by Ryan Rimmel
“And some magical focusing crystals,” EstherSasha said triumphantly. She stomped up beside me with a certain amount of smug satisfaction in her voice, “Where, oh where, are you going to find any of those?”
“Oh,” I said, reaching into my pouch and withdrawing a small parcel wrapped in parchment. Unwrapping it exposed a handful of magical crystals. “Like these?”
Jarra the Healer’s eyes went wide. “How did you get those?”
“Pretty sure I killed a goblin,” I answered, thinking back. “I used to do that a lot. I’d go adventure, kill monsters, get treasure, and bring it back here. Everyone would benefit, if I could do more of that. However, I do have some ever important cabbages to deal with later this morning.” Jarra stared for several more seconds before shaking her head. Taking the crystals into her hands, the healer walked back toward EstherSasha triumphantly. I absently shoved the empty parchment back into my pouch.
“Ha” shouted Jarra.
I didn’t catch the rest of what the healer had to say, as I was distracted by the arrival of Shart. He flew to my shoulder, smelling of something sour, and observed the two women for all of 10 seconds. Cocking his head to the side, he uttered a simple “nope” and disapparated. Traitor.
After another five minutes of ‘discussion’, which seemed to be more of the two women making harsh remarks about each other’s life choices than actual productive debate, I finally called it.
“We are making the Alchemy Station,” I stated.
Jarra the Healer was ecstatic, especially considering she had taken all my magical crystals. EstherSasha was less so.
To placate the cook, I added, “I’ll get to work repairing the other herb garden for you.” Feeling satisfied, I turned to stroll off. I was stopped by EstherSasha calling out to me.
“I know you don’t have 7 carts of magical mud on you.”
“How hard could that be to find? After all, I found the crystals,” I replied, as I waved goodbye over my shoulder.
The answer was hard.
Chapter 3: Crystals and Where to Find Them
“You need more crystals,” laughed Shart. He had returned, bored, after he had verified, I was no longer in the presence of strong, loud women. He was currently perched on my shoulder, invisible to all the world but me. People had seen me talking to the invisible shit, unfortunately. Initially, I had tried to hide my frequent communications with the demon, but that was more challenging than I’d initially considered. It was a small village. However, talking to an invisible demon that only you could see wasn’t entirely out of the ordinary on Ordinal. So far, I’d gotten a pass.
That wasn’t to say that I liked it. I didn’t. Thus, I’d gotten more used to ‘thinking’ at him. Because he had become my familiar through the ill-fated bond, I could project thoughts to him that he could understand. He could do the same but preferred hearing the sound of his own voice.
“How do I get more crystals?” I responded, dodging behind a destroyed structure to give myself a few moments of time to talk to the pudgy cherub of hell. I tended to gesture while in mental communication which made me look like I was having some sort of mental breakdown whenever we talked
“I believe your village has a mine,” responded the demon. “Crystals are a byproduct of mining. All you need to do is go clear it out. Just go clear it.”
If I put them to work mining, they would have less time to message me with quests.
I brought up my quest menu. Scanning quickly, I found a job that fit my crystal goal perfectly.
“Well, I do have a quest to help the blacksmith,” I stated. “He’s almost out of iron. The mine would also help with the pending unemployment crisis.” As a hero in a fantastic legendary land of epic wonder and magical beasts, the upcoming unemployment crisis was my current primary concern.
This is worse than Thanksgiving with Uncle Jeff.
“Out of curiosity, why can’t I just make a Seasoning Kitchen, or whatever it's called, in that empty building over there?” I asked, gesturing expansively to the many empty buildings nearby. The Alchemy Lab, or whatever, was right next to the herb garden; it didn’t make any sense to tear it down or move it. Any building could be upgraded to hold a kitchen, though, I reasoned.
Shart blinked. “If you do that, there will be too many mouths to feed and not enough to go around. At least until you repair the second herb garden.”
“Well, that doesn’t mean we can’t get started,” I stated. Searching through the town map, I found a structure being repaired that already had a large, cafeteria-style kitchen. I selected it and upgraded it to a Level 1 Seasoning Kitchen. More nails were needed to complete the work, along with some other bits that the blacksmith could produce. It didn’t appear to be that challenging to finish.
Right now, just about everyone was tied up in either repairs or farming. Repairs were currently winning out by a rather substantial margin. However, due to a lack of materials, the time was quickly approaching where repairs would have to cease. When that happened, I’d need something for the people to do to prevent them from becoming restless.
One of my critical problems was bootstrapping the town up to full functionality. I didn’t have quite a few of the pieces one really needed to get a town up and running. For example, a milling stone was apparently something that was quite challenging to find; without it, I wouldn’t be able to process much of the grain we were harvesting. I also needed a hardened saw blade to get my advanced level sawmill repaired, but when I’d asked the smith to make one, he’d just laughed.
“It’ll be years yet before I could make one of those locally,” he’d told me. I had a feeling I could make that happen faster, but I also had a feeling that doing so was going to be painful.
That left me in a quandary. The crux of the matter was that the town’s better structures were all the results of tools being used to build better tools for multiple generations. I could have easily taken a level 1 sawmill and upgraded it to level two, but I had a very nice level 4 sawmill with a missing saw blade that’d I’d rather enjoy using. It got 200% more planks per log than a level 1 sawmill and its planks were stronger by 50%, because that made sense.
It would also employ up to 22 people, and I was preparing for that unemployment crisis.
Reopening the mine would employ up to 12 people. The downstream jobs, such as the blacksmith, would add in another 6 positions. Additionally, the mined resources could create more of the building materials we desperately needed. We would be able to repair more buildings, thus keeping repair crews employed for another few weeks. I knew every town had an unemployment percentage but, without building materials, ours would be headed to over 90%. I was certain that was too high.
“Don’t you love Economic Theory?” grinned Shart, as I growled at him.
I sighed. “Okay, I guess we’ll clear the mine.”
How hard could it be?”
I really must quit having these stupid thoughts of mine.
Chapter 4: The Mine
The Ironpass Mine was just over two miles from the town, well outside the barrier. Of course, there were goblins everywhere. Our scouting party could vaguely make out goblin tracks going into and out of the mine through the shaft. As we crouched behind a high hedge heading out of the woods, we could smell the foul odor I had come to associate with the beasts. Also, I could see a couple, seemingly standing guard over their makeshift fortress.
Fenris knelt low, looking down over the mine with a careful eye. Beside him, Kappa was also crouched low, his nostrils working as he likewise scanned for threats. The two of them were almost inseparable nowadays, despite Fenris’ initial reservations about the Warg. I use the term “almost”, because Kappa would have dumped Fenris for JoeClarence, Fenris’ son, in a heartbeat.
Fenris was a Warden, a subclass of Woodsman that was more about protecting the forest than hunting or taming monsters. He was a tall, broad-shouldered man with dark hair and well-tanned skin, as well as a stony face. He wore leather armor sim
ilar to mine, but better looking overall. The village leatherworker had known what he was doing when Fenris’ armor was crafted; I had cobbled mine together solely out of a desire to not have my nuts flapping in the breeze. Overall, Fenris was the kind of strong, stubborn man that kept at a job until it was completed.
Wargs were wolves that had been chemically altered by goblins to become massive in size and far more intelligent than normal wolves. While many had reputations that were particularly unsavory, it was possible for some to be quite pleasant. Well, at least one was pleasant. Kappa, a homebody that enjoyed the fine comforts of life, was very amicable. He displayed a fierce loyalty to the family that took him in, and a gentle fondness for the children. Ultimately, Kappa hated goblins for the cruelty they had displayed toward him. Getting him out here was not a very hard sell.
SueLeeta was also there with her new hunting cat, Cat. Cat was a tawny colored mountain lion that was abnormally well muscled for its size. It was a bit smaller than Kappa but was completely capable of keeping pace with the Warg.
“Original, ain’t she?” chuckled Shart.
Officially, she hadn’t named the feline yet, which I thought strange. Remembering the weird significance of names on Ordinal, I decided that maybe it took a bit of getting to know the animal, before she could decide on a name. Perhaps she needed to witness its personality, first, before choosing a moniker.
SueLeeta was a Hunter, a different kind of Woodsman, who roamed the forest looking for things that needed killed, either for food or to remove them as a threat. She pushed her braid down her back, flashing me a wicked grin when she noticed me noticing her. As she returned to her threat assessment, I evaluated her armor. She was likewise wearing expertly made leather armor, customized for a woman. Not at all what I was hoping for or expecting.
I had kind of been hoping for the typical male/female fantasy armor dichotomy, where men wear armor and women wear glorified BDSM outfits. In reality, if that expression could be used on Ordinal, armor customization for a female involved additional padding and straps. These were designed to smoosh and protect, rather than enhance and display. I was slightly disappointed, but mostly happy that her torso was adequately protected. The biggest difference between her and Fenris’ armor was that hers had a smoother front for archery and his had more spaces for melee weapons.
My group represented the best and the brightest of the village militia. Fenris had just passed level 7, making him the highest level person in the village. He, along with all the others, were unaware of this fact, though. The townsfolk all assumed, because of my epic hero-ing, that I was a much higher level than I was. However, I had multiple classes. This feat was supposed to be impossible, and not even Shart could explain the anomaly in the class system.
I was only a level 5 Duelist, which was a Warrior subclass. I was also a level 5 Rogue Adventurer and Woodsman. Having more than one class left me in the position of actually being quite a bit more powerful than my level suggested
Duelists were skilled in fighting single opponents. I’d chosen that because I kept getting into duels to the death with single opponents. After the Battle of the Eastern Gate of the Western Gate Fortress, I’d gotten enough experience to push my Rogue and Woodsman classes up to level five, as well. Doing that had unlocked both of their class specializations.
Rogue had actually been an easy choice in subclasses. There had been three options: Assassin, Thief and Adventurer. Assassins specialized in killing people. Thief specialized in stealing stuff. Adventurer had been a jack of all trades class. It allowed me to use many of the weapons that Warriors and Woodsmen used. Thus, it allowed me to gain experience in Adventurer more easily. Without that synergism, I would have quickly managed to leave my Rogue class in the dust, due to increasing issues in earning experience points in it.
Using my logs to examine my choices after the epic fortress battle, I reviewed my selection of Adventurer. When it was chosen, I had received this prompt:
Specialization selected, Adventurer.
You gain one rank in Endurance and Dexterity.
Your Hit Point total is increased by 10. Your Stamina is increased by 20.
You gain the ability, Jack of All Trades
You gain the talent, Great Explorer
All weapon skills increase to Amateur
Sleight of Hand, Tracking increases to Initiate
Hiking is replaced with Improved Hiking
Exploration is replaced with Advanced Exploration. All sub skills are enhanced
The new ability I earned was intriguing. Jack of All Trades allowed me to be slightly more successful at things I didn’t have skills in. Whether that meant crafting pants that looked like pants or fighting with an untried skill in a life or death situation, I wasn’t certain.
Great Explorer was the talent that I’d earned. It helped with traveling and exploring. Neither of those two sounded all that impressive, until I realized that I didn’t have a ‘fast travel’ option. Unless I wanted to ride a Warg, walking was the only major method of transportation that I’d discovered. Great Explorer made my Mapping easier, faster and more detailed. Additionally, I was now granted more experience for finding Points of Interest that would benefit every one of my classes.
Advanced and Improved skills seemed to replace my existing skills. They appeared similar to the power up Shart had given my War Leader skill. Improved Hiking increased my carrying capacity slightly and nearly doubled my endurance before a rest was required. Advanced Exploration was even better. It granted bonuses to all its sub skills which, in turn, made it easier to earn Adventurer experience.
In most cases, my new skills behaved like they were one rank higher than they actually were. That was a huge bonus, because on Ordinal the biggest benefits to a skill were all tied to their rank. That meant I could attempt more difficult skill checks with my advanced skills. Because more difficult skill checks earned more skill points, this allowed me to increase the skills faster.
While choosing my Rogue specialization had been easy, Woodsman was proving a much more difficult choice. All classes seemed to have three specializations. For Woodsman they were: Warden, Hunter and Beast Master. Warden and Hunter were easily understood. I knew people with those specializations and I had witnessed how they worked firsthand. Both worked well with my Warrior and new Adventurer class, but neither made a particularly strong case over the other. Warden was similar enough to Duelist that I’d get some duplicate perks, meaning I’d be able to stack those class abilities and dig deeper into the skill tree faster. The downside to that was that I’d quickly max out the benefits; having a bunch of redundant perks seemed more wasteful than wise.
Hunter was more focused on the bow. Plus, it got an animal companion, but I didn’t know how effective those would be. Fortunately, SueLeeta had a pet. I could observe and make my decisions. Heck, if they were super effective, I might choose Beast Master.
Beast Master was the final class specialization. It was more focused on the pet than the player. Its practicality would depend on how effective the pet was. If the pet was super effective, than doubling down on that would be great. If the pet was ineffective, than I could get myself caught up in a flawed specialization. As I had absolutely no experience with Beast Master, having never even met one, I’d adopted a wait and see approach for that sub class.
Normally, when you leveled, you had a limited time to assign your points. Class specializations were the exception to this. I could take all the time I wanted to consider my options, but I couldn’t advance to 6th level until I made a choice. Again, all of this was according to Mighty Shart, who was sitting on my shoulder, mocking me.
“So, are we going to form a party?” asked Fenris, looking at me expectantly.
“Do you think we need to?” I responded, and Fenris frowned. He did that often.
“It would be helpful for the rest of us to know what we are doing.,” stated SueLeeta, throwing a chastising look over at the dour Fenris. She returned her gaze to me, rai
sing her eyebrows and giving me a pointed look. I knew what that meant; I had to do this party thing.
Switching to menu time to give me a moment to think, I called for my ever present help avatar. “Shart, how do I party with people?”
“Generally, if they like you, you can just invite them over. I’d bring wine and some cocaine,” grinned the demon.
“Form a party with the people here,” I growled.
“I mean, you don’t want to show up empty handed, and who doesn’t like cocaine?” continued the demon.
“To fight monsters, you insufferable clod of fetid troll snot,” I growled.
“Dude, you DO NOT want to be fighting monsters while high on coke.”
“Are you sure?” I asked dryly. “I figured it would give you a rage bonus. You know, kinda like the one I’m feeling right now.”
“Fine.” Shart harrumphed. “Spoilsport. Just use the party command in your menus, you nimrod.” He then paused for a long moment, staring at me. Realization finally set in.
“Which you don’t know how to do because you were raised on a primitive, non-magical, backwater planet without menus.” He sighed dramatically. “Okay, select Fenris. He looks mad again, by the way. Bring up his
I tried not to roll my eyes at this whole situation at least once a day. It was becoming exceedingly difficult as the days went by, especially in times like this. I knew for a fact that there wasn’t a context menu when you looked at people. I looked at people all the time. However, Shart had a long history of not being wrong, so I started to drop out of menu time.
“What are you doing? You have to do it from your menus, you dolt,” stated Shart. “Shit, you really are an uneducated ignoramus.”