Thankfully, I was in front of the dungeon exit and a sudden impact threw me through the film. The pain was absolutely absurd and I think I actually fainted once, only to be awakened not even a second later by the pain. All that happened while in mid-air, however once I fell face first on the ground, another wave of pain raised me to my feet, only to have my knees give out when I saw a freaking javelin piercing out of my abdomen.

[MICHAEL!](A)

“…”

I realized that I was still silenced, which I found kind of stupid given that the wound was through my stomach…

[I wanted to come back but wasn’t able to enter! I saw the big red Murloc throw it, but couldn’t do anything about it…](A)

This poor girl was almost crying, however I was more concerned about the foreign object in my body. If the aim was a couple centimeters lower, I would’ve literally been fucked by the boss!

“Finally I can talk… damn this thing hurts! How the hell didn’t I die!? I took over 250 damage and I only have 100HP Status Page!”

Name

Michael Corbett

Name

Value

Name

Value

Job Name

Level

Progress

Race

Elf

STR

15

Magic

0

Elf

3

5% (?)

Sex

Male

DEX

17

Charm

15

Age

25

AGI

18

Luck

15

World

Midgard

END

12

Free Attribute Points + 15

HP

9/250 (+0/sec)

INT

22

MP

175/175(+0.05/sec)

WIS

15

Skill List Name Level Proficiency Identify MAX MAX Blessings Blessing of the World Tree

The others were looking strangely and worriedly at me, while the javelin kept dangling and sending waves of pain through my entire body.

The good news was that I leveled up and because of that I somehow managed to escape death. The bad news was that this javelin was surely stopping the bleeding and once I removed it, I would die given my 9HP left. Even the HP regeneration is currently at zero…

“Help me up. We’re going back to the clearing…”

[The javelin…](A)

“It needs to stay there for now. I’m literally going to die if we remove it…”

The journey back was… painful! I think I fainted at least a dozen of times and asked one of the girls to hold it still while moving and the two guys were carrying me on their shoulders, dragging my feet against the ground. For the first time I realized that I had no footwear, nor did anybody else for that matter…

And then I blacked out entirely! When I woke up I heard voices around me, but wasn’t able to open my eyes…

I fell asleep because of the pain and fever I was sensing, cursing at a certain game God for making this game uselessly realistic.

When I managed to come back to life, I wondered if I would be back in my divine domain.

[He’s awake Miss Mia!](Random Elf 3)

[Mas…Michael! Can you hear me? How many fingers I’m I holding?](Mia)

“Pfft! OUCH!!!”

Laughing because of a stupid reason caused me huge amounts of pain… Duly noted!

“How long was I out?”

[All day yesterday… I am amazed that you woke up already…](Mia)

“Status Page!”

Name

Michael Corbett

Name

Value

Name

Value

Job Name

Level

Progress

Race

Elf

STR

15

Magic

0

Elf

3

5% (?)

Sex

Male

DEX

17

Charm

15

Age

25

AGI

18

Luck

15

World

Midgard

END

12

Free Attribute Points + 15

HP

98/250 (+0.18/sec)

INT

22

MP

175/175(+0.05/sec)

WIS

15

I looked down on my abdomen and saw that it was actually bandaged using cloth similar to the one all elves were dressed in in the beginning, when they were brought to Midgard. Thinking about how this strip was quite long, I wondered which girl is now partially indecent…

[One of the guys you brought with you to explore the dungeon gave up his shirt and we were able to use it as bandages after washing it and I used a plants combination for medicine.](Mia)

“So it wasn’t from a girl… Did we get an points because of the medicine creation?”

[…that’s what you’re worried about when you almost died, master?](Mia)

Uwah! That’s a pitying look if I’ve ever seen any… Anyway, no Research Points meant that the elves didn’t learn to create the medicine from her. It might imbalance the game to be honest, so I can see why she didn’t…

“Oh right, there was a book on me…”

[I already had one of the elves learn it. However it works a bit different than I expected though…](Mia)

“Meaning?”

[The skill doesn’t only have levels, but also proficiency. It starts from the Basic Tier and apparently only through continuous usage will it improve.](Mia)

“Max level and masteries?”

[Max level is 10 from my speculations and each Tier has two levels. There’s the Basic, Intermediate, Advanced, Master and Grandmaster. Beside usage, a skill level can be increased through skill points as well.](Mia)

“Figured as much. How can we get those?”

[Each five Job levels one skill point is given.](Mia)

“That’s… very stingy. How is the camp? Any changes?”

[I think is better to let Alexandra explain the details master. She’s been waiting for you to wake up and almost went sleepless because of you.](Mia)

“I understand. Call her over.”

I forgot to ask her to bring up the user interface as well. Being restricted is quite annoying… I also remembered how by the end of the day I will have enough points to research the Tools technology. Thinking about how many those Murlocs were, I need at least about fifty well equipped elves in order to beat them. And there's the boss…

[Michael! Thank Corbett you’re awake!](A)

Aaaaand that was super-weird to hear! I should find a way to have them not use my name when saying that…

“Is everyone else alright?”

[Yes. Only you were injured…](A)

“Truly embarrassing, especially after I said that it would be difficult for them to actually injure me, even more kill me and now here I am... Anyway, did you guys level up?”

[We all did. I reached level 5, while all other eight hunters reached level 3 and are pretty much halfway to the next level.](A)

“Just like myself. I see… What about the camp? Give me a rundown of what happened yesterday.”

After filtering out some extra unwanted details about how I had to be washed clean and there were guys that did that (the tears in my eyes were from the pain, okay!?), even if I wasn’t able to stand up I could see the piles of stones and wood that were gathered.

Now, this was the third day since I’ve arrived on Midgard and I can safely say that I managed to make proper use of the time. I initially planned to get started with the buildings yesterday, however the whole ‘get fucked if you fuck up others’ thing happened.

“What about the territory? Was it created and recognized?”

[From what Miss Mia said, yes! The entire clearing is considered as being our territory and we have two things that we need to decide on: the name of the camp and the first buildings we’re going to start with. For both we waited for you to wake up under Miss Mia’s instructions.](A)

“Mia, I didn’t expect you to waste time like this…”

[Is only 10 in the morning Michael... I already sent the two resources unit to gather wood and stone, while the farmland reclamation unit is waiting on standby. The hunters went out to restock as well. So no time was wasted just yet.](Mia)

“I should’ve known… For the name of the camp, I have already decided on Yggdrasil. For the buildings we’ll start with the Elven Houses. Mia, what’s the resources status?”

[We have 1237 units of wood and 231 units of stone. I would advise we start building the Granary as soon as possible and store food in it as well. There are multiple fruits and vegetables that we can harvest from the forest.](Mia)

“What difference does it make? Won’t the food go bad after some time passes? We don’t have any way to conserve it, except from smoking them…”

[After I analyzed the construction details, I reached the conclusion that there’s an 80% or higher chance that mana will be imbued in the building, therefore affecting it in a positive way. I am speculating that in the case of the Granary, food might last longer due to the this particular effect. Also, the meat that was hunted two days ago is still fresh, hinting at the fact that there are differences between Midgard and Earth when it comes to decomposition.](Mia)

“I see…”

I signaled to the girls that I was fine and had them go take care of the camp. I had many things to think of, especially regarding dungeons…

The first elven settlement in Midgard has been named Yggdrasil!

Local happiness value increased!

“That’s vague… But since there’s things like a safety value that must be met, happiness probably exists as well…”

I kept thinking about the fight against the Murlocs and the skill book that dropped. If there are items that I can get from the dungeon, then probably they depend on things like the mana density of it. So, in theory at least, the older the dungeon/the better the drops.

But to get drops, I need to kill the monsters first. To kill just the Murlocs I require more people, with better equipment and higher levels. No doubt, the next fight will be easier, however there might be sacrifices that I have to make if I want to kill that boss…

“I could have Alexa solo the boss, since she most likely can if given proper equipment, while the rest can draw the agro of the smaller mobs and level up in the process. But javelins won’t cut it anymore… I can’t use branches to fight mana enhanced monsters…”

So, in conclusion, I need to bolster my technology research and create new weapons and tools. Probably I can already begin casting metal, but I need to move out of the Stone Age in order to properly make use of that. Also, there’s the issue of the buildings I need to have resources for and the production index for completing them fast.

The good news is that, if the elven huts will be built under the ‘instructions’ of the World Tree, there was nothing for the elves to do. So in theory, I might be able to build them instantly, saving much needed time.

Time tricked by slowly and after sunset, I closed my eyes and went to sleep. The first rays of sunlight brought me back to awareness and I surprisingly stood up. There was a bit of discomfort, however nothing compared with yesterday. Even my on my Status Page, my HP bar was at 92% and regenerating properly, showing that I was pretty much patched up.

Mia saw me standing up and came over to me.

[Master, do you feel better?](Mia)

“Yes. Nevermind that though! Quickly bring up the user interface and acquire the Tools technology.”

[Understood!](Mia)

It didn’t take long and after a series of clicks and confirmations, an unexpected type of notification appeared.

Major achievement: Pioneering Researcher! Your civilization successfully researched the Tools technology!

Current and future generations will be provided with the knowledge to craft!

New Jobs available after reaching first Tier!

Both for myself and the pretty AI, the news of an achievement were unexpected but well received. I nodded to her and she brought up the achievement interface.

Pioneering Researcher

Requirements: research the first technology for your civilization;

Rank: 1st

Reward: 1000AP and 20% decrease in cost of future technologies cost

“Finally some good news! Mia, is there anything new in the achievement store?”

[Nothing has been added master…](Mia)

“That’s alright as well. There’s no rush and is good to keep hoarding them for when we might actually find something useful. If anything, I’m happier about the 20% decrease in cost. That’s 300 fewer points required for the Farming and Gathering.”

Now that one thing was taken care of and for the next research I required more than a week's worth of research (without any inventions on my part), I decided to focus on the buildings for today and maybe create some shields for the dungeon diving squad.

“It would be good if I can begin training ‘Spartan’ elves. As for archery… probably I’ll need to research that before being able to properly create bows, longbows or crossbows…”

“Gather everyone and prepare for building the Elven Huts. We’ll begin with building the first twelve and award them to the ones that participated in the dungeon diving with me and one of best performing elves from each unit. That means that there will be at maximum 9 houses which will be occupied with us included and we’ll have another one three to provide them with. That way we’ll at least look like we’re rewarding them, which will hopefully improve their productivity…”

[Understood master! I’ll let Alexandra know as well.](Mia)

Within a short 15 minutes or so, the elves were gathered on the Eastern side of the clearing, given that there was still early in the morning. I decided that the residential area will be placed here. As for my thought process, because the other two dungeons as well as the Western continent were bigger threats, the side that I picked has only a one floor dungeon. Maybe after another 100 years it might become a danger, but for now it was the safest option.

“Thank you all for arriving so fast. The reason you were gathered, is because we’ll be laying together the future foundation of Yggdrasil, through the building of the first Elven Huts.”

Using the interface Mia opened for me, I confirmed the position of the first buildings in the obvious vicinity of the World Tree. The following scene awed everyone present in the clearing, myself included.