Farmer

by Tom Larcombe

  “Do priest type characters get their spells from the AIs?” Eddie asked.

  Paul shrugged.

  “No clue. I don't have a lot of contact with the adventuring types. Unless they hire me to build something for them at least. I'll tell you what though, build yourself a skill in this game and you can make a real life living doing it. I just finished putting up a series of places like this one for Star Suppliers, this is the last of them. They paid me in Light Online gold and when I sold it for real cash I ended up making as much for building their sites, which took me less than a month, as I did my entire last year in the real world. I'm going to set up shop here, I'm sure people will need things built all the time. If I make a name for myself with my buildings I'll be rich.”

  “I knew you could sell the game gold for real money, but it's that good an exchange rate?”

  “I got around twenty bucks per gold piece when I sold. It varies, but it's been hanging around twenty dollars per gold for a while now from what I saw.”

  So they're paying me a gold piece a day essentially. I wonder what it is we'll be growing that's that valuable. Although with the accelerated growth times Paul mentioned I can see where they might be able to make a profit this way.

  “Great, all I need to do is make myself some gold then,” Eddie said.

  Paul looked at him, a pitying expression in his eyes.

  “I don't know that you'll be able to do that around here. This is a really low level zone, level one to five only. I don't imagine much of anything drops currency at all in it since most of the mobs are wildlife. The mountains to the north, or the thick forest on the other sides probably would, but they're a lot higher level.”

  “It's actually a good thing that this is a low level zone since they started me at level zero. I might be able to handle a level one mob, but nothing much larger.”

  “That's right, Allan said something about that, he got a better deal by paying for you guys to enter the game as level zero instead of one. Something about realism and authenticity for workers I think they said.”

  Eddie shook his head.

  “Yeah, twenty-five hundred experience just to get to level one. This is gonna be interesting. But at least I'll have all my down time available to work on it. Hey, where's the garden you keep mentioning, I want to see what food tastes like in game.”

  Paul smiled widely.

  “Boy are you in for a treat. Garden's right over there between the bunkhouse and the farmhouse. Go through the bunkhouse and out the side door and you can't miss it. Wait, I'll go with you, I could use a snack myself.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Chapter Three

  Allan watched Paul's view. Tapping the feed that led to Paul's pod had been easy and, as far as Allan knew, Paul had no clue that he was doing it. He watched as Paul worked with Eddie, trying to acclimate him to the game. It was encouraging that Eddie had only had a moment of vertigo and unsteady knees when he first logged in. That was less reaction than most people had.

  What that told Allan was that the modifications to the pods weren't going to cause any trouble, at least not with the login sequence. It remained to be seen if the extended LTI effect they were trying to create was going to work also.

  He watched as Paul led Eddie towards the garden.

  “Damn fool spends half his time in game eating,” Allan muttered to himself. “But he did get everything done in the time frame he promised. Plus he took payment in in game currency, so there's no money trail to him. Dropping a bag of gold on the table for him to pick up should have cut that trail solidly. Unless someone can requisition the logs of the game, and they know how to search them, that's a solid cut-out.”

  He glanced back at the monitor, then shut it off and closed the office for the night.

  ~ ~ ~

  Eddie followed Paul as he went between the farmhouse and bunkhouse. Halfway back he saw the garden, it was probably a half acre or more, surrounded by a low stone wall with a wooden split rail fence on top of the stones with the support posts buried in the wall. As they got closer he noticed something else also.

  “Hey Paul, they're pretty serious on the realism here, aren't they?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  Eddie pointed to the small furry rabbit that he'd spotted munching on some of the greens in the garden.

  “Damn it!” Paul cursed. “I wondered what was eating some of the plants. I guess that explains it. I wish the guards were here already, they've got crossbows and could get rid of that pest.”

  “You just want him gone?” Eddie asked.

  “Yeah, bunnies are one of the low level mobs in this area and there are swarms of them. Let one get away with it and in a week we'll have ten, in two weeks we'll have no garden and no ready food.”

  Eddie bent low and scooped up a stone just large enough to fill his hand when he held it like a baseball.

  “I got this,” he said. “One rabbit, going away promptly.”

  He brought his arm back, then snapped it forward as though throwing a fastball. At the last moment he shifted his aim slightly. He didn't know why, but he knew he had to do it.

  The rock flew, straight and fast, hitting the bunny in the head. The rabbit dropped right where it was and stopped moving.

  Enemy slain: Bunny (level 1)

  You have earned 5 exp.

  Eddie blinked, caught off guard by the message. He hadn't even considered the bunny as an enemy, just a nuisance.

  “Wow,” he said. “I got experience for that.”

  “There you go then,” Paul replied. “There's your ticket to level one.”

  “Not unless I kill another four hundred and ninety-nine bunnies it's not.”

  Paul chuckled.

  “Got experience, but not much then?”

  “Just five.”

  “Well, you killed it, you loot it. There might be something on it; a pelt, meat, something like that. That's the most common kind of drop you'll find in this zone.”

  “Uhhh, not to sound stupid, but how do I loot it?” Eddie asked.

  Paul chuckled again.

  “I keep forgetting this is your first time in full immersion. You took to it like a natural so I keep thinking you know all the basics. Just put your hand on the corpse and think the word 'loot'.”

  Eddie headed for the still bunny. For a moment he regretted killing it, but only for a moment.

  Not like I wasn't planning on doing a lot of mob killing in here. If I have to start with furry bunnies then so be it.

  He bent down and touched the fur of the corpse

  Loot, he thought.

  You have received:

  Rabbit meat (1)

  Rabbit pelt (1)

  Rabbit's foot (1)

  He didn't see the items that were listed anywhere nearby and was about to ask Paul about it. He stopped, not wanting to seem like the noob he knew he was.

  Inventory? he thought.

  The panel popped up with a list on it.

  Edward Hunter:

  Inventory:

  Smallclothes (worn)

  Homespun Tunic (worn)

  Cloth Breeches (worn)

  Cloth Belt (worn)

  Battered Boots (worn)

  Small Knife

  Water Skin

  Rabbit Meat (1)

  Rabbit Pelt (1)

  Rabbit's Foot (1)

  I wonder how to remove items from my inventory? he thought.

  The prompt flashed.

  Remove which item from inventory?

  He thought about his knife that he hadn't seen yet and it appeared in his hand. He glanced down and saw that it was a short utility knife, only a few inches long, in a battered leather scabbard. It did have a couple of rope strands to tie it to his belt so he put it there. With a few more thoughts he found himself holding a chunk of rabbit meat that probably weighed half a pound, a rabbit pelt, and a rabbit's foot. He walked back to Paul.

  “Any meat animals for our use around here or am I holding dinner?” he asked with a grin.<
br />
  “Nope, and yes. Let's grab some vegetables and we can make something a bit heartier than I'd been anticipating. Some meat sounds good, I've been making do with the vegetables from the garden while I built this stuff. That a pelt also? Two items is a lucky drop for your first kill.”

  “Three, actually.”

  Eddie held the rabbit's foot up for Paul to see.

  “Hey, that's a rare drop if I does what I expect,” Paul said. “Luck doesn't have a lot of items that influence it and no-one seems to know how luck actually affects a character.”

  “Huh, I've got a thirteen in it, but right now there's a fourteen in parentheses after that.”

  “Then I was right, the rabbit's foot gives a bonus to luck. Look at it and try that skill you tried on me earlier. You might be able to see what it does that way.”

  Eddie stared at the rabbit's foot and thought: Evaluate

  Rabbit's Foot

  Held/Jewelry

  +1 Luck

  When held or worn, this item will grant a character +1 Luck. Too bad it didn't do the same for the rabbit.

  He related that to Paul, who nodded.

  “Yup, it's not the best item out there, but you got it for free. Along with a little bit of the system's snark. You'll find a lot of that around here. But you nailed that rabbit with just a single throw of a rock. What's your agility anyhow? That throw was dead-on.”

  Eddie was sure Paul could've just evaluated him, but he'd said people considered it rude. Now he was sure that Paul had been telling the truth and not just yanking his chain.

  “It's a sixteen,” Eddie said.

  “Holy crap, you got a sixteen as a starting statistic? That's like a one in ten thousand chance. You can get higher, with racial bonuses and starting points you can get as high as a twenty to start, but a sixteen still rocks and you're only zero level.”

  “What's the level got to do with it?”

  “Level one characters get three stat points to distribute however they want. They can't go in luck, endurance, or willpower, but they can go in any of the other six. If you ever make level one you'll get those points to distribute as well, so you could potentially have a nineteen agility at level one. With mobs your own level, your missile attacks would hardly ever miss.”

  Paul was gathering some vegetables while he talked. His hands were full now so he used his chin to motion for Eddie to head back out front.

  “Let's go make some dinner,” Paul said.

  Paul had a fire starter that was better than normal flint and steel. It was a little circular steel wheel with a device on it that he wound up. When he released the brake on the device the wheel started spinning and a flint came down on it, sending off a shower of sparks.

  He broke up a dry bird nest that he pulled from his inventory and sprinkled a few tiny slivers of wood on it. Eddie watched intently, fascinated by the device. When the sparks began to fly into the nest, Paul leaned down and blew on them. Within a minute or so the nest was smoldering. A few seconds later it burst into flame. He grabbed some larger splinters of wood to feed to the flames, slowly increasing the size of the wood he put on the fire.

  “Go grab a bucket of water from the well, would you? It's over in front of the farmhouse,” Paul said.

  It only took Eddie a minute or two to do what Paul had asked, but when he took his first sip of the water he stopped dead. The taste was like nothing he'd ever had before. It was crystal clear, cold, and lacked the taste of the chemicals the water he normally drank was treated with.

  “Damn, that's good,” he said.

  Paul didn't say anything, he just grabbed a couple of leather cups from his inventory and handed one to Eddie, scooping his own into the water before he drank. Paul glanced back at the fire, which had caught well.

  “Now we just wait a few minutes until there are lots of coals,” Paul said. “I'll spit that meat and we'll roast it up. Here, grab some veggies as an appetizer.”

  Eddie grabbed a carrot, larger than any he'd seen before. He took a small bite off the end and began to chew. As soon as he tasted it he took a larger bite, stuffing his mouth with the carrot.

  For as long as he'd been out on his own he'd been using something similar to the nutrient solution as his food. It was a variation that when fed into a cooking printer, a 3d printer designed specifically for the purpose, would be formed into whatever shape was requested. Flavorings were added, and the mock food was finished and ready to eat.

  He was used to the flavors that it produced, which were about as close to the real flavors as artificial flavoring got, which meant decent tasting, but nowhere near what the flavor ought to be. The best thing he could say about it was that it was dirt cheap and nutritious.

  The carrot in his hand tasted like the real deal though. It tasted just the way he imagined a fresh picked carrot would taste and he couldn't get enough of it.

  “This is incredible,” he managed to say around a mouthful of carrot.

  “I did say you were in for a treat. Just wait until the rabbit meat is done,” Paul replied.

  As Eddie continued to chew, Paul withdrew a small bag from his inventory. When he opened it, Eddie saw that it contained salt and several other spices. The salt was rubbed into the meat and several other spices were slipped into small slits cut into the rabbit meat. Then Paul spitted the piece of meat, and braced it over the coals after shifting the burning logs to the other side of the fire pit.

  While the meat cooked Eddie slipped down the front of the log he'd been sitting on, bringing himself closer to the fire. He felt the heat of it on his body and marveled at how realistic the game felt. While Eddie did that, Paul pulled a few more things out of his inventory, setting them to the side before starting to work on the vegetables.

  In a few minutes Paul handed Eddie a large bowl filled with chopped vegetables. Eddie could smell the oil and vinegar mix that Paul had poured over it and when he was handed a fork, he tore into the food with a vengeance. Paul worked on eating his own salad at a much slower pace.

  “This stuff is insanely good,” Eddie said. “What gives?”

  “Part of it's the game, okay all of it is really. The game can make things taste incredible. I've got a few points in cooking too. Once I tasted the food in the game I knew I wanted that. So, it's the default fresh food taste from the game, enhanced by my own cooking skill. Now try this.”

  Paul pulled the rabbit meat from the spit. A few drops of grease dripped off of it when he moved it, hitting the coals and causing spurts of flame to rise from them. He sliced off a few medium thickness portions of the meat, then replaced the spit over the coals. Splitting the meat between the two of them Paul sat back, blew on a piece, then popped it in his mouth.

  Eddie was about to take a bite of one of his own pieces when he saw Paul blow on it. Since he was juggling the piece of meat between two of his fingers because it was so hot, he saw the wisdom in that. After blowing on it for a moment, he popped the meat in his mouth and bit down. The explosion of rich flavor that struck him was incredible and only a hint of the gaminess he'd expected was there.

  Eddie's rabbit disappeared as fast as his salad had, only Paul kept slicing more pieces and handing them to him. The two ate until the rabbit was gone. Eddie was feeling slightly overfull now, but he didn't care. The meal he'd just eaten, cooked over a campfire, was the best thing he'd ever tasted. A message flashed in his panel.

  You are Well Fed:

  +10% Experience for the next 4 hours. Go ahead and eat more just to see what happens why don't you? It's only a wafer thin mint.

  Eddie snorted at the outdated comedic reference at the end of the system message. He only got it because a friend had used the quote, then sat him down to watch the skit online when Eddie hadn't gotten the joke.

  “Well, I've got to call it a day,” Paul said. “The manager and guards are due in tomorrow. I don't know when the other workers will get here, but if I don't see you tomorrow morning, it was nice to meet you.”

  “Wait,
you said you're going to be working in the game right?”

  Paul nodded.

  “Know how to do a friend invite?” Eddie asked.

  Paul grinned.

  “Nope, I've just been building in the game so far not socializing, but I bet we can figure it out quickly enough. I saw a tab titled 'social' in the settings area.”

  The two of them both pulled up their settings panel and thirty seconds later Eddie saw a notification flash in his sight.

  Paul Rogar has offered a friend invitation.

  Accept? (yes/no)

  Eddie immediately thought the word 'yes' and a second notification flashed.

  You are now friends with Paul Rogar.

  “I'll try not to pester you with too many questions,” Eddie said, “but I've got plans, especially after hearing you talk about how profitable it can be in-game. If they come to fruition, I just might need a builder.”

  Paul grinned.

  “Glad to hear it. Let me know when you do. As for questions, well you might want to ask the manager. I bet he'll have particular ways he want things done. I'm sure you've experienced the joys of being under middle management before.”

  Eddie sighed.

  “Yes, yes I have. I'm not looking forward to it here. But for the moment, I need to go find myself a stick, a nice heavy one. I've got one point in staves and I intend to make a weapon that'll fit that classification.”

  “Heh, the way you threw that rock you ought to make something like a throwing stick.”

  “A what?”

  “Throwing stick, look it up online.”

  “How, exactly, do I do that?”

  “Oh yeah, noob,” Paul said teasingly. “I keep forgetting it's your first time. Find yourself a comfortable spot where you won't be in any danger. Then just think 'browser'. You'll get the built-in browser for the game in full screen and you can do almost anything you normally can online that way.”