Kaelan stared at the empty land outside his house.
"Well," he muttered, scratching his head. "The system wants a village. I've got... one house. Population: two. If you count the squirrel."
DING!
> [Quest: Build a Village – Progress: 1/5]
Hint: You can't have a village without people, genius.
Kaelan groaned. "I know, I know. Don't sass me, system."
He looked over his shoulder. Garka stood in the doorway, arms crossed, eyes squinting at the land like she was judging it.
"It's ugly," she said bluntly.
"Thanks for the encouragement."
"I meant the land. Needs flowers."
"And people."
"Eh. That too."
They stood there in silence for a moment.
Then the squirrel ran by, dragging a beetle half its size.
Kaelan pointed. "See? That guy's putting in work. That's a real villager."
The squirrel froze. It dropped the beetle and puffed its chest out proudly. Then it flipped him off and scampered into the woods.
Garka snorted. "We should promote him."
Kaelan decided step one was food.
People liked food. And soup was basically friendship in a bowl.
He cooked something using carrots, snaproot beans, and some new thing Garka found called wild gobo fruit. It looked like a mix between a plum and a threat.
It exploded once. Just once.
Kaelan named it "Gobonade" and stirred it into the soup anyway.
The smell was... surprisingly okay.
Next, he built a fire pit and a long bench using leftover wood. Nothing fancy. Just something that looked "welcoming," or at least not cursed.
Garka watched from a distance, arms still crossed.
"Are you trying to recruit villagers," she asked, "or summon demons?"
He wiped his forehead. "Depends on who shows up first."
By evening, the soup was bubbling, the bench was creaking, and Kaelan was ready.
He placed a wooden sign nearby:
FREE SOUP
NO CURSES PROBABLY
JOIN OUR VILLAGE, MAYBE?
Then he waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Eventually, someone walked out of the forest.
She was tall, covered in brown furs, and had one eye patched up. A massive axe rested on her back.
Kaelan smiled nervously. "Soup?"
The woman sniffed, frowned, and said, "Does it have Gobonade?"
He blinked. "Yeah."
She sat down. "I'm in."
Her name was Brunna. A wandering warrior who'd gotten tired of fighting everything that moved.
"I fought a bear last week," she said between slurps of soup. "Wasn't even mad. I just wanted to test if it was stronger than me."
Kaelan nodded slowly. "And?"
"It was not."
"Good to know."
By morning, two more people had shown up:
A tired merchant named Lio who'd lost his cart and pride in the same week.
A soft-spoken mushroom farmer named Noko, who claimed he could talk to his mushrooms. No one dared to ask questions.
Kaelan stood proudly beside his bench as they all sat together eating breakfast.
Garka leaned in. "You did it."
"I actually did," he said, surprised.
DING!
> [Quest: Build a Village – Progress: 4/5]
Hint: One more! Maybe try advertising with less fire next time.
Kaelan flinched. "That fire was an accident."
"Was it though?"
"Okay maybe not entirely."
The last "villager" was the squirrel.
It returned midday, dragging a tiny acorn crown and wearing half a beetle shell like armor.
It climbed onto the table, sat on a plate, and nodded seriously at Kaelan.
DING!
> [New Villager Joined: Noble Squirrel of the West Trees]
Status: Questionable
Kaelan sighed. "Fine. Welcome to the team."
> [Quest Complete: Build a Village]
Reward: Village Core Fragment x1
New Quest Unlocked: "Establish a Village Core"
Hint: Core = Brain. Don't drop it.
The core fragment looked like a glowing stone, warm to the touch. It pulsed like a heartbeat.
Kaelan held it up. "I've got the brain."
"Now you just need the body," Garka said, staring at the villagers.
Brunna was using her axe to chop down a tree—with one hand.
Lio was trying to rebuild a cart out of sticks and tears.
Noko was whispering to a mushroom named Greg.
The squirrel was using the soup pot as a hot tub.
Kaelan sighed. "Yeah. Totally normal body."
That night, they held their first official "village meeting."
There were no chairs, no speeches, and the soup caught on fire halfway through.
But everyone laughed. Even Noko. And Greg, probably.
Kaelan sat beside Garka under the stars.
"You think this'll work?" he asked.
She shrugged. "You got four weirdos and a squirrel to follow you. That's better than most kings."
He smiled.
Then paused.
"…Wait. Who's feeding the squirrel?"
A splash came from the soup pot.
Kaelan groaned. "I should've known."