Chapter 5: Seven Days
The village watched him.
Rex felt fifty pairs of eyes boring into his back as Nara led him away from the skull platform. The whispers followed like a second shadow.
"Demon."
"Spirit-touched."
"Naked idiot."
He ignored them. He had seven days.
"Rhea hates you," Nara said, guiding him toward a hut near the palisade. "That’s good. She hates everyone at first. Means you’re not boring."
"And when she stops hating me?"
Nara glanced back. "Then she’ll try to sleep with you. Or kill you. Depends on her mood."
"Good to know."
The hut was empty—dirt floor, a cold fire pit, a pile of musty furs in the corner. Better than the lean-to. Not by much.
"This is yours for seven days," Nara said. "Don’t get comfortable."
[RIVER FOLK - TEMPORARY SHELTER ACQUIRED]
[+5% resting bonus while in village]
Rex dropped onto the furs. His ribs throbbed. "I need a tour. Resources. Wood, stone, bone, hide. And I need to know how many able-bodied adults you have."
Nara raised an eyebrow. "You sound like a chieftain already."
"I sound like a project manager. Different thing."
She snorted but motioned for him to follow.
The village was smaller than it had looked from the ridge. Thirty-two huts. A central meeting ground with a massive fire pit. A drying rack for fish. A tanning station near the river. And the palisade—eight-foot-high logs, many rotting at the base, some leaning inward.
"Wood," Rex said, pointing. "Where do you get it?"
"The eastern forest. But the goblins have been ranging closer. Last month, we lost two woodcutters."
"Goblins?"
"Green little shits. Ride compies. They don’t attack the village, but they pick off anyone who wanders too far."
[RESOURCE SURVEY COMPLETED]
[WOOD: MEDIUM (unsafe to harvest)]
[STONE: LOW (stream pebbles only)]
[FOOD: ADEQUATE (fishing)]
[DEFENSE: CRITICAL (palisade failing)]
[HIDE/BONE: MEDIUM]
[MORALE: LOW (fear of tribute)]
Rex rubbed his chin. "Show me the palisade."
They walked the perimeter. Rex counted forty-seven logs. Twelve were rotten enough to snap with a kick. The gate was a joke—two hide flaps tied together with vine.
"How often are you attacked?"
"Small things. Compy packs. The occasional goblin raiding party. Nothing big." She paused. "Yet."
"And the big things?"
Nara pointed west, toward the mountains. "Crystal spiders in the caves. Thunder behemoths on the plains. And the dragon, of course."
Of course.
Rex opened his blueprint menu. At Level 2, he had access to Tier 1.5: Bone Tools. But he needed Tier 2 for real fortifications. That required Population 100 (he had maybe sixty) and Stone 50 (he had maybe ten).
So I need to grow the village and mine stone. In seven days.
His system panel flickered.
[NEW QUEST: PALISADE REINFORCEMENT]
[OBJECTIVE: REPAIR OR REPLACE 12 ROTTEN LOGS]
[REQUIRES: 60 WOOD, 20 VINE]
[TIME LIMIT: 3 DAYS]
[REWARD: 300 XP, +10 DEFENSE, +5 MORALE]
"Three days," he muttered. "Sixty wood. Twenty vine."
"What?" Nara asked.
"Nothing. I need workers. Five people who can follow instructions and aren’t afraid of the eastern forest."
"You’re planning to go into goblin territory?"
"I’m planning to chop wood. If goblins show up, we run. We’re not hunting them. Not yet."
Nara studied him for a long moment. "I’ll find you five. But Rhea will insist on coming."
"Let her. I need someone who can swing an axe."
Rhea arrived an hour later with four others—two young men with matching scars on their forearms, an older woman with a missing ear, and a girl who couldn’t have been older than sixteen.
The girl carried a spear twice her height.
"You’re the demon," the girl said, staring at Rex.
"I’m Rex."
"We don’t name demons. It gives them power."
Rhea smirked. "He’s not a demon, Mira. He’s just a fool who talks to spirits."
[REPUTATION CHANGE: RHEA -5 → -20]
Great. She’s getting warmer.
Rex gathered them by the gate. "Here’s the plan. We go to the eastern forest. We chop down ten straight young trees. We strip the branches. We carry them back. Anyone sees a goblin, we drop everything and run. Questions?"
The older woman raised a hand. "What do we call you if you’re not a demon?"
"Rex. Or Boss. Or ’that handsome naked man’—I’m not picky."
No one laughed.
Nara sighed. "I’ll translate: he’s stupid, but he might be useful. Follow his instructions until he proves otherwise."
The group murmured agreement.
[TEAM ASSEMBLED: 5 WORKERS]
[EFFICIENCY: LOW (unfamiliar with leadership)]
[CHARISMA BONUS ACTIVE: +5% morale for 24 hours]
The eastern forest was a twenty-minute walk through tall grass and scattered boulders. Rex kept his club ready. Screech rode on Nara’s shoulder, his head swiveling constantly.
Mira, the girl with the spear, walked beside Rex. "Where are your clothes?"
"Plane crash."
"What’s a plane?"
"A metal bird that flies."
She considered this. "The shamans say metal birds fell from the sky a long time ago. Before the dragon came."
Rex filed that away. Previous civilizations? Other modern people?
They reached the tree line. Rex surveyed the area—good visibility, no immediate movement, plenty of straight saplings.
"Those five." He pointed. "Cut them at the base. Strip the branches. Stack the logs."
Rhea crossed her arms. "And what will you be doing, demon?"
"Surveying. Watching for threats. And..." he opened the blueprint menu, "...making sure you don’t cut the wrong trees."
He selected [BONE AXE]. He had no bone, but he wanted to see if the system would let him craft one from wood alone.
[MANA: 4 → INSUFFICIENT]
[REQUIRES: 1 WOOD, 2 BONE, 1 HIDE]
Of course. Tier 1.5 needs actual materials.
He’d have to wait for someone to kill something.
The workers moved into the forest. The two young men—brothers, Rex learned, named Tor and Fen—swung their stone axes with practiced rhythm. The older woman, Marta, bound the logs with vine. Mira guarded the perimeter, her spear spinning.
And Rhea watched Rex.
"Why did you come here?" she asked, not looking away from her axe work.
"I didn’t choose to. The crash—"
"The spirits don’t bring people here by accident. My father believes in signs. I believe in survival." She hefted a log onto her shoulder. "If you waste our time, I will kill you. Not because I hate you. Because we don’t have time for games."
Rex met her eyes. "I’m not here to play games, Rhea. I’m here to build something."
"Build what?"
"A future where you don’t have to give ten people to a dragon every three months."
Something flickered in her expression. Doubt. Hope. Anger. All three.
Then she turned and walked back to the trees.
[REPUTATION CHANGE: RHEA -20 → -10]
Progress.
They worked until the sun began to sink. Sixty-two logs. Twenty-four vines. Two close calls—a rustle in the ferns that turned out to be a small dinosaur, not a goblin. No casualties.
Back at the village, Rex directed the team to stack the wood near the palisade. His mana had regenerated to 5. Enough for one repair blueprint.
He selected [PALISADE REPAIR (TIER 1.5)].
[MANA: 5 → 0]
[BLUEPRINT ACTIVATED. REPLACE 1 ROTTEN LOG WITH 5 WOOD, 2 VINE]
The system highlighted the worst log. Rex guided Tor and Fen to remove it and slot in the new wood. The moment the log settled, the blue glow faded.
[PALISADE REPAIR: 1/12 COMPLETE]
[+5 DEFENSE]
"That’s it?" Rhea demanded. "One log?"
"That’s it for today. Tomorrow we do three. Then four. Then the rest." Rex sat down, exhausted. "Rome wasn’t built in a day."
"Who’s Rome?"
"Nobody. Forget it."
Nara appeared with cooked fish and a skin of water. "Eat. Rest. Tomorrow will be harder."
Rex ate in silence, watching the villagers watch him. Some had curious expressions now. A few even smiled.
Seven days. Day one: not a complete disaster.
He crawled into his hut as the last light faded. The system panel glowed softly.
[DRAGON AFFINITY: 2 → 3]
[Your blood sings. The shaman’s words have awakened something.]
[Rex, your heart rate increased near Rhea. The dragon inside you responds to strength. To challenge. To the hunt.]
Shut up, he thought.
The panel flickered.
[ACTIVATING NIGHTMARE MODE: RANDOM EVENT INCOMING]
[WARNING: Something stirs in the eastern forest. It smells the fresh wood. It smells blood. It smells you.]
Rex’s eyes snapped open. A distant howl echoed through the night—not a compy. Something bigger.
He grabbed his club.
