Keeper

by Tom Larcombe

  “Well, if you pay him, we'll only keep twenty-five percent. How's that?”

  Paul couldn't keep a straight face any longer and broke out laughing.

  “Of course you can. But if you do have more wood than you need after he's done, we could certainly use it. We've been going through it fast. I'm glad the trees grow as fast as the crops do in-game otherwise I'd be worried about deforesting the whole area.”

  “Cool, because part of what he's clearing is going to be a road leading to the spur where the path to Hammer Hold comes out. I want to trade for their iron, but I bet there's even more they'll have to trade and I know they've got a thing for wood. First Jern, and then two NPCs all reacted the same way to it. They just stared at all the trees. Jern told me the orcs cut down all the trees on the mountains too. So you might get some trade options as well.”

  “I'll have him meet you here at the inn tomorrow morning then. Can you show him what you need removed?” Paul asked.

  “Sure can, I'll be here,” Eddie replied.

  Eddie went over and sat down to lunch with Tiana, who'd been eavesdropping on the dwarfs.

  “At least one of them is a smith also,” she said. “So there might be some competition.”

  “Our smithy is almost done, they'll have to start from scratch, or maybe we'll ask Opron if they can take one of the smith positions there after we finish it. There's room for three smiths in our smithy. That would probably be ideal. Even if the NPC apprentice Opron gets isn't doing so hot, we'd still have a smith around if they're staying for a while.”

  They ate the rest of their lunch quickly, Tiana eager to get to her temple plot, and Eddie eager to see what she had planned for it. As they were leaving, Lucky started to follow him. Becky called the cat and snapped her fingers. A moment later her face went pale and she gasped. Lucky turned towards her, growled once, then 'chuffed' and continued to follow Eddie.

  “Suspicion confirmed,” Eddie said, once they were outside of the inn. “And now maybe she'll keep her spells off of my cat. I know she will for the next twelve hours at least.”

  Tiana shook her head.

  “Why would she do that? Lucky liked her at first sight.”

  “I don't know why, maybe because Lucky always took off with me when I did? But Lucky is my pet and not hers, so... I'll wait a few days until I cool off about it, then maybe have a talk with her. Try to find out why she did it.”

  “Probably a good idea to wait first though, I think I heard you grinding your teeth as we were walking out of the inn,” Tiana said, then dropped the subject.

  ~ ~ ~

  When they arrived at the site for the temple Eddie didn't recognize it. He'd passed by this area before, but it hadn't looked anything like it did now when he'd passed by.

  “Are those roses?” he asked, pointing to a towering ten foot mass of flowers, leaves, and thorns.

  She nodded.

  “Yes, and I may have misled you a bit. The woodworking I want you to do isn't with a blueprint. You've got nature magic, right?”

  “Yes,” he said, drawing the word out.

  “Have you cast the Accelerated Plant Growth spell yet? Assuming you have it of course.”

  Eddie blushed. He had indeed cast it, several times on the same plant, and the end result was a potato almost ten times its normal size.

  “Yes,” he said, tersely.

  “There's a story there,” she said, “but I'll get that out of you later. Those roses have had accelerated plant growth cast on them repeatedly. They'll need more for what I intend, but I'm going to want you to use that spell and one of your skills in conjunction with one another.”

  “Which skill?” he asked, confused.

  “Weaving. You're going to get those roses to grow into a living, woven wall. Then we'll do the same on all the other sides. Right now, I'm going to work on this tree in the middle of what will eventually be a large, living hall.”

  “Can you even do that? Use a spell and a skill together?” he asked.

  She shrugged.

  “We're about to find out. I suggest that you cast the spell, then as they grow try to guide the growth into the weave you want. Just hold what you want them to look like in your mind and don't quite let the spell go entirely. I know the game has allowed spells and skills in conjunction before, I've heard about it, so...”

  “So of course you expect I'll be able to do it right off?” Eddie said.

  “Of course you will. Don't you know? You came Out of Nothing and made a Hamlet and an inn.”

  Eddie groaned.

  I sure as hell hope she isn't being serious expecting me to do this right off. I'll try, of course, but...

  “I'll give it a shot,” he said. “What do you want the wall to look like?”

  “Solid, leaves on the outside, for now. We can get it to blossom and bloom inside later on if we're successful.”

  “Alright, here goes nothing,” Eddie said.

  Let me check the spell again first, he thought. Help Accelerated Plant Growth

  Accelerated Plant Growth:

  The growth of plants can be hastened with this spell, causing them to grow larger and faster than nature intended. The target of this spell will add days worth of growth per minute, total determined by Nature Magic skill level.

  Type: Nature, requires material components, requires spoken component.

  Components: Living plant(s) whose growth is to be accelerated.

  Audible Component: Words spoken to plant, encouraging it to grow.

  Range: twenty-five yards, but must have line of sight to plants.

  Duration: five minutes.

  Effects: X=Nature Magic skill. Target plant(s) will grow X day(s) worth of growth per minute for the duration of this spell.

  Cost: Varies(5-10 mana), based on skill level in Nature magic.

  Good thing I checked, he thought. I almost forgot I had to talk to the damned plants while I cast it. Okay, so what do I want it to look like?

  Eddie tried to hold a picture of a woven wall in his mind, one like the one he'd made to complete his first quest, only made of living rose branches instead of willow. He reached down and touched the rose bush.

  Cast accelerated plant growth, he thought.

  Then he started speaking.

  “Come on rose, grow for me. Let's not let Tiana down, okay? It sounds like she's got grand plans for this temple and we get to be a part of them. Grow, and weave together, just like I'm picturing in my head. You can do this, we can do this. Come on and grow.”

  He kept muttering at the plant for the five minute duration of the spell, not daring to lift his eyes and see if what he'd been trying had worked. When the spell wore off he blinked, then slowly lifted his head.

  “I'll be damned, it almost worked,” he said.

  Tiana, who had just completed her first casting on the tree came over and looked.

  “You're right, it almost did. Wow, I didn't really think you'd get anywhere with it right away. I figured it would take repeated attempts, but that you'd get it eventually.”

  The rose had grown and its branches had tried to weave together, but much like Eddie's first attempt at weaving, before he had the skill, they'd come undone when the spell had ended.

  “I'm a dolt,” Eddie said.

  “What? Why would you say that?”

  “Because I pictured them weaving together, but not securing themselves so they'd stay that way. It's the same problem I had the first time I tried weaving something together and I just did it again!”

  “Whoa, don't go so hard on yourself. If you're right, and you manage it on your second attempt? That's still faster than most people would even figure out where their problem was,” Tiana said.

  Eddie sighed heavily.

  “I'm going to catch my breath for a minute, then I'm going to try again and get it right this time.”

  Tiana stared at him.

  “Perfectionist much?” she asked.

  Then she looked around at what she'd already d
one, maybe envisioning the end result she wanted, and burst out laughing.

  “If so, I guess that makes two of us,” she continued.

  Eddie flicked his finger towards the tree.

  “Go, work on your tree. I got this,” he said.

  She shook her head, still chuckling, then headed back towards the tree she'd been working on.

  Eddie took several deep breaths.

  Cast accelerated plant growth, he thought.

  He started speaking again, although this time he used other words.

  “Come on rose, grow for me. We can do this, I know we can. Grow over, then under, then over, and under again. Secure yourself off at the end so you stay that way. Next branch, go over and under, over and under. Secure yourself off...”

  Five minutes later he stopped speaking. For some reason he was incredibly out of breath, and his stamina and mana bars were flashing at him. He sank to the ground, afraid he'd fall over if he didn't.

  Stamina is low: 22/202

  Mana is low: 6/84

  It took him a moment to realize that there were still other notifications flashing. In that moment, he saw that the rose had formed a four foot wide section of woven wall, two feet to either side of the main stem.

  Feeling a bit dazed, he pulled up his other flashing notifications.

  You have upgraded the skill Weaving to (4). I bet you thought this would be a worthless skill, didn't you?

  He groaned as he read the first notification.

  More points in weaving, he thought, just what I needed. Although, if she's going to have me doing a lot of this, maybe it really is.

  The next notification was far more to his liking and he whooped for joy when he read it, although the lack of snark worried him.

  You have upgraded Nature Magic to (2).

  There was one final notification and when he read it, his jaw dropped open.

  Success:

  You have obtained the skill/spell Conjunction. (Help Conjunction for more details)

  Tiana had heard him whoop and was on her way over, but when he recovered from the surprise at the new skill, or spell, he'd gotten, one that he'd never even heard of before, he found himself nearly at a loss for words.

  “Holy...” he said, trailing off into silence.

  ~ ~ ~

  Chapter Five

  The clearing was an utter disaster area now. Campbell and Ferring weren't in their own monsters any more, they were giving tips to the rest of the squad. Seeing how much damage the first two had done, Harmon had summoned less powerful goblins for the others to take over and test.

  Even with that precaution, they'd devastated the camp. He knew that the tents would renew themselves at midnight, but even so he shook his head as he looked around.

  The squad had been like young boys getting new toys and trying to destroy them as quickly as possible once he'd gotten them in the goblins to test controlling constructs. They'd beaten on each other, the surroundings, and everything in sight except for Harmon, Campbell, and Ferring. They'd exhibited a surprising amount of common sense in not trying to beat on the person who'd put them in there, and could just as easily yank them back out, or the two who were used to controlling even more powerful constructs.

  But, it looks like they've got it down. Maybe another day or two of testing and then we can send them out like Greenshaw said. I pity the damned adventurers that meet Campbell and Ferring though. That's a low level zone so I don't even know why that Half-breed and Ancient Shaman showed up in Forest of Fools database. Maybe end bosses or something? They're definitely more powerful than the Forest is listed as.

  ~ ~ ~

  “What? What is it?” Tiana asked, sounding concerned since Eddie had been silent for the better part of a minute.

  Eddie, on the other hand, was trying to take in the help file for 'Conjunction'.

  Help conjunction, he'd thought.

  Conjunction:

  This is not a skill or a spell, but a little bit of both. It allows the user to take two complementary skills, spells, or one of each and combine them into a new ability. The skill level of the new ability will be based on the combined levels of the skills/spells used and Conjunction itself.

  Type: skill/spell

  Components: Those components needed for the skills and/or spells to be combined.

  Cost: Varies, but is based on a combination of the skills/spells used, times a multiplier.

  “Well, I got a level in Nature Magic. That was what excited me at first,” he said. “But then I got...”

  He paused for a moment, wondering something.

  “Tell me, you said you heard about skills and spells used in conjunction before? What did you hear?” he continued.

  “Just that a couple of people could do that, why?”

  Having recently learned how to share his screens, and having the help on Conjunction still showing on his own, he shared it with Tiana.

  “You've got to be kidding me,” she said. “That's an actual thing? I figured they just worked it out somehow, not that they got a skill that allowed it.”

  “Nope, guess not,” he said. “I bet they have the skill. But damn, it wiped out both my mana and stamina doing that. Like literally, both went below twenty percent and started flashing.”

  “Well, it did mention a multiplier, and you were doing it without the actual skill the first time. Maybe it'll cost less now that you have the skill?”

  “Maybe, but I'm not even going to try again, until my mana and stamina both top back out.”

  “Good plan,” she said. “I didn't even expect you to get any of it done today. I was surprised when you kinda sorta got it to work the first time. So we're still ahead of schedule. You want to try to work that skill up helping me with the temple?”

  “Of course I will, but I need to give it some thought too, see how I can combine other things with it. I'm tired though. Low stamina and trying to work through this new skill. It's another one of those opaque help files I think. It might say more than the land stuff did, but it's still not very specific, so I can see I'll have to play with it.”

  “Sit down, rest for a bit. Do you have any food on you? Eat it if you do, it might help.”

  Eddie had also noticed that sitting still and eating, or even just drinking water, tended to help with the regen rates on stamina, so he took her advice, moving over and sprawling with his back against the tree she'd just been working on.

  His stamina regenerated fairly quickly, but his mana lagged behind.

  I suppose that makes sense, he thought, since stamina is partially determined by agility, I imagine its regen is also. On the other hand, my mana is based off my wisdom so it's going to be slower.

  Over the course of half an hour, he got back to full in both of them. Tiana had been puttering around the lot, planting things here and there and immediately hitting them with a plant growth spell.

  “I think I'm ready to try again,” he called out.

  She came on over.

  “Are you sure? I don't want you to hurt yourself.”

  “Yeah, I'm back up to full on both, so I should be good,” he said. “What are you planting?”

  “A bunch of different seeds for plants and trees I want to surround the actual temple.”

  “Picked them up adventuring?”

  “No, I got them from the auction,” she replied.

  “Someone delivered those out here?” he asked, surprised.

  “No, not at all. The auction auto-delivers small items that are purchased. I think it's anything a quarter pound or under. They add a little to the final price for the service, but it's worth it for some things. Although things like spell components have their prices jacked so high on the auction that it's not worth it most of the time. But plant seeds? Yeah, still dirt cheap even after the added cost for delivery.”

  “You can get seeds that way?” he asked eagerly. “There's a bunch of other things I want to grow. I'll have to check it out. I knew I should've checked out the auction more thoro
ughly after Karl told me about it.”

  “You were going to try again though?” she asked, her eyes shining with an eager light.

  “Oh yeah, no problem. I wonder if I need to do anything with the Conjunction thing, or if it will just automatically occur if I try it the same way I did before. It didn't say anything about it, so I'll just try the same thing I did earlier.”

  Eddie walked over to the one rose bush he'd already woven, setting the woven pattern in his mind. He stepped to the next bush, focused, and cast his plant growth spell.

  “Over and under. Over and under. Weave right into the one beside you and fasten yourself to it, then weave out to the other side and just fasten yourself off. Over and under, over and under...”

  He kept muttering his chant and visualizing what he wanted the rose to do until the spell wore off. When he looked up, he broke into a grin. It had worked again. A quick check of his mana and stamina told him that finishing the temple would be a slow process though.

  Stamina: 102/202

  Mana: 39/84

  “It worked,” he called out.

  When he turned around he found Tiana right behind him.

  “You don't have to yell, I was watching,” she said.

  “Oh, sorry. I won't be able to do much of it at any given time though. I was full on mana and stamina and now I'm right around half, a little under on mana, so...”

  “That's fine. I'm going to be a week or more working with the central tree, so we've got plenty of time.”

  “Good. I've got a couple of other things to do today, do you mind if I call it here?” Eddie asked.

  “Like I said, I didn't even think you'd manage it at all the first day, so we're already ahead of schedule. What did you want to do?”

  “Well, I don't want to seem greedy, but maybe I am. I'm going to claim all the land on the side of the road the inn and the farm are on, between them, for an acre back from the road. I'm just worried about what other people might build right near the inn or the farm if I don't. I'll use it for some of the other projects I've got planned. Maybe put the general store in right near the inn whenever we get to that. Maybe follow Karl's lead and build some small houses to rent out. That type of thing.”