Under Rachel’s supervision, I used a piece of charcoal to copy her maps onto the board, but no matter how long I worked and in how much detail I just didn’t get a message telling me that I’d gained the skill. Not that I really wanted it but I kind of expected it and sort of felt a little hard done by. Maybe it just wasn’t the same for everyone.
The big map made it clear where the tougher creatures were, over to the West towards what Rachel had marked as ‘The Deadlands’ and when I questioned her as to what they were, she simply told me that she had no idea, only that Theodore and co. wouldn’t go there but spoke about them often. Apparently, there was ‘nothing useful there’ which I took to mean nothing edible. Given the name, I wondered what would inhabit the area, ghosts, zombies, skeletons perhaps? The one thing it did tell me definitively though, was that we wouldn’t be surprised by those bastards if we ever chose to go there.
There wasn’t much else that the necromancer had found. Granted she hadn’t travelled too far from her starting location, but she hadn’t come across any villages, settlements or even friendly sentients, just forest, forest and more forest. I wondered if there was anything else beyond, like huge wonderous elven cities or mines full of dwarves but how could I possibly have ever known?
I took the opportunity to repay Rachel for the knowledge that she had freely given by giving her an axe and teaching her how to gain the lumberjack skill. Unlike the mapping skill, by the end of the day she had gained the skill and had partaken in the almost orgasmic pleasure that I knew chopping down trees brought to a seasoned lumberjack. It was kind of funny at first, but she just wouldn’t stop talking about how fun it was to cut down trees. There was no way I could say ‘been there, done that’ without sounding like a pompous prat, so I just let her have that one.
I let Rachel have her fun for another couple of days before pulling her from her task – which she grunted, yes actually grunted at, so that we could watch as the hydroponic farm was completed. I’d taken the liberty of summoning a couple of workers while she was occupied – I still didn’t want her to know where my clan’s accelerated growth was coming from – and told them to wait for the building to be finalised.
The farm flashed brightly as its completion bar ticked over from ninety-nine percent to one hundred and all of the scaffolding and construction-type things faded away to nothing. Of course I had seen it all before but I couldn’t help but smile to myself proudly as I watched Rachel’s mouth open slightly in wonderment.
Building Complete
A new building is now complete and available for use within your settlement, Coyote Creek.
The Hydroponic Farm provides a yield of crops at time intervals depending upon the crops in question and may require workers and/or additional resources in order to function.
Current workers: 0/2
Current Crops: None
Current Level: 1
“Shit,” I said aloud.
“What? It’s wonderful!” Rachel exclaimed.
I motioned for the workers to head inside the farm before answering her. “We have the workers, but no crops and I’m not sure what it needs.”
Rachel’s eyes glazed over for just a moment before she turned to me and said “look again.”
I checked the farm again, not really expecting to see anything different but now to my shock and awe there were now two crops, lettuce and tomatoes listed in the information panel.
“I told you I had been gathering food before, and I guessed that like a normal farm this just needed the seeds to get going.” She announced happily.
I could have kissed her, she had no idea the difference to my clan this could make.
“Rachel, I think I love you,” I said with a sarcastic smile.
She didn’t reply but blew me an over the top sarcastic kiss and winked at me.
God only knew how much extra food my clan would have to play with once the farm was in full swing.
“Can I ask you something?” Rachel said after the sarcasm in the air had faded.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Well, you have such a huge camp here, and loads of goblins working for you but you don’t seem to be really defended in any way. I mean anyone could just walk right in here and burn the place to the ground couldn’t they?” she stated matter-of-factly. I didn’t take it as a threat.
“Well, I keep telling the others that our main defence is our secrecy. If people don’t know where we are then they can’t attack us, right?” I explained.
“I get that, but I found your spider nest, so why couldn’t someone find the settlement?” she asked.
She made a very good point. I remember my decision to not bother with a real wall when I remembered the siege on the city that Theodore and Sano had led, and how ineffective the high stone walls had been. Perhaps they hadn’t been so ineffective really though, the fighting took place on the outside where all the warriors were and it was only at their victory did the invading army breach the walls.
“Shit, why not,” I said before I could stop my profanity in the presence of a lady. She didn’t seem to mind though. “Let’s make a wall,” I announced.
I had spent so long away from real, human company that I thought it would be a good idea for Rachel and I to return to my dungeon and have a little play with the spiders that we could find loitering on the outskirts, as they would be the lowest levels. As a group of two, I thought that the experience gained would be a little higher than last time, and I thought it would be a great opportunity for the two of us to make some war stories.
I told Ushuk to take charge of constructing a wall all the way around the campsite, leaving room for expansion and to camouflage it as best as possible, after all I’d rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
Rachel did seem pleased to be with friendly company, I imagined that she’d been in a similar scenario to me – although perhaps she had just gotten tired of her own company – that was until I watched as she raised her skeleton friend and I remembered that she didn’t have to always be alone. I was definitely jealous in some respects – I always loved a companion class – but I couldn’t help but think I’d gotten the better deal with my goblin clan mates.
The skeleton was kind of an oddity to me. I would always have said that skeletons were scary things, they looked menacing and were something to be afraid of. Rachel’s skeleton however, was not like this. His jaw hung in such a way that made it seem like he had a constant gormless grin on his face and he didn’t stand tall and proud like one would expect – he kind of hunched over a little. If I were to humanise him, I would have said he looked a lot like Homer Simpson, just without the fat.
“So is there a plan or something?” Rachel asked as we reached the first thin webs hanging from the trees.
“Does the skeleton get experience? Should I add him to the warparty?” I asked, the new dynamic adjusting my calculations slightly.
“I have no idea,” Rachel said. “This is the first party I have been in. I didn’t even know it was a thing.”
So I tried to add the skeleton to the warparty, without success. No matter how hard I mentally commanded the addition, nothing happened. I guessed that as he was a Rachel’s pet, he didn’t have to join the party – which meant good news for me as that meant more experience for the two of us.
“Do I have to keep calling him ‘the skeleton’ or does he have a name?” I asked. It didn’t really matter to me, I was half making small talk and half interested in her necromancy skill.
“He doesn’t have a name, and he always does what I tell him to…but…” she blushed before she spoke again. “I’ve been calling him Bones.”
“BONES!” I laughed heartily. “Jesus, say what you see!” Together we laughed, and laughed some more. It felt like it had been so long that I had been in genuine human company and I definitely needed it.
The spiders on the edge were…not very frightening for us. I could see how regular game mechanics, as I had postulated, were the
way to go as soon as we’d started our first encounter. Bones posed as the tank as the spiders just loved going straight for him for some reason, I chipped in with an attack or two from around his back, and Rachel…well she didn’t really do much. I hadn’t thought to give her a weapon to use, but I definitely preferred the idea that she would stay at range. Perhaps we could get her a bow or a spear or something to keep the enemies at an arm’s length.
You hit Black Forest Spider for 9 damage
You hit Black Forest Spider for 8 damage
You have killed Black Forest Spider
You have gained 14xp
It was almost too easy really. I didn’t even have to block or evade any attacks with the spiders going straight for our skeleton hero but it wasn’t to be forever as on the third lone spider, Bones fell to the ground in a pile of…well…bones, and the spider turned his attentions to Rachel.
The first swipe from the creature took almost half of her health and sent her scrambling away from it towards me. I knew that it would take three hits from my short sword to kill the spider, but if it turned its attentions to Rachel again there would be nothing I could do to prevent her death and not having spoken about it before, I thought that her respawn point wouldn’t have been anywhere good.
I hit the spider first doing exactly one-third of its health in damage. It didn’t seem to care for the attack and hit me back with one of its own. It took just under a quarter of mine. This was great news – it meant that this would be a battle of attrition again and one that I would win – providing that there weren’t any surprises coming.
There weren’t. The spider fell moments later, having taken two more stabs from my sword. This battle had been so much more difficult without bones to help us, which gave me a whole new appreciation for the skeleton.
Once we were safe and had backed away from most of the webs that denoted the spiders’ lair, I cast my Healing Aura spell for the first time on Rachel. I was amazed to watch her get covered in tiny golden lights, which shimmered for just a moment before disappearing and her health bar was replenished to the tune of one third. This was a good example of how having low health in the first place can come in handy. I had enough MP to cast the spell three times and did so to restore her to full health, although leaving me with nothing for myself or for any surprises that we might face.
Having no MP was an odd feeling, a bit like when you stand up too fast after laying down for too long, nothing serious but you know something isn’t right and having not actually spent any MP before, I didn’t know how long the feeling would last or how quickly the pool regenerated.
Not wanting to waste the opportunity to learn something new, I started to count out loud and Rachel had the good sense to not interrupt me. Once I had reached a whopping fifteen minutes, my MP bar rose to one out of fifteen. That was one slow regen rate.
I calculated with my superior grasp of advanced mathematics and the aid of my fingers that my pool would take two hours to replenish fully, and that after forty minutes I would be able to cast my healing spell again.
I also noticed with the delight at not having to carry out any further calculations, that my health had actually been regenerating at the same rate. The question was should I wait for a single spell and heal myself, or wait longer, for both pools to completely refill.
I elected for the latter, wanting to be sure that in our next battle, we were as prepared as possible.
“When can you get Bones back out here?” I asked as my health and mana replenished themselves to the maximum. I wanted to be able to take at least three spiders on again before we had to sit and wait for what was starting to seem like forever.
“I timed it the last time I was here, it seemed to change slightly but it was always between two and three hours,” she explained.
That was good, if we just waited for a little while longer we would be back to a full strength party again – which was exactly what we did.
We followed the same pattern as the first time around, taking out the first two spiders with:
You hit Black Forest Spider for 7 damage
You hit Black Forest Spider for 9 damage
You have killed Black Forest Spider
You have gained 14xp
Then Bones fell on the third, Rachel and I both took some damage (I was a little quicker to her aid this time) and we were ready to sit and wait for a couple of hours to get Bones back on the case. It wasn’t pretty or anything but it seemed to be doing the job.
This time though, I couldn’t help but cry out with a little pleasure at the new notification that filled my vision.
Congratulations, you have reached Level 4
You now have 1 unspent attribute point
Note: If you do not spend this attribute point within 3 days it will be lost.
Followed immediately by:
Your skill, Healing Aura has now reached Level 2
Through determination, perseverance and sheer willpower, you have gained the skill Healing Aura. With this skill, you are able to heal any creature for:
Level 2: +15HP Cost: 5MP
As the level of this skill increases, the healing amount will also increase. Additional effects may also be unlocked.
Oh were the spiders in for a treat now. With my new level in wisdom I was able to cast my healing aura for a fourth time, and it was also more effective to boot! I always loved a good slice of synergy.
“Ding!” I announced happily to Rachel who evidently had no idea what I was talking about.
“I levelled up!” I announced triumphantly.
“Oh…is that a big deal? I levelled up twice already, didn’t you notice that I was level five now? I know it didn’t make any difference to the damage that I was taking from the spiders but…you know.” She seemed genuinely nonplussed by the whole situation that I’d made such a big deal out of. It kind of made me feel like a little bit of a fool if I was being honest.
“You really don’t play many games, do you?” I asked in an astonished tone. “Games like these are all about levelling up as quickly as possible so that you can reach the end-game stuff,” I explained.
“End-game stuff?” Rachel asked inquisitively.
“Yeah, you know – the stuff that you can’t do until you reach the maximum level – all of the stuff at the end of the game where the whole game opens up and you can do whatever you like.”
Rachel thought about what I had said for a moment. “What kind of stuff can’t you do now that you will be able to do later?” She asked with an innocent smile.
“Well…uh…that’s a very good point.” As much as Freedom Online was a game, it didn’t always seem to follow the normal patterns that I was used to. Of course, there were loads of areas that crossed over, but maybe this wasn’t one of them. Perhaps this was more about the journey than the finish line? Or perhaps I would eventually learn something new that would kick it right back into my idea of normal. Either way though, levelling up was always a good thing.
“Um, well my necromancy skill also levelled up, I guess that is something a little more interesting to me right now. It said I don’t have to waits as long between summons and that my skeleton would be stronger now. I also got one of those vague ‘other skills may be available’ messages that seem to show up every now and then.” Rachel said.
It made me stop to think for a second about just how many times she had seen those messages, and how many skills she had but that would be for a later conversation, much, much later.
“Bones has a new skill to use now too,” Rachel said as her eyes were focussed on nothing in particular. “It says he can taunt now, that when he does it the enemies will…”
“I know what taunt means.” I interrupted her. “It's not really useful here as the spiders are coming at us alone and they seem to like Bones anyway, but if there were two, or even more then it would mean we have the perfect crowd control in your friendly skeleton there,” I explained. I had to admit, the more time I spent with Rachel and Bones, the
more jealous I became.
“Was there anything else groundbreaking that you haven’t told me, or should we get back to work?” I asked. Rachel just winked at me and turned back to head towards our next target.
The slight changes that the new levels had brought were nothing short of a miracle. Bones’ taunt ability had the added benefit of halving the enemy’s attack power for a few seconds which meant that he could stand for much longer. I also discovered that If I casted my Healing Aura on him we had almost enough times between battles to keep him alive almost indefinitely – so long as we didn’t go absolutely mad.
My experience bar had started to slow down in its progress since my previous level, I could see in detail now that the levelling system was indeed progressive, with each subsequent level requiring even more experience than the last, this was what led me to suggest moving a little further into the spider’s realm in order to really put our combat prowess to the test.
Rachel looked pretty excited to move up to the next level in our adventure, and Bones looked…well…like a skeleton about it. Neither happy nor sad, but kind of grinny.
The next spiders came in pairs as they had done before for my more goblin-oriented crew. Bones roared and pounded his bony fist against his chest…well…ribcage as soon as he saw them enter our field of vision and they both immediately jumped to attack him. These two were both level seven so it was very evident that after a couple of attacks from the spiders and heals from myself that Bones wouldn’t be able to stand tall at this rate. Once one of the spiders had fallen from my hit and run attacks, Bones fell almost immediately afterwards and the remaining spider turned its attacks toward Rachel. I really needed to find out what made them choose their target, as it seemed to follow the exact same pattern every time.
The Copper Rose Page 25