Light Online Book Three: Leader

by Tom Larcombe

  “Liv, has Bjorn left yet?” Eddie asked.

  “Morning to you too, Eddie. No, he's getting provisions loaded and harnessing up the oxen still,” she said.

  “Yeah, sorry, good morning,” Eddie added, racing out the back door.

  Bjorn was visible over near the barn so Eddie trotted over.

  “Bjorn, I'm glad you haven't left yet. I've thought of something else we'll need.”

  “One moment,” the big man said, softly.

  When he turned Eddie knew instantly why he hadn't left yet. The evening before it had looked like his drinking game with Geirvaldr hadn't affected him, but one look at the haggard face and bloodshot eyes told Eddie that that hadn't actually been the case.

  “Ow, hangover?” Eddie asked.

  Bjorn nodded.

  “I should've known better, but his boasting got the better of me. I hope he's no better off this morning.”

  There was no spite to his comment, it was just a statement of fact that Eddie took as Bjorn thinking that if the other man weren't in just as bad a shape this morning then Bjorn would have to chalk it up as a loss.

  “Well, I'm sorry about that, I was amazed either of you were still standing by the time Opron left.”

  “I couldn't back down after I'd accepted, even if I might sort of wish I had this morning.”

  Eddie held back a chuckle, knowing it wouldn't be received well.

  “Anyhow, I thought of something else we need desperately. How much do oxen, the type for plowing or pulling a wagon, go for in Brightport? If you'll be coming back slowly anyhow due to the people you're bringing along then a few more oxen shouldn't be a problem, right?”

  “You're right. They won't slow us down any more. They normally go for about a gold each, depending on availability. I've seen them as much as two gold, but that's not normal.”

  “Then get ten, would you? Or as many as you can get with this.”

  Eddie handed over ten gold coins.

  “I shouldn't need this, there ought to be some left over from the other you gave me,” Bjorn said, not moving to take the coins.

  “Then take this as well and get as many oxen as you can. There will be a lot of large fields that need to be plowed soon if I'm not mistaken, plus the one poor ox I've got is heavily overworked.”

  Bjorn took the coins and added them to his pouch. Then he finished harnessing his own oxen to the wagon.

  “Well, I've just got to bid my Livy a farewell and then we'll be off. It's nice to see her more than I used to, I'll tell you that,” Bjorn said, his haggard face brightening a touch at the thought. “Although with the hounding about things like drinking contests, maybe... No, it's definitely better this way.”

  Once again Eddie held back a chuckle. He'd been on the receiving end of Liv's tongue lashings more than once and was happy that he hadn't had one in a while.

  He turned to go back into the inn and saw Becky across the yard at the chicken coop. He'd given in and given her permission to have any of the animals out whenever she wanted so long as they didn't get away. She'd taken to that instantly and now she normally handled the morning feeding and watering necessary for them. She was currently arguing with the, once scrawny, rooster from his flock of chickens.

  “I don't care, you'll wear them out if you do that,” she said.

  She chanted for a moment, then a series of clucks came out. The rooster bristled and jumped up into the air, fluffing its feathers as it did so in order to look bigger. Becky simply reacted, her hand coming out and thumping him on top of the head, driving him back to the ground, before she clucked at it again.

  This time Eddie didn't hold back a chuckle.

  “What's up, Becky?”

  She spun around, surprised.

  “Just trying to let your rooster know who's boss. He's wearing out the chickens trying to mate constantly.”

  “He's a rooster, it's what they do. Is it really an issue?”

  She pointed towards the hens, all of whom were looking a bit bedraggled.

  “What do you think?” she said.

  “Alright, I can see where it might be. Want to take care of it or would you like a ready made solution?”

  “Please yes, tell me what to do about this. Talking to him, even in his own language, doesn't seem to help.”

  “It's impossible for an animal to overcome that type of instinct. Especially when they don't want to overcome it,” Eddie said. “So, we'll just separate him except when we want them mating. Keep him right nearby so he can still see and hear them and he'll be frustrated, but not come to any harm from it.”

  “That sounds about right, but you're not going to build another coop, are you?”

  “No, just a small cage. He should be fine with four or five square feet of surface to move around in.”

  Eddie had looked it up on the inline browser before building the coop. Chickens needed a minimum of two square feet per bird like that, but a lot of sources recommended larger areas, so he'd err on the side of caution.

  “As a matter of fact, while I do have some things to take care of this morning, I can probably make something for that by lunch time. It shouldn't take long, I'll just weave green branches for it, like I did with the base of the bunny hutch. We'll just need to check it for cracks as it dries out is all.”

  “Good, I didn't want him to wear the hens out to the point where they would slow, or stop, laying,” Becky replied.

  “That would be bad,” Eddie said.

  He knew that both the baker and Liv relied on the eggs for some of their cooking, plus he enjoyed his own egg breakfasts, and just recently they'd started offering eggs on the menu once a week. The eggs themselves could be kept without refrigeration for quite a while, even if they hadn't been in game where things didn't seem to spoil easily, so stockpiling the extras for a week and then offering those as part of the menu had been an easy choice.

  “So, how are the new chicks doing?” Eddie asked.

  They'd already had a couple of clutches of eggs hatch with a decent survival rate on the chicks. They'd allowed some of the hens that were broody to hatch their eggs so he could build the flock up.

  “Great, we didn't lose any more after that first day,” she said. “The bunny kits are doing well also.”

  “Good deal. I keep meaning to ask you, can you work your animal friendship magic on larger animals also?”

  “As long as they're my level or lower the spell should work, although if they're equal to my level they get a chance to resist.”

  “Good, one of these days I may ask you to take a trip, if you're willing. There's a herd of the cow analogs east a few hours. Allie and Karl said it looked like they used to be domestic stock, so I'm hoping to catch and corral them. Maybe get milk, cheese, more meat for burgers, and the like.”

  Eddie made sure to mention the burgers. While Becky professed that eating meat was wrong, she still did it. Her very favorite thing to eat in game came about from one of Karl's wild ideas. The first time Becky had bit into a burger made in game, she'd torn through the whole thing in about a minute, and immediately asked for another.

  “You mean cheeseburgers instead of just hamburgers?” she asked. “Just let me know when.”

  Eddie grinned at her.

  “I still need to build the corral first and we've got other things to do today. Want to hit another quest? You weren't here yesterday when I was telling the group about it.”

  “What is it?”

  “We found an abandoned mine,” Eddie said softly, “and got a quest to clear and claim it. Higher than our level so we're bringing Charles' group along also. Going to hit it this afternoon or tomorrow, depending on the availability of Charles' group.”

  “If it's tomorrow, then I'm out. Dad's supposed to finish the bridge today, so if Karl's done with his maps, I'd like you to announce the dungeon tonight and I'll be busy collecting sweet, sweet silver all day tomorrow. Honestly, you might lose Charles' group for that tomorrow also if that's the case. Although
dungeon versus abandoned mine would probably be a tough choice for them.”

  “I think they'll go for the mine since it's in their recommended level range,” Eddie said. “Plus the dungeon isn't going anywhere, they can do that later on whenever they like. The mine quest is a single chance.”

  She nodded.

  “That's a good point. Well, like I said, if you go today I'm in. If it's tomorrow, then I'll have to sit it out, unless Karl hasn't finished his maps yet and we don't announce tonight.”

  Eddie nodded back.

  “Okay, just wanted to give you a chance since you gave us the original heads up on the dungeon.”

  “Thank you for that,” Becky said.

  “You're welcome. I've got to go see if Tiana's managed to get out of bed yet.”

  Eddie turned and headed back to the inn.

  ~ ~ ~

  Eddie arrived to find Tiana just finally getting out of bed.

  “I need to work on getting up more easily,” she said. “My coffee was lukewarm and the bread wasn't warm at all by the time I got up to eat it.”

  “Sorry,” Eddie replied.

  “Not your fault, well I suppose you could've made sure I woke up all the way.”

  “I had to catch Bjorn before he left. I asked him to get us some more oxen so we have more than the one. I'll make some more wagons also and that should accelerate the building processes.”

  “That makes sense. Anyhow, I've got to get to the temple. You heading that way?”

  The two walked to the crossroads and when Tiana stepped into the temple, Eddie continued north along the road until he caught up to the building crews. After determining that they were fine, he set the blueprints for one of the following houses. The crews only had two of the house types down, so this would give one of them a chance to learn the third type Eddie had access to as well.

  After setting the blueprint Eddie continued to the lake, catching Paul on a break.

  “Hey Paul, I'm going to need to order some planks from you, the better quality ones.”

  “Really, what are you building that needs it?”

  “I'm thinking a town hall is next.”

  “This part of one of those quests of yours?” Paul asked.

  Eddie nodded.

  “Sure, once you have blueprints for me, let me see them and we'll know how much you need. I'll start setting some aside for you now though.”

  “Thanks Paul, you're a lifesaver. I don't even want to think about how much harder things would've been without your lumber mill here.”

  “It's nothing. I'm not making quite as much as I was before, but it's slowly growing. I'm sure that once the town is a little larger there'll be even more work for me also.”

  “And it's going to get there sooner than you think. Bjorn told me there were a lot of skilled workers out of work in Brightport, so when he comes back on this trip he's going to bring a bunch with him. Things like a leather worker and a tanner, that type of thing.”

  Paul grinned.

  “It's nice to watch the place grow, even if it weren't going to get me more work I'd probably say that, but better still since it does.”

  “Alright, I've got to go see a man about an adventuring party,” Eddie said.

  Paul cocked his head but didn't say anything as Eddie walked off.

  Eddie sat down to lunch with Charles.

  “Sorry, Eddie, it looks like it'll have to be tomorrow for the mine,” Charles said first.

  “What's up, problem with your guys?”

  “Yes, and no, one of my guys had an item he'd found with the orcs that he wanted to know the properties on, so he went to one of your guys who'd spread around that he was willing to cast the spell to determine the properties of items if the price was right. Unfortunately, it seems that spell knocks him for a loop for a day or so.”

  Yeah, Dominic mentioned it. He said that's why the potions weren't identified yet, Eddie thought.

  “So yeah, my guys are all ready, but in the process they made it so one of yours wasn't and I figure we want the fire mage with us to do this,” Charles said.

  Eddie nodded.

  “Yeah, that would be preferable.”

  “It's just a one day delay though, we'll be good to go tomorrow,” Charles said.

  “Not a problem. Hopefully he got a few things we needed that spell for done at the same time.”

  “Really, you had things you couldn't just evaluate from the goblins?”

  “Nah, from someplace else we found. We'll announce that tonight in the inn, I think. I have to check with Karl.”

  “You been holding out on us Eddie?” Charles asked, a grin on his face.

  “Of course I have been, you'd do the same, maybe not for as long, but I bet you would.”

  “So, where is this place you've been holding out on us about?”

  “You'll find out tonight, along with everyone else. Don't want anyone to accuse me of favoritism towards other groups. It's a little under your level though, so...”

  Charles sighed.

  “Isn't that the way of the world? At least the mine is leveled appropriately for my group.”

  Eddie spent the time he'd hoped to be clearing the mine working on his backyard gardens. By the end of the day he had all the plots he'd wanted to put back there prepared and planted. After putting in some more time on Dominic's brewhouse he took another trip down to the crossroads to drop off a bunch of seed he had left over so the refugees could use it to plant if they wanted.

  They'd been using the temple as the drop off point for food and other items for the refugees so he was pretty sure it would get into the right hands, especially with Tiana in charge of the temple. Once that was done he headed back to the inn, only to have Lucky pounce on him and nearly knock him over, before he got to the front door.

  After going around back and playing with the energetic cat for a while he slipped back into the inn just before the dinner rush.

  Spotting Karl at a table, he went over and asked if all the maps were done so they could announce. Karl looked at him and grinned, so when dinner rush was at its busiest, Eddie went over near the bar and started catching people's eyes. When it had quieted enough, he cleared his throat loudly, catching the attention of most of the rest of the adventurers in the inn.

  “I've got an announcement to make,” he said. “My group and I found something a little while back that we want to share with everyone.”

  Now you could hear a pin drop.

  “Out in the lake, some of you may have noticed an island.”

  He got a few head nods and voices confirming that.

  “Well, on that island is the entrance to a dungeon.”

  He'd been about to continue, but since the crowd reacted so noisily, no-one would have heard him. So he waited for things to quiet down. Several minutes later, he continued.

  “Now, Karl here has some maps for sale, and while my group had to make a raft to paddle out to it, Becky over there,” he pointed at the table with Paul, Delilah, and Becky, “paid to build a bridge out to it. She'll charge a small toll to use it, but it beats the hell out of rolling heavy logs, tying them together, and hoping you won't have to test your swimming skill, assuming you have it.”

  He got a couple of chuckles out of that. Meanwhile Paul was glaring at Becky, but his glare rapidly turned to Eddie instead.

  Oh shit, please don't tell me that Becky still hadn't told Paul about the dungeon, he thought.

  “Anyhow, I'd wait for tomorrow if I were you. But it's there, and for groups of levels one to ten. I can tell you that you'll want to be on the high end of that range if you try to complete it, but otherwise that's all I'm saying.”

  There was a rapid rush of people towards the table Karl was sitting at, and an equally rapid rush towards Eddie. He fielded questions as best as he could without giving away too many specifics, and tried to get back to his table as quickly as he could. There were a few good-natured curses thrown his way, things about him being greedy and hogging th
ings all to himself, but they really were all good-natured, no-one sounded truly upset. Everyone knew that he hadn't even had to tell them about it now and they were happy to be some of the first to hear about it.

  When Eddie spotted Paul trying to make his way through the crowd towards his table, he decided that discretion was the better part of valor. He ducked under the table and made his way to the stairs, catching one of the staff on the way and asking them to send a plate of food and an ale to his room. Then he disappeared upstairs, out of the line of fire.

  ~ ~ ~

  Chapter Eleven

  Aaron smiled as the pod lid opened on him.

  That was surprisingly much more fun than I thought it would be, he thought. I don't normally work with my hands, well except to type, so it was a very nice change of pace. Now to catch up on thirty days worth of emails though, bleah! There will be thousands from work alone, but I can just delete most of those. Also, I need to at least skim the logs for that time frame, especially the time period where Karl was having issues. Plus, maybe I can access the area that seems to be adding things to the Meadowlands now. I never saw that before, but now that it's in play it should be fair game for the debugging team.

  His thoughts raced as he got out of the pod, showered, and dressed. It only took him a couple of minutes to get back to his own area once he was done and, not being tired at all, he immediately started in on his list of things to do.

  Two hours later he deleted the last email that he didn't need. Out of the two thousand, seven hundred and forty-four emails, there were twenty-three that he actually kept to act on, and even that percentage was higher than he'd thought it would be.

  He opened the logs and started skimming, part of it included CPU usage on the servers that were being logged so they could tell if some particular act that was logged was stressing the servers at all. The logs themselves looked just fine, but the CPU usage was pinned in several time frames.

  Aaron stared, wide-eyed, at the data. He couldn't see any log entries that were out of the ordinary, but still the CPUs were spiking to almost a hundred percent at seven different times. He quickly started digging, using his access as a debugger to get to the code that caused the spikes. He didn't understand it at first glance, which disconcerted him, he was used to being able to read the code of the game like a book, but this code had definitely been written by someone not on the game design team. It was completely different.