Light Online Book Three: Leader

by Tom Larcombe

  Eddie heaved another sigh of relief as the man walked away from his table. Having witnessed the storms from Odin's fury before, he was seriously wondering how much of his inn would be left in the morning if the man were to be angered.

  When Eddie and Tiana left to go to bed, Geirvaldr was still sitting in the common room, talking to the other adventurers. Opron had shown up, Eddie had pointed out Geirvaldr and told Opron of his suspicions. Opron had taken one look, shook his head, and asked the barman if he could tip one of the staff to bring him food and a couple of ales in his room.

  “If you're right, don't piss him off,” Opron said as he left the common room.

  “Like I didn't know that already?” Eddie asked as the dwarf walked away.

  ~ ~ ~

  When Eddie came down in the morning, he heaved a sigh of relief when he saw the common room intact. He'd not slept well, waiting to hear a commotion downstairs that would signal the end of his inn. It never happened though and he was mostly cheerful as he and Tiana waited for breakfast and coffee. At least until he saw Karl and Allie entering the front door, followed by Geirvaldr.

  “You didn't have any open rooms in the inn or the bunkhouse, so I offered Geirvaldr our spare room,” Karl said.

  Does he have any clue as to Odin's temper? What does he think he's doing? Eddie thought.

  “Now, I've got something else for you to try, Gerry,” Karl said.

  Eddie's eyes went wide as he waited Karl to get smote. When nothing happened, his eyes grew even wider. Karl looked at him and laughed.

  “I explained about nicknames, and pointed out that Geirvaldr was a mouthful for anyone who wasn't used to it, so we went through some possibilities and came up with Gerry,” Karl said.

  He turned back to Geirvaldr.

  “This is called coffee, and it's got a bit of a kick to it. Not like alcohol, this one takes a few minutes to come on, and then you feel all full of extra energy. It's called caffeine, the part that does that to you. Easiest to get in coffee, especially here. The drink is a little bitter, but you can add things to it to mellow it out. Not for me though, I like mine black. That means with nothing else added.”

  The waitress came out with the orders and Geirvaldr cautiously sniffed his mug of coffee. Then he took a sip.

  His face screwed up for a moment as though he weren't quite sure what he thought of it. He set the mug down, started eating, then took another, larger drink from his mug. By the end of his food he'd finished off two cups of coffee.

  “I see, this little buzzing feeling is what you're talking about?” Geirvaldr said.

  Karl nodded.

  “Yeah, some folks call it a caffeine buzz, so that's a good description.”

  “I prefer my mead, but this is...tolerable.”

  “Um, Karl?” Eddie asked.

  “Oh, don't worry, Eddie. He just wants to talk to whoever he can. I told him there are different people in here in the morning and lunch time, so he's going to hang around and talk to them.”

  Eddie shuddered.

  “Okay,” he said, “but I've got things to do so I'm out of here. Tiana?”

  She got up with him and the two left the inn to head down to the temple.

  “Does Karl have any idea how much trouble he could get himself into?” Tiana asked.

  “I don't know, but Gerry?”

  Tiana shook her head.

  “Only Karl could somehow manage to get Odin to accept a nickname like Gerry and get away with it unscathed,” she said.

  ~ ~ ~

  Chapter Nine

  Ferring walked around the clearing, Campbell in tow. Ferring kept twisting his wrist and body in odd motions while muttering something that wasn't in English. Campbell had managed to get a few spoken words of English out of the other Private, and now there were a few more.

  “I know that if I just get it right I'll be able to do it,” Ferring said, “maybe something less powerful?”

  Then he went back to muttering in what Campbell assumed was Goblin speak.

  A moment later Ferring's hand began to glow as it twisted. With a flick of his wrist he sent a ball of light at a nearby tree, the light driving through the bark and taking out a chunk of wood.

  “Aha! I knew it, now to work back up to where I was,” he said.

  Campbell just stared, his jaw hanging low. None of the squad had been allowed to choose classes when they came into the game, there'd been some exception somewhere so that while they'd gained levels, they hadn't had any classes and their gains simply increased their stats, not granted any new skills.

  But that was freakin' magic, Campbell thought. How the hell is Ferring casting spells without a class?

  “Ferring man, how'd you do that?” Campbell asked. “How'd you cast a spell without a class?”

  Ferring turned to him and stared, locking gazes with Campbell.

  “I've got one now,” he said. “I just remembered exactly what I'd done to cast spells before and repeated it, over and over. Then I figured out I needed to try the easiest ones first. Got my class, got the spell. Gonna work and get them all back. Don't like it without those now, need my magic back.”

  Ferring broke off his staring, then started muttering and twisting his wrist again. Meanwhile Campbell raced off to find the new Specialist.

  “Yo, Cooper, where are ya? I need to tell you something!” Campbell hollered.

  A few moments later Cooper came out of the Specialist's tent.

  “What is it now, Campbell?”

  “Ferring, it's Ferring. He just cast a damned spell in his regular avatar, he's trying to figure out how to cast more too.”

  “What? How?” Cooper asked.

  “He said he just remembered exactly how to do it from when he was in that goblin, then he did it over and over in his regular avatar until he got it to work. Said something about having to go down to the easy one first and bang, he hurled some sort of magic ball at a tree. Blew a big old chunk out of it too.”

  Cooper popped open his in-game command panel and started typing, after spending several seconds verifying his permissions.

  “That's weird as shit. He's got a class, but it doesn't register like a normal one. I can't just remove it and I can't remove his spells either. And there's another one, now he's got three spells, not just one,” Cooper said. “What the hell, I'm supposed to be able to edit everything from in here. So much for the new and improved command line interface I was promised. It's a piece of shit, but what else should I expect from the military. Lowest bidder and all that. Let's see if I can track down the problem...”

  ~ ~ ~

  Eddie had left Lucky behind on the trip to Hammer Hold, afraid that a cat the size of some of the dwarfs themselves would cause problems with negotiations. Now he was trying to make up for it. She'd stared at him sorrowfully when he'd told her to stay before the trip and glared at him reproachfully when he'd returned.

  He was feeling rather self-conscious at the moment, sitting next to the pond on the temple grounds. Lucky would slap the water over one particular koi and it would race across the pond to where Eddie was sitting. He'd slap the water over it and it would race back to Lucky.

  Eddie was also a little worried. If, as he suspected, the koi was somehow connected with Freyja and this whole ritual of Lucky's was a way for her to play with the goddess at a remove, then he was now doing the same. He mentally apologized, in case he was correct.

  I'm so sorry Freyja, I'm just trying to make Lucky happy since she's upset with me, he thought, sort of like a prayer.

  He'd forgotten, again, that Freyja was, to some degree, along in his mind for the ride. Whenever he remembered that it seemed to slip from his thoughts and memories quickly. But now he remembered it all as a peal of laughter filled his mind.

  The sound reminded him of very high pitched bells chiming and when they ceased a voice filled his thoughts.

  I understand, of course I do, I can know what you're thinking if I need to. I understand you mean no disrespect, Freyj
a's voice spoke in his mind.

  So I was right, he thought.

  The entire thing slipped from his mind again, but even not knowing exactly what had just occurred he still found himself much more comfortable playing with Lucky and the koi.

  Before long, he stood up.

  “Lucky, why don't we go hunt some bunnies together. Give me a couple of minutes first, then we can go.”

  He settled onto one of the benches scattered around the temple grounds and pulled out three arrow shafts and arrow heads. After using Conjunction with the Bowyer/Fletcher and Arc spell several times, he'd discovered that he had enough mana to do three arrows before he needed to wait to regenerate it.

  The process was much easier now so he formed three Arcing arrows, as he thought of them, draining his mana nearly all the way before standing up and looking at Lucky. He pointed at the thin forest to the northeast of where they were, the stand of trees that was almost directly north of the inn.

  Lucky raced off towards the trees, doubling back when she outdistanced Eddie by too much. He broke into a trot himself, trying to gauge how much stamina it would take to get to the trees. Twenty minutes later they were entering the tree line and Lucky bristled for a moment before racing off and returning with a bunny. She dropped it at Eddie's feet and he reflexively reached down and inventoried it. Bow in hand, he and his cat moved deeper into the forest.

  ~ ~ ~

  Eddie and Lucky were back at the inn for lunch, as was most of the party. Jern was there since Eddie had mentioned wanting to talk to the group about something new to do.

  “So Jern, are you good with going maybe a quarter of the way back through the tunnels? It's nowhere near Hammer Hold, but we found something good. Looks like an abandoned mine, but it's full of orcs now. We need to clear it,” Eddie said. “At least we think it's orcs. We didn't go to take a look when we found it. Charles is going to get his party to join us for this one since it's a little over our level.”

  Jern got a thoughtful look on his face for a moment.

  “If it's that far away from the Hold, I'll do it,” he said. “But don't be surprised if you don't see me around if any dwarfs show up. I might not have stealth, but I can still hide if I'm in a tunnel.”

  “Sorry to ask it of you, but there's a quest attached. It used to be the Meadowlands mine and it will be again if I have anything to say about it,” Eddie said.

  He looked around the inn and spotted Delgar and Opron at a table with the apprentice smith they'd been training. Eddie got up and walked over to them.

  “You're out soon, right Opron?” he asked.

  The dwarf nodded.

  “Got time for one more project? Might be a new one for you.”

  “Sure, what do you need?” Opron said.

  “Pickaxes, a bunch of them.”

  “That's a relatively easy project. I can snag a design and have a few for you before I log out at midnight tonight. Fortunately, we've melted down all that scrap metal you brought us and have it in ingots. That'll make it quicker. Why, did you hit somewhere on the houses for refugees where you've got to break up bedrock or something.”

  Eddie shook his head and looked around the table.

  “Delgar, you'll find out from Pellin soon enough, but Opron's gone soon so I'm going to tell him now.”

  Delgar's face twisted into a wry smile, but he nodded.

  “We found an abandoned mine and a quest to clear it. It's called the Meadowlands mine, so I think we can claim that just fine for our burgeoning settlement here,” Eddie whispered in Opron's ear.

  Opron whistled.

  “That's sweet. I don't remember ever seeing anything about that, so it must be something new.”

  “We're thinking that advancing the Meadowlands settlement level has been opening up new things, new areas and the like,” Eddie said. “At least that was Charles' best guess and it sounded like a good one to me. I know of a couple of things that appeared after I advanced the level of the area.”

  “I can see them using that for a mechanic,” Opron said, “but I've never come across it before. Tell you what, I'll work on some picks between lunch and dinner and drop them off here when I'm done. If it's the end of my vacation though I'm going to have some fun tonight, no work then.”

  “You've earned it Opron, I'll spot your drinks for the night,” Eddie said.

  The dwarf just grinned at him.

  “Thanks, Eddie. This was actually a lot more fun than I'd thought it would be when I started.”

  “Why did you come into the game if you didn't think it would be fun?” Delgar asked.

  “What the hell, I'm gone tonight,” Opron said.

  He stood, walked over to Delgar, and whispered in his ear.

  “You're what?” Delgar almost shouted.

  “Yeah, all that griping about the smith class? I took notes. We'll do some revision on it and a lot of the other crafter classes. That was what I came into the game for, research on the crafter classes and how to improve them because they're pretty bare bones at the moment.”

  “You must be joking,” Delgar said. “What about you Eddie, are you one too?”

  Eddie shook his head.

  “Nope, just a regular player,” Eddie said, not wanting to go into the pod testing he was doing due to his NDA.

  “This is crazy stuff. You mind if I spread that around some?” Delgar asked.

  Opron looked at him.

  “Not until tomorrow,” Opron said. “You just heard me say I want to enjoy my last night in game and you know damned well that I'd get pestered all night if everyone else knew.”

  Delgar nodded.

  “Yeah, but tomorrow maybe? I'll post that I was working with a dev, in game, to help improve the crafter classes. That okay? It'd be a decent reputation boost for me.”

  “Sure, that's fine then. You can even tell people that there'll probably be a patch integrated some time in the next couple of months to adjust those classes,” Opron said.

  Eddie looked at the young apprentice, who was staring at the others, having no idea what they were talking about.

  “So, how is your apprenticeship going?” Eddie asked, trying to make the boy comfortable.

  “It's going well, Eddie, sir. I've got the smithing skill now and I've got it up to a two already.”

  “That's wonderful. I'm sure your skills are going to make you very useful to the community.”

  “I hope so, sir.”

  The boy still didn't look comfortable, but at least the questioning look was out of his eyes now. Eddie stood to head back to his own table, but before he got there he was intercepted.

  Geirvaldr stepped in front of Eddie.

  “Innkeep, I noticed that you have a training ring out back. Any chance we could use it?”

  “Um, sure, why?”

  “My name, and my skill, have been questioned. I wish to spar with a group of these people that I might demonstrate my skill with the spear.”

  “Uh... I'm not sure that would work so well,” Eddie started.

  Geirvaldr whipped out his spear, and then a leather covering for it which he secured over the blade.

  “The world will allow it, so long as we safe our weapons,” he said.

  Eddie took a step back, Geirvaldr's eye was shining, possibly with anger, but maybe only with humor. Eddie wasn't quite sure which, but he also wasn't going to argue.

  “Go right ahead then, if you're able to, then you're welcome to do so.”

  “Come,” Geirvaldr called, motioning to three men sitting at a table. “I shall demonstrate the skills you have impugned, perhaps teach you a lesson at the same time.”

  He headed out the back door of the inn with the three men following. Eddie moved to follow, only to realize that almost the entire population of the inn was doing the same.

  The four fighters entered the ring and everyone else scattered out around it to watch. As Geirvaldr took the center of the ring, the other three started off in an arrowhead formation. The front man had
a sword and board setup and was obviously their tank. On his left was another man with sword and shield, his shield was only a buckler though. The final man was armed with a pair of shortswords.

  Eddie didn't see where they'd come from, but all the weapons had leather sheathes similar to the one on Geirvaldr's spear.

  I wonder if Geirvaldr provided those or what? Eddie thought. I haven't seen anything like them in the game yet besides these.

  The fight itself was quick. Geirvaldr stepped forward, thrusting with his spear. As the tank caught it on his large shield, the other two men fanned out to either side.

  Using the length of his spear to keep himself out of sword range of the tank, Geirvaldr thrust again, but this time as the spear was intercepted by the shield, he stepped back and allowed the momentum of the block to push his spear into a spin. The haft dropped as he raised the blade and Geirvaldr allowed the shaft to slip through his hands. Holding the spear just under the blade, he spun the haft into the legs of the dual wielder. The man jumped, but Geirvaldr followed through, letting his spear slide through his hands again so the leather clad blade caught a shin as the dual wielder landed.

  The man spilled onto his side on the ground as spear drove his legs out from under him. With a quick thrust at the tank Geirvaldr once more converted the momentum of the block into a spinning strike that brought his spearhead into the torso of the dual wielder as he tried to regain his feet.

  The sword and buckler fighter had tried to close as Geirvaldr managed the killing strike that left the dual wielder sliding himself out of the ring. The spear seemed more than adequate for blocking as well though. Geirvaldr caught three rapid strikes, one from the tank and two from the other man, on the shaft of his spear before letting the momentum of the last strike set his spear spinning again. This time the leather covered blade drove towards the tank's ankles.

  The tank grounded his shield and as the spear struck it, Geirvaldr leaned into the strike, pushing hard. The bottom of the tank's tower shield rapidly slid towards the tank's feet, striking them hard and knocking the tank off balance. As the tank tried to regain his balance, Geirvaldr once again used a spinning movement to bring the blade into play above the man's head. He caught his blow at the last moment, pulling it. Even with that the leather clad blade struck the man's helmet hard enough for everyone to hear the strike.