(Joat’s POV)

…Come on, it’s been 5 minutes already…where are you Baila?

Hmm, been here 5 minutes and she hasn’t turned up. Do I call my date off or wait around?

I guess I can stay a couple more minutes checking with a couple of things, such as my character sheet:

NAME:JoatTITLE:The Social ButterflyClass:NoneRace:HobgoblinGender:MaleLevel:5Experience:55%

STATUS:Remaining Points (25)Health Points110/110HP Regen (Out of Combat)1/secAttack:47-47Defense:19Perception:50Brutality:20(+3)Vitality:10Empty:-Empty:-Empty:-Empty:-Empty:-Empty:-Empty:-Satiety:165/180(Almost Full)Unused Stats:Strength, Dexterity, Agility, Wisdom, Leadership[tr]

[tr]SKILLS/PROFICIENCIES:Active:

Stomp, Beginner [lvl2]

Suicide, Beginner [lvl2]

Monster Identification, Beginner [lvl5]

Sneak, Intermediate [lvl1]

Sprint, Beginner [lvl3]

Commanding Shout, Beginner [lvl2]

Headbutt, Beginner [lvl1]

Spitful Taunt, Beginner [lvl2]

Throw, Beginner [lvl1]

Cooking, Beginner [lvl1]

Bite, Intermediate [lvl1]

Herbalism, Beginner [lvl3]

Holding Back, Beginner [lvl1]Passive:

Jump, Beginner [lvl1]

Roll, Beginner [lvl1]

Swim, Beginner [lvl1]

Hearing, Beginner [lvl4]

Smell, Beginner [lvl2]

Night Vision, Master [lvlMax]

Hold Your Breath, Beginner [lvl1]Auras:

Mild Monster's Aura, Intermediate[lvl1]Crafting:

Leatherworking, Beginner [lvl1]Proficiencies:

Kick Mastery, Beginner [lvl4]

Unarmed Mastery, Beginner [lvl1]

Phew, level 5 with 55% to next level…that’s pretty damn good I must say.

Actually…I open my friends list and sorting them by level, I see I’m in the top 20 of the village.

No one has hit level 6 yes, but 23 people are level 5. Another 62 are level 4 and the remaining 15 are level 3.

Overall, not bad.

The character sheet at the bottom has changed a decent bit because there are now Crafting and Aura’s added as sub-titles. Odd, but I’m guessing that’s because they are distinctive from the other things.

Hmm, that’s done, now what?

Baila still hasn’t come, and I’m not going to Nathan’s without her, mostly because that’s our little

duet questline.

I spot a red slime, must be that one from way back, stumble out of the blacksmith looking haggard.

He stumbles off out of the village…

Ok?

Another person, Honey this time, stumbles out the door and runs out of the village

…

..

.

Something is happening and I’m not part of it!

I walk over to the blacksmith and pop my head inside

“YOU USELESS SCUM, YOU CALL YOURSELVES BLACKSMITHS? THIS PIECE OF SHIT IRON IS NOT A SWORD! LOOK!” *SNAP* “YOU JUST GAVE ME TRASH! NOW GET OUT THERE AND FIND MORE ORE TO MAKE ANOTHER WEAPON, PROPERLY THIS TIME. GO!”

...

..

.

Wow that was loud.

A small brown rat-beastman scurries away from the thunderous noise and almost rams into me as he exits the place.

The rest of the room continues clanging with renewed fear.

In the centre is the beastly human who is on the verge of 7ft. I don’t know how humans can be that big, but this guy is.

His dark brown hair curls down his shoulders and his rough beard gives him a bit of a wild look.

He looms over the small crowd of people working at the small furnaces making even me a little bit terrified of him.

Not to mention the fact that he’s got an extremely loud mouth, maybe he’s related to Jenna.

“YOU THERE, BY THE DOOR, WHAT ARE YOU DOING”

…

..

.

I look around me,

“Me?” I point to myself, hoping he doesn’t say yes

“YES” dammit “WHAT ARE YOU DOING AT THE DOOR?”

“JUST LOOKING IN SIR” I answer as quickly as possible adding the sir because I don’t want him to get angry

“I’M TRYING TO TEACH THESE USELESS ORPHANS HOW TO FORGE METAL, BUT ALL I’VE GOTTEN SO FAR IS CRAP, CRAP AND OH LOOK, MORE CRAP” he picks up a couple of broken swords as a demonstration.

“I SEE SIR…WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO MAKE BETTER THINGS SIR?…” Well what else do I say? I’m intrigued by the possibility of the skill, especially when I learnt that crafting skills give a hell of a lot of xp.

“YOU THINK YOU CAN DO BETTER?” He’s just asking a question but I feel as if he’s crushing me with the words

“NO SIR BUT I CAN TRY SIR”

“GOOD, YOU’RE NOT NAÏVE LIKE THE REST OF THEM” He chucks a rusty pick at me, to which I somehow miraculously catch.

ITEM:PickIs used to mine ores2-2 Damage

“NOW GO TO THE CAVE ON THE WEST SIDE AND MINE SOME IRON ORES, BRING ABOUT 10 AND I WILL GET YOU STARTED”

QUEST: MINE ORESYOU HAVE BEEN ASKED TO MINE ORES SO GO DO IT NOW!

COLLECT 10 IRON ORE FROM THE CAVE IN THE WEST AND THEN BRING THEM BACK TO THE BLACKSMITHREWARDS:

Eligible for blacksmithing training

“YES SIR”

I scramble out the door and run out the village…so that’s why those guys were like that…FOR A SKILL!

Cave to the west, cave to the west.

I sprint across the plains, killing a few bunnies on the way to let them out of their misery. Bursting through the forest I quickly find a dead body,

Ooh…a trail.

As I suspected; there is a trail of bodies. I follow them, noting that most of them have wounds from picks on them…

After a good 30 minutes of sprinting, I’m freaking tired, but I’ve also reached the mine.

Sadly, as I enter, I find it’s filled with about 60 people, all mining ores greedily and mass murdering the goblins that respawn.

Apparently there are goblins here.

Oh there’s…nevermind, It just got surrounded and killed by 8 people within 1 second of it being spawned…Wow.

Well I know having the ability to make your own weapons and mail armour is pretty good, but having over 60 people here and around 20 in the shop (I quickly counted), shows that pretty much the whole village is going for it…

That’s pretty insane.

“Come on brothers, faster, we must be faster”

Oh that’s a familiar voice

“Zzoid!”

I call out to Zzoid who is frantically mining a piece of ore with his 3 brothers.

At least everyone has the decency to allow people to mine the ore they are mining. I don’t see any PK’s yet.

“JOAT! YO. COME HELP NOW!” He turns and shouts at me. Well hello to you too

“OK” I rush over to them and start mining with them by swinging my pick at the slightly different coloured wall which I hope is iron…I guess I’m right?

“I’ve been locked in Jenna’s all day, what happened while I was gone?” I ask him as he adds me to the party and we mine.

“Wow, can’t believed you missed it…you’re way behind”

“Yeah, I figured that when I see pretty much the entire village doing this. Just tell me what’s the hype?”

“Well the hype is; that Jarken shouted on the square that he’s going to teach 30 people how to blacksmith, however it’s 20 for weapons and 10 for armor”

“Wow, that’s a lot of spaces”

“You’d think so, but whoever gets it has all the weapons and the armor”

“Did you forget the fact that I have leatherworking?”

“No, but only some people will go for leatherworking, a lot more will prefer weapons. Weapons are the main reason here. Hell I’m in it for the weapons!”

“I’m in it for both”

“Hah! That’s crazy, not to mention impossible, since he teaches them separately”

Well he doesn’t know about Baila being the 11th out of 10…I’m sure I can cook up something similar.

“Just watch and learn Zzoid”

“And I thought I was the one who knew everything”

“You do, just useless stuff”

“Hey”

“Less talking, more working you two!” Zzard growls at us as he mines fiercely

“Ok” We chime together

“By the way Zzoid, what do we have to do to win a position?”

“You have to make a normal quality weapon or armor”

“That doesn’t sound too bad”

“This is our fourth time in this cave, and we’ve been at this for a good 19 hours…It’s difficult” he gets a bit grumpy

“Ok, guess it is pretty difficult. By the way, have there been PK’s here?”

“There were 2 earlier, when it first started, about midday yesterday”

“Just get to the point; I don’t want to know that whole history please”

“Right, long story short, nobody liked it and thus we’ve all said no PK’s. However gets the mine, takes the mine”

“Right, so you all camp out in this area?”

“Pretty much, the ores will respawn every 4 hours so there’s a steady supply”

“A lot of ores in this cave?”

“Well a decent amount, about 20 iron veins pop up every 4 hours and in each vein you get from 3 to 5 ores”

“So it will take you around 3 veins to do?”

“Well 9 for us. But since we’re 3, we can spread out and catch around 2 veins at a time”

“Wait, you said you’ve done this 4 times already, so that’s over 120 ore?”

“Well there were only 10 of us at the start, but Jarken kept shouting out in the square...and soon everyone knew about it…well almost everyone”

“I was busy”

“Yeah yeah, so how’d the Leatherworking go, also can you stop smacking the ore, you’ve got to mine it”

“Oh, right, I don’t know how to”

“Teacher, I have finally surpassed you” Zzard says in utter glee

“Zzard…I’ll allow that this time only”

“Hehe. Ok, so you don’t hit the ore itself…you have to hit around it and chip the rock off. The ore will then be easily removed…like this”

Zzard chips the rock off and then pulls off the ore with an oddly non-scaly hand. Ah, so that’s how you do it.

Brilliant…now I know how to mine

“Thank you o’ mining master” I bow towards him

Zzard looks so highly of himself...Zzoid gives me a discerning look…I’m being serious here!

We quickly mine the ore and a grateful 4 pieces fall out.

Zzoid passes me one and that’s one less to get.

We quickly disperse along the walls. I think I forgot to answer his question…well whatever.

Nothing happens for a few minutes, except for a couple of people mining here and there.

Wait there’s a lot of people mining in a small cave over in the corner,

I sidle towards Zzoid

“Hey, why’s there a bunch of people mining over there?”

“Oh they’re trying to dig out a cave that some overzealous idiot dropped pretty early on”

“Ah, so there was more to the cave?”

“Yes, apparently it’s quite a lot more since Braxus and a good 20 people went through before the collapse. And about 18 of them are back”

“So Braxus and a few others are still in there?”

“Yep, they’ve been in there for a hell of a long time. I’m pretty impressed that they haven’t died yet”

“Stories from the others?”

“The goblins here are weak, but when they come in packs of 50…”

“I see…by the way, what level are they?”

“Level 3 I think…it’s hard to get a look at them since they’re killed so quickly”

“Kill!”

A goblin voice makes me turn round and I immediately use identify

NAME:Goblin [lvl3] (aggressive)Health:15/15Attack:3-3Defense:1No resistancesAttacks by surrounding with fellow goblins

Bites and punchesA goblin is a creature that often dwell in caves in masses

It died pretty much instantly…

Well I hope they open the cave soon because I’ll have a whale of a time killing these goblins.

“So when the cave falls, are we going to go on a raid?”

“I think so, According to DillyDally, the elf dude, he’s over there at the forefront of the digging” He points to a golden haired elf that is way too pretty for his own good…Also that hair is waay too long, almost down to his butt!

“Give me a minute, I need to talk to him, keep watching for veins without me”

Seeing as though there are 20 veins every 4 hours and a whole bunch of people here…I’m not going to get my 10 anytime soon. Best chance is to open more mine and explore for some more veins.

I walk up to DillyDally who is sweating deeply and looks way out of place swinging a pick when he should be plucking a harp or something

“DillyDally”

He stops mining and wipes some sweat off

“Who’s asking?” His voice is a lot deeper than I thought it would be.

“I am, Joat. I heard you’re digging through the wall”

“Sure am, been at it for 12 hours and we’ve only dug a decent bit…since we can only get around 6 people at a time digging. You looking to join the dig?”

“Well I’ve got nothing better to do for a while, so might as well get digging. But I want to talk about making a raid party”

“It’s unofficial since we can only have 4 people in a party, but we’ll work around that”

“Hmm, how about we make divisions? Make 2 divisions of 50 and that’d be us all good. Always need to have a chain of command”

“And you want to lead one of them?” He certainly doesn’t beat around the bush

“I’ll take one, you another. Braxus takes top dog since he’s lived for quite a while in there”

“Was already thinking of that, but there’s this competition for ores that will keep on going” He’s already thought most of this out…so he’s not just all hair

“Well make a rule that ores get shared evenly”

“Who’s that altruistic?” He’s got a point there

“How’d the PK’s stop?”

“…Good point there. That might work” Peer pressure is a powerful tool indeed.

“Better still, have the divisions switch out; 1 resting, 1 fighting”

“You’ve thought quite a bit about this” He looks mildly impressed, seems as though he’s thought similar

“A bit. So how about it?”

“Sounds good, but why would I make you a division leader?” He gives a devious grin...oh he's trying to take it away from me?

“We’ll let the crowd decide shall we?” I give him a devious grin before I walk away and back to Zzoid

“Zzoid, I’ve gotten us a spot in the raid division”

“Great! But isn’t everyone going to do it?”

“Yes, but I’m going to be a division leader, and I need a right hand man” I give him a wink

“Ah…sure, I’ll play ball, as long as my Loli is in the division”

“She will be don’t worry”

“Then I’m in wholeheartedly, and I’ll drag my brothers in for good measure” He grins.

“Great. Now tell me, how much longer do you think they’ll take to dig out the wall?”

“Should take another 2 hours?”

Ok, so I’ve got 2 hours to convince people to make me a division leader, and if Braxus isn’t here then maybe even raid leader…I like this already.

I open up my friends list and hear DillyDally swear for some reason.

Hey Braxus, heard you’re stuck deep in goblin territory, how’s it going?

Joat…oh, hobgoblin guy! I died a minute ago. 3 hours and a raid group will be ready. You joining?

He sounds quite angry, well more vengeful really.

Will be, and I’m sure you heard the situation from DillyDally

Yes…if people want you they can have you.

Cheers. See you in 3 hours

Damn, guess I’m not raid leader this time.

Well back to becoming division leader.

I send a message to the entire friends list

To everyone who reads this message: In around 3 hours time, there will be a raid party forming to explore the caves west of the village. Raid leader will be Braxus and Division leaders will be me and DillyDally.

To those who don’t know who DillyDally is, he’s got very long golden hair and he’s an elf, pretty self explanatory.

Braxus is the big red minotaur

I, Joat, am a hobgoblin with grey wolf armor.

The division leaders will each take care of around 50 people; DillyDally will lead those who began this game by hunting while I will lead those who started this game exploring the village…you know who you are.

The divisions will then be split into 4 groups of 12 (so 3 parties in a group). Each group will be led by a Team leader, which Division leaders will choose.

This is so that we’ve got a chain of command and to minimize deaths.

1 rule:

1. All ores will be stored with team leaders and shared at the end of the raid, regardless of participation or death

If you have a complaint, then don’t hesitate to message me and it will be fixed.

Phew that was a long message.

Ok so that should give me my position as Division leader, since I took the initiative to ‘officialy’ make the raid group. So if DillyDally or Braxus try to do something funny...there's going to be a divide between the players...heh

And also, since I’m wearing some badass armor, I’m getting looks of respect and envy from a lot of people.

I didn’t actually notice before; almost everyone in this room has given me many glances…even my brothers have looked me over a couple of times.

Well I do look flashy if I must say so myself…hehe

I am the only person wearing something other than beginner clothes here…

“So do you think I look the part of division leader?” I whisper to Zzoid who is beside me, busy reading my message.

He glances at me

“Yep, hell, I think you’ve got the look of raid leader with your clothes”

“Hehe, don’t say dangerous things. Don’t want to be gored by a nasty ass big red Minotaur or his buddies” I point towards DillyDally who is huffing slightly at my message.

“Good point. So any prep work?”

“You like my clothes? Want some of your own?”

“Really?” Ha, he didn’t see that coming

“Really, and I think that I might be able to get most of the raid group clothed…but I’ll need a day to make enough for everyone” I raise my voice enough for many to stop working and listen in.

Silence

…

..

.

“You’ll really do that?” DillyDally gives me a raised eyebrow, pretty much speaking for everyone here.

“Sure, but I’ll need a day and I’ll have to round up my fellow leatherworkers”

“Oh there’s more of you?”

“Yeah there’s 11 of us but I know 5 won’t be on till tomorrow so the 6 of us may take quite a while”

“Can you t-”

“No, It took us 18 hours with a professional teaching…I don’t even want to dream how long it would take for me to teach anyone else” Sorry but I don’t give out my skills for free DillyDally…

“Ah, a shame…well since we’re not all going to be mining ores like hooligans, we ought to help you collect the required materials no?”

He really wants some armor like the rest then…hehe

“Yes that would be great. It’ll take 40 hours if just us 11 worked. But…if I had 20 people to help with the tanning, then we should be able to do it in around 15 hours”

“Sounds like a plan”

“Ah ah wait there a second; we’re not doing this free”

DillyDally *Tches*, hehe I’m not doing this for free. I tap on my window sending a fake message and wait for a few seconds as if reading a reply

“We want to make our trade free for the moment. So that when the swords and metal armor can be made, that is also free for the moment. We should all help eachother out no?”

DillyDally muses over it, but it’s not his decision…Mob thinking is indeed omnipotent.

Everyone around thinks about it and nods strongly at the idea…since it’s a win win situation for everyone…except those who gain the blacksmith skill…but even then they’ll get practice on the skill.

*Ding*

Zzoid sends me a transcript of the conversation, which I copy and send to everyone. Now everyone knows. Zzoid is a great right hand man.

*Ding*

Who is that?

Girl, interesting things again. I want a nice weapon so I’m in.

Cheers Thrash, but I’M A GUY

You know you’re a girl, and I’ll go to Jenna’s

Damn Thrash

Anyways…

“OK, so I need 20 people who want a boring ass job to build some racks and then sit there and tan the leather”

…

..

.

Oh cmon, not a single volunteer?

“It’s either that or hunting right?” Zzoid asks sneakily…good man

“Yep” I answer back, holding my grin down

“I’LL DO IT”

“COUNT ME IN” A whole bunch of people scream out to do it, mostly the girls. Well I imagine they don’t exactly like the murdering of wolves…

I randomly pick 20 people.

“Ok, you lot, follow me to Jenna’s. The rest; we need 445 pelts of at least medium quality…so be careful with your skinning or you’ll be there forever”

A chorus of Ok’s and I feel awesome as I lead 20 people through the forest.

So many dead wolves later, I feel completely godly: Ordering around 20 people is such a great feeling.

Those wolves didn’t stand a chance.

I’m a bit busy to see who my 20 are because I’m getting a couple of death threats from a certain Bottom and Reddwarf…Oh must be those guys.

Also Lancel is sending me some horrible too…’I’ll bash your brains out you annoying bastard selling us out like that’…That’s nice.

Ooh, Ravena just logged online, a whole hour and a bit before she said she was going to come online…

Suddenly the death threats stop

*Ding*

We’ll do this work, sounds like a good idea

Similar messages from the rest of the minion trio

I open my chat with Ravena.

Wolf coming my way…And it’s dead

“Thanks whoever just killed it”

“No problem boss” A light voice from…Squirrel-beastlady from way earlier…ah she’s here.

Ok, messaging Ravena now.

Thanks for the help

No problem, it’s a great decision, I need a new weapon.

You mean you need a weapon

Almost the same thing, but do I have to do so much work?

Luckily we’re just doing the leatherworking itself. Skinning and tanning we’ve got assistants for.

Smart boy

I don’t think she’s being condescending…

Will see you at Jenna’s

Already there, with my minion trio

Wow she doesn’t even deny it.

Well that’s 6 of us so far…

Sadly everyone else is offline, even Baila. Hmm, poor girl must’ve been extremely tired.

Well we’ll just have to do with 6.

*Ding*

So I’ve got a couple of people cutting down trees to make racks.

DillyDally being helpful…but I feel this isn’t free.

What’s the price?

Give team leaders colours and give me and Braxus better looking leather…to distinguish us of course.

That’ll work fine. But I’ll need an extra 50 pieces of leather for all the extras. I’ll personally make the special ones while I let the mass have the normal clothes, But I need people to grab flowers of all colours.

Will do

I send everyone a list of flowers telling them that they should bring flowers of their wanted colours, as well as picking some black and white.

There will be enough people hunting, so they will find the flowers no problem.

Closing that chat, I see a wolf get kicked to death infront of me…that’s nice guys…couldn’t kill it less brutally?

So much work without me doing anything, whoo!

We quickly make our way back to the village and I make my way to Jenna’s.

The trio of minions are outside with Thrash and are filling lots of basins of water. In the dozens right now…Ravena is already thinking ahead, smart woman.

Walking inside, ignoring their evil glares (not Thrash), I see Jenna nodding her head while Ravena speaks….

She’s making this side work too.

Wow, I’ve never had time to directly look at her…damn.

She’s got a sizeable booty as well as a good chest, I see as she turns around to greet me.

Also, wearing a full turtleneck dress

…

..

.

I’ve seen that body before…

I look her over once more from head to toe. Wow, I’ve definitely seen that body before.

However when I look at her face, most of it is covered by her sleek black hair. Never noticed before but I can’t really see what her face looks like…odd. But I still feel she’s got a beautiful face, call it instinct.

Anyways, I’ll check on those matters another time, right now is time to work…sadly.

“Jenna, hey”

“You! Barely a few hours since you’ve learnt how to do it and you’re already trying to clothe all your fellow Orphans” She's not angry with me...I think?

“Hehe, I’m ambitious”

Ravena gives me a grin…her mouth is somehow not concealed...sexy and mysterious

“Salt and Oil will be free”

“What’s the payment” that’s a lot of oil and salt going to be used…and I don’t believe in free things.

“Nothing” Jenna speaks in…hmm?

I turn to Ravena

“How?”

She shrugs…guess it wasn’t her own work

“I have the stuff and nothing to do with it. The goblins have always been pests for the village so the village is all for this ‘raid’. Also I don’t like to see you wearing tattered rags. It’s shameful to this village which you are helping so nicely”

“Thank’s Jenna! Ravena, we’re going to have a lot of work, so this will be long and hard”

“Are you sure you’re talking about your work there?”

…

..

.

Oh, I was so engrossed in the work to come I actually missed that…

“Well if you haven’t fallen for me yet, just let me show my power” I chuckle and I walk outside.

Outside there’s the 20 people from before, the minion trio and Thrash.

“You guys, we’ll be getting to work soon, so good luck!”

“YEA!” Everyone is mildly hyped…

Damn, I really thought I was finished with leatherworking for the moment…

Soo, start of a new arc, and well it got pretty hectic so quickly...

Anyways, thanks for reading and if you really want to, give me a rating/review (but not just a simple Thanks for hte chapter! because I go a bit crazy when those suddenly stop coming...Ah it's so aaagh!)

-TRUE NORRRRRRRD