The next morning began the same as any other recently. Kaldalis and his team got together for breakfast, ran around gathering the day’s town-building quests, and then discussed their plan of attack on the day.

The rest would be different, though.

After Balrim’s final run, there were no people left to run through the dungeon, and so they were left to their own devices for a change.

“Light on quests today,” Haldir observed when they reconvened after picking everything up.

“I don’t mind that they’re light,” Balrim said, “but they seem to be getting more and more useless. Remember when we were gathering stone and wood for barracks and watchtowers? Or collecting soil samples to test for arable land to farm? I felt like we were really building a town then.”

“Yeah,” Myrin said with a scowl. “And look what we’re reduced to now. Gathering stone to build a fountain in the town square? Materials to build a clock into one of the watchtowers? Come on. This is all superficial bullshit.”

“There might be some method to the madness,” Kaldalis said, even as the words felt false to him. “Maybe these are parts of the upgrade to a full town.”

“I’ve been to towns without fountains, though,” Haldir said with a click of his tongue. “Or clock towers.”

Kaldalis shrugged. “But how many of them are the first bastion on an island of ancient ruins? The rules might be different here. We don’t know.”

“We have to be getting close, though,” Balrim said. “Otherwise we’d still be building essential buildings and services instead of wasting our time with this.”

Myrin huffed. “However essential these things are,” she said while crossing her arms. “We have barracks up, but we’re still sleeping in tents. We’ve put an acre of forest worth of wood into reinforcing the walls, but haven’t built a school. We built and furnished an inn, but the so-called mess halls are still pavilion tents.”

“Some constructions and upgrades won’t be available until after the place is upgraded,” Haldir said in a firm tone. “Even if the delineation doesn’t make sense.”

Myrin grumbled at that, but it seemed to satisfy everyone for the time being. They instead set about the discussion of how to order their quest objectives.

The stone quarries up the coast were apparently unsuitable for building water features. Their first quest directed them to head out into the jungle where someone had uncovered a vein of sedimentary flagstone ideal to be cut into bricks, tiles, and shingles. After that, there was metal ore needed for gears, and logs needed for shafts to build the clock. The architects also wanted some more lumber to have in the stores for future repairs to the walls and structures, and the cooks wanted another day of gathering root vegetables for the larder.

There were a couple of profession-related quests as well. Kaldalis had another quest from the cooks to gather more fish as well, and Balrim had a quest to craft charms out of grizzled dragon bones, necessitating a hunt.

“I should get serious about fishing,” Myrin said, “but I’m not getting quests for it, so I forget to actually get it done.”

“Come with me after we get the other stuff done, then,” Kaldalis offered. “You can grind skill while I’m working on this quest, so you don’t have to sit there alone for it.” Kaldalis turned to Balrim. “Speaking of skill grinds, how is crafting treating you?”

“Just fine,” Balrim said with a nod. “I’m caught up to my level on charmcrafting, so I can exclude one stat from rolling onto gear. And stuff I make is at level nine now. It doesn’t compare to boss drops, and stuff can still randomly roll things I don’t want... but progress is coming. A bit slow, but these quests help. Turning them in gives me a free skill point, which is huge for conserving materials.” He paused. “Alchemy and cooking, though...” The talsar grumbled wordlessly, and his scaled tail flicked in irritation. “They’re slow going. The demand for healing potions for the dungeon is very high, but there seem to be diminishing returns on skillups from the same thing every day. Only the daily quests are helping me keep up. Cooking is way behind. I’m not even getting dailies for it yet.”

It sounded like Kaldalis was missing out not doing more secondary stuff. He had to admit he didn’t even know what he was getting out of the fishing quests. They weren’t paying him many crescents for the fish, so it had to be skill rewards. But every time he levelled up, he went out of his way to cap out as soon as possible - before turning in a quest with uncapped skill.

He supposed it was doing it out of the goodness of his heart, then, which was fine by him. But maybe he needed to start gaming the system a little more.

“Yak yak yak,” Myrin said with a wave of her hands. “We’ve got jobs to do, right? Right. We can talk while we walk.” She turned towards the encampment’s main entrance and started to leave without waiting for a response, forcing the rest of them to follow.

Only Balrim rolled his eyes, which seemed on par for their relationship.

The quests went smoothly with all of them working together. No overworld monster they encountered - not even the grizzled dragons - was a threat to a full party. They even went out of their way to keep the gathering areas clear for the other adventurers doing the same daily quests.

What Kaldalis found interesting, though, was the talk of the town. Or, outside the town.

Gossip about the seemingly-imminent upgrade to a town was on everyone’s lips, even out in the jungle. People were making predictions about if there would be immediate changes to the town structure caused by the upgrade. Would it turn their tents into houses, perhaps? Would the walls get bigger? Would the town randomly grow a bar? Would more NPCs spawn, or would they all have to fill the day jobs that came with the upgrade?

No one - not even Haldir or the other NPCs - had any answers, and that just raised more questions.

The largest debate, though, was the town name. A lot of the alpha players wanted to name it Greydragon, in honor of a beloved NPC from the mainland questline. Apparently he was a bastard son of a prominent Baimer noble family, outcast and ostracised, but resolute. Aurigeant described him as having an “undimmed spirit” and a willingness to sacrifice himself for the greater good. Kaldalis had to admit that he sounded pretty neat, and hoped that he’d show up during this questline, if only for the freakout the alpha players would apparently pitch over seeing him again.

Balrim was all aboard the train for naming the town after him, too.

Myrin’s vote was, apparently, for Towny McTownface.

“If you fight the memes, you’ll only be saltier when the memes win,” she explained. “I am… Inevitable.”

Kaldalis declined to take a side in the discussion. It wasn’t likely that the town name would come down to a vote. Onirioago was in charge, after all, and she’d call it whatever she wanted.

Not even the power of memes could compel her to name it something that didn’t personally benefit her.

“Come on,” Balrim pressed when Kaldalis refused. “You have to have an opinion. And one that isn’t dumb.”

“You may insult Towny McTownface now,” Myrin said somberly, “but we, the true believers, will forgive you when our glorious dream is a reality. And then you’ll be sorry, because you’ll wake up every day in Towny McTownface, knowing that you disrespected it.”

“It’s really not relevant,” Kaldalis said, trying to explain his stance. “It won’t come to a vote. I doubt they’ll even take nominations. Onirioago will name it after some old dude back in Baimer just to suck up to him. Or she’ll name it after herself to secure her legacy.”

“Onirioago is a fucking mouthful,” Balrim said. “I’d rather call it Towny McTownface.”

“So we’re in agreement,” Myrin said with a nod. “No matter what the expedition leader names it, we’re calling it Towny McTownface.”

Balrim glared at her. “If they call it Greydragon and you call it Towny McTownface, half the players on this island will slap the smartass out of you.”

“That’s a lot of slapping,” Haldir said.

There was a beat before Balrim started laughing where his slit-pupiled eyes bugged out.

“Come on, Kal,” Myrin said, turning to Kaldalis, “back me up here. Naming a thing ‘Thing McThingface’ is a classic, right?”

“It is a classic,” he had to admit. “But at the end of the day, it’s a joke. After all the work we’ve done as a group it feels like an insult to the people who’ve made big sacrifices for it. It’s like making a joke out of the efforts of those who gave their lives in the fight against the Infernal Horde - especially those who didn’t respawn.”

Myrin grimaced, but didn’t push any farther. “We have quests to finish,” she said after a long pause, changing the subject. Her tone was a lot softer, and Kaldalis felt a little guilty for the jab.

Almost.