Woodcutting

"WOOO GUESS WHO JUST BECAME A RIPPER EXECUTIVE"

Jason yelled out towards the ocean with his arms stretched out.

Perseus stood next to Jason with a grin on his face.

Both Jason and Perseus had gotten notifications the moment Jack started to become a ripper executive.

[All territories have been taken by Jack]

[Jack has become the new ripper executive]

[stat bonuses have been given to Jack]

[Jack has gained a new title]

[the NPCs close to Jack have gained stat bonuses]

[Jack has become the 13th ripper executive]

Both Perseus and Jason had worked so hard for this they had spent many nights talking about how to get Jack to the executive position the fastest and finally they could taste the fruits of their efforts. Now with Jack's new position, they could start to slowly attempt to take over the ripper gang, Perseus could spread his influence through the underworld both as a merchant selling potions and now through Jack's territories. The income that Jack's territories made would also support many of the operations Jason, Jack and Perseus had plans for.

Jack wanted to expand his influence in the ripper gang, Perseus wanted to start investing in players and building up the guild so that they could start to support themselves along with the information hub which was slowly starting to take place with the efforts of Boops.

And Jason, well he didn't really have a big project, if there was one, it was to eventually take out the bandits and monsters plaguing the multiple lands of the Belusian kingdom after all he did get a quest by the head of the rose household herself to do so.

Jason after celebrating a bit with Perseus asked him quietly

"so what are you going to do now?"

Perseus turned around with a smile looking at the young guild members happily walking around the port casting their lines and talking.

"I'm going to stay here a bit, after all our fishing trip hasn't ended yet, after that I'm planning to buy a shop or stall for potion selling"

Jason nodded and stood up dusting off his cloak.

"Alright, ima head back can you take care of her?" He said motioning towards the captive woman who was currently bound by ropes. Perseus didn't really see the need for the ropes since she complied with the capture, as much as the slave collar would allow her to do so. But Jason stubbornly insisted saying something about how much of a pain in the butt she was to find. He was not taking any chances losing her.

Also something interesting with the mysterious woman. She couldn't say her name, it would seem that the person who had command over the slave collar had banned the mysterious woman from saying her name or doing any sort of action that would tell it to others.

So now Perseus and Jason had no idea what her name was.

Jason let out a small laugh to himself as he walked through the city gates of Herdita. Perseus still had the transport carriage since he had to move all of the kids and the mysterious woman which meant that Jason was left to walk.

It wasn't too bad though, Jason's running speed could easily exceed the carriage's speed and so with a few deep breaths, Jason set off.

The sun was still up in the sky, the sky a beautiful blue with the faint sound of seagulls and ocean waves in the background along with the chorus of city noises.

Jason passed through the plains covered in tall grass that players spent most of their time hunting in. All they saw was a speedy blue run through the road, some thought that it was a special monster but gave up seeing that it had already disappeared into the distance before they could even group their party up to chase after it.

Soon the forest of Herdita came into Jason's eyes the tall lush forest was home to many secrets and Jason knew that he had only discovered a few of them. The forest stretched out deep into the kingdom in fact it even touched a few other territories.

With a small vault of his feet, Jason leaped onto the small that went towards the forest. As he crossed into the forest, the surroundings darkened as he went into it. The thick trunks of the trees seemed to almost box Jason in as he dashed through them.

A sudden sound made Jason stop his run and perk up his ears. It was a low thud that seemed to resound in the forest continiously.

A small grin passed Jason's face as he realized what the sound was. He quickly altered his course from the regular path and crossed into the depths of the forest where the sound came from.

Jason was reminded of when he was running with the wolves as he leaped over fallen logs somersaulted over large boulders, slid under low hanging branches, and jumping through bushes like nobody's business.

The sound got closer and closer as Jason sprinted towards them.

Soon Jason could make out voices, deep manly ones that cheered and said words of encouragement as the deep sound repeated.

Jason emerged from the thicket at top speed. He landed in a small clearing where numerous people were standing at.

A large group of free slaves stood around a certain man who was cutting down an extremely large tree with a furious intensity.

The freed slaves didn't notice Jason's emergence which was understandable since they were all enthralled with the person in the very middle of the clearing. He wiped the sweat on his brow as he pulled back his ax for another hefty cut that made the tree trunk tremble to its very core.

As Paul Bunyan readied his next swing, his axe glowed with a brown coating. It sharpened and made the ax stronger than it already was. Paul was completely oblivious to it and with a loud grunt, he swung his ax.

Paul let out a smile a few seconds later. He held his ax in his hand as he looked at the clean-cut through the entire tree trunk.

He raised his hand and gently knocked on the trunk. With it being completely severed the tree trunk slowly fell foward under the loud yell of Paul's

"TIMBER!"

With a thud that shook the forest floor the tree fell, the cheers of the free slaves around Paul started to ring out while Paul stood in the middle a proud smile covering his face.

Soon the free slaves got to work. They started to cut up the abnormally large tree trunk which was about the width of a car into smaller movable pieces.

Paul oversaw all of that, but when he saw that everyone knew what their task was and was doing it as efficiently as possible he turned to the forest floor and kneeled pulling a small seed out of his pocket.

He wasn't sure why, but he felt like it was wrong to take from the forest without giving it something back though it was small.

Paul started to dig with his hands. It was hard digging into the forest floor with only one's hands rocks cut into Paul's skin.

And then with a satisfying crunch in the dirt the metal head of a shovel fell into the dirt next to Paul.

Paul looked up to see Jason grinning at him with his hand at the end of the shovel.

Paul immediately stood up and bowed

"Sir!"

Jason let out a nonchalantly laugh and waved off the bow with both hands.

Paul stood in frount of Jason with a happy smile on his face. Jason let out a laugh

"I don't even need to ask how it's going huh"

Paul let out a hearty laugh and responded

"yes sir! but truly thank you, it all still feels like a dream come true"

Jason smiled and dug into the forest ground with the shovel in his hand.

"you know," he said while digging a big enough hole for the seed to fit in.

"I always keep a shovel on me after a certain time where I had to dig up entire trenches by myself."

Jason let out a wry smile thinking about the time where he had to do that.

"but anyways" Jason continued widening the hole a bit more before motioning to Paul to place the seed in.

"what you are doing is protecting the silver wings guild, your home, every time you bring materials back to the guild, you are providing for your fellow slaves, your family it's a noble profession a woodcutter"

Jason handed Paul the end of his shovel offering it to him.

"don't forget that"

Saying that Jason rose from the ground and started to walk off towards where the guild house was.

"oh yeah"

Jason said turning around

"be sure to come home before dinner or Natalies going to get pissed"

Paul smiled and nodded his head as the figure of Jason slowly receded into the forest thicket.