The Dragon's Wrath: A Virtual Dream

Chapter 35: Bad Motivation

(Tuesday, May 11th Game Day / Saturday, February 13th Real Day)

I was in a persistent bad mood and moved about with general anger floating through my mind. The fact that the same presenter that had given the crowd my name while saying I was experienced in the North, had now showcased my territory as being exceptionally advanced compared to the rest....

I couldn't understand what she was thinking, if she was even thinking at all.

She painted a gigantic bulls-eye on my back and through the discussions everyone in that room was well aware that the territory was mine. That I was one of the few users in the whole damn region and the only one in the freaking far North.

Initiating the login sequence only moments after I had returned home, having finished wolfing down a burrito mid-drive, I was ready to put things into motion. The lights dimmed and with myself strapped in nice and secure, I closed my eyes.

Opening my eyes to the darkness of the night, I quietly grabbed my gear and made my way out into the forest. Far out of earshot from the sleeping NPCs I drew my axe and started to take out my aggression on the trees.

Smashing, chopping, hacking, slashing… I did it all.

Furiously felling tree after tree, I was pacing at damn near two trees a minute. Picking up my pace I was able to get it down to three trees a minute until I collapsed to the floor from exhaustion.

With only the moon at my back, I had felled 446 trees in the three hours of darkness. That was enough to start working with, but not enough to finish everything that I had in mind.

Looking up at the slowly vanishing moon, I soon found myself staring at the sun.

The day had finally turned over.

Jogging back to the village where the NPCs had started to shuffle about, I rounded everyone up and decided to give another on-the-fly speech. Making sure everyone was awake and at attention, I then started, "Good morning everyone, I hope you all enjoyed the festivities the day before and were able to adequately rest.

"I had made mention of wanting to develop this village into a place where everyone would be comfortable and would have ample opportunity to succeed. But in order for any of that to come to fruition we need to work together to build up the infrastructure first.

"We need buildings for the crafters to perform their work: a blacksmith, tanning station, spindle house for the weaver, trade post, and a shipyard. There also needs to be a barracks for the warriors, along with a palisade around the border to provide protection from monsters. These aren't easy tasks, but for now I will need everyone's assistance."

Finishing my lousy mini-speech, I quickly ushered everyone forth.

First, I directed the warriors to pull trees, with the idea of having them work in teams of ten to haul logs back on their shoulders. Next were the woodworkers, who were immediately set to working the logs I had already prepped.

Without delay I also instructed all of the able-bodied men to assist in clearing the excess branches to the side. Selene and Katherine were in charge of providing food, while those who could not physically work were left to gathering fresh drinkable water for those who could.

The children were free to play at being fishermen along the river bank, with some supervision of course.

In the meantime, I started digging once more.

I had a lot of buildings to dig for …and a lot of digging to create a proper palisade. There were also the two parcels of land I had cleared for farming along the other side of the river bank; that would need to get started immediately.

There was simply a lot of work to be done.

As the hours passed and the day began to wind down, I stopped to look at what had been accomplished. Along the riverbank the kids continued to play, having managed to catch a few fish they were all beaming with pride.

Down the way, the shipyard had started to take shape with a basic outline to mark the land. Across from the lodge, the craft workshops had already been erected and would be finished by the next day. Behind, the beginnings of the makeshift barracks was starting to come together, essentially three 30'x30' small log cabins similar to my own.

The digging had progressed incredibly quickly once I conspired with the woodworkers to fashion forty wooden spades, no longer would I be the sole digger in this village.

The palisade had even begun to take shape, as the ditch had been partially dug out around the two-thirds of the village that would require it. With the mountain behind, there was a natural wall already.

Having in excess of sixty hands to help move things along was a huge bonus.

My anger had dissipated as I no longer felt that I would be in such dire straits if someone were to attack, 44 Combat NPCs sufficiently developed would be a force to be reckoned with.

Heading into the cabin to call it a night, I saw Selene off in the distance sitting by the river. I could see through the small cut-outs that Katherine was inside the cabin with Barkley.

Hesitating to go inside, I turned back and went to sit next to Selene along the riverbank. Selene didn't bother to turn her head as she continued to watch the aurora while listening to the soothing sound of the running river beside her.

I felt bad.

Leaning my head onto her shoulder I decided to apologize, "I'm sorry, I've done something terrible." She continued to sit there motionless and silent, so I decided to rotate and placed my head in her lap instead.

Looking up at the aurora, I soon found her staring back down into my eyes.

Meeting her gaze and locking eyes, I gently wrapped my hand around her shoulder and pulled her down into me.

As we kissed in the moonlight along the riverbank and under the red and green aurora, I slowly brought her into me.

Words no longer needed to be said.

She knew what I wanted, and I knew what she wanted.

I was only sorry for Katherine at this point; she would be the odd girl out.