by Tom Larcombe
“To the Meadowlands?” Eddie asked incredulously.
“No, we just set up a base camp here and hunt the forest or the mountains. Try to set up a camp in one of those and it would constantly get attacked. Not so much down here, occasional raids of Goblins from the forest, or Orcs from the mountains, but most of those don't make it this far into the Meadowlands so it's kind of like a safe spot. Why are you here if you didn't already know that?” she asked, peering at him intently.
Eddie quickly realized that she was Evaluating him, and Karl as well.
“That's rude,” he said.
“A pair of level ones? How did you even get here? And are those your real life names? I thought you couldn't do that.” she said.
“It's a really long story that I can't actually get into right now and yes, they are. We didn't have a choice,” Eddie said.
That just seemed to intrigue her even more.
“Come on, how'd you do it? How'd you get here?”
“We got fucked over,” Karl said, “and that's all we can say about it per Light Online's request.”
“Oh, an NDA type of thing? That sucks,” she said. “I really would've liked to know. The Meadowlands looks a lot less grindy than the other low level zones. If I remake my character I might've wanted to start here.”
Not the way we did, Eddie thought.
They continued to chat as the line moved slowly. Before long they discovered that she was planning on selling some drops that she'd gotten in the forest.
“We don't need any armor,” Karl said, “But did you happen to find any weapons? From what you said this guy charges way too much and pays way too little, why don't we try to deal with each other instead of him.”
Eddie nodded.
“Yeah, I could use a bow and some arrows. I think Karl was looking for shortswords?”
He looked at Karl, who nodded.
She grinned for a moment.
“Hang on, let me contact the rest of my group, see if any of them have that stuff. I'd love to avoid this guy if possible, and I'm sure they would too. Most people out here already have better equipment than they find in these zones, so we haven't tried to sell it to the other adventurers.”
While she was zoned out, talking to her groupmates, Eddie took a moment to evaluate her, figuring that if she did it to him first she couldn't complain about it. He didn't get much information, but at least now he knew who he was dealing with.
Tiana Anders
Class:
Level: 7
Priest
You are currently unable to obtain more information about Tiana with Evaluate.
Five minutes later, another four people were crowding around Tiana.
“Guys,” she said. “Want to get a better price for some of our loot?”
“Of course,” a large man answered. He was clad in plate mail with a two-handed sword slung across his back.
“These two need to buy some stuff,” she said. “They were gonna get it from Old Jeffries in there until I warned them about his profit margins. So they asked if I had any. I didn't, but I know we found some of what they wanted this last trip out. Did any of you keep the shortswords or bows that we found?”
“I've got a few of those shortswords,” a slender man said, he was clad in dark leather armor and Eddie was pretty sure he was a thief.
Although he might be a scout too, he thought. But that almost black leather would stand out in a forest, so I'm going with thief.
Karl cleared his throat.
“How much would Old Jeffries give you for two of them?” he asked.
“Five silver if I was lucky,” the man spat. “They're worth more than a gold each though, even just being the common grade they are.”
“Would you consider taking a gold for a pair?” Karl asked.
The man's eyes lit up.
“One gold, five silver,” he replied.
Meanwhile the wizard of the group, or at least Eddie assumed he was since he was wearing no armor, had robes, and was carrying a staff, eyed Eddie.
“I know your name, I saw it somewhere recently,” the man said. “Wait, weren't you the one that global announcement was about earlier?”
The man's eyes went vacant, while his hands made a motion as though he were scrolling through data entries.
“Yeah, Out of Nothing. I never heard of that one that before, what was it?” he asked.
Eddie sighed.
“I already told Tiana, I can't talk about it. Light Online asked me not to say anything about the situation.”
The man's eyes fell.
“Not even what the achievement was for?” he asked.
Eddie thought for a moment. It might give away a little bit of information tied into the problem, but he had the idea that this man wasn't just going to let it drop.
“It was an achievement for making level one without dying,” he said, “and really, that's all I can say about it.”
“What? Everyone makes level one without dying,” the robed man said. “They log in and they're level one.”
“Not us,” Karl said, interrupting his own haggling to reply, “I wish we'd been that lucky.”
Now the entire group was staring at them. Tiana was the first to speak.
“You mean, you're level ones out here in the Meadowlands because you started at level zero here in the Meadowlands?” she asked.
“I'm sorry, I can neither confirm nor deny that statement,” Eddie said, resorting to the boilerplate denials he'd heard in the news all his life.
“Good enough for me,” she said. “Hey, Allie here picked up a shortbow on our last run, that work for you?”
“Yeah, I've got the skill and some materials, but haven't made one yet. I'd much rather just get one to use for now while I figure it out.”
He turned to Elven female who had a quiver strapped to her back.
“Allie I presume?” he said.
She nodded.
“Two gold,” she said.
“Uh, that's how much he'd pay in there, or how much you want for it?”
“That's how much I'll sell it to you for. He'd give me seven or eight silver depending on how many he's seen lately. You'll have to get arrows for it from Old Jeffries though, I don't have any of those to spare.”
“Done,” Eddie said, noticing that they were approaching the front of the line finally.
When she gave him the bow, she also pulled out a quiver.
“No arrows in it, but I only need one myself so you can have this too,” she said.
“Thank you.”
Eddie noticed Karl handing over a gold piece and a few hunks of rabbit meat in exchange for his shortswords. As the rest of Tiana's group wandered off, Karl leaned over to whisper to him.
“Eddie, he was valuing our rabbit meat at about a silver a chunk.”
Eddie grinned before whispering back.
“I was already thinking we could make a mint by offering some low-grade accommodations and hot food here in this area. That confirms it for me. Plus, if we hunt all the meat for it ourselves, there's exp also. Not quite as good as adventuring, but building up a stash of gold sounds like a plan to me, how about you?”
“Farming, food vendor, I'm getting to try all sorts of new things in this game,” Karl said. “What's the plan?”
“We'll go into it later on. I need to look at a few help files first.”
Tiana gestured for them to enter along with her when it was her turn to go into the trading post.
“He'll take up to five people in there at a time, you might as well come with me,” she said.
Eddie was sure he was getting ripped off when Old Jeffries offered two copper per rabbit pelt, and even more sure he was getting ripped off having to pay five copper each for arrows with field point heads, not even broadheads, but that was the only kind of arrow available and when Karl tried to haggle Old Jeffries shut him down quickly.
“That's my price boy, take it or leave it.”
They did end up pi
cking up a number of other items they thought would come in handy, but Eddie grinned when he saw the felling axes. There was a rack of them with almost an inch of dust on the top.
“How much for one of these?” he asked Old Jeffries.
“The price is marked on 'em.”
“Sorry, I can't see it because of all the dust. Must be lousy sellers, how long have they been taking up valuable room in your shop?”
Old Jeffries growled.
“Oh, there, I see it now,” Eddie said. “Five silver pieces. Well, that's too rich for my blood, I might have bought at three silver. Would've helped give you more room in your shop. Too bad.”
Old Jeffries eyes closed as he gritted his teeth. The words he spat out seemed to pain him.
“I can give you any of the axes for three silver,” he said, looking like he was having a heart attack.
Eddie saw the sudden grin split Tiana's face. She was about to speak, but he shook his head and waved his hand at her. She clamped her lips shut, watching intently.
“So you'll sell me these axes at three silver each?” he asked.
“Yes,” spat Old Jeffries.
“Good, I'll take three of them then, while you're at it, I'll take another two arrows also. That should be one gold, right?”
Eddie dropped a gold coin on the counter, then walked over and picked out three of the axes. He tossed the other two arrows in his inventory since he'd already filled his quiver, then quickly walked out of the store, with Tiana following, before Old Jeffries could say another word.
“Oh my god! You haggled with Old Jeffries, got him to lower the price, and then took advantage of it?” Tiana said, loud enough for everyone around to hear.
People were staring at Eddie now and he wasn't certain what the look he was seeing in their eyes was.
“Guys,” Tiana screamed, “Eddie here got the better of Old Jeffries.”
There was an actual smattering of applause following her statement. He started to walk off, but she followed, chattering at him.
I think I want to crawl under a rock and die, he thought. I didn't want to make a splash here or anything, but it looks like it's too late for that.
~ ~ ~
Karl finally strode out of the trading post a few minutes later, chuckling to himself.
“You messed him up,” Karl said. “The guy couldn't even talk for a couple of minutes after that. Looked like he was about to explode or something.”
“Did you at least get what you were after? I hope I haven't caused any problems for us dealing with him, but these guys weren't kidding. It's highway robbery in there,” Eddie said.
“I wouldn't worry about it. I don't know that you'd want to trade with him any more anyhow. Didn't you see the bobcat pelts he had behind the counter?” Karl asked.
Eddie's jaw snapped shut and he instantly stopped feeling the hint of guilt that had plagued him since he left the trading post.
Tiana picked up on his mood.
“Why, what's wrong with bobcat pelts?” she asked.
Eddie strode quickly down the road towards the farm, passing by the fields that were filled with adventurers. After he was well past them he stopped and whistled. Tiana was still following him and when Lucky came running out towards Eddie, she stopped dead.
“Uh, guys?” she said.
Eddie knelt down and caught Lucky as she leaped at him.
“I'm so glad you're safe. I didn't realize you weren't with me until a little after you disappeared,” Eddie said.
Lucky licked his face and Eddie winced, wiping the moisture off of his cheek.
“Hey, don't you know you're a cat, not a dog?” he said. “I thought licking people's faces was a dog thing.”
Lucky replied by licking his other cheek and Eddie burst out laughing. When he looked up he saw Tiana staring at him, eyes wide.
“You've got a pet? At level one? And it's a bobcat? What is up with you?” she asked.
Eddie opened his mouth, about to speak. Then he snapped it shut again and chose his words more carefully.
“You evaluated me earlier, right?” he asked.
She nodded.
“Did you even look at my buffs?”
“Who bothers with buffs in town?” she asked.
“Look again,” Eddie said.
Her eyes unfocused for a moment and when they did refocus, she looked confused.
“What, exactly, is Freyja's Blessing? I researched all the priest spells before I made my character, and that isn't one of them.”
“Do a help on it,” he said.
“I tried, and I got a message that said only those who have been affected by a god's blessing can see the help files on it, or something like that. The affects are really powerful too.”
“So you know it isn't a priest spell, but is related to the gods. You also know it's pretty powerful. What conclusion do you draw from that?” he asked.
“What is this, college lectures again?” she asked, glaring at him.
“You know I can't talk about this, remember? I'm trying to give you as much of a clue as I can, for goddess' sake.”
She stopped dead, staring at him.
“Let me get this straight, are you saying that Freyja herself put that blessing on you?”
“I'm sorry, I can neither confirm nor deny that statement.”
Eddie crouched down again, ignoring Tiana's glare.
“Lucky, can you hunt me up some more bunnies and bring them back here?” he said.
She stared at him blankly.
“Never mind, we probably have enough bunny meat for today anyhow,” Eddie said.
Now Karl was staring at him.
“What are you talking about?”
“How long until dark, do you think?” Eddie asked.
“I don't know, five or six hours? Probably about six hours I think.”
“I want to run off a little stand, start a fire, and start providing some hot food to those adventurers,” Eddie said. “At a price, of course.”
Now Tiana was staring at him blankly, but Karl had an interested look on his face.
“Tiana, I heard people complaining about cold rations. How much do you think they'd pay for a belly full of hot, fresh roasted, meat,” Eddie said.
“Oh,” she said, a look of comprehension washing over her face. “A lot, I mean there aren't any game animals in the forest or the mountains. But there are here in the Meadowlands, aren't there?”
Eddie nodded.
“Part of my problem was a lack of money in the real world. I came here to try to solve it. My original plan got trashed, but I can adapt. This is my next step in adapting.”
Lucky twined between his legs and he paused to pet her for a moment, knowing he'd be busy for a while very soon. He stared off into space as he hand ran over her soft fur.
Finally he stood.
“Karl, can you look for dried wood for a cook fire? And maybe a bunch of small sticks you can shave a point onto and remove the bark. We're going to sell meat on a stick.”
He drew the first of the felling axes out of his inventory.
“I'm going to chop down some wood to build a counter and the frame for the cookfire. Sorry Tiana, looks like we'll be busy for a little while, no time to talk.”
~ ~ ~
Chapter Thirteen
Aaron groaned. He hadn't slept in almost twenty hours at this point, but he finally had a hacker that was willing to work for them trying to track down the server. All he had to do was finish filling out the paperwork to requisition the hacker's pay.
Hmmm, consultant or independent contractor. I bet the company would prefer the contractor option.
He ticked off the box listing the hacker as an independent contractor and blurrily made his way through the rest of the contract. By the time he finished he could barely make out the words on the papers.
He dialed Mr. Greenshaw.
“What is it?” the gruff voice on the other end of the phone said.
“It's me sir, I've
tracked down an independent contractor who claims he can find the server. I've submitted the paperwork and if it goes through he'll be on the case.”
“Give me the case number, it'll go through,” Mr. Greenshaw said.
“Yes sir,” Aaron replied, then rattled off the number on the top of the paperwork.
“Have you taken care of all the experimental players? I still need those other two releases.”
“No, sir. I was going to do that first thing in the morning.”
“No, take care of it now,” Mr. Greenshaw insisted. “Then you can sleep.”
Aaron groaned, silently.
“Yes, sir,” he answered.
This time he was the one that just hung up. He donned his suit, then entered the game. His chose his entry point as the bunkhouse he'd seen the other two in last, but when he arrived in game it was empty, the ashes in the fireplace cold. It was still light out though.
Surely they'll come back here before it gets dark, he thought. I could run the tracking program, if I were awake enough to remember the damned command for it.
His in-game avatar was just as tired as he was in real life. He yawned once, then tried to fight off a second yawn unsuccessfully.
He'll never know, Aaron thought, staring at the beds. Mr. Greenshaw wouldn't be caught dead in the game. And it'll be just as restful as doing it in the real world.
Aaron sank onto a bunk, pulled the scratchy blanket over himself, and fell fast asleep.
~ ~ ~
Evidently Tiana was a cat person.
Eddie watched her playing with Lucky as he worked on chopping down some saplings. He thought about tackling a full-sized tree, but realized he wasn't too sure of the safest way to cut it down.
I've got a skill I could choose, but do I want to waste that on Lumberjack? he thought.
Instead he'd decided on cutting down a large number of springy saplings that he could weave into a counter top, using one slightly larger, stiffer, tree to make the supports for it. He'd be able to make the support for the spit out of the bottoms of the springy saplings since a lot of them were only flexible starting a foot or two above the ground.