Chapter 57: Encampment

The act of paving roads was tiresome, but simple and mindless after the first few hours. It paled in comparison to the difficulty of constructing the bridge over the river. Aegis was forced to give precise instructions to Lina and Amlie, and eventually Pyri, Darkshot and Rakkan all joined in as they arrived one by one throughout the evening.

The group of 6, under Aegis’ instruction and utilizing his Architecture skill of level 19 were able to finish the bridge just as the sun settled down for the night on the 4th day. The end result was a simple, smooth and practical 7 meter long dark gray stone bridge that arched slightly from the Orm side of the river to Rene's side of the river. Aegis was careful to line up the bridge so that it transitioned into the paved road seamlessly. It had no railings or detailing yet, but the group tested its structural integrity thoroughly by leading several lagnok’s over it simultaneously.

Level Up!: Architecture has reached Level 21!

Level Up!: Leadership has reached Level 5!

Attribute Up!: You’ve gained +1 Strength

Attribute Up!: You’ve gained +1 Agility

Attribute Up!: You’ve gained +1 Constitution

Attribute Up!: You’ve gained +1 Charisma

“Ok, ok, get them back in the pasture, it’s good. Phew, we actually did it.” Aegis sighed with relief after seeing 6 large lagnok’s stomping over the bridge without it shaking or shifting in any way.

“You still want to be a doctor? You could become an architect.” Pyri commented as she eyed the bridge up and down.

“It’s good but it's a little boring right?” Darkshot commented.

“I haven’t added the details yet.” Aegis replied.

“Good, good, better you get some detailing practice on the bridge before you start working on the Shadow Tower.”

“No.”

“Tower of Shadows.” Darkshot continued.

“No.

“Darkshot Castle.”

“Hmmmm.” Aegis gave him hope for a moment. “No.” he finished.

“Aw c’mon, those names are all great tower names.” Darkshot complained.

“A little bit too edgy, aren’t they?” Rakkan replied.

“Oh that’s rich coming from you.” Darkshot rolled his eyes at Rakkan.

“I just meant, since Aegis is a Priest of Eirene and the land is named Rene, it should be themed around her, shouldn’t it? Eirene is the goddess of peace, and the more buildings attributed to that, the more likely that Aegis will get favor from her.” Rakkan replied enthusiastically.

“You know a lot about Eirene?” Aegis asked Rakkan.

“W-well, most of the gods. I read a lot about them when I was a sage…” Rakkan’s voice quieted back down, as if he’d regretted speaking.

“He’s right. Less edgy, more happy-go-lucky peaceful names. How about the Tower of Light?” Aegis suggested.

“I just threw up a little.” Darkshot groaned. “I’ll come up with something. I gotta go to sleep though. Unlike some people, I ain’t got no dreamstate, my Simbox is a hand-me-down.” Darkshot added as he started his logout process. “G'night, cya in the morning. Don’t forget to shower.”

“I’m also not using Dreamstate, so I’ll be back in a few hours.” Rakkan waved before logging out as well.

“Same, but, thanks! For everything, it’s lots of fun!” Amlie waved with a big smile, leaving Pyri, Lina and Aegis.

“A good mom would probably tell you to take a break…” Pyri looked at Aegis to see him pondering the bridge details, pacing around it while scratching his chin. “What about your parents?” She turned to Lina, almost as if asking for advice.

“Oh, mine? They’re online in Savringard.” She replied as she fiddled with her interface to check her friends list. “They really like games so they don’t mind as long as I eat with them and shower…” Lina explained.

“Did you shower yet today Aegis?” Pyri turned her attention back to him.

“Huh? Y-yeah, well, I brushed my teeth.” He shrugged back, barely listening as he started planning out the final details of the bridge in his head.

“Okay, as soon as you’re done with that bridge, take a shower and clean up the kitchen.” She commanded him proudly.

“What about you?” Aegis turned to her with a raised brow.

“I took time off from work, so technically, I’m on holiday.” She bowed while motioning to the land around them. “Want to go hunt some monsters while he finishes the bridge? I need to level up these Wizard skills.” She asked Lina giddily.

“O-okay.” Lina smiled nervously. “Will you be okay by yourself?” Lina asked Aegis.

“I’ll be fine.” He gave a thumbs up, and with that the two headed into the Wilderness around Rene to explore, leaving Aegis alone to finish the bridge.

Aegis started by taking off his vestments, using the symbols of Eirene on it as a guide for what he should carve into the bridge. It didn’t take long for him to come up with a plan and he worked through the night to transport cut stone along the paved road to the bridge, constructing an arcing railing on both sides of the bridge. Once the base stone blocks were in place he began carving into them carefully using the tools in the Jewelcrafters kit to get fine details.

It took awhile to get it right but the skills guided his hand along the way. He wanted the symbolism to be visible, but not obnoxious, and luckily the star symbols of Eirene could easily be confused with simple star decorations. He smoothed and rounded the edges of the stone railings and carved into them the stars and lines to match what was depicted on his vestments as best he could.

Level Up!: Stone Cutting has reached Level 22!

Level Up!: Artistry has reached Level 6!

Attribute Up!: You’ve gained +1 Agility

With the railings done, Aegis took a step back and looked at his work. It was a beautiful, well made and welcoming bridge, but he still felt like it was missing something. He looked around a bit at the bridge from different angles as the Sun slowly crept up over the horizon, and as it did, the shadow cast by the cliff overlooking his land gave him an idea. He ran up the ramp and looked down at the bridge from above. He had a clear vantage point from up here of all the work they’d done so far. The road looked clean and even, perfectly constructed as he had hoped. The pasture and farm field and the pile of stocked resources that Rakkan and Darkshot had dumped off were the only things that stood out, the rest was still just endless fields of tall grass. Aegis liked the sight of the colorful flowers now beginning to blossom in the farm fields, but not many yet. Eventually he found himself looking back at the bridge.

From this view he was able to figure out exactly what the bridge was missing and rushed back down to tend to it, this time using the jewelcrafters kit to cut directly into the floor of the bridge. Though not so easily noticeable while walking on it, it would be the first thing a visitor from Orm would see from atop the cliff. A beautiful, large Star of Eirene carved within a circular frame, indented into the floor of the bridge, deep enough to not easily be worn down, but shallow enough to not be tripped over.

While carving it out, he had to pause several times and view it from the cliff to make sure it was turning out the way he’d hoped. He knew that in the real world he had no talent for art, but carving with the Jewelcrafters kit felt extremely comfortable to him. With his game skills as a guide, he managed to complete it just as the Sun finished rising over the horizon to start the 5th day.

Level Up!: Artistry has reached Level 7!

Aegis stared at his work proudly as he sat on the ledge of the cliff, his legs dangling down as he munched on a boar steak, but something had been bothering him about the bridge being completed, and he quickly began to fuss through his interface to find the Land Management menu.

Land Title: Rene

Land Status: Hostile[?]

Land Rank: 0[?]

Population: 0 [Manage]

Registered Structures: 0 [Manage]

Construction Projects: 1 [Manage]

Leaders: 1 [Manage]

He pressed the [Manage] button next to registered structures by reaching his finger out to touch the floating interface in front of him as it followed his peripheral vision.

Registered Structures:

None

Unregistered Structures:

[Bridge] [Pasture] [Farm Field] [Road] [Keep]

The interface allowed him to click on each of the unregistered structures, so he started with the Bridge.

Bridge [Rename] [Register] [Abandon]

Quality: 64%

Durability: 4000/4000

Option 1: Increases Eirene's favor of the land owner of any land this structure is registered to by 500.

Details: A well made stone bridge engraved with the Star of Eirene. Constructed by Aegis.

“Rare quality, not bad.” Aegis said to himself proudly. “Probably ‘cause the stone quality of the keep was a good base.” He spoke while pressing the rename button and quickly entered the new name ‘Bridge of Rene’. Once he had, he hit the register button.

[Bridge of Rene] has been registered as a part of your territory [Rene].

You gain 500 Favor with Eirene.

[Rene] has gained 1000 Rank points.

[Rene] has improved to Rank 1.

“That’s a lot of favor, but…” He mumbled as he curiously went back to check the rank menu to get more information by pressing the question mark beside land rank.

Land Rank Information

Increasing the population of your land, adding more structures, and defeating enemies nearby will grant your land rank points. In order to increase a land’s rank, certain requirements must be met in addition to Rank points. Higher ranks allow for additional management options as well as land expansion.

Rank 1 (Encampment): Requires 1 Structure, 500 Rank points

Rank 2 (Settlement): Requires 5 Structures, 20 Population, 10 000 Rank points

Rank 3 (Village): Requires 25 Structures, 100 Population, 250 000 Rank points

Rank 4 (Town): [Requirements Hidden]

Rank 5 (City): [Requirements Hidden]

Rank 6 (Metropolis): [Requirements Hidden]

Rank 7 (Capital): [Requirements Hidden]

“I Don’t know about all that….” Aegis waved it off as he closed the menus. He quickly registered the Pasture, Farm field, and road. The three together collectively added only 500 rank points. Looking at the keep, its durability was at 0, so Aegis promptly hit the abandon button and afterwards it was removed from the structure list. Feeling satisfied, he prepared himself to log out for a shower, but before he could he heard the sound of galloping hooves coming up from behind him.

He turned to look down the cleared path that Rakkan had cut through the forest to see a heavily armored horse rushing towards him with a purple cloaked rider atop it. [Quinn - ??]. Aegis didn’t recognize the name so reactively drew his shield out from his inventory and took a defensive stance.

“Relax, pacifist, I’m not here to cause you problems.” The female rider responded to his actions as the horse slowed down, coming to a stop a few meters away from him. She hopped off the back of the majestic white stallion which was armored from head to toe in what looked like expensive, enchanted, high level iron armor. Taking a few steps towards Aegis, she pulled back her hood to reveal her pale Elven face. She wasn’t as tall as Pyri, nor as beautiful, but rather muscular and intimidating. She had dark pink hair tied back in a ponytail with a few strands of curly hair dangling around her pointed ears. Most of her equipment was hidden by her purple cloak, but around her neck Aegos could spot parts of her Iron armor. The cloak itself bore the symbol of the Night Hunters, which helped Aegis piece together who this was.

“How do you know about that?” Aegis asked her defensively.

“Herilon told me.” Quinn replied. Aegis’ expression twisted in annoyance which Quinn spotted. “Just me, and I’ve kept my mouth shut, you have my word. I was worried you’d quit, but Sapphire mentioned your little duel and has been keeping an eye on you since.”

“How’d you find out it was me? Did I get identified again?”

“No, nothing like that. Sapphire’s ears aren’t just for show. She heard your chat with your orc friend. Family troubles, huh?” Quinn walked around Aegis towards the ledge to get a view of his land, but she caught a glimpse of anger flooding over him. “Relax, like I said, mouth shut." She tapped her lips with her finger. "That part’s just between me and Sapphire. The members of the Night Hunters respect each other’s privacy. We’ve got a strict code, and we intend to uphold order here in Kalmoore. Many of us are players who experienced how chaotic things can get without a proper guild running things, that’s why we’re out here on this Island, so far away from all the others that only an idiot would fly an airship here to start causing trouble.” Quinn continued.

“I’d formally invite you to join our guild as the leader, but, from what I know about you, I’m guessing you’ve got your own plans.” Quin shrugged to herself. “That’s a really nice bridge, by the way.” She commented as she looked down at it.

“If you’re not here for that, what did you come all the way out here for?” Aegis asked her apprehensively.

“Oh, right. I would’ve come here regardless of who you were. You registered a very large, very expensive albeit remote piece of land recently. I’ve got an idea of how you came about paying for the registry…” She turned to try and look into Aegis’ eyes, to which he nervously made sure to not meet hers.

“But I suppose that doesn’t matter now. It’s good to expand the territory of Kordas, it helps players explore more of Kalmoore. It's a huge place and we've got the least amount of players of all the starter islands, so, the more infrastructure, the better.” She shrugged. “That’s why I’m here. Sapphire tells me your orc friend has been closing in on finishing a road between Orm and your land… what were you calling it?” Quinn paused for his response.

“Rene.”

“Rene, right. Once the road is complete, I can formally add you into the Kingdom with the authority granted to me by the King of Kordas as leading guild of Kalmoore. It will allow you to hire Kordas NPCs to work in your territory as things like guards. And as a registered part of the Kingdom, should you so choose, any criminal activity that takes place on your land would count as a crime against Kordas and flag the player as red, assigning bounties, ect. It goes a long way in deterring unwanted player activity on your land. Of course, you’ll need to handle enforcing the laws yourself. But given who I’m talking to, you probably understand all the minor details.” Quinn began walking to her horse.

“Is there anything you need from me?” Aegis asked.

“Yes. Of course.” She stopped to turn and stare back at him with a serious expression. “We’ve discussed with the other land owners and guilds of Kalmoore a while back and all agreed that in the interest of growth, taxes will be capped at 5%, everywhere. Any cults or religious structures registered to any of the Dark Gods in this game are also banned. Slavery and Slavers as a profession and-or class for players and NPCs is also banned. Those are the three conditions. If you can stick to those, there shouldn’t be any problems accepting you into the Kingdom.” She watched his reaction to her words carefully.

“Those are all reasonable conditions… out of curiosity, what would happen if I declined joining the Kordas Kingdom?” Aegis asked her.

“You’d be on your own. We’d be free to conquer you and take your land by force using the full might of the Kordas military… if we wanted to.” Quinn smirked at him.

“I can’t think of a reason not to join.” Aegis relented with a shrug.

“Good. Let Sapphire know when the road is done and I’ll press the buttons necessary. I look forward to seeing what you can build.” Quinn hopped back on her horse and turned it around. “Cya around, Pacifist.” She called out before tapping the side of her horse, causing it to burst forward with incredible, unnatural speed, and within seconds she was gone.

“All I wanted was my own forge...” Aegis mumbled to himself in disbelief once she was out of earshot.

“How’d it go?” Herilon messaged Quinn through her friend's interface. The notification popped up in front of her as she rode through the lumpy makeshift road that Rakkan had carved through the forest.

“About as expected. I get the feeling things in Kalmoore are about to get a whole lot more interesting.” Quinn replied while smiling to herself.