The next day I made the clearing around the hill wider. Additionally I thinned out some of the plant growth a bit of the way in. The goal was to improve overall safety and early detection of creatures lurking in the woods. It wasn’t much and I very much meandered. I decided I was going to cut a third path in the woods for cleaning and waste refuse. This way people didn’t have to either walk in on the men bathing then walk down or go walking through the woods.

  As I was walking I spotted an unusually shaped plant. Stepping off the trail I went a little ways into the woods to a tiny clearing. Sitting in a beam of sunlight covered in moss, vines and other plant life was clearly the shape of a chest. Excitement built up inside me, this was like one of those fabled legendary chests that only existed in video games. This was no video game. I reminded myself for what felt like the hundredth time.

  This was like a real world. In the real world something like this wouldn’t happen. No, something like this could happen except that wouldn’t be a chest. The minute I’d reach out a hand to open it the creature would open its fearsome mouth and “mimic” would be the last thing I would ever think. On the other hand so many things in this world were like a video game that a random chest just left in the open didn’t seem so impossible. Five days in a fictitious world and the greatest crisis I was facing was turning into whether or not to trust this random forest chest. Okay it wasn’t the greatest crisis but it was pretty high up there.

  Here I thought existential crisis, and irrepressible thoughts of death were bad but nothing prepared me for Mental Mimic Madness. That is to say nothing could have prepared me for staring at what logically should be a trap and wondering if I was born big check lottery winner lucky. That is to say, lucky enough that this is just a chest and not a mimic.

  Deciding that the only option was to go for it I crept forward toward the chest. This was a really stupid idea. Like top ten worst ideas ever. Readying my hammer I tentatively stepped forward and lunged at the chest. With a bing sound the chest disappeared into a flash of light. This left me gesturing around the clearing. Was that supposed to happen? Should I have received some sort of item? Standing around for another minute I gave up waiting for something to happen and headed back toward the trail.

  At the fork I arched south and began cutting through the woods. That had been so anticlimactic. I didn’t want a mimic but even an empty chest would have been a little exciting. The clearing work was tiring but I made it to the stream and heaved a sigh. I had been slightly worried about being attacked.

  I sat down at the edge of the stream. Checking my stats to double check my mana, and look at my resource counts I noticed something. I let out a scream of joy. This was followed shortly by a yelp and sudden splashing sound. Looking around the scroll I saw someone splashing frantically in the water. The only person too short to just stand up in the water was Don and this clearly wasn’t Don. When I realized a second later it was Helen in the water I banished the scroll and swam/walked over to her. I helped her to the shore line where I was thanked with a slap to the face. She had slapped me.

  “Don’t go frightening people like that,” she scolded.

  “I…,” I paused and swallowed. “I’m sorry. I just realized I found something amazing.” “ That must be nice. Today all we found was a store of mimics,” Helen said exasperated.

  “You found a store that sells mimics,” I responded confused.

  “No. A pack of mimics is apparently called a store,” Helen said with a slight smile on her face.

  “Oh Like a murder of crows. So what happened,” I asked curiously, hoping everyone made it out okay.

  “Well, we have been doing a lot of hunting and exploration missions lately. This was one of them. Unlike the others this one went very wrong very fast. Rinn fell out of a tree and had to be carried back to camp by Timothy. We all should have gone back to camp though we only would have done that with hindsight. Initially the thought was we had stumbled into a treasure trove. Guitari the dragon wizard was the only one who didn’t go charging into the stacks of treasure and chests. We quickly discovered these were mimics as they started to tear us to pieces,” Helen explained.

  “How did you escape,” I questioned Helen.

  “Jose, he’s a sort of ranger. Turns out he’s good at more than screaming at the sky,” Helen said with a bit of a smile.

  “Huh?”

  “Oh, You weren’t awake yet,” Helen remarked, realizing I had no idea what she was talking about.

  “Jose when he first woke up looked at what he was wearing and had a complete meltdown. He screamed that just because his parents were Mexican didn’t mean he wanted a fantasy poncho. Shortly thereafter he called the creator’s of this world racists for making him a ranger. He also brought up the poncho again. So one day Jose finds a horse in the middle of the woods. A minute later he and the horse are like best buds. Almost as if the horse was like a dog or something. Jose names the horse, something, and brings them along everywhere. When we realized we were doomed we started to run. Guitari used magic to push the horse into the path of the mimics,” Helen finished.

  There was silence for quite some time. Did they just casually kill Jose’s pet horse? What was wrong with these people? Also how was Helen so damn casual about this. Clearly the stress was making everyone numb and I had to be careful that I didn’t break as well.

  “So. What did you, um, harvest,” Helen inquired awkwardly, breaking the silence which had been growing at an alarming rate.

  “I got a legendary box of creation. It allows me to build one building regardless of resources,” I said excitedly.

  “Oh, is that all,” Helen mouthed softly.

  “This is huge. You see, I have this legendary blueprint that looks amazing. I am currently not able to actually build it and I”m pretty sure I won’t be able to build it anytime soon. With this box I can build it. To give you a better idea this thing is like a cheat code. Except it’s a very powerful cheat code,” I declared. How could she not see that this was an amazing item.

  “I'm assuming you're gonna do this tonight,” Helen queried.

  “Yes, as soon as I get back in fact, do you wanna come watch?”

  “Sure it’s not everyday you see a legendary blueprint,” Helen teased with a smile on her beautiful face. I was geeking out a bit I knew but this was a big game changer.

  Like the times before I unclipped my hammer from my belt and lifted it into the air. A magical circle formed around my legs glowing a bright purple. Soon the ground began to glow purple and a low rumbling was heard in the ground. I had chosen to build the legendary blueprint on top of the hill because something in my head told me that was the correct place to build such things. That is to say aesthetically this felt like the natural place for a grand building.

  A crowd had gathered to watch whatever I was doing. This may also have been because this was where food was being served nightly. The glow from the hammer began to envelope me as well as the ground began to shake harder. Then items began to fly out from the pouches on my waist.

  “DJ, “ somebody questioned, alarmed. I didn’t respond. I couldn’t really, I had to concentrate. Onlookers began to inch slowly away growing very nervous by the display of power. The hammer began to glow at an almost blinding rate like a small sun with magical power. Objects began to form around me causing panic to erupt from the bystanders. People abandoned the hill altogether at this point to get away as the objects began to get larger and larger. The ground glowed in the outline of a building. Soon the objects swirling around me begin to find their place in the outline on the ground. I was conjuring a building seemingly out of thin air. Wooden walls rose high into the night sky as a building that would have taken ages to build was suddenly built in a matter of minutes.

  When the bright magical light finally dissipated I found myself standing in a round wooden rotunda with a domed roof. The floor was made of cobbled tiles intricately laid out in a fine pattern. The 13 cots were gone. Now in their place stood 13 stone plinths. Each with a flag on a wooden pole. My eyes fell upon a flag with a shield and a hammer on it. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that that flag was mine and that plinth represented me. The rotunda was magnificently carved, the kind of thing that would take craftsman decades to produce. Carved into the wooden beams were decorative animals and wolves. Two large cavernous halls sat on either side of the round rotunda. One with tables and benches and a small stove looked like a kind of dining hall. The other had the original 13 cots. With cots laid out on either side.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  I would have taken in the grandeur of the place longer and maybe even gone to check on my other displaced legends but the world began to grow dim around me. It shifted uncontrollably left, right, forward, back, and spun as if were on some sort of carnival ride. I felt ill and sick to the stomach like I’d puke at any second. I took a shaky step with my right foot and then attempted to take another step with my left. Suddenly the ground shifted and I was colliding with the floor. It didn’t hurt. Darkness swam across my vision and….I was out.

  Yup, I had bottomed hard. It was back to the inky blackness of dreamless sleep. That British god voice was back again! It had amazing news.

  Initiating level up procedure

  Dooley Jones level up to Builder level 4

  Builder level 4 accepted

  Health Increased From 20 to 25

  Manna Increased from 800 to 1000

  Skill unlocked Harvest Level 2

  Bogus now has a centralized structure… reconfiguring Bogus.

  Hall of Heroes accepted as Bogus centralized structure.

  Trying to establish bogus territory… error… no territory delineation established a territory cannot be established.

  Establishing a centralized location… the centralized structure Hall of Heroes has been accepted as a centralized location.

  The bogus campsite has been removed from all maps; it has been replaced with the Temple of Bogus Hall of The Legendary Heroes of the 42nd Age on all maps.

  Once again I awoke to the smiling face of Helen. Gods she is beautiful. Wait, did I just think of gods. Wasn’t the expression God she is beautiful? So why did Gods seem correct in my brain? This would have led me down a dark and disturbing thought chain but a delightful smell snapped me out of it.

  At the foot of my cot with a wooden tray in her hands Hellen carried what smelled to be a delicious meal. Sitting up I grabbed the tray and began to devour my food with swift vigor. I didn't know why but I was starving. Hungriest I have ever been in my life. As I ate I began to think about the last thing I remembered doing. I had used way too much mana. I knew I had used too much manna based on my earlier building projects. What I couldn't figure out was how I just instinctively knew how to build something like this giant palatial structure. The other thing that bothered me was that voice that I heard in his sleep. This wasn’t his first time hearing omnipotent god voice number five and her smooth British accent.

  What bothered me was that there was an update to all maps that listed this place as The Temple of Bogus Hall of The Legendary Heroes of the 42nd Age. The word soup title was worrying but the all maps was the main thing I was concerned with. Who now knew where they were and what they were up to? If this was a potentially unfriendly world we could soon be getting a very rude visit. Without even saying the word knowledge out loud just thinking it my scroll magically appeared and opened up. I began to read.

  “What’s wrong,” Helen asked. I must have made a face or reacted somehow to what I was reading.

  “I just got some new clues about the world we are in and I’m slightly worried,” Helen looked directly at me and waited so I continued. “When I level or anything changes I get the British sounding voice in my head.”

  “The level up voice,” Helen offered as confirmation.

  “Yes well it said that this building is officially called The Temple of Bogus; Hall of The Legendary Heroes of the 42nd age.”

  “That’s too long,” Helen said.

  “Yes but that’s not the point. The middle part Hall of The Legendary Heroes suggests that we may be hugely important. What worries me is the last part,” I rushed the words coming out in a torrent.

  “I don’t follow,” Helen commented.

  “The 42nd Age,” I stated as if it was obvious. “That means this place has had at least 41 ages. That means history and potentially other people or at least ruins of other people.”

  “Ooooo,” Helen said and grew silent.

  “I also have a quest system. I mean I got the system yesterday but all it said was build four buildings. Today it’s got a lot more to say,” I paused, unsure of what to say or how to describe what I was reading.

  “Well come read this,” I said to Helen beckoning her to sit next to me on the cot. Helen moved to sit next to me without hesitation. She smelled wonderful like fresh flowers but of a variety that I was completely unfamiliar with. She began to read the scroll and her facial expression became blank.

  You have succeeded in building your first structures, congratulations. This is the momentous day when you emerge from the wilderness and begin building civilization. However civilization requires territory and you must claim yours! Set markers at the edges of your land to establish borders.

  Claim 500 Acres of Territory.

  Requirement for Level 7

  You're on your way to establishing a place worth existing in. Basic necessities must be met though. Food must be grown, tools must be crafted and trade must flourish. Construct the following buildings.

  A basic farmhouse, A basic Forge, The craft Den, Goods Warehouse.

  Requirement for Level 10

  “Yeah I’m not sure what to make of all this honestly,” Helen said.

  I sighed dismissing the scroll. I looked around the hall taking it in for the first time. The hall didn't have windows; instead it had holes cut into the walls with shutters to cover those holes. It was apparent that people had slept on the cots and had left various items next to them. It seemed many people had the equivalent of starting gear as well as their outfits and weapons which were of legendary quality. Why this was resulted in yet another mystery that they needed information about this world to solve. I decided I should be asking questions that could be answered instead of pondering the unknowable. I turned to Helen.

  “How long was I out,” I asked.

  “Not long, it's just after midday,” Helen replied.

  “Just after midday you mean I slept till noon.”

  “ Past noon according to the position of the sun,” Helen stated matter of factly.

  “ So I've been useless for most of the day.” The prospect was dreadful. I wasn't really proving my worth lying about. I needed to be valuable to be protected. With no fighting skills I was as good as dead on my own.

  “ You haven't been useless because of you we had a safe place to sleep last night instead of the warehouse. This place that you built it's incredible. Everyone else is in awe of what you did.”

  “I used a legendary item to build this place. I can’t take credit for it.”

  “You can and you should,” Helen leaned in as she locked eyes with me. She had placed her hand on top of mine. The ocean of her eyes were captivating yet no matter how beautiful they were I couldn’t keep my eyes locked with hers.

  “That said everyone would like some warning before you begin building next time. I'm assuming that you're going to build some of those basic builds,” Helen said as she leaned back and removed her hand from mine.

  “I have to gather some things first but yeah that's the idea.” I got to my feet and stretched out. Looking down at my dirty clothing and bed I sighed. “I was just in the river.”

  “Oh today you don’t have to,” Helen said as she waved her hand. “Aqua Fresh!” she bellowed. A glowing mist swirled around me and my bed. It also gathered around the dirty dishes from the meal. In an instant they were cleaned and gleaming. It was just like magic because it was magic. That was the hard thing for me to just wrap my head around just how useful magic was going to be.

  “Anyway we are trying to figure out how to grow some crops since I’m the druid, it's my new duty. I’m also the only healer beside Curare. Since she’s also a fighter she's excused from mundane tasks like healing.”

  “So I’m a mundane task?” I queried with a grin on my face. Helen gave me a startled look and her face began to glow a bright red. I let out an easy laugh as Helen stammered but failed to get any words out.

  “So we only have two healers,” I asked, giving her a way out.

  “For the moment , there are two others that we hope may develop healing powers but we just don’t know. Nobody knows,” Helen said.

  “Has anyone leveled up,” I asked. I had gathered others like Timothy were studying the level system but I was meticulous and wanted to study it myself.

  “All of us but not many have gotten past level 3,” Helen Replied.

  “Let me guess we have no idea what that means in relation to anything. Levels are meaningless if we don’t know what they mean. Level ten for example could be high, median or low. There is just no way to know for sure,” I commented.

  “Yes. Timothy explained something like that when you built this place last night,” Helen stated.

  “Seems like I need to go speak with Timothy. Am I good to go Doc,” I asked with a grin.

  “That depends,” she said, putting her hand to my forehead then her forehead to the back of her hand. The result was her being so close that the tips of our noses touched. She pulled away and gave a teasing smile. “You're good.”