To its left was a list of all active rooms, with links to their descriptions. Scrolling through the list showed the library, a treasury, sleeping quarters, the altar room, the entryways, a kitchen, and empty undesignated rooms. There were twenty rooms in total. Three rooms were at ground level, three at the bottom floor, and ten on each of the middle floors. The large central room at the ground level counted as one room, which Eli thought odd. It was a massive magical room, the size of the entire clearing.
Turning to his friend, Eli spoke, “Well, the treasury is back through the portal, near the library. Let’s go.” Then he turned to his now very visible guide, and sent her a thought, “We will talk about this later,”
As Eli walked up to the portal, a window appeared, asking him where he would like to go. With a mental nudge, he selected the library, as the treasury was not listed. He knew he could change the settings of the portal, but didn’t want to waste any time looking through the massive menu. A moment later, he was surrounded by books.
A few seconds went by, Eli expecting his friend to follow, before Aida spoke, “You know that Don’s stuck up there, right? You haven’t added him to the list of people who can enter through the portals, or set any restrictions.”
With a sigh, Eli reopened his stronghold menu, searching for the correct tab, “You could have explained this sooner.”
“Or, I could just do it for you?” She replied, her tone smug.
“Fine, set it so he can use the portal. Also, make it so I can teleport directly to and from the treasury,” he paused, before adding one last restriction. “Only I can go to and from the treasury. Is there a way to modify rooms so they won’t open, or don’t have doors?”
“I see where you’re going with this.” After a moment, Don appeared next to Eli, and Aida responded, “And done. Teleporting directly to the treasury, and the no doors thing will have to wait until you have some build points though. Which will take a few days or weeks.”
After a quick nod, the two adventurers rushed down the hallway to store their loot. Eli thought about ancient treasures and powerful items as the two made their way down toward what he considered the most crucial room in the building. Upon arriving, Eli saw two massive magisteel doors, shimmering with energy. A prompt appeared, asking him if he would like to grant his party members access to the treasury, which he accepted immediately. Then the doors opened, and Eli’s heart dropped.
The treasury was empty, so very empty. Baren shelves lined the walls, and the floor had rows of neatly aligned, but disappointingly empty chests. With a thought, Eli pulled up his stronghold menu, made his way to the rooms tab, and selected the treasury. Current value of stored goods, zero. The words at the top of the page caused Eli to stumble. Realizing that the number would soon change, and he was running out of time, he looked over the rest of the page to find twenty icons of opened chests and a nearly infinite number of inventory slots.
Stepping into the room allowed him to select stacks of items from his bag of holding and place them into the treasury slots. Immediately he began storing items. Weapons went in one chest, armor in another, crafting supplies in another, and so on. Every major item type got its own chest. Organization was key. After dumping everything non-essential, he permitted Don to add items and told him to unload all of his loot to the chests. Two minutes later, they were both light as a feather.
One more trip followed, and several items had already disappeared. The lost loot stung a little, but the total in the CVIS, or current value of items stored, replaced all notions of loss. Eli peered at the numbers with a smile, 2,571g, 9s, and 12c. Standing in shock, he reminded himself that the g meant gold, s for silver, and the c was for copper. The amount was ridiculous for someone of his level. People weren’t expected to take strongholds and earn thousands of gold until at least level twenty-five.
The number increased and decreased slightly from second to second, reflecting the average market value of every item stored. He had also transferred the coins in his inventory into a small strongbox specifically designed to hold them. He kept one piece of gold because he liked the feeling it gave him. With looting done and a smile on his face, he remembered something. They were one party member down.
“So, Michelle,” Eli asked.
Don stood straight and looked around, “Oh shit, dude, we kind of forgot about her, didn’t we.”
“We never got any idea where she would respawn, and some of this is hers. I would feel kind of bad if we didn’t get her share back to her.”
“You two are idiots,” Aida chimed in before another stronghold window appeared in Eli’s vision. “She’s in your party. You control an Altar. Altars are spawn points.”
At the top of the new window was a tab called Population. There were three separate boxes inside the window, one for citizens, one for residents, and one for guests. Each of the boxes had a small plus-minus sign next to its title. Mentally clicking on the little symbols brought up a text window. Eli brought up the citizens tab and focused on Don. After a second of hesitation and confusion, Don accepted his prompt to become a citizen of the City of Aeryntorr. Instantly, his name appeared on the list of citizens.
“Sweet, it says I can now respawn at the local respawn point or shrine,” Don exclaimed after he was officially welcomed to the city.
Eli then added Michelle by focusing on her still gray status bar. Suddenly, her bar filled, and he felt as if she were directly above him. Then her name appeared on his list of citizens. After knowing she was safe, Eli gave her permission to use the portal system. Before closing the window entirely, Eli checked the guest's tab to find someone, a Harvey Owlman, listed with their location as the library. He didn’t remember adding anyone as a guest, so he asked Aida who it could be.
Before he could voice his question, she had an answer, “Isn’t it obvious. It’s the bird guy with a strange name. He’s trapped in here since you took it over. He must have automatically been assigned guest permissions, and since he hasn’t attacked anything, the defenses haven’t killed him.”
With a laugh, Eli removed him as a guest. A moment later, the hallway to the library was filled with the sound of barking. Shortly after, the sounds of fire and death followed. Good girl, Eli thought, praising his new altar guardian. She was only level ten, and the bird was agile as hell, but not too many things can dodge a room full of fire.
Having heard the commotion coming from down the hallway, Don stopped and asked, “Uh, dude, what was that?”
Eli smiled, “Remember the guy who killed Michelle?”
“Yeah?”
“He’s dead now.”
At Eli’s words, the two erupted into laughter. While they strode through the halls of their new home, they felt safe for the first time since they had met. As they entered the library, they found a neat pile of gear and the ashes of what used to be a terrifying opponent. Sitting next to the remains was Rufio as if waiting for a treat.
Eli looted the items, retrieved a stick of jerky from his pack, and tossed it to his new guardian, “Good job, girl.”
A moment later, the two were alone in the library, as the beast strode back towards the altar room. As the creature left, her tail knocked books off of nearby shelves. For whatever reason, the protective barrier did not protect against tail wags. The silence lasted only seconds, as Michelle appeared next to them, out of breath. She had popped out from the portal in the wall. Her face was grim.
“What, the fuck, happened.” She panted, her eyes wide. “The last thing I saw was some dude die, then stand up again as a demon. Then that bastard brained me while I was distracted.”
Don sighed, looked at Eli, and laughed, “Funny story. Eli here owns this place now.” A puzzled look crept onto the turta’s face, as he realized that she had spawned in the temple. “Wait, how did you get back here so fast? Isn’t your spawn point in Orctown or whatever.”
“It was about to spawn, in Orctown. I mean, Stonehaven, yes.” she replied, “But, I figured you guys would pull off
some crazy shit and clear this place out. So, I just logged out and ate while waiting to respawn. If you hadn’t made it available soon, I would have said fuck it and went back to the Stonekin Empire. Lucky for you, I got the notification to become a citizen, right before selecting yes.”
Hours passed as the party explored Eli’s new stronghold and the surrounding grounds. The island around the main structure had supported a city at some point. According to Aida and Eli’s menus, he could rebuild it if he had the time, resources, and manpower. The foundations were all that remained. The rubble of the ruins having turned into a pile where the massive golem attacked. Staring at the pile gave Eli a count of exactly how many resources were salvageable, 1500 lumber, 978 stone, 481 iron, and one sheet of glass. How an entire sheet of glass survived the explosion and the following battle, Eli could not understand. The small pop-up also let him know that it would take him three weeks, four days, and fifty-two minutes to shift through the pile if he did it himself.
His display had changed since claiming the temple as a stronghold. He could now focus on building materials, foundations, and empty plots to pull up relevant information. The new ability did not appear in his list but had a similar function as his Analyze ability. As the party walked through the deserted city, Eli looked to a small foundation, pulling up its building options.
*Ruined Building - level 0
Building Type: Foundation | Building Size: Small (30ft x 30ft) | Available Structure Options: Shrine, Smokehouse, Small Bathhouse, Cold Storage, Small Warehouse, Small House, Silo, … Remove*, Combine*
The list of structure options was nearly as vast as skills, but most of them were gray, and some were obscured. Aida informed him he would need blueprints, an architect, and engineers to build most of the buildings on the list. He could hire them, or even use FP to summon specialized workers, but that he needed to construct several buildings before that option became available. Wanting to test his new functions out, but having zero build and faith points, he clicked remove.
*Would you like to remove Ruined Building - Level 0: Yes / No.
Eli clicked yes. The system rewarded him with a prompt.
Who would you like to assign to the task: Remove structure - Ruined Building, Level 0?
A shortlist filled a small window at the bottom of the prompt, containing three names, Eli Miller, Don Nutello, and Michelle Clubsmen. Curious, he selected both Don and Michelle. After a short wait, he received a second prompt, this one a lot less promising. Don Nutello and Michelle Clubsmen have refused your work order; please select new members.
“It’s fucking midnight, and you’re trying to get me to dig up a building's foundation with my bare hands? What kind of bullshit is this?” Michelle shouted from the other side of the building.
“Those rewards weren’t bad. But still. Nah.” Don followed, also annoyed.
“Rewards?” Eli asked. “I didn’t offer any rewards.”
Two more hours had passed, and clouds had rolled in before the three made their way back into the temple. They had gathered every bit of loose scrap, and easily collectible items they could carry and stored it in the Treasury. Before long, Eli called it a night and made his way to the second floor sleeping quarters. Wanting some privacy, he selected the largest room on the floor, claimed it as his own, and walked in. The furnishings were sparse, but the bed at its center looked fantastic. Three layers of cotton, woolen, and animal hide blankets covered a cloud-like mattress atop an intricate wooden frame. Rows of down pillows pressed against an ornate headboard crafted from red-oak and ivory. A large footlocker sat open at the end of the bed, with a heavy lock. It was as if the game had created his ideal sleeping quarters. There were no tapestries, paintings, or fancy stained windows, just a bed, somewhere to put his things and a single-window that allowed a cool breeze into the room. He was in heaven. Wait, I’m underground, Eli thought, walking over to the window.
On the other side, Eli saw what seemed to be an open field. Winged beasts were flying through the sky as if playing. Others slept in tall dense grass that swayed in gusts of wind. Tall evergreens poked their tips hundreds of feet into the atmosphere. Millions of bright multicolored stars shined their light on the scene before him, covering the wildlife with a dim glow.
Just as he was about to undress, footsteps rang out down the hallway, followed by Michelle’s gruff voice, “Oh, no, you don’t. You’re not going to bed without giving us access to rooms.”
A moment later, he was alone again, and Michelle had claimed the second largest room. It was the same size as the rest of the rooms, but she didn’t need to know that. As soon as Eli’s head hit the pillow, he was asleep. Four hours of beautiful, dreamless sleep had passed before the sounds of screeching pulled Eli from bliss. William had used his trinket to wake him up.
“Hey,” The scholar screamed, his voice echoing in Eli’s mind, as he was still wearing the stone. “Wake up!”
“What is it, man? Stop yelling.”
“There you are, my boy. I just wanted to tell you that the Wolffen want to join you. And, well, a bunch of other people too. You’re in luck!”
“Wait; what? Who’s coming?” Eli responded, rubbing sleep from his eyes.
“Just a few extras. One, maybe two hundred.”
“Two hundred, how am I supposed to feed and house two hundred people in an abandoned temple, with nothing but ruins everywhere?” Eli responded; his voice was a mixture of shock and worry.
“No. One or two hundred on top of the Wolffen. In total, it’s about four hundred.”
“Four. Four, hundred?” Eli stammered before shock overtook him.
“You see. Everyone is afraid of the blight, and the city guards are increasing their practice of forced labor. They are pulling people from the streets. Demanding work as payment for back taxes. If you don’t have the coin on you, it’s into the workforce you go.” Eli stopped talking and waited for more bad news. “Needless to say, they aren’t too happy to see all of their free labor up-and-leave. So. We have a tail of scouts with us, not much we can do. We tried to stop them, but they already know where we are headed. They want to see the state of the new stronghold. That announcement didn’t help keep things secret,” William said, finally taking a breath. After several seconds of silence, the wizard noticed Eli wasn’t responding. “Are you still there?”
“Announcement? What announcement,” Eli asked, expectantly.
“The world’s first announcement. You were the first adventurer to capture an altar and a stronghold. All Citizens and Adventurers received a message about the great and powerful Eli Miller and his new unnamed city. You might not have heard it, because you’re the one who did it. The gods wouldn’t inform you that you did a thing. Because, well, you did it.” William said in confusion before his voice took on a tone more expected from someone in their teens, “Why didn’t you name the place? You should call it Booktown, or something. Get it? Because of all of the books! Those are still there, right?”
“Yes. They are. I have to go,” Eli responded, before closing the connection with a thought and trying to smother himself with a down pillow.
Chapter 37
While sitting in his room, contemplating transferring ownership of his new stronghold to anyone that wasn’t himself, Eli heard a quiet knock on his door. Whoever it is can wait, he thought, lying in bed. After several seconds of pounding, Eli stood, putting on his pants and inching his way over to the sturdy wooden door. As he did, he heard Don’s voice, as if he were whispering through the small gap between in the frame.
“Eli, hey man, we need to talk,” The Turta said, filling Eli with concern. Eli wanted nothing to do with whatever worried his friend. He wanted to be alone, to think over what happened. His friend, however, would not give him that option. “It’s important; I can hear you shuffling around in their man. Just open the door, please.”
After searching his room for an alternative exit and finding none, Eli relented and opened the door. He would have to face his proble
ms, eventually. Running away from them is what had gotten him, and possibly everyone who played his game, into this mess. His inability to process his emotions, and work through losing his family, led him to lock himself in a fantasy world. Leaving his friend and coworkers to deal with everything on their own should have never happened. Even though he had little memory of his best friend, he missed the man he knew was a lifelong friend, James. He would know what to do.
“Hey man, what’s wrong,” Don whispered, followed by a firm grip on Eli’s shoulder. “You’re different. Something happened back there at the Altar. You’re not yourself.”
“You’re right,” Eli sighed, making room for his friend to enter. “I haven’t been for some time now,” he replied, closing the door behind them.
What followed was an intense mixture of emotion, and confusion, that neither of the two was prepared for. Eli explained everything. He told Don who he was, how his family had died in real life, and how he had sealed away his memories before starting over inside the game. He told him how they had died again, inside the game, and how the man trying to take the altar killed them. How if they failed to stop the blight, people might get trapped in the game or kicked out, or whatever would happen if the disease took over. His friend sat quietly, listening. When Eli paused, Don nodded and thought—giving Eli room to think about his own words. After he finished speaking, running out of words to fill the void, Eli sat in silence. The weight of his thoughts lifted from his soul, as though the simple act of telling someone his problems cured the sickness inside him.
Eli explained everything; how he had created a new world, a perfect, peaceful world, filled with magic, endless opportunity, and immortality. He had given himself a second chance, but even that wasn’t enough. He had failed to protect his family for a second time. They were dead, killed by players who didn’t know how real this world was, who didn’t know the repercussions of their actions. Or their effects on other people. He no longer felt anger at their actions. To them, this was a game, realistic, but still a game. He just wanted his family back, to not feel the pain of their loss any longer. So, he sat next to his friend in silence, who was looking at him with empathy.
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