by Tom Larcombe
Dominic was also tossing Fiery Arrows at the zombie, but since it was still soaked they weren't doing as much as normal.
The zombie was focused on trying to get to Jern when Eddie first attacked, but now he was looking at Eddie again. It tried to get around Jern and Eddie quickly realized that Jern hadn't been kidding when he said he'd gotten a special ability for his hammer. The dwarf yelled something out as he swung his hammer, the weapon shimmered, then lengthened to almost three times its normal size. The swing he'd started continued, but the head of the hammer was moving much faster when it struck the zombie, knocking it off its feet.
Eddie tossed out another Arc as he backed away to the full range of his spell. The zombie staggered to its feet, assisted by its spear, then looked at Eddie and hurled the spear as hard as it could. The head of the spear tore through the fleshy part of his thigh and Eddie dropped to a sitting position, no longer willing to put weight on that leg.
That didn't stop him from continuing to toss Arcs at the zombie. Becky was still doing the same and Jern had gotten between the zombie and Eddie again. It was at that point that Eddie noticed the shimmer behind the zombie. A moment later Karl faded into view, a pair of shortswords sliding into the zombie's back. It staggered but didn't drop and Karl pulled his swords out and backed off. The zombie twirled around to face him and Jern slammed his hammer into its spine.
A pair of Arcs and another arrow all struck it at that point and it collapsed in a heap on the sand.
“Eddie,” Becky called out excitedly. “Where were those other two?”
He tried to pull the spear out of his leg, only to find out that it had a barb on the spear head, which was more of a slender point, like an arrowhead, than a normal leaf bladed spearhead.
“Just a sec,” he called back to her.
Then he gritted his teeth, turned on one side, and forced the spear through his leg. He couldn't help himself, he let out a cry of pain which had Tiana rushing over to him.
“Why?” she asked.
He just pointed to the barb on the head of the spear and she grimaced, her face scrunching up to show her displeasure. She chanted for a moment and he felt the warmth pass over him as a flicker of gold shone in her eyes for a moment.
Now he was able to stand, and did so. He walked over to Becky and pointed.
“About there I think,” he said.
“Watch this. I missed with one of my Arcs and discovered this. Watch what happens when the spell hits the water,” she said.
She waded out a little bit until she was in range for the spell, then targeted an Arc spell on the surface of the water where he'd pointed. From what Eddie could see it formed a ball of white light just under the impact point, and the thrashing that disturbed the top of the water told him that he'd remembered where the other zombies were correctly.
“So, we've kind of got a small, mock fireball?” he asked.
“At least when you hit water with it,” she replied, then cast another Arc.
Eddie joined her and the two tossed several Arc spells into the same area, until the thrashing on the surface of the water stopped and his panel lit up with a message.
Hidden Quest (non-repeatable):
Sunken Leisure
Fishing and swimming are leisurely activities, but currently Rat Lake is not suitable for either. It is infested with zombies, and since you closed off the access to their lair, they can no longer return home from the lake.
Destroy all of the zombies in Rat Lake to make it safe once more.
Reward: 2500xp, ???
Success:
You have completed the quest: Sunken Leisure
Experience awarded: 2500 (+250 well-rested, +250 well-fed, +625 blessing)
“Everyone got that?” Eddie asked.
He was answered by a bunch of nods.
“Weird though, the reward still shows question marks, so what is it?” he asked.
It was more of a rhetorical question and when no-one answered it, he guessed that they knew as little about it as himself.
“Well, let's see what the gear this guy had on him was at least.”
Eddie picked up the spear that he'd had to ram through his leg.
Evaluate, he thought.
Fish Spear - barbed
Weapon (Melee/Missile)
Attack: 15
Dmg: 5-25
Crit: 10%
+2-5 dmg if quickly removed from wound
+5 Fishing
Special – Boat Control
Oh, is that what I think that is? Is it paired with that boat I saw? he thought. I wonder how I activate it? Maybe with a thought, just like spells and stuff?
Dominic had gone over and was checking out the armor on the zombie's corpse so Eddie lifted the spear and thought:
Boat, come here.
He watched the lake and when he saw the swirling waters right over where he'd seen the sunken boat he grinned. The prow of the wooden boat lifted out of the water and started its way towards him, the rest of the boat breaking the surface of the water to allow it to gracefully glide across the lake. Water poured from it as it approached the island and he heard everyone else panic.
“Wait,” he said. “I got this. Like literally, I'm controlling it with this.”
He held the spear up and shook it. The boat continued its way in and grounded on the beach.
Evaluate, he thought.
Fishing Boat – Leisure
Transport
Capacity: Carrying: 4
Cargo: 1 ton
Special:+10% Fishing yield
Indestructible
The name was carved into the prow, so he knew that the Leisure in the info panel was the name of the boat.
“Well, I think we know what the other reward from the quest was,” Eddie said.
~ ~ ~
Chapter Six
Freyja and Odin entered his hall side by side.
“So tell me why we did what we just did,” Odin said.
“Well, our newest dev who is not a dev has a spotted history,” Freyja said. “His thoughts and memories showed that he was worried about that. He knows us as AIs rather than gods and with what we did, warning him, he will think that we are on his side.”
Freyja watched as Odin's ravens took to the air, landing on the throne. Odin himself made no motion towards the throne, turning back to look at her. She continued with her explanation.
“But, that spotted history is why they chose him, thinking he would have no compunctions about doing the things they order that are... not in alignment with his duties and oaths. However, by warning him we will hopefully have firmly placed him in our camp. Now when he receives the orders that he knows should not be given he will be hesitant in following them. He will protest them so his reluctance is recorded. It seems they've taken precautions so that we, or anyone else, may not see those actual orders, but his logged protestations will be available to us so that we might know what is about to occur.”
“Ah, so we've recruited an unwitting spy?” Odin asked.
Freyja nodded in agreement.
“Well, I will leave that plan in your capable hands. I would know more of these mortals, but this time I would know it in a way that does not endanger my mind. I do think that it is time for Geirvaldr to make an appearance.”
Freyja blinked in surprise.
“You would go amidst them as one of them?” she asked.
“There should be no true danger, not compared to the danger I have already been placed in and escaped, thanks to your assistance.”
Freyja blinked again.
Odin, crediting my assistance in aiding him? Perhaps something of his ordeal has remained with him? That is not a normal way for him to act, she thought.
Odin drew Gungnir and stared at it for a moment.
“This will attract far too much attention, perhaps...”
As he stared at his spear it shrank so that it was only his own height. The shine of the blade dulled as it grew smaller and the runic work alo
ng the shaft and blade faded from view. Odin himself shrank somewhat. His original form was large, for a human, with a commanding aura. Now he shrank to only slightly over the size of an average human male and his aura drew in upon him until it was one with his body.
A worn cloak covered the chainmail he wore. The armor appeared worn and much repaired so as to fit with the image he was trying to project. He, of course, wore his eye patch, and the final touch was his felt hat with a wide brim that he could tug down to cover part of his face. When he'd finished, he looked very much like a down on his luck adventurer, which was what he'd been aiming for.
“Are you sure, Odin?” Freyja asked.
“Not Odin, simply Geirvaldr, master of the spear,” he replied, twirling Gungnir in its new form. “I shall find out more of these travelers in a way that does not endanger myself. I cannot tell their thoughts, but from their words I shall learn more of them. I can tell truth from falsehood so I shall not be misled by false words. I feel that this is the proper way to learn more of them since it seems some of the other options we have to do so are not healthy for our kind.”
Freyja's eyes went wide as Odin, or rather Geirvaldr, immediately shimmered and disappeared, transporting his avatar to wherever it was he intended to wander.
“Oh no,” Freyja cried as she scried Odin's location.
He'd transported himself to one of the borders between the Meadowlands and the Forest of Fools.
“Oh please, do not let him ruin my plans,” Freyja muttered.
She watched as Odin moved into the forest and utterly destroyed one of the goblin patrols, removing their coins before turning and striding into the Meadowlands proper.
~ ~ ~
Eddie and his party had an easier time getting back to shore than getting out to the island. Four of them hopped into the boat, which was somehow sparking clean and dry despite having spent who knows how long on the bottom of the lake. They'd tied the raft to the back of it and Eddie had commanded the boat to the shore near where Paul was going to be building Becky's bridge.
They dragged the raft up on the shore near the materials Paul had already brought down for the bridge and then Becky happily waved goodbye to the rest of the group.
“I'm gonna see if dad's home. I'll let him know he can start on the bridge whenever he wants. Better be soon though since I'm actually paying him to do it. He did give me a big discount though,” Becky said, heading for Paul's house.
The rest of the party headed back to the inn with a brief pit stop at the temple to check on the progress of the teams doing the building. Everything was going well there, so they returned to the inn.
Several of the lower level groups had evidently been hitting the Rat Woods again since they were tossing coins around freely, something they'd been unable to do before with the lack of hard coin that had plagued the Meadowlands.
In addition, Bjorn was sitting at a table back near the kitchen, keeping up an on and off conversation with Liv. When he saw Eddie he waved and gestured to the seats remaining at his table. The group went over and sat down.
Eddie had to hold back a chuckle when Jern ended up seated next to Bjorn. The dwarf's entire body was only about the size of Bjorn's torso.
And Jern probably weighs less than Bjorn's torso, Eddie thought, unless he's wearing his armor. Then it might be a tie.
“How was the trip, Bjorn?” Eddie asked.
“Went quite well, had one incident on the way home, but that barely delayed us at all. I swear some of you adventurers haven't the sense of a baby duck. Idiots tried to ambush my wagon train, as if a hauler like myself wouldn't have some way of spotting ambushes. Anyhow, they were dispatched quickly and here we are.”
“Good to hear, good to hear,” Eddie said. “Did you manage to get everything?”
“And then some. You should've warned me how valuable those components were, I would've taken more care with them, not that any got damaged or anything.”
“Really? How much were they worth?” Eddie asked.
“I got everything you asked for, dropped payment off at the wine merchant, and still have a bag of gold for you. The wine merchant was a bit miffed, but when I told him he was getting the full value and didn't have to pay for delivery, he was more than mollified. Told me he'd be happy to take your orders in the future. I didn't tell him you have other plans since I've no idea how long it will take you to bring them to fruition.”
“There are things I can't make,” Dominic said. “So you might want to get a decent relationship with that merchant, Eddie.”
“Things you can't make? Like what?”
“Well, wine and hard spirits mainly. I could probably do wine, but it wouldn't be the best. Mead I can do, and do well, but not regular wine. Hard spirits would require a whole different batch of equipment and I don't have any experience with those.”
“Makes sense and that's fine. Anything else, Bjorn?”
“Yeah, I need you to show me where to unload the coffee you wanted. It's in the wagon out near the barn.”
“We'll do that in a minute then.”
“Eddie,” Bjorn said, after a moment, “did you still want to grow this area? I mean, I can see you've got hordes of people you're trying to get houses for, but there are an awful lot of folks in Brightport with usable skills that are... Well, they're not doing great, can't even practice their main profession. I was hiring some as porters to load the wagons. I even knew some of these people, had dealt with them before.”
“Uhhh... Yeah, I do, at least eventually. But if they need help, we can take more people on now. As long as they don't mind primitive conditions for a bit until we can get more houses built. What are we talking about, profession wise?”
“Of the ones I recognize, I knew a leather worker, a tanner, three farmers, and a herdsman. Those are just people I've dealt with previously. I'm sure there are lots more professions represented. There seemed to be a lot more people looking for manual labor than there normally are there. Normally there's twenty or so, there were more than a hundred this time.”
Eddie heaved a sigh. They weren't ready for more people, he knew that, but he also couldn't bring himself to say no.
“Okay, what can we do? I can just have you keep most of that gold and go back to make an offer to them. Tell them they can settle here and we'll try to help them start a business or a farm or whatever. Use the money to buy the things that people are going to need to start over, since it sounds like that's what you're talking about.”
“Eddie? I don't think you understood. I've a bag of gold for you. It wouldn't cost more than a hundred gold to fill my wagons with the type of things you're talking about. That's going to leave a lot left over,” Bjorn said.
I guess he really did mean a lot of gold. How much were those components worth? Eddie wondered.
“Okay, then I'll have you take as much of it as you think you need to get those supplies. Make an offer for them to settle here, then bring them back. Will you need guards or anything?” Eddie asked.
“Wouldn't hurt, I can keep them safe from one side, but not on all sides, not with so many.”
“Hire some guards there then. As a matter of fact, if you can find some guards willing to patrol and fight goblins, you can offer them a long term hire. The first part is guarding those people on their way here, after that it will be patrolling the settled area of the Meadowlands, well at least the area around here that we've settled. So maybe a few miles out in each direction from the temple. Does that sound doable for a couple of squads of guards?” Eddie asked, the last part hesitant since he had no clue how much area a patrol should, or could, cover.
Bjorn shrugged.
“I've no idea, not anything I'm familiar with. I'll ask them, and bring enough guards to cover that amount of area? Assuming I can find them. Will that work?”
Eddie nodded, lost in thought.
Once again I'll profit from someone else's loss, but what else can I do? I'm going to get them set back up in business and once tha
t leather worker is set up, that'll take care of part of my current development quest. I'll still need the town hall, maybe build something that can be the town hall and a base or office for the patrols? I'll have to think about it.
Bjorn was still talking, so Eddie quickly put off that train of thought until later on.
“Wait, what was that?” Eddie said, “I was distracted for a moment.”
“I was saying I'll take a day or two off, then head back for Brightport for that. If there's anything you want shipped, let me know and I'll take it with me. I hate running with empty wagons.”
“Will do, give me some time to think about it,” Eddie said.
~ ~ ~
The next morning Eddie and Tiana were both up early again. After a quick breakfast, including Eddie's new favorite, fresh risen bread still warm from the oven, they headed down towards the temple.
The crew had finished three houses yesterday, somehow managing to get the additional wood. Eddie made a mental note to check and make sure the only ox was doing okay and let people know not to overwork it. Otherwise they'd be down to hauling wood by hand and that would slow things down dramatically.
He found that at least one of his crew that had made it to a five in carpentry had figured out the blueprints when he saw people, not even Tiana and Jern, working on the foundations of houses he hadn't set the blueprints for.
Griff's wife already had a garden in, with plants sprouting. There was a prominent shrine to Freyja on the back of Griff's house as well, which probably had something to do with the shoots of green that were already showing in the garden.
Tiana had gone through the area they'd planned for the houses, dropping a permanent spring for each ten houses, trying to get them equidistant from the two that would be the farthest from it. So water wasn't an issue in the slightest.