Cain told the women sat around the table of Toni's and Sophie’s situation. Areto said, "What they need is Greek fire as it sets fire to the sea itself."
"How about a layer of oil? If we had enough oil we could lay it on the surface of the sea, toss a torch overboard and whoosh, those Triremes will go up like Roman candles," Bethany said.
"You would need two or three thousand gallons, maybe even more. I’m sure Toni doesn’t have more than a flask or two on each Trireme," said Cain.
"No, but there are three huge containers of virgin olive oil in the storage barn. I noticed them when we were digging the holes for the corner stones," Lesley said.
"Couldn’t we connect the oil we have and send it to Toni through a pipe? She has a travel-post with her, doesn’t she?" Areto said.
^C^ Toni, can you fasten your travel-post near the rear of your ship, we will connect a hose to the large store of oil we have in our storage barn. Tell me when you activated yours, Violetta will make a new one for you and we will send you that to replace the one you use. ^
Three minutes later, Toni messaged Cain, she told him it was fastened to the rear of her Trireme and ready to be used. Four minutes later Cain, Daphne and Areto appeared on the rear of Toni’s’ Trireme. Areto and Lesley were holding a length of bamboo, which they placed over the rear of the ship. Lesley turned, gave Toni a kiss then disappeared after touching the travel-post.
Thirteen seconds later a gurgling sound came from the bamboo pipe, sounding the arrival of virgin olive oil. Cain used a piece of charcoal then drew on the ships deck, the plan of sailing Toni needed to follow to steer her ships and trap those Triremes. He handed over the new travel-post Violetta made for her, gave Toni and Sophie quick kisses, before taking Areto back to Thessele using the travel-post.
^C^ Once you have closed the loop, either throw torch in the the oil or use a handful of flaming arrows. Make sure you keep the wind in check to fan those flames. I love you see you in Athens later today. ^
Toni and Sophie followed the plan Cain had drawn on the deck. Holding their ship back as the rest of her small fleet rowed ahead. Toni had the helmsman point her ship to the west and the rowers powered them toward where the sun sets. Five minutes of rowing the helmsman made a ninety-degree turn to her right, her ship was now heading north, she rowed in that direction for five minutes.
The following Triremes were closing on her position, until she turned to her left nearly forty-five degrees and rowed toward the north-west, again for five minutes. With the change of directions they forced the following ships to change also, rowing through the spreading line of oil. Since Toni was rowing into clear water she pulled a bit in front of the flowing pack.
For a second time Toni had the helmsman turn her ship back to the north, she then swapped out her rowers. With a fresh set of arms on the oars, their ship sped through the sea as though Poseidon was after them. The following ships were in a jumbled mess, their next turn and some Triremes were getting in each other's way as they cut through another line of oil.
At the five-minute mark, Toni checked her HUD and the local map, her previous path and turns were clearly seen, highlighted on her HUD. Now came the hardest manoeuvre, as she had her ship row in a half circle back to her starting point, drawing a large letter D on the surface of the sea with the oil.
By the time her ship reached the end of the D, two of the chasing Triremes had a handful of ranger class players. Those players began shooting arrows, while NPCs were using slings, to throw small stones at her ships. Toni had the Amazon who was holding the bamboo pipe over the stern let go, she watched as it fell into the sea.
^T^ I've dropped the bamboo pipe, you can turn the oil off now, thanks for the help. We're going to light the oil now, xx ^
Toni decided arrows would be the best option to light the oil and she had two Amazon archers stand near the stern, their fire arrows ready to light as the nearest Trireme’s bow cut through the oil. Toni gave the order,"Loose," and two fire arrows blazed in two directions, hitting the sea a second apart.
Toni could hear the jeering from the approaching Trireme, the three players and over twenty pirates crowded near the prow as the arrows landed near them. A thin coating of olive oil covered oil covered each of the sixteen Trireme’s hulls and oars, and fine droplets coated each player and NPC alike in olive oil. As the prow of the lead Trireme crashed through a swell fine droplets hung in the air from the spray.
Both fire arrows sizzled as they hit the sea, Toni was going to have them shoot again until she heard a whoosh sound. The sound grew louder then the olive oil ignited, Triremes, players and NPCs alike turned into one huge fireball.
The screams from the players, rowers and pirates on the nearest Trireme, lasted less than ten seconds before each died. One player must have had plenty of healing potions as he lasted an extra fifteen seconds, his screams mingled with the roaring sound of the flames. Toni stood and held Sophie's hand, they were joined by the Amazons and rowers as everyone watched the chasing fleet burn and sink within ten minutes.
^T^ Thank you for your help and tactics. They have all died and the Triremes are all burnt out shells, several have sunk. I didn’t even have to fan the flames. ^
^C^ It wasn’t me, you know don't you, it was all of us. They love you as much as I do. See you later, xxx ^
Toni cleared the pop-up telling her the number of deaths.
A loud crashing noise behind her made Toni spin around with her gladius out, on the deck was a huge pile of equipment, pouches of money and bags of potions. "The system provides the player in charge with the loot, even though it should be lost at sea," Cybele's voice said to her.
Toni started putting the Xiphos swords, Doru, javelins and potions into her inventory. Catching up with the rest of her ships, Toni turned her ship around and they all headed toward Athens as the sun cast the first fingers of dawn across the sea’s surface.
All Together
Cain dragged himself out of bed, he checked his HUD clock, realising he’d had three hours and twenty minutes of sleep, after five hours of making love to his wives. He paid more attention to Daphne and Bethany when they made love, they had been missing for five days.
Cain washed and walked into the kitchen, Myrina had been up for half an hour and she had made breakfast for everyone. She told Cain the respawn beds of Furtui and Simon were found and collected, and the company found Joleen hiding in their villa.
With Cain talking to Myrina, the other wives began to rise. As they sat around the table Daphne and Bethany shared silly tales about things happening while on their mission, bringing tears to everyone’s eyes. Cain took Daphne with him and she created a set of stairs then a basement under half of the villa. In the far corner of the basement Daphne made a doorway and created a long ramp one hundred and fifty yards long.
At the end of the ramp she made two rooms, One large room for a squad of guards and a smaller room where they could lock Simon away. Daphne made a flushing toilet in the smaller room, it was a hole in the floor which travelled down until it reached a cavern two miles below the surface.
Cain had Simon’s respawn bed moved to his new room. Lesley arranged with the elders in Thessele for a regular group of militia to patrol the road between the estate and the city.
^T^ Cain, we have activated the travel-post. We placed it in the basement of a large warehouse next to Athena’s temple, where there is a connecting tunnel between the two buildings. The layout is similar to the temples in Agiasobele, ^
Cain went into Thessele and spoke to two elders, telling them about Simon’s treachery and the quest he gave on their behalf. One elder agreed they had thirty single horse panniers which carried the spices they wanted to send to Athens.
Cain took one pannier and began to hand the others to the company of Amazons he brought with him from the estate. The elder told Cain they needed proof from Athens, you have delivered the spices in mint condition. The quest the elder said, gives you a month to deliver the spices and three
weeks to return with the message.
:Something is really fishy here. When we were asked about the spices and herbs quest by Furtui, we had to make the drop in twenty days. No mention about coming back with a message saying the quest was complete. I think one of the elders is playing for the other side. I'll have a couple of the Amazon squads do some digging. Do you have any news for us, Enoch?: Cain asked
{Nothing as such. Ruth and Naomi are steadily integrating, the sooner they hit 100% the more they can contribute to sifting the data on the SPQR servers,} Enoch said.
Arriving back at the villa, Cain helped with transferring Simon to his new room. Simon wanted to speak with Furtui, which Cain's said was impossible as Furtui was respawning.
"Ha, what a wimp," Simon said. "He doesn’t fit the JW Killers clan; I keep him around as he makes me look good."
Simon was not comfortable with heading down the long ramp heading deeper underground. Eventually two the Amazons frog-marched him down the long ramp throwing him into his small prison, his new respawn point. Cain threw a knife into the room, telling Simon to take his own life and take the respawn, didn’t he recognise his own bed?
Cain was happy they had Simon in a secure room, it would frustrate Jason in them keeping one of his agents, even a lowly one like Simon. He would have great difficulty in trying to escape through solid stone.
Once they locked Simon away, Cain headed to the travel-post barn. He knew the twenty Amazon protectors as they had begun to call themselves, would be there with the spices Cain had to deliver.
Calling up the travel-post location directory, Cain selected the newest and top entry on the list, Athens – Athena’s temple. With the destination selected, Cain and his protectors entered the storage barn, and walked out into the basement of a warehouse, next door to Athena’s temple in Athens.
Taking the only exit from the basement which wasn't a set of stairs, Cain followed five of the protectors down the tunnel, stopping at a locked door. One of the protectors knocked which elicited a response as a priestess opened the door and welcomed them into Athena’s temple, leading them to the high priestess.
Someone placed Toni and Sophie in the high priestess’ office. Toni was talking about their journey to Athens on the sea, until Cain walked in the room. She saw Cain, squealed, leapt from her seat and jumped into Cain’s arms. They held each other for a few minutes, not speaking just content to hold each other. Sophie rose from her chair and went over to Cain and Toni wrapped her arms around them both a gave them a hug, she joined in the silence of the joint hug.
Finally Toni and Sophie let go they each kissed Cain, before introducing him to the high priestess. The high priestess looked like the high priestess in Mantabele, Cain did not mention this though. :Clearly someone saved coding a new high priestess, lazy programmer,: he thought.
The high priestess informed Cain where he could find the elders, so he could deliver the spices and complete the side quest. With Toni and Sophie leading the way they followed the directions as they and twenty protection Amazons walked through Athens. Finally they reached the home of the chief elder of Athens without any difficulties.
The elder accepted the spices, commenting on the earliness of their delivery. Cain asked if the elder would like to say thank you to the new ruler or elder of elders in Thessele. Taking the elder to the travel-post, Cain, Sophie, Toni and the twenty protectors and the Athens elder exited the storage barn.
Cain introduced the man to Violetta then took the Athens elder into Thessele. Riding to Thessele, Cain brought the elder to see the elder in Thessele, who handed the quest to Cain. He was surprised to find the elders were half cousins, and they had not seen each other for over twelve years, or something like.
They gave Cain the thousand gold bars and the Thessele elder asked if he had seen Furtui or Simon. Cain told the elder Furtui was working under Violetta, sorting out her security; he did not mention he had Simon locked up.
When they got back to the estate Cain had the Athens elder stay for their evening meal, after which, the elder fell asleep. Leaving the house staff Violetta employed to clear away, Cain and his ladies headed to Bounty.
Cain reminded everyone to allocate their points although he doubted any of them would get the four hours sleep. Cain was correct, in the morning he checked and noticed he’d had under three hours sleep. He checked his stats, and noticed he still had to allocate twenty-seven points as he failed to have four hours' sleep.
After breaking their fast with the Athens elder, Cain, Toni and the close protection unit returned to Athens. They left the elder in Athena’s temple and went to look at the Acropolis in its new splendour. Toni told Cain, the acropolis they were looking at was only ninety-five years old, close enough to brand new, she laughed.
While they were sight-seeing they came across a large square were a man was stood on a soap box. He shouted out how Athens needed to improve its defences and spend more on educating the poor. Cain held Toni back as he listened to the man speak. Checking the man's Gamer Tag, it shocked Cain, here was Aristotle, the student of Socrates.
Cain loved some of the Socrates quotes, such as true knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing, which is how Cain often thought.
{How about, "To find yourself, think for yourself," or "there is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance."} Enoch added to Cain’s thoughts.
Aristotle looked up as he stepped down from his soap box, noticing Cain and Toni, he walked over to them.
"I know you not young man, but you look like a man who could train my former student in the ways of war. Would you be willing to undertake this simplest of quests? Travel to Serrena, take this scroll with you which is an introduction to King Philip with my recommendation for you to train his son Alex," said Aristotle handing Cain a scroll case.
"Alex has a fine mind, but I fear his father is neglecting his training in strategy. Philip has built a large army but he is blinkered in keeping to the phalanx, I watched your battle from the walls and saw first hand, how effective and deadly, mobile forces can be. I am certain my former master Plato would have approved of the methods you used to despatch the larger force. He was one for physically controlling his opponents.
"Alex will be cautious of you, rightly so as several people have tried to kill him. When you first meet with him, tell him the quote which I often said to him. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit," said Aristotle as Cain took the scroll box and accepted the quest.
Chapter 40
Introductions In Serrena
Cain agreed and accepted the quest from Aristotle, who thanked Cain and told him he had a beautiful woman and left them. They watched as he walked to another part of the large public square, stood on a vacant soap box and spoke about the coming darkness of the age. It wasn't long before a crowd of people stood and listened to him speak.
With a new quest in hand and the spices quest completed, Cain took Toni and the protectors for a meal. It was early afternoon when they returned to Thessele. When they arrived, Cain went with Toni to find his other wives.
Myrina and Areto were training the militia Violetta had employed from Thessele, Cain was pleased to see they were all worshippers of Athena. Violetta, Daphne and Bethany were sat around a table in one of the villas many rooms. They were reading a mountain of scrolls the elders had sent from Thessele. Toni suggested for Violetta to use Joleen and Furtui as they would soon need something to do rather than spend their days having sex.
Violetta dispatched Cain, knowing Furtui would respond to him better than one of his wives. Walking to Furtui and Joleen’s room, knocking on their door and walking in. Cain found the sitting room was empty; though he heard noises of somebody making love coming from the bedroom.
Raising his voice, Cain called out, "Furtui, Simon has escaped and is looking for you, he killed an Amazon and is armed." Ten seconds later, Furtui came out of the bedroom, hopping on one leg pulling his pants on, "Where is he, I've got to get away
. Hurry Joleen before Simon finds us." Cain laughed as Furtui fell to the floor as he overbalanced. Through his laughter, Cain said,
"I’ve got a job offer for you, would you like to work for me here in Thessele? The offer includes Joleen too," Cain said and wiped a tear from his eye.
"Are you sure? Where is Simon, why are you laughing, oh you sick bastard, he's not escaped has he. We were making love and you scared the life out of me. What did you say, you want me, us to work for you. I worked for Jason, although not knowingly, and now you want me to work for you?" Furtui replied.
Cain told him he did as Joleen came into the room, dressed and composed she went to sit next to Furtui and held his hand. I'm sure you can both manage the job and he proceeded to tell them what the jobs involved. He told them the pay was good and he would receive protection in the real world.
"So, would you both like to come work for me?" Cain asked, Furtui and Joleen readily agreed.
{I’ll let John know to arrange security for Jasper. I have read an internal memo on the SPQR servers; the company is having to install a third set of quantum servers. Their projections of the number of active players is out by twenty-three percent. There are according to the memo, nine hundred and sixty-nine million players. Each player is trapped, unable to log out of the game. SPQR believe players are staying because the world it's better than the real world people have left behind,} Enoch told Cain.
:Is the addition of additional quantum servers to help store new players, or the growth of players using Forsaken as it was designed for? The cloud processing I remember from internal briefings, can cope with the whole planet playing Forsaken at the same time. The paper was theoretical, can you work out if the theory is correct. I was also wondering could we transfer peoples' stored code on the quantum server to the cloud?: Cain asked.
{We will look into what you have asked. From the memo regarding the extra quantum servers, they are to hold the saved games and data from players playing,} Enoch said.
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