Morning came and the sun shone down upon Tony and the heads of two goblins that had attempted to kill him in the night. They crept in and slowly approached the Lean Too but Tony as he had told Jasmine stayed awake. He watched them approach from the dip that he had previously used as a bed and jumped them when he was sure that they were too far from the forest to make a retreat.

So he greeted the rest of the goblins as they arrived, scared and huddled together. He slowly scanned the group before nodding in satisfaction.

“Good.” He said out loud as he looked them over with a relaxed expression. He estimated that this should have been the rest of the goblins based on what he had seen the day before, he’d only seen about a dozen then but figured some were out and about. Even after the two he’d killed in the night, 17 goblins showed up, 5 of which were children.

He pointed a thumb over his shoulder towards the river closer to the cliff. “Start building your new home. You have one day.” He said simply before slowly standing up and heading over to where Jasmine still slept.

She was awake and sitting under the cover when he walked around the side to look in. She had been quiet the night before as they had eaten together.

“Be careful today.” Tony said simply and he calmly walked over to where the goblins seemed to be moving as swiftly as possible to start work. Several headed into the woods to start gathering wood and some headed towards the river to check to make sure it wasn’t too deep. He even saw a pair of goblins taking care of the young ones. He reached into his bag and retrieved most of the rest of his jerky and as he passed the goblin kids he walked up to one of the adults and handed it to them. “Food.” The goblin actually looked incredulous and gave a ‘duh’ look at him that almost caused him to laugh.

Then he headed out into the woods after the goblins in that direction. He watched them cutting up wood expertly and laying lengths down. When they had a bunch they started to move to grab them but Tony moved in first and lifting far more than any one goblin could. He heaved the wood up onto his shoulder with a grunt.

“Keep cutting.” He ordered as he carried the load back to the clearing. He was surprised to see that several goblins were cutting the high grass near the river clearing it back further away. He wondered why they would bother as they live over the water, but didn’t stop them. He just dropped his bundle off and walked back. Even though it seemed he had let his guard down, he was very careful not to turn his back on a goblin if they were too close to him.

Jasmine had found herself talking to the goblins and soon she was involved with the work too. They treated her like an outsider, but not with the fear they had for Tony. When she asked them about it they gave her a confused look. “He do it. Not you.” One said as if that explained everything.

The day went by in this way and the goblins had just finished their first simple building around midday when Tony got what he was hoping for.

Congratulations! Your Patron sees that you are taking steps towards settling. They approve and have awarded you with 2GP. You currently have 11GP. You can now access the expanded GP choices.

“Fuck yeah.” He said to himself as he set down another bundle of wood for the goblins. He concentrated and carefully put mana into his limbs one after the other, healing the damage the lactic acid had done from the long day of work and making him feel rejuvenated.

Tony thought about opening the expanded choices for spending the GP. The list that appeared seemed endless. It didn’t just include things that cost 10GP or less, he saw things that cost thousands of GP to get. Of particular interest ‘Unaging Body: Stops the aging process and allows you to live indefinitely. Can still be killed. Cost: 10KGP’ he blanched at the cost but had already seen that larger tasks generated larger rewards. On a whim, he tried to limit the purchases only to things that he could get for 11GP or less.

Name

Function

Cost

Unlock Stat

Unlocks a random Stat to be shown

1GP

Upgrade Item

Upgrade an item to a slightly better version of itself

5GP

Upgrade Limit

Break the limits of a stat

5GP

Divine Grace

Gain a subclass of Priest

10GP

Minor Blessing

Receive a minor blessing from your patron

10GP

Minor Consecration

Consecrate a small section of land

10GP

Divine Guidance

Receive a weak premonition

10GP

Tony was tempted by a number of the options, but in the end, he had been hoping for something to improve the settlement area, and consecration seemed to be the only option that fit. He started to just select it but paused and looked around. He nodded to himself and walked over near the edge of the cliff to the side of the waterfall and then selected the option.

A glowing light started to envelop Tony, starting from his head and spreading throughout his body. When it reached his feet it spread to the ground. The light radiated outward, the ground glowing with power as it stretched. It reached the river to the side and ran up alongside it, not entering, but spreading out further in the other direction. Slowly.

Tony seemed stuck while this was happening and was unable to move or think, but his mouth seemed to be speaking words that his mind didn’t understand. The light spread to maybe three thousand sq ft and then stopped. The light faded away and all seemed almost as it had been before. Tony looked closely at the grass beneath him and thought it looked more vibrant and alive. It was hard to tell, but he was sure of it.

He started laughing as he quickly ran over and grabbed his bag. Ripping out the flag he ran back over to the consecrated ground and stuck the flag into it.

Warning: You are about to use the Flag of Settling. If you do this here you will get the following settlement points to spend.

Base: 10

Near Forest: +2

Near Deep River: +5

Defensible Side (Cliff Face): +3

Consecrated Ground: +25

Controlled Goblin Hamlet: +10

Actual: 55

Do you wish to settle here?

He didn’t wait a moment but choose yes right away. The flag vanished and Tony heard trumpets playing in his head. Then more messages had to be handled.

Please choose a name for your settlement.

“Tony’s obviously.” He said, thinking of the name of the bar he always wanted to open after he retired.

Tony’s settlement established.

Please spend your SP. You have 1 hour to do so.

“Damn,” Tony complained at the time constraints. He quickly tried to open up a menu for spending it but a prompt came up instead.

Settlement points are used to build things right away. Think of what you want to build and a cost will be estimated.

For once clear instructions. Tony cheered internally. Tony immediately thought of a small house for himself to live in. A sturdy wooden structure. No pop-up but his mind knew that such a structure would cost 5SP. He smiled and thought that the wood should be replaced with stone. 10SP. Twice the cost. So he built up from that. He added sturdier doors. 11SP. His bedroom became a master bedroom with a nice comfortable bed. 13SP. He added 4 more bedrooms. 17SP. He added a second floor and moved his bedroom up and added a kitchen and a fireplace downstairs and a living room of sorts, medieval one of course. 30SP. An office with an ornate desk and a large stocked bookshelf. 40SP.

He paused at that. That cost more than he had expected but he still had more left so he smiled and pushed forward.

A magic bathroom with a hot shower and flushing toilet. 60SP. He cursed to himself and changed it so that the toilet was magic but thought about some medieval fire heated tub instead. 50SP. Finally a wall around his building. To separate it from the outside with a wrought iron gate. 54SP. Small balcony looking over the cliff. 55SP.

“FUCK YES!” He shouted as he allowed the thought to trigger the creation of his new home. It sprang up around him. The floor beneath his feet turning to a fine wooden floor. Polished and ornate. The walls springing up around him. Goblins cried out as it rapidly took shape and Tony disappeared within. Tony was laughing insanely at it all as it happened. The idea of finally being inside again after these days and surrounded by some comforts pushing stress that he didn’t know he had felt out of him in laughter.

Soon it was done and before he searched it he felt saw a large solid keychain hanging on the wall near the front door. He walked up and snatched it up so he wouldn’t be locked out. He could only see inside because it was the middle of the day and the building had large windows, though they had bars on the outside of iron. His thoughts of it being fortified seemed to have taken shape smartly. He walked out front and saw Jasmine at the gate looking in.

“So…” He began with a smirk. “Want to see your new room?”