The Farming skill, was just that, the ability to work land, and plant and harvest crops from it. But it required a lot of space, and the valley had a finite amount of land.
The Fisherman skill increased the worker’s fishing yield. That was a promising option, but first....I walked over to the pond and started looking to see if there were fish in it.
Although the pond was small, it was apparently quite deep. The water was clear enough for me to see for several meters below the surface, but the water darkened before the bottom was visible.
Finally, I caught a glimpse of a good-sized fish swimming around in the depths.
That decided it, the next goblin worker would have the Fisherman skill.
The last food-related skill was Gatherer. The skill enabled a worker to collect foodstuffs that grew wild; berries, fruit, mushrooms, seeds and nuts, roots, and of course herbs. The valley interior was a lush area, I imagined that a Gatherer could collect baskets full of food. I’ll summon a few of those as well.
I stood up reluctantly. There was no helping it, I had to go hunting. I needed 17 more pieces of raw meat to summon another worker.
I guess it’s time to go hunting again.
“Come on Vic, let’s go” I called my companion and we made our way toward the forest.
The next few hours proved just as exhilarating as I feared. Without Tika and her hunting skills, my ability to find prey to hunt was severely handicapped. I blasted every small critter in sight, downing birds and squirrels, but those kills were few and far between.
As evening fell, we returned to camp. All I had to show for the day was five lousy pieces of raw meat. That brought the total to 18 of 30. Closer, but not close enough.
My gaze wandered to the Breeder’s Den. I wondered about the mechanics of the goblin-reproduction structure. But considering the possible explanations, I decided not to delve into how it converted food into full-grown goblins. It was likely to be something that only a deviant game designer could come up with.
The others were starting to gather around the cooking hearth for dinner. I saw Tika was already there and went over to speak with her.
“Tika, how was your hunting today?” I smiled at her.
“Good, Esteemed Totem.” She replied with one of her shy smiles. “Me find fat moles. Many meat. More than clan need.”
That was like music to my ears.
“So how much extra do we have left after feeding everyone today?”
“Four.” She replied. “Was lucky. Last mole big. Give many meat.”
I chuckled. Granting her the Lucky Bastard skill was paying off already. Now I had 22 units of raw meat.
Eight more to go!
Vrick and Bek still hadn’t shown up. I started to worry a little. I hoped they hadn’t encountered something they couldn’t defeat.
I shouldn’t have worried, a few minutes later, the two emerged from the forest. They were both carrying big sacks on their shoulders.
“Vrick, Bek,” I greeted them when they arrived. “Good to see you’re both well. How did it go?”
They looked at each other, then at me, big smiles on their faces.
“It was good,” Vrick answered me, and then they both emptied their sacks at my feet.
Chunks of meat, skins of various animals, and a few of the metal Armadillo shells fell the ground. I saw a pointed white shape and bent down to pick it up. “What is this?”
Bek replied proudly. “Cougar fang. We kills it!”
“Yes” Vrick nodded, “it was our toughest fight of the day, but Corgoram was with us. We killed that beast and it dropped the fang along with some meat and its pelt.”
“Great” I rubbed my hands together and put the fang in my inventory.
I counted the meat they brought. There were nine pieces! One more than I needed to summon my next worker.
Excellent!
“Good job guys” I congratulated them. “Go, sit, rest, I’ll have Guba bring dinner to you.”
They nodded and went to sit by Zuban and his workers.
Guba stood by the cauldron. “Guba, please cook another 30 steaks for our Breeder.”
She scowled at me, “This be getting tedious, ya know?” her voice shrill, “I’m a Chemist not a Cook, for Corgoram’s sake!”
Will she ever stop complaining? I wondered. “Guba…” I pronounced her name meaningfully, staring directly into her eyes.
“Oh alright” she snapped back at me, “It will be a moment”.
“Good, meanwhile bring some food to Vrick and Bek, they had a rough day,” I added.
“Alright, I be your darling little waitress, why won’t I,” She added crossly.
I gotta hire a Cook to replace her, just to have someone easier to deal with.
I took my own dinner and ate. It was once again meat stew with herbal seasoning.
The game didn’t require players to eat, but food in the game tasted so… real, it had just become a habit, like dinner time in your own RL home. Besides, players felt hunger. It was never stronger than an average ‘I-can-really-go-for-a-burger-right-about-now’ level, but it was rather annoying to walk around hungry all the time. Thus, my daily meals.
I wasn’t sure how the system worked for NPCs, or if it worked for me the same way now that I was a pseudo-NPC. It was quite possible that for NPCs food was mandatory, and I wasn’t eager to subject myself to hunger just to test the theory.
Besides, Guba’s stew was a pretty tasty, albeit monotonous. It beat being hungry.
As I ate I opened the Interface again, selected the Population option and viewed Bek and Zuban’s characters:
Bek, goblin adept.
Level: 4(20%)
HP: 30, MP: 45
P:1, M:4, S:-2
Skills: Heal: 7, Lucky Bastard: 2, Drilling Arrow: 4
Trait: Deformed
Vrick , goblin lieutenant
Level: 6(5%)
HP: 65, MP: 30
P:6, M:0, S:0;
Skills: War Party Leader: 3, Spears 13, Brawling: 10, lumberjack: 4
They both showed significant progress. Both of them had leveled up once, and improved their skills, especially Bek.
Just as I had hoped would happen, Bek’s low skill levels got a large boost from fighting enemies that were stronger than him. And it was all thanks to Vrick’s supporting his teammate.
Vrick himself had impressive stats for a non-boss goblin. With 65 hit points and Apprentice rank at Spears, he could give a normal 5th level player a run for his money.
A few more power-leveling missions like the one today, and they will be able to safeguard the valley’s forest on their own.
“Food delivered” grunted Guba behind me, startling me. “Yer precious Breeders can now fatten themselves ter squeeze out another goblin, I reckon.”
I shuddered at the mental image that formed in my mind at her words.
Once again, I accessed the Breeder’s Den interface. 30 units of simple food were listed as available.
Walking toward the structure, I selected a goblin worker, gave it the Fisherman skill, and hit the accept button. Once again, I heard the disturbing sounds from the direction of the Den, and shortly after, a new goblin emerged behind its blue leather covered opening. I Analyzed it.
Goblin worker
Level: 1 (0%)
HP:14
P:2, M:0, S:-1
Skills: Fisherman 1, Haul 1
Traits: Noncombatant
Same good old generic template, I mused, then waved the newcomer over to me.
“Your job is to fish the pond every day,” I pointed at the pond. “Bring your daily catch to that pile over there.”
“Yes ‘steamed Totem,” he squeaked in a high-pitched voice. “Need fishing pole.”
Crap! I smacked my forehead. Why didn’t I think of that. I had to bring some fishing equipment for the little guy to use.
“Zuban” I called to my construction manager, “I need your advice.” He came over immediately.
�
��Yes?”
“This little guy needs a fishing pole, anything you can do to help?”
“Hmm…” He pondered for a moment. “To be honest, there is a shortage of tools around here. I can use some new saws for construction, Guba needs some more cooking pots, and now the fishing pole…” He shrugged helplessly. “There’s no getting around it, we need a Smithy and a Smith who can craft the tools we need. A Smith would even be able to craft simple weapons, anything sophisticated will require a specialized Weaponsmith, but that’s a concern for later. However,” he paused and his face fell. “I’m not skilled enough to build one.” he admitted. “I will be, when I gain the Apprentice rank, but as I told you, I first have to complete a worthy project.”
I winced, here was another priority. To make matters worse, a Smith was classified as a crafter not a worker. Summoning Crafters required advanced food, and I was barely scraping enough simple food for the, simple, workers.
I couldn’t do everything all at once. I had to build the settlement, step by step. Infrastructures had to be established, which at this phase was mostly creating basic production lines and reliable food sources. Once those were established I could move on to higher aspirations.
I really hoped it didn’t mean I had summoned the new Fisherman for nothing.
“Regardless, can you fashion some sort of replacement for a fishing pole?” I asked.
He thought it over, “I can tie a piece of string to a bent nail and attach it to a piece of branch. That might work, though it probably won’t be too efficient.”
“Please do what you can, Zuban.”
“Immediately, Esteemed Totem,” he gave a slight bow and bustled off to start.
I watched as he bent a nail with the butt of an axe, then tied it to a branch on a piece of string. Once finished, he handed me the laughably crude item.
Improvised Fishing Pole
Description: poor quality fishing pole fashioned from a branch, nail and a piece of string.
Durability: 8/8
Rank: crude.
Effect: fishing efficiency: -40%
The fishing penalty was a bitch, but it was better than the worker sitting around doing nothing. Besides, he would still benefit from the practice and level up his Fishing skill. So when I did eventually equip him with better gear, his productivity would be high straight away.
I gave the pole to the worker. “Do you need anything else for your work?”
“No” he squeaked back. “Me find worms ok.”
“Good. Carry on” I watched as he scurried off.
It was getting late, everyone was preparing to sleep. Vrick’s warriors returned from their daily guard duty and reported that they hadn’t seen anything suspicious.
We all settled down for the night and went to sleep.
As the nights before, it passed uneventfully.
We woke up early next morning, and gobbled down a simple breakfast of leftovers.
In a short time, all the goblins were starting the same tasks assigned to them yesterday. The fisherman went to the pond, Zuban assembled his workers, Vrick and Bek went on their patrol in the forest, Tika went hunting and the two warriors were back at their respective guard duties. Vic was nowhere to be seen.
That left only me.
I guess now was the time to explore my new Apprentice rank option of the Mana Manipulation skill.
I opened my Character Screen and selected the skill.
Mana Manipulation, Apprentice rank
Your status as a Boss, has granted you access to two unique ability paths. You may choose to specialize only in one;
Material: allows you to control your physical environment using your raw mana.
Biological: allows you to influence living biological creatures by tapping into their mana reserves.
Please select one path [Material / Biological.]
“Wow,” I whispered in awe, “Awesome!”
Both paths looked incredibly powerful.
The Material one sounded like an advanced type of telekinesis, moving objects by force of will, or mana in this case.
The second path sounded even more amazing. But the description didn’t give any details about the ‘influence’ over other creatures’ part. Guy probably didn’t feel the need to supply much information for NPC-only skills.
And why would he? NPCs didn’t need written instructions. They innately understand how to use any skill they acquire. I, on the other hand, as a player, would just have to muddle through somehow.
The biological path description sounded like it included a domination power, something highly coveted by players. But although players could acquire Mind Discipline magic, they could not access Mind Control skills, those were wielded solely by powerful NPC mages.
His casual tone was infuriating, but he had a point. It got me thinking. I already achieved some ‘NPC only’ functions so…
Do you think I could do it?
The prospect of being able to control other creatures in the game was too good to pass by. I just hoped the new ability would allow me to achieve that.
Taking a deep breath, I considered it again, and finally convinced myself it was the most logical path to choose. I clicked on ‘Biological.’
My hands shone with blue mana, as the change took effect. Then the updated skill description popped open.
Mana Manipulation(M) [active, monster race]
All living things are suffused with mana. Through the power of your awareness and strong will you learned to access your mana reserve and wield it in various ways. You are able to access the mana of other creatures, and through their mana influence them with your will.
Further advancements in this skill will increase spell power, mana regeneration rate, the size of your mana pool and the likelihood of asserting your will over other living creatures.
Mana Discipline.
Level 11: Apprentice: Biological path selected (access and influence living biological creatures)
Effects I: Mana pool +21%
Effects II: Regen: +61% of base.
Effects III: Spell effect: +21%.
Effects IV: Biological influence.
Cool!
It still wasn’t much to go on for how to use the new skill. I had hoped the system would provide more detailed information when I made my choice, but I wasn’t too disappointed. I would figure it out.
Now it was time to test this new ability. I looked at Guba speculatively, she was cooking something in a pan over the fire, her back to me. She was the closest person around, but I wisely decided not to risk her ire, and looked around for another ‘victim.’
+100 Wisdom Candy Points
For not pissing off the scary goblin Chemist crone.
What??
My new Fisherman was busily casting his line into the pond.
I concentrated and tried my new ability on him. Or tried to. Nothing happened.
I frowned. Unlike other skills, the new ability didn’t have an obvious method of activating.
I looked at the worker and concentrated harder. I reached out with my mind and tried to sense his mana, similarly to the way I sensed my own. Again, I felt nothing.
What’s wrong? Why can’t I access his mana? I frowned. Could I have misinterpreted its meaning?
“What’s that got to do with anything?” I asked hotly.
“Shit, you’re right,” I muttered, feeling embarrassed that I forgot that bit of game mec
hanics, enough so that I didn’t call Vic on his seriously disrespectful tone.
His behavior was becoming more and more insulting. I needed to do something about it. Soon.
Now that I knew ability wouldn’t work on the Fisherman, I went in search of other test subjects. Away from the camp, reaching Zuban’s construction crew. They were erecting a low wooden fence around the rabbit grounds.
A large rabbit hopped about nearby, mouth working furiously as it fed on patches of sweet grass. I concentrated on the fluffy eared ‘monster,’ and gradually, I felt a connection forming to its mana. It was like having another sense. I could close my eyes and feel the rabbit’s presence, where it was and how far away. I could sense the little animal moving around as it hopped about.
I steadied my breath, concentrating deeper. Everything faded away; I stopped hearing, stopped feeling the wind on my skin. The little ball of rabbit-shaped energy hopping around in front of me became everything.
Then I took control of it.
I exerted my will and extended it, clenching it over the rabbit’s mana. I held the rabbit by its mana, surrounding it with my will, and forced it to be still.
I opened my eyes, keeping a firm hold on the rabbit’s mana, the mental effort was draining.
The rabbit stood like a statue, one leg raised as if about to hop forward. I had frozen its movements with my will.
Cool, but it’s not quite mind control.
Keeping the rabbit frozen, I played around with the ability, trying different things.
I discovered that if I substituted a little mana for mental effort the rabbit would stay in the frozen state without any further attention on my part.
Using the same technique, I tried to take over the rabbit’s movements. It didn’t work so well. I had to control each limb individually to make the rabbit move. The result was a slow, lurching gait, like a character in a stop-motion animation. It wasn’t an efficient use of the ability but might be useful in some circumstances.
Starting over again, I connected with the rabbit’s mana pool and tried to make use of the mana, drawing from the mana pool like it was my own. That didn’t work, but I did notice something was happening, it was a feeling I shouldn’t have had. I realized that when I tapped the rabbit's mana, the emotions it felt resonated through the mana connection and into me. The little fella was resonating his fright to me.
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