Farmer

by Tom Larcombe

  “Alright, everyone have their maps up? It looks like they went into the forest a little too, so we'll go to that trail they have marked first. After that, we'll see what we can do.”

  The group headed south, Lucky darting in and out of sight of them as she hunted. By the time they reached the edge of the forest, the bobcat had brought Eddie four bunnies, as well as eating one herself. The group had also startled several deer, which Eddie regretfully didn't try to hunt down.

  The Forest of Fools was significantly thicker, tree-wise, which Eddie noticed as soon as they entered. Once he'd experienced the momentary blip of his senses as they changed zones, the air immediately grew cooler and dimmer.

  “One moment,” Tiana said.

  She reached, Eddie assumed, into her inventory and after a moment was wearing a chainmail hauberk. After a few moments shaking and moving she had it settled over her normal clothing. It hung down to mid-calf on her, the bottom portion split to allow for ease of movement. Another reach gave her a light looking metal helm on her head. By the time she finished reaching, she was also holding a small shield and a flanged mace.

  Eddie and Karl had already been wearing their armor, at least as much of it as they had. Jern had been as well, while Allie had been been wearing a stiff leather tunic. While Tiana had been gearing up, Allie had been doing the same. She now had stiffened leather bracers as well as cuisses and greaves. Her bow was in her hand and her quiver on her back. The entire change of gear for the two women had taken less than two minutes.

  Eddie quickly pulled his own bow and arrows from his inventory. He was already wearing his shortsword, acquired from the goblin who unsuccessfully tried to burn his building down, around his waist.

  “Ready?” he asked.

  “Yes, thank you,” Tiana replied. “I hate wearing this stuff when I don't have to, especially when I can put it on quickly when needed.”

  “Not a problem. Now where is that path?”

  “About a hundred yards to the south of us,” Karl said. “That's as far as we went last time.”

  “I think I've been in this area before,” Allie said. “If I'm right, there's a goblin village about a quarter mile east of us. We don't want to go straight there though. With a new group, we probably ought to try a few of the patrols first, they're easier.”

  “Okay then, how do we find a patrol?” Eddie asked.

  “Hit the path, be a little noisy, and wait,” she said. “Don't worry, there are scouts, but we'll hear them coming. They aren't very good about noise discipline.”

  They made their way through the thick undergrowth that surrounded the bases of the trees until the packed dirt of a path was visible just ahead of them.

  “I'm going to disappear for a bit,” Karl said. “Keep an eye out for me once they're here, I'll be showing up behind them.”

  He slipped off into the undergrowth, disappearing a short while later.

  Looks like he'd been working on some of his scout abilities, Eddie thought. Good deal, always nice to have someone that can disrupt your opponent's line from the rear.

  The rest of the group stepped out onto the path. Lucky was sticking close to them now, not wandering off any more.

  “You might want to take cover as well,” Eddie said to the cat.

  She just sat there next to him, staring at him. A single blink was her only reaction to his words.

  Eddie shook his head.

  “Why do I always think she's going to understand me,” he said.

  “What makes you think she doesn't?” Tiana asked.

  “She rarely does what I suggest when I talk to her.”

  “So? That just means she doesn't agree about her best course of action, not that she doesn't understand you.”

  Allie snickered.

  “Maybe she understands more than you think,” she said, loudly.

  Eddie glanced back at Lucky, or at least at where she'd been. She wasn't there any more and when he looked around, he couldn't see her anywhere.

  He sighed heavily.

  Women! Even if they aren't human, they're still gonna be the death of me, he thought.

  The group made small talk, in loud voices, until they heard something out of place.

  “That's probably them,” Allie said, softer now. “So they'll be coming in from the west, let's set up.”

  Jern took position in the center of the trail, facing west. Allie and Eddie were on either side of the trail a ways behind him. Tiana stood behind Jern, equidistant between the dwarf and the two who would be using missile weapons.

  When the goblins hadn't shown up in a minute or two, Jern struck his shield with his hammer a couple of times, the noise ringing out into the nearby forest. A minute later Eddie saw movement down the path. A group of small green figures, armed and armored, were cautiously making their way east.

  “Don't fire yet,” Allie called softly to him. “You can scare them off if you attack at too far a distance. Wait until they're closer. Follow my lead if you're unsure.”

  Eddie held his shot, waiting as the goblins approached. When they were only about fifty feet away, they seemed to gain courage, and speed. They charged at Jern since he was in front.

  “Now,” Allie called, releasing her arrow.

  Eddie shot as well, his arrow striking a goblin. He continued to shoot as quickly as he could, but once they closed with Jern he was hesitant. His notification light was blinking, but even that was distracting in the middle of battle, so he dismissed it entirely. Allie was still shooting, her arrows coming closer to Jern than Eddie was comfortable with.

  He dropped his bow and drew his sword, moving towards Jern with the thought of maybe coming up alongside of him. Just before he got there he drew back, startled, as Karl appeared from nowhere behind the goblin lines, striking one of them in the back with his swords. Lucky showed up on the other side of the path behind a goblin, launching herself onto it.

  Jern, on the other hand, was simply tanking it out. His large shield covered most of his body and he was quick to interpose it anytime a goblin tried to strike him. When one tried to reach its shortsword up and over his shield he slammed the bottom edge of the shield onto the goblin's feet, causing the creature to fall to the ground, weapon forgotten as it clutched its broken toes.

  By the time he got to Jern, there were only two goblins left out of the seven that had attacked. Karl had accounted for one, Lucky for another, Allie had taken two down with her bow and Jern had dropped the broken-toed one with his hammer. The occasional flash of golden light on Jern showed Eddie what Tiana's contribution to the combat was.

  He lunged with his shortsword, stabbing a goblin in the arm. It returned the favor with its own swing that struck his leg, leaving him bleeding and limping. A pair of arrows from Allie went whizzing past his head, striking the goblin he'd stabbed and dropping it. Jern finished up with the last one a moment later. He struck it with his shield, sending it tumbling to the ground. Before it could get up, a solid strike from the hammer stopped its movement for good.

  “What the hell Eddie, I thought you were ranged support?” Allie said.

  “They were all over him, I was afraid I was going to shoot Jern.”

  “There's no PvP in this zone, remember?” she said.

  Eddie hooked a thumb towards Jern.

  “He's not a player, remember?” he replied, using the same tone she had.

  Allie blushed.

  “Err, no, I didn't remember that. But still, you went charging into the front line of battle? You aren't a tank, remember?”

  Now it was Eddie's turn to blush.

  I just wanted to help, he thought, but was wise enough not to say it knowing that it would make him sound like a petulant child.

  “I'll figure something else out next time,” he said. “Until I get my bows skill higher, I don't want to be shooting that close to the party, or at least to Jern since I guess I wouldn't be able to damage everyone else.”

  He remembered his notifications then and pulled t
hem up, happy to discover that he'd gained a point in bows as well as another point in short swords.

  Hmm, he thought, ninety-five experience if I include my bonuses. I guess these goblin patrols aren't the best way to get experience in the woods. At least I hope they aren't.

  He tuned back in to the conversation that had started while he was checking his notifications.

  “Honestly, I don't think we'll be able to take a village this way,” Allie was saying. “Even if Eddie had held back and used his bow, we just didn't have the damage to take them down quickly enough.”

  I thought they went down pretty fast, does she disagree?

  Tiana came over to him and healed his leg wound with a spell, giving him a smile as she did so.

  “We'll do a lot better if everyone sticks to their positions,” she said softly.

  “I know, I know, I just didn't want to be dead weight.”

  “Just wait it out and shoot whenever it's safe,” she said.

  “You know how we normally just walk over these patrols. We need a proper DPS,” Allie continued, after Tiana had turned back to her. “One with at least one area damage affect preferably.”

  “Well, we can let a patrol get away and do the boosted patrols that have the warriors,” Tiana said. “That's better exp and we won't end up wasting today if we do that.”

  Allie nodded grudgingly.

  Eddie spoke up.

  “If you two are willing, we can give Dominic a shot if he's interested, but it's your call.”

  Allie looked at Tiana who looked thoughtful for a moment, then nodded agreement.

  “He really wasn't that bad, he didn't pick up bad habits until after he'd seen the other two doing those kinds of things. Maybe grouping with people who act civilized will have him picking up those habits instead,” she said. “If not, we can always ditch him again later on.”

  “Okay, we'll look for him once we're done out here for the day,” Allie said.

  The rest of the group agreed, then started off down the path looking for more patrols.

  “Remember what I said about not scaring them off?” Allie said. “Well, scratch that. We want them to go and come back with a reinforced patrol. They come back with a couple of warriors added in that are much better experience. So with the next batch, shoot them as soon as you can.”

  The next patrol they encountered wasn't identical to the first. When Eddie and Allie started shooting, they didn't flee. Two of the goblins pulled out their own bows and started shooting back. Eddie took a couple of arrows that fight, but felt much better about himself after winning the archer battle he'd had with one of the goblin archers.

  Once again, Tiana healed everyone. She'd focused on Jern during the battle, telling people to call out if they needed a heal before the fight was over. No-one had though.

  Lucky was worrying the arm of one of the goblins.

  “Lucky,” Eddie called. “Don't mess with that, if you're hungry, just go hunting. Or if you'd rather I'll give you back one of the rabbits you caught on the way here.”

  The bobcat looked up at him, then darted into the undergrowth, disappearing from sight.

  As he tried to recover his arrows, he discovered just why Allie had been willing to sell him a bow and quiver before but no arrows. About half the ones he'd fired in this battle had ended up hitting armor. The shafts of most of those had cracked, making the arrow no longer usable. He did pull the heads off, since he still had some shafts he'd made, but he could see how an arrow supply would deplete rapidly fighting the goblins.

  The next patrol they saw was what they were after. Allie and Eddie both shot at long range, each striking their target. The goblins stopped in their tracks, wailed and shook their fists at the group, then turned around and ran.

  “Good, now we wait,” Tiana said. “They'll be back in five or ten minutes with reinforcements. This battle might take a bit longer.”

  While they were waiting, Lucky came up and rubbed against Eddie's legs. She was purring, so he looked down to see the tail end of a snake disappearing down her throat. He shuddered for a moment.

  Eww, she eats snakes? There's something I won't be cooking up and serving anyone, he thought.

  Once the tail was out of sight, he reached down and scratched her head.

  “Got some bigger guys coming up this time girl. I bet they have armor, so maybe you'll want to stick to the little ones like you were attacking before.”

  She rubbed her cheek along his leg before twining between his legs, then slipping off the side of the trail. Karl had also disappeared and Eddie assumed he was ready to use his backstab when the goblins showed back up.

  Right on schedule the goblins reappeared on the trail. This time they had two bigger goblins with them who were taking the front line. The larger goblins wore hardened leather armor and carried shields, as well as longswords. They practically marched as they came down the trail, shields held in front of them.

  “See if you can nail the little guys behind the warriors,” Allie said, moving off the edge of the trail to get a shot.

  Eddie did the same. The two warriors were intentionally filling the trail, acting as a shield for the smaller scouts, but moving about five feet off the trail gave him a shot at the goblin scouts that were trailing behind the warriors. He managed to fire three arrows, two of them striking his targets, before the warriors closed with Jern.

  The clashing of metal drowned out any other sounds in the area as the two warriors and Jern closed. This time there was enough of Jern's opponent visible that Eddie was happy to continue firing. He feathered the warriors with arrows, sure that some of them weren't doing any damage, but just as sure that the others were. Jern was holding the two warriors attention at first, but after about the fifth arrow, the one Eddie was firing at tried to break off from Jern and head for Eddie.

  “Hey you overgrown Faerie!” Jern shouted. “Where do you think you're going?”

  A swipe from Jern's hammer struck the goblin warrior and turned its attention back to the dwarf.

  Eddie continued to fire, but now Jern was taking swings at both goblins instead of just one, so he held their aggro.

  Karl and Lucky had decimated the back row of goblins. Each of them killing one straight off with their initial strike. When the other five swarmed them, the bobcat and scout pulled far enough back that Allie and Eddie could launch arrows over the warriors into the backs of the goblin scouts.

  Lucky was still tearing one apart when Karl dropped the last one. Eddie watched as Karl strode forward, planting his swords in the back of the more heavily wounded warrior. The warrior dropped and from there on out, the fight was a given. With Karl attacking from the rear, Jern attacking from the front, and the occasional arrow from Allie or Eddie when they felt it was safe to shoot, the warrior dropped in another minute.

  Lucky had finished the last of the scouts and then, to Eddie's surprise, listened to his advice and did not try to attack the warrior. Although that may well have just been because she didn't want to get stepped on since there were feet and weapons flying everywhere during the last minute of the fight.

  “Hey Eddie, want some more armor?” Karl called. “It looks like everyone else is armored up already.”

  The two goblin warriors each had a set of hardened leather bracers and hardened leather greaves.

  “Go for it,” Tiana said. “Pretty sure we're all set and they aren't worth much at the trading post.”

  Allie nodded her assent, while Jern took a moment to go on about the deficiencies of any armor that wasn't made of metal. Eddie took that as assent and claimed a set of bracers and greaves.

  Evaluate, he thought.

  Greaves, Leather

  Armor (thigh)

  Armor: 3

  Hardened Leather

  Quality: poor

  These greaves are made of hardened leather and offer protection for the thighs. The craftsman who made them was obviously not very skilled. Just like someone else we know.

  Give m
e a break, Eddie thought. If I hadn't already decided that the game got snarky when I was doing well, I might be offended by that.

  With another thought he evaluated the bracers.

  Bracers, Leather

  Armor (forearm)

  Armor: 3

  Hardened Leather

  Quality: Poor

  These bracers are made of hardened leather and offer protection for the forearm. They are a necessity for archers who would prefer not to suffer from string burn.

  He pulled up his notifications to see how much experience he'd gotten and was greeted with a pleasant surprise. In addition to the three hundred and fifty-five experience he'd gotten from the fight, he'd also gotten another point in his bows skill.

  I might actually have a decent combat skill soon if it keeps going up like that, he thought. Need to figure out how to raise my short swords skill somehow though if I'm not going front line at all.

  They continued hunting goblin patrols for several more hours, encountering three more standard patrols and managing to pull another boosted patrol with warriors. Then Allie announced that she was done for the day.

  “It's time to head back. I'm done,” she said.

  Eddie was eager for more, he'd watched his experience climb slowly over the course of the day and had been hoping for more.

  “Done?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” she said. “There will be other adventuring groups coming out this way soon and I'd rather not have to deal with them. A limited number of patrols and multiple adventuring groups make for a boring time. That's why I like to go out during the day.”

  Eddie glanced at the sun, after tracking down a spot where he could see it, and realized it was well past noon already.

  “Oh,” he said. “I didn't realize how long we'd been out here.”