Awaken Online (Book 3.5): Apathy

by Bagwell, Travis

  Eliza couldn’t help but look at the older woman in surprise. That was actually a really good idea – assuming it was even possible. Yet as soon as she began getting her hopes up, they came crashing back down.

  “You would just need to pay him a little coin,” Alma continued. “He might actually take a fancy to a project like this and offer a discount. I know he gets tired of repairing clocks and dock machinery. Something like this might be a welcome relief.”

  Eliza couldn’t help but grimace. The only problem was that the players had stolen the small stash of coins she had accumulated running errands for Alma. She hesitated at that thought. Speaking of a “stash,” she couldn’t help but recall the mountain of junk in the troll’s cave – which was likely still lying there untouched. Perhaps she had been a little too hasty in storming off after the Hippie recovered Fluffy’s hairbrush.

  I just hope it’s still there.

  “I think I might know where to find some money,” Eliza began tentatively.

  “That doesn’t sound ominous at all,” Alma replied with a small smile. “But knowing you, I’ll assume that you don’t have anything nefarious in mind.”

  “Besides creating some sort of poison staff?” Eliza asked with a hesitant grin of her own.

  The older woman barked out a laugh. “Fair point. I wouldn’t have expected my shy little apprentice to start inventing poisons – but I suppose you can’t judge a book by its cover.” With that statement, the conversation devolved into friendly banter and a discussion of poisonous herbs.

  As Eliza sipped at her tea and enjoyed the conversation with Alma, she felt a wave of relief wash over her. She now had a tentative plan. While it still didn’t address how she was going to deal with the Silver Stag, maybe her new weapon would at least offer a way to deal with the players. It was a start, and she couldn’t help but feel a little excited at the prospect.

  Tomorrow she would visit Evan Crown.

  Chapter 13 - Mechanized

  Eliza approached the gates of Falcon’s Hook, a gentle breeze tugging at her tunic and bringing with the muted smell of sea salt. Players and NPCs trudged along the pressed dirt road beside her, their clothing and armor showing signs of battle despite the fact that it was still early morning in-game. Eliza’s thoughts wandered as she walked, but she made sure to keep her head down and avoid eye contact with the people nearby. She was carrying a ton of loot in her bags, after all.

  She had spent the previous evening replenishing the potions she had lost – Alma being kind enough to offer up additional ingredients. As soon as the morning light began to crest the tops of the trees ringing Alma’s compound, Eliza had returned to the troll’s cave. Luckily, no one had bothered to explore the precarious ledge running along the river that led into the cavern, so the piles of assorted objects and armor still rested where she had left them. Not that she was really surprised. She had almost fallen into the water four times trying to make her way down into the ravine and then back up to the road.

  Now she was crossing the gates leading into town, trying to be as nondescript as possible. For some reason, the idea of commissioning weapons to potentially kill other players made her nervous, and she glanced at the guards manning the gate warily. The two men eyed the passersby with a bored expression, their spears resting against the wall beside them. Clearly, security wasn’t an issue coming into town – or perhaps they were simply overwhelmed by the number of people.

  Heaving a sigh of relief as she made it through the gate without issue, Eliza quickly navigated the town. She made a beeline for the market on the northeastern side of Falcon’s Hook. Alma had explained that Evan’s shop was located on one of the roads adjacent to the cramped stalls, and she had marked the location on Eliza’s map.

  As she entered the marketplace, Eliza spotted a poster nailed to a wall next to the street. She came to an abrupt halt, and her mouth parted slightly in surprise.

  A player stumbled into her from behind, almost throwing her to the ground. “Watch your step,” the man groused before heading farther into the market.

  “S-sorry,” Eliza murmured, but the player had already disappeared among the roiling mass of other travelers and NPCs. Shaking her head, she turned her gaze back to the poster that had first captured her attention.

  A familiar image was emblazoned across the coarse paper – showing a deer with intricately curved antlers and silvery fur. Under the image, the words “House Baen Bounty: Silver Stag” were posted in capital letters. Eliza’s mouth dropped open in surprise when she saw the amount that was being offered.

  “200 gold,” she muttered in shock. No wonder the players had gone to such great lengths to slay the creature – and had threatened her and then killed her to make a point. 200 gold was a fortune at this early stage of the game and would buy a small shop in town. Or, some really nice gear…

  Not for the first time, Eliza had the almost irresistible urge to punch the Hippie in his stupid, grinning face. He could have explained that she wasn’t the only person hunting the damned deer, but no! In typical fashion, he had neatly skipped over that part. She hadn’t seen him in nearly a day in-game, so perhaps he was already anticipating her anger.

  Growling slightly in irritation, Eliza continued into the market. It didn’t help to dwell on the irritating god. She needed to focus on figuring out a way to weaponize her Obscuring Mist. The players she had encountered likely wouldn’t be the last group she would run into if the bounty on the deer was that high. She needed to find a way to deal with them first.

  Once she had some suitable weapons to defend herself, then maybe she could try to come up with some plan to slay the lightning-fast beast. Not that she was really optimistic…

  A few minutes later, Eliza stood in a back alley running off the side of the market. The occasional barrel and crate littered the backstreet, and she could see players and NPCs milling past the entrance to the alley behind her. This looked like a good place for a mugging – and didn’t exactly scream “high-brow engineering shop.”

  She was beginning to doubt Alma’s instructions when she finally discovered a crude wooden door affixed to the wall to her left. A tiny, faded shingle hung beside the doorway, the lettering washed out and nearly illegible. However, after running her hand across the wooden surface, she could just barely make out the words “Crown Mechanics” resting atop what might have once been the colorful image of a crown.

  With a nervous sigh, Eliza pushed at the door, the wooden portal creaking open ominously. She could see a poorly-lit shop on the other side, the small space illuminated by several flickering candles on the far end of the room. She stepped inside cautiously, inspecting her surrounding with a careful eye. She didn’t see anyone inside, but her eyes widened as she took in the shop.

  Every inch of the walls was lined with timepieces of all shapes and sizes – from grandfather clocks to lantern clocks. Where it wasn’t possible to hang the clocks, they had been set carefully on long tables resting against the walls. The ticking hadn’t been obvious from the street with the roar of the market to dampen the sound. However, inside the shop, it was almost overwhelming. What was more unnerving was that each of the clocks ticked in perfect sync, the rhythmic sound setting Eliza’s teeth on edge.

  Well, almost perfect.

  Eliza could just barely detect a single sound that seemed slightly off. The noise was subtle below the monotonous clicking, but it was definitely there. She frowned, drifting around the store in search of the irregular ticking. After hunting for a moment, she hovered in front of one of the tables near the back of the store. A single clock rested on the wooden surface, a set of what looked like clock parts and gears lying beside it – the pieces organized in neat rows. Acting instinctively, Eliza inspected the broken timepiece.

  Pendulum Clock

  A typical and rather unnoteworthy clock. However, you detect that this timepiece is slightly out of sync with the rest of the shop – perhaps indicating that it needs to be adjusted or repaired. As though
that wasn’t already obvious…

  Quality: C

  Damage: NA

  Durability: 2/15

  “I was just about to finish fixing that one,” a voice spoke up from beside Eliza, causing her to jump in surprise. She whirled to find a man coming through a door leading further back into the store. He was robed in a coarse woolen shirt and trousers, and he wore a thick leather smock.

  “H-hi,” Eliza managed to squeak out. “My name is Eliza. Alma said I should talk to you about a possible commission…”

  The man nodded, taking a seat on a stool behind the nearby table. “Well, I expect you know my name then, so we can skip the pleasantries.” As he spoke, Evan pulled back at the sleeve of his shirt, revealing his right arm. Eliza couldn’t help but gasp slightly when she saw the appendage, which earned her an amused smile from the man.

  Evan’s right arm had been chopped off at the elbow and in its place now rested a mechanical contraption that more closely resembled a swiss army knife than a real arm. As she watched, a small screwdriver flicked out of a recessed pocket, swiveling in mid-air as he swiftly removed the panel from the front of the clock.

  “Old injury,” Evan said brusquely, nodding at his arm as he continued to disassemble the clock. “Not that it slows me down nowadays. I’ve become so accustomed to my new arm that I barely miss the old one.”

  “It certainly looks useful,” Eliza ventured hesitantly.

  “Indeed. Now, let’s talk about your commission,” Evan replied, not bothering to glance up from his work. “Time’s a wasting. Do you need something for your alchemy operation? A mechanical still perhaps? Or a portable burner unit? Ahh, no. Knowing Alma, you probably want a new distillation system.”

  “Umm…,” Eliza began, a little overwhelmed by the man’s barrage of questions. “Wait, is that really a thing? The portable burner?” She was a bit intrigued. That might be much more efficient than creating a campfire while she was out in the woods.

  “Of course,” Evan replied curtly, sparing a quick glance in her direction. “Although, judging from your reaction, that wasn’t what you had in mind.” A moment later, his attention was back on the clock, replacing and adjusting the interior gears in a rapid-fire series of movements.

  “Well, you’re right. I actually need something a little different. I was hoping you might be able to help me come up with an idea for how to accomplish my goal,” Eliza said, mesmerized by the man’s repairs. As she watched, he finished adjusting the gears and began replacing the front panel again, a new tool clicking into place on his arm.

  “Which is…?” Evan asked without looking up.

  “I need a staff that can inject a fluid into a spell mid-cast,” Eliza explained, trying to be circumspect about how she intended to use the item.

  “High or low viscosity?” Evan murmured, his brow furrowing in thought.

  “Low viscosity – similar to most potions,” she said cautiously.

  “And how would you intend to use this item? Evan inquired. “For example, what would you visualize that it could do in an ideal situation?”

  “When I cast Obscuring Mist, it forms a ball of water in front of me before expanding into a fog or mist,” Eliza began. “I want to be able to eject the potion’s contents from the staff directly into the orb without pausing the spell cast for more than a second or two.”

  Evan’s head tilted to the side as he pondered this. “And what sorts of potions would you be injecting? I assume this would be used for healing and support tonics?”

  “Actually,” Eliza began and then hesitated. Did she really want to tell him how she planned to use the staff? Alma had told her to trust Evan, and the older woman hadn’t steered her wrong so far. “I-ideally, this would be used as a weapon, and I would inject various sorts of poisons…”

  Evan abruptly stopped what he was doing, now looking at her with his complete attention. Instead of anger or judgment, she only saw excitement dancing in his eyes. “Weaponize a staff using poison, you say? Hmm…” he trailed off and then abruptly stood, beginning to pace around his small work area.

  “A staff might work,” he murmured, seemingly talking to himself. “It’s a bit heavy, but the primary issue is that you will would need to be able to swap out poisons quickly for the different effects. The mechanism for automatically swapping out cartridges would be heavy – almost unwieldy really.

  “Or…” A smile drifted across his face. “Maybe you don’t need any of that. If we were to use several staves, you could pre-load the contents and carry multiple ammo types at one time.” He spared a quick glance at Eliza, his eyes running from her feet to her head as he sized up her small form. “Hmm, no. That would be too heavy as well…”

  Evan whirled back to Eliza, his eyes gleaming. “I think I have an idea! I would love to work on your project. You’ll need at least three or four weapons, perhaps more as time goes on. I expect it will take me exactly two days, one hour, and fifteen minutes to complete the first batch. We could get started this afternoon!” As he spoke, Evan leaned forward in excitement, his mechanical arm twitching and whirring as he contemplated his new project.

  “Three or four…” Eliza echoed in shock, surprised by the man’s reaction. She had expected anger or judgment. But excitement? Evan reminded her more of a mad scientist than an engineer. It was something about the way his eyes gleamed as he watched her expectantly.

  “Ahh, yes,” Evan murmured to himself, looking slightly disappointed. “That might be a little costly, and we haven’t discussed payment yet. Details, details.” He glanced at Eliza’s ragged and worn attire as though observing her for the first time. Then he sighed. “I guess we’ll have to make do with one… although it won’t work nearly as well with what I have in mind.”

  Eliza shook herself, trying to throw off her shock at the man’s behavior. “Wait, I think I can afford to make more – at least if you’re willing to barter for other equipment.”

  With that, she pulled out her pack and shook its contents onto the table in front of her. A random assortment of golden goblets, coins, weapons, and oddball pieces of armor poured out onto the table with a crash of metal. Eliza gave the pack one last shake, and a final silver coin landed on the pile and tumbled down its surface.

  Evan just stared at the miniature mountain of loot, his fingers tracing the bloodstains along one piece of armor tentatively. “I-is this okay?” Eliza asked nervously when he didn’t say anything.

  The engineer finally looked up at her, a broad and slightly manic smile painted across his face. “Oh, yes. This will do nicely.”

  Evan offered his regular hand to seal the deal, and Eliza accepted it tentatively, slightly unnerved by the crazed look in his eyes. “I do believe we have a deal. I look forward to working with you, Eliza. It has been ages since I have built anything other than mundane contraptions.”

  His eyes were still fixed on the miniature mountain of loot, his mental wheels already spinning as he contemplated Eliza’s project. “But this time… this time, I have a feeling we are going to build glorious instruments of destruction together.”

  Chapter 14 - Surprising

  “How did it go?” Alma asked. The older woman was waiting at the front steps of her cottage when Eliza arrived back at the compound. The sun still shone high overhead, and Eliza could hear birds chirping in the trees ringing the small group of buildings and the buzz of insects flitting through the nearby garden.

  “Good, I think,” Eliza said, mustering a nervous smile. “Evan said he would have the first prototypes finished in a couple days. He seemed rather enthusiastic,” she offered tactfully.

  Alma barked out a laugh. “You mean he had that crazed look in his eye and probably started working on the weapons before you had even left his shop.”

  “Well, yes actually,” Eliza replied. “He seemed relieved to be tackling a project that didn’t involve another clock, but in kind of a scary way…”

  Alma nodded along with that explanation. “Well, now we ne
ed to focus on your next problem,” the older woman said, her expression sobering. “Specifically, we need to develop a few poisons that you can use in conjunction with your new weapons.”

  Eliza’s eyes widened at the alchemist’s nonchalant explanation. Alma discussed the idea of brewing poisons the same way she asked Eliza to pull weeds or water the plants. “Umm, do you have some books that I could read or…” she began tentatively.

  Alma’s mouth split into a sly grin, and she spared a wink at the girl. “I can do you one better. Come along, I have something I want to show you.” As she finished speaking, the older woman began hobbling toward the back of the garden, her cane making a rhythmic thump in the dirt as she moved.

  Eliza had no choice but to follow. Although, she was confused as to where they were heading. Up ahead was a simple tool shed that had been erected near the back of the garden. Beside it stood a massive overgrown hedge that partially ringed the compound. Eliza had only been back there a handful of times – usually to retrieve a tool when working the garden.

  “Ahh, here we are,” Alma said a moment later, gesturing at the shack.

  “The tool shed?” Eliza asked cautiously, glancing at the alchemist and beginning to wonder if she was slipping in her old age.

  Alma’s lips curled into a mischievous grin. “Not the shed, girl. The shrub beside it. Just watch,” she explained.

  Alma’s eyes flashed a brilliant sapphire, and her hands began dancing through an intricate series of gestures. Before Eliza could question what was happening, the surface of the overgrown hedge rippled and contorted – the colors swirling together and then breaking apart like eddies of water. A moment later, the hedge had vanished entirely, revealing a cabin abutting the tree line – this one much larger than the other structures that made up Alma’s compound.

  “W-what was that?” Eliza asked in shock, eyeing the older woman.