According to the handbook, a medium mine would hold 200 raw iron ore. It wasn’t all visible at once, of course, but she and the others got to work quickly. Mining was a slow and arduous process, where they each pulled free one large chunk of iron about every hour. At least they hadn’t had to contend with monsters or wild animals, as the game had suggested. Azalea assumed the mine was a recently added feature, so the local wildlife hadn’t gotten a chance to move in just yet.
After five hours of hard work, they’d been forced to call it quits for the time being. They were all getting tired, and they’d filled one rucksack completely with the material. Caius carried it to the starting village, returning with 180 Yemon and a cart full of materials. He reported that the village was almost completely empty now save for the Terrians. The other players, like themselves, had spread out across the countryside in search of money and materials.
“I heard a rumor that some of them found and cleared a dungeon,” he said. “Apparently it was a rather small one, but they brought back a fair amount of loot. The merchant has some of it for sale now.”
“Anything interesting?” Riley asked as Caius divided the Yemon amongst them. “Thanks.”
“I’m sure some of it could be useful eventually. Right now I just purchased some materials for building.”
He looked at Azalea and added, “I also sold the plot we’d bought. I hope that’s alright, I just think we’d be better off keeping our land in one place. We can buy more plots here.”
She nodded her acceptance at once. “That’s fine. Did you grab the wood planks?”
“Yep. Got ‘em in my rucksack and in this cart. The merchant also sold me the blueprint of a simple house, and we have enough materials now. We can build two small houses to start us off until we choose to expand.”
Azalea couldn’t hide how much the idea pleased her. “That sounds perfect. We could build a small farm on the other side of this river too. I was thinking about that while you were away.”
He nodded, expecting nothing less, then turned to Oscar and Riley. “We both live in Ohio, the same timezone as this server. We can get on early tomorrow.”
“Sounds good,” Riley said, suppressing a yawn. “I’m in Brasilia Time, so I’m only an hour behind you.”
“I’m in Alaska Standard Time,” Oscar added. “So I’ll probably be up before you all. I’ll probably just go hunting or something to pass the time. Might try to go find some more information.”
“Alright then,” Caius said. “We’ll set up a voice call and whatnot tomorrow.”
“Wonder how logging out works in this game,” Riley said. “Do our characters just lie down and go to sleep or something?”
At that, they could only shrug. “Only one way to find out.”
“That’s true,” Riley said with a laugh. “Well, make sure to tell me when you see me tomorrow.”
He closed his eyes, and his body grew slightly rigid. Then, instead of lying still or even vanishing as happened in some games, his eyes opened, and he drew out the pickaxe he’d been using. He made his way over to the mine, disappearing into the entrance.
“AFK skilling?” Caius said, sounding impressed. “Damn, that’s handy. I think that means that your avatar continues what you were doing for your last task.”
“Oh, that’s cool,” Riley pointed out. “Is it any skill? Or is it the kind you can only do in a safe zone?”
“I don’t think there’s enough time to test that theory out tonight,” Oscar said, suppressing a yawn. “I’ll see you two tomorrow.”
He copied Riley, and his avatar made its way into the mines. This time, Azalea could see a line of text under his character’s name. Not Present. “So they’ll just mine ore all night?”
“Seems like it,” Caius said. “You want to start building the small homes and see if that also works? I figure we could both do one and see if they’re done in the morning.”
She agreed, and they began the process of putting a house together according to the blueprint that Caius had found. Azalea had to assume it was easier than the task would be in real life. She was just placing planks down and nailing boards together. Caius took care of purchasing the rest of the plots before he started so that he owned every piece of land inside the clearing except the mine. He transferred ownership of the plots over to Azalea, then stretched and picked up his tools.
Once they were about half an hour into the work, they both logged off. The world of Project Terra around them grew dark, and their point of view suddenly became third person, drifting back until the darkness swallowed their avatars. Then the usual wake-up pattern of the visor flashed in front of her eyes, and she could feel her body coming back to life. The inside of her room was dark - the sun had fallen hours before - and she immediately yawned again.
“Want some dinner before we go to bed?” She asked, tapping the icon to unmute herself in their private voice chat. “Or are you too tired?”
“If you’re making something, I’ll eat. I’m trying to find a chat room of other players to see what they think. The NDA doesn’t include anything about talking to other players outside the game. We just can’t reveal anything to people who don’t know about the game.”
“Oh that sounds interesting,” she said. “Send me an invite if you find one.”
She got out of bed and stretched, feeling her muscles complain after hours of inactivity. She didn’t exactly feel weak, but playing for so much of the day tended to leave one sore and tired. Of course, if there were any real concerns, the visor would have sensed it and logged her out immediately. The same was true for Dale’s equipment, except that it would also alert her and log her out so she could rush to his side to help.
She made them both a simple dinner, slicing some ham and making grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup. After making sure that Dale ate, she scarfed down her own portion and then made her way to bed. She decided against wearing the visor in her sleep this time, choosing instead to just put in a pair of earbuds and listen to some soft music.
The next morning, Dale was impatient to continue playing. Despite assuring him he could start without her for a bit if he wanted, he said he’d wait for her, so she went through the usual morning preparation, including breakfast and changing out bags in his medical array. Then she went back to her own room and slipped her visor on, settling herself down with a sigh.
Logging back into Project Terra was much like logging out but in reverse. Her field of vision gradually filled with the sight of her avatar. The scenery was different, however. Instead of working tirelessly on the foundation of what would become a simple shack, she was instead sitting on a simple porch outside that same home, staring off into the distance. Her avatar had clearly finished the work of building the home while she’d been offline.
She blinked, looking around. It really was a simple house, she thought. There was a tiny window in the wall that looked inside, showing nothing more special than a small interior room that contained a small bed and table. Two sturdy chairs sat at the table, and there was a shelf-like storage option along the wall opposite the bed.
The outside was simple as well, and unremarkable save for the large crate. She opened it, seeing the leftover planks stuffed inside. Not too shabby, she thought. She felt a rush of excitement. Her character finally had a home! She looked at the other house, finding that it was identical in both shape and size. Caius’ avatar leaned against one of the posts of the porch, at least for a second or two, then his eyes blinked, and his Not Present tag vanished.
“So we finished the building?” he asked, sounding faintly surprised. “They don’t look half bad.”
“That’s what I thought,” she agreed. “The one I built even had some items in the storage. Leftovers from the materials we had. Was there anything in theirs?”
Of course, he hadn’t checked. She did so while he checked out the inside of the house he’d built. The crate here did have some materials in it, but it wasn’t wood. It had heaps of metal. According to the system, there were 25 pieces of iron ore there. That must be what Oscar and Riley had mined while they’d slept, she thought. Not a bad haul. If only they had a way to smelt it.
“Iron ore,” she reported when she came back around to the front of the building and saw Caius exiting.”
“Cool. What do you want to do while we wait for those two to get back on? Best I can tell, we got a few hours.”
Just then, Riley’s avatar appeared at the entrance to the mine holding another piece of iron ore. He still showed the Not Present tag. He walked over to the storage chest Azalea had just inspected, placed the ore within it, and then returned to the mine, pickaxe in hand. She watched him go, impressed by how realistic the AFK programming of the game was. “I’m not sure. I’d like to start a farm, but we don’t have any seeds or anything.”
“Let’s go see if there’s anyone in the village that might sell us some,” Caius suggested. “Couldn’t hurt to check.”
She agreed, so they began walking toward the river again, intent on crossing it and heading south. But before they’d made it more than a few dozen feet, a window appeared in front of her eyes,
[Enemy Players have initiated a Raid Defense Event on your property.]
[To win, you will have to defeat 50% of the attacking players.]
[If all allies on the property are killed or ten percent value of goods is looted, you will lose the raid.]
uh oh, a raid already
Don't worry, I'm not leaving it on a cliffhanger! You'll get another chapter later tonight :)
@C_P_Tuck :D
I fully expect to find ways of both sides finding exploits to the system or unusual tactics. That's the joy of balancing mwahaha