"What did I do?"

  Aya rubbed her eyes. "They'll be on high alert after losing so many fighters."

  I rolled my eyes. "I know, that's why I came to warn you. They won't leave their camp now that the blood moon is so close, but they might send scouts."

  She nodded thoughtfully.

  "I could improve our defenses," Tom mumbled, stroking his stubble. "Prepare us for any skirmishes."

  I shook my head. "You could, but I'd suggest you cut down some damn trees first to get a better overlook of the surroundings. As it is now, anyone can just waltz up to your camp. Just imagine how many I could have taken out if I started firing arrows."

  "Or worse, what if you had summoned a demon or something?" Tessia muttered.

  I chuckled. "Is that what you thought I was doing?"

  "What else would a drenched high level summoner be doing hiding in the bushes?"

  Mentally prepare for socializing.

  "Good point," I said, smiling as I turned back to Tom. "Even if you manage to deal with the scouts and cut down the surrounding forest, there is one big problem."

  He raised his eyebrows, and Aya leaned closer.

  I wasn't really sure if this was the right thing to do, but I wanted them to survive, not just because I liked them, but because they were on my side in the battle against the redeemers too. They could prove strong allies.

  I took a breath. "They have a settlement crystal. It attracts roaming redeemers, like a beacon. It also gives them a boost to their profession leveling rate. You should have seen their camp. Your treehouse is impressive, but they had a whole damn fort up and going in just a day or two."

  Tom creased his brow as Aya asked, "Settlement crystal?"

  "It's like a magical artifact that allows you to access more parts of the system. Maybe even buy food in exchange for contribution points. I don't really know what it can do yet, haven't gotten that far." I rolled my thumbs. "The redeemers can't get classes without one. In return, it seems like they're able to take other survivors as slaves."

  "Slaves?" Trish whispered in shock.

  Silence weighed on us for a bit before Aya spoke up, her face contorted into a deep scowl. "How do we get a settlement crystal?"

  I grinned and walked over to my pants hung out to dry. "You beat a dungeon," I announced with fanfare, pulling the crystal out of my pocket and presenting it to the others.

  Not missing a beat, Trish spoke up. "We'll buy it from you."

  I snorted. "With what? Money?" That shut her up.

  Sitting back down, I laid the crystal on the table to let them appraise it. "I'm willing to give you this, but I want to be the one to install it. You'll be allowed to use it freely and reap the rewards, but you will also need to defend it. I also want to establish a mutual alliance: if one calls for aid, the other answers."

  Aubrey blinked, still staring at the crystal. "What other factions is it talking about?"

  I shrugged. "My working theory is that we'll know after the blood moon. Now focus. Do you agree to my terms?"

  She looked up, eyes distant for a moment before she looked at her comrades with renewed focus. One after the other they nodded in agreement. Aubrey stood up and reached her hand to me. "We do."

  With my face twisting into a wide grin, I shook it.

  Almost immediately, they began discussing logistics, and my presence in the room felt insignificant. With so many people trying to speak at once, it turned chaotic fast. My head started to ache from the messy discussion, so I did what any reasonable person would: an Irish goodbye.

  Grabbing the crystal, I stepped away from the meeting without a word and climbed down from the treehouse. Aubrey likely expected me to sleep in the trees with them, but that would be a waste of moonlight.

  Not many still moved around in the camp. A few slept in the crude shelter in the glade, but many had been sent out on patrol to guard the camp from Redeemer scouts.

  The forest air was cool and damp. Above the treetops, the moon hung low, bathing the forest in its silver light. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath; the satisfied grin from before still clung to my face.

  Most people enjoyed the safety of walls. I liked the freedom of open terrain.

  Finding a patch of soft grass not too far from the glade where my apocalypse began, I lay down, hands supporting my head like a pillow as I gazed at the starlit sky. Every now and then, Iron zipped past above, keeping watch as usual.

  Tonight might be the last time I belong to nothing.

  Moonlight shone down on my body, silver, warm, and quiet. I closed my eyes.

  * * *

  I woke up to a peck on my cheek. Slowly blinking my eyes open, Iron's beak came into view. "What?" I mumbled.

  He chirped and flapped.

  "Alright, dammit," I groaned, pushing myself up on my elbows and rubbing my eyes.

  The camp was already awake, and people moved around constantly, sawing down the surrounding trees and making the necessary preparations.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  I wrapped myself in the blanket and began my walk over to the treehouse. Iron hopped behind me like a duckling.

  Blanket-wrapped naked guys must have been quite the unusual sight, because people stared. It didn't really bother me; in fact, I was feeling great. A night out in the moonlight had done the trick. My body felt nimble and strong, durable like steel.

  I climbed up to the treehouse, exchanged a greeting with Tom, who was already on his way out, and had breakfast with Aubrey after getting dressed in my tattered clothes.

  "Take that stupid cape off," she teased with a grin. "I have something better for you."

  I raised an eyebrow as she went over to a box standing in the corner below the loft.

  "I told you I would make a poncho, didn't I?" she said and handed me a cloak of the same bristled grey fur as the blanket in their sleeping quarters.

  [Direwolf Cloak]

  Common

  I held it up with both hands, admiring her work. She'd even kept the head so that I could wear it like a hood. "It's perfect," I muttered and tore off the redeemer cape and tight T-shirt eagerly.

  It draped over my body but didn't restrict my movements or get in the way of covering my sword. The insides were soft and warm, yet breathed remarkably well. I pulled the hood up just to see how it would feel. If anything, it was more scary than functional, but I liked it. I liked it a lot. It felt like something a wolf-slayer like me should wear with pride.

  "How do I look?" I asked.

  "Like a barbarian."

  I grinned. "You've really outdone yourself."

  She rolled her eyes. "Please, it's just a poncho. The others are working hard on getting me the supplies needed to make more advanced things. Everybody needs clothes."

  I nodded. I probably agreed with her more than anyone. "Speaking of clothes, I've got more material that I'd like you to make something for me with," I said and dug out the Fae fabric.

  Her eyes went wide at the sight of it.

  "It's beautiful," she muttered and stroked it with her fingers.

  "I know, right? Think you could work with it?"

  She nodded. "If anything, it will be much easier to work with than the wolf."

  Smirking, I pushed it into her arms. "Then I'd like a shirt and a pair of pants, please, when you're able. Keep the rest of the fabric for yourself."

  She gaped. "You mean it? This isn't something you just find laying around, you know."

  But it is, and I did.

  "I insist. You're the only one here who will do it justice."

  She gave me a hug, whispering, "I'll treasure it," and I knew she would.

  Now all that remained for the day was to install the Settlement Crystal and get ready for nightfall. Tonight was the night that the blood moon would rise. Leaning out of the window and looking at the people below working, I hoped that they would be ready in time. They were far from perfectly prepared, but they hadn't been slacking these last few days.

  Tom had worked out an intricate set of traps in the trees and woodwork. They just didn't keep them armed normally—afraid to injure another survivor or something.

  The ground-level defenses were quite underdeveloped, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. It just meant that I had to install the crystal somewhere else, preferably where they had done a bit of building. That left only the trees as a viable option.

  Ambling out of the window and up to the roof, I earned a worried shout, then a stern scolding from Aubrey. Still, I climbed up, ready to face the consequences after I had done what needed to be done. The fewer people that knew where the crystal was, the better, or so I figured.

  I walked across the roof to one of the corners where a tree supported the structure. Laying my hand on it, I gazed up the remaining fifty feet or so that it stretched into the sky. Bending my knees and springing back up, I leapt to the nearest branch and heaved myself up without much difficulty. The climb from there was pretty easy, so I climbed a bit higher until I found a satisfactory spot. No one in their right mind would suspect the crystal to be hidden here.

  Grinning, I grabbed my knife and carved a hollow into the white bark. When I finished, I gently placed the crystal inside.

  A set of blue letters scribbled itself into my vision as I appraised it.

  [Establish Settlement Y/N?]

  Without a hint of doubt, I accepted and watched as the tree patched itself back together. A welcome surprise. Next, however, the tree started shaking, the branches grew longer and thicker, and the trunk soon followed.

  Cracking and creaking like a natural disaster, the tree writhed underfoot. A scream echoed from below, and my heart skipped a beat. I looked down in horror, expecting the treehouse to be crushed from the sudden surge of growth. Luckily, the tree simply grew around it, incorporating the structure into its own mass.

  Panicked shouts crawled their way to me from the ground, and I watched as the people in the camp scrambled, not sure what to make of the tree's growth. I didn't dare climb down while it was moving, so I perched on the branch and held on to a groove in the bark for dear life.

  A few minutes later, the tree calmed with the chime of a bell.

  Name your settlement.

  I rubbed my chin. The place was very green, and we settled in a glade... Not thinking too much about it, I muttered aloud, "Verdant Glade?"

  Name confirmed.

  Settlement "Verdant Glade" established.

  Granting Lordship to crystal owner.

  Calculating Settlement environment bonus...

  Settlement environment bonus: Friends of the Forest.

  Well. Verdant Glade it is.

  [Lord privileges earned.]

  Settlement status

  Steward: None

  Marshal: None

  Settlers: 19/500

  Crystal Status: Secure.

  Faction wars: Locked

  Contribution exchange: Locked

  Of course, it doesn't say what the actual effect of the bonus is.

  Clicking my tongue, I read through the list of messages. There were more than I expected. With this, I could control everything that happened in the glade. That was enough to know that I shouldn't. A group's power lay not in one person, but in the collective as a whole.

  A few points of note made me especially happy, namely the parts about me being able to name a Steward and Marshal. That way I wouldn't need to micromanage everything after all and could stay on the move.

  Once more, I prepared to climb down but was interrupted by the tree stirring. A thin branch grew out from where I'd placed the crystal; on its very tip, a small seed bloomed and dropped into the palm of my hand.

  [Sacred seed of the Verdant Glade]

  Unique

  Plant inside the settlement.

  "So some of them do come with instructions," I muttered and pocketed the seed before climbing down the tree.

  Aubrey and Tom waited for me in the treehouse. She was the one I trusted most, so I made her the Steward of the settlement. She accepted the position without complaint since she'd practically been handling that responsibility already.

  Her eyes flashed blue as she was granted access to the settlement status and she quickly learned how to navigate the thing, probably even better than I did. This kind of thing seemed to come naturally to her.

  I turned to the next order of action; however, when I tried to make Tom the Marshal, both of them protested.

  "Why?" I asked with a furrowed brow.

  "I'm not a fighter, boyo," he said with a soft smile and took Aubrey's hand in his. "My place is here, not out there."

  The two of them shared a cutesy look, and I backed down. "Fine. I'll leave it to you to appoint someone, Aubrey."

  "You can count on me."

  "Good. Also, here," I said and handed her the seed. Her eyes understandably widened in astonishment as she appraised it. It was the first Unique I'd ever seen, too. "It's something for the settlement, so I wouldn't have much use for it. Just plant it somewhere accessible and easy to defend."

  She clasped her fist around the seed and nodded seriously. With her leading it, the settlement would thrive. The more I thought about it, the more satisfied I felt with my decision. Electing an actual leader was the best course of action. With her taking care of the boring stuff, I could focus on the exciting.

  I smiled. "Then from here on out, I leave all matters regarding the Verdant Glade in your hands, and our mutual alliance begins."

  "Where will you go?" Tom asked.

  I winked. "I'll be close. Wouldn’t wanna lose our new settlement before the new functions unlock."

  He nodded thoughtfully. "We could use a pair of strong hands like yours."

  "Sorry, I have plans."

  "Oh?" he said, raising his eyebrows.

  I smirked and rolled my head, the soreness from yesterday already gone. "I have skills to level."

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