“Construction yard next. Tells all buildings,” Rok explained. I knew what he meant after playing a plethora of strategy games in my time, the construction yards always opened up the menus with other buildings attached to them.
“Ok, so what do you need?” I asked as I mentally licked my lips at the concept of more lumberjacking.
“Need twelve wood,” he said and before I could reply he added “and six stone.”
“Twelve wood?” I almost shouted in outrage. “That’s six days’ of cutting down trees, and we haven’t even got any stone yet!” Truth be told I relished in the idea of spending that much time working with those juicy trees.
“That not all,” Rok said before I could fully spiral. “Take me on own five days, with Matuk maybe four,” he was holding up two fingers when he said ‘five’ and increased them to three when he said ‘four’. I could see Ushuk falling about with laughter at that particular idiocy. As smart as he was getting, he apparently hadn’t heard of irony yet.
I thought long and hard before I responded to Rok’s outrageous assessment of the new building, which I knew was an absolute necessity if we were to continue growing as both a clan and a settlement.
“Right, here’s the plan then,” I explained as I managed to calm myself down. “We don’t have enough food to summon another worker right now, but if I spend tomorrow getting you two trees is that enough for you to make a start?” Rok nodded without thinking. “Ushuk can go out with the hunters, which should give us enough food to summon a new worker. The new worker and I will then cut down trees together. As soon as Matuk returns, he can go find some stone. How does that sound?” I asked in personal triumph. I was very proud of myself.
Rok had to think long and hard this time before he spoke “Sound good,” he said with a nod.
I followed my plan to the letter from the moment I took my first swing at the nearest tree that I could find. The pleasure instantly washed over me, causing me to shudder before I continued with my task. By the time I felled the first tree, I hadn’t noticed Matuk was standing behind me.
He patiently waited for the tree to fall before tapping me on the shoulder.
“Holy shit!” I exclaimed as I was snapped from my trance. “When did you get here?”
“Back for not long,” He said with a smile and before I could say anything else, he dropped a pile of new tools at my feet. “Grish like teeth,” he added.
I looked at the pile and saw that there were many more tools than he’d given to me last time. I wasn’t sure if it was because he had dealt with a fellow goblin this time, or if it was because he really did just love those crocodile teeth.
“You did really well, Matuk,” I commended my goblin worker. “I have a present for you now.”
Matuk’s eyes glowed with anticipation as I picked a stone pickaxe from the pile of tools he’d brought back. “Here you go,” I said as I placed the pick in his hands. “You’re a stone miner now.” In passing I imagined Matuk wearing one of those hard hats with the light on the front and it made me chuckle. Matuk just stood and stared at me with the pick in both of his hands.
“Ushuk said there’s a quarry near here? Ask him to show you where it is if you like,” I instructed, but Matuk didn’t move.
“You make Matuk miner?” he asked slowly.
“Yes, that is, unless you really don’t want to be,” I added quickly.
“I…I…Matuk want skill!” He exclaimed. “I mine good!”
I hadn’t seen it before, but his shock was for being moved seemingly upwards from Rok’s helper to his own miner.
“I don’t doubt it for a second,” I said as I placed a hand on the goblin's shoulder, forcing him to turn around. I gave him a little push as my mind moved to the next tree that needed cutting down.
Cutting down trees, which had once felt like an arduous, boring task had begun to feel like it was all going to quickly. In the hours it took to fell a complete tree, I could barely savour the connection of each swing, the splinters of wood flying over my shoulders and the feeling of delight as I pulled my axe free after a successful cut. I finished the day with 2 trees again and gave them to Rok with my blessing to carry on using them to make the construction yard.
Ushuk had finished hunting with the others, and as the work day concluded, all of my clan were now safe and sound, back home and extremely well-fed.
I checked the status of my food supplies and was shocked to see that when I’d calculated that I’d have nine food available after the dinner and breakfast allocation at this point, I must’ve made a mistake once again. The settlement information page said I had fifteen.
I analysed the breeding hut to see if I could see any differences since the last time I’d looked, and indeed there were.
Goblin Breeding Hut
Current Food Available: 15Current Maintenance Level: 16
Current Food Generation: 31 Units / Day
My settlement’s maintenance had remained the same since the arrival of my latest goblin, but the generation had gone up by six.
I closed the information pane and tapped Ushuk, who was staring at Matuk and Snafu, who were playfighting.
Before I could question my knowledgeable adolescent however, a new notification filled my vision.
Your skill, Analyse has now reached Level 5
The analyse skill lets you view information about the world all around you. Through its use, you have reached a milestone level.
Level 5: At this level, you are able to view the information and statistics of others who are of a much higher level than yourself.
You are now able to view detailed information about the skills that you encounter.
Ushuk was staring at me waiting for me to say something so I took the opportunity to shrug my shoulders and shake my head. He looked at me suspiciously before turning his attention back to the happy couple.
I wanted to see what information my new analyse level would show me about the lumberjack skill that I possessed, any information about that would surely come in useful.
Lumberjack [Level 1] [89%]
With this skill, you will find it much easier to cut down trees to use on your construction projects.
Level 1
At Level 1 of the basic skill sets in Freedom Online, the user will experience euphoria for carrying out that action as encouragement.
Level Progression
For each level increased in this skill, the user will gain an additional +1 to the gathered resource and a 10% increase to their gathering speed.
At level 5, the user will be able to teach others their skill.
Note: NPC’s can only possess one skill that is not master ranked at any time unless race bonuses permit otherwise
.
Note: excessive use of this skill will result in extreme fatigue and severe addiction.
I closed the window and instantly analysed Mog, who was the closest of my hunters.
Name: Mog [Crocodile’s Teeth Clan]
Level: 2
Race: Goblin Feeder/Female
Attributes:HP: 6/6MP: 0/0
Strength:2
Wisdom:0
Social:0
Skills: Feeder Class
HuntingLevel 2
Goblin feeders can forage, Hunt, fish and farm more efficiently than any other type of goblin, greatly increasing the clan’s ability to generate food.
Equipment:Small Knife
I tried to analyse her hunting skill, and to my surprise it worked. My analysis showed that the hunting skill worked in exactly the same way that my lumberjack skill worked, and if all three of my hunters had reached level two in their skill, it would account for the six extra food on the books. I also thought about the euphoria that they were experiencing, just like with my own mundane tasks it now certainly made sense that none of them had complained about farming beetles all day long...in the same way...in the same place...every day.
‘They like to work,’ I thought as I looked at all the goblins around my campf
ire. Besides thinking that soon I’d need a bigger fire and much more seating, I could now see that the creatures were actually happy. They smiled and laughed with each other, lost in their own stunted conversations but part of me couldn’t help wondering if they weren’t all just hooked on a virtual drug.
With the new food surplus, my last action of the day was to summon a new worker. As much as I didn’t want to let anyone else in on my lumberjack racket...’Jesus I really did sound like a junkie’...when Durr walked out of the breeding hut, I placed a small axe in his hands and told him that tomorrow he’d be working with me, to which he replied with the standard toothy goblin grin.
Chapter Eight, Stress
I
couldn’t stop smiling to myself as I swung my axe into the tree I’d been working on for the past hour or so. Durr and I were working in tandem on the same tree and it looked as though it was going to speed up the operation a little more than twofold. He hit the back and I hit the front. I’d toyed with having him rework the trees to ‘finish’ them into four planks as Rok had suggested, but I knew that as a worker he would be able to learn the lumberjack skill as I had, relatively quickly. I had no experience with finishing logs so I had to play it safe for now. Besides, there was nothing I was particularly waiting for more wood for anyway.
I knew that by the end of the day, my new construction yard would be finished, but that didn’t mean I should stop collecting wood and stone, as they would definitely be required for whatever building I would choose to have made next. With Matuk mining for stone and Durr and I collecting wood, I felt as though we would be rolling in expendable resources in no time at all.
“Hey Durr?” I asked as I watched the goblin grunt as he swung his axe with a little too much effort. He stopped to look at me, acknowledging our conversation.
“What?” he grunted at me. It didn’t seem rude, rather just the way he’d learned how to speak.
“What’s this pleasure response thing all about?” I asked, but his blank stare reminded me that some of these words might not have been suitable for goblin ears. I rephrased the question. “Why does it feel good when I cut down a tree?”
He understood this time. “Skill make feel good, make sure do skill is nice.” He said in his fractured English.
I understood him. As I’d suspected, this was the way that Freedom Online ensured that when someone had been put to a task, they enjoyed doing it. If you were a lumberjack, you enjoyed the act of cutting down trees. If you were a builder, you must have gotten a buzz from creating your constructions. This sounded great for NPC characters but again I couldn’t help wondering what kind of effect an addiction of this magnitude had on the real world. My mind pointed me towards the cannibals in the city I’d inadvertently helped raze, and what skill could be compelling those monsters to act how they were.
As Durr and I returned to our work, I was approached by a bounding goblin who I hadn’t seen before. If he’d been walking normally I doubt I would have noticed him over my appreciation for my work, but he was so animated in his approach that he couldn’t help but pull my focus. When he was close enough for me to see properly, I was shocked to see that it was…Ushuk. He was bigger, as big as the next goblin and his protruding teeth had grown longer and sharper.
“Ushuk! What’s happened?” I asked in astonishment.
“Ushuk grow into an adult now!” He exclaimed with glee. I could see that the change had done little to affect his personality, unlike how regular humans go through those awkward ‘rebellious teen years’. His voice did seem a little deeper now though.
I analysed the goblin to see if there were any hidden changes that I’d been unaware of.
Name: Ushuk [Crocodile’s Teeth Clan]
Level: 5
Race: Goblin Adult/Male
Attributes:HP: 14/14MP: 5/5
Strength:1
Wisdom:3
Social:1
Skills: None [Skill must be taught]
Equipment:Small Knife
Crocodile’s Tooth Necklace
He’d grown a level and I noticed that he’d put his newest attribute point into his social stat. I also noted that he was now listed simply as a ‘Goblin Adult’ which presumably meant that he had no specialisation, which I already knew would need to be taught by another.
“Ushuk! I couldn’t be prouder!” I emphasised my shout with a smile as I slapped Ushuk on the shoulder – careful not to perform the action too hard as to cause any actual damage like last time. He grinned back at me. “Do you know what skill you want to learn yet? I assume that this point in…” I lowered my voice, “…social…has something to do with it?”
Ushuk’s smiling face dropped slightly. “No, not to do with that,” he replied. “Don’t know what want to be yet. Still thinking.”
It sounded kind of odd to me but I let it go for now, I was just happy to see Ushuk, my very first friend in this world growing into something special.
Later that night I realised why Ushuk had decided to increase his social statistic. He was sat next to Mog and the pair were enjoying a laugh, whilst Snafu and Matuk were openly biting at each other’s necks before trying to escape the playful shooing hand of the other. Every now and then I saw Ushuk cast a fleeting glance at the playful pair and eventually he and Mog began to imitate their actions.
‘Ah, he’d grown from a teenager into a man…err…goblin,’ I thought to myself. I should’ve realised why he wanted to be more sociable – he wanted to spend more time with the lady goblins.
I decided that the next morning, I would take Ushuk to the Sawblades clan to see Grish and make the latest trade of necklaces for tools myself. The way I saw it was that I had an unlimited amount of crocodile’s teeth, and I would always have a need for more tools as my clan and its settlement grew. I took Ushuk along so that we could have a little chat about the birds and the bees, it felt as though it was my duty. As much as I saw the goblin as a friend I also had felt like he was like a son to me, and if that were the case, I needed to teach him all about…well being a man (goblin).
“So you like Mog eh?” I asked as we walked. It was sunny again and I wondered in passing if it ever rained in Freedom.
“What?” Ushuk replied, the question catching him off guard. “Oh, uh…yeah” he finally managed.
“Do you know…how to…um…” I struggled to form my question, this was certainly more difficult than I’d expected.
Ushuk stared at me blankly, not comprehending.
“Um…you know…” I raised my eyebrows suggestively as I spoke, but it didn’t seem to help. I threw my hands up in the air in exasperated defeat. “Do you know where babies come from?”
I watched as Ushuk’s face turned a very dark shade of green, presumably his black blood had caused this phenomenon as he was blushing.
“Yes.” He snapped. “I know about babies.” His answers were short, and it reminded me of the conversation I’d had with my own father – I’d wanted to be anywhere else when he’d spoken those very same words.
“Oh…so you know…how everything…works?” I spoke slowly as I chose my words carefully. Euphemism wasn’t as easy as it sounded in the movies.
“Do you want me explain to you?” Ushuk asked gruffly. It didn’t sound like he was being sarcastic, rather that he was actually offering because he thought I was asking for my own, and presumably perverted purposes.
“Actually, that might be helpful,” I said after a moment’s thought – if he was missing any information then it should be obvious and I could fill in the blanks, if not then I hadn’t had to make any more difficult decisions, like which words I should use to avoid turning red myself.
It came as a bit of a shock to me that the reproduction cycle of goblins (and perhaps other races) within Freedom Online didn’t exactly work like it did in the real world. Ushuk explained the goblin mating ritual to me as I remained in awestruck silence. Two goblins, a male and a female would court each other for an indeterminate amount of time, play, figh
t and then spend the night together in a single hut. He described the physical act of sex, as it was in the real world, but made it clear that this portion of the ritual was completely optional.
He didn’t comment on the length of the gestation period, but piecing together Ushuk’s own transition from adolescent to adult, and the information I remembered from the Breeding Hut, I assumed that it wouldn’t have been a particularly lengthy ordeal. It kind of all made sense to me that the physical act had such little bearing on the reproduction cycle, two consenting adults could reproduce knowing full well what they were getting into, but the fun of sexual contact didn’t bare any dangers of ‘accidents’ or ‘mishaps’. It also meant that differing races could procreate to make half-breeds and other mixes of races where physical differences would make that sort of thing impossible – God bless the parents of a half-pixie, half-ogre if they had to actually do the deed. Lastly it meant that unwanted pregnancies from assault simply couldn’t happen. I smiled at the forgiving nature that Freedom Online provided for its inhabitants.
Ushuk was very uncharacteristically silent for the rest of the journey, it seemed obvious that our conversation had totally embarrassed him, which seemed conversely to make me extremely happy. No wonder my own father – and fathers around the world love to embarrass their kids, it felt great!
The forest path that I’d been getting increasingly used to between my own camp and the Sawblades’ settlement seemed a little off as we walked. I became very aware that it was very quiet. There was no birdsong or the sounds of leaves rustling in the wind. I tried to recall if this was normal – I hadn’t made a note of their absence before – then again, I hadn’t made particular note of their presence before either. As the air begun to grow thick with grey smoke, however, I knew that I’d been right to have been worried.
The Copper Rose Page 11