They turned to see a woman who was easily seven feet tall with white hair over her entire body. She had curled rams horns on her head and hooved feet with long ears that folded over and a short black nose. In her arms, she carried as long spear that she leveled at the three of them.

“Stay back!” she shouted.

Heather smiled and stepped forward, waving with a smile. “Hello their, I’m Heather.”

“You’re monster players?” the woman asked.

“We are,” Frank said, indicating himself and Quinny. “Heather is human.”

“What race are you?” Heather asked as she tried to puzzle the woman out.

“I'm a gerikimi,” she said as she stepped back nervously, still holding the spear at the ready. “I just arrived.”

Heather nodded and turned to gesture to the other two.

“Well, this is Frank the ghoul, and Quinny, the zombie,” she said as if nothing were out of the ordinary. They waved as Heather introduced them, and the tall furry woman tensed nervously.

“I’m only level one,” the woman said. “I’m not worth much to you.”

“Were not going to attack you,” Heather said. “We are building a haunted forest and graveyard for people to play in. If you're interested, you're welcome to explore it. We have some skeletons scattered about to kill.”

“And some giant bats,” Quinny added.

“Neither should be a challenge unless you get too many of them on you at once,” Frank said.

“You’re? You’re friendly?” the woman asked.

Heather nodded. “We just want to have fun building our haunted land so people can play in it.”

“Just don't go into the lower tunnels,” Frank said. “There are more dangerous things underground.”

The woman looked nervous, and her ears twitched as she looked at Frank.

“So is a gerikimi a monster race?” Heather asked as she studied the woman.

“What? No!” the woman said. “A gerikimi is a sort of mountain person based on a ram. We are really tall and fast, and we build mountain kingdoms. We are considered a standard race. Nobody plays monster races.”

Heather glanced back at Frank, and he shrugged at the odd response.

“Why would nobody play monster races?” Heather asked.

The woman's ears twitched, and she lowered the point of her spear. “Somebody posted a bunch of statistics on the internet. It shows standard players are driving the monster players out. They are resetting and changing to standard races in large numbers.”

“What? Why won't people let them build and provide places to play?” Heather said, shocked.

“I don't know why. I only know what I read. The visitors ran a massive update to try and fix the issue, but nobody is sure what it did. They are changing things almost daily now in some effort to balance out the players.”

“I can’t imagine what they think of us,” Heather said with a shake of her head.

“So you guys aren’t going to kill me?” the woman asked.

“No,” Frank said. “You are welcome to kill all the skeletons and bats in the forest and graveyard If you want.”

“Umm, thanks?” she said, still uncertain.

“So, what's your name?” Heather asked.

“Uhh, Gina. I mean, Gretta. I changed my name for my character.”

“Well, feel free to wander around,” Heather said. “But don't go into any buildings or underground. As he said, there are more dangerous things in the tunnels.” She turned and ushered Frank and Quinny down the trail to leave Grettah to make her choice.

“I hope she comes in,” Quinny said as she looked over her shoulder.

“You two really want to do this stuff badly,” Heather laughed.

“Of course we do,” Frank said. “There was no reason to pick a monster class if we're just going to hide in a cave. Without players, this isn't any fun at all.”

“When I have wolves, I am going to set up patrol paths for them,” Quinny added.

“That reminds me, I should set rules for the grave hound,” Frank said.

“Oh, I still haven’t seen your dog,” Heather replied.

“You can come see him now. I need to add Quinny to the friendly list anyway.”

He shuffled off as Heather and Quinny followed. They went back to the graveyard and into the first mausoleum on the right. Frank took them into the lower tunnels and to his lair. As they entered, there was a rumbling growl that made Heather and Quinny freeze.

“Are you sure he's friendly?” Quinny asked as the massive black dog with red eyes snarled from the shadows in a corner.

“He won't attack you while I am here. Heather is already on my friend's list. I just need to add you.”

Heather watched as he knelt in his grave soil and closed his eyes.

“How do you make changes without a panel?” she asked as he started to tap at the air with his hands.

“All us monster races have to set a respawn point before we can build. If we stand or sit, or whatever we have to do in it, we can see the buffer.”

“The buffer?” Heather asked.

“It's where you go when you die,” Quinny said. “Once there, we see a panel like interface that we can use to make changes.”

“So that's what he's doing,” Heather said as she watched him type. “So, what else can you do in this buffer?”

“I can change the settings for the forest and my burial mound. I can buy and place new locations of interest and see my character sheet. I can also possess a creature of the forest and control it directly.”

“Oh, that must be fun,” Heather said.

“I don't know; I never tried it. I tried to build my forest once before, but Moon convinced me to remove it and move to her town. She said I could build it there, and the players there would use it.”

“So she offered you the same deal I offered her?” Heather said, aghast. “And she squandered that one too!”

“I didn’t know you offered her a deal,” Quinny said.

Heather nodded. “Frank and I offered to let her townspeople play in the graveyard. I was reanimating the skeletons so they could kill them multiple times.”

“You can reanimate the skeletons?”

“I can reanimate them a few times a day, provided the bones aren't destroyed,” she said. “I can even do basic zombies.”

“Then people could do a lot of playing here,” Quinny said. “It’s too bad Moon was so terrible. Having a town nearby would encourage people to play here.”

“Her town is still there, though,” Heather pondered. “I mean, Margus and L33t burned the town hall, but the rest of the town was still there.”

“I don’t think it will stay without the anchoring player building,” Quinny said.

“It won't,” Frank added as he stood up form his pit. “You're both on my friend's list now, nothing I spawn will attack either of you.”

Heather nodded but looked at him intently.

“So, the town won't stay?”

He shook his head, causing drool to fly. “It will fade away in phases. It becomes an abandoned town, then a ruin, then it turns into an overgrown ruin, then it just vanishes.”

“So it goes in phases like the sun does,” Heather suggested.

“I guess so,” he replied with his familiar twitch of scratching his head. “I never really thought about it like that.”

“How long does it take?” Quinny asked.

“I have never witnessed one myself, but when I was still in the real world, I saw an article about it. They were making fun of how simple the visitors made the system. I think they said it took about a year. I am pretty sure ghost, or spirit players can haunt it while it's uninhabited. If they do, it will stop degrading, but only so long as their lair is hidden there.”

“Too bad we don't have a ghost player to haunt it for us,” Quinny said.

“Maybe we can find a player like Moon to start a town here,” Heather suggested.

“What we need is a player who wants to start a gothic hamlet or a Forsaken town,” Quinny said.

“I have never heard of those,” Frank said.

“They were added about a month before I came in,” Quinny replied. “They allow people to make houses that have a sort of spooky theme. They would blend in well with the forest.”

“It would be perfect, but does that take a specific village builder to do?” he asked.

“I don't know. I didn't read about them too much,” Quinny admitted.

Heather pondered that idea a moment and tapped a finger on her wrist. She still had a third class to pick, after all. Surely she could choose one that could build a town. She thought about the class she wanted to play, however, and decided to let it wait. Maybe there was another way they could get a town going someplace closer.

“Since we have the cart as our sign now, maybe we could use the shield for a different sigh,” she suggested.

‘What kind of sign?” Frank asked.

Heather shrugged. “Something like ‘looking for town builder to build a gothic town, please apply at the graveyard.'”

Frank raised a brow, and Quinny tilted her head to the side, but Heather went on.

“It doesn't have to say that exactly, just something to let people passing by knows we want to start a village here.”

“I guess it could work,” Frank said. “It won’t hurt to try.”

Heather smiled and turned to look at the shadow that loomed in the corner.

“So what’s his name?” she asked.

“Whose name?” Frank replied.

“Your dog, silly.”

“He's just a grave hound. He doesn't have a name.”

“Why not?” Heather asked.

“I don’t know. Do you name your skeletons?” he asked.

“Don't be silly, that's different. People don't keep skeletons as pets.”

“They don’t keep grave hounds either,” Frank insisted.

Heather gave him a “hmmm” and let the point drop. “So, is he friendly then?”

“He is to us,” Frank said and walked over to him. He pet the hound over the head, and the dog let out a deep rumbling whine.

“Aww, he's a big sweety,” Heather said.

“He can only be hit by magic or magic weapons,” Frank said. “And he can blend into the shadows and be unseen unless they have magic sight or a detect undead spell.”

“That sounds powerful,” Quinny said.

Frank nodded and stood up. “He can't go out into the sunlight, though. He has to stay where it's dark, and light spells can drive him back.”

“So he’s a good guard dog for your lair,” Heather said with a smile. “Much better than the spiders you wanted.”

“I may still get the spiders later,” Frank said. “But, the dog was a better choice for now because he can protect the tunnels.”

“I wonder what I can get to protect the tower?” Heather pondered.

“You can probably set magical traps, or use more powerful undead.”

“I can get a type of zombie knight to defend my burial mound,” Quinny said.

Heather shrugged and thought about what to do next. “So, what do we need to do now?”

“Let's go to my mound. I want to move the trail to pass right by my mass grave and add a dead end,” Quinny said and led the way back.

They walked through the trees until they arrived at a fern-covered hill. On a narrow end was a sort of cave opening, and Quinny led the way inside. The entrance tunnel was narrow, but it opened up into a long chamber. The walls were lined with stone shelves, and the floor was paved with rock. At the far end was a large stone coffin on a raised platform.

“What are these shelves in the wall for?” Heather asked.

“Those are to hold coffins or bodies,” Frank said.

“When I level it up, some mummified bodies will appear on the shelves,” Quinny said.

“So, this is a sort of tomb,” Heather asked.

“It is,” Quinny replied. “It only gets a little bigger than this, but most of my work will be with the forest anyway.”

Heather watched as Quinny shambled to the stone coffin and knelt inside. She saw the familiar tapping fingers as Quinny used her invisible link to alter the forest and make it ready.

“She’s in the forest!” Quinny cried as she made the changes.

“Who is?” Heather asked.

“That gerikimi woman,” Quinny replied. “She's killed two of the bats and is searching the wall near the graveyard. I have a little experience from it already.”

“Good for you,” Heather said happily.

“Ha!” Quinny added. “She must have used the trail to get in. “I just moved it, and she is looking around for it.”

“Oh, give her one of those moans!” Heather suggested.

Quinny tapped away and laughed, “It made her jump!”

“I wish I could see things in the forest,” Heather said. “That must be a lot of fun.”

“I can't set anything in the graveyard,” Frank said. “But, I can sense when people are there.”

“I need a crystal ball or something,” Heather said with a frown.

“You can get all sorts of magical items,” Frank said. “I bet there is something that would give you the ability to watch people.”

“You think so?” Heather asked.

Frank nodded. “There are tons of items that can see places or make predictions.”

“Where would I get one?” she asked.

Frank shrugged. “Random monsters in the world sometimes have treasure. Players can make some of it. I think there is a market for magic items in the cities.”

“So, it all comes from random monsters?”

“Not all of it, some of it can come from your spawned monsters. When you get high enough, I think you can spawn undead that have a random chance to have a potion or magic weapon.”

“Really?” she asked.

“It’s so players get a decent reward for killing them,” he replied.

“Oh, she found three skeletons right at the gate of the graveyard,” Quinny said. “She is running for her life.”

“Move the trail again, so it loops back to the graveyard,” Frank suggested.

“No,” Heather said as she swatted him. “Don't be mean; let the poor girl go.”

He shrugged and looked around the room.

“Can you build a lower chamber?” he asked.

“I can build a few things,” Quinny said as she watched the woman in the forest. “But I don't have many options for below ground.”

“You don’t have to. I have a ton of options. All I need is a room I can connect a tunnel to and permission to build in yours. I can put cool things in them for you.”

“Thank you!” Quinny said as she shook her head and stopped watching.

“Did she run to the road?” Heather asked.

“No, she ran into a bat while the skeletons were chasing her. She is dead just down the trail.”

“Oh!” Heather said with a hand over her mouth. “I didn’t think anybody would die.”

“She's just a single-player,” Frank said. “She needs another person to help if she wants to tackle the graveyard. It's too easy to get three or more skeletons at once there.’

“Or she needs to grind the bats and level in the forest before going in,” Quinny said.

“On the plus side, she is going to help the graveyard grow,” Frank said as he turned to go down the hall.

“Help how?” Heather asked. “She is already dead.”

Frank turned to smile at her with his jagged teeth. “Exactly, I am going to go bury her in the graveyard.”

“Oh!” Heather said as she remembered. “Your graveyard grows as you bury people in it.”

“Can I take her spear to give to one of my skeletons?” Quinny asked.

“You can take all her stuff,” Frank said. “I have a pile of equipment in the tunnels.”

“This seems wrong taking all her stuff,” Heather interjected.

Frank and Quinny looked at her with blank expressions.

“Don’t you think it’s wrong?” Heather asked.

“She was level one, she will respawn with all her basic equipment,” he said.

“But it still feels wrong.”

“She probably has dried food on her,” Frank pointed out.

“I will help you drag her to the graveyard,” Heather replied.