by Noah Layton
‘Hmm…’
Alorion slumped down on the fence and tapped his chin, staring absently ahead of himself as he thought.
‘Don’t worry if you can’t remember…’
‘Oh!’ He suddenly blurted out. ‘No, wait, I know this one! You need to acquire a flag.’
‘… Does that mean the same thing here as it does in my world?’
‘What does it mean in your world?’
‘Well… It’s a stick with a piece of cloth hanging from the end.’
‘Exactly!’ He said excitedly. ‘Exactly. They must be planted on the land you wish to acquire. Then it will belong to you.’
‘Just like that?’
‘Just like that.
‘Great. Where can I get these flags?’
‘I… Have no idea. That I don’t remember. Apologies. But I do remember that you cannot purchase them from traders or sell them. They are unique to you.’
I thanked Alorion and returned to the tree, looking around at my totems. Water, Harvesting, Building, Stables, Defense, Storage and Maps.
Building and Maps seemed the most likely totems; I checked the first, but my doubts were confirmed. The only options available were for potential structures that could be built on the land.
I moved to the Map room and placed my hand on the tablet before the stone table. The blue grids lit up on its surface, and I zoomed in to the sections of land that I had already mapped out; my tribal land, the trading post, the old bandit’s camp that we had raided weeks ago, Ichabod’s Cove, Ark Point, and the Rourke Homestead, as well as all of the land in between that we had traversed in getting to these places.
It was a compiled compendium of my tribe’s collected geographical knowledge, but the miniscule nature of its size when zoomed out compared to the rest of the land was astounding.
We were a drop in the ocean of unmapped land that surrounded us.
I had never seen any options appear on the map table aside from uploading knowledge of the land and new maps that I acquired in my adventures. Examining the land I had discovered, I zoomed in on the Rourke Homestead and was greeted by a slightly 3-dimensional view of the land, completely as I remembered it – the acre-field, the broken fence and the reasonably-sized farmhouse at the farthest end.
‘How am I supposed to do this?’ I muttered to myself. I tapped my finger against the image of the section of land that now occupied the map table. A flicker of blue light swept out, but that was all.
Instinctively, I double-tapped it – and it worked.
A window appeared.
Create flag?
I pressed accept and was greeted with another window and a wall of text.
Warning:
Tribal flags can only be used on selected locations. Any attempt to use flags for their non-respective areas will result in the destruction of the flag.
Any and all sentient beings within lands selected for ownership will be immediately informed of the attempt to claim the land.
Ownership of new land takes ten minutes to complete, regardless of size. Removal of the flag from the land will result in failure of the ownership attempt.
I read the rules back twice, just to be sure there were no hidden clauses. Agraria’s building system hadn’t lied to me yet, and I had no reason to believe it would this time. It was unprejudiced and unopinionated; it functioned like a computer, carrying out actions based around a series of predefined rules and instructions.
What stood out the most was the alert feature. The moment I attempted to take over a section of land, anybody residing upon it would know what I was trying to do. In addition, it took ten minutes for the land to fall under my ownership – plenty of time for anybody on the land who disagreed with me to stop the attempt, either by removing the flag or stabbing me in the face and then removing the flag.
Below all the warnings was a final accept button.
I pressed it, and the flag appeared on the upload-slab right next to me.
I took it up, headed out of the Map room and examined the item.
It was basic, even non-descript; nothing but a two-foot long wooden stick and a white piece of square cloth attached to one end. I was actually a little disappointed.
But this object was now the key to expanding my tribe.
We had been using Arabelle, my new horse, for all of the legwork, and this time was no different. My intention was to keep all of our livestock at the Rourke Homestead while the horses remained at the tribe’s primary land, where Santana could take care of them. In the future I could begin expanding our fleet of horses to accommodate the growing numbers of citizens, and to alleviate the exhaustion of walking long distances.
We equipped the cart to Arabelle, and Jeremiah got to work filling it with his possessions. No less than a few weeks after he had arrived he was heading back out.
While in the midst of the process, I told Santana. She went straight to her father to talk it over, but after a few minutes the decision had been made, and they both seemed happy about it. I didn’t know how to feel about the fact that I was separating a family, but deep down I could tell that they both thought that it was time.
They didn’t share a tearful goodbye – they were both composed people, particularly after years of working on a farm and staving off wolves.
Once the possessions were packed up, as well as the deconstructed fences used for the pig pen, we loaded the other cart, attached it to Myranthia, and then rounded up the taurems and piglets. The piglets would stay in the cart, and as long as the taurems were constantly following a trail of grass that we fed them, they were happy to move wherever the food was.
Jeremiah, Lara and I hit the road a short while later and reached the homestead well before midday without a hitch.
The homestead was as we had left it back when Lara and I had helped Jeremiah and Santana move. The fence was still rotting, the house was boarded up and untouched – the only variable was the uncut grass, which had grown even longer in our absence.
Lara and Jeremiah took the cart to the house and began making their way inside while I headed to the centre of the pasture.
Once there, I retrieved the flag from my inventory and pushed it into the ground. Around the flag’s point a blue square appeared, similar to those on the grid in the map room, only this was a yard on all sides. A window appeared at the tip of the flag.
Select land that you wish to claim.
Leaving the flag in place, I looked around and stepped outside of the square. Another blue square appeared beneath my feet, lighting up in response to my step. The first also remained.
This is going to take freaking forever, I thought.
I was going to need to walk across every square yard that I wanted to claim.
As I headed to the edge of the field and continued to light up more squares, though, the thought of the hard work became secondary to my satisfaction. I was literally claiming land for myself. It was becoming mine, and becoming part of my tribe.
At the fence that bordered the homestead I hopped over out of curiosity, moving into the edge of the forest.
The red X that I had become familiar with appeared, and a counter began ticking down.
10.
9.
8.
7.
I quickly hopped back over the fence, and the counter disappeared.
I could only assume that the process would fail if I left the land designated to the flag during the claiming process.
It prompted another question about the system, though; what denoted the fact that this land was the Homestead? It came under Jeremiah’s definition of what land belonged to him, but it was as if the land itself knew.
A breeze rolled past, shaking the tops of the grass blades and briefly setting the hairs on my arms on end.
The land felt alive. This world was an entity in and of itself.
I shook off the feeling and got back to work.
Over the next fifteen minutes I snaked from one end of the land to the other,
jogging up and down the field until I reached the stables and the house. I had broken into a light sweat and took a drink of water from my canteen as I slowed and selected the land around the buildings.
‘What are you doing?’ Lara called down from the upstairs bedroom window as I passed through the back yard.
‘Claiming the land,’ I said. ‘What does it look like?’
‘It looks like you’re running up and down in perfect lines.’
‘You can’t see the blue squares?’
‘What blue squares?’
‘It doesn’t matter. How’s the moving going?’
‘We’re almost done.’
‘I’ll meet you outside in a few minutes.’
My actions in Agraria’s digital interface were completely invisible to everybody but myself, just as everybody else’s were to me, unless I was dealing directly with them.
I headed to the front of the house and started with the stable. I was still in selection mode and I had no idea if structures worked differently to generic sections of land in terms of choosing.
I tapped the wooden edge of the stable with my finger and it lit up with a blue sheen that was so brilliant it almost knocked me on my ass. I headed to the house and tapped its wood exterior with my hand. It did exactly the same.
That was easy.
I returned to the flag in the pasture and tapped its end.
Claim selected land?
I tapped accept. Over the top of the flag a counter began.
10:00
9:59
9:58
I knew that we were safe out here, but I still took a look around in case anybody was coming our way.
All was quiet.
I headed back to the house and met up with Lara and Jeremiah. They had finished unloading his possessions. He led the taurems over to the pasture and settled them in the grass while Lara and I brought the wood to the secluded back yard and quickly set up the pig pen, after which we returned the pigs and the milk trough within it.
By the time we had finished well over ten minutes had passed. I returned to the flag to see a new window stemming from it.
Land successfully claimed.
Choose totem placement.
The flag begin to blink with light. I picked it up and another window appeared.
Replace flag to initiate totem placement.
I closed the window and headed back to the farmhouse, choosing a small section of the yard to the right to place the flag.
After stamping it into the ground and confirming my selection, the flag vanished.
The ground rumbled – way too much.
‘Shit.’
I got clear of the large space. Suddenly, every building that I had unlocked back at my main tribal land exploded up from the ground in the same pattern, albeit condensed thanks to the absence of the tree.
Whatever I had unlocked at my main land translated over to the new land.
That would make things a hell of a lot easier.
Either way, I had just claimed ownership over my first piece of land outside of the tribe’s initial territory.
There was one big difference. In the centre of the totems, where my tree would have been back at the main tribal land, was a new totem. It possessed no idols or carvings atop it, and was as black as onyx in comparison to the white tone of the others.
I approached and tapped the top, just as I did with the others.
A single option appeared
Assign permissions?
I pressed accept.
Tribe member not assigned.
I frowned and headed towards the house, retrieving Jeremiah and returning to the black totem.
I tried again, getting Jeremiah to tap the totem after I had brought the option up.
‘What is this?’ He asked.
‘I’m not sure, but I think that it will allow you to change things on the land using the totem system.
I pressed accept again, and this time it worked.
Permissions assigned to Jeremiah Rourke.
‘Give it a shot,’ I said, nodding to the Building Totem.
Jeremiah headed over and pressed his hand to the totem.
Usually I couldn’t see other people’s menus in the digital interface of Agraria, but this time I could. It must have come down to the fact that I was the tribal leader.
‘Incredible,’ Jeremiah remarked. ‘I’ll get to work right away on building a perimeter fence. This will make construction so much easier. I couldn’t have dreamed of things being this simple back when I did it the old-fashioned way.’
We headed back to meet Lara, who were talking by the horses and carts.
‘Are you going to be all right out here, Jeremiah?’ I asked. ‘I feel like I’m abandoning you. You’re alone.’
‘I spent many years in silence while Santana was growing up, Master Jack. I can sustain myself. The land feeds the taurems, the taurem’s milk feeds the piglets, and nature continues. This is where I belong.’
I asked Lara to prep the horses and carts while I took Jeremiah aside.
‘There’s an expression in my world,’ I said. ‘No man is an island. You probably have another version of it in your holy book.’
‘I think I know what you mean. The idea that a man cannot survive on his own, no?’
‘That’s exactly what it means. What I’m getting at is… Well, would you like an assistant or something out here? I’ve put a hold on bringing in new members lately because we’ve been coasting along, but if I run into anybody who’s good with animals, I could always bring them here.’
‘If you happen to find anybody with the right skills, then that would be useful. I would be more than happy to welcome them into my home. But it takes the right kind of person to work on a farm, particularly when handling animals.’
‘I’ll keep my eyes open,’ I replied, shaking hands with him.
Lara and I bid farewell to Jeremiah and set off with the horses and carts.
‘That was the right decision, master,’ Lara said. ‘I may not have been part of a tribe for a long time, but I know what happens to those that get complacent. They become easy targets.’
‘Easy targets for what?’
‘Everything. Everybody who sees something that they want for themselves. You can’t make progress without making sacrifices.’
‘Look at you being all philosophical all of a sudden. What’s gotten into you?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Taking sympathy on animals, dishing out wisdom. This isn’t like you.’
‘I’m still getting used to living among people, you know? Being part of a group. The safety has made feel more settled than I should be feeling. I’m with you now. Part of the Orakin Tribe. That will become official tomorrow, too.’
‘Official?’
‘The land will be my home.’
‘It already is your home. I added you to the tribe weeks back.’
‘My permanent home. Didn’t I tell you? My rent on the apartment above The Drunken Steed runs out tomorrow. I’m paid up until then, when Rook decides to throw out my old junk and rent it to somebody else.’
I thought back to the first and only night I had spent in Lara’s apartment overlooking Ichabod’s Cove. She and Ariadne had pleasured me with their bodies in a night I would never forget as the sun had set in the distance.
Even after considering that it was the first threesome of my life, the place itself had been amazing. It was a rare location, and an even rarer spot of seclusion in such a crowded area.
‘How do you think he would feel about selling it to us?’ I asked.
‘Selling the apartment?’ Lara said in bewilderment. ‘I have no idea. He owns the whole building. It’s rare that property ever comes up for sale in the cove as it is. It’s one of the safest places in the area. He would probably be pretty reluctant about it.’
‘There’s no harm in trying, right? Why don’t we make a trip there?’
‘Sounds like a damn good idea to me
. You need a new sword, too.’
‘What’s wrong with my sword?’
‘What’s wrong with your sword?’ She repeated. ‘You kill a mother wolf, one of the fabled beasts of the forest, losing your horse and your starter weapon in the process, and the first thing you do is craft another one of the same quality.’
‘So?’
‘So you’re a tribe master. You need a weapon that says you are. You may have proved yourself a formidable fighter so far, but one well-calculated hit from an enemy and you’ll find yourself turned into a skewered piece of meat. You need a weapon that cuts down your foes without you needing to think about it.’
‘That sounds absolutely ideal,’ I said. ‘Just one question; where the hell do I find a sword like that?’
‘There’s a weapons vendor in Ichabod’s Cove that I visit every so often for arrows. Another reason to make the trip there.’
It was mid-afternoon when we arrived back at the tribal land. Alorion was scaling the fence and alerted Tormus to my presence, and within minutes the horses were back in the field and the carts were parked in the stable.
‘Another totem, Jack,’ Alorion said. ‘It appeared while you were away.’
The last time a totem had appeared on the land, it had emerged without warning. This new addition to my collection of totems was something that I could only pin down to my accomplishment of claiming a section of land beyond our borders.
They were like achievements, popping up in response to new successes.
I crossed to the new totem that was facing the southern side of the land, now occupied only by Jeremiah’s old house and the horses.
Atop the eighth marble column was a carving of a small vial.
Construct potions table – 100GP
The only potion that I had come into contact with in Agraria was the Potion of Haste that I had looted from the bandits, whose corpses were still buried in the forest. Drinking it with Ariadne had been one of the most incredible experiences of my life; we had covered miles in a ridiculous amount of time.
Compared to my initial unlocks this was a much steeper cost, but things had to scale. I figured that the more advanced totems that were appearing would have to cost more considering the more powerful benefits I would reap from them.