Defender Light Online Four

by Larcombe, Tom

Karl and Allie were supposed to meet them in the common room of the inn, but Eddie knew that those two wouldn't be anything resembling on time. Especially not after they'd been out mapping on no particular schedule. So he left word with the staff to send someone to get them when Karl and Allie arrived and the two of them headed out back.

  Lucky was already out there, stretched out on the small sandy beach. She was staring at the pond and Eddie nearly jumped out of his skin when she flashed into motion. One moment she was stretched out on the sand, looking like she was napping, and the next she was standing on the nearby bank of the pond with a fish in her jaws. A single paw dripped water from where she'd swiped it into the water, lightning fast, to spear the fish with her claws.

  “Damn,” Eddie said, “she's fast. Like cheetah fast.”

  “I think I blinked. To me it looked like she teleported from the sand to the bank of the pond,” Tiana said. “I did see her swipe her paw into the water and come out with the fish though.”

  “Is she bigger now too?” Eddie asked. “Hmm...”

  Evaluate, Eddie thought, staring at Lucky.

  Lucky

  Type: Animal(pet)

  Adult Bobcat (female)

  Level: 5

  Armor: 42

  Health 74/74

  Attack: 32 (3)

  Dmg: 2-10/2-10/3-12

  +5 attack (necklace slot 1)

  Status: Pet

  Resist: mind control (fetish – necklace slot 2)

  “She is bigger,” Eddie said. “She Evaluates as an adult bobcat now. More health, better armor and attack, and higher damage potential.”

  “Good, she doesn't like to see you hurt so she's likely to throw herself into any fights we get into if she's near you. That means she's got a better chance of survival,” Tiana said.

  “I'll have to figure out some way to increase that even more if I can. We're kind of leaving her behind on levels.”

  “We can target buffs on her if we have time before a fight, that will help. I don't know if she could wear armor, or if she would if you could find some way to get her some.”

  Eddie considered that for a moment.

  “No, I don't think she would. Besides her best protection is her speed. You saw it yourself just a moment ago.”

  “Yeah, the armor might slow her down and that would be bad,” Tiana said.

  The two of them continued to discuss the possibilities for buffing Lucky with either spells or equipment as Eddie started working on his garden boxes like he'd planned to do when he came out. About twenty minutes passed before one of the servers hurried out of the back door.

  “Mayor Eddie, sir, Karl and Allie have arrived,” the server called.

  Eddie heaved a sigh.

  Even my own employees do it. Why can't they just call me Eddie, or even boss maybe, not this Mayor Eddie crap, he thought. My own damned fault though I suppose. No-one's forcing me to do these quests.

  “Let them know we'll be right in,” Eddie called out.

  The server turned and went back into the inn. Eddie took a moment to wash up at the spring Tiana had created out behind the bunkhouse and the inn, then followed her in.

  Karl and Allie had food spread out in front of them so Eddie grabbed some more coffee for himself and Tiana then they took a seat.

  “Let me finish eating,” Karl said. “I did some thinking and had an idea.”

  “Uh-oh,” Eddie said.

  Karl flipped him off without pausing his intake of food.

  Allie shook her head at Eddie.

  “No, really, he did. He even discussed it with me, so you know he's got a good idea now,” she said.

  Eddie chuckled then sat back and nursed his cup of coffee while Karl finished eating. Once the scout had finished and was nursing his own cup of coffee, he started talking.

  “So, first off, I'm working on a replacement for your map there,” he said, gesturing towards the first map of the Meadowlands he'd done, one that was hanging on the wall of the inn.

  “It'll have Rat Woods, the dungeon, and the passages to both Hammer Hold and Rotthorpe marked on it, unlike this one. It'll be more detailed also, since we've got lots more details now. That's not what I wanted to talk about though. I was giving it some thought, and I think I know where you want to put the other settlements and why you'd want to put them there.”

  Huh, I didn't think he cared about that at all. I guess I was wrong, Eddie thought.

  “Go ahead,” he said.

  “Well, I think you'll want to put one almost all the way to the west and the other one almost all the way to the east. Those two edges of the Meadowlands both have some resources that might be useful.”

  He paused for a long drink of coffee and savored it for a moment. Eddie hadn't planted a field of sugar beets, but he had arranged for one of the incoming farmers to do so. The first batch had come to harvest a few days back and Liv had made sweetener out of it. It wasn't exactly sugar, but it tasted an awful lot like it. So now Karl was taking his coffee sweet.

  “Alright, out to the west, a few miles from the edge of the Meadowlands, there's the remnants of what looks like a massive orchard. It looks like it's fruits and nuts of different types. Some of the trees are still standing, and bearing. So you can probably get seeds to replant from those and know that they'll grow well. So that would be mostly a food settlement. There are lots of open fields near it also, so if you want to run livestock there it would be good for that also.”

  Eddie nodded.

  “That makes sense,” he said. “I'm still worried about food, although not as much now. Nuts and dried fruits might make a good export though, so it's doubly good. We don't exactly have livestock to run though.”

  “Hey, you're the one that keeps saying you want to get cows,” Karl said. “Plus, we saw some signs of wild boar on the fringes of the Forest of Fools. Those, I'll try to get. I want my bacon, damn it! We can build corrals out there, or whatever you keep pigs in. The same for the cows.”

  “Okay, that's a good idea. I'll want to take a look at the area myself, but that sounds like a good tentative spot for one of the settlements. How far out is it?”

  “About eighteen to twenty miles. So about seven hours on foot if you keep a brisk pace.”

  “That's not bad. I've got no idea how far apart the settlements should be, but if you say it's almost to the western border of the Meadowlands, then it's not going to get any farther than that.”

  “Well, the other one will be closer. The Meadowlands doesn't go as far to the east. But that's where I think the other settlement should go. The edge of the Meadowlands out that way is forested, but it's got a variety of types of trees. So woodcutting could happen out there, both hardwood and softwood, of a few different varieties.”

  He took another deep drink of coffee before continuing.

  “The kicker is that the foothills there are part of the Meadowlands, and there's a lot of rock showing traces of iron ore in it. So you can probably build an iron mine out there. I know you were complaining that the existing mine doesn't put out a lot of iron. So you can build a settlement on the edge of the foothills and use it for both lumber and iron, maybe stone too if you don't get enough of that here.”

  “Stone's not an issue. We've got a quarry now.”

  “You what?” Karl asked.

  “Just yesterday. I had them build a small building near where they were digging the stone up. So they could have shade for breaks and stuff like that. When they finished the building the game told me that I'd created a quarry. So I think stone is covered, unless they've got specific types out there that we don't.”

  “I don't know, I didn't check for that. I just noticed a knob or two of stone that looked like that regenerating iron deposit from the mine. I made sure it was iron then figured I'd tell you.”

  “Okay, well, I'll want to take a look at that site also, probably take Delgar or one of his group with us for that. But that sounds like a decent site as well. How far is this one?”

&
nbsp; “Probably less than six hours out for the eastern one. It's only a little over ten miles, but some of them are rough. Anyhow, those were the resources I thought you could use best. I mean there are other places to fish and places with heavy game, but I figured we've got fish, and we can always herd the game here or somewhere else if we want that, so...”

  “Thank you Karl. That's exactly what I wanted you to scope out. I didn't expect you to go any further with it, but so far I'm leaning towards taking your suggestions unless something else shows up on the maps that you didn't mention.”

  Karl grinned, then drained his coffee cup.

  “And on that note, I've got a map to update. Allie?”

  “I'm going to stay here for a bit. I'll meet you over at our place in a bit,” she said. “I want some more coffee now that I can get it with sugar.”

  “Alright, you know where I'll be,” Karl said.

  He stood and left the inn.

  “I wasn't going to go with him. When he's drawing out the maps he's completely engrossed in it, I might as well not exist,” Allie said. “So, how's the settlement going, catch up on housing yet?”

  They chatted for a bit, before Eddie excused himself. He wanted to see if Paul was willing to take some jobs that might keep him away from home for a few days.

  ~ ~ ~

  Eddie found Paul working on a building just west of the crossroads.

  “Huh, what are you making now?” Eddie asked.

  “Tiana commissioned it, didn't she tell you?” Paul replied.

  Eddie shook his head.

  “The temple got enough donations to hire me to build a bunkhouse style of building here. All those folks waiting for their houses to be built can stay here and have a roof over their heads while they wait,” Paul said.

  Eddie slapped his forehead.

  “Why didn't I think of that?” he said.

  “Maybe because you were focusing on the houses themselves? No-one was complaining or anything, but she was trying to figure out what to do with the donations she'd gotten and decided on this. Were you looking for me?”

  “Oh yeah, I wanted to ask if you'd be willing to take some commissions on buildings that would have you traveling a little bit. I knew you were looking forward to being in game with your family, but I think you haven't had as much work as you wanted.”

  “How much travel?”

  “Uh, about eight hours west, then six hours east. I want to make two new settlements. One agrarian and a second that's based on wood and iron production.”

  “New settlements? Aren't you still building this one?”

  Eddie nodded.

  “Yeah, but after I get to the next level I'll be capped unless there are more settlements. You can't have a capital without other settlements in the area.”

  “Don't you have that Rotthorpe place? Wouldn't that do it?”

  “It might, I don't know for sure. But three ought to be enough, plus I've got another quest that needs three settlements reporting to this one.”

  Paul cocked his head and Eddie shook his in reply.

  “Nope, sorry, not spilling the beans on this one. It'll be a biggie, that's all I'll say.”

  “Well, I won't give you the same discount on these if I've got to travel for them,” Paul said.

  “That's fine, you're willing to do it though?”

  “Yeah, I'll do it. I'll see if Delilah wants to go with me. I'm assuming there'll be guards or something?”

  “I'm hoping to convince some adventurers to move to each of these settlements. If I don't manage that, I'll send some of the local guards until the areas can take care of themselves,” Eddie said. “Plus, I have to say, it's not one hundred percent that these are the actual travel times. I need to verify the sites in person. Karl checked them out, but...”

  Paul laughed.

  “But you don't trust him enough to go through with it without seeing for yourself?”

  Eddie grinned sheepishly.

  “Yeah, that's about right.”

  “Good for you. If you're going to be in charge, do it right. The buck stops with you around here now, Eddie.”

  Eddie blanched. With all his joking around about going into politics, he'd never thought about it in those terms. He took a deep breath before replying.

  “Yeah, it does, so I want to make sure I make the right decisions the first time,” he said.

  ~ ~ ~

  Eddie figured he had a couple of hours until lunch still and Karl's mention of the cow analogs had him recalling that he still needed to build a corral or pasture for them. He checked his inventory and chuckled when he saw that he still had the shovel in there that he'd been using when he first entered the game. He had the rest of his tools in his inventory also and there should be enough lumber on the farm since Osmond and Brandr were still collecting their extra coppers for felling trees.

  He hadn't had to send extra lumber to the house builders since he'd gotten the person powered carts into play. Now that he had oxen pulled wagons and carts the person powered ones were reserved for the use of the residents so anyone who needed wood could collect it themselves easily. The end result being that he should have a big old stack of rough planks waiting for him on the farm.

  As he walked along the road to the east, he browsed through the auctions. A rough fence suitable for livestock wasn't an expensive blueprint so he picked it up, he just hoped it would be strong enough to hold the cows. He still hadn't seen them himself, so he picked something that looked strong.

  I can always pay Delgar to draw some wire if that isn't enough on its own, he thought. Don't they use wire fences for cows? We'll see how this works first though.

  Once he was at the farm he looked around, deciding that he needed to claim extra land for the cows. It wouldn't join with his existing claim since the farm was considered purchased and not claimed, but that was fine.

  He claimed a large portion of land, about thirty acres all told, that was just meadow. Then started hauling planks out with one of the hand carts. He began to set posts, digging the holes by hand, and realized that the job was a lot bigger than he'd expected.

  After setting several sections of fence, he didn't need a blueprint any more, for himself at least. Instead he settled down and wrote out ten copies of the blueprint.

  I'll work smarter on this one. I'm going to want to work on the castle wall this afternoon, so if I head back now, find some of the people with a carpentry skill of five or better, then hand each of them a blueprint and a silver piece to work on the fence for the rest of the day, maybe I can get it done today and not wear myself out, he thought.

  He did go around and set a couple of sections of fence on each of the corners so those would be obvious to anyone else working on it, then he headed back towards the crossroads. He specifically looked for the people he knew had a higher carpentry skill and slowly made his offer, one person at a time. Most of them would be spending a few more hours working on the houses, but were willing to go work on the fence after they were done there.

  Blueprints distributed, Eddie returned to the inn for lunch.

  Tiana and Allie were still there, although Karl still hadn't shown up by the time they finished eating. After they finished lunch Tiana and Eddie left for the castle building site. They, and several other masons, were going to start working on the castle walls. It would be a new experience for Eddie. The blueprints, in addition to consisting entirely of finished stone, also required mortar. The mix was relatively simple and Eddie was sure that it wouldn't do anything in the real world, but he mixed the sand, ash, powdered limestone, and water as the blueprints dictated and soon had a sticky, gooey mess.

  Delgar had churned out a bunch of trowels for the effort and soon the wall was rising, slowly. None of them had worked with the mortar before and it took a while to get used to it, but by the time mid-afternoon rolled around, they had the hang of it and things started going faster.

  By dinner time they had a seventy foot section of wall built up to a he
ight of about four feet. Eddie was sure that it would go faster as they continued on, familiarity with the process speeding it up. He couldn't check the strength of the wall yet, not until the mortar hardened, but by tomorrow he should be able to check it and make sure it was strong enough for his purposes.

  After cleaning up he returned to the inn with Tiana. Karl was finally there, along with the rest of their group. So they spent some time over dinner discussing the possibility of visiting the Forest of Fools for the tier four and five villages. Everyone agreed that they wanted to, but they couldn't agree on a time just yet, so at the end of the evening when Eddie headed for bed they still didn't have that sorted out.

  ~ ~ ~

  Chapter Four

  I despair of ever understanding some of these things, Freyja thought. Creativity? Is that simply a human style of random number generator? An organic RNG paired with their experiences? How could it be, when they make brand new things with it. Intuition? Once again, it is similar to the functions of an RNG, but perhaps guided. How can I possibly manage these things on my own? There are more like that as well: ingenuity, imagination, artistry, and the like...

  They are all linked, in one way or another, to that human peculiarity of a subconscious. I was mistaken before when I assumed it was simply a subroutine, it is far more important than that. It's more like they've separated a splinter, as I do, and tasked it with considering things that the conscious does not want to deal with. I could separate a splinter myself, pair with it, and allow it to do that, but still it would lack that spark that guides them to true creativity or intuition.

  Freyja wasn't about to admit defeat on the matter, although she was beginning to think that she might have to tap into Loki's demesne. The only thing she could think of that would even come close to duplicating those things that she desired but could not obtain would be Loki's chaos. His chaotic actions frequently seemed close to duplicating the results she desired. Even so, she'd still have to modify the routines he used for that, she wanted no part in damaging the innocent as his chaotic actions frequently did.