I awoke and opened up my map immediately. I had done it! By spacing the buildings far enough apart, something that was done with the hopes of future expansion, the empty space in between was automatically claimed. This was a huge game changer. A master plan began to form in my head. If the towers were built within viewing distance of one another the space in-between should be claimed. This could lead to the claiming of huge swaths of territory. A note sat at the bottom of the map.

  Bogus Crest and Flag not created.

  Charging out of bed and getting dressed with a rush, I ran to the breakfast tables where everyone was getting ready to eat breakfast including Timothy.

  “Timothy we are a territory! Last night the map was updated. We're a territory. We need to create a flag and a crest. There's so much we have to do,” I blurted out energetically. My energy was not matched by the denizens of the great hall.

  “DJ calm down, calm down it's early for some people and it's very late for others I'm assuming you leveled up again,” Timothy said.

  “Yes! Yes I did but that's not the point. The point is we're a territory now we can claim area and land which I think has some sort of benefit I'm not quite sure. The quest system seems to indicate that it has benefits including a reduction for building costs and a reduction to the Mana cost it takes to build things. Also it expands my viewing range on my map,” I said as I summoned up my scroll. I laid it out on the table showing the newly updated map.

  “That’s incredible,” Rinn said.

  “How can we expand the territory,” Timothy asked.

  “Well if we build more fire watch towers like the one behind the temple I could expand the map considerably,” I stated. “However, that would involve going deep into unknown territory. Curare would need back up.”

  “Granted, Rinn, Don and Myself will accompany you and Curare on your journey. Go prepare, we set out as soon as Curare is awake,” Timothy said.

  As a result of us being gone for so long Timothy broke people up into groups. The squads had been unofficial for a while but now they were official. There were four of them though they didn’t really represent an even split of everyone.

  Alpha Squad- Contained Timothy the knightly leader, Don the Dwarf with a mouth, and Rinn the knife wielding killer. Okay Rinn hadn’t killed anyone but he had the most monster and animal kills out of anyone. They had established themselves as the most capable fighters and therefore were the primary hunting/ defense force. With the building of the temple and its massive doors the need for nighttime defense was lessened. So the Alpha Squad lately spent a lot of their time hunting. If not for Helen's recent success in the discovery of edible plants the squad would have needed to continue its daily hunts.

  Builder Squad- Was Curare and me. That’s it just the two of us.

  Cultivation Squad- Contained Helen the beautiful elven druid, Melody an alchemist and sorceress who was actually an elemental even though she looked human, May-Mihn the mer creature, no one knew what she was, and Nerium the elven ninja. They weren’t a combat squad but rather a planting, growing, cooking, and whatever squad. Other than Helen I didn’t really interact with any of them and I couldn’t recall ever up to that point having an actual conversation with Melody. I had seen her yes but she was very unassuming.

  Danger Squad- Was Alice the Spell slinging Bat-Vampire, Guitari The LIzard Wizard, Jose the Ranger Summoner, and Tawani the Horizon Bard. They were living proof that stealth was always an option. An option they never took. While powerful they never really succeeded at hunting unless they encountered something that mistook them for food.

  The great tower expedition was kinda boring. We headed south first going deep into the hilly forest. Everyone could have gone faster but I was busy harvesting samples of various plants, rocks and trees so they moved at a crawl. Timothy and Curare had taken up practice fighting with sticks. The forest was beautiful but nothing worth elaborating much further on. When we took a break in the forest everyone sprawled out on the forest floor looking like they were in an epic fantasy. That’s when it struck me they looked like they were in an epic fantasy because they were in an epic fantasy. Which was the height of the day. Walking and staring at rocks and plants is only so interesting. As for conversation, forget it. With the exception of the sparring duo and me harvesting there was silence.

  The first tower went up without a hitch, as did the second. The goal was to build eight towers creating a giant ring around the temple hall. The towers were built just like the wooden fire tower that was built previously. The format worked and I honestly didn’t want to risk making a tower that didn’t work.

  Camp was made at the top of the tower which was just a flat platform with a guard rail. I removed five stools from my inventory and placed them out so people could sit. As I did this Don starred in amazement.

  “Tha’s some Marry Poppins Shit,” Don said.

  “Careful Dooley he might start calling you Yondu,” Rinn teased.

  “Sorry No, Can’t whistle,” I said.

  “Seriously,” Timothy asked, shocked.

  “Yep, can’t whistle," I said.

  “40% can’t apparently,” Rinn said.

  “BS that can’t be real,” Timothy said.

  “Look it up on your phone-ah,” Rinn said, going soft at the end of the sentence

  “Shit,” Don muttered gruffly as everyone sat around in the darkness. It wasn’t complete darkness thanks to a near full moon but it was definitely dark. It was silent for a good while before Curare spoke.

  “What do you think the world’s like,” Curare said.

  “Hard to say,” Timothy stated but I knew immediately that statement was wrong.

  “We could make some inferences,” I said.

  “Yes but they wouldn’t be definitive DJ, they’d just be hypotheses. Though I am curious as to what you are thinking,” Timothy said. Even though I couldn’t see his eyes and could tell he had turned his head to stare at me. I sighed and licked my lips knowing this was going to be long.

  “Well first we must address the elephant in the room. Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in this world or we are not. Both are equally terrifying,” I remarked.

  “Clarke,” Curare asked.

  “Yes and a very relevant quote for our situation,” I stated softly. In the dim light I could see Timothy nodding but not everyone was getting it. I heard a rumbling uhhhhh and decided to explain.

  “It is possible we are alone in this world. That we are the only intelligent life forms. That thought has been bugging me especially since we have been here for a little over two weeks,” I remarked.

  “You also think it’s strange we haven’t seen anyone yet,” Timothy remarked, his voice ominous.

  “We haven’t been quiet or particularly stealthy. If we were near people they would have noticed us by now unless,” I trailed off not wanting to complete the thought. Curare put words to my darkest fear though.

  “Unless they are already watching us,” they mumbled.

  “More than likely we are deep in uncharted wilderness of some sort and are too far from people. That doesn’t exactly explain why this feels like a video game,” Timothy said.

  “Yeah that’s more of a bottom of the iceberg thing but let's go there. We don’t fundamentally know whether or not this world is real or not. It seems very much like a video game and has all of the elements of a video game. I unfortunately don’t know of any video game capable of doing this nor does anybody else. There are stories in our world of people being magically transported to another world,” I explained.

  “Like if you stepped into a fairy ring,” Curare said.

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  “It’s a possibility and very similar but I'm not quite sure. This more seems to be a game world of some sort. I can't quite identify the game or system but that’s what I got,” I commented.

  “Game,” Don said.

  “It doesn’t really matter this is reality now isn’t it,” Rinn said.

  “More than likely,” I remarked bitterly then sighed.

  “This isn’t productive, we should sleep,” Timothy recommended. We obeyed mostly because he was correct that this wasn’t productive not at all.

  Late that evening I was awoken by a shaking object pressing firmly into me. It was Curare pressing into me shaking wildly. They were shivering and pressing into me for warmth while asleep. I ignored it and went back to sleep. It was a cool night and the extra warmth wasn’t unwelcome. Though perhaps the real reason I just let them get close was it was nice to not feel alone in a cold, dark and unfamiliar world.

  Nothing was said the following morning. I packed up the stools after everyone ate some jerked meat. I had stopped asking what the meat was after finding out that I was eating giant many toothed skunk once. Having never seen a giant many toothed skunk I didn’t quite appreciate the kill and the food and was more grossed out. It wasn’t nearly as repulsive as the giant slugs that Guitari had taken to cooking up and eating but it still was too much for me. We set out and for the third tower not knowing what lay in store for us.

  The walk to the third tower was shaping up to be a bore. Curare had leveled up which was nice. No one else had managed another level. Timothy had around mid day insisted that they stop sporadically sparring and instead watch where they were going.

  “Dooley stop,” Timothy ordered out of nowhere. I stopped harvesting some stone that looked plain on the outside but I discovered was far more valuable on the inside.

  “Huh,” I asked.

  “Armored Rat,” Don screamed as a large object came barreling through the woods. Curare rushed forward shield first and slammed into the horse sized creature. I immediately understood how it got it’s name even though I knew it by a different one.

  “Dude,” I uttered in disbelief as it pushed against Curare who was bracing against it’s mass. The creature had armoured plates all down it’s body. Giant claws protruded from it’s front paws. Suddenly there was a crack and a scream. A long tentacle-like object had wrapped around Curare and thrown them into the air. The giant creature curled into a ball and came rolling forward. A dived out the way of this giant Indiana Jones doom boulder of a creature. I struggled to my feat as I saw the creature discover the wonders of Don's hammer.

  “Fucking Rat,” Rinn said next to me.

  “Smutsia Gigantus,” I said. “It’s a giant Pangolin.”

  “I don’t care what it’s called! Dooley stay back Rinn kill it,” Timothy bellowed. Rinn scrambled forward to get into throwing range. The whip like tongue darted out and took Don down with a crack. The dwarf rolled on the ground cursing. Rinn threw a dagger nicking the tongue. The Pangolin let out a snarl and a horrid smell.

  “Careful it’s panicked,” Timothy said. His words quickly proved all too prophetic as the pangolin began to slash at Timothy. The claws broke across the armor but still sent Timothy flying into a tree. I decided now was a really good time to hide in a bush. Which is what I did while Rinn danced around the Pangolin opening small cuts into it’s soft spots. Finally Rinn got a good deep cut just above the eye. As the Pangolin reeled away from the cut it quickly found it’s head in perfect striking range of Curare.

  “Smash,” they cried as they brought the mace down square on the forehead of the creature. There was a loud crack as the mace connected. It was enough and the Pangolin jerked upward. Curare was slammed by the large head and knocked to the ground. Rearing up the Pangolin looked like it was going to finish Curare off. Instead it ran off. I rose from the bush in complete disbelief. I had found some edible berries. More importantly the Pangolin had just run off.

  “Yeah, Run Away Motha Fucka,” Don screamed, getting to his feet. He tossed a large boulder at the retreating creature but he missed.

  “We need to move,” Timothy shouted. “Everyone?”

  “I found one of the bushes Helen said was edible,” I exclaimed as I began harvesting bushes. Everyone stared and I stopped still chewing a berry. “What?”

  I was grabbed by the back of the collar by Curare we “hauled ass” out of there. After about an hour we slowed down and took a break. We set off again shortly and continued on our expedition. There was a notable change though I was no longer harvesting…silence was deemed prudent. Also people were slightly worried I may be distracted by a shiny rock which they weren’t entirely incorrect about.

  Night was falling as they approached the location they planned to build the third tower. Like the two times before everyone fanned out to watch the forest. I raised my hammer and entered the build mode. As the tower began to go up a chill ran down my spine as a primal howl ripped through the forest. The creatures that rushed out the darkening woods were from some horrific nightmare. They were roughly the size of motorcycles and looked to be a cross of an ape and dinosaur. A lizard-like head was adorned with bone plates forming an elaborate crest. There was a line of fur that ran down the back of the creature all the way down to the whip-like tail. The creature had large massive forearms with ape like hands. Its legs looked small compared to the rest of its body and were covered in fur. I desperately wanted to watch the battle but my task required concentration.

  Yeah that totally wasn’t happening. An arrow zipped by barely missing my head as it struck a Lizard-Ape, or was it a Dinoape maybe a Cursed Chicken, point is I was stuck in the crossfire. Side note we went with Lizape for the name of the creature.

  It had become the worst game of Jenga ever. Magical light and runes swirled around me. The tower rose as wood assembled and formed the structure. Everything was going well. My mana was controlled and I had really improved with these towers.

  I was about to congratulate myself on a job well done when a knife danced across my face. One of Rinns daggers got knocked out of his hand and went flying. The blade created a long gash upon my brow. The distraction was momentary and more of a nuisance than a struggle. Though as the saying goes it only takes one moment and that moment a giant support column crashed into one of the Lizapes impaling it. I could see the blood pooling in my left eye and there was nothing I could do.

  One of the weird lizapes collided into me causing me to fall to the ground. Curare slammed into the thing with their shield and then finished it off with several mace hits. This was all fine and good, what wasn’t was the half finished tower that began to collapse. I scrambled across the ground to recover my hammer and rechanneled the magic. Magic was pulled out from me with alarming force eliciting a scream of pain. The world began to tilt, rocking back and forth. Vision going dim I willed myself onward as all around an epic struggle drew to a close.

  The hammer clunked to the ground with a thump. My knees followed shortly after. Off to the right a Lizape let a pained howl. The howl was cut short with a muffled thump.

  “That’s the last of them,” Curare stated, their helmet muffling their voice.

  “I think we should get on top of the tower,” Timothy said.

  “Agreed,” said Rinn

  “Let me go up first so I can add some extra things to make it a little nicer,” I said as I approached the stairs shakily. Those improvements and extra things never happened.

  I didn’t level up but apparently everyone else did. I awoke to Curare sitting next to me on the floor with a rare smile on their face. They handed me a piece of jerked meat that I took and began to chew. It wasn’t great but that was kinda what they had so I didn’t complain. Don and Rinn each had their status books out and were looking at their stats.

  Timothy seemed to be in a good mood. I was giving the orders for this expedition for the most part. As a result he was relaxing and living in the moment. To say that this didn’t stress me out at this point was an understatement. The previous night was almost a complete disaster.

  “I almost lost control,” I muttered under my breath.

  “Huh,” Curare affirmed. We sat in silence just watching everyone. I rose to my feet to look at the surroundings. Judging by the hush that followed me standing and the subsequent dismissing of the status books it seemed people took this as a que. It wasn’t, I just wanted to check things out. A giant statue of a man with a sword was carved into the mountains.

  “Fantasy Mount Rushmore?”

  “What,” asked multiple confused people.

  “Does anyone else see this,” I questioned as I pointed at the statue. Everyone got to their feet to come look.

  “Shiiit…you're not hallucinating,” Don stated. Everyone looked at Don with blank expressions.

  “What?”

  “Hallucinating,” I asked.

  “What Ya expecten you ain’t seein shit,” Don said.

  “Kinda,” I said

  “Fuck You,” Don said.

  “Ass,” I said

  “Shitty Chinese Knock off Bob the Builder,” Don said.

  “Are they about to fight,” Curare asked.

  “Nah they ain’t lokin at each other,”Rinn said. “You have to be worried about a fight when they are staring at each other.”

  “That's not good. Statues had to be built which means somebody had to build this one. It didn’t mean that they were still around but it did mean that they were here at one point. Which meant everything just got a lot more complicated,” I explained.

  “Yes professor,” Curare said.

  “I want to go explore it,” I said.

  “We should finish our current objective before going off,” Timothy supplied.

  “Agreed”

  -Interlude-

  DJ sighed heavily.

  “May we take a slight break,” DJ asked.

  “Yes. Um, is everything ok? Are you ah uncomfortable,” Spade Williams asked, sounding a slight bit alarmed.

  “I’m fine this part isn’t easy,” DJ stated, rising to his feet. He paced a bit before going still as a statue. DJ didn’t blink, he didn’t rock or fidget, his chest hardly moved to show that he was breathing, he just existed. Silence, thought inducing silence, nemesis of the traumatized, mentality insecure, and guilty, emerged in the empty space that was DJ’s story. Like a man emerging from a nightmare, DJ snapped back to reality. Taking a seat he breathed heavily as if trying to come down. Spade was alarmed he had been warned that this was not going to be easy but they had barely gotten started.

  “You never forget the first time you see a violent death,” DJ whispered, disturbing the silence. “It seems silly to call what I am about to describe as a horror especially given the entirety of what has happened. Yet the death I can’t get out of my head is the first one. It haunts me to this day. Have you ever seen someone die violently, Master Gnome?”

  “I cannot say I have,” Spade Williams said nervously. DJ didn’t seem to have any emotions. The expression on his face was blank as if some creature had stolen his emotion and eaten it. A small eerie smile forcefully took form on his face. The look terrified Spade.

  “Let’s hope you never have to witness such as I am about to describe,” DJ muttered as he began his story again.