Chapter 55: Group Project

“Oi, Shinji, break time’s over, your boy is streaming again.” Tommy shouted into the Simbox communicator as Shinji was dozing off inside of it in his office.

“Huhm num…” He groaned as he startled awake. “Really?”

“Yep, looks like they’re finally ready to start doing something. Got some new members too, you’re gonna love it.” Tommy’s voice trailed off as he headed out of the room. Shinji booted up his editing software simulation with a big grin on his face.

“Finally, the fellowship has formed.” He said to himself gleefully.

“You swear that there are horses around there?” Pyri asked Aegis inquisitively. She, Aegis, Rakkan, Darkshot, Amlie and Lina were all heading out of Orm village with a cart behind them being pulled by a horse of which Pyri was leading.

“I saw some, Ms Wint- Pyri.” Darkshot assured her.

“If you call me Ms again I’m going to Cinderbolt you. Just Pyri, please.” She snapped at Darkshot. Hearing the confirmation of the last name Winters caused Amlie and Rakkan face’s to light up with excitement, both of them exchanging giddy looks with each other as they walked side by side behind the others. The livestreaming icon above Aegis’ head didn’t seem to bother Rakkan anymore, but he still had a look of apprehension on his face anytime he noticed it.

“Your character is r-r-really pretty Ms-” Lina quickly corrected. “Pyri.”

“Aw thank you sweetie, you are really pretty too!” She cheered with a warm smile, which caused Lina to blush bright red. “By the way, congratulations on marrying my son.” She added. Which turned Lina’s face into a cherry.

“B-b-w-w-ell it w-w-was, f-f-” Lina lost her ability to speak.

“It was just for the experience bonus. Stop embarrassing me.” Aegis sighed.

“I was being sincere! Since I’m the lowest level, I thought maybe I should marry someone too for experience. Are any of you interested?” She turned to Darkshot and Rakkan who immediately blushed red. Darkshot opened his mouth to respond, but Aegis stopped him.

“I’ll take my Simbox back if you answer that. Mom, you’re not marrying my friend. And Rakkan is 14 years old.”

“I could marry Lina for the bonus then, right? You don’t mind sharing? I think polygamy is a thing in this game but I haven't read much about it yet…” She trailed off in thought. Darkshot saw Lina’s feet wobbling and stepped back to stop her from falling over.

“Who is to say you’ll be leveling with us anyway?” Aegis protested.

“W-what do you mean, you don’t want to bring me on your adventures with you?” She turned to Aegis and made a cute puppy face, which threw him off due to how beautiful her avatar was, but staring for a few seconds into her eyes helped him see through the character in front of him.

“A full party is five people, and you guys only have four!” Amlie chimed in innocently.

“What about you?” Aegis turned to Amlie hopeful.

“O-oh no, I’m not going on any scary dungeon adventures or anything. I just like the life skills.” She shrugged.

“I even picked a wizard class to balance out your party. Isn’t your mom the best?” Pyri grinned devilishly at Aegis.

“Ok, but don't embarrass me or my friends.”

“Yes sir, boss sir.” Pyri replied mockingly. “Look at you, taking charge. My little boy is all growed up and making so many friends.” She gently tugged on his cheek, to which he scowled at her. Despite feeling embarrassed though, Aegis was clearly having fun seeing this side of his Mom, and let it slide with a big sigh.

By the time the group reached the lands of Rene the sun was nearly setting. The cart came right up to the ledge of the cliff that overlooked the fields and river below, with the large mountain in the distance that Aegis now knew to be called Jia’nir thanks to the deed's item card.

The keep that was until recently housing the cultists was unrecognizable as such anymore. Not a single part of the wall or towers were still standing, it looked no different than if an avalanche of dark gray stone had rolled down the mountain and collected at the base.

Darkshot and Aegis sighed in unison while Rakkan let out a quiet apology that only Amlie heard.

“You’re all sure you want to help with this? It's gonna be a lot of work to get the skillups needed for a good furnace and forge.” Aegis gave them all one last chance to back out, and none of them took it.

“As long as I get my tower.” Darkshot shrugged.

“And a stable for Spoody. And Spoody. And a nice house. And a place to practice my magic skills.”

“A place to train weapons.” Rakkan added.

“I want to level up painting, and farming so I can farm my own dyes.” Amlie added excitedly.

“T-then I’d like a place to practice Ranger skills.” Darkshot added on. Aegis turned expectantly to Lina who was caught off guard by his gaze.

“Oh, I don’t need anything special…” She smiled shyly back.

“Right. You were warned.” Aegis grinned. He fiddled around in his Land owner interface to begin a project, and immediately after creating his first project as Lord of Rene, he got a notification.

Skill Learned: Leadership (Beginner)

Leadership - Level 1 (Beginner)

A skill granted to those in a leadership position, such as Commanders, Raid Leaders, Expedition Leaders, Guild Leaders, Ship Captains, Project Leaders or Land Owners of any rank. Leading as any role will grant experience to this skill. The effects granted by this skill affect anyone under the leadership of this skill holder. The experience gains, skill bonuses, and stamina recovery increase with each rank, as do the maximum number of people that can be led.

Experience Gained by Underlings Granted to Leader: 1% (+1% per skill level)

Experience Bonus Granted to Underlings: 5% (+1% per skill level)

Relevant Skill Bonus Shared to Underlings: 10% (+1% per skill level)

Stamina Recovery Bonus to Underlings: 1% (+0.5% per skill level)

Leading Capacity: 10 (+1x(Skill Level) per skill Level)

After reading over the details he quickly opened up the project menu and sent invitations to the 5 of them.

Construction Project Invitation

The Lord of Rene, Aegis, has invited you to work on the following Construction Project: [Rene]

Duration of Project: 7 Days

Compensation: 0,00,00 gold

Relevant Skills of Project Lead(Aegis, Lord of Rene): [Click to View]

Hired Workers [5/10]:

[Lina - Level 16], [Darkshot - Level 13] [Pyri - Level 6] [Rakkan - Level 19] [Amlie - Level 4]

“Wow, none of you even flinched. You all just hit accept.” Aegis looked at them surprised. “Not even you Darkshot?”

“Nah, you’ve got a plan right? So where do we start?” Darkshot asked as they all looked at Aegis expectantly. He cleared his throat and took a deep breath.

“The first things we’ll do are basic. I need to level up my skills before we take on the advanced projects, to guarantee the best outcome. We’ll do a range of things to accomplish this in accordance with the classes you guys are playing so you guys can progress simultaneously. Amlie I’ll need you to farm, since you were interested in it, focusing primarily on dyes - we’ll eventually need a color theme and dyes are expensive to buy en-mass so if you can start brainstorming something like a theme around Eirene that’d be great. Do you have the farming skill yet?”

“Yup.” She nodded.

“Good, use it to find a decent plot of land and start preparing it. To be efficient I’ll construct a plough and we’ll need beasts of burden to use them for farm fields and creating roads. Tamed and trained. There are some around this area, so I’ll leave that to Lina and Pyri. Keep an eye out for anything that raises taming skills or can be used with creature harvesting. Don’t limit it to just horses, this game probably has a plethora of creatures that can be tamed.” Aegis instructed them. Pyri gave a thumbs up while Lina nervously glanced between Pyri and Aegis before nodding.

“Rakkan, use high durability weapons to knock down trees from here to Orm. If you need any repairs on the weapons, bring them to me. If we want this land to be brought into the Kordas Kingdom it will need a road that connects to Kordas, the closest connection for us will be Orm. Any trees you knock down, just bring the logs back here and I’ll use my Woodcutting skill to do the rest. Don't worry about the stumps we'll deal with those later.”

“Got it.” Rakkan nodded.

“Darkshot, scout out the area for any dungeons or valuable resource spots around here or on the mountain, and keep hunting animals and beasts so we have a steady supply of meat I can cook into stamina recovery food for everyone. Particularly keep an eye out for any herbs and plants that might work as dyes and let me know, so I can harvest them for Amlie.” Aegis instructed him.

“I already got a bunch in the Cart.” Darkshot gently patted the cart cover.

“Good. I’m going to create some basic structures to start out. Fences and roads give experience in architecture - not much, but it's hard to mess up and not so important structurally, so I’ll start with that. My stone cutting is low as well so I’ll work on cutting the ruins a bit. Once the basics are done, I’ll start paving a road with the stone that will serve as a main street to start getting a sense of a potential layout for everyones buildings. I’ll prioritize a plough and a pasture first though. From there I guess I’ll have to do the bridge over the river, otherwise it’ll be a pain to move stuff through it. Any questions?” Aegis asked.

“Yeah. Is this really going to take 7 days?” Darkshot asked.

“No idea.” Aegis shrugged.

“Let’s get started” Pyri spoke to Lina excitedly as the two were the first to make for the ramp leading down the ledge to the fields below. Amlie quickly checked in with Rakkan before waving and following after them, and a few moments later Darkshot headed deeper into the forest on the upper levels of the ledge with his bow out, while Rakkan stood waiting, staring at Aegis. He made sure to wait until the others were gone before stepping forward.

“Does Pyri know what you’re planning? With Makaroth I mean.” Rakkan asked.

“No, just you and Lina. Darkshot kind of has an idea. But I don’t broadcast it, or use my real name.” Aegis motioned to the livestreaming icon above his head as he said this and Rakkan gave a slow nod.

“And all this, you think you’re gonna surpass him with it?” Rakkan asked hesitantly as he motioned to the field and river below.

“We’re way behind… one of them has that weapon, the other is already doing his advanced class quest. I think if we try to chase after them by playing like them, we’ll never catch up. So I’m gonna try a different approach. If you’ve got any ideas though, let me know.” Aegis replied while watching Rakkan’s reaction carefully, still cautious around him.

“No complaints here, I’ll need all the weapon skills at level 30 for the battlemaster class. It’s a bit slower to train on trees, but not much different than training on target dummies. Free repairs are a plus.” Rakkan shrugged as he turned to the nearest tree and pulled out his battle axe and started swinging. Aegis watched him knock over his first tree in a few swings before grabbing the lead on the horse and leading it with the cart down the ramp behind the others until stopping it near the edge of the river. The grass growing over wide fields somehow felt taller than he remembered it, and the daunting task of taming this land and making it help him power level his crafting seemed, for a moment, overwhelming.

He took another deep breath to recompose himself before flipping the cover off of the cart to get to work on the creature harvesting all the meat and leather he could. By the time he’d finished up, the sun had finished setting and his workers had all lit torches making them easy to see from far away as they moved about in the distance. Aegis did his best to clear out a small area of grass and utilized the first logs that Rakkan had cut to start tanning the hides and set up a campfire, then made due with a small wooden bridge made up of a few logs and woven string to cross the river without needing to jump or get wet.

Once across the river, he set out on his first construction, a fenced off pasture - taking note of where Amlie had begun working on her farm field. Under the moonlight hee started setting in fence posts a small distance away from Amlie, making use of the nails that Amlie and Lina had acquired back in Orm. Aegis paused to consult a few videos through his Simbox Viewer to make sure he built the posts at the right heights for the first few, but the architecture skill helped him learn it quicker than he’d expected he’d ever learn it and was soon done with the pasture, gaining two levels in Architecture along the way.

His next task was to build something to plough fields and prepare the ground for streets. Relying only on the logs from Rakkan and his Woodcutting and Woodworking skills he began cutting away and doing his best using the tools he had on hand, referring as much as could to tips from other players 'Beginner Crafting Guides' he'd found online. He finished the first one, then improved the build with the 2nd and third, until finally he had a decent 15% Quality plough with the 4th. By the time the sun was rising again, he and Amlie had managed to get the rented cart horse hooked up to the plough and were using it to soften the dirt and clear out the wild weeds and grass from Amlie’s plot of farmland she’d selected. The copper blades weren’t the best at cutting grass and softening the dirt but Aegis had already accepted he’d have to rebuild better versions of most things once he had higher skills and better materials to work with.

“Thanks, by the way, this is fun!” Amlie said once they’d finish a 2nd pass of the field with the plough.

“Really?” Aegis watched her wipe sweat off her face.

“Y-yeah! And, well, thanks for not giving up on Rakkan.” She added. “It’s the first time it feels like he’s actually playing, you know, since all the stuff happened.”

“You realize this is just free labor right?” Aegis chuckled. “I’m surprised none of them are back yet, they’ve all been at it for 8 hours now.” He added as he glanced around over the fields to try and spot his party members, but saw none.

“I think everyone is just excited to see what you’re going to build, so we want to get it done fast! I know I am!” Amlie smiled excitedly as she took bread out of her inventory and took a bite, recovering some stamina.

“Right, then I guess I better stop slacking off.” Aegis shrugged, making his way towards the pile of rubble that was once a Keep.

“There, look!” Pyri whispered to Lina, the two were stealthily approaching a herd of wild goat-like creatures, though much larger than typical goats. They had fluffy gray fur and short curled horns with the names [Lagnok - Level 1] above their heads.

“Th-those are not so good for riding, they’re pretty slow.” Lina replied.

“They’re grazing though... Like nature’s lawn-mowers.” She stood up a bit to get a better view of the herd, they were quite a ways away from the Land of Rene but still around the base of the mountain. As Pyri stood up she scanned the area and spotted several of the Lagnok grazing a particular weed around the grass. She promptly looked to the ground around her and found some and yanked them out of the ground. Once she’d gathered a large handful, she started waving it at the Lagnok herd while Lina watched.

“Here Lagnok’s!” She suddenly called out while waving the weeds around in the air, clicking her tongue a few times to get their attention. Several of the beasts jerked their heads up and spotted the food in her hand and began to cautiously approach her, the largest of the bunch leading the charge. It became clear it was the leader as the others of the herd stood back apprehensively as the big one came to take a bite of the Weeds in her hand. She carefully held it out to the leader and it used a big slobbery pink tongue to lick it out of her hands and pull it into its mouth while she tried petting the side of it's fluffy grey snout, and it let her.

“Y-you’re really good at this!” Lina whispered in amazement. “I thought you were just starting out in this game?”

“Eh, I’ve played enough games to figure out how things work.” Pyri shrugged with a smile before handing a few of the weeds to Lina. “You try.” Pyri insisted.

“O-okay.” Lina took some and held it out as another brave and curious Lagnok approached, sniffing her hand first before sticking out a big tongue and slobbering all over her arm to get at the weed. She couldn’t help but pull back and giggle from the sensation of it as the Lagnok happily munched on the weed.

“We should lead these back, they'll be good for pulling plows and grazing all the grass.” Pyri said as she began scanning the tall grass for more of the weeds they seemed to enjoy, and pulling a few more.

“What about a horse?” Lina asked worriedly.

“Finding the perfect Spoody's is going to take some time. Can’t rush these things.” She smiled with her beautiful elven smile and Lina couldn’t help but stare in admiration for a moment, but was broken out of her gaze by a nudge from an expectant Lagnok.

“S-sorry, let me find more.” She replied to the Lagnok and joined in with Pyri searching for the weeds. It wasn’t long before the two had a healthy herd of 16 young and old Lagnok’s obediently following them through the fields back in the direction of Aegis and the others.

“Oh, I just learned the taming skill!” Pyri called out suddenly as she and Lina walked side by side ahead of the herd.

“I should make sure I do enough to get it too… Shadow step!” Lina used her thief skills to quickly dash around the tall grass at amazing speed to cut loose as many weeds with her dagger as she could in a short amount of time. She moved silently enough that it didn’t startle the Lagnok’s despite her speed, and in a few moments had a huge armful of weeds that she began quickly using to feed and pet the Lagnok’s as Pyri watched her impressed.

“Okay, I got it too. The taming skill.” Lina said excitedly.

“Scared of falling behind?” Pyri smirked at her.

“W-well, I want to make sure I stay strong with high skills, for whatever Ae-.. we might need.” Lina replied.

“Hmmm.” Pyri looked her up and down inquisitively. “Glad he married you, someone who’s not afraid to get stuff done.” She added.

“W-w-w-well, we- just w-w-anted the experience-bonus.” Lina’s face lit up.

“Mhm.” Pyri raised an eyebrow at her. “I should warn you, Aegis is pretty thick headed about these things. If you tell him it’s just for the experience, that’s what he’ll believe. So if you’re feeling something else, you'll need to be pretty forward about it.” Pyri said coolly.

“O-okay.” Lina replied shyly with a nervous smile.