“Do you ever sleep?” Tsurgi asked.

“Not really, no,” Kaiser replied, matter-of-factly. He emptied out his inventory into a loot box on the first floor. This mining run was much better than last night’s – courtesy of McGiggles’s metal hatchet and pick axe. The boxes were filled with stone, metal and sulfur ore, and wood. All the materials necessary for constructing and maintaining a base.

Kaiser was also able to build a research table and with the blueprint fragments he collected was able to learn both the metal pick axe and hatchet. He could only get the research success to around 65% each but thankfully that was not an issue and he got the blueprints for both.

The RNG gods favor me it seems, Kaiser thought.

“Dude!” Furiosa called out. “We are practically already at end game status. Look at this!”

“Not quite. We need to build more indoor walls and doors and stuff.” Kaiser replied.

“Well, obviously. But damn. First day and we have a castle!” Furiosa continued, clearly excited. “BobLee is going to freak.”

Kaiser laughed. “If we are going to finish this base we are going to have to go on more farming runs.”

“You know, we could start raiding people for the resources. It would clear out the area and we get our mats,” Tsurgi offered.

“Ehhh…” Kaiser said, unsure. “I don’t really like raiding people.”

“It’s a part of the game,” Furiosa said. “Everyone else does it.”

“That may or may not be true but I like to try to keep my conscience clean,” Kaiser said with surety.

“Man…” Furiosa said in a tone that asked: are you kidding me?

“You guys can do what you want. I prefer to take out people who try to fuck with us,” Kaiser said. “Of which there is always a-plenty.”

“Well, when you put it that way,” Tsurgi an agreeing tone.

“Then let’s go look for trouble,” Furiosa said, laughing.

Kaiser laughed as well. “That sounds like fun but for now let’s try to finish the base. Raiding us would be far too easy.”

“Fine,” Furiosa conceded. “Let me try to get BobLee on.”

“Good idea,” Kaiser said.

Tsurgi ran over to a tool box and pulled out some mining equipment. “I am going to go on a mining run. Focus on rock nodes.”

“Great. I’ll craft high external stone walls when you bring back the stone. We will also need large furnaces soon so we can cook up all this metal and sulfur ore. We need sulfur dust and metal fragments.” Kaiser suggested.

“Alright, BobLee will be on in a minute. He is bringing Killic with him.” Furiosa informed.

“Good, good, very good,” Kaiser said, satisfied that reinforcements were coming.

Last night the server was fairly quiet. However, today was a different story all together. Bases had sprung up all over Hapis Island in varying sizes, builds, and complexity. None were as big as Kaiser’s group’s base but considering how lacking they were in terms of gear, interior walls, and defenses they might as well have had a smaller base.

I should have forgone the extra floor or two and built up the inside. Damn it, stupid, Kaiser berated himself. I suppose the fact that it looks formidable is a deterrent… for now.

In Rust, having a large base helps you keep your assets safe from raiders. The bigger and more complex a base was the harder it usually was to raid. However, near the end of a game cycle – sometimes mid-cycle – when other groups were just as big or even bigger than you, then all bases – regardless of size – became a target.

Especially since larger bases usually mean better loot, Kaiser continued in thought.

“Alright guys, Im’a get’a workin’,” Kaiser said. He did not want to be indefensible for any longer than was necessary.

Kaiser ran out of the base. He was clad in black pants, leather boots, a green hoodie, and bone armor pants and jacket. He carried with him a metal pick axe and hatchet, a waterpipe shotgun, 12 gauge buckshot ammo, a bow with arrows, and plenty of bandages. Normally when people go harvesting for resources they stay naked so as to not increase the amount of things lost when they were jumped and subsequently killed. Kaiser did not believe in this. The more geared you were when harvesting, the more likely you were to kill your attacker and the less likely you were to waste hours of mining and farming just because your attacker had better gear than you.

“Furi, you manning the furnaces?” Kaiser inquired.

“Way ahead of you,” Furiosa replied. “We are running low on ore to cook though.”

“Alright, we’ll be back with resources,” Kaiser replied.

The field outside of the base was barren. Tsurgi had already cleared out every rock node. There was however a forest of trees at the foot of the hill to the east.

“How are we on wood?” Kaiser asked, already running down to collect the wood.

“Let me check,” Furiosa replied.

Kaiser made it to the trees and began harvesting them. The rhythmic hacking of the hatchet was almost hypnotic.

“We are going to run low soon,” Furiosa came back.

“Alright, already working on collecting wood,” Kaiser said as he watched as he was updated on each collection of wood with each hatchet hit.

Wood +25

Wood +25

Wood +25

This repeated until the tree disappeared. Kaiser always thought it would be cool if the trees fell over after a certain amount of hits and slowly split apart has you harvested the tree but he supposed having the game just destroy the game object was easier for scripting and gameplay.

“Everybody, jump check!” Tsurgi called out.

Kaiser immediately started jumping – not wanting to be misidentified as a potential hostile and mistakenly shot. Jump checks were a simple and fast method for checking if people are on the same team. If someone in a group calls a jump check and someone is not jumping, chances are that person is not a part of their group and is about to have a bad time.

“Is everyone jumping?” Tsurgi continued.

“I’m in the base,” Furiosa informed.

“I haven’t stopped jumping,” Kaiser replied, still jumping. Tsurgi did not give an all-clear. This meant that he had someone in his sights that was not of our group.

“I see someone. Wearing a poncho only,” Tsurgi said. “He is smacking a ro- Wait, he saw me. He’s pulling out a bow. He’s shooting at me!” Tsrugi tried to talk to the attacker. “I’m friendly! Don’t shoot!” Tsurgi spoke to his group again. “Bastard is still trying to shoot me.”

“Where are you? Furiosa can you get to the roof?” Kaiser asked.

“Already heading up,” Furiosa replied.

“I am by the road when you head straight out of the base. He is coming at me. Fucker wants a fight. I’m engaging,” Tsrugi said. “You fucked with the wrong guy!” He said over proxy-voice-chat.

Kaiser heard Tsurgi talk in-game. He was close. Kaiser ran back towards the base and headed north as fast as he could. The trees impeded his way.

POW!

Kaiser heard the sound of a shotgun blast go off.

“Damn it. I missed!” Tsurgi updated.

Pow! Pow! Pow!

This was definitely the sound of a revolver. We don’t have any revolvers, Kaiser thought.

“He’s got a naked friend!” Tsurgi exclaimed.

“I’m on my way!” Kaiser said. “Furiosa are you on the roof?”

“Yea but we don’t have any bolties. I have the SMG but I can’t shoot at this range. They are too far.”

“You suck! You suck! You suck!” Tsurgi said over proxy-voice-chat. “Killed the friend. Bow-guy is running.”

The sounds of the slain friend’s screams were close and allowed Kaiser to orient himself better.

“Dude! Dude, pick me up!” The friend with the revolver said.

Kaiser cleared the treeline and saw the bow-guy running. He could have picked up his friend and have him either get away or help him take out Tsurgi but either he was stupid or cowardly. Kaiser thought the latter. Coward won’t even try to pick up his friend, Kaiser thought.

Kaiser was close to him. Tsurgi was on his heels. The bow-guy changed direction. He was headed towards for Kaiser. Kaiser crouched so as not to make any footfall sounds and snuck into a bush. The wannabe assailant was running straight at him. The half-naked turned and drew back his bow to try to get a shot at Tsurgi.

Now! Kaiser thought. He came out of the bush, aimed his waterpipe shotgun and fired. POW! Only half the shotgun pellets peppered the poncho-wearing attacker. It was not enough to bring him down.

The attacker turned and drew his bow at Kaiser. Kaiser strafe to avoid a shot. An arrow was loosed. It stuck!

Kaiser’s screen lit up red. The corner above his health and stats read: Bleeding 11%. “Damn it, he hit me!” He called out. He was losing health. Backing off, he bandaged himself to keep from taking any more damage.

“Don’t worry I got him,” Tsurgi said. He ran up to the half-naked with a hatchet and swung. He hit.

The attacker pulled out a wooden spear and tried to stab Tsurgi. He missed.

Tsurgi returned and hit him again.

The attacker went for another stab and missed.

Kaiser took out his bow and tried to get a shot in. He could not. Tsurgi and the attacker were circling around and jumping over each other too closely. He might hit Tsurgi.

They continued to exchange blows. Tsurgi landing hits while the half-naked kept missing.”

“You suck. You suck! YOU SUCK!” Tsurgi said over proxy-voice-chat. He struck the half-naked again and dropped him to the ground, his screams filling the air as he laid thrashing in his death throes.

Tsurgi ran up to the man, reloading his waterpipe shotgun. “Did not know who he was fuckin’ with,” he said over proxy-voice-chat. POW! Tsurgi shot the man in the face. The assailant was dead.

“You know its better to let them bleed out,” Kaiser said, knowing Tsurgi knew full well that leaving a player to bleed out meant that their killer’s name would not show up on their death screen.

“Yea, but he pissed me off.”

“Alrighty then,” Tsurgi said laughing.

“Hey guys,” BobLee said. “How’s everything?”

Kaiser and Tsurgi laughed.

“What? I miss anything?” BobLee asked, not getting the joke.

Furiosa was the one to answer. “Not much. Just Tsurgi kicking ass.”

“Fuck yea,” Tsurgi crowed. “There is no fear in this dojo!”

Next Chapter: Chapter 3 - Specialties and Friendlies