The Two Week Curse

by Michael Chatfield

  “S-sorry, Mister Rugrat!” Storbon said, all jittery and scared, not knowing what to do.

  “No worries.” Rugrat smiled. “What’s your name?”

  “Storbon, sir,” Storbon said, looking slightly panicked.

  “At ease. I’m not here to yell at you.” Rugrat laughed.

  “I heard you with the guards last night.” Storbon then looked embarrassed at what he’d said.

  Rugrat’s lips pinched together. “That was a different matter. There was a possible problem inside the village and they couldn’t get themselves organized or ready. If we’re going to make it through this coming battle, we need people who can get themselves sorted out and organized quickly. If I intend to train a group of soldiers, doesn’t matter if they’re a militia or God’s given Marines, I’ll damn well make sure that they’re worthy of the uniform they wear,” Rugrat growled.

  The atmosphere was tense as Rugrat cleared his throat. “So why are you running around?”

  “Mister West said that he wanted to see me on the wall beside him, but I’m not that strong so I wanted to get stronger,” Storbon said.

  He ain’t even lying. Rugrat looked away, sinking into thought. “What group are you a part of right now?”

  “I’m with the group that is chopping down wood,” Storbon said.

  “You trained with a crossbow yet?”

  “No, sir.” Storbon looked a bit awkward.

  “What is it?”

  “I don’t mean no disrespect, but I’m not that good with anything ranged. But I’m good with things in close,” Storbon said.

  Rugrat frowned and then his face seemed to darken.

  “I’m sorry, Mister Rugrat!” Storbon said, panicking.

  “It’s not your fault, boy. Actually, I should commend you. I never thought about the fact that the fighting might not just be long range. Dammit, Rugrat, you idiot.” Rugrat hit his head.

  Storbon looked confused.

  “All right, so ideally we’re going to engage the beast horde at range and there’ll be nothing to reach the wall—all good, safe, and sound. The fact is that ain’t going to happen. There will be breaks in the line and the beasts will get to the line. We’re going to need people with close-range weapons to finish off the beasts that make it to the walls or over it. So, Storbon, you ever used a spear before?”

  ***

  Erik woke up as light came in his new room’s window. He felt energized, his whole body filled with energy as he got up.

  His interface was flashing with a message symbol. When he had put on his sound talisman, the message icon had appeared, linking his interface and the talisman.

  “Ran into Storbon this morning—put me on to something. So far we’re only training people with crossbows. We’re going to need people who can fight in close. Going to start training other groups of people with spears for close-range fighting. My plan is to train everyone with crossbows first so that they’re able to weaken the beasts at range. I’m going to get the guards to pick out people who might be better suited for using spears. I’ll teach some of the guards and then they can teach the recruits. I’m out to scout around with my new batch of guards. I’m taking Storbon as well. Looks like with him and Roska, we’ve got the start of a good quick reaction force if we can level and train them properly.”

  The recorded message ended and Erik recorded his own message to Blaze.

  “I’ll be out in the fields. Organize the farmers to start harvesting as soon as possible.” Erik quickly set out and headed for the fields. The faster they harvested the fields, the sooner they’d be free to train with crossbows, or help build up the defenses that would where the fields now lay.

  A few people were waking up with the sun as Erik walked out of the gate. He looked over the guards. They looked as though they hadn’t had much sleep but he could see changes in the way that they held themselves, no longer slouching and keeping an eye on the surrounding area.

  He made it out into the surrounding fields and cast Plant Cultivation again. He didn’t have Blaze there talking to him about the fields and the plants; instead, he had his memories and the information he had remembered.

  The area of effect for his Plant Cultivation spell was larger than before and his pace was faster with the additional five attribute increase to his Mana Regeneration and his Mana pool’s increase of twenty.

  All around him, the field continued to grow and ripen. He messed up a few times as the plants weren’t ripe enough or they were starting to falter because they’d grown too much. After some adjustments, he found his pace again and moved forward.

  For three days, Erik worked in the fields to make the crops ripen. At night, he would heal people if they needed it. Erik would assist Rugrat in training the guards as needed.

  Rugrat would train the guards in the morning before he took out a group to the forest to hunt boar. Then he would take another group in the afternoon, returning at night to train the guards once again.

  The groups were rotated from training, to hunting, to working in the fields and chopping down wood.

  Other set groups that weren’t able to do physical labor, or were better suited for crafting, worked to create crossbows and defensive instruments, such as spikes, and hedgehogs, basically crossed wood that had been sharpened into spikes. There were also others who looked to the food of the village. All of the food was divided equally, each person having meat and grains to fuel their activities. Most of them probably hadn’t eaten this well in a long time.

  Rewards in the shape of salted meat were handed out to people for doing well in their training.

  Erik stopped in mid-afternoon as he looked over the latest crops behind him.

  In three days, he had walked through all of the farmland around Alva. All of the plants were ready to harvest.

  The farmers were working quickly together to harvest it all and send it to the granary.

  Seeing that he had time, Erik checked on his Land Holder interface.

  ==========

  Resources

  ==========

  Food: 2,371 Units

  Stone: 50 Units

  Wood: 230 Units

  Gold: 8.389

  ==========

  With the harvest, their food levels had shot up; adding in the meat from the boars, they had plenty of food ready.

  They had been harvesting wood since they started. As people increased in strength, then they were able to cut down and carry more trees per day. Stockpiles of wood were laid down outside the crafting workshops.

  Rugrat had gone through and broken down the crafting into processes so assembly had increased in speed.

  With the boars, they not only produced meat but monster cores that Rugrat sold at the store. A few of the items on auction had been bought out already but Erik was hopeful that more might be bought in the coming weeks.

  Erik went to an area that had been marked off with stakes. This would be where the first defensive line would be located, with spaced-out pitfalls and traps with meat to entice the predators.

  Erik took a stance and angled his right arm up. He directed Mana through his body, compressing and building it up. He accelerated it right out of the Mana gate in his hand. A bolt of blue Mana raged before it hit the ground. It touched the ground and exploded.

  Erik ducked down as dirt rained over him. He looked over where the Mana bolt had landed. He looked at the crater and then back to his hand. Slowly he looked around to make sure no one else had seen his display.

  “I’m a human grenade launcher, right.” Erik put down his hand and walked to the crater. It was three feet wide and two deep.

  After fifteen minutes, a group of guards moved to Erik with some of their trainees armed with crossbows.

  Erik nodded as he watched them approaching.

  They slowed down as the guard Niemm moved forward.

  “Mister West, we heard a noise.” He looked to the pit next to Erik.

 
“Good reaction! Smart, bringing some of the trainees to bolster your numbers. There is no need to worry. I was just testing something out,” Erik assured them.

  “Yes, Mister West,” Niemm said.

  “You can get back to training. I’m going to do some more testing.” Erik moved off. He pulled more power and circulated it before shooting it out. Its trajectory wasn’t straight and it arced, like a grenade launcher, as well.

  The people watched as Erik blew another hole in the ground before examining it.

  Niemm led his people back to the village to continue training.

  Erik headed back after some more testing and moved over to where the crafters were working. Taran was working day and night to build more crossbow mechanisms. He had improved his failure rate and could make twelve a day now. The woodworkers and assembly teams had increased their production accordingly.

  There was a total of seventeen groups, but only thirteen of these groups would see combat, requiring nearly one hundred and forty crossbows.

  They had fifty crossbows in use already, and it would take eight days to make the remaining crossbows. Just two days short of when their quest said the beast horde would arrive.

  Erik looked in and watched Taran at work. He didn’t interrupt and left silently.

  Rugrat has the theoretical knowledge. If I take over the afternoon group heading out into the woods, then he could focus on smithing—maybe working with Taran, get the basics down and share knowledge. They’d be able to increase the speed they work at. Might even have one of them making crossbows and one making spear heads.

  Ever since Storbon had brought it up, Erik and Rugrat realized their oversight. Storbon was growing quickly under Rugrat’s tutelage, and Roska applied herself to every job she had, looking to show off her ability.

  Time that I adjusted my plans slightly.

  Erik headed to the store. He found Elise there, salting meat and readying it for long-term storage. Although they had storage rings that could keep the meat fresh, they would still need to have a fire to cook it up properly. This wasn’t ideal for the hunters if they went out for long periods of time, or if they needed food during the siege.

  Erik wanted to be prepared for any occasion.

  Meal packs were being organized so that at least everyone would have a few meals on them at all times.

  “How can I help you today?” Elise asked as she worked with the meat and salt.

  Erik was about to let her get back to work when he realized he hadn’t asked a very important question. “What is the store—not like this physical place, but the interface and everything?” Erik had been rushing about and he hadn’t thought of it.

  “The store is something that only the leaders of a dungeon or a base can use, or they can give authority to people inside their city,” she said simply.

  “Dungeon or base leaders?” Erik asked.

  “You are the acting base leader of this Alva Village. There are also people who control dungeons.” Elise shrugged.

  “They sell things between one another?” Erik asked.

  “Yes. The auction isn’t as good as if they were to sell to one another directly. Though it cuts down on the time that it takes to transfer things, across realms or between realms, albeit at a higher price,” Elise said.

  “So I can buy things from the Tenth Realm in the First Realm,” Erik said.

  “Yes, if you have the money to do so.” Elise nodded.

  It’s a way for the leaders of these bases to sell off items that they don’t need to gain riches. They can also use it to buy items that they desire. Some regions might have an abundance of one resource but be lacking in another, even across realms. Though there aren’t that many things for sale, there’s hundreds of thousands, but not millions or billions. Either the Ten Realms is smaller than I think, or most base leaders and dungeon bosses don’t give access to their people. This makes sense; if they gave access, then it could cause chaos in their own city if there’s a resource that they want to focus on gaining. It also gives the leaders more options to make money. Say there’s an influx of items in their residence, then they can sell those items on the auction for a large profit.

  He didn’t waste any more time talking and went up to the auction platform.

  First, he bought thirty simple shovels. Then he directly placed a bid for a healing powder auction that was ending soon.

  He watched as the timer went down, having to increase his bid as someone beat him out.

  Finally he won, at a bid of one silver and thirty-two copper per batch of powder, for a total of two hundred units deducting five gold, eighty silvers, and eighty coppers included in the transaction fee charged by the auction platform.

  They appeared in Erik’s storage ring directly as he winced. It had taken out over half of his accumulated gold.

  Gold is gold. We can get it back, but lives can’t be replaced. Erik looked over different sets of gear up for auction. He found a simple cuirass for sale.

  ==========

  Basic Leather Cuirass

  ==========

  Defense: 24

  Weight: 5.3 kg

  Health: 97/97

  Base Value: 1 Silver, 23 Coppers

  Slot: Takes up chest slot

  Innate Ability: Red Haze. Upon killing 2 enemies within a 20s window, one’s Strength will increase 1% and last for 30s. If user kills 1 more within 10s, then Strength will increase by 2%. Effect can be stacked up to 15%; will last 45s (will be renewed upon killing again).

  ==========

  It looked useful as hell and just what Erik needed. But the bids were actually around eighty coppers and there was still a day to go.

  Erik took down the details and looked to Elise. “Does something seem to be wrong with this armor?” He showed Elise the information he copied down.

  “It looks like Apprentice-level armor to me. That innate ability, Red Haze—I’m not sure what that’s about. Sometimes innate abilities will be good, but they can have negative effects as well. I can get more information but that will cost three silver,” she suggested.

  Sometimes there were hidden effects with armor. The armor looked really good, but Erik had bought enough things online that he knew it was best to know everything about the item he was buying instead of getting it on impulse.

  The armor was in bundles of ten. If he could secure this armor, then it might be possible to armor ten of the village’s people.

  He handed over the three silver. She used it to get a message scroll; using it with her sound talisman, she sent off the question.

  Erik still had money left, but he didn’t want to waste it.

  “It might be some time till I get a response. As soon as I do, I’ll let you know,” Elise promised.

  “Thanks.” Erik headed out of the store. He didn’t have anything better to do, so Erik used a shovel and stakes to outline the defensive lines. Now that the farmland had been cleared, he had a clear view from the city walls to the forest. It was time to move into the second phase of work: focusing on their defenses and their forces.

  Chapter: Path of the Smith

  “That’s about it!” Rugrat said in a happy voice as he patted Erik on the back. They’d been looking over a map that Rugrat had been updating and working to mark all of the positions of the different boar litters around the village.

  Even though they had been hunting for three days straight, they would only kill some forty boars a day. There were hundreds if not thousands in the surrounding area and they were moving closer to the village every day.

  Today it was Erik’s turn to lead out a group to the forest. Rugrat was heading off to the smithy to learn more skills and help in building up arms for the village.

  Erik could only shake his head and wave him off. “Go and play with your metal. Buy what you need from the auction house.”

  “Don’t get lost! I don’t want to have to come and find you!” Rugrat said.

  Erik flippe
d him the bird.

  Rugrat left the main village square; he followed the familiar path to the barracks and the attached smithy. He saw guards training the village folk. They were shaky, but they were improving quickly. These were, after all, lessons that could help them defend their homes.

  He walked up to the smithy, where Taran was working on different crossbow mechanisms.

  Rugrat waited until he had finished one before he cleared his throat.

  Taran looked up with a frown on his face. His eyes caught Rugrat and his frown turned into a smile. “Finally get free from hunting?”

  “Erik told you?” Rugrat said.

  “Yeah, let me know last night that you might be coming around to help me with the smithy.” Taran stretched out his back. “So what do you know about smithing?”

  “I have a good grasp of the concepts but I just haven’t got any of the basics.”

  Taran nodded and waved Rugrat over. “In that case, I’ll start simple. We’ll make one of those spearheads first.” Taran took an ingot of metal from the side and placed it into the burning coals. “Do you know what the stages of refining a weapon are?”

  “First, sourcing the materials from the ores—where were they located, under what conditions did they appear. Then, refining the materials, combining them and tempering them with other items to increase their power, strength, durability, or innate abilities. Then there is the forming of the items—taking the refined materials and using different techniques to turn them into a finished and final product. This is broken down into shaping and tempering. Then if it is possible, the final stage is actually placing an array or formation on the weapon to give it further enchantments or abilities,” Rugrat said.

  Taran grunted in agreement. “This iron ingot here isn’t anything special, but we’re not making anything advanced, to be honest. What we need to focus on is heating up the iron so that we can forge it into what we want.” Taran turned from heating the ore, then brought it out, using his tools and hammer to shape the metal, putting it back into the flames to keep it red-hot and then worked the steel again.