“Alright men, it’s time to make this place grand! Here is how things will be run under my order. Lincoln and Hibe will act as officers of the land and are considered supervisors. I will be the head of this operation and you will be it’s people!” I said.

The men listened with intent ears, they were extremely devoted to my cause. What better way to build an empire than with the slaves who have worked since the day they were born am I right? “The first order of business is to chop down this thick wooded forest within this acre of land and establish a central building for all matters. This will be a temporary shelter for everyone and serve as the command center. Now get to work men! Lincoln will stay here with you and supervise while Hibe and I go scout the surrounding area.” I said.

The men immediately used what tools they had, and weapons to start working on making hatchets or went straight to cutting into the bark of the trees. The men were inspired by me and worked double speed. I wouldn’t be surprised at how much production they got done by the time we were back from our journey.

Hibe saddled one of the five horses we had taken, and got a feel for it after I showed him how to use the damn thing. He wasn’t always a fast learner, but he was still pretty sensible.

“Our first order of business is to gather a large sum of food and survey the area around our land. We need to expand as soon as possible, but we have more manpower than actual resources. This is quite the crisis Hibe.” I looked toward my life-long friend.

His short and stout figure glared back at me, “You’re correct Sir Tylor. I think we ought to go into town and buy some food until we can become self-sufficient. I borrowed a subtle amount of gear from the knights in the arena.” He smiled, Hibe had a large sack straddled across his back.

“Do not feel as if you have to call me Sir now. I’m your friend, and your equal. Although I’d prefer not to be equals in rank. I hope you understand. What is in that sack of yours? I want to know about how much money we are sitting at.” I said.

“Oh dear friend! You’re so generous to me. In the sack of course! Of course!” He wiped a tear. “There is knight armor and weaponry in the sack, a lot of it is premium equipment. I think we should be able to get plenty of meat with this!” He laughed as the horses stomped out into the open grasslands from the tree line.

“We won’t be spending it on meats. We must buy plenty of crops to grow before spring passes. If we don’t, this will be a hard summer! The winter even worse!” I sighed, and then began expressionless.

A magnificent fortress, a castle beyond words. A castle town with a moat and acid towers. The damn thing was a literal safe! It was the Kingdom of Luthric’s main city where the king resided. Why did I know this? Maybe it had something to do with this strange status thing. The game menu!

There was no way we would ever be able to storm that castle at this stage. It was relatively nearby, so our base of operations would have to stay relatively small for now.

After scouting all around, there were a few points of interest. On the other side of the swamp was a wooden fortress being constructed by the Baron’s men, and some distance away from that was the actual Baron’s castle. Apparently he needed two in the event of an emergency?

It was also known that Baron Roghan was the staple figure in the kingdom right now. Favored by the King of Luthric, he was in the limelight for promotion to Viscount. It wouldn’t surprise me.

“Let’s head into town and sell all of these armor sets my friend.” I wagered to Hibe. I had been mindlessly thinking along the gravel path. The horses had just been going at a leisurely pace. They were valuable. The horses were very valuable to me.

We would really need to build a horse stable soon, but for now the wooden post and some hand crafted fiber rope would have to do. We marched into the busy town, bustling with activity and laughter. Children were playing in the streets. The suburban region of the city was massive, and the castle walls had an inner wall as well with a separate moat.

“Tylor, let us scrounge the market for crops and sell these items.” Hibe said.

“Right.” I managed, looking up at the massive castle. I was in awe, after all I was a history nerd, and being able to see medieval infrastructure in its prime in any form was absolutely astounding. Peter get ahold of yourself! Peter!

We parked our horses at a nearby station and then walked through the markets with our sum of armor and weapons. After finding the vendor who was buying armor and weapons we smiled toward the bearded man. He was in his mid-thirties and had muscles arms.

“What ya’ need?” He said in a bumpkin accent.

“We’re here to sell you these fine suits of armor and weapons. We were wondering how much you’d sell them for.” Hibe said, speaking up and laying the sack of weapons on the counter.

The man inspected each piece of weaponry. It had been cleaned off in the water by Hibe previously. “Hmmm.” The vendor muttered while rubbing his chin. It was a lengthy process to the sheer amount of stuff we had to sell.

“I can buy it all from you for a good price I think. Let me grab my gold and I’ll see what I can give you for them.” He ducked under the stand and grabbed about a small sack of gold. “This is twelve gold pieces. Deal or no deal?” He smiled.

“Question. What is the price for a single cob of corn and a single potato?” I asked, hoping he didn’t think I was an idiot. “We are travellers, I do not know the prices of this town very well.”

He nodded, “The price of a cob of corn and a potato are both about ten pieces of copper, or ten a silver piece.” He said.

My heart stopped. Eureka! That’s twelve-thousand corn cobs! Enough to feed a damn army. “We’ll ta-” Hibe cut me off. “We won’t take any less than twenty gold pieces for this. This is exquisite armor and weaponry! You could triple your profit with twenty gold pieces easily. Twenty or nothing.” Hibe bargained.

Hibe had always been like this. To make up for his lack of physical prowess, he definitely was a great steward. The vendor bit his tongue. “Tcch. Deal, you got me there. Twenty gold pieces it is.” He grabbed out eight more gold pieces from his stash and put them in the bag and handed them to me.

“Thank you for the business.” I smiled.

“So, about the purchase of all this food Hibe. Do you wager we should buy a wagon?” I walked down the streets toward where I saw they were selling wagons.

“I think that’s advisable. We need a lot of food for the forty men working hard back home. If the Baron finds out we’re building our own fortress in the woods, he’ll definitely attack us.” Hibe said.

“Yeah, I agree.” We bought a rugged wagon for one gold piece and a bunch of sacks of potatoes for six gold pieces. We then bought enough corn worth the value of seven gold pieces, bringing us down to six gold pieces. Then we bought the front piece to connect with horses to make a sort of carriage. We were left with five gold pieces at the end of the day.

The sun had rose one more time by we had saddled up and headed back to the swamp where the single acre of land I owned was being worked on. I was eager to see how much had been done back home.

Forty men cutting at full speed for an entire night and morning, I’m sure they were tired. We arrived, and sped past the tree line deeper into the forest where our home was.

I was a realist though, I didn’t expect them to have built anything in that amount of time. It normally takes six months back on Earth, so I would be grateful if they’d finished cutting at best.

I was surprised that the men were still working when I got back. They had cleared out an area to work with and lounge around. Some men were still pulling out stumps while others rested.

The others were working on building a slanted shelter to rest under and away from the weather. It was simply humid, I could tell the men were tired and needed rest.

“Men, for your hard work I have brought you corn to eat and replenish your strength. I will see to it that you are well rested! Second, every man can have three cobs a day, but ten sacks have been designated for farm work, so be careful about your rations. I also have potatoes that need to be planted soon before they rot. I want twenty of you working on that and twenty of you working here on the main site. Understood?” I commanded.

“Yes sir!” They said in unison, and lined up for their daily three cobs of corn. The sun was now setting again and the men finished up the building in time to get some rest under it. Not all of them could fit, so others had built personal huts for the time being and some just rested on some leaves. The slaves felt free for the first time in their lives. This was paradise for them, and the conditions they were completely use to.

I was shocked when I saw a wooden hut constructed out of poles, twigs, vines, and leaves constructed for me. It was for the three officers?! I had been impressed with the work ethic of the men, but the fact they put aside time to build somewhere to sleep for me, Hibe, and Lincoln was beyond belief. I was astounded.

Biting into the corn, I realized it wasn’t the tastiest thing in the world, and Earth was full of rich flavor. I would definitely have to turn some of these men into chefs because this was just too disgusting for me! I was a scholar, not a peasant. Well..I kind of was.

After tying the horses around their polls and feeding them some food, I walked into my nicely constructed house. Although it was temporary, I felt safe in here. It even had a detachable twig and fiber door that was great for privacy sake. My men were strong and fast workers it seemed!

Still wide awake and needing to calm down from my nerdy-scholar personality, I whispered status.

Status:

Character: Tylor Justifix

Title: Nameless ( 10 Fame )

Rank: Citizen of Luthric

Level: 0

Strength: 1

Vitality: 0

Agility: 0

Dexterity: 0

Intelligence: 0

Wisdom: 0

Luck: -1

Skills: ‘Being an Asshole’

I calmly asserted the situation, I wasn’t presently worried about anything on here besides my level. I was curious as to know what qualifies as experience and as an additive to my level. As of now, I hadn’t leveled up after all I had done.

It just didn’t add up to me. “Wouldn’t it be better if I had a game manual or a quest line?” I muttered in defeat.

Suddenly a menu popped up and scared the living shits out of me. I almost squealed and woke up the crowd with that one.

Quests: “Tylor Justifix”

-Become a Lord of the Land. EXP 300,000

-Defeat Baron Roghan. EXP 500,000

-Become King of Luthric. EXP 1,000,000

What the fuck were these quest lines?! The experience was incredibly high to give out, but the difficulty of the quests were nearly damn impossible for years! Whoever designed this system was a total asshole.