Lord Of The New World

In the morning, before the groups dispersed to do the things they were assigned to, I took the left-over meat from last night, and a few fruits and such that were starting to go bad, and piled them near the wood stockpile, and created my first Homunculi Brute.

*ding*

Quest New World, New Men completed! Rewards, 10 Exp + 1 Research Point have been granted in the Empire System!

Another quest that I didn’t have... am I really advancing faster than Rae thought I would?

Maybe she just assumed I’d get hunting or gathering before I got Brutes... well, it doesn’t really matter now, does it.

As the new guy turned from goop to person, I saw that he was jacked. And not jacked as in he just had some muscle on him, no, he was properly jacked!

I could see where that extra 40kg of mass came from... and I named him Jack because he is jacked after all.

For a few moments I contemplated if I should make him stay with me and help in construction of houses, or go help the hunters but... I was confident Jonathan and Jonathanne could bring in hunts without a problem, and just made Jack stay with me.

As the groups were leaving, I researched butchering, and information once again flooded into my mind, and I could probably use sinew to make ropes that will actually last for a while now, couldn’t I?

And maybe bows too! But that’s for the future, for now I need to work hard to make a few houses...

As the next few days passed, I was able to make enough clothes for everyone and completed a quest.

*ding*

Quest Warm And Clothed completed! Rewards, 10 Exp + 1 Research Point have been granted in the Empire System!

As there was nothing cheap that I wanted to research, I just saved the research point and continued on with my day and started on the construction of a small house that was more dirt than home.

And after a few more days of work, I had a house that... looked straight out of Minecraft.

And no, I am not saying that as a compliment if you are wondering. It was small, very small, and could only fit 1 person inside it, 2 if you wanted to, but it was nothing more than a place where you could go in at nights and sleep, nothing more, nothing less.

And neither me nor Jack and Jacie could enter these houses! And yes, I made another brute. Their strength is really useful in construction, okay?

But for some reason, this house counted as a basic dwelling, and I bypassed the tech.

*ding*

Research bypassed, Basic Dwelling Construction.

And more information about how to make better dirt houses, and primitive tents appeared in my mind.

Apparently, I could’ve just tried to make a really bad Tipi tent from memory, and that would’ve counted too!

But houses like the one I made just seemed more secure to me. Maybe it was because I was underestimating the benefits of Tipis and other tents, but I was not planning on changing my opinions. After all, no one was here to judge me, so I was going to do as I wished!

Then, using my newly gained knowledge, I was able to make a dirt house in 2 days, instead of the 3 the original one took to make.

On my 17th day on this new world, and the day after I started building the 4th house, I completed the quest Fresh Meat.

*ding*

Quest Fresh Meat completed! Rewards, 10 Exp + 1 Research Point have been granted in the Empire System!

Excited to finally get Basic Food Storage, I opened my system window, and saw that I had 2 new quests, A Village and The Master And The Pupil.

Level 1 Experience: 60/100

Population: 15 (10 T1 Homunculi, 4 T1 Brutes)

Empire Stockpile +

Research +

Research Points: 2

Quests:

Main Quest - Galactic Conquest – Win The Great Game and Conquer the Galaxy! – Rewards: Heaven or Draconic reincarnation + memory wipe.

A Place To Call Home – Construct enough dwellings for you and your people. They can be however big or small as you desire. – Rewards: 10 Exp + 1 Research Point

A Village – Have a total of 30 Homunculi. – Rewards: 10 Exp + 1 Research Point

The Master And The Pupil – Pass knowledge learned from a research to at least one of your people. – Rewards: 10 Exp + 1 Research Point

And yes, I made 2 more brutes while you weren’t looking.

They are just too useful! How can I resist the temptation to make more?!

So, yeah, the construction group, mine, had 2 brutes, 2 homunculi, and me in it. While the 2 new brutes, Jac and Jacklyn replaced a member of the hunter groups, and Jacob got a member from the hunter groups. So, we had a 3, 3, 4, 5-member distribution.

So, pretty good overhaul and with 10 people focusing on food, we’d be able to get 30 homunculi in a week or 2 if we wanted.

But the second quest, the master and the pupil, confused me because... didn’t I teach Jonathan and a few others how to set up traps already? So, shouldn’t they know the knowledge I gained from trapping?

“No, they don’t. They just know how to throw nets, and how to make them. They don’t know all the knowledge you gained from researching Trapping.” Rae responded to me after I asked her what was going on with that quest and... it made kinda sense.

So, I just had to teach someone how to make all the traps I learned, easy but... I think stone tool knowledge would take less time to teach, so I’ll do that, I guess.

The next day, I took Jesse with me while the other 3 continued resource preparation for the remaining houses, and I planned on building 1 for everyone, and continued on finishing the 4th house.

While they were doing that, I started teaching Jesse how to identify good stones and rocks to make stone tools out of, and teached him how to actually make knives and spears.

After 2 days, he could do everything I could... at least the stone tools part.

*ding*

Quest The Master And The Pupil completed! Rewards, 10 Exp + 1 Research Point have been granted in the Empire System!

After I got the research point, I sent Jesse away to help with the construction, and researched Basic Food Storage.

And as the knowledge flooded into my brain... it was the first research I found underwhelming.

I mean, it teached me how to smoke, salt, dry, ferment, pickle, etc., but I was hoping for something that was more... esoteric in nature?

I mean, there is mana in the air, and I have a mana pool that I haven’t really been able to use, so I was kinda expecting something like just making a dedicated place where I’d put food, and they’d decompose and rot slower.

But these things are... acceptable too, I guess.

And, though I did not have any more researches I wanted to do, I wanted to look at my research tree one last time and saw that I had a new quest!

Good For a Few Months – Smoke or dry at least 1 unit of meat, and 1 unit of fruit. – Rewards: 10 Exp + 1 Research Point

Hmm... doable, but I’ll need to teach someone so they can help me with this... well Jesse, it seems like you are finally going to have the time to cook!

...But maybe I should pick someone else to teach, so knowledge gets spread around?

...Eh, will worry about that later. And I can always just hold classes myself, or hire teachers, after they become intelligent.

After 3 days, Jesse had learned all of my food storage knowledge, and I let him cook while I stayed back and watched our progress. But I also told him to only dry things, because dried meats lasted for 2 around 2 months, and dried fruits lasted for around half a year. While smoked meats only lasted for a couple of days.

After that, I turned my attention to the construction team, and saw that 6 houses were already complete, and more were on the way! But the speed was... slow.

12 people were using the houses every night, but I wanted each of these cubes to have only 1 resident in them, so I had to make...

Population: 18

12 more houses for my housing needs to be satisfied. Or more like 24 because I needed that A Village quest complete.

I was putting the new Homunculi I made, not brutes, to hunting and gathering, so we had a new member in each hunting groups and the gathering groups, but I had more than enough resources to make more Homunculi...

Then I quickly opened my Empire System and clicked on Empire Stockpile to see how much I actually had.

Empire Stockpile:

Wood 10

Mud 6

Weed 2

Meat 7

Fruit 3

Stone 1

100 kg of wood, 20 kg of straw, 70kg of meat, 30 kg of fruits and nuts so 220 kg of organic matter.

I could immediately make 2 more Homunculi, but that wouldn’t make sense. I could at best get away with 1 today, and... maybe instead of putting it in either the hunting or the gathering group, I should make a new cooking/preservation group and put Jesse and the new guy there.

...That seems like a better idea, as I just need the food we have to last longer, because we get enough food, they just go bad after a few days and are no longer accepted as organic matter that can be used to make new homunculi.

Deciding on my plan of action, I just... decided to rest for a few moments, and sat down and watched the others build the houses and Jesse start drying fruits and meats.

I don’t think I’ve described how new houses are built, but they are not away from each other. On the contrary, every house touches one another, so a side wall of an old house becomes the side wall of a house that is just being constructed.

After we get a row of 10, I’ll order the guys to stop expanding the row, and start building from the other side, turning the backwalls of the houses into the back walls of the new ones.

Like this, a single... I guess a unit of houses will have 20 houses in total. If we make 2 units, that’ll be 40 houses!

Though we’ll need to make another type as me and the brutes can’t really fit in normal houses.

Well, brutes can, but it’s a tight fit. And I am just too goddamn tall.

“...Hey Rae, how big does that wall have to be?” I asked Rae, who was sat beside me.

“Hmm... I would like it if it was a proper log wall, that is at least double your height but... honestly, a chest high wall or just a fence that disables big animals from easily crossing it is fine too. But some rodents are going to inevitably get in, so you’ll need to defend your food stockpiles.”

“Oh, great! The black death! My favourite disease of the 14th century! Can’t wait to recreate it!” I said sarcastically.

Then I took out my phone from my pocket, and yes. Rae had realized it was there. But she it didn’t seem like she cared. Maybe she purposefully let me keep it?

Eh, it doesn’t matter really now, does it?

Then I turned it on, as I had turned it off to save battery, and after it opened, I saw that it only had 30% battery left, and seeing the low battery it... honestly filled me with a weird melancholy.

I never was a person that doom scrolled twitter and other social media apps, but I still used my phone quite a lot. It had games, songs, and google maps which didn’t work because google had become a shitty corporation and not totally because I was in a new goddamn world and didn’t have access to the internet or any gps satellites.

But more importantly than all those luxuries of modern life... its just had my memories. Pictures and videos of my friends and family. Pictures of my hometown, uni, workplace. Everything that made me the person that I was, all of it was here.

Staring at my phone for a few more seconds, I deleted everything on it with a sigh.

And after a moment, pictures, videos, friends, family, work, school, everything was gone.

After all, I had people that I held a responsibility to in this new world. I had to be a good leader for them so they could live in peace. The great game and the gods and such didn’t matter.

I had a new life, and I had to get used to it, and leave my old one behind.

...

“Hey Rae, want to... take a selfie?”

“Sure, why not.”

I then opened my camera and flipped it and took a picture of me and Rae with the mud huts in the background.

I did not know if this image would stand the test of time. But I had to start making new memories so, what better time to start than now?

I mean, I would’ve liked someone else to be in my first selfie of the new world, but Rae was the best I had at this moment, so I couldn’t really be picky.

Then I went through my phone and opened the Spotify song list that I had downloaded before hand to listen offline and... just decided to give myself the rest of the day off, and relaxed while listening to music.