The Dragon's Wrath: A Virtual Dream

Chapter 33: Developing Culture

(Monday, May 10th Game Day / Saturday, February 13th Real Day)

As time ticked over from Friday to Saturday the sun rose just like clockwork. The village's center, which was nothing more than an outdoor campfire, was suddenly engulfed in a large beam of light. That beam of light faded for a moment then shined once more, repeating the shine and fade alternation ninety-six times in total.

It was the same golden ray of light that had brought me to this world, the very one that spawned every adventurer around the continent.

With each beam of light a new NPC arrived with a bag of belongings like a soldier back from deployment. The noise of freshly arrived recruits woke Katherine who quickly moved away from me while heavily blushing as Selene pretended to be asleep.

I turned around and smiled at Katherine while staring straight past her, staring directly at Selene.

Her eyes were just slightly cracked and made eye-contact with mine.

Katherine didn't catch on but Selene was now aware that I knew she was awake.

I needed to clear the air at some point; it wouldn't do to have two friends going after the same guy. Someone always ends up losing and more likely than not everyone will be hurt in the end.

I eventually rolled over and got up, making my way outside as the two girls changed silently inside. There was clearly tension there but it seemed to be mostly embarrassment from Katherine's side. I wasn't sure exactly what the tension was from on Selene's part… jealousy, anger, doubt… I had no clue.

Opening the cabin's door I found myself staring at a quickly growing mass of NPCs that almost seemed to be getting a bit out of hand. They weren't unruly or anything of the sort, but they were simply showing up too quickly and in too many numbers.

They didn't have the time to even set their bags down after spawning, having to be ushered out of the way for the next arrival.

Katherine made her way out of the cabin first and then Selene followed a minute or two later to join me at my side. In front of us the spectacle of ninety-six fresh recruits lining up to receive their orders was not just inspiring but awe-inspiring.

I never thought I would be in this sort of position, to be giving commands to my own personal army with two female companions fighting for my affection on my left and right.

I decided to give a small speech to give the moment a little bit of an official feel to it, "Good morning everyone. I would like to welcome you to Dragon's Breach, my humble abode, my humble land. I've gathered you here, the best and brightest available the world over for one reason and one reason only: to succeed.

"You are all individuals, skilled and experienced with the potential to become great at the profession of your choosing and all I want to see from you is that success, success in your endeavors, success in your life.

"You will find that this land has many things to offer, that the land is both beautiful and bountiful. You will not be left wanting. You will also find that this land is fairly ruled and that you are all free men and women alike. There is no status quo, no hierarchy between the citizens of Dragon's Breach.

"You will all be free to run your own businesses, to live your lives as you see fit, and all I ask in return is some consideration as the founder. I will strive to turn this minor settlement into something grand and no day is too soon. Thank you, for your time and consideration."

Whether the speech was good or not, I couldn't tell since I just came up with it on the fly, but a few people clapped and Katherine and Selene didn't seem too upset with it.

Well, now that the pleasantries were over it was time to get to work. I did say that no day would be too soon for this settlement to become something grand, after all.

I turned to Katherine and Selene, "Can I leave the directing to the both of you? I need to prepare for a feast. We're going to have a large celebratory lunch to welcome everyone."

Katherine nodded silently while Selene asked for clarification, "What exactly are we directing here?"

"Show them the lodge for now, and let them set up a spot for their items. Then give them each a ration of jerky as they might be hungry, after that… it's up to you two."

With that I grabbed a sled and walked out towards the trees, hitting the forest line I burst into a sprint with the sled over my back. Wolves weren't found this close anyhow and I needed at least a pack, the entire pack.

After roughly an hour I had finally made my way back to the village with eight wolves packed high on the sled I was pulling. At least 800lbs of wolf in total, which should reduce down to about 240lbs of quality meat and maybe 80lbs of render. I wasn't really looking forward to rendered fat soup though, but I could add some salmon to it or something, I suppose.

Katherine had ended up distributing the jerky amongst the crowd, giving every individual around ten pounds of assorted rabbit, fox, and wolf jerky. This raised the morale of the NPCs and their spirits seemed quite lively over their future prospects. Selene in turn was letting everyone set up their belongings inside the lodge that was quickly becoming packed.

She had some reservations when it came to the new villagers being content with such poor accommodations but she had yet to receive any complaints. It didn't take long before both Selene and Katherine realized that nearly every single person that had been recruited had a positive attitude and a seemingly good personality.

They later attributed that to my diligence when recruiting, knowing full well that I was not a man that would skimp on the small details when focusing on the larger picture. I was also secretly told by Katherine that my image had secretly risen once again in their eyes.

It was certainly nice to be appreciated, even if it was a secret.

She was too cute.

Ah… why do I have to choose between them?

Dumping the corpses at the center of the village for all to see, I then kneeled down and started skinning; I had a lot of mouths to feed after all. Plus, there was one specific philosophy that I wanted to showcase out of all the philosophies I adhere to, and that was to lead by example.

I firmly believed in a variety of sayings by one General Patton, two of which went something like: "Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way," and "Always do everything you ask of those you command." Leaders lead from the front, and I had no issue doing the dirty work first for others to follow later.

It didn't take long before the cook had heard of what was going on and came over, engaging in some small chat as we discussed what we could do with the meat. In the end we came to the conclusion that we should spit roast the wolves over a large fire for a few hours, and have them for dinner rather than lunch.

Once I had finished skinning the wolves and butchered them halfway, the recruited chef took over.

One NPC successfully motivated.

My next step was to gather some smaller wooden branches to use as a spit; as I headed out into the forest I was joined by the two carpenters and the shipbuilder who were all proficient when it came to woodworking. I brought a nice sized tree down that had a lot of usable branches and made quick work of it.

The NPCs took care of the rest.

I needed some Salmon next for the soup, so I grabbed the nets that I had previously bought and walked over to the river. As I started throwing the nets out I was soon joined by the two fishermen that doubled as general laborers. With the three of us working together we were able to haul in a sizeable catch in record time.

It wasn't long after that, that multiple NPCs made their way over to introduce themselves and see if they could help in some shape or form. They were just simply standing around conversing with each other after all.

Not one to usually ask for help, I informed them that I would just be cutting some trees down in the meantime, so we would have wood to work with in the following days to erect more structures for everyone to live in.

I didn't need any help for the chopping, but maybe later I could use the help moving the logs. The warriors with all of their strength and bravado offered to carry the logs as a sort of competition.

After cutting down one-hundred and twenty trees, they were all lined up in stacks of three and the forty warriors each grabbed one log and dragged, rolled, or carried it back to the designated spot in the village and raced back and forth until they were done.

This event was later known as the self-explanatory Tri-Log Race.

It provided some needed entertainment though, and hell… it saved me the trouble of carrying them by myself.

By nightfall ninety-nine people were enjoying smoked and roasted wolf along with a fatty salmon soup. Broken up into large groups around multiple campfires, everyone was having a good time. The weather was favorable this time of year, the food was plentiful, and the people were good.

Ninety-nine people and not one was a problem.

The night ushered in its typical silence with all of the NPCs now asleep in the lodge after their hearty meal. With nothing left to do, I made my way to the cabin and logged out. I had been on for far too long and my real body had been starved, a mistake I had made far too often recently.