After breakfast and yet another speech through which I announced how yesterday’s construction plan didn’t go as planned because we’re understaffed, I pointed out how everyone would keep doing their own thing, while myself and the dungeon-diving unit will focus on the hard labor of helping construct the Granary and the Warehouse for today.

Obviously, after breakfast we still followed the training regimen set up, ran for about two hours and then returned to the camp where Mia was waiting with instructions for the new buildings.

[For the Granary we need 500 wood units and for the Warehouse the same, but with an extra amount of stone required. The same 250 trees will be needed to be split up and used for the two buildings; however, it will be slightly more complicated for the Warehouse. The 100 stone units required to create the floor of the building as well as its foundation, so we will need to first complete Granary and then fully focus on the Warehouse.](Mia)

[What about the building itself big sister? Can you show us that image from yesterday to give us an example?](A)

“That’s a really good idea. Mia, can you separate the building into a schematic that would give us a blueprint of the building?”

[Acknowledged!](Mia)

With the blueprint available, we began the construction. First off, we needed to build the walls and for that, the 125 trees were separated into 25 pieces for each wall and another 25 to create pillars and rooms inside. Overall, there was a big ass granary… that much was for sure.

With that out of the way, we left everything else to the World Tree, looking forward to how the building would evolve. I quickly instructed everyone to take a break and munch on their rations and then began the work on the Warehouse. The only thing different than the Granary was the fact that we used the pickaxes and hammers to mince the stone and create the floor, but even that was simpler than actually building something from scratch.

If there was something everyone was content with, was the gain of attribute points through hard labor, so we ended the day by running laps before sunset and enjoying the show the World Tree created once more with the completion of the two buildings. As for how to describe the buildings… the process looked the same and branches interwoven with one another created both the walls and the roof, but the feature that ‘stole the show’ was certainly the floor of the Warehouse which looked like it was actually cemented. As for how the fuck this happened, Mia explained that it was a process of mana injection into the combination of earth, wood, stone and other minerals from the soil, creating the mixture in front of our eyes.

As soon as the buildings were completed, stored food was promptly carried inside the Granary and separated on different spaces. There were a couple of huge rooms where meat could be placed on wooden hooks hanging from the ceiling, while the potatoes, other vegetables, fruits, etc. , were placed on the bigger room where the floor was made out of a thin sheet of wood.

For the Warehouse, we separated it into three parts: the armory where the weapons will be stored, the tools room where all the tools our civilization can use will be stored and the materials room where wood and stone could be stored as well. To my utmost surprise, at the point where the wood was placed there for storing, the mana inside the room actually became visible for a second as fog covered the pile and decreased the size of the huge logs to a mere quarter of their previous size. The even stranger thing was that the weight was also less as soon as I tried to move one of them and I managed with ease.

“So it’s not an illusion but the actual thing. Just what sort of options did the World Tree add to the building?”

After some experimentation, we found out that once we took the log outside, after five minutes in the air, it would revert to its normal size before the World Tree played with it.

Dinner was also served and after a good night sleep morning was again upon us.

“It’s so strange how the days pass so fast and I don’t even seem to notice it.” – I thought as I washed my face and the sleepiness with it

Ten days have passed from when the Manual Mode override was engaged and I can’t really complain about it. Reaper had the right idea when creating this option for the enjoyment of the players.

Turning my head and seeing the two girls dressed in furs and washing the clothes which are over-worn at this point, I began thinking about how could I create some proper fabrics for them.

“I could try and find some silk-worms… maybe also some…”

Before any other idea could come to mind, I blinked once and found myself in an all-too-familiar room. I was sitting on a comfortable sofa with a coffee table in front of my eyes, as well as a teacup releasing a pleasantly smelling vapor, hinting at its high temperature.

I sighed, grabbed the teacup and sipped from it, placed it back on table while resisting the urge to hurl it at the face of the guy standing across of me. He had a business smile plastered on his face, but didn’t take the opportunity to start a conversation, which I personally found intriguing.

“So? What’s the reason why I’m here this time?”

[You don’t seem surprised anymore… quite boring.](Reaper)

“It’s the third time already. It would be quite embarrassing to keep getting flustered over something this small every time.”

[Indeed. Now that you were able to interact with Aethernithas and even managed to create a brand new world, something like transfixing time and space might seem irrelevant to you.](Reaper)

“When you put it that way…”

[Haha! You are still a good sport I see. I’m glad…](Reaper)

“Why would you be?”

[I thought you will be angrier… more annoyed with me.](Reaper)

“Why? Just because you used me as a pawn in your little schemes while also hiding important things that might help me out? Or the fact that you probably didn’t even tell the other ‘players’ the real reason this game was started…”

[How do you know that?](Reaper)

It would be an understatement to say that my very soul trembled when the tone of his voice changed and dropped thousands of degrees lower, obviously close to wiping me out of existence. That might’ve been a landmine, however I need to clarify my standing in all this. I let him use me as a pawn, but like in my entire life back on earth, I will always bow my head because of respect, but never out of fear of subservience!

“I don’t... I just figured that there might be a silver line for all this. After all, I don’t see both you and Prometheus creating such a system only to preserve and gather power for all your Godly family. There might be a reason for it, something for which you felt pressed and went as far as to use the souls in the Void Chamber as well.”

[Hmm… you are smarter than I gave you credit for! However, there are things that are better left in the dark, unless you have sufficient power to withstand their weight.](Reaper)

“So I’m not strong enough to know the reason yet, is that it? Do I need to be of a higher level as far as my Job goes? Or should I increase the rank as divinity of Chaos?”

[Both!] –he calmly stated

“What’s the standard I should keep in mind as a goal?”

[Tier 3 in soul refinement and at least rank 3 as a deity. Though, by the time your reach that, you might already puzzle some things together.](Reaper)

“Is that the only reason you brought me here?”

[Mostly… In the beginning, I planned to wait out 100 years before alliances could be created and 500 years before I will open the auction house to the players. However, due to you picking the Manual Mode, the future ramifications involved changed drastically. My strength will soon be insufficient to protect everybody so I need them to get stronger faster! If there is one good thing about you and your manual mode, is the fact that it prompted all others into action due to their competitive natures. I should thank you for that and as reward, I’ll let you in on a little secret: at the end of the year, which for everyone will be in five months, the first auction will be held. As for the currency used… you might want to grab a couple of extra achievements.](Reaper)

“I will do what I can…”

[Also… Aethernithas… if you can…](Reaper)

“… I will do what I can.”

[Thank you! Anyway, off you go! You have much to do on your world if you do not want the monster army in the second continent flattening your pretty elves.](Reaper)

“Ugh… Really didn’t need that reminder from you. Anyway, you’re keeping an eye on me?”

[I am keeping an eye on everyone, so don’t flatter yourself.](Reaper)

“I see… anything else?”

[Nope! Buh-bye!](Reaper)

I blinked again and found myself back in the kitchen with Mia and Alexa washing their clothes still.

“Yeah… I should try and see if I can cultivate a silk-worms farm…”

The 10th day proceeded like usual, only that this time there were small changes to our people assignment. The woodcutting unit stopped working and retuned to help the land-reclamation unit as soon as the number of wood units in the Warehouse hit 6000 and I did the same thing once the stone closed in to 3000 units. Now I could have the stone gathering unit build the Town Hall, while I can take my dungeon divers and hunt a bit.

That night before dinner, I gathered everyone and held a night lecture happened once again. As for what the class is about…

“We’re going to talk about time. You have all seen the Sun go up in the morning and going down at night. How do we tell how much time has passed in between? Let us say that we have some important tasks we need to assign you all only a limited amount of time to handle. How long do you do them for? How do we split the day? How do we split a longer period of time? You all know when the Autumn and the Spring Festivals happen, but what day would that be?”

I kept talking more and more and began explaining what a second, minute, hour, day, week, month and year represented. They all listened eagerly and even asked questions from time to time. I explained to them the concept of how much of each unit creates a bigger one and then named the days and the months like they were named on Earth. Why? Because it was too much of a drag to think of new names and I was slightly afraid of what ideas they will have if I tell them to pick the names.

Progress made on the Calendar technology through research! 500 research points awarded! Calendar has been successfully researched! Current and future generations will have general knowledge of time! Congratulations! Through research your civilization managed to advance from the Stone Age to the Tool Age! Major Achievement – Two in a row!

The flurry of messages took everyone by surprise, but not because they could see them, but because they were able to see that! The finished Town Hall at the bottom of the World Tree was beginning its transformation and soon enough it became a simple double wooden door on the bark of the tree.

“Did the building failed?”

[I think it was actually integrated inside the World Tree…](Mia)

[Does that mean that we’ll be able to set foot inside it?](A)

“I guess so… let’s go take a look… Everyone! Myself, Mia and Alexandra will head inside and take a look first. If it’s safe, everyone else will also be able to.”

[[[Yes sir!]]]

It was quite funny that only the dungeon diving unit replied, but everyone else didn’t seem to have a problem with that either.

So, ignoring the curious looks of 199 elves, I ventured inside the World Tree using its newly acquired double doors. What happened next though, scared the shit out of me!

[Michael!!!](Alexa)

“I know… It’s the same type of film that is in each dungeon at its entrance. However, I sincerely doubt that we’ll find monsters in the World Tree. This is most likely a space pocket, meaning that there’s a different place than the outside. Let’s take a look around…”

The inside was a huge ceiling covered in wood (same as the floor, walls and pretty much everything else) and in the middle of the room which was between 20-25 meters from the middle to the walls and I didn’t even bother with the height, there was a really familiar object.

[Michael, that is a virtual projection as well as the interface…](Mia)

“Yeah… I see that…”

There was a virtual projection of the clearing with all its updates, including the new buildings. Trying to operate it, I was actually able to access the user interface and all the tabs in the menu. The only problem was that… I wasn’t the only one.

[Michael, what does Culture and Research mean? Moreover, why are there so many other things in here?](A)

I instantly looked at Mia for help, however she ignored my gaze (probably payback for before when I didn’t helped her with Alexandra’s question either), so I was left on my own.

“This is a system that allows us to see the entire camp, as well as our growth. The things we learned already, the things that we can learn in the future, things that will provide us help and the most important, the Faith. For the Chaos God this is the most important since if we can pray daily, it will strengthen his abilities and he will become able to help us even more in the future.”

[If that’s the case… we shouldn’t allow too many people in here. We should have everyone see it, however only the three of us, for now, should have access to it.](A)

[I agree!](Mia)

“That’s settled then. Let’s give everyone outside a tour, since the World Tree is of major importance to them.”

After each elf did their fair share of sightseeing, I took Alexa and Mia and entered the Town Hall once more. There were new buildings and Social Policies available… not to mention that research was strongly required.