A Question If I May

Dom logged out and headed to the Kitchen, Andrew and kai were not there yet so he decided to boil the water in advance. Dom wasn't the designated cook in their Dorm, it usually being Kai or Andrew that did it.

As the water boiled, the Dorm door creaked open, catching Dom off guard as he expected everyone to be gaming. In entered a tall, dark skinned male, who wore a black cloak over his students uniform. He had dark bags under his eyes and even though his skin was dark, his complexion was pale.

"Good Evening Dom." The Male Student said to him.

"Hey Horacio." Dom replied in a friendly manner, getting over his initial shock and realising it was their other dorm mate. "How have you been?"

"Well." Horacio replied quickly, "I've just finished my extra courses for the term, I have learnt some valuable skills which I am sure will help me in the future."

"I am sure they will!" Dom replied honestly, Horacio was quiet and normally kept to himself, often doing classes that only selected students could join. He had joined Dom and Andrew a couple of years ago, as the two were friendly and often tried to involve him in their groups during the earlier years of study. When he wanted to be alone they left him on his own as that is what he preferred, and Horacio appreciated this.

"Have you played World Conquest Online yet?" Horacio asked seriously, already looking towards his bedroom.

"I have, we are just taking an evening meal break now!" Dom replied.

"So Kai and Andrew are also playing?" Horacio asked quickly.

"They are, we are in different areas but are aiming to meet up in the future." Dom added.

"Good." Horacio responded, visibly relieved. "I was going to tell you all to get it, seeing that you have, I can now relax. I'm going to play now, see you soon. I would advice you don't die often, and if possible, avoid the southern continent."

With that Horacio left Dom and headed to his room, closing the door behind him, leaving Dom feeling perplexed at the random conversation they had.

Soon the water was boiling, so Dom opened a couple packs of instant noodles and placed them inside. He then opened the sauce sachets and poured that on top, allowing the flavour to spread in the pan. He had probably done it in the wrong order, but seeing that he was out before Kai and Andrew, he felt it was fine and if they moaned, so be it.

Soon the noodles cooked, and he poured the contents in to three bowls. He grabbed his bowl and sat down on the Sofa, grabbing his own phone to check the game blog. As he did, Andrew's door opened.

"Wow, you beat me!" Andrew exclaimed, "And you even cooked?"

Andrew grabbed a bowl from the side and sat down next to Dom on the Sofa.

"Anything interesting happen?" Dom asked.

"Not really, I've got talking to some merchant companies that own ships to see if I can sign on as a guard, I've made some friends with some NPC's and players so I am aiming to create a small guard squad that can work on the ships." Andrew replied, "But it's not been long. You?"

"Nothing much." Dom replied, "Just checking in with my NPC's for now, I want to go exploring when I log back on."

Kai soon joined them with his bowl as well, both Kai and Andrew ate their noodles, but neither showed a face of particularly enjoying it.

"I saw Horacio." Dom announced as they finished their bowls and discussing their short couple hours of playing.

"Horacio?" Kai asked, "How was he, seeing as his room is next to mine, I never hear anything!"

"He was good." Dom replied, "He just told me to play World Conquest Online and then went to his room."

"Horacio is the best." Andrew accepted, "Studies hard and games hard."

"I'm going back to play." Kai announced, "I need to hunt some nearby wolves for their pelts, so I can prove my worth to a merchants caravan. I need to earn a certain amount through hunting and trade, then they will accept me."

They all put their bowls away in the Kitchen sink and headed back to their rooms to log back in. Dom went through his normal routine of laying on his bed with the headset on and logging in to the blank room. He met up with Game Support and confirmed that he wanted to continue playing, before awaking in his room in the Town Centre.

Dom had only logged out of the game for around an hour, so the sun was still high in the sky, if not a bit further to the west than the east as it was earlier. He headed down stairs to the centre of the town centre, and was relieved to see that it was empty, other than Hua Tou daughter sat with the sleeping Tiger Cubs.

Dom smiled at her when she noticed him, before leaving the town centre and heading outside.

"Have fun?" Dom heard from Gregorios as soon as he left the Town Centre, catching him of guard.

"Of course." Dom replied, "You haven't been here the whole time have you?"

"No, I came back about an hour ago, Trojan and myself have been taking it in shifts, waiting for you to come back." Gregorios said.

"Have I missed anything?" Dom asked.

"Advisor Shang Yang and Mayor Lucius are in his office discussing something to do with farming." Gregorios commented, "Also a runner from Senior Commander Subutai has returned to let us know that they have created a staging area and we should expect the first delivery of goods before nightfall."

"That's great news." Dom responded, "Let's head over to the Docks and see if there is anything happening, I'd be intrigued to see how they are bringing things back."

Dom and Gregorios started making their way through the empty Merchant District towards the Dock's at the rivers edge, they heard shouting and turned their heads to see that Trojan was running after them.

"You are going to get me in trouble." Trojan said to Gregorios, panting slightly. "We are both supposed to be guarding the Lord."

"I'm sure Alexander wouldn't mind." Gregorios commented.

"No, but Commander Subutai would!" Trojan said seriously.

"Don't worry about it you two!" Dom replied, "I am perfectly capable of looking after myself."

As Dom said this, he tripped over a loose bit of ground and was quickly caught by Gregorios on the arm, so he didn't fall down.

"Completely capable." Gregorios agreed seriously, pretending nothing happened.

They soon reached the docks and saw that Helena was busy at work directing a small group of Villagers, there were now four boats, and two of them were currently attached together with thick beams of silver wood. The Villagers seemed busy and were carrying wood and other items as they moved from the warehouse to the shore.

"Hey Helena!" Dom waved to the Head of the Docks.

"Good Afternoon Lord," She replied, "As you can see, we are very busy today!"

"I can see that!" Dom replied, "What's going on?"

"Well, Subutai's scouts returned." She mumbled, "And we needed to find a way of getting some larger items across the water. So we have had to create ramps out of wood for both sides of the shore, as well as lose our two new fishing boats by tying them together to create a raft that is wide enough to balance a heavy load.

"How are they bringing anything back?" Dom asked, unsure how it was possible to bring anything large back from the underground city through the underwater entrance.

"I'm not sure what they are doing." She replied, "But they took over some hand carts, and lots of ropes that Alejandro and his daughters had just finished putting together for myself and Wang Shu."

"It will be interesting to see what they are doing!" Dom agreed.

He continued to talk with Helena for a few minutes, admiring the hard work the villagers were doing, he offered to help but was refused directly by Helena, saying that as the Lord of Riverside he shouldn't be getting involved with tasks at this level. Dom disagreed, but wouldn't argue with Helena.

"Scouts approaching!" Dom heard one of Helena's daughters shout from her fishing boat.

Dom looked across the river's edge and saw two Hoplite appear, he couldn't easily recognise them from the distance across the water.

"Looks like Leon and Erastus." Gregorios stated.

"How can you tell?" Dom asked.

"I have fought alongside them both for a long time, I can recognise them." Gregorios replied, Dom turned to Trojan to see if he agreed.

"It could be." Trojan said, "My eyesight is not as good as Gregorios. My skills lie in other things."

Soon the two Hoplite had climbed in to the fishing boat and were being brought back across the wharf on the dock. They clambered out and headed up the dock towards where Dom was stood with Gregorios, Trojan and Helena.

"Good Afternoon Lord!" Leon welcomed, "I didn't expect that you would be waiting for our return. It's a high honour."

The guards and Helena shared a look, not wanting to dampen Leon's spirits, and decided against mentioning that they were waiting for Subutai instead.

"How did it go?" Dom asked.

"Better than we expected." Leon replied, "Around a day's march from here is a small valley. Pretty closed off from all directions bar one. We followed the tracks and climbed up one of the sides of the valley, rather than enter direct."

"We were worried there may be riders." Erastus added, "So we wanted to maintain a level of stealth."

"What did you find?" Dom asked.

"Horses." Leon replied with a grin. "Beautiful horses, with ashen red skin, and a fire red mane. They are tall as well, with the biggest being around three and a half metres long and two metres tall from their hooves to head."

"Lots of them as well." Erastus added, "At least fifty, so a rather large herd of them."

"They are powerful looking, there were Stallions, Mares and some foal." Leon continued, "If we can tame them Lord."

"I agree!" Dom replied, "We do have a horse trainer, let's wait for Subutai to return and then we can send her with you and a small group to see if we can try and catch them."

"I'm not sure how we'll capture a whole herd, but I'm sure she'll have ideas." Leon said, thinking of the Horse Trainer that was currently helping with the Ox on the farmlands.

"A question if I may." Helena asked.

Dom looked at Helena, as did the four Hoplite that were stood there. Dom politely asked, "What is it?"

"How are you going to catch, then herd fifty plus massive horses across a days walk, and then get them across the River." She replied.

Dom had no idea, but he felt that he knew someone that would. All he had to do now was wait for the return of Legionary Macro.