by Tom Larcombe
“Thanks again Paul, you made this a lot easier for me than it could've been.”
“You're welcome. It's just nice to have some reasonable company. The past few days the only person here other than me was Allan, and he's just...”
Paul stopped, shaking his head.
“He seemed okay to me, but I only saw him for a few minutes,” Eddie said.
“Just wait, you'll see what I mean sooner or later, I'm sure. I'm off now.”
Paul stood and walked towards the farmhouse. Eddie laid there for another minute or two, soaking up the warmth of the flames. Then he stood and returned to the bunkhouse.
~ ~ ~
After making sure the doors to the bunkhouse were closed, Eddie laid back on his bunk and pulled up the in game browser. A quick search on throwing sticks showed him just what Paul had been talking about.
I can do that, he thought. Even with this piddly knife I can make a few of those, probably rig a way to hang them from my belt too.
He got up and left the bunkhouse, heading towards what looked to be the closest area that was lightly forested. It took him nearly a half hour to walk there and when he arrived, he didn't have much luck finding what he was after. It looked like the floor of this forest area had been cleared of deadwood.
Moving deeper into the forest, he saw a flash of movement through a thicker stand of trees.
Wait a minute, he thought, I didn't think this through too well. I'm out in the middle of the zone with no weapon, no armor, nothing to defend myself except this tiny knife.
When he spotted the movement again, he breathed a sigh of relief. Coming out from behind the thicker trees was a deer. He stared at for a moment before using the evaluate skill.
Deer (doe):
Type: Animal
Level: 3
Armor: ???
Health: 30 (+/-)
Attack: ???
You are currently unable to obtain more information about Deer (doe) with Evaluate.
He peered at his tiny knife, using Evaluate on it.
Small Knife
Weapon/Tool
Attack: 2
Dmg: 1-3
This knife is designed to be used as a general tool, but can be used as a weapon if you're desperate.
Eddie had read enough about Light Online to know that to damage an opponent you needed an attack value higher than their armor value. He also knew that characters had a base attack rating that was added to a weapon's attack rating and any other bonuses plus a randomly determined number before being compared to the opponent's armor rating. What he didn't know was what his attack rating was or what the deer's armor rating was. With as little information as his Evaluate had given him on the deer and the fact that he'd need to hit it ten times or more to kill it, he immediately forgot any ideas he might have had about attacking it.
When he glanced back up, he noticed that there was deadwood on the ground under the thicker trees. He ran over, startling the deer into running away, and began to sort through it.
He found several pieces that he could use, although none were long enough for a full quarterstaff. He had a shorter one that was suitable for a staff of some sort, he didn't know enough about staves to know the name of the type, but it came up to his sternum and was already fairly dry. The wood was some sort of hardwood from the weight of it, and all the wood he chose seemed to be of the same type.
The three other pieces he took were all about the length of his arm, slimmer around than the longer piece, but still with a good heft to them. He tucked all four under his arm and started to return to the farm. The longest piece was a hindrance from time to time in the forest, but once he reached the meadow he had no more problems with it.
The sun was going down when he caught sight of the bunkhouse, so he decided to trot the last couple of minutes, feeling his body respond to the run far better than his physical body would have, at least until a red flashing message showed in his panel.
Stamina is low: 5/25
He was close enough that he just kept trotting, but he got to watch his Stamina drop. When he entered the bunkhouse he only had two points of Stamina remaining and he realized that he had a problem. There were no lights whatsoever, but he wanted to work on his weapons before sleeping.
There was firewood piled out back and there is a fireplace. I wonder if there are any coals left in the fire pit?
Moving slowly so as not to zero out his Stamina, he went out back and grabbed a couple of armloads of wood before full dark. He laid a fire in the bunkhouse fireplace then made his way back to the fire pit. Stirring the ashes revealed a few glowing coals still remaining. The fire pit was surrounded by a bunch of flat rocks, so he grabbed one of those and put the edge of it in the ash as close to the coals as he could. A quick scrape with his knife got several of the live coals onto the rock, so he leveled it out and slowly carried it back to the bunkhouse.
It took him a good half hour to get a fire going in there. Scraping small pieces of wood off the larger logs with his knife to start the fire was time consuming and he nicked his hand once when he wasn't paying enough attention, taking a single point of damage. He was happy to note that the single point regenerated pretty quickly, within a few minutes.
Eventually he had the fire burning well enough. He settled down on the chest closest to the fire and picked up the first of his sticks. Using his knife he began to shave it down to a uniform size, removing the knots and stubs of branches as he went.
~ ~ ~
Chapter Four
The management pods did not have the modifications made to them that the workers' pods had. Allan was using one of the management pods himself and there was no way he was going to experiment with the new technology with himself as a guinea pig. Besides, the modification was for long term immersion and he was never in that long. He required his managers to meet with him face to face at least once a week, so they weren't either.
The pods for the guards could've had the modifications made, but Allan knew where the guards came from. He also knew that if something happened to the guards he'd hired he'd be in trouble. Their friends would be hunting for him in the real world if anything like that happened. So the modifications were only on the workers' pods.
He watched as the manager and the two guards slid into their pods. Then he returned to his office and pulled up the tap he'd put on the manager's feed.
~ ~ ~
It was the middle of the night when Eddie realized he was dreaming. His mind was working through everything he'd done in the game so far. That part he enjoyed, but once his mind had worked through the day things became less pleasant. He was just lying there, as far as he could tell, surrounded by darkness with the feeling that he was trapped in an enclosed space. When he tried to move his hands, to see if he was right about the tiny space, he couldn't. He was stuck, unable to move, staring into the darkness.
Despite not being able to move, it seemed as though his body were tensed up all over, his hands clenched in fists. The darkness seemed to go on forever, but at some point he was no longer conscious of it. His bodies, both the one in the pod and the one in the game, relaxed finally and he fell into a deep sleep again.
When Eddie woke the first thing he noticed was that his hands were sore. Unconsciously, he found himself forcing the memory of last night's dream to the back of his mind, as though it were too painful to remember.
You would think that they'd leave out little things like getting splinters from the game, but oh no, they had to go for realism.
He'd gotten the splinters out with his teeth the night before, or thought he had. But a quick check showed that he'd missed a couple. In the morning light he could see them better and had them out in a few minutes.
Glad they were hardwood, I bet the pine stuff would be harder to get out of my fingers.
A quick check showed him that despite the soreness of his hands, he was at full health. He flexed his fingers a few times to try to loosen them up and lose some of the soreness. Surprisingl
y, it worked well. Some of the stiffness and soreness worked right out, although his hands still weren't happy with him.
He'd finished one of his throwing sticks the night before as well as rough smoothing his staff. He wanted a way to cut a hole in the handle of the throwing stick, so he could run a thong through it to make it easier to carry. For the moment he tucked the throwing stick in his belt and picked up his staff.
You know, if Paul is still here he might have a tip for me on how to make a hole there without destroying the stick. He's a woodworker at least, so he ought to know.
Eddie left the bunkhouse and headed toward the farmhouse he'd seen Paul enter the night before. On the way to the farmhouse he pulled up a bucket of water from the well and took a deep drink. He was still struck by the taste, or lack thereof, of the crystal clear water. He filled the cup Paul had given him and finished draining it before he made it to the farmhouse door.
When he knocked, he had to wait a couple of minutes before there was an answer at the door. Paul opened it, still blinking sleep from his eyes.
“Huh, what?” Paul asked groggily. “Eddie, why are you up so early?”
“What do you mean early? I feel like I had a full night's sleep.”
“Well, maybe not early, but...”
Paul shook his head as though trying to clear it.
“What did you need?” he asked.
“Well, I'm sorry for waking you, I thought you'd have gotten plenty of sleep.”
“Yeah, I should've, but I had the browser open and ended up following link after link. I kept getting distracted by new links on the pages I got to and ended up going down that rabbit hole. You know what I mean? I don't even know when I ended up getting to sleep.”
Eddie grimaced. He'd had the same experience himself, more than once.
“Well, I finished a throwing stick last night. I wanted to get some advice from you. I want to put a hole in one end so I can run a leather thong or something through it, make it more accessible by hanging it from my belt. The only tool I have is my knife though and that won't do it.”
“Hah!” Paul exclaimed. “That's not true. You could always use hot coals to burn a hole through the wood. You just need to channel the coals to one spot and let them keep charring right through the wood. Fortunately for you though, I think a drill will do the job quicker and cleaner and I happen to have one. Let me grab it and I'll be right out.”
It was only a minute or two before he came outside. When he did he was holding a non-motorized drill. Like the fire starter he'd used the day before, he cranked a handle on it before holding a hand out to Eddie.
“Let me see the throwing stick and show me where you want the hole.”
Eddie handed it over.
“Through the narrow end, the thick end is what will hit the target.”
Paul nodded, placed the stick on the ground, repositioned it once, then moved the drill bit against it and hit a release. When the bit started spinning, he pressed it into the wood gently.
“This will take a few cranks. I could always do it by hand, but by using the spring pressure option I have both hands to position the drill. Works better that way, even if I do have to stop and crank a few times.”
“Springs?” Eddie asked.
“Yeah, Light Online allows for some basic technology. Gears and springs are some of it, so there's a few crank type clockwork mechanisms around. My drill is one, so is my fire starter.”
The drill slowed and Paul pulled it back out, then started cranking again. He had to crank several more times before he finally finished the hole, but when he did, he pulled out a small file and smoothed the edges before handing the stick back to Eddie.
“There you go, just need to add your thong. The edges ought to be smooth enough that they don't abrade the leather now,” Paul said.
Eddie hadn't even considered that the edges needed to be smoothed, but he was glad that Paul had.
“Thank you,” he said. “Now I just need to find some leather.”
“If you aren't picky you've got that rabbit pelt from yesterday, just slice a strip off of there with your knife.”
“You know, I never would've thought of that. How do you think of all this stuff?”
“It's a skill, I mean literally. There's a skill called improvisation. When you have to figure out ways to do things without traditional materials you get a chance to learn it or level it up. Besides a rabbit pelt is only a step or two away from leather anyhow.”
Eddie nodded.
I still wouldn't have thought of that myself. I'm more used to buying stuff than crafting it. Guess I'll have to change my pattern of thinking. Maybe I'll get lucky and pull that skill.
“Breakfast before you have to leave?” Eddie asked.
“Sure, I'm up now. Looks like about an hour and a half until the manager and guards show up. Then I'm out of here. Got to keep the place populated for the majority of the time or the land claim lapses.”
Eddie started to open his mouth, then stopped. He'd been going to ask about the land claim, but when he thought about it the idea seemed simple enough.
The game probably let's you claim unused land, I guess you have to do something with it to make the claim stick, but I'm not going to ask Paul another stupid newbie question. I've done that more than enough already.
When they walked over to the garden, there was another furry intruder munching away at the greens, in almost the exact same spot as last time.
“Son of a...” Eddie said, his words trailing off as he grabbed his throwing stick.
He spoke to Paul in a softer voice.
“Time to see if your throwing sticks were a good idea,” he said.
He cocked his arm back, stick in hand. As he snapped his arm forward, once again he felt the need to adjust his throw a touch. The stick flew forward fast enough that it looked a like a brown streak connecting his hand and the rabbit. The rabbit, struck by the stick, dropped, its legs spasming several times before it lay still.
Enemy slain: Bunny (level 1)
You have earned 5 exp.
Paul chuckled.
“Man, I just can't get over the kind of accuracy you've got at zero level. It's insane.”
“I think I could've gotten a better throw off,” Eddie replied. “The balance is just a touch off on the throwing stick. I'll do better with the next one though, now that I know how they throw.”
He walked over and picked up his stick, then bent over and touched the rabbit corpse.
Loot, he thought.
You have received:
Rabbit meat (1)
“Well shoot, only one drop this time,” he said, turning back to Paul and holding up the meat.
“Hell, there isn't a guaranteed drop on these things, even getting one item is pretty good,” Paul said, gesturing for Eddie to hand the meat over.
Eddie gave Paul the meat, then turned back to the corpse.
“I know you can get meat and pelts on the drop, but can you skin and butcher the actual corpse to get more?” he asked.
“Yeah, I've heard of some guys doing that. But once again, it takes the appropriate skill to do it well.”
Eddie bit his lip, he wasn't all that interested in getting messy, but it just seemed like he was letting a lot go to waste by not getting everything he could.
Hell, you never know unless you try, he thought.
He knelt down and pulled out his utility knife. He had no idea how to go about skinning and butchering a rabbit, so several minutes later, when he gave up, his arms were coated in blood and he had a useless, shredded pile of meat, bones, and pelt on the ground in front of him.
When he stood, Paul was gone already. He could smell a hint of wood smoke though so he was pretty sure Paul was over at the fire pit working on the meat. Eddie headed for the well, pulling up a bucket of water and scrubbing his arms clean as best as he could, he also tried to wash out the bloodstains he'd gotten on his tunic.
Paul was cooking the meat on a spit when Eddie
showed up at the fire pit. Paul glanced at him and grimaced.
“Tried to clean up I see.”
“Yeah, no luck on the corpse though, I need to learn those skills before I'll get anything useful out of the corpses I guess.”
“Well, if you can't get the stains out, don't worry about it. The game cleans everything while you sleep. Unless an item is close to being destroyed that is and the game will show you when an item is that damaged. Even if the durability isn't something you'd normally get when you Evaluate.”
“Huh?”
“It'll give you a little flashing set of numbers when you Evaluate an item that's close to being destroyed. When you can Evaluate better, after you've leveled it up some, you can see an item's durability regardless of what shape it's in.”
Eddie grunted again, then looked at his throwing stick.
Evaluate, he thought.
Throwing Stick
Weapon (Thrown/Melee)
Attack: 5
Dmg: 2-6
Crafted: Edward Hunter
This Throwing Stick can be used as a club in melee combat or hurled at an enemy.
“Not too bad, it's a lot better than the little knife I have,” he said.
“If you don't mind, I can take a look. I've got Evaluate up to eight. I might be able to pull its durability, especially if it's a common item.”
Eddie handed the stick to Paul who concentrated for a moment.
“It's got fifty durability on it. That's not bad, about the same as the hammer I use for building. I've still the one I got before starting all these farms for Star Suppliers so that ought to give you an idea of how long it'll last. Probably it'll lose durability faster than my hammer if you're using it in combat though. It is listed as uncommon, but with an asterisk that says it's easy to make and that it's only uncommon because that type of item is not in common usage at this time.”