“Okay then. I'm gonna leave this to you, because I've got no clue who to contact or what else we need to do.”
“Okay then, give me a week and then we'll do this. I wonder what kind of experience a raid level event will give out?” Charles said. “Well, we'll find out won't we? It's been a while since I've seen a raid notification, and I don't think I've ever seen a low level one, it's all been level seventy and up if I remember right.”
Then his eyes unfocused and Eddie knew he was working with his screens.
Probably sending out those messages he was talking about, but I've got my own screen work to do, he thought. Character sheet.
Edward Hunter
Human Male
Level: 18
Class:Warrior (Ranger)
Strength:17
Intelligence: 16
Agility: 35
Wisdom: 25
Heartiness: 20
Charisma: 12
Willpower: 21
Health: 398 (408)
Endurance: 19
Mana: 475
Luck: 14 (17)
Stamina: 988
Experience:
705,447/800,000
Base Attack: 16
Base Armor: 10 (89)
+2 attack melee (strength)
+1 attack (short swords)
+68 armor (studded leather, helm, boots, bracers, greaves, pauldrons, gorget, half-gloves)
+11 attack ranged (agility)
+11 armor (agility)
Skills:
General:
Acrobatics: 5
Animal Friendship: 1
Animal Handling: 2
Animal Husbandry: 4
Bowyer/Fletcher: 5 (+2 to checks)
Carpentry: 16
Climbing: 1
Cooking: 13
Engineering: 3
Evaluate: 5
Farming: 2
Fire Building: 1
Fishing: 5
Herbalism: 3
Hunting: 3
Improvisation: 2
Masonry: 6
Rope Use: 4
Tracking: 3
Weather Sense: 1
Weaving: 4
Combat:
Bows: 6
Staves: 2
Small Blades: 1
Short Swords: 5
Special:
Conjunction: 7
Magical:
Nature Magic: 6
Accel Plant Growth: 2
Arc: 5
Create Food/Water: 2
Fox Fire: 2
Nature's Binding: 2
Safe Site: 1
Wall of Thorns: 2
Create Spring: 1
Along for the Ride: 1
Frostbite: 5
Accelerated Heal: 1
Eagle Eye: 1
Languages:
Common (Human)
Goblin Speak: 3
Hmm, Eagle Eye. Does that do what I think it does? Eddie thought. Help eagle eye.
Eagle Eye:
Many creatures in nature have the ability to spot their prey from a great distance, noting the tiniest details in the process. This spell will allow the caster to do the same.
Target: Caster (may be targeted on others at higher skill level)
Range: Touch
Type: Nature
Effects: This spell will allow the recipient to see up to one quarter mile per skill point as though they were standing close to what they are viewing. After the first four points in the skill the distance will no longer increase; the resolution of what is being seen will increase instead.
Duration: X= Eagle Eye Spell, Y is Nature Magic level. The spell will last for one minute plus ((X+Y)/2) additional minutes.
Cost: Varies (50-100 mana), based on skill level in Eagle Eye. The current cost of this spell is 100 mana.
When am I going to learn to check things out as soon as I get them, Eddie thought. This would've been great to use to check out the Goblin town.
Eddie went back over to the table where the rest of his group was sitting and reminded them that several of them had leveled.
“So?” Tiana asked.
“Did you already check out your new stuff, assign stats, all that?” he asked.
“Of course, it's the first thing I do when I have a chance after leveling,” she said.
“Sorry, I just took care of mine now, or at least looked more closely at my new spell. I thought I'd remind everyone else.”
“Well, thanks then, but we took care of it already,” Tiana said.
A snicker from Allie caught her off guard.
“What?” Tiana said.
“Not quite all of us,” Allie said, pointing towards Karl.
Eddie had heard Karl muttering about stats and points, but when he turned and saw Karl with the vacant look people got when accessing their screens he grinned.
“Good, I'm glad my reminder wasn't a total waste of effort,” he said.
~ ~ ~
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Lydia had accompanied Aaron to his work area again, but he still wasn't sure about what he was doing. He'd asked Freyja and she'd said to do it, but he still had his own doubts.
Internal World Message – Aaron Opman to AI-F:
Freyja, are you sure about this?
Internal World Message – AI-F to Aaron Opman:
Aaron, yes please. Put Lydia on so I can converse with her.
Aaron took a deep breath and called Lydia over.
“This is Freyja, she's one of the main AIs for the game, and she's... much more advanced than you might think. I think she wants to ask you some questions about your program and our plans. She's been cleaning up Loki's efforts from in game and since we're cleaning up the things he's doing out of game, she sort of considers us a team?” Aaron said, the last coming out as a question since he still wasn't sure if that was Freyja's real reason.
“Oh hell yeah,” Lydia said. “I like the idea of teaming up with a good AI to fight a bad AI. Where is she?”
“Right now I've just got her on the chat program that interacts with the game. You'd have to go in game to meet her in any other fashion.”
“That'll do, for now at least,” Lydia said.
Internal World Message – Aaron Opman to AI-F:
This is Lydia, you wanted to talk to me?
Internal World Message – AI-F to Aaron Opman:
Yes, I trust Aaron's choice of you to help him, I'm not doubting him or anything, but I did want to get a feel for you myself.
Lydia glanced over at Aaron.
“A feel? Trust? Does she actually know what she's saying or is that just programmed into her?”
Aaron nodded.
“As best as I can tell, she knows what she's saying, it isn't just programming. Like I said, she's a lot more advanced than you'd think. Remember she has to deal with the player base on a regular basis, so she's got observations of how they act and has spent a great deal of time processing those, so she knows what she's saying.”
Internal World Message – Aaron Opman to AI-F:
So you trust Aaron, but you still want to talk to me?
Internal World Message – AI-F to Aaron Opman:
Trust, but verify, seems to be a valid means to proceed. It is followed by many of the players I've seen when they are uncertain about who to trust and many of those players continue on to form very effective groups. I'm hoping our relationship will be of a similar nature.
Lydia turned back to Aaron again.
“Seriously, this is an AI?” she said. “How advanced is she?”
“Freyja could easily fool just about anyone into thinking she was a person if she wanted to for some reason,” Aaron said, a hint of pride in his voice. “I think that from conversation alone she could easily pass as human. Maybe a touch formal, but still.”
“Oh yeah,” Lydia said, leaning back over the keyboard and starting to type again.
Almost an hour later, she slipped out of his chair.
“Yeah,
she knows her stuff. Checked me out on mine also and I think I got her seal of approval,” Lydia said. “Any chance to get a copy of that chat program so I can talk to her some more?”
“That chat program is tied into admin style accounts in the game, so not really. But maybe I can rig up something for you to do the same with. A player style version? You'd need to make a character for the game though, one for me to tie it into.”
“I've already got a character in the game. I don't play much, but I have it. Wanted to see what all the fuss about the company I worked for was based on and it was dirt cheap with the employee discount, so yeah. What info do you need about my character to set it up?”
A few minutes later Aaron had all the info on her character that he needed to hack out a chat program for her to converse with Freyja, and Lydia left to get back to her own office.
Internal World Message – Aaron Opman to AI-F:
So, what did you think?
Internal World Message – AI-F to Aaron Opman:
She knows her material and I think she's good for you. The plan, as you and she have stated to me, is solid, barring any unknown variables or parameters.
Wait, Freyja thinks that Lydia is good for me? Aaron thought. What's that supposed to mean?
Internal World Message – Aaron Opman to AI-F:
Freyja, what do you mean by that?
Internal World Message – AI-F to Aaron Opman:
She is enamored of you and I think that her regard will help you build the self-confidence that you seem to, at some times, lack.
I'm being psycho-analyzed by an AI? The worst part about it is that I think she might even be right, Aaron thought.
Internal World Message – Aaron Opman to AI-F:
Well, thanks, I think. I need to get back to work now though.
Internal World Message – AI-F to Aaron Opman:
You're welcome Aaron, it was a delight chatting with you and Lydia. She said she was going to ask you for a means to communicate with me and if you can manage that, I would not be adverse. It's very good to get additional input from new people.
Internal World Message – Aaron Opman to AI-F:
I already told her I would do that. Bye for now, Freyja.
~ ~ ~
Eddie woke and stretched. He'd slept late since he really didn't have anything he absolutely needed to get done today.
He'd let Karl make the announcement about the raid last night since the scout had been the one to find it first. He hadn't wanted the other players to get overly jealous and think he was trying to hog the spotlight or anything.
It's bad enough with everything else going on, he thought. I may not be trying to avoid the spotlight entirely now, but enough is enough, letting Karl take the announcement wasn't the best plan though.
Eddie had needed to step in and explain everything after Karl had made the announcement and then frozen as he was bombarded with questions. He'd offered that option to the other three players in the party and got a pair of head shakes from Tiana and Dominic and a flat “No way” from Allie, so he'd had to step in when Karl froze up.
At least that's all done and I deflected the attention to Charles, telling people that he'd be doing what organizing was needed for the raid, Eddie thought.
He laid in bed, thinking about the things he wanted to do before the raid.
I need to see how Bodil is settling in, make sure she got at least most of the stuff from her list. I don't think she expected me to hand her back her list and a pouch of coins, then tell her that the general store was open and had most of what she needed. It'll be good for her though. If Tiana is right and Bodil's attitude is all a facade, then having her get out and mingle with others in the city will do her a world of good.
His train of thought switched over to his building efforts then.
For the first time in a long time, there's nothing new I need to start building for my quests. I just need to get the castle completed. That'll take a while, but it's going smoothly so far. Now maybe I can figure out what I want in the town as opposed to what the quests had me build. I know there are NPCs building places now even, so I'll have to check with Griff so I don't double up on anything. Yeah, sure, I still need a magical building for the Developmental Issues Redux quest, but there's nothing like that listed in the auctions so I'll have to figure that out later on.
As he lay in bed thinking, the sound of combat, only somehow subdued, carried in through his window. He stood and glanced out the window to see that the training ring was in use.
Is it that late already? he thought.
Then another thought occurred to him.
I think I'll see if Liv has any open hours on the training ring. I'm sure I can find someone to train with and I could definitely use the boost on my short swords skill. That'll give me something to do before the raid and if I'm lucky, I'll manage to boost the skill a few points before it too.
He tossed his clothes on and looked around. He'd heard the training ring because Lucky had already gone out on her own, leaving the window slightly ajar. Tiana was still asleep though, so he closed it again before heading downstairs.
Liv did have open slots on the training ring. Eddie had wondered if she would since the guard hadn't been able to start right away but she explained that Erik had wanted the same time slot every day and she'd had to push their start out a few days to accommodate that. Eddie, willing to take whatever time slots he could get, was going to be able to start using it later on today, assuming he found a willing partner first.
He headed down to the Town Hall. Since he wanted to speak to both Griff and Bodil he could kill two birds with one stone. He stopped at Griff's desk first and talked with him about what buildings were going up and where. Now that he knew that, he could plan what else he might want to build in the town.
He wasn't looking forward to his next meeting, but he headed upstairs anyhow, knocking on Bodil's door.
She wasn't in her room, but when he poked his head into the courtroom he found her there, sitting at the judge's bench with papers strewn about the desk in front of her.
“Bodil, how's it going?” Eddie called out.
He was answered with a piercing glare.
“Fine then. Justiciar Bodil, I wanted to see if you were settling in well,” Eddie said.
“Mayor Eddie, we are doing fine. Several copies of the laws have been posted in various areas of the city.”
“I know, I noticed the one in the inn last night,” Eddie replied, “but I was more worried about you yourself. I know the store wouldn't have had everything on your list, how many things remain?”
“They didn't have five of them, but they did, indeed, have most of what we needed. I was unaware that there was a general store so I thank you for that information.”
“And you might find more of what you need in the marketplace later on today. Can I see what you still need?”
She pushed a piece of paper to the edge of the desk and when Eddie approached he saw that it was the list he'd given back to her, with most of the items crossed off.
“Bedding you can find there, if Delilah has a stall today. If not, send one of your men east to the large house near the lake and sawmill. She'll be there and will be happy to sell it to you. She'll even do custom designs if you prefer. The perishable food stuffs should be there as well. As a matter of fact, I think you can find everything but the ax there.”
The one item on the list that Eddie was sure she wouldn't find was the heavy, single-bladed battle ax. He wasn't sure that he wanted to know for certain what it was for since he had a sneaking suspicion, but that item he'd get for her.
“The ax, well I'll go talk to our smith and have him make one for you. Anything more specific than just heavy and single bladed?”
“No, that will suffice,” she said.
“Well, that's the point. He'll make it from scratch so it doesn't need to just suffice, it can be more than that.”
She paused, lost in thought.
“If you want it to be more than sufficient, please write down what you want on a sheet of paper. I'll deliver it to him along with the request. Although it may be several days before he can get to it. He was busy even before I asked him to make the bars and doors for the jail cells.”
“Could you, perhaps, wait a few minutes?” she asked.
For the first time, he'd heard a hint of uncertainty in her voice.
I'm not sure if it was just from her trying to be polite, or if there is a facade and I'm finally making progress against it, but the surest way to do that is to continue as I have.
“Certainly, I'll be downstairs talking to Erik in the guard office when you're finished.”
She took a deep breath and let it out.
“Thank you,” she said.
~ ~ ~
Her few minutes turned into half an hour. By the time one of her associate priests had come down with the piece of paper describing what she wanted Eddie was considering just leaving. He hadn't though. It helped that he got along well with most of the guards, and that they occasionally slipped and forgot to add the 'sir' or the 'mayor' parts of his title.
Defender Light Online Four Page 37