Light Online Book One: Farmer

by Tom Larcombe

  The bobcat had been worrying at the meat, but when Eddie poured the water, it immediately dragged itself to the depression and starting lapping at the water. When it ran out, Eddie poured some more for it. After it finished off the second round of water, the cat went back to the meat and instead of worrying at it, started taking large bites of it.

  I wonder, Eddie thought, staring at the cat. Evaluate.

  Young Bobcat (female)

  Type: Animal

  Level: 3

  Armor: 35

  Health 16/32

  Attack: 25 (3)

  Dmg: 2-8/2-8/3-9

  Status: Friendly

  Eddie drew back for a moment, still staring at the bobcat as it ate.

  Huh, I guess it's got a claw, claw, bite attack. I wonder if the fact that it's friendly to me is why I got so much more data with my skill?

  The bobcat gulped down the last bite of the meat, then laid back down. It looked up at Eddie and returned his stare, then looked back at its dislocated leg.

  Oh shit, please tell me she's not asking me to do what I think she is.

  The bobcat reached back and nuzzled its leg, then awkwardly spun around so the injured leg was pointing at Eddie.

  If I'm wrong this cat is going to really mess me up, Eddie thought.

  He reached out gingerly and grasped the leg. The bobcat flinched. He put his other hand on the cat's body, just above where the leg should be. The cat's only reaction was still its earlier flinch. Then, with a slow, steady, twisting pressure he tried to get the dislocated leg back into its socket.

  The cat yowled as Eddie moved its leg, but it didn't attack him. He sighed in relief as he felt the leg move back to where it was supposed to be. Then he let go of the bobcat and backed off swiftly.

  Okay, I guess this trip wasn't a waste of time. I would've hated to see this little gal die. Plus, I can maybe salvage that rope.

  He started gathering the rope up, coiling it around his shoulder as he moved to its far end. Rather than try to untangle it, he simply used his knife to cut it as close to the fouled end as he could, coiling the last of the rope up before willing it into his inventory.

  He grabbed another hunk of meat out when he put the rope in, then tossed it over to the bobcat, who was sitting there watching him. Then he turned his attention back to the stunted tree.

  What kind of wood is that? he wondered. Because I'd swear it flexed just like a bow when the rope had tension on it. Maybe I can take some of it back and try to make a bow out of it? Will rope even work as a bowstring? I mean, I suppose I could check online, but pulling up the browser out here doesn't seem like the safest idea, you know? Screw it, I'll just cut a few lengths to take with me and check later on after I'm back. If the rope won't work as a string, I'll find something else that will.

  Eddie sawed away with his tiny knife without much luck, barely marking the wood. He bit his lip and looked around, thinking.

  Huh, that rock looks kind of like an ax head, maybe...

  He picked the rock up and started hacking at the base of the stunted tree. Wood chips flew away from it as he struck repeatedly. He bashed his fingers a couple of times, cursing up a storm as he did, but eventually he had five sections of wood that he thought might be good for bows.

  Not that I know anything about making them. I wonder if Karl does, or anyone else back at the farm.

  He slipped the shafts into his inventory, then sat down and took a deep drink of water. As he was drinking he heard a soft 'chuff' and felt something on his leg. He nearly dropped his water skin when he looked down and saw the bobcat pawing at him.

  When she noticed she had his attention, she backed off and nuzzled the packed area where he'd poured water for her before.

  “Oh, do you want some more water?” he asked.

  She nuzzled the area again.

  Eddie walked over and poured the packed depression full again. She immediately started lapping at it.

  Hmm, how much more meat do I have? he wondered.

  A glance in his inventory showed that he was low on the meat. He hemmed and hawed before pulling another piece out and setting it next to the bobcat.

  “Nice meeting you girl, but I have to head back home,” he said.

  She finished the water and took a bite of the meat, glancing up at him as she chewed.

  He turned and started walking south, back towards the farm, slightly worried that she might attack despite the friendly status he'd seen on her. When he heard some rocks shifting behind him, he turned back to look. Another moment of lightheadedness caught him as he spun to look.

  The bobcat had picked up the rabbit meat and was trotting along behind him. When he stopped, she stopped, dropped the meat, and took another bite of it. Eddie shook his head and started walking again.

  He turned to wave goodbye to the bobcat and jumped when he discovered she was less than a foot behind him, carrying the slowly shrinking portion of rabbit meat.

  All the way back to the farm she was right behind him, except for a few minutes right after they came to the first of the streams. Eddie thought that she'd probably paused to drink her fill before catching up with him again after that.

  They were just barely in sight of the farm when he stopped.

  “Listen girl, I don't know how they'd react to you if I just walked in with you on my heels.”

  The bobcat sat back on its haunches and stared at him.

  “Look at me, talking to a virtual animal,” Eddie said. “Like she understands me?”

  The bobcat made a noise that was a cross between a yip and a bark, then leaned forward to rub its cheek against Eddie's leg.

  He reached down tentatively, and she rubbed her cheek against his hand.

  “I think you should stay out here where the others can't see you and hurt you,” he said.

  She nuzzled his hand again, then her rough tongue ran across the area she'd hurt him earlier. The wound was long gone, but Eddie wondered if that meant she understood about the hurting part of his statement.

  Good grief, he thought. Why am I trying to credit her with that much intelligence?

  The bobcat looked at him again, catching his gaze, then she slowly licked his hand once more.

  Success:

  You have obtained a pet! (Help Pets for more details)

  Young Bobcat (female) is now your pet.

  Do you wish to rename Young Bobcat (female) at this time?

  (Y/N)

  ~ ~ ~

  Chapter Eight

  “Oh crap!” the tech support representative said, staring at his email. “Another alleged error being reported by the AIs. Remember the last error they reported? That the priests in game weren't respecting the gods enough? The gods being those self-same AIs?”

  He shook his head.

  The rep next to him glanced over.

  “Yeah, well if you remember right, the devs actually did do something about that, didn't they? For the sake of realism?”

  “Yeah, yeah. Realism in a fantasy game, I don't get that. Let me see what they're bitching about this time.”

  A moment later he was cursing frantically as he picked up the phone to his supervisor.

  “Yes sir, the AIs are reporting a stability issue that was almost severe enough to crash the world. They claim they barely averted one of the zones going down and that another few minutes of the anomaly, as they called it, would've spread the instability to the rest of the world as well.”

  The second tech support rep glanced over at the one making the report.

  “Well shit,” he said. “I guess they caught a serious bug this time. I wonder what caused it?”

  ~ ~ ~

  Eddie stared in dismay at the notification that filled his panel.

  A pet? And a bobcat at that? How am I going to keep her fed? I mean, I suppose rabbits would do, but...

  He squatted down and the bobcat launched herself at his legs, nearly tipping him over. Rearing up on its hind legs, it put the front ones on his knee, staring at him
.

  “Yeah, I like you. I thought I'd have to be the one to initiate things to get a pet though.”

  He thought back for a moment remembering the golden glow that flashed right after he'd first touched her and gotten scratched.

  I bet that's it, I bet Freyja's Blessing is the reason I've got a pet now. I'd better be careful or I might end up with lots more of them too.

  “Okay, well it's lucky for you that I showed up when I did, so I think that's going to be your name. I'll call you Lucky.”

  He mentally selected the Y option and, when a line opened up with a flashing cursor, thought the word Lucky. He scratched her cheek and she purred for him. It was a deep rumbling noise, far different from that of a house cat, but he found it pleasant anyhow.

  “Okay Lucky, so much for just leaving you out here. Stick close until I introduce you to everyone as my pet though, alright?”

  As though she'd understood him, she stayed just behind him as they entered the farm. Karl was out in the fields and Eddie called him over. As he approached, he stared at the bobcat.

  “What the hell?” Karl said.

  “Meet my new pet, Lucky,” Eddie said, barely keeping a grin off his face.

  The idea of having the bobcat as his pet had been growing on him ever since he'd received the notification.

  “You got a pet, and you still aren't even first level?” Karl asked.

  Eddie shrugged.

  “Just lucky I guess,” he said, grinning.

  Karl shook his head.

  “I shouldn't even tell you since you'll probably figure out a way to solve it with the way you've been going, but about an hour back Ross came out and told us we need to figure out a way to protect the fields from the bunnies. It generated a system quest and I checked afterwards, you can share quests, so here...

  System Generated Quest:

  Save the Farm!

  Bunnies are eating the crops in the fields. The owners of the fields have a problem with this. Discover a way to protect the fields and crops or eliminate the bunnies.

  Reward: 2000xp, 2 gold pieces

  “That's a lot more experience and coins than I got for the garden, but I guess the fields are like twenty times the size so that makes sense,” Eddie said.

  “Got any ideas about it?” Karl asked.

  “Ross wanted me to do a woven fence like the other one, but there isn't that much willow out there. At least not in the stand I already found.”

  “Well shoot, I was hoping we would work together and get this one. The reward is for each person that helps, not split up, so it would almost get me to first level.”

  “Well, I don't have any ideas right at the moment, but let's try something.”

  Eddie quickly ran through the help files on grouping again, then formed one.

  You have formed the group: Farmers

  He sent a group invitation to Karl, who grimaced when he read the name, but joined anyhow.

  “Now if one of us figures it out, hopefully it'll count all the group members as having finished it,” Eddie said.

  Karl nodded.

  “Should work that way. I'm about done on my shift out here. I wish I'd had a weapon, I could've killed a couple more bunnies maybe. Ended up just chasing them off.”

  “I've done a lot of walking, but if you've got a map, I can show you where I found the stick I'm using as a staff. Sorry I forgot to grab you one earlier, but I was focused on the quest. I assume we can share maps?”

  Karl nodded.

  “Yeah, we can if we're grouped. You can also buy maps and get them that way. Pull your map up and I'll pull mine up.”

  Eddie immediately noticed the button beneath his map this time. It read: Share Map with Group. He tapped the button mentally and Karl immediately let him know that his map had updated as well. After a little messing around, Eddie got a red dot to show in the area he'd found the wood in, then shared again.

  “That works. Doesn't look too far away either,” Karl said.

  “Less than half an hour if you go straight there. Took me longer the first time because I didn't have my map yet.”

  “The no player flag thing?”

  Eddie nodded.

  “Alright, I'll get one of those lazy asses out here and then go get myself something to make into a weapon,” Karl said.

  “Warn them not to hurt my cat too, would you? I'll wait a bit before going in so they aren't taken by surprise.”

  Eddie slowly walked back towards the bunkhouse, following Karl at a much slower pace. Lucky was still staying right behind him, right up to the door of the bunkhouse. When Eddie walked in, Lucky balked.

  “Not a house cat?” Eddie asked.

  Lucky sneezed at him and Eddie chuckled.

  “Well, we won't go in now. Let me go tell everyone else that you're around, then you can wander and explore if you like.”

  Eddie turned away from the bunkhouse and walked towards the farmhouse instead.

  Please let it be Tim that answers the door and not Gary or Ross, he thought.

  When he knocked, his hopes were answered. Tim was the one to come to the door. Eddie quickly explained the situation and Tim knelt down to talk to Lucky. He reached out hesitantly and the bobcat sniffed his hand before sneezing again and backing down the steps.

  “Well, I can tell Ross that your pet won't attack on sight and warn those two about it. Not that they come out here much anyhow, they keep using me for most of the stuff that needs that. But, that's cool dude. How did you manage that?”

  “Remember the buff I've got? I think it was because of that.”

  “That's right, she's got some cats associated with her, doesn't she?”

  Eddie nodded.

  “Well, lucky you. I should be so lucky, but I don't have as much time to wander as you do.”

  “That won't last, I'm pretty sure,” Eddie said.

  “True, but you've got a few days still. Don't know what'll happen if the fields get trashed though.”

  Eddie hadn't thought about that.

  Could my job be in danger? If those fields get ruined by the bunnies, they aren't going to need farmers.

  He nodded.

  “Well, thanks for letting them know. I'm going to go try to figure out how to keep the damned bunnies out of the fields.”

  Tim waved and shut the door as Eddie walked back out towards the bunkhouse, lost in thought. Lucky whined and Eddie looked up. The bobcat was staring at something and when he looked that way Eddie saw a bunny.

  “Go ahead, go get it girl,” he said.

  Lucky was off like a shot. Seconds later it had the bunny dead and Eddie got experience.

  Huh, I get exp for my pet's kills, awesome. Not as much though, only half.

  [group chat: Karl - Did you just kill a rabbit?]

  [group chat: Eddie – No, Lucky did.]

  [group chat: Karl – Well, I just got 13 experience.]

  [group chat: Eddie – Me too, I thought I was getting half because Lucky killed it. I guess it was because it got split among the group.]

  [group chat: Karl – That's great, I hope your bobcat likes hunting those bunnies. I can get into some free experience.]

  [group chat: Eddie – Me too, but I'm thinking about something a little better than that.]

  [group chat: Karl – Huh?]

  [group chat: Eddie – If she likes hunting them that much, maybe she can eliminate them from the farm and complete that quest for us.]

  [group chat: Karl – I like the way you think. I'll be back as soon as I can and maybe we can help her with that.]

  Lucky brought her kill over to Eddie, dropping it at his feet. He looted it, then looked at the corpse, wondering if he should butcher and skin it. Instead he told the bobcat she could eat it if she wanted. Lucky picked up the corpse, then trotted towards the back of the bunkhouse. Eddie saw her slip behind the woodpile with her kill, so he headed inside.

  ~ ~ ~

  The first thing Eddie did when he got back in the bunkhouse was to
lie down on his bunk and open his browser. An hour later, he'd researched how to make simple short bows. The wood he'd gotten seemed like it would do for one, although he still had no idea what kind of wood it was, the only problem was going to be cutting it since his knife just wouldn't do it.

  Karl had returned while Eddie was doing his research and was now sitting on the bottom of his bed, shaping a pair of sticks into weapons. He'd called them Kali sticks, and Eddie knew that they were much shorter than a jo staff. The ones Karl was working on were maybe twenty-four inches long or a bit longer, but they looked solid. Karl had found several lengths of the same wood Eddie had found for his throwing sticks and brought them all back.

  “Know anything about this wood?” Eddie asked, showing Karl one of the lengths he'd obtained at the edge of the mountain zone.

  Karl set his project aside for the moment and took the length Eddie was showing him. He fiddled with it a bit, flexing it and tapping it here and there.

  “Nope, but it's strong and it's flexible. You planning on a bow?”

  “I hope so,” Eddie replied. “I need to find something to cut it with though, my knife barely scratched it. At least Ross told me I could use any of the tools in the shed if I needed.”

  “I don't suppose you got more than one shaft?” Karl asked, a glint in his eye.

  Eddie pulled the other four out of his inventory for a moment, letting Karl see them before he willed them back away.

  “Why yes, I did. I've got no idea if I'll be able to do this though. If I manage it without destroying all of them I'll be happy to either try to make one for you, or let you try it.”

  “Here's a thought for you. Don't start working on those yet.”

  “What? Why not?”