The Empires Rise

Thankfully the night passed without issue. Waking up I find that the raven is perched near the end of the bed on the chest. Thinking about it, I still have to give him a name so I can stop call him "The Raven." So while sitting there thinking I figure why not, I give him a gentle poke to wake him up.

"Hey, would you like a name?"

"Finally! I thought you would keep forgetting until suddenly I got stuck being called a raven out of pure embarrassment of you not figuring out a name for me."

Taking that as confirmation, I recall a family pet from when I was a child. It was a nice black lab that was always around and was super fun to play with and was a little mischievous. Recalling those memories and my family and how well we got along when I was younger starts to get me down, when I feel a nudge against my chest from the raven's head.

Snapping out of it I look carefully at him and speak up, "The name that I would like to give you is Ritotorius."

"Ritotorius?"

"Its meaning is 'The Ritual of the Weaver."

"There must be a lot of sentimental value to you then?"

"It was the name of my family's first pet. We named him that because every morning my parents would pet him right as they were about to leave for work...I have many happy memories with him, and I want to have more with you." I reach down and gently stroke the top of Ritotorius' head.

"For short though if you don't mind I will call you Rito."

"I am just happy that you have given me such a personal name."

Analyzing him again I see that the name section of his sheet has changed to Ritotorius and it gives me a small amount of hope for what is to come for the day.

That is when I notice the terrible smell coming from right outside. Going to check what it is I see that it was the crab that I killed yesterday, which also makes me remember that I haven't eaten for the last 24 hours. Hurrying inside I take a look in the chest and grab out one unit of food, which is a little bit of bread and I scarf that down quickly before taking a second piece as well.

Finally feeling full after eating two solid chunks of bread I start to make a plan for my day.

"First I will figure out the rest of what the settlement tab has to offer. Then I will look at getting some of the tasks that are on my list to level up my settlement so I can see what bonuses I receive. After that I think I will continue with the exploration of this area to see if there are any other places that I can get food from."

Having thought my day through I start on my first task which is the settlement tab. I open my menus and look closely at the tab and find the overlay button, I press it and get my top down view. While in this view I can hear Rito talking to me.

"While in the overview look around the edges and see if you can find a building option there."

Looking around quickly I find it sitting in the lower right corner of my vision. Mentally pressing on it I receive a set of different structures that I can build.

Building Options:

Small Dock - Available 2: 1 to build, 1 to repair; Able to attach two small fishing boats at a time, can be used for fishing as well.

Small Garden - Available 1: 1 to build; Able to plant small seeds to start a garden must be placed in a location with a decent fertility rate otherwise no growth will occur. Size is 2m X 2m

Small Mine - Available 1: 1 to build; Able to mine out ores and stone from a cliff side or hill.

Small Hut - Available 0: Max Capacity acquired; Houses 1 or 2 people at a time, provides mild comfort and shelter. Size is 3m X 3m

Wooden Fence - Available: Unlimited; A low fence to help keep out small monsters and critters. Has a very limited health pool for those that are attacking it. Provides limited defense while behind it.

Seeing my options aren't many I look for places to put some of the other buildings since I already have a small dock in place and it just needs to be repaired. Thinking along those lines I select the small garden and it gives me a small holographic image that I can place anywhere. One thing I also notice is that the grounds start to turn different shades of reds and greens.

Looking around my territory I notice that there aren't many dark green areas, using educated guesses that green is good in this case, and those areas that are deep green are smaller than the garden I will be able to put down. So I pick the best spot with a little bit of dark green and a lot more of a lighter green. With the location selection complete I receive a prompt.

"After confirming the placement of your building the total material cost will be 10 units of lumber and it will take 4 hours of time without someone actively working on the project. Do you wish to proceed?"

Confirming my selection Rito pops into my head again.

"With you placing down the garden the materials will not just automatically appear near the construction site you will still need to bring them over yourself or you could have one of your other workers do so if you had a warehouse to pull things from. In this case I can help with that process but I will need to bind the small personal inventory bag to myself since I cannot physically take them with me."

Contemplating it further I decide that he should bind it to him since I can't use it currently anyways.

"Also you will need to give me permission to access the Lord's Chest since currently you are the only one allowed to open it."

"And how would I go about giving you permission?"

"All you have to do is go to the Lord's Chest and think "Permissions" and when that screen pops up you just add me to the list of allowed persons."

Proceeding to do that it takes me a couple of frustrating minutes before I am able to give Rito access to the chest. During that time he has already bound the bag to himself and was just waiting for me to get the chest permissions handled. I receive a "Ding" and curious I take a look at the message that comes up.

"Ritotorious has grabbed 10 units of wood from the Lord's Chest in Caelnova."

Finding that interesting to note I continue back to the settlement overview screen. I bring my vision over the small dock on the northwestern section of the map and see that there are a couple of options.

Small Dock !!Repair Required!!

Materials required:

20 Wood of any tier

Hours till operational:

6 hours

I took a look at building a new small dock next to it and find that the amount of materials required is more than twice as much and it will take longer to complete. With no reason to think about it anymore I go ahead and get the order queued up for the dock to be fixed.

Having completed that task I look to find Rito and come back to get a second load of wood to bring to the small dock. Calling to him I say, "Hey, when you are done with that would you like to go out and scout more in depth around the hut to see if there are any monsters that I need to be aware of?"

With him giving me a curt nod he continues what he is doing. I heard another "ding" informing me that Rito had grabbed another 20 units of wood from the Lord's Chest and I watched as he flew away quickly.

I walk outside again and start looking around, not seeing anything in the near vicinity. I start my walk up towards the garden to see how it looked as it was being built.

Watching slowly as the garden is building itself I see a timer on top of it stating that there are still 3 hours and 45 minutes left before it has finished. Trying my hand at helping quickly I go up to one of the pieces of wood, grabbing it. I see that it needs me to move it to a specific point on the construction hologram. Placing the piece down I see it form to the piece below it slowly. I looked back at the timer to see that the amount of time has decreased by 10 minutes.

Feeling productive I continue to grab the rest of the wood and put them in the assigned spots, watching as every piece places lowers the time by another 10 minutes. By the end of all of the wood I see that there are still 2 hours left before it is complete.

Suddenly I hear the flap of wings, I stretch my arm out like I have seen people that train birds on the internet do and Rito lands gently on my arm before slowly hopping up to my shoulder.

Looking at him I ask, "Are you ready to do some scouting?"

With a nod of his feathered head we start exploring. Since I hadn't seen anything while I was close to my hut I decided that we will start by doing a circle around 100 meters out. With Rito on my shoulder I make my way around, slowly to make sure that I haven't missed anything when I stumble upon a set of rocks low to the ground to the northeast of the hut. With me working on my analysis skill I receive the following.

- Open air copper vein (Small): Gathering at this spot will produce Tier 1 copper ore. -

Not much information but definitely something that I will take note of as I find more resources around the area. Telling Rito to fly up and see if he can find anything else I continue on with my initial 100 meter walk. As I am walking up to find a couple more small flower plots in the southeastern section of my loop I hear Rito tell me something.

"Master, I have found what looks to be a buried chest to the southwest of the hut. It is a little bit further than 100 meters out but I felt that you should know about it as soon as possible."

Thanking him I quickly headed that direction, it took me a couple of minutes since I wasn't the most in shape guy and when I finally got there I could see how I would have missed it on my way to the beach and back from the grasslands.

Buried so just barely any of the chest is sticking out of the soil I can see a small glint of metal. Looking at Rito I finally understand why something like that would have caught his attention with his skill of Find Shiny Object being at level 6.

Slowly as I am digging the chest from the ground I get hit in the back with what feels like a large rock which causes me to fall to the ground. Feeling immense pain in my back I quickly turn around to see a small figure standing there. Analyzing it I find it is a level 1 Goblin with 3 health points.

Rito is already casting an arcane shot at him and misses him, while I also do the same and mine thankfully hits the goblin launching him further away from me and dealing 4 health points of damage killing it instantly. Slowly getting back up I carefully look around me to make sure there aren't any more lurking around to find that one is slowly trying to sneak up on me from my right hand side holding a small dagger in its hand.

Before I can do anything Rito casts his spell again barely grazing the goblin but not doing any damage to him. While I also cast and I hit the goblin right in the head blowing it up by dealing 8 points of damage.

With the battle complete I receive my rewards.

"Congratulations, you have killed a level 1 goblin. Reward 2 Experience points (1 Shared due to your soul bonded companion);

Congratulations, you have killed a level 2 goblin. Reward 4 Experience points times 1.5 for a total of 6 Experience points (3 Shared due to your soul bonded companion.)"

I look at my experience to see how I am doing.

Name: Drake Taldrit

Race: Human (F)

Gender: Male

Planet of Origin: Culhara

Health: 1/5

Mana: 6/10

Class: Mage

Class Level: 1

Experience: 7/100

Turning to Rito I mention, "I am very low on health," wincing a bit as the pain in my back acts up for a second. "I feel we should go back to the hut and heal up and make sure that I don't accidentally die..."

Looking to see what time it is I find that it is just after noon so heading back right now is probably the best thing anyways as I was getting hungry from all the wandering. I grab hold of the chest that I just lifted from the ground and make my way back.

Upon arriving back at the hut I set the chest down as I stretched out my arm. Rito takes that as an opportunity to land on it before hopping up to my shoulder nuzzling my head with his.

With my mind on all the pain that I was experiencing I remember that I haven't analyzed the chest that I had been lugging back to the house this entire time.

- Wooden Chest: Contains a random amount of Tier 1 resources and an additional item randomly. -

- Initiate Mages Robes: +1 Defense, +1 to Intelligence and +1 point of damage to spells cast. -

- Ring of Focus: Increases the chance to hit a target by +5%; Increases Wisdom by +1 -

Right away I equip the items and then I see if I can just see what the stat increases are on my stat page so that in the future I can quickly see any increases or decreases. To my shock it works.

Mana: 11/15

Defense: 1 (2 when attacks directed at ankles or feet)

Intelligence: 4

Wisdom: 3

Hit Chance: +5%

Having looked at my stats I also go to the settlement tab and check to see the progress there.

Settlement Information:

Name: Caelnova

Tier: Roadside Hovel

Level: 1

Experience: 5/10

Territory Size: 1Km X 1Km

Buildings:

Hut Level 1

Small Dock Level 1

Small Garden Level 1

Requirements to level up:

Beat 5 monsters in the area (4/5)

Have 3 different buildings (3/3) Complete.