I continued to harvest trees for another thirty minutes or so. Could have been an hour chronology was still super sketchy back then due to a lack of time keeping items. By the time I stopped a small clearing had formed. I would have continued but Timothy wanted everybody to get back to camp which he said was more defendable. The walk back was short and uneventful. Occasionally I would stray a bit to smack a tree, bush, or rock. I wanted to see if I could harvest anything. It seemed like I could.

  Checking my scroll I began to notice certain trends. Not everything required the same amount of mana to harvest. Similarly there were things that you couldn’t just one hit harvest. Smashing a boulder made of onyx I learned I needed to reach higher levels to harvest some objects. Which meant there was a way for me to gain experience. This meant I could do every gamers bread and butter, which was also their worst nightmare. I could level up and I could grind.

  Something that began to gnaw at me was whether I would eventually be able to harvest things like humans. The thought made me shudder. That was a line I hoped I never crossed. Power corrupted and I was worried I would fall easy prey.

  Right now as it started to drizzle I wished for a little more power. Wait, this was my chance I realized suddenly. This could show I could be useful and not more than a mouth to feed. I found a relatively level spot and opened up my scroll. A lot of the blueprints required more materials than I had or required more mana than I had.

  I could try to do something called freebuilding which would allow me to set down individual building pieces like walls and roofs. This should save a massive amount of mana according to the explanation given on the scroll. Deciding that free building was the way to go to save both resources and mana I held aloft my hammer. I didn’t know how I knew to do this. I just did what felt correct if that makes any sense. It was a weird feeling like when you heard what would become your favorite song for the first time. In short it was instinctively perfect.

  The hammer began to glow blue and a sort of grid appeared in my vision. Having played enough sim games I knew immediately this was a building guide. Righteous, I exclaimed in my head. My theory was proven true at least from my point of view. Most if not all the others were clearly in some sort of action role playing game but I was in either a sim or survival game. The first would be super awesome as I assumed that at further levels I’d have access to all sorts of things. The second meant I was in an unknown race against time, starvation, or some other menace could be coming. I shivered from a grim thought, winter could be coming. Nothing kills more brutally than the harsh winter.

  For now I had to build a basic structure for shelter. A cobblestone foundation came first followed by four walls. Sadly flaps were all I was able to do for a door. As a result of there always being a giant opening I elected to not have windows. They would have just been holes in the wall. Glass was something that I hadn’t figured out yet. The roof was made of woven plants which was how the flaps were made. I was exhausted when I finished building the structure. Turning around I smiled and looked at everyone staring at me. They all had gathered while the structure was going up.

  “What,” I asked. The world seemed very hazy and like it was shifting from side to side.

  “You just built a hut in less than a minute,” Helen stated, amazed. Turning back to the building I had to admit that it did look like a primitive hut but it had taken me lots longer than a minute. I had toyed with it for what felt like almost an hour. Timothy approached the hut and began to inspect it.

  “Can you build another,” Timothy asked. I shook my head and instantly regretted it. Pain shot through my skull as the world rocked back and forth. I opened my scroll menu hoping the status tab would explain what was going on. I found the culprit in seconds. My mana was at twenty of two hundred. That would easily explain why I felt so exhausted and just bad. Literature had all sorts of terms for this, as well as video games, in this world the sensation was called mana fatigue, we called it bottoming. Double checking my blueprints I saw that Bogus Hut was added to my blueprints along with a resource requirement. So nice for the world, menu, game, whatever it was to stick to using bogus in the name.

  “Sadly…no mana…no resources,” I stated deliriously. I entered the hut structure and sat down in a corner. It was smaller than I thought. Part of me thought the grid might make things seem bigger but I wasn’t sure. Other thoughts followed this train of thought but I was on the 3:10 express to dreamland.

  In my dreams omnipotent god voice number five was back. Voice five spoke in her usual robotic British voice.

  Initiating level up procedure

  Dooley Jones level up to Builder level 2

  Builder level 2 accepted

  Health Increased From 10 to 15

  Manna Increased from 200 to 400

  Skill unlocked bird's eye view

  Green light and something tickling my face woke me up. Helen’s eyes glowed green and green light surrounded her. Her hair floated up around her as if gravity had been flipped off. It was a mesmerizing site that left me feeling all warm and fuzzy. In a comfy blanket by the fire sort of way. This was a result of the magic that Helen was obviously using. Though her appearance did give off massive angel or goddess vibes. I tried to speak but the breath just caught in my chest. As the spell ended her hair stopped floating and her eyes went back to their normal blue.

  “Your arm should be completely healed after one more healing,” Helen stated. I was amazed at what she had done with just two healing sessions. My wounds would have taken stitches and maybe even a cast using modern medicine. The magic had me feeling much better after almost two heals. Her face fell a bit and I knew that I wasn’t gonna like what she was about to say. “Timothy wishes to speak to you and assign you a task for the day,” Helen remarked.

  “Why and do I have to go and listen,” I asked, trying not to sound flippant or defiant.

  “He is the de facto leader around here. He is the highest level and he has been awake the longest,” Helen stated. I guess my face gave off a “so what” sort of expression because she paused and then spoke rather softly. “Timothy woke up first, everyone else was asleep and couldn’t be awoken. He decided to watch over us and stay to protect us. The wolves arrived a little while later. It was an entire night until Rinn and I woke up.” Helen opened and closed her left hand almost impulsively. She was missing her pinky finger, something I had missed when I had looked her up and down. My gaze was noticed and she held up her hand.

  Helen continued to speak softly, a grim expression on her face. “Yeah this was a souvenir from that night, that nightmare. Timothy got us out of the shock and got us fighting back. He just had the voice and presence that commanded “follow me if you want to live”.”

  “So he is a terminator,” I asked jokingly.

  “I could have said that better. We listened and we survived. Over the next two days more of us awoke and more wolves came. Everyday Timothy stood firm and strong like the knight he is dressed as. We all awoke dressed and equipped like legends but I have a feeling Timothy already was one. He’s just got that air about him.”

  “You admire him,” I stated.

  “Yes, yes I do,” she stated blushing slightly. “Just listen to what he has to say, it might be something you’d naturally do.”

  “Did the others adapt to fighting naturally,” I asked thinking about the other day.

  “Timothy, Rinn, and Don adapted so quickly you would assume they were naturals. Everyone else Timothy coached into fighting or hiding shape.”

  I wasn’t entirely reassured but I decided to listen. Until I was stronger or could fight, cooperation was essential. That was just the reality of being weak.

  I caught up with Timothy who was talking to an armored figure at the top of the hill by the cots. The sun hung high in the sky making it sometime around mid day or so I assumed. The figure nodded to Timothy and saluted. Their face was obscured by a helmet but the shield they carried was very distinctive with it’s vibrant purple color. The figure passed me by and I suddenly realized this was the figure who slapped me with healing. They also killed the wolf that was on top of me. If not for Timothy approaching I would have said something but Timothy was way too fast.

  “I need two things from you. First I need you to widen the path leading to the stream. The dense forest hides predators and I don’t want us being the prey of choice. Second I need you to make more structures or preferably larger ones. The hut was too small for everyone to lay in. Also we need structures that are a bit more defensible,” Timothy stated sharply.

  “I will try my best,” I stated. This was a huge ask. I didn’t quite understand how everything worked.

  “Do your best. We are low on food, even with the wolf kills today,” Timothy stated and I shuddered. They were going to eat the wolves. Guess I really wasn’t in America anymore. “The hunting of animals has not gone well probably due to the vicinity of the pack of wolves. I don't want to die due to starvation. From what I've heard it's not a fun way to go. If I have you working on shelters for everyone I can have everyone else doing the hunting and exploring,” Timothy explained in a somber way.

  Several hours later the path to the stream had been widened. To say it was painless or effort free would be a lie. My stats said I had wasted almost half my mana knocking down trees. Even after the level up! With a sigh I reflected that there was such a long way to go. Something nagged me about the level system. Most sim games were quest or task based. Getting to a certain amount of x or acquiring enough of y was the usual way of things. However the levels were more like a survival game. These contradictions plagued me when I attempted to definitively declare that I was in a sim game or survival game. Fact was this wasn’t a game, this was my new life.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  I spent about twenty minutes seeing what I had to work with. This involved a ton of math, observation, conjecture, calculation, and guess work. To me this next bit was fascinating however you may not find it so. The hill was perfectly circular as if it was almost man made. The hill had a flat top that had a radius of about 200 feet or 30.48 meters that began to slope downward gradually. The slope was at its steepest somewhere in the middle of the hill's height which was around 120 feet according to my grid system. With birds eye, my newest skill, I was able to see things from above while using my build power to gain details like elevation. Using this I found the hill was perfectly even all the way around. Which tipped me off almost immediately that this wasn’t natural. The hill gradually sloped upward at its base. I calculated that the circumference of the hill was about 7850 ft which meant that I was looking at the total building area of 113 acres. This was of course assuming I did my math correctly.

  An area the size of Disneyland was mine to build on. It was so much space and yet so little at the same time. Unlike a sim game I figured you couldn’t just delete things. Buildings that were already built would need to be demolished or upgraded which may or may not be an easy process. Essentially the problem boiled down to something that a lot of sim games made the bread and butter of their challenge. What you built and more importantly how you built it was whether you would succeed or fail. In the first minutes of a sim game you usually had very little resources and a ticking clock.

  That ticking clock was definitely here in this world. People needed food, shelter, and more. If morale dropped to low people would leave and go off on their own. Right now everyone was held together by a debt of gratitude toward Timothy and the idea of mutual survival. When people inevitably got stronger the bond of survival would disappear. People only stayed loyal to a leader if their needs were met. Needs went unmet for too long and people would leave or worse rebel. To add to the list of problems all they really knew about the world was what they could glean off of stat menus and short distant scouting.

  I’m not sure how long it took for a plan to form in my head, but one did eventually form. Storage would eventually be needed for all sorts of goods and commodities. These were buildings that would need to be centrally located so they could be easily used and would not need to be replaced. Additionally the town should be fortified.

  “What am I thinking,” I said aloud as I stood on the slope at the base of the hill. Why was I thinking about a town? This wasn’t going to be my new home was it. I didn’t know but somehow I felt I wasn’t ever going home. A gentle voice brought me out of my thoughts.

  “Don’t know,” Helen said as she approached from behind.

  “Ah yeah I’m working out some things,” I stated.

  “I gathered. You want some lunch,” Helen offered.

  “Sure.”

  It was some dried meat and some berries. It wasn’t good. I ate everything though knowing that you needed to eat when you could. Finishing the meal I finally spoke, breaking the silence.

  “Thanks,” I mumbled.

  “No problem, I’ve been tasked with keeping everyone on their feet,” Helen stated.

  “Yeah,” I paused, then stated something that was bothering me. “Do you want to do that?” Helen made a face then nodded.

  “Healing is pleasant, so is gathering different plants. Making sure everyone eats, not so much,” Helen stated then frowned and looked at me. “Are you unhappy?”

  “No, I’m just…when people dream of going to different worlds I don’t think I’m what they imagine,” I remarked.

  “You can build what would take days in a matter of minutes,” Helen stated. “Who doesn’t imagine that kind of power?”

  “I…you have a point,” I conceded. “I guess I always imagined I’d be the hero of some epic.”

  “Strange, I always imagined I’d be a rich and successful doctor that would discover some life saving something or rather. How did your dreams predict this,” Helen asked with a smile.

  “No one ever imagines fantasy to be like this,” I stated.

  “Yeah this isn’t the best but only we can make it better.” Helen rose from the grass she had sat in. She began to walk away then turned and said, “You don’t have to be the epic hero Dooley you just need to be the hero of your own story,”

  I reflected on what she said as she walked away. I had things to do. Rising to my feet a slight breeze brushed against my face. It would be so epic to say that standing on that hill I shed my doubts, embraced my power, my responsibility, and imagined a future city built by me. Nope, it didn’t happen that way.

  I proceed to build my massive structures in a thin area of trees away from the hill. The hill bugged me. It was unnatural and I wasn’t ready to embrace that fully yet. Weird I know when you consider that I was doing magic builder stuff.

  I held aloft my hammer and slipped into the build mode. A cobble stone foundation measuring ten thousand square feet made up the base and floor. Next to go up was the framing made of large sturdy wooden beams. Planking made up the walls which like the hut lacked windows of any kind. A large singular opening housed a massive sliding door that slid along a divot carved into the foundation. More modern doors were still out of the question until I mined some ore. Ore was needed for metal and metal was needed for all sorts of building details like hinged doors.

  Mining was something that freaked me out a bit. Collapses were common and here they had no emergency rescue teams. That was a problem for future me. I had to get people someplace safe. I shook away the intrusive thoughts and continued building the roof. Unlike the hut I made this roof entirely out of wood. This meant that the next thing I had to make was an organic resin to seal the ceiling. Normally this would require fire but oddly I was able to craft this using tree sap and several other ingredients I had harvested. Odd as it was, I wasn't going to complain about something that worked in my favor. I used my power to apply the resin to the roof. Last I laid down a number of clay tiles to finish the roof off. Similar to the resin, I didn't need fire to bake the clay. Which to me seemed like a massive cheat but again I wasn’t about to go complaining.

  Swaying slightly, I noticed my mana was only at 10 of 400 when I checked the scroll. I had another building to build but I didn’t have nearly the mana to build it. In fact I was struggling to stand up straight. I stepped inside the storage building and headed straight for a corner. Curling up I fell asleep leaning on a wall. The voice came back and proceeded to tell me what new skills and abilities I had won this level up. Dreams never came and sleep provided no escape.

  Initiating level up procedure

  Dooley Jones level up to Builder level 3

  Builder level 3 accepted

  Health Increased From 15 to 20

  Manna Increased from 400 to 800

  Skill unlocked Quest System

  “Whatz da problem,” Don asked. I opened my eyes and blinked several times. It was dark inside the warehouse which meant either the door was closed or it was nighttime. While I had heard the previous parts of the conversation Don’s question was the first thing I fully processed.

  “This is the best he can do,” Timothy stated gesturing around the empty warehouse.

  “An outhouse would have been nice,” a voice that I was unfamiliar with chimed in. It was a soothing melodic voice that had perfect annunciation. Wanting to slap myself I groaned a bit. Outhouses were essential. I had personally used a tree and some leaves but most people probably didn’t want to rough it that much. Also waste management was something we had to get ahead of fast.

  “The cots by the fire are permanently mounted there by some sort of magic. Most of us have bedrolls with the adventuring gear we got so this isn’t awful, it's just not ideal. Helen wants to start growing crops but that requires a huge clearing. We also need outhouses, cooking facilities, places where we can shower privately, and other necessities. These things need to be built before moral breaks. Which will happen if hunting continues to go badly,” Timothy stated. “Some of the others have already started to voice opinions that they’d be better on their own. I indicated they were free to go whenever.”

  “You didn’t mean that,” the musical voice that sounded feminine said. I turned to look at the speaker. Her appearance was breathtaking. Her hair at it’s base looked like it was normal type 4c hair. Her hair became extraordinary as it extended past a hair band made of cloth. The hair seemed to fade into an ever changing nebula of stars. It shifted and changed colors with a slow gentle grace. I could have continued to look at her hair but the rest of her was just as amazing. Black mist flowed and curled off her dark brown skin. The mist had the interesting quality that scattered through it were small dots of lights. She had long pointed ears that were far longer than Helen’s elf ears. Her eyes were beautiful but a normal dark brown. She wore a short chiton tunic made of an Ankara fabric. When my eyes got all the way down to her feet I gasped. She didn’t wear shoes. The reason for that was most likely because her feet never touched the ground. This woman just floated in the air slightly of the ground.

  “I did Tawani. I’m not going to force people to stay here. We don’t know what’s out there. We really know nothing about this world. If we can’t find food, store it, and make this area safe we might be better out there,” Timothy stated.

  “Dat ain’t his problem tho,” Don commented. “Ya can’t take dat shit out on em. Ya can get em to commit to buildin dat shit.”

  “As Helen pointed out he built this in less than a day. I would love to see you do better,” Tawani said.

  “I can’t. This structure will be a huge asset. I was just hopeful for more,” Timothy said gloomily.

  “Once he is rested and awake we’ll see what more he can do. This was the first structure he put up. Not everyone was used to their roles when they awoke. You just got lucky,” Tawani commented.

  “Shit Guitari lit his ass on fire,” Don the dwarf paused. “He ain’t sleepin no more.”

  “I’ll get the farm and outhouse done, you can count on me,” I declared from my spot on the floor.

  “I hope so,” Timothy stated as he went to exit the giant warehouse. Tawani shook her head and Don harrumphed. Yeah this was going great already.

  I built the required outhouse first. It was dark outside but fires had been built to light the area around the hill. That was something else I had to figure out, what to do about lighting. I knew candles were made of wax of some sort but I wasn’t sure how exactly they were made. Honestly I hoped if I gathered the ingredients I could just make them but I was pretty sure I had to understand how it was made first.

  The outhouse had multiple stalls with clay chamber pots that could be emptied. That was going to become the worst job here. I sincerely hoped that somebody had a magical solution for the problem. Paper was also something they were going to need sooner rather than later. For now rags and water were the solution even though it was a solution I didn’t like to think so much about. This was the part Fantasy novels, movies, and games didn’t prepare you for. Shitty things like sanitization. People took a lot for granted and this was just another one of those things.

  If I ever made it back to earth I’d title my memoir something like My Shitty Time in another world; How I spent years trying to rediscover modern sanitation I thought to myself at the time. It most likely would go unread. Also we were most definitely stuck here. This fantasy world was totally bogus.

  I headed to the north of the town. North and west there were tall distant mountains. East and South there were no large obstructions which made me think civilization was most likely to exist that way. Well if there was civilization anywhere near here. This was blind conjecture but to me it made sense. Figuring Helen would need at least an acre of clear level land I began to make a clearing. Hours went by as trees were harvested, rocks were harvested, plants were harvested, and small animals were scared away. The sun hung high in the west when I was finally done with this project. If Greenpeace existed in this world they’d brand me a danger to society and an enemy to the world. I had meant to only clear an acre of land but I had cleared more. Just like that a large area had been clear cut for farming by one person with no machines in a day.

  “Terrifying,” I remarked out loud in the middle of the ecological disaster I had created.