build a Hunter’s Hut

Reward: 50 City XP

Resources Produced: Meat, Hides

City Quest: Build a Farm

Reward: 50 City XP

Resources Produced: Crops

City Quest: Build a House

Reward: 25 City XP

Resources Produced: Increase Population Limit

Quest: A New Home, Pt. 1

Reward: 100 City XP

Description: Your people need homes. Build enough homes for your people and additional settlers to attract more workers.

Dean closed each of the windows after reading them before pulling up the building options to find out how to build a spawn point. He couldn’t find it. Mumbling to himself, he flipped to the city’s main status page.

Alert: Select Primary Building Resources

City Name: Manetheren

Rank: Camp

City Experience: 0/5,000

Citizens

25 Refuges

Buildings

None

Dean clicked on the alert, pulling up a picture of a house and a long list of resources. A window at the top listed his primary resources, wood and stone, and suggested he use those for construction. He was impressed at the amount of resources available for building, everything from wood and stone to marble and sandstone. He started clicking on different combinations, causing the picture to change. The full wood home looked vaguely Asian, while the mud home reminded him of the Indians that lived in the Grand Canyon. He tried various combinations for fun, but eventually settled on the game’s suggestion. He clicked ‘accept’ and a new window popped up asking him to confirm the selection while pictures of sample buildings displayed what his city would look like. He confirmed and returned to the status page before musing aloud, “What refuges?”

“Probably them.” Ryan pointed to a group of wagons coming through the pass. Even from a distance, it was obvious the wagons were straining against their loads and were in disrepair. By the looks of it, the refuges had loaded up everything they possessed. Dean wondered briefly if they were from somewhere else in the world or had been specifically created as a result of starting the city. He could ask them, but it was possible they’d been programmed with fake memories and backgrounds, so it’d be impossible to tell either way. And, in the end, it didn’t really matter. They were now his people. It felt a little weird thinking about being responsible for other people.

Going as slow as they were, it’d be another hour before they’d reach his location, so he decided to go meet them instead.

He explained the situation as they walked, “Looks like the city has to be upgraded before we can start build a spawn point or defenses.” Jim grimaced, but Dean cut him off before he could speak. “I know, start upgrading. Why do you think we’re going to meet our new neighbors? But, I’m hoping we can come up with an idea on where to build everything before we reach the wagons. That way, we can start building immediately.” He looked at the others in turn, “Ryan, I know we both used to play city building games, but what about you two?” They both shook their heads. “Alright, Ryan. Let’s start planning.”

He quickly listed off every unlocked building, which was mostly the ones directly linked to the initial quests he’d received. They dismissed the houses immediately, deciding that producing resources was the immediate need.

“Any restrictions on where the farms can go?” Ryan asked. Dean remembered that several games he’d played restricted farmland to fertile soil, at least until irrigation systems or something similar had been unlocked.

Dean clicked on the building tab. He almost tripped as the viewscreen in front of him zoomed out to an overhead map of his new kingdom. Most of it was fogged out. He tried clicking on a section of forest, but received a notification that he needed to unlock it. Instead of wasting time trying to figure out how, he selected a farm. The map changed colors, with areas highlighted in red, yellow and green. To Ryan, he said, “Yeah, looks like the area by the river is the only fertile area in the valley we can build on right now.”

“Right now?” Jim asked, “Are some areas blocked off?”

Dean nodded, “Most of the valley is, actually.”

“Most sim games are like that.” Mary commented. “Is the forest over there open for building?” She pointed at the edge of the forest. Dean shook his head. “Maybe it’d be easier to ask what is available right now?”

Dean studied the map and the area around them. Once he oriented himself and had a fairly reasonable idea where the borders were, he started pointing them out. “We can build all the way up to the cliff wall where the cave is located. North and West to the edge of the river, and South…” Dean trailed off as he tried to take find a decent landmark. “And somewhere around that big tree over there?”

Ryan followed along, noting the edges. It was a generous build area, though that also depended on the size of each building. However, the designated area didn’t include any of the forested areas of the valley. After reassessing the build area, they started conferring where to build everything.

It didn’t take long for them to come up with a plan. The only place with enough wood to make building a woodsmen’s camp worthwhile was near the big tree near the south where several copses of trees grew. Next, they would build a hunter’s hut to start collecting food, then a farm last, which obviously had to go on the fertile soil near the river.

Surprisingly, the woodsmen camp didn’t require anything to build. He selected it. The map changed colors again, this time none of it a dark green like the farms. Instead, he found a light green spot among the trees, receiving an indication that it would work at a seventy percent capacity, and clicked build. Nothing happened that he could see, except that an area of the map was marked off as containing a building. Next, he selected the hunter’s hut, which required wood to build, and placed it further north, far enough away that the trees where animals would hide wouldn’t be cut down by the woodsman camp. Finally, he placed two farms, requiring even more wood that he didn’t have, and placed them near the riverbank, along an area marked as fertile with a hundred percent growth rate.

At least the game allowed him to place buildings without having the necessary resources, he thought glumly, otherwise he’d be stuck waiting for anything to get accomplished. Instead, a small exclamation point appeared above the buildings that he could click to reveal the missing resource for building it.

They reached the refuges a few minutes later. A man with broad shoulders at the front of the wagons signaled for them to stop as he walked the remaining distance alone. He completely ignored the others, instead addressing Dean directly. “Greetings, sir. The name’s Darin.”

“Hello, Darin.” Dean introduced the others as he studied the man. His first thought was that the man was extremely tentative, glancing at his shuffling feet every few seconds, despite looking like he could pick up one of the wagons behind him with relative ease. Every time he glanced down, the man ran a hand across his bald crown, before grabbing at the scraggly strands of hair along the back and temples. “What’re you doing here?”

“We’re refuges, my lord.” The man explained as he gestured at the others behind him, “Looking for a new home to live in peace.”

“I’m afraid you won’t find peace here.” Dean explained, “There’s an orc army on its way.” He needed the refuges to stay, otherwise he’d have to start the entire village without anyone to help but didn’t want to lie about the situation. He was still firmly resolved to treat everyone in the game equally, player and non-player alike, and his desperation wouldn’t change that fact.

The man grunted at that, his eyes widening in surprise. He licked his lips, thinking furiously before coming to a decision. His shoulders slumped, “It seems nowhere is safe these days.”

“Still, you’re welcome to stay here and make a home for yourselves. I plan to build it up as quickly as possible and defend it against the orcs.” Dean mentally crossed a few million fingers as he waited for a response.

Darin studied him for a few seconds before nodding. “I can’t speak for the other families, but I’ll stay and swear fealty to you, mi’lord.” He glanced around the valley, a twinkle in his eye, “It’s a beautiful place to make a home. Not many places like this in the world.” His face hardened suddenly, “Worthy of defending against any enemy.” He gestured over his shoulder, “I’ll speak to the others and see what they want to do.”

Dean nodded. Darin walked back to the other refuges, who quickly surrounded him. Darin spoke quietly to the group. Even though he couldn’t hear anything the man was saying, Dean could easily follow along the conversation based on the gasps a few seconds later, probably when Darin told them of the invasion, followed by furtive glances at Dean and the surrounding landscape.

After several minutes, Darin returned and nodded. “They’ll all stay, Mi’lord. How would you like us to swear fealty?”

“What do you mean?” Dean asked.

“Do you want us to kneel or bow? Or perhaps say something specific?”

“Oh,” Dean could just imagine spending the rest of his time in game with people bowing to him everywhere he went. Not only would it be embarrassing, it’d mean people would have to stop what they were doing every time he walked by or wanted to check in. “Definitely not necessary. How about your word and a handshake?”

Darin barked a laugh, “Then I’m your man, Milord.” He offered his hand and Dean took it. A few notifications popped up, informing him that he’d unlocked a few city tenets. He waited to check on them until after the others came forward one after the other and swore fealty with a handshake. Once done, he pulled them up.

You’ve Unlocked a City Tenet

Tenet: A Leader Among Equals

Treating your people as equals by not requiring any special reverence to your title has given them a greater sense of pride and increased their loyalty to the kingdom.

Bonuses: +10% Loyalty Generated, +10% Production

You’ve Unlocked a City Tenet

Tenet: On My Honor

By treating a person’s word as binding, your people now value honesty as important

Bonuses: +10% Honor Generated, +10% Trade Negotiations

Ryan was right about everything he said or did having an impact on his city. He’d have to be careful not to accidently trigger any tenets that might have a negative effect. Granted, it’d be easier if he actually knew what possible tenets were in the game. If skills and subskills were anything to go by, he suspected that there would be a ton of them. He was certainly happy that the first two he’d unlocked were ones he agreed with.

He closed the notification and told Darin, “I’ve laid out a few buildings for construction.”

Darin nodded, “Aye, mi’lord. Just assign us and we’ll get to work.”

Dean scratched his chin as he pulled up the city screen and located the button to assign people. He ignored their names for the time and concentrated on their skills instead. He was just thankful it didn’t create a new tenet. Each refuge had their name and profession listed, none over five, that Dean guessed were tied to their basic skills.

He could assign them to buildings or to city roles. The buildings were self-explanatory, and he quickly assigned the four woodcutters, the two farmers, and two hunters, and watched as they split off from the main group with their wagons to the buildings plots he’d laid out.

Next, he checked the city roles, revealing builders and general laborers. He was only allowed two builders at that point, and four general laborers. He wondered if more spots or roles would open up later, but for the moment, he searched through the list of citizens and found only one person with the builder role. For the second builder, he found someone with the carpenter role. It wasn’t an exact match, but he hoped it was close enough that they could fill it for now without a penalty, or a very small one at least. He then found four unskilled refuges and assigned them to general laborers.

That left him with a dozen unassigned refuges, and nothing for them to do just yet. He closed the window and looked at his friends. “We should probably explore the area to find any other resources we can use now.”

Jim shook his head, “You’re not going anywhere. You’re going to stay right here, while we take a look.”

“It’s an open field,” Dean said through clenched teeth, “And we’ll be together.”

The others eventually relented after a brief side discussion that left Dean fuming. It took the rest of the day for them to explore the entire area, starting near the cave and working their way around the perimeter first, then moving in towards the center of the camp by forty paces and repeating the process. They found a stone quarry along one wall of the valley, a spot for a clay pit along the banks of the river, and an area of the field covered in herbs and alchemy ingredients. Once found, the resources popped up on the city map.

The sun was setting by the time they returned to camp where a large fire had been built and several small tents had been pitched near the woodcutter’s camp. All of the villagers were there for the night, which the group surmised was for protection against any wild animals. Villagers would probably start sleeping near their work buildings once something had been built. The woodcutters had a pile of logs started, plus a couple of downed trees partway through having their limbs cut off. The builders had stripped away the grass and top layer of soil where the hunter’s hut and civic center would eventually be built. But from what Dean could see, the farms hadn’t been started at all.

Dean commented on it to one of the farmers when he arrived. The farmer shrugged, “We don’t know where to put the fields or what to plant.”

“Why not?” Dean asked.

The man considered Dean for a second, a look of concern on his face. “You haven’t told us.” Dean blinked at him. Seriously? Was the game designed for him to micromanage so that a farmer couldn’t pick out a field or crops? He pulled up the status page on the game, figured out that each farm could have three fields, and selected a location for each.

He gathered the other farmers around him, and asked, “Any suggestions on crops?”

“Depends,” One of them said.

“On?”

“How much you want each farm to grow, how many mouths need feeding, and how many harvests you want per season.” The man shrugged.

“Alright,” Dean said slowly, “We’re going to have a lot more mouths to feed, probably close to two thousand.” That got their attention. Dean wanted to laugh as he saw their eyes bug out and eyebrows shoot up.

One of them burst out, “No way we can harvest enough crops for that many.”

Dean nodded his understanding, “I’m hoping more farmers arrive soon, and we can build more farms for them. Until then, what do you suggest?” Dean tried to pay attention to the farmers, but lost interest as they debated water tables and rainfall, stuff he had no idea about. After a few minutes, he interrupted them to say, “Look, I want you to figure out among yourselves, then go ahead and plant what you decide on. Work for you?”

The farmer’s nodded, barely pausing long enough for him to speak before debating what crops would work best. Laughing softly to himself, Dean left them to it. He didn’t get far before a woman approached him. “My Lord, may I have a moment?”

“Sure, what’s up?” He asked. She glanced at the sky in puzzlement, but Dean cut her off before she could speak. “I mean, what did you want to talk to me about?”

“Oh,” She said, “It’s just that there aren’t any houses laid out yet. I was wondering if my lord intended to do so soon.”

“I will,” Dean explained, “It’s just that there are several other buildings that need the resources first.”

She looked at him askance, “But, my lord, we have the supplies to build a basic home from our wagons.”

Dean was really starting to wish he’d done the tutorial. In his hurry to get defenses and the spawn point built, he may have missed a few other things, possibly really important tidbits, then it could set the whole village back. Shaking his head in frustration, he pulled up the page again. Before placing any of the homes, he selected the option for dirt paths and laid a couple out, connecting the woodcutter’s camp, hunter’s hut, farms and the civic center together. Next, he selected a few homes, dropped them along the path where Ryan and him had decided to make the town square, and ran a couple roads out to form a small city block.

“Done.” He said to her, “Do I need to assign the families?”

She shook her head, “They’re assigned to how close it is to the person’s job, if they have one.” She glanced at him, judging how far she could take the conversation, before asking, “Speaking of that, there are several people here that don’t have anything to do.”

“I know,” He said, “But I plan to change as soon as I get a chance. Right after the basics are built and I can get a solid defense setup.”

Satisfied, she gave a quick nod. “Just remember that no one else will show up to the village without a home.” She quickly headed off to join her family around the fire. Dean watched her go for a second, trying to decide if the game was trying to give him advice, or if this was the newly improved non-player personalities. Again, there was no way to know.

Several of the women had made a stew from a rabbit that the hunters had caught towards the end of the day. There wasn’t much rabbit in the stew since the pot was big enough to feed everyone and only had one rabbit in it, but the vegetables and broth were better than the regular salted jerky Dean and his friends had been eating for the last few days.

They settled on a watch schedule after dinner, and most of the group curled up in their knapsacks not long afterwards, exhausted from travel and work.