Light Online Book Three: Leader

by Tom Larcombe

  And I felt like an idiot for asking, Eddie thought. I'm not sure if he made the reference to within the lines to intentionally sound like telling a kid how to color with crayons or what, but I think I'm not going to buy any more of his blueprints from the auction.

  “There you go, just like with a building the lines will show you what to clear and in what order if it's important,” he said, sharing the blueprint with her.

  “Wow, that's cool. I hadn't done any of the building stuff like this. I'm just growing and weaving my house, eyeballing it is how dad puts it. This is how my dad does it so quickly all the time?” she asked, turning towards him.

  “Yup, blueprints make it a lot easier, but his skill in doing construction in the real world let him raise his carpentry skill a lot faster than most others would be able to. I'm guessing it also lets him build things without a blueprint more easily as well.”

  She grinned up at him.

  “He did say he was going to freehand the bridge, and that came out well,” she replied.

  Eddie nodded, then stared pointedly at the area that would be the basement.

  “Oh, yeah,” Becky said, blushing.

  She turned back to the project and started casting.

  A half hour later the basement was excavated, and Becky said she'd gained a point in her dig spell also. Having to keep it exactly as dictated by the blueprint had required additional concentration on the spell and she'd gotten the point right after she'd realized that and taken action on it.

  Tiana and Jern showed up while Becky was finishing up. Once she was done, Eddie dropped down into the hole and tidied up the last little bits that needed fine tuning.

  “Okay, who's up to do the floor?” he asked.

  “Um, Eddie?” Tiana said.

  “What?”

  “You didn't tell us that this blueprint needed finished stone,” she said.

  “It does?”

  “Look at the markers for the stone portions.”

  When he did, he realized that each of them was a rectangle, all the same size, which was not the way that normally looked. Normally the stonework looked like a jigsaw puzzle to him, with the lines fluctuating and moving around as you looked at it so you could use a lot of different pieces in any one place.

  “No, I didn't tell you. Because I never even noticed, didn't even look closely at the stonework part.”

  He sighed heavily.

  “Well, crap. I'd hoped to get a good start on this today.”

  “Maybe we still can,” Tiana said. “All we need is a chisel and a wooden mallet. I bet you could make the mallet and I'm sure Delgar can do something simple like a chisel pretty quickly.”

  Jern nodded.

  “From what I heard back in Hammer Hold,” he said, “things like chisels are quick and easy, maybe a half hour, if that long. Well, that assumes his forge is hot.”

  “Give me a hand getting out of here and we can get on that then. Would either of you be willing to go talk to Delgar?”

  Tiana dropped one end of a chunk of rope into the basement and wrapped the other end around her waist. Once Eddie took hold of the bottom of the rope she leaned her weight backwards and held onto it as he scrambled up the side of the basement.

  “Sure, I'll do it,” Tiana said. “Nice day for a walk.”

  “I'll get right to work on a wooden mallet then,” Eddie said.

  “I'll work through the stone you've got here and see what's good for the finished stone blocks,” Jern said. “We can bring the others over to the houses you're building, it'll still be good enough for those.”

  Tiana set out along the road while Jern started sorting stone. Eddie had to walk a bit himself, and stayed with Tiana, Lucky trailing along behind them. They chatted for the few minutes it took to get to where the road had trees growing right up against it and then Eddie broke off and started looking for appropriate sections of wood.

  He knew that this wood wasn't going to be the best for a mallet, but he also wasn't worried about that. It would be fine for the purpose he was using it for. If he'd wanted something higher quality, he would've had to track down a better wood for it, but for a functional mallet this would do just fine.

  It was fairly easy to find pieces of the correct sizes, and he got three of each. Since he hadn't tried a mallet before, he was sure he'd screw something up on the first try, and getting three let him have a good enough chance to get at least one functional mallet out of the three sets that he was confident he'd manage it.

  And if not, it's easy enough to come back and get more wood. It's only a ten minute walk to go from the construction site to these woods and back, he thought.

  Eddie got back to the worksite, where Jern was about halfway through the stones. He settled in with his wood and utility knife and then simply thought about the job. He knew that would trigger the innate knowledge bestowed by the carpentry skill and soon enough he was working on a handle.

  He smoothed the wood, then tapered what would be the top end. His utility knife was sharp enough that he managed to cut a couple of slices through the top that would accept wedges that would hold the handle and head together. Then he started to work on the head.

  The head was more difficult. He smoothed and shaped it first, then started to whittle away a hole for the handle before remembering a shortcut Paul had shown him.

  He gathered up all the little flakes and chunks of wood from his efforts so far and placed them on a flat stone. A minute of work with his flint and steel had the flakes smoldering, so he blew on them to bring a flame to life. The chunks went on next and when the first of them was burning well, he positioned the head of the mallet so he could drop the coaling chunk of wood onto it.

  He used that trick to get the hole through the head of the mallet then took his utility knife to clean out the hole and size it. Every minute or two he'd stop and try to fit the handle in place. When he finally managed to do that he hollowed out the hole for the handle just a touch more, then cut out some wedges to drive into the slits on the top of the handle so it would expand and fit snugly in the head of the mallet.

  He stopped dead then. His carpentry skill told him he was going to need an adhesive to make sure the wedges stayed put and that was something he didn't have.

  Well, he thought, what's sticky around here? I suppose Old Jeffries might have some adhesive, but just no. I'll find something to substitute, it's not like this mallet is going to have to serve long term duty or anything, just hold together for a week or two.

  He thought about it for a few minutes, thinking of and dismissing tree sap as being not a strong enough adhesive. Then he stopped dead.

  I've got magic. What if I use my conjoined weaving and plant growth to drive some tiny vines or something in instead of the wedges. Heck, I can do double duty and use something that exudes a little sap also. I'm sure I've run into that stuff a few times, it's hell to get the sap back off my hands too, so that would work well. Where was that stuff? Oh yeah, at the fringe of the Forest of Fools.

  “Hey Jern, I need to go get something to finish this off. I'll be back in a few minutes, okay?” Eddie said, standing and starting to walk south.

  “Sure Eddie, I'm almost done sorting these. If you want to wait I can go with you,” Jern offered, seeing where Eddie was headed.

  “Nah, I just need some vines that grow right at the edge of the Forest of Fools. I'll be fine,” Eddie said.

  As Tiana had mentioned it was a nice day, so Eddie's walk went quickly. When he got near the Forest he started hunting for the tiny, woody vine he'd remembered. It took him about ten minutes to find a small patch of it and when he harvested a portion for use, his notification light started flashing.

  You have upgraded the skill Herbalism to (3). Grubbing in the dirt for advancements now, Eddie?

  He ignored the snark of the system, wrapped the vine in the chunk of cloth he'd used to pick it so his hands wouldn't get sticky, then turned around and returned to the site of the future town hall. Jern was just
finishing the stack and he watched curiously as Eddie replanted the vine he'd found, then prepared for his attempt at finishing the mallet.

  He sat down, knowing that since this was a new intent for his Conjunction it would hit him hard. Then he envisioned the small vine growing right into the gaps he'd cut for wedges, filling them and pressing on them until there was a solid pressure in there, just like his Carpentry skill had told him the wedges would need to do. He took two of the vine lengths and pressed their tips to the gaps in the handle.

  He held that picture in his mind, then cast the Accelerated Plant Growth spell. The vine began to grow rapidly, slipping the tips of the separate vines into the gaps he'd left for wedges. He continued to cast the spell while holding the picture in his mind. He couldn't watch the handle and keep his concentration going though so he just held the picture in his mind until he began to get lightheaded from the flow of mana out of him. Then he released the spell.

  A wave of dizziness hit him, but there was no accompanying headache this time at least. When he checked his mana he found that this time the Conjunction had used the anticipated eight times normal mana for the plant growth spell. Then he finally looked down at the mallet and grinned before pulling up the flashing notification light in the lower section of his vision.

  You have upgraded the skill/spell Conjunction to (6). Really, using an awesome skill like this to make a wooden tool? Have you lost your mind?

  The vine had wedged itself thoroughly into the handle before spilling back out. He quickly used a few rocks to keep the hammer straight upright and started trimming the excess vine off. As he remembered, when this vine was cut it released a great deal of highly sticky sap. With the hammer balanced as it was, that sap worked its way down into the gaps that the vine had filled.

  He knew the sap hardened into tough little clumps, clumps that had practically shredded his clothes when he tried to pick them off after he'd stumbled through a patch of this stuff before. Once it hardened, this mallet head would be solidly secured to the handle. And, if he remembered right, that should only take from thirty to sixty minutes.

  He left the mallet propped up between the rocks he'd used to balance it and walked over to Jern.

  “So, these are the ones that aren't suitable?” he asked.

  Jern nodded.

  “Yes. It looks like we have enough to do the floor of the basement and maybe one and a half walls after we cut these into finished stone.”

  “So, I guess I need to make a few more trips north. Any tips on how to pick rocks that are easier to make into finished stone?”

  ~ ~ ~

  Rather than give him tips, Jern just went with him. They both walked north to the stony meadows. It was a fairly quick trip on the roads. Once they were there Jern showed him which ones were good and which weren't. Eddie quickly figured out that they needed to be medium sized or larger and not have any major cracks in them.

  The two of them loaded their inventories, fortunately the raw stone stacked or it would've taken a lot longer. Eddie had already noticed that although they stacked, they still looked different from one another when he unloaded them again. When they finally got back from their second stone gathering trip, Tiana was sitting there, waiting for them.

  “Did you get the chisel?” Eddie asked.

  “I got two. He had to cast them and had two molds for them, so he figured he'd do two at once since it would only take the same amount of time. Is that your mallet?” she asked, gesturing.

  Eddie walked over and picked up the mallet. He shook it a few times and found that the head seemed secure.

  “It sure is. I wish I'd known you'd be getting two chisels, I would've made two mallets.”

  “That's unnecessary,” Jern said. “One of us can cut the stones and the other can place them. We can switch off as we finish sections. So we only need one mallet. You can always make another if you like, or if we break this one, but one is fine for now.”

  Eddie watched with fascination as Jern took the mallet and chisel, then started cutting the stone. Flakes went spiraling off and with about six hits, it became a usable, finished block of stone.

  Eddie helped Tiana down into the basement, then tied a rope off on a nearby tree so they could climb in and out of there. Once they had the back wall and basement done, he could work on the stairs leading down there, but until then the rope would have to do.

  He went back to watching Jern, once more tempted to use one of his open slots on masonry. He'd discovered that he enjoyed building more than he thought he would. Working with his hands made him happy for some reason and this would be another way to do it.

  Shaking his head, he threw off that temptation.

  “Jern, are we going to have enough stone yet?”

  The dwarf shook his head.

  “Not quite, lad.”

  “I'll go get some more then.”

  Eddie headed north again, enjoying the walk as he looked at all the new houses along the road, each of them filled with inhabitants of the Meadowlands, and his growing village.

  There were still more housing sites marked off than there were completed houses and Eddie hoped that Bjorn managed to get the oxen he wanted.

  Crap, I haven't made any plans about building the wagons or carts for them yet though. I'll have to do that up at the farm, use my rough-hewn planks from up there so it doesn't slow any of the other building projects, he thought.

  By the time he made it back to the construction site for the town hall they'd finished about a quarter of the basement floor. He saw what was slowing them down and, after unloading his stone, he dropped down into the basement.

  They'd been having issues getting the stone transferred from up top down to the bottom of the basement, so Eddie put himself between the two and took the stones from Jern at the edge of the hole for the basement and carried them over to Tiana. In between carrying stones he rigged up a little dumbwaiter style attachment for the rope. Once that was in place, he went back up top.

  As Jern finished cutting the stones, Eddie took them over and lowered them to the basement on the little dumbwaiter. Once Tiana had them off of that, he pulled it back up and went back to Jern for the next stone. That cut a good third of the time that the process had been taking off and well after lunch time, but before dinner, they'd finished the floor and called it a day.

  As they walked back to the inn Eddie offered a plan for the following day.

  “I know we're headed back to the mine the day after tomorrow, but would you two mind working on the basement tomorrow? If we can get that back wall in, then I can build a staircase and everything will be significantly easier.”

  “Aye, I picked up a point in masonry today. I wouldn't mind a chance to get another tomorrow,” Jern said.

  “I'll come over after I've checked on the temple in the morning,” Tiana added. “I'm sure we can get the back wall done at the very least. Probably more than that also. I know it doesn't rain a lot around here, but I think we want the basement covered before it does, especially if it was like that last storm.

  Eddie remembered what he'd seen of Geirvaldr the last time he'd seen him.

  “I don't think that's going to be a problem so long as Helga stays friendly with Geirvaldr,” Eddie said.

  Tiana smirked at him while Jern just looked confused, then shook his head and ignored the rest of their conversation.

  ~ ~ ~

  Chapter Eighteen

  Aaron stared at the code Tom and the rest of his team had provided him already. In just a couple of days they'd knocked out half of the suggestions that Aaron had made for altering the crafting classes. It wasn't even their primary job, but since Aaron had been assigned the research for the changes, and he knew that he had a good crew of programmers under him, he'd cleared it with Cynthia and let them run with it.

  All the alterations they'd made hadn't been beneficial for those classes. Aaron was pretty sure that his experience as a smith in the game wasn't standard since Eddie had supplied just about
everything Aaron had needed. Even so, Eddie had been correct that Aaron's character Opron shouldn't have been able to manage what he did so quickly.

  So, some of the alterations took the simple experience limiter code from combat classes fighting mobs and applied it to crafting classes that made the same item over and over. Now the experience yielded by the creation of the same item over and over would slowly drop, or at least it would once this particular piece of code was made live in the game.

  On the other hand, Crafters that specialized in one type, like Paul had with his structure based carpentry, would have better access and success with the non-specialized types related to their main skill. So Paul's carpentry skill would let him do wooden weapons and furnishings better after the patch went in. The specialization would let him do structures much better, but not really degrade quality on the other items. Although it would limit the quality level produced to excellent.

  So, I suppose it could potentially degrade quality once their skill is at master level and they try to produce non-specialized items. Even so, a cap of excellent shouldn't be that much of an issue, Aaron thought.

  He scanned through the code, commenting it as he went. Tom could read his own code like it was a novel, so he never added enough comments for anyone else, well anyone but Aaron at least. Aaron could read it the same way, but he'd been taken to task enough by people who couldn't, people that had to understand the code to authorize it, that he could now comment it so that anyone with any idea about coding could follow along.

  That took him a couple of hours and when he was done, he started his own coding. He was adding in a few perks to the crafter classes that he wanted the players to have to figure out on their own. Since Eddie seemed to be all over the quests that he had to figure out on his own, and happy about it, he thought that the crafters might like some similar things.

  Because every time Eddie talked about opaque help files, or not having enough information to go on, he did it with a huge grin on his face, Aaron thought. It was as though he both loved and hated it. All the other people around him seemed jealous that he found the things that let him complain like that too, so it appears that it's more than just him that likes that type of thing. That's the type of reaction we need from people to get them really involved in the game long term, which is why they told me they wanted these changes, so...