NATHANIEL

Watching a herd of peculiar looking sheep for the last two days has been rather slow and monotonous. It was boring, annoying, frustrating and suffocating. Especially when you consider the fact that sheep were not smart enough to form coherent thoughts and sentences.

One of his skills was a passive that enabled him to understand animal speech to a certain degree. He was still trying to work the whole thing out, talking to sheep did not do wonders for his sanity.

With nothing left to do Nathaniel decided to take a look at his skills again. It was not as if doing such would bring him any pleasure, but desperate times calls for desperate measures.

[NATURE GUARD: LEVEL 1: PASSIVE(CLASS): INCREASE ALL SKILLS AND STATS EFFECTIVENESS BY 2% WHENEVER YOU’RE IN THE WILD. -5% TO ALL STATS AND SKILLS IN POLLUTED AND ADVANCED ENVIRONMENTS LIKE CITIES AND FACTORIES.]

[BEAST TONGUE: LEVEL 1: PASSIVE(CLASS/SPECIAL): GAIN THE ABILITY TO SPEAK AND UNDERSTAND THE TONGUES OF ANIMALS AND BEASTS. +10% AFFINITY WITH ALL CREATURES OF THE WILD, - 5% AGGRO DURING BATTLES AGAINST ANIMALS AND BEAST LIKE CREATURES.]

[ELEMENTAL RESISTANCE: LEVEL 1: PASSIVE( CLASS/SPECIAL):

+ 1% ALL ROUND ELEMENTAL RESISTANCE TO ALL ELEMENTS. -1% FROM ALL ELEMENTAL DAMAGE RECEIVED. +1% RESISTANCE TO ALL ELEMENTAL CAUSED STATUS AILMENTS.]

[RAIN DANCE: LEVEL 1: ACTIVE(CLASS): CALL UPON THE FORCES OF NATURE TO BLESS THE LAND AND WEAKEN YOUR ENEMIES IN THE FORM OF RAIN. +5 TO ALL STATS FOR 30 SECONDS, -5% TO ALL ENEMY STATS FOR 15 SECONDS, +10% EFFECTIVENESS AND ADVANTAGE TO TERRAIN, IN A RADIUS OF TWENTY SQUARE METERS.]

[VINE HOLD: LEVEL 1: ACTIVE (CLASS): ENTANGLE ALL ENEMY WITHIN A RADIUS OF THREE METERS FOR 15 SECONDS, 3% CHANCE TO CAUSE PARALYSIS FOR 10 SECONDS.]

[SHOCK: LEVEL 1: ACTIVE(CLASS/SPECIAL/GENERAL) : DRAW THE ELECTRICITY IN THE AIR TO CAUSE 20% LIGHTENING DAMAGE TO ALL ENEMIES. YOU MUST BE IN DIRECT CONTACT WITH THE ENEMY.]

Even though shepherding was a rather dull task, Nathaniel had used the time on his hands to think and plan ahead. At the end of every work day, his supervisor handed him ten vans, which was the currency of Zion. But the vans was the smallest denominator of money, with the highest being the silver beans. The currency was actually just coins, as paper mills were just coming Into existence, the very idea of using paper money has not even occurred to most people yet.

Anyway one hundred vans, is equal to one silver beans, but with ten copper vans at the end of the day, it would take him ten days to get a silver beans. However their period of grace was slowly coming to an end, in another three days the castle would stop feeding them, and they would all have to fend for themselves from the wages made from working.

Having a single meal in Orun would not cost less than fifty to seventy copper vans, it was to much expenditure for a single meal, not to mention that they still did not have a roof over their heads. With how realistic Zion has seemed so far, it was only a matter of time before they fell sick, or were torn to pieces by the animals that patrolled the forest just at the edge of the horizon. Nathaniel needed an alternative avenue to generate revenue, but so far it seems like the only person willing to give out quests with any monetary reward was his supervisor. And even then it was a repeat quest he had been receiving for the past three days, and all it asked him to do was look after a herd of sheep till the end of the day when he would now be paid the ten copper vans.

Of course they could all pool their resources together as a family and see what they could accomplish, but his family could not be expected to follow routine. Even for something as simple as pooling their wages to help them survive easier, would probably land them in an unpredictable situation that would see someone hurt and trusts broken for the umpteenth time.

Nathaniel would rather much prefer to be smart about this, and make a few of his plans under the radar, but regardless there were somethings you just couldn’t do alone.

“Delicious…..poop”

“sun down……..barn”

“Shepherd…….safe…….female…..need.”

Nathaniel fought back the urge to vomit, for God sake why would he be mentioned in the same thought sequence and sentence of a horny sheep. He was supposed to be a druid, but he was finding, that he really lacked the patience to understand animals. He was never like this before, but this recent development would be most likely attributed to the fact that the animals around him could not string a coherent sentence, or his beast tongue skill was not high enough for him to understand. Nathaniel let out a sigh of frustration due to his situation, but what will be, will be. Besides there was no use sitting on grass and moaning about how dull his life currently was, also it was almost sun down, which meant it was time to herd all this fucking sheep home.

But regardless of how much he hated the job, Nathaniel was rather efficient with it. He was able to stably guide all of the ten sheep back to the castle safely and without any incidents. He collected his wages from his supervisor and headed for the west of the town back to where their plots of land was haphazardly allocated to them. But on his way back he saw the last person he wanted to see, or more like the person who he has been praying not to see for fear of how he would react.

Jerry Olagoke looked like he was having a blast, his black hair and red eyes seemed to match well with his brown skin that was a shade lighter than Nathaniel's. Nathaniel felt the urge to spit, because it seemed the sign of the good life jerry and his family lived had followed them into Zion. He looked just as handsome and charismatic as the last time Nathaniel saw him, which was in an alley in downtown Abuja getting his face punched in after he confronted the bastard for sleeping with his sister. That conversation did not end well, but that was a story for later date.

Jerry had a presence about him, and even the massive broad sword hanging on his back seemed to exude an aura that made Jerry seem unnatural or otherworldly.

“Nathan my old friend, how have you been adjusting to Zion. I hope it has not been to difficult?” Jerry asked with a mocking tilt at the edge of his mouth.

Nathaniel wanted to shoved his hand down his throat and pull out everything that was hiding within his gut. But jerry was probably ten times stronger than him, and it would not be too much of a problem for him to slice Nathaniel in half with that sword behind him. He was not stupid, he knew that jerry was only trying to bait him into reacting to his taunts, as they both knew such a course of action would most definitely not end well for Nathaniel.

“My name is Nathaniel not Nathan, and thank you for your concern, I’m adjusting just fine.” Nathaniel replied in a level voice that took all of his willpower to maintain.

“Are you sure? I know there’s no such thing like drugs in Zion so I was wondering how you were holding up now that you were not getting your regular fix. Or are you clean now.” Jerry spoke with a tone of consideration that was as fake as they come. It was infuriating to say the least, but Nathaniel was able to keep his cool.

“Thank you for your concern ‘Jerry’, but I’m fine. Now if you would excuse me I need to go help my mother with something. Good night.”

“well no problem old friend carry on. But know this, if you need anything, anything at all come to me and I will help you. After all who knows we might even become in-laws in the future, so I have to look out for my brother in-law you know. After all your sister and I seem to have rekindled our spark from the outside world here in Zion, and it is hotter and brighter than ever.”

Nathaniel felt betrayal slam into his face for the one thousand and one time in his life. You would think that at this point he would be used to it, but it hurt like a bitch every time. He hated this guy, and he had suffered a lot at the hands of this monster and his family. But Esther did not seem to care about his feelings considering she had already jumped back into bed with the enemy.

Nathaniel walked away with a body that was shaking and on the verge of lashing out. Accompanying him was sense of failure and the mocking laugh of Jerry constantly resounding in his head. He was upset, and it was times like this he always went back to drugs, but as Jerry said there was no drugs in Zion………wait a minute. There was no drugs in Zion, which meant should there be drugs, there was a monopoly up for grabs. And there was only one person who could help him make this seed of an idea in his head grow into something more.

Regardless of where you went, drugs were always big money, and in a town as rundown and depressed as Orun Nathaniel stood to make a lot of profit. But of course he could not make drugs, he did not have the tools, but all drugs come from a variety of plants and herbs. And he knew someone who had access to something like that.

NATHANIEL

Dinner was a little different tonight than the previous three nights that their family have been forced to spend outside under the mercy of nature and the night she loved. Nathaniel however did not care to much about nature at the moment, instead he loved how softly the juicy meat in his mouth slowly melted away like a slice of heaven. Animals here had the same name as the those on earth with a little variation added to their names and appearances, they would become an entirely new breed or species. But that was not to surprising since its been that way with games for hundreds of years.

However the taste of the red mane rabbit was so good, Nathaniel thought he was eating from a five star restaurant. And with each bite he took, he loved the look of envy on the face of the other families as he swallowed noisily. It was at times like this he really loved his father, he was an abusive screw up of a man, but he really believed in providing for his family.

His father was a hunter, and somehow this class was classified as a lifestyle class rather than a battle class. But he was not one to judge considering the class seemed to be bringing out result. His father was already level three, and really close to level four. This development showed that Zion was still a little bit like traditional RPG games in the sense that you still needed to kill monsters to level up.

It was quite unfortunate, but for now, Nathaniel did not really have the chance to go out on a hunting expedition. Besides he had other plans in the works that he needed to bring into fruition.

“I need to talk to you guys.” Nathaniel spoke up.

He immediately got their attention, even though he did not speak loudly. But maybe that was why they readily paid attention, because he chose to whisper to them as if they were a group of criminals huddled around a campfire, with juicy slices of meat roasting over it.

But that was exactly what this scenario looked like, but who cares, it kind of set the mood for what he was about to say.

“Living in Zion won’t be easy, and with each passing day our living expenses will increase, and the wage we receive from our respective tasks and jobs at the end of the day, will barely be enough for us to get by. We need an alternative way of making money.”

“While that sounds like a great idea brother, one of the clauses in our contract states that we can’t have any businesses. So I don’t see how you can circumvent that.” Faith spoke up with a bland tone. But as soon as she was done Nathaniel was staring at her with such Intensity and a rather creepy smile on his face that she felt unsettled.

“Well little sister, you’re completely right about that. But I have come to realize something, the system would not police or monitor us into keeping to our part in the contract. Of course we can’t do things like go above level ten, or get a sub class. But those are aspects that all have to do with a personal and inward case, it’s like earth when you don’t want a male dog to look or fuck other female dogs too much, so he gets fixed, castrated. But even if he gets castrated that does not stop him from rubbing and playing with other female dogs. The owner won’t be bothered because he or she thinks the only thing that can be a problem has been taken care off.

We can’t own any businesses, well not officially anyway. But there’s always a loophole, especially in a game as realistic as Zion. We can have a business, or something that looks like a business, as long as the people on the other end of the contract does not find out. Because its only cheating when someone see’s you cheating.”

Nathaniel was sure he had given his family quite a lot to think about, he could see the gears turning around in their heads. Nathaniel hid a little smirk of satisfaction as he watched them. Their flaws aside, this group of people in front of him might actually be the single most resourceful group of people on earth and Zion. If they put their minds to it, there was practically nothing they couldn’t do. They were “Generals of possibilities” they always got the job done as long as they put their minds to it.

Then his father asked him, with a voice so deep it seemed to rumble across the night like thunder.

“Then what sort of business do you have in mind. Because to be quite honest son, Orun is still a poor town that is slowly being developed, there isn’t a lot of what you would call prospective businesses lying around, especially one that goes under the radar and I’m sure will definitely be illegal.”

Nathaniel dramatically drew closer to the fire and looked at all of them with a rather sharp look in his eyes. Then he slowly whispered.

“Drugs.”

His parents and sisters all had varying reactions, which ranged from surprise, to disgust, to disappointment and confusion. But before the whole thing could be blown all out of proportion Nathaniel decided to strike when the iron was still hot.

“Faith I believe there are herbs with hallucinogenic and mind numbing effects. Even herbs that could be considered pain killers, or others with energy boosting properties.”

“Of course there are herbs like that, but what does that have to do with….ooooohh. Now I get what you mean!”

Now the remaining three members of the family were looking at the other two as if they were a pair of idiots. But after a round of explanation, mostly on Faith’s part, they were able to convince his parents and Esther about the effectiveness of their plan. Now they just needed to work out the details.

“I know it seems like a rather risky maneuver, but if Faith can come through, we will have this whole town eating out of the palm of our hands in at least two months.” Nathaniel explained trying to assuage his fathers doubt about the whole drug business.

“But the question remains is if Faith would be able to come through with the drugs. We all have supervisors, and I don’t think a batch of herbs missing constantly from the castle will not raise alarms.” Their mother complained with rare expression of worry.

To be honest it was quite surprising to Nathaniel how worried their mother was about this whole thing. She was the parent who never cared about what her kids were doing and let them do whatever they wanted. Their father was the one who showed more attention to their wellbeing, when he was not beating the crap out of them for one mistake or another.

“There is a way I can get access and even convince my class trainer to let me shift a few herbs now and then. But I need three weeks, and I also need to get to level 10 and raise the level of some of my skills. There’s going to be a moon herbalist ritual of sorts in two weeks, I get a sort of special weapon, a few skills and a bag of sorts. But the conditions to qualify for that ritual is a little to hard for me to reach in time.” Faith said.

But what she just said, got the ball rolling, and soon enough Nathaniel discovered that every single one of them except their father had gotten a quest related to the great moon that was rising in less than twenty days.

“Wait so the both of you are not allowed to kill anybody or have sex? Ha-ha that’s so messed up, especially for you Esther we all know how addicted to sex you are, almost as much as Nathaniel and his drugs if not more.” Faith taunted.

“Seriously?” Esther asked with a furious look on her face. The only reply she got from Faith was a shrug of her shoulders and a mocking grin.

“I have an idea about how to take care of the level requirements for all our quests.” Esther suddenly spoke up. Nathaniel turned to her, keeping his focus on her words.

“Its not exactly necessary for us to report to work for another three days, let take a break and go hunting with dad. Of course I know its dangerous, but apart from a main damage dealer, both Nathaniel and Dad with my help can coast through this as long as we don’t encounter to many monsters. Nathaniel has skills that could be considered crowd control, and debuffs for any monster, Dad is the only one who can deal damage because of his bow, though Nathaniel’s electric attack could be counted on for close quarters combat. And if any of you get injured I can heal you all no problem. All Faith has to do is stand there and look pretty while we level her up. Simple.”

Nathaniel couldn’t really call her plan into question, because it was the only one they had now, and it actually was not that bad. Though no body said anything else, it seemed they were all in agreement, at least for now. They all moved around to get into position for the night, each of them heavy with different thoughts in their mind, but excited enough for a way to take control of their own destiny.