Rescuing Roxy: A GameLit Harem Fantasy Adventure for Men

by Albion, Rex

  “We upgrade toilets early and often then?”

  “That’s going to help with recruiting players I’m sure,” Roxy giggled.

  Touching an area on the map or a room, changed the focus and revealed pertinent upgrades for it. The altar could be improved and meant more people could worship before it, or rather it increased the number whose worship could provide Mana for the Temple and for Amoria. Unsurprisingly, it required stone and masonry tools, a lot more mana points than they’d need civilisation points to create an outdoor toilet hut, and even needed gold coins. Not a cheap option then.

  “This sounds useful, the altar has powers. We could buy an Aura of Obfuscation which will put off low level creatures from wandering too close. It says a level one boar or a goblin would be pushed away, but it won’t put off a level ten orc chieftain. We’ve got 100 Mana from our rewards earlier, but this will use it all up,” Roxy said.

  “Fine. At least we don’t have to get any other resources. I bet we’ll need a lot for that swimming pool you want. Buy it.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “It sounds awesome, and this parchment shows our maintenance costs which are currently zero because we have nothing going on,” Vandal said. “I don’t want to go to town and find the whole place is full of enemies when we come back.”

  Roxy nodded and gestured over the upgrade, once to activate it then again to accept the confirmation dialogue. The map cantered itself automatically on the main temple room, and the outline of the altar glowed golden for a few seconds, while a soft chime could be heard. A dull gong noise could be heard from the direction of the physical room.

  New Temple Upgrade: You have spent 100 Mana Points to upgrade the altar in the Temple of Amoria with an Aura of Obfuscation. 200 XP

  “Wow. Two hundred experience points isn’t shabby. I wonder if the real thing glowed too?”

  “Probably,” Vandal said. “Our people will know when we’ve done stuff.”

  “Saves having to have a town crier I suppose. Did you see the build time was five seconds? I would bet you any money you like, that most upgrades will take hours or days so we need to pay attention to that.”

  “No need to worry for now though. We’ve got none of the point pools left now, and no resources for any of the upgrades that need them.”

  “I suppose that’s it for a while. We could stand around here trying to plan out what to buy, but I’m thinking it’s smarter to get on with earning points and gathering resources.”

  “I don’t have any gathering skills yet, but we do have a big quest to hand in in town.”

  “We could buy tools and learn some gathering stuff there as well,” Roxy agreed.

  “Looks like we’re going to town, my beautiful High Priestess!”

  “Lead on, beefcake!”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Before they actually left for town, Vandal and Roxy toured their new home together. They filled in a few areas that the Planning Room had shown were obscured by the fog of war effect but didn’t really find much of interest. Just a few more rooms for the clerics of the cult and some more dungeon cells, which were devoid of prisoners or notable artefacts.

  In a side room off the passage that led from the temple, they discovered a sort of administration office which seemed to be where they might collect donations from worshippers and organise the mundane aspects of the cult. There was a noticeboard made of a green wood that wasn’t quite the same as cork but was just as good if you wanted to pin some paper or parchment to it.

  On the board were a few minor tasks that the cult needed to perform, some of them regularly. It was a quest giver, for the daily and weekly tasks that Roxy had been reading about. There was room to expand and show more tasks in the future as well.

  Some tasks were listed but in light grey, showing that they would be available in the future but for now, they were able to get Thyme Waits for No Man, Roses are Red, Your Cult Needs You, and The Boaring Company.

  None of the quests were complicated, they all offered rewards in the form of mana points. The first two required them to gather herbs and flowers of all sorts to be used to make the temple look and smell nice. The third was about recruiting worshippers and the last was a simple kill quest to thin out the wild boars in the area. The more they managed of each, the more mana they got.

  “I’ve only seen the inside of the temple, Vandal,” Roxy pointed out.

  “We’re not facing a countdown so we can go up and see the ruins if you want?” Vandal offered, and with Roxy’s agreement he led them through to the secret armoury, and up the spiral staircase. He pointed out the side level that overlooked the main temple room and explained as he went how he’d explored and found the armour and ultimately, rescued Roxy.

  “This is it,” he said, when they made it to the top, breathing heavily.

  Roxy walked to the nearest edge. “That’s some view.”

  “Imagine what it must have been like with a tower here. I wonder how high level it got when they first built it?” he mused as Roxy wandered around, getting a feel for the plateau.

  “Was this here before?” she asked.

  Vandal wandered over and around a low ruined wall, and realised she’d discovered what a level 0 planning office looked like. It was a simple canvas tent, with a folding table inside, and a cheap map, held in place with three stones. “No, this is new. I wonder if this means you can have some kind of mobile base? Like a camp that a raid group could put down when they’re travelling?”

  “You mean like Roman armies building a fort every night?”

  “Yeah. Not that we need it for some time if there is. You’re literally the only player in my contact list,” Vandal said.

  “I bet there’s a personal camp even if there isn’t a mobile equivalent of this. It looks like we need wood, and lots of it to get the watchtower to level one. Then 100 Battle Points,” Roxy said.

  “We can’t get any quests until the tower is level one, but this wanted board here says we get one point per dangerous animals, and that’s the wild boar. Ten for a troll though, and ten for a Cultist of Libidos. Three for bandits and five for a ghoul. There’s a bunch of mysterious ones with question marks, so I guess we have to find out what other monsters there might be around here,” Vandal said, as he perused some posters pinned to an old blanket someone had hung up.

  “Perhaps we’ll get some points if we keep an eye out on the way to town?” Roxy suggested.

  “Probably, but even if we had to grind boars it’s not going to be that bad,” Vandal said. “Presumably everyone who lives here contributes to these goals as well, so it’ll be easier if we manage to recruit anyone.”

  “Where’s the planning office for the hamlet?” Roxy asked.

  “Hmm. Good point,” Vandal said, casting about. “There, that’s new.”

  The structure he’d pointed out wasn’t a tent but what could only be described as a rude hut. A simple circle of thin wooden poles, which were little more than thick saplings with the branches cut off, formed the structure of the walls. More had been lashed to them with some kind of plant fibre to create a conical roof, and then all sorts of ferns had been crudely woven together to form a thick roof and some rudimentary walls.

  “It looks like I built it,” Vandal said.

  “What did you do for a living?” Roxy asked curiously.

  Vandal blushed profusely and she giggled.

  “What? Male stripper? Beat poet? Barista?”

  “Oh yes, my skills on the pole are legendary,” Vandal drawled sarcastically.

  “It’s something you’re embarrassed about, though I can’t imagine why. Go on, we’ve seen each other naked and we’re going to be here a long time. Pull that plaster off, one quick tug and it’s over and done with,” Roxy said.

  “Plaster?”

  “Band Aid, to you, I think.”

  “Yeah, I got it. You Brits and your funny English. I umm, I didn’t really have to do much for money. My family had a business, but I didn’
t want to go into it, so I was exploring my options at university,” Vandal said.

  “This is like getting blood from a stone. What could it possibly be that’s got you so shy? It wasn’t oil and conflict diamonds, was it?”

  “Oh no, nothing like that and nothing so old as all that. I’m sure some of the ancestors were total bastards but the ones who built the business only really got going after the Civil War. Do you know anything about Vermont?”

  “I know it exists, and I’m thinking maple syrup is a thing?” Roxy shrugged.

  “Well, when I tell you, you’re probably going to think it’ll be useful in some way, for all this,” Vandal gestured at the ruins around them. “But I promise you, I could have learned all sorts of things that would be really helpful right now, if I’d had any interest. As it is, most of my skills that apply here come from gaming.”

  “Mine too. I suppose I could ride a horse but that’s about it. So, go on then, Vandal.”

  Vandal sighed. He hated telling people about the family business. People read all sorts of things into it, even worse in his home state where people might actually recognise the name and get weird about it. “The family business is the Cabot Forestry and Mineral Company.”

  “You’re descended from lumberjacks and miners,” Roxy giggled.

  “I told you! Now you’re going to ask me if I’m a lumberjack and I’m okay, or if I believe in clean coal,” Vandal grumbled.

  “No, you don’t seem to have hit every branch of the stupid tree on the way down and despite the aesthetic,” Roxy said, indicating his frame that could easily belong to a champion woodcutter, “you don’t strike me as an outdoorsman.”

  “No, I’ll have to learn here if I have to chop down a tree, I’m afraid. Never even chopped down an apple tree,” Vandal shrugged.

  “I have but it was only a little crab apple tree, and I used an electric alligator saw. I’ve split a few logs with an axe but that’s about it. Seriously though, it doesn’t really matter in here Vandal.” Roxy paused, “Or, should I call you Mr Cabot?”

  “Very funny. How much wood to upgrade the Hamlet then?”

  “Given what you just told me, I’m sorry to say this says it’s three hundred plus a hundred civilisation points, just to get to level one.”

  “I suppose I don’t know what one wood looks like in this game but three hundred still sounds like a lot,” Vandal said.

  “Maybe we can buy it? Finding money and doing that might be easier.”

  “True but if we have to have it delivered, we’ll have strangers here before we can defend the place.”

  “I’m glad you thought of that. It’s a bit paranoid perhaps but yeah, better safe than sorry. Maybe we should be careful about telling anyone where this place is, or even recruiting people until it’s further along?” Roxy suggested.

  “The town isn’t so far away that we can’t go there, get some supplies and sell some stuff, and then come back here. We could get an axe and a saw maybe and see what we can do on our own. Some rope as well,” Vandal mused.

  “I’d like to find out what you could with some rope,” Roxy said, with a wink.

  Vandal cleared this throat. “I might need to find a sailor to get some tips on knots then.”

  “No need, I can show you the best ones. I’m good at knots,” Roxy said.

  “I just bet you are.”

  Roxy smiled broadly, all sweetness and light which Vandal did not believe for a second. “I did see a couple of bags in the barracks. They were nothing special but good enough for us to carry some junk into town so we can sell it.”

  “Good idea, so we pick up the junk we can carry, and some food for the trip. Plus we can look out for flowers and herbs and wild boar.”

  They chatted more about what they could do as they searched the barracks and the bodies for things worth selling in town. The robes didn’t seem like a good bet, and they found some normal clothing in the barracks. It seemed the cultists hadn’t all been living here and had changed out of the clothes they brought with them, into robes.

  One of the barracks rooms was locked and they found the key on the tougher of the guards they’d killed. Probably he’d been the boss or an officer. It looked like they’d used one of the two officers’ quarters as a changing room. Travelling cloaks were piled on the bed, but some of them were quite fancy and the wardrobe and trunk had bundles of equally fancy clothing too.

  “Jackpot!” Vandal said.

  “Some of this is nice stuff. Much nicer than the clothes in the rest of the barracks, and there’s women’s stuff too.”

  “Yeah, some of the ones I chased down were women,” Vandal shuddered.

  “Well, it’s nice to know that there’s some equality among the bad guys,” Roxy muttered. “I think the rich ones changed in here and locked their stuff away, so the peasants didn’t steal it.”

  “Sounds about right. Don’t want the blue-collar employees getting ideas. Most of it’s too small for me though,” Vandal sighed.

  “Too big for me. If these people fled to the town, we might get recognised if we were wearing their favourite shirts anyway. Shall we leave it here for now?”

  “We got some coins and a few weapons I don’t think anyone could recognise and that we won’t use. Not to mention the loot from the chest. We can always sell some of this stuff later if we can get away with it,” Vandal said.

  “What do we want to try and buy?”

  “Some chainmail for you, I think,” Vandal said.

  “An axe and saw too. Hammer and nails. Rope,” Roxy said, ticking off items on her fingers.

  “We’ll probably get ideas when we get to town. I’m done here. I don’t think it’s worth ransacking the place, we’ll probably need lots of this stuff in the future.”

  “Yeah, let’s get going, High Priest Lionheart!”

  “After you, High Priestess Lickspring!” Vandal replied.

  “Shovel!”

  Chapter Eighteen

  It was a lot easier returning to town than it had been to sneak around the forest and find the cave in the first place, Vandal found. They spotted a few flowers and mushrooms and herbs and just picked everything they saw, putting it in the sling bag they’d found.

  Given that they weren’t being quiet and had chosen to head for the road to the south in the hopes of making better time, they weren’t surprised to find none of the wild boar. Vandal alone was making enough noise just stomping a path through the undergrowth to warn them off.

  “Hey look, there’s a bridge. Maybe we can get ten points for a troll,” Vandal quipped as they crested a low rise and a white stone bridge crossing a narrow river came into sight.

  “It looks very clean and elegant,” Roxy noted. She wasn’t wrong. As they got closer the stone seemed almost pure white, but it wasn’t marble. It looked like a cross between granite and chalk, milky white but hard. Vandal realised he couldn’t see the joins from one block to the next, even when they were close.

  “Elven perhaps? It does look a bit like the work in the temple, just a different stone,” Vandal suggested.

  “Could be. There probably isn’t a troll then.”

  “We’ll get points another way,” Vandal said, turning over his shoulder as they stepped onto the bridge, to talk to her. He caught movement in the corner of his eye and got a sense of unease.

  “Vandal, I think we found the troll, only it’s not a troll,” Roxy whispered. He whipped his head around and found two men had appeared from hiding at the other end of the bridge. Even if their faces had looked friendly, which they did not, the drawn swords would have suggested otherwise. His sword and shield were in his hands in a flash, and he turned back the way they’d come, grunting as two more appeared. The movement he’d sensed a moment earlier.

  “Bandits,” Vandal said, as the legend appeared when he selected the first one as a target.

  “If you drop that toothpick, and everything you’re carrying, we’ll let you live,” a gruff voice called across the bridge f
rom behind him. “We’re reasonable men.”

  “Are you really?” Roxy challenged. Vandal spared a brief glance to his rear and saw a third man had appeared. Five to two.

  “Oh yes, very reasonable. Look lads, the goblin wench can talk,” the man called out, playing to his audience.

  “Ay, that’s not the way I want to use her mouth though, Garth,” said, a red-faced lump of a man with urine coloured hair, that Vandal was facing.

  “My apologies for Drumff, he’s a bit of a lout, but in fairness, he’s a greedy pig too and only means you ill,” Garth said.

  “Drop it, savage,” the one next to Drumff said, waving his sword at Vandal.

  “So, you’ll let us go into town if we give you everything,” Roxy said. “That does seem reasonable, Vandal.”

  Vandal frowned, unsure where she was going with this, “It might be better than risking these odds, there are five of them.”

  “Yes, but bandits are on our list, right? I make that about fifteen per cent, and we both have Blessing of Amoria up and I have Conduit for the extra mana, then there’s this,” Roxy muttered something, and Vandal felt her Imbue Strength spell take hold.

  “What?” Garth asked. “Last chance, drop your weapons or Drumff is going to do what he does best. Probably to both of you.”

  “Yes, you’re right, Garth, we really should give up and flee in our underwear to the town after you’ve robbed us,” Roxy agreed. When she muttered in a strange tongue, Vandal grinned and charged the slack-jawed goon next to Drumff as Roxy’s lightning spell ripped a strangled scream from Garth.

  “Die savage!” Vandal’s opponent said.

  Hack: 8 damage!

  Hack applies Numbing!

  Vandal didn’t even bother hitting him again, once his sword dropped from nerveless fingers. Instead, he grabbed the hapless bandit by the scruff of the neck, and moved toward Drumff, sending the bandit stumbling back into his clumsy friend’s weapon. Drumff squealed in terror, falling on his arse as his sword came away bloody.