Dean drew his sword as he ran, watching as more goblins poured out of the forest. A second later, arrows rained down on the mob, leaving dozens dead. Dean glanced back, nearly tripping over a rock in the process, and saw nearly every new player in the village had armed themselves. Most had their bows out, probably staying away from the fight so they wouldn’t get hurt, but a few were running forward to join him.

Dean cast Warrior’s Aura at the last second, feeling the surge of power fill him, and stepped into the Katori forms. As ugly as the goblins were, they smelled even worse up close. Dean gagged as the smell of putrid, unwashed bodies swept past him.

Famor fought a dozen paces away in the strongest part of the attack, alongside Amelia, as the two moved in a tight circle around each other. Between the two fighting styles, Famor’s sword and Amelia’s throwing daggers, the goblins were quickly overwhelmed.

The fight ended before Dean’s spell wore off. Staring at the carnage around him, Dean couldn’t remember facing that many goblins in the short time, much less killing them all.

Looking at the rest of the battle, there were easily forty or fifty dead goblins scattered in the field. The majority of them were around Famor and himself. The raven-haired woman, Dean realized he still didn’t know her name, had a respectable number of kills around her, also. Other players started looting the bodies. Dean decided to let them but called out that he wanted any weapons brought to the center of the village.

Sarge joined him, sheathing his sword as he walked. “We’ve got a problem,”

“You think?” Dean retorted, “How many more are there?”

“A thousand? Maybe more.” Sarge said pointed at a gap in the mountain range on the other side of the valley, “They’ve got a city on the other side of that pass almost as big as Torial. It looks like most of the goblins are pretty low level like these, but they’ve got a level thirty leader named Agnoc the Horrid.”

“You got close enough to scan him?” Dean asked in surprise.

“We were careful.” Sarge said.

Dean nudged one of the dead goblins on the ground and gave him a pointed look. “Clearly.”

Sarge laughed as he shrugged, “Thought we were far enough from the goblin city that we wouldn’t be seen. That’s when this group started chasing us.”

“I told you we needed to be more careful,” Marie chided him as she and Ryan joined them. “And be absolutely sure there weren’t any goblins around.”

“That you did,” Sarge admitted.

Marie shook her head, rolling her eyes at Sarge before turning to Dean and smiling at him. “I’m not going to lie, it’s good to be back.”

“I’m glad you’re back too.” Dean said.

“How’s everything been going here?” Ryan asked.

Dean surveyed the village, “Slow.” A few houses had caught fire during the battle somehow, and the roof tiles laid out to dry at the pottery had been smashed. He hoped some of them could be saved, but it didn’t look promising. “The village is still level one and we’re only a fifth of the way to level two.”

Sarge grunted, “I thought I told you to get on that?”

“It’d help if goblins didn’t destroy everything.” Dean said.

“You’re blaming me for your incompetence?” Sarge responded.

Dean grinned at the banter. “If you think you can do better.”

“No,” Sarge replied quickly, “Dictator is not on my to do list in this game.”

“I’m not a di-“ Dean caught himself before he finished the sentence. He shook his head and said, “Damn, tenets. If I finish that sentence, there’s a chance we’ll have elections next week.”

“Really? Didn’t you say something like that could happen?” Sarge looked at Ryan as he said it.

“Yeah, I did.” Ryan replied, “How many have you created so far?”

“Three.” Dean said, “Thankfully, only one I don’t agree with so far, but I’m having to watch my words a lot more carefully now. Anyway, what did you find out there?” Marie pulled a piece of paper out of her inventory and handed it to him. She’d drawn a rough map on it, outlining the valley and the area near the goblin camp “Where’d you get the paper?”

“The goblins were kind enough to give me some.” She said.

“They have paper?” Dean stared at it in shock. He’d been thinking of the various species as monsters, but if they could create paper, then maybe they were intelligent. If that were true, he might be able to reason with them. He mentioned it to the others to see their reaction.

“Maybe,” Marie answered, “But I doubt it. The goblins looked like they have a pretty basic society. From what I could tell, the only rule of law was that bigger goblins can take whatever they want from the weaker ones.”

“Oh,” Dean said. So much for an alliance against the orcs, he thought. He studied the map to hide his disappointment. Marie had drawn in a few points of interest including two more mines, copper and orichalcum, a limestone quarry, and a few springs. “Hey, it looks like we could unlock the limestone quarry.”

“Limestone?” A voice asked. Dean turned to see Danny kneeling over a goblin in the process of looting it. Danny wiped his hands on his pants as he stood and said, “We might be able to make concrete then.”

“How?” Dean asked in surprise.

“It’s basic chemistry. You just heat up the limestone and combine it with a few other ingredients. The only thing I’m not sure we have here is gypsum.” Danny glanced around the valley, a small grin forming on his face, “But this place could’ve been a sea a long time ago, and that’s where gypsum naturally occurs.”

“Except this is a game.” Sarge pointed out, “Not the real world.”

“Oh, right.” Danny said, crestfallen. After a second, he perked up, saying, “Still, if we mix it with water and sand we’ll still have something that dries pretty hard.”

Dean gave Sarge a hard look to keep him quiet as he spoke to the kid. “Do you know what gypsum looks like?” The kid shook his head. “Ask around and see if any of the players do. We might get lucky and have a geologist around. Either way, we should give it a go and see what happens. Cement would be a great building material to have around.”

“Concrete.” The kid said. Seeing the others confused looks, he explained, “It’s called concrete, not cement. Cement is the limestone mixture. Concrete is what it becomes when mixed with the other stuff.”

“Ah,” Dean said, “Alright, Danny, I’m putting you in charge of the experiment since you seem to know more about it than anyone else around here. Let me know what you need and I’ll do my best to get it to you. Think you can handle it?” Dean bit his cheek to keep from laughing as Danny’s face lit up. Danny nodded enthusiastically before running off. Once the kid was out of earshot, he turned to Ryan. “You should try talking to him. He’s just a kid and his friends died clearing out the mine earlier, so he’s alone in the village.”

Ryan nodded and followed after the kid. Sarge said, “That’s just messed up. And what about the mine? You didn’t go in there with them, did you?”

“No, I didn’t.” Dean said, “I told his friends to only clear the first level, but they kept going deeper and encountered monsters that killed the rest them. He was the only one that survived.” Dean shrugged self-consciously as he admitted, “But I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth so we’re now mining whatever they cleared out. Marie, could you ask around and see if there’s any other kids under eighteen in the village? Let Ryan know if you find any and he’ll make sure they’re doing okay.”

Marie said, “For sure, I’ll take care of it.”

“Think the kid will succeed at making concrete?” Sarge asked as Marie walked away.

“No idea,” Dean said, “But I figure it won’t hurt to try. Besides, if he does succeed, we can smother some on any wooden walls to make them a bit stronger. And on that note, I’m thinking we should head out to the pass tomorrow and start planning our defenses. We can’t build walls in the village yet, but maybe we can dig a few holes for traps or something.”

“Sounds good.” Sarge said, “But right now, I want dinner and a beer before bed.”

Dean laughed, “I’d be surprised if there was any alcohol in the camp.”

Sarge grinned, “Oh, there is. How did my wife put it? The goblins were kind enough to give me some?”