Sam woke up from getting blinded by the light of the rising sun. He had slept throughout the rest of the night.

"Wow, my injuries are nearly gone!

Only my chest and fingers are still hurting, all the smaller wounds have fully healed!" Sam stood up and checked his body's condition.

He felt totally refreshed, as if the fight last night never happened.

He grabbed the copper shield and started walking in the direction of Woodchester.

' I hope Jack made it. They were pursued by 50 zombies, it is possible that they were caught..' Sam was worried the whole way.

After 15 minutes the outlines of Woodchester came into his line of sight.

200 meters in front of the gate lay a big pile of corpses. It were the corpses of the 50 zombies that had chased after Jack and Nissa.

Some zombies were burnt to a crisp, others got decapitated or stabbed, but most of them had their heads smashed into meat paste.

When Sam neared the gate he was stopped by the same guard as last time.

"Halt!!...oh it's..Sam right? A lot has happened since yesterday, please enter. You should visit Rudloph first!" the guard advised Sam, who responded by nodding.

He arrived after a quick walk and entered the village chiefs house.

A total of seven people were inside. Two guards stood beside the entrance looking around cautiously.

At the dining table sat five people, including Rudolph. Sam smiled when he saw Jack and Nissa, seemingly unharmed, but the smile turned into a frown when he saw the bald player, who had fled the day before and an unfamiliar old guy about 45 years old, who sat beside him.

"Sam you didn't die?!! Thank god, I thought the general got you!" Jack sprang up and rushed at Sam. Both of them clasped hands and smiled at each other.

Sam looked at the remaining people at the table. Nissa and Rudolph were smiling at him too, while the baldy frowned and turned to the old guy.

The player looked at Sam while speaking with the baldy.

The old man didn't look like a fighter at all.

He was about 1,70m tall and thin. He wore a robe and glasses, holding a staff in his hand.

'He looks like the calculating type of person. If he is comrades with the baldy I won't interact with him!' Sam thought. 'Maybe I should kill him before he can do something mischievous? When I am at it, I should kill this bald coward as well.' Sam's thoughts became more ruthless unnoticed to Sam himself.

"Sam, it is good to see you and I'm really happy you returned alive." Rudolph greeted him with a big smile. "Sit down first, Jack can tell you what happened."

Sam took a seat at the end of the table, opposite of Rudolph.

Jack narrated "Nissa and myself were chased by the zombies until a few hundred meters in front of the gate.

We got surrounded and nearly died, when Jason (baldy) and his friends came and saved us. Together with a hand full of guards they annihilated the zombies."

" So what have you been doing all night? We fought a huge army of undead and saved your comrade, why weren't you helping?" the bald player, Jason asked in an arrogant tone.

" My path got blocked and I had to fight a way out." Sam stared at Jason emotionlessly.

Rudolph changed the topic, before any discussion could arise.

" I would like to thank you adventurers for your help. Nissa told me about the huge number of zombies all of you killed. May the people, who suffered death today Rest In Peace!

I prepared a little house for everyone of you, so please have a good rest for now. Nissa, could you show them the way?"

Nissa nodded and led them to their houses. On the way Jason's two female companions had joined them too.

Jack kept talking to Nissa the whole time. Sam saw them exchanging a few glances while smiling.

They arrived at a silent street with mainly uninhabited houses. Everyone chose one and entered to rest for a bit.

Sam took a quick nap and left his house to look around the village.

He found a shop that sold a variety of potions, as well as a blacksmith.

He entered the blacksmith's shop and looked around. The smith came over from the back of the store, after hearing someone entering.

"Hello, I'm the blacksmith, you can call me Arthur. How can I help you?"

"Hello, my name is Sam, I only arrived here yesterday and wanted to check the goods and compare the prices. May I ask what you want for this steal shield over there?" Sam pointed at a big tower shield standing in the corner.

The shopkeeper looked annoyed but still answered " I don't really have needs for coins and have barely seen any coins in my life, so I mostly trade for armor, weapons, food or other stuff that equals it's worth. Your shield looks really new to me..you aren't really interested in that tower shield, right?"

Sam's eyes flashed for a moment, " I might need another one in the future. Thanks for helping, I will visit you again soon!"

Sam left to meet Rudolph.

" Sam,what brings you to me?"

" Chief, I wanted to talk about the situation in the surrounding area. How is the village in the east doing and what can you tell me about the places south and west from here."

"I think they are still holding out, even though I haven't received any information since yesterday. In the south are ruins of an old castle that is occupied by orcs. There are only about 15 of them, but they are much stronger than undead or goblins. There are forests and lush green on for about ten miles, after that starts a huge desert. We explored a few miles inside, but couldn't see the end of it. Our tribe never had the urge to cross the desert."

" I am going to scout out the castle in the south. I think that life for us humans will become many times harder in the future, so we have to plan accordingly! If we could clear the castle and the overall structure isn't too damaged, we could settle in and rebuild it. I will scout out first and return to make a plan" Sam told Rudolph and left afterwards.

He got a simple map from one of the guards and started his exploration.

Sam walked in a normal pace and reached a hill after about one hour.

He slowly climbed it and scouted ahead when he reached the top.

A big, slightly damaged castle had been built with a huge mountain as back cover and defensive walls protecting the remaining three sides. On the right side of the castle were woods, while the left side consisted of flat green land, which could be used for farming.

In front of the castle were about 300-400 meters of barren land.After that was the hill, where Sam was standing.

He could see a few silhouettes standing on the walls and a few more walking inside the castle compounds.

"This place is perfect! It's only one hour walk to the village and the damages to the walls are not as severe as I thought." Sam mumbled to himself.

He stayed for another hour to observe. He counted 14 silhouettes but the distance was too great for him to get more detailed information.

He turned around and left afterwards. Sam got attacked by a few zombies on his way back but he used his new shield to dispose of them, by stabbing their eyes with the spikes or simply smashing their heads.

"This shield feels more like a weapon with these spikes. It is a lot smoother killing zombies with this shield compared to spears or clubs."

Sam returned at 11 am and directly made his way towards Rudolph's house. He told him about the situation and his plan concerning the castle.

" I think we should conquer this castle and move the village over there. More and stronger monsters will appear in the future, that's when your wooden wall won't protect you anymore. In my opinion we should harvest all the crops around the village and move the villagers time after time."

" That plan could work but our village is too small and many archers died in the last battle. If we lose more combat strength we wouldn't be able to defend ourselves anymore!"

"I thought about that too, so I will pay a visit to the village in the east. I will ask them to join us. Their villages defenses are most likely the same as Woodchesters, what means that they will need a better place to live in the future too!" Sam told Rudolph his plan.

He ate a light meal and left for the NPC village in the east.