The medicine woman grabbed a bandage, from the shelf. She tied it around the leg where the flow of blood had already slowed. The man’s blood-soaked trousers hid the actual wound but, given the state of his clothing and Hezbek’s cot, it must’ve been pretty serious.
The man finally stilled completely, and his head lolled to the side.
“The potions have slightly different effects on those who aren’t starborn,” Hezbek explained. “They pull from our fatigue to provide the restoration, which means he’ll sleep for some time. He may need another dose, but he’ll feel a lot better when he wakes.”
Devon laid a hand on the man’s brow. “What happened?”
She glanced toward the door flap. It was night outside, though she didn’t know how late. She still didn’t have a sense of the relative time between the real world and the game, and she made a mental note to look into that.
Hezbek pressed her lips together and fixed Devon with a hard stare. “The encampment was attacked—we shouldn’t have been surprised, but I suppose we were. A large boar. He’s menaced us for weeks. Deld here was gored through the leg, terrible from his perspective, but we were lucky.”
“This is the first I’ve heard of a boar,” Devon said.
Hezbek shrugged. “Until now, Uruquat has always scared the beast away.”
Ah. Crap. And Devon had killed Uruquat, leaving them unprotected.
The medicine woman shook her head and sucked her teeth. “The ogre took to sleeping in his throne after he’d been dragged from his hut enough times. He never fought the beast directly. Just stood on his throne and bellowed. I suppose we took his protection for granted. Well, I did, anyway.”
“Did Deld try to fight it? Devon asked. “For that matter, do you have any weapons?”
Hezbek took a deep breath. “We’re simple people, starborn. Yes, you could say it’s our own stupid fault for coming all the way out here. But now we’re here, and I’m not sure how we’ll manage to survive.”
A quest dialogue appeared.
Hezbek is offering you a quest: You break it, you buy it.
The members of the Tribe of Uruquat are being menaced by a large boar. Okay, a massive boar. Seeing as you killed their protector, perhaps you should do something about it.
Objective: Defend the villagers.
Reward: Unknown
Accept? Y/N
Devon hit accept without hesitation. The city could wait for a few more hours while she dealt with this.
“Okay, just let me think,” Devon said.
From beyond the hide wall of the hut, she heard a loud crashing.
Hezbek tapped her foot. “Normally, I’d say take your time…”
Devon dashed outside, thoughts racing.
“We need firewood!” she yelled as she ran to the center of the village. “Any spare thatch or dried plants, as long as they’ll burn.”
As tribe members hurried over with logs and a few door flaps from their huts, she motioned for them to throw the fuel on the fire. The blaze began to leap, and the crashing from the forest grew quieter. But the boar didn’t leave; she could still hear it circling around and assessing the situation.
Sparks began to spit from the fire as pockets of sap popped. Devon took a step back and searched the crowd for the leatherworker. When she spotted him, she rushed over and grabbed his arm.
He jerked in surprise, looked down at her hand on his elbow.
“Sorry,” she said quickly. “I need armor. A jerkin and trousers. Oversized.”
He looked confused for a moment, and the trade window popped up. She waved it away. “Just to borrow. You’ll get it back after this.”
He blinked, took a breath, then hurried to his hut. After a moment, he emerged from the darkened interior with the items in hand.
Devon nodded in appreciation. The leather was stiff enough it almost held its shape without a body inside. It seemed as if Gerrald had been making the items for the ogre, but thankfully they were short pants and a vest, not full-length garments. She dragged the items over her clothing and moved—stiffly—to stand in front of the blaze.
“All right, everyone, get into the shadow of the throne.” She didn’t want their shapes interrupting what she was trying to do.
Her shadow, wavering in the dancing flames, almost reached the edge of the clearing. But not quite. Devon dragged over a pair of stumps, stacked them, and awkwardly clambered up.
Her shadow stretched out into the forest, darkening the trees. She raised her arms and roared. Her voice was lost in the crackle of the bonfire.
“Do you guys have a gourd or speaking horn? Or anything like that?”
After a moment, one of the tribe members nodded and dashed to his hut, returning with the hollowed-out tusk of some sort of creature. He raised it in question.
Devon nodded. “When I say, yell through it. Make as much noise as you can.”
She listened and located the boar. It was snuffling through the bushes south of the encampment. She dragged the stumps again, stacked them and climbed up then made herself as big as possible.
“Now!”
The villager’s voice boomed through the night. At the same time, Devon’s shadow fell over the forest. The crashing stopped and then retreated.
Devon grinned. Not bad for a non-ogre.
For the next hour, she cast shadows and called for more ogre bellows, and finally, the boar seemed to grow tired of the game. The crackle of sticks and snuffling moved off.
Devon took a stiff-legged seat on the stump, ears still pricked for the beast’s return.
Notifications started popping up.
You have gained a special skill point: +1 Improvisation.
It was a decent idea, so you squeaked by. Next time, think of something less hokey.
You have gained a special attribute point: +1 Cunning
You’re clever, perhaps even a bit diabolical.
You have learned a new spell: Shadow Puppet – Tier 1.
You can create compelling illusions with your shadow. Properties of the shadow vary based on the type of light used in its creation.
Cost: 20 mana
Requirements: Illusion and Trickery discipline unlocked
Niiice! Another special attribute, plus her first spell! As she brushed the notifications aside, she noticed a new bar at the edge of her vision. It was a deep purple and showed that she had 65 mana available. Before she could explore that, however, another popup appeared.
Congratulations! By unlocking Illusion and Trickery and discovering a spell exclusive to it, you may now set your Unique Class to “Deceiver.”
As a starborn, you will be able to select three classes for advancement: Base, Specialization, and Unique. Unique Classes are restricted to one player per world. Few avatars will be offered them.
Would you like to select Deceiver as your Unique Class?
Hell yes! Devon accepted the prompt.
Another message followed.
Your mana now depends on key attributes for your classes. Currently: Cunning
Devon checked her mana. Well, that kinda sucked. It had gone down to 35. And having it tied to a special attribute, one of those that she couldn’t spend points to raise, meant she would have to work hard to increase the pool size. So lame! She’d gone from being able to cast her first spell three times with full mana down to just once. Hopefully, the bonuses of the Unique Class would make up for it.
Maybe her base or specialization classes would contribute to her mana pool with base attribute values. If she ever figured out how to choose other classes.
In any case, she scanned the periphery of her vision for some sort of icon associated with her new spell, Shadow Puppet. But like the Incapacitate ability, she realized that she simply knew how to activate it. She focused on the ground in front of her feet, judged the intensity and angle of the light cast by the slowly-dying bonfire, and willed her shadow to gather strength. To her delight, the dar
k shape began to stretch, widening and falling deeper into the jungle. Her mana dropped by a bit more than half. She explored her awareness of the shadow, feeling a sense of connectedness to it. She knew she could do more than manipulate the size—mastering the spell would definitely take a lot of experimentation—but she didn’t want to alarm the tribe members. With a mental wave, she dispelled the effect.
The tribe members had gathered around the fire, huddling close as if still nervous. Devon pulled off the stiff armor and handed it back to Gerrald. “If I’m not here and the beast comes back, you should be able to use the same trick,” she said. “But I think we’ve scared him off for the night.”
He blinked at her as if uncomfortable with the responsibility.
“Anyway, I’m not leaving yet,” she added. “I just need to go check in with your injured friend.”
Devon returned to Hezbek’s hut and stepped inside to see Deld still sleeping peacefully. The medicine woman had been dozing in a chair, and she jerked awake at the sound of Devon’s entrance.
“I’ve taught them how to scare the boar away,” she said.
A box appeared, informing her she’d completed the “You Break It, You Buy It” quest. Her reward was 50 reputation points with the tribe. Considering that she was about to leave for the city, that didn’t mean much. But she would’ve helped them with or without the quest.
“Seems you’ve also survived your foolhardy plan,” Hezbek said. “A surprise, if you’re not offended by me saying it.”
Devon had almost forgotten about the other quest. A second popup appeared, confirming quest completion for “Survive Your Crackpot Scheme.” Her efforts earned her 165 experience—not close to enough for another level, but every bit helped—as well as the promised waterskin.
You have received: Everfull Waterskin
Not the tastiest water, but you won’t die of thirst.
“And take these,” Hezbek said. “You’ll be a skeleton by tomorrow if you don’t eat something.”
You have received: 2 x Plantains
Devon smirked and thanked the woman. She peeled the starchy fruit and scarfed it. The hollow ache in her belly finally subsided. After looking around for a trashcan, she held the peels out apologetically. Hezbek rolled her eyes, grabbed them, and dropped them on the floor. After a moment, they faded and vanished. Right. Regardless of the realism, this was still a game.
“I’ll stay the night to make sure the others can take care of more boar attacks,” Devon said. “But I was wondering, can you help me with directions to… Where did you come from? Eltera city?”
Hezbek held her silence for a while. “I will if that’s really what you want to do. But I have a proposal for you, first. We were safe under Uruquat, but we’d accomplished little of what he promised us. Not to mention, we weren’t free. But neither are we heroes. We’re simple people who followed a dream into the jungle. We might survive on our own, but we aren’t particularly knowledgeable or enterprising. We’ll do much better with a leader.”
Devon’s brow furrowed. “You don’t mean me?”
“Uruquat gave us purpose and protection. And for all his failings, he gave us our dream. Out here we were going to build our own city, our own kingdom even.”
“How long has it been?” Devon asked.
“I’ve lost track, to be honest. I suspect we’d never have achieved what we set out to do with Uruquat as our leader. But with you…”
“I don’t know anything about building a kingdom. Why here? Wouldn’t it be easier to start somewhere you could buy supplies? Gather information and support?”
“There was a paper. Uruquat couldn’t read it, but it spoke of a great power that could be gained in this region. We didn’t choose this abysmal jungle by chance.”
Devon thought of the parchment in her inventory. “If Uruquat couldn’t read it, what good was this paper?”
Hezbek’s mouth twisted as she thought. “That’s why he recruited Greel.”
“Greel?”
“The lawyer,” she said.
Right. That would make sense.
“I won’t beg, but I’ll ask nicely,” Hezbek said. “Will you take up Uruquat’s legacy? We’ll follow you—most of us anyway. And the skeptics will give you a chance.”
Devon looked around the hut. She’d had her heart set on making the journey to a city. Finding other players, following a more directed path. But was that what she wanted? This encampment had already started to feel like home, and—NPC or not—she’d come to enjoy Hezbek’s company. Devon had never really used gaming forums to get information—most often they were full of arguing and trolls anyway. Since she’d started in Relic Online, she hadn’t even peeked at the gamer news. She hadn’t needed to, because the experience was so immersive. She hadn’t wanted to break the spell.
So why go mainstream? Why not stay out here and see what she could do?
Would she be missing out by avoiding the masses? From what she’d seen in other games, probably not.
Hezbek watched her for a moment and then said, “You’re thinking about it, aren’t you?”
A prompt appeared in her vision.
Do you accept leadership of the Tribe of Uruquat?
Devon clicked yes.
***
The tribe members gathered around as Devon approached the fire. The blaze was smaller now but still hot against her face. She cast a glance at the throne but decided against climbing onto it. It seemed a waste to leave it unused, but she didn’t want to give the impression that she was anything like the prior occupant.
“Hey, all,” she said. She didn’t need to raise her voice to grab anyone’s attention; the moment she spoke, their eyes were fixed on her. To make sure everyone could hear, though, she stepped onto a stump. “I just wanted to say a few things. First, I’m sorry I left you exposed to that boar. I didn’t know about the threat, and Deld suffered for it. From now on, never be afraid to approach me if you feel you’re in danger.
“Second, I promise to treat everyone fairly. I won’t demand fealty as Uruquat did. Anyone who wishes to leave the tribe may depart with my blessing. If you choose to remain, however, I need your loyalty. Not to me, but to the tribe.
“And that brings me to my final point. Tonight, I want you to rest. I will stand watch and make sure you are safe. Tomorrow, we will work together to secure the encampment. Once you can sleep without fearing attack by wild animals, we will forge onward. Uruquat made you a promise. He claimed you would build a kingdom together. I will take up his vow, and unlike the ogre, I will see it realized.”
She swallowed as she hopped down from the stump. For a moment, the crackle of the fire and cawing of nightbirds were the only sounds, but then the tribe members took up a quiet cheer.
She received an alert informing her she’d gained another 5 reputation with the tribe. She’d hoped to earn a little more with a speech she’d considered rather rousing, but maybe they were just tired. As people started shuffling toward their huts, she checked the supply of firewood to make sure she could rebuild the blaze if the boar returned then sat on a stump to see what her efforts had earned her.
The first change was a settlement interface. She opened the window.
Settlement: Uruquat’s Camp
Size: Encampment
Tier 1 Buildings (11/20):
11 x Standard Sleeping Hut
Tier 2 Buildings (2/2):
1 x Leader’s Abode
1 x Medicine Woman’s Hut
She opened a secondary dialog detailing her followers.
Population:
Base Morale: 45%
8 x Worker (unspecialized)
1 x Worker - Deld (unspecialized) (injured)
1 x Hunter
1 x Leatherworker - Gerrald
1 x Medicine Woman - Hezbek (advanced)
1 x Lawyer - Greel (advanced)
She shook her head as she looked at the last name. What the hell was she goi
ng to do with a lawyer out here in the jungle? Maybe she could convert him back into an unspecialized worker. Wondering if she could give the workers a more specific task, she focused on the entry in the population table but got an error message explaining that she needed to speak directly with the individual to attempt to assign a specialty. She shrugged. Better to wait until she knew what specialties she needed, anyway.
A final popup listed resources and consumables for the community:
Food consumption
- 13 basic food/day
Food available
- 20 x Smoked Turtle Meat
- 2 x Dried Sloth Meat
Firewood consumption - 1 bundle/day
Firewood available - 2 bundles
Items:
3 x Axe - fair
2 x Saw - fair
1 x Hand Drill - good
1 x Pickaxe - fair
2 x Shovel - fair
2 x Machete - good
1 x Mallet and Chisel
She found she could drag both stacks of 5 Snake Meat from her inventory to the community resources, which made her bag much lighter. As she closed the window, she wondered why Hezbek’s potions weren’t listed. Maybe she needed to speak with the medicine woman to get access to those resources. In any case, she had a lot of management to do, but it could wait until her tribe members were awake. For now, she could begin prepping to fulfill the first part of her promise: assuring that her followers were safe.
She searched around the outside of the huts until she found one of the axes and headed into the forest. Time for some woodcutting.
Chapter Fourteen
Temple of Sorrow: A LitRPG and GameLit Adventure (Stonehaven League Book 1) Page 9