Light Online Book Three: Leader

by Tom Larcombe

  “Which they did apparently.”

  “Yup, so we've got eight guards, nine if you count their leader, but he'll be doing mostly office work. You know, schedules, co-ordination, that kind of thing. Also maybe training if we get any locals that want a job guarding. He will respond in case of emergencies though, just not run regular patrols with the rest.”

  “That's good. I don't know if there are any more people out in the rest of the Meadowlands any more, but if there are this will be good for them.”

  “Even if not, it means that we can expand, at least tentatively, into the patrolled areas if there's a resource we want or we need the room,” Eddie added.

  They went back to eating, continuing the conversation as they did. A few minutes later Eddie noticed Paul coming in.

  “Hey, I need to talk to Paul for a moment, okay?” he said.

  “Sure, what's up?”

  “I'm going to go ahead and contract him to build the leather worker building. Griff got back to me with a guy that has the fishing skill, so I need to first weave some fishing nets, then take the guy out and show him how to use them since he's used to a pole and string like my first one. That, of course, means that I'll need to figure out how to use the nets myself first also. You get the drift. As far as I know, this is something I can't delegate since it was so hard to find someone else with the fishing skill.”

  “But you are delegating by getting Paul to do the building. I'm sure you'd rather be doing that, but you're doing the thing that only you can, and delegating, or at least hiring out, the other.”

  Eddie shrugged. He hadn't considered it that way, always only having thought of delegating the things he didn't want to do, not the ones he did, but he supposed it counted.

  “Well, that might be, but I need to go arrange it with him.”

  Tiana nodded.

  “Go, if I'm not here when you're done, I headed up to our room,” she said.

  Eddie went over and chatted with Paul for a few minutes, arranging for him to get the building underway. He also mentioned that the marketplace would be opening up the next day, although he wasn't sure how many people would be running stalls on the first day.

  Delilah perked up at that.

  “You wouldn't mind if I took over one of those, would you? At least for this first time? All these hobbies I've been working on? I end up with finished results, and we don't need all the things I've done, but some of these refugees might.”

  “Sure, go ahead. I'd already decided to not charge for the stalls for the first couple of market days. So just get there early enough to claim an empty one and you're all good,” Eddie said.

  After that he spent a few minutes at the bar, nursing an ale and just listening. Tiana had headed up to their room, or at least hadn't been at the table when he'd finished speaking with Paul and his family. When he didn't hear anything new, he headed up to his room himself.

  ~ ~ ~

  In the morning, after Eddie checked on the construction crews he was very happy. The number of houses they'd finished the day before had more than doubled from before they had the hand carts and now they had the new oxen as well. Griff was back to helping with the crews and he'd split them up into four separate crews now, since he had that many men with the carpentry skill at five or higher now. Each crew was moving a little slower at the moment, due to the newest additions who didn't even have the skill yet, but Eddie was sure that as soon as they got it they'd speed up.

  And it doesn't take that long to get the first point in a skill, Eddie thought. Hmm, I wonder if the NPCs get the option to turn skills down now. I should've checked since that could affect Jern also. He's going to be upset if he doesn't get that option.

  Once he'd seen the crews underway and congratulated them on the number of houses they'd completed the day before, he headed down to the marketplace. There were already three people at stalls, Griff having spread the word that they'd be available for free. One of them he recognized as Griff's wife, whose name he still didn't know. She had a small variety of vegetables available, another was one of the refugees he'd never met who had some items for sale that looked like they might've been brought when she fled here.

  The last stall was occupied by Delilah. The counters were loaded down with what looked like finished sewing projects. There were quilts, which he knew were supposed to take forever, but she had four of them. There was also clothing of various qualities.

  He gave Delilah a quick wave, checked to see what vegetables Griff's wife had so he wouldn't compete with her, then went back to the inn and harvested vegetables himself. He tossed them in one of the hand carts Griff had dropped off at the inn the day before, then headed back down to the market. There were two more stalls occupied when he got there and he noticed that Griff's wife had almost sold out of her produce already.

  Instead of setting his own stall up, he approached her.

  “Hi, I know you're Griff's wife, but I don't think I ever learned your name,” Eddie said.

  She smiled hesitantly at him.

  “I'm Runa, I know you're Eddie. Thank you sir, for the place here. Both the home and the market.”

  “Well Runa, the market is what I wanted to talk to you about. I want to provide some produce of my own for it, but I don't want to run the stall myself. I think that might be too intimidating for some of the folks around here. I noticed that you're almost all sold out, could I contract you to sell my own produce as well. For a share of the proceeds? Perhaps one in ten parts for you?”

  She flushed.

  “I'm not the best of hagglers, Eddie, sir.”

  “That's fine. I'm more worried about getting food to people than making money on this. So feel free to err on their side in your haggling.”

  Her eyes flew wide.

  “You'd do that?”

  “Why not?”

  “But, sir, isn't this the food you sell in your inn? You'd make so much more there.”

  “I've still got food for the inn. And I still make a fair bit of profit from it. Good thing too since I'm paying everyone who's been working on the houses.”

  “I didn't know that, sir.”

  “I try not to spread it around too much. Suffice it to say that you don't need to worry about making a lot of profit on this produce. If it's your own share you're worried about, I can raise your portion to two parts in ten.”

  “No, sir, I couldn't take that much.”

  “Then you'll do it?” he asked.

  She nodded.

  “I'll just need a few minutes to let the woman watching my children know I'll be longer. How much do you have to sell?”

  Eddie went and brought the hand cart over. Runa stared.

  “That's a lot more than I sold already,” she said.

  “Like I said, I want to make sure people have food. So make sure it doesn't go for too dear, alright? I'll watch your stall while you arrange for your children.”

  Runa darted off and Eddie found himself hoping that she'd actually come back. When she did, she had her children in tow. Eddie remembered them as being rambunctious when he'd seen them last, but at the moment they were being calm and respectful.

  “Sorry Eddie, sir. The woman couldn't stay any longer, so I brought them here. Is that okay?” Runa asked.

  “Certainly. A quick question for you though. Can your boy be trusted on his own for a while, and does he have a loud voice?” Eddie asked.

  Runa nodded.

  “Yes, to both of those questions. Why?”

  “I'd like to hire him. What's your name, son?”

  “Ivar, sir.”

  “Ivar, would you like to earn a couple of copper coins?” Eddie asked.

  The boy's interest was obvious as he perked up and looked eager.

  “What do you need me to do for them?”

  “I want you to walk along the north road, for as far as people have been putting in claims for land. Every fifty paces I want you to stop and call out, as loud as you can now, that the marketplace at the crossro
ads is currently open for business. Can you do that?”

  Ivar nodded.

  “Can he do that” Eddie asked, looking at Runa now.

  “He ought to be able to do it. He's certainly loud enough that some of them have heard him before this,” she said, tousling the boy's hair.

  “Then here, you can pay him once he's performed his task,” Eddie said, handing two copper coins to Runa. “I have some other things to take care of, so I have to go.”

  Eddie turned and headed towards the inn, turning back once to acknowledge the thanks Runa called after him. When he got to the inn, he went out back.

  Now to see if I can combine two skills, he thought. Because I don't know how else I'd make a fishing net except by using weaving for the skill and fishing for the knowledge of how the net should look.

  He settled into place, pulling out a section of rope that was really too short for much else. He unbraided it, laying the strands to the side where he could get them easily while he was working. After he'd finished he viewed the fiber strands that had made up the rope.

  So a very open mesh with the intersections knotted together so they don't slide. We don't want to catch any of the smaller fish, so make the mesh about this wide.

  He worked on the net, laying it out, then trying to call both his rope use and his fishing skill to mind together as he began to knot the intersections. About mid-way through the task he felt himself grow tired, not mentally weary, but physically tired. He got a warning flashing into his vision just as his notification light started flashing.

  Stamina is low: 87/700

  Huh, he thought, I really need to change those warnings off the default twenty percent they're set for, now that my stats are so much higher.

  He pulled up the notification light to find that it was a message he'd hoped for.

  You have upgraded the skill/spell Conjunction to (7). Really? A fishing net? I'm about to give up on you.

  I suppose I wouldn't mind so much if it gave up on the snark, Eddie thought. Although by this point I'm so used to it, I might actually miss it.

  Now that he knew he was doing it correctly, he sped the process up a bit. By the end of another two hours he had a fishing net that was probably about eight feet by eight feet. It still didn't feel right though, and he paused to think on that for a few minutes.

  After he had reviewed how to net fish, pulling the information from his fishing skill, he realized that he was going to need some weights on the ends of the net to get it to throw correctly and draw its ends in so it would catch the fish. Also he'd want a thinner rope on it as well, to haul it back in easier.

  A quick trip to the smithy got him the weights. He was only there a little while. Delgar had formed some iron rods to make some of his jobs easier and as Eddie watched, he chopped off small discs, then used a spike and his hammer to hole them. A few moments with a file after that and he had his first weight. The whole process took less than half an hour and then Eddie was on his way back to the inn.

  Once more in the backyard he affixed the weights to the net, then pulled out another section of rope. This time he simply checked it for nicks or cuts that would affect its strength before attaching it to the net for retrieval after it had been cast out to catch fish.

  He looked at his finished project and tried to work through how to use it in his mind. Lucky had been around quite a bit during the initial portion of his project, but when he'd told her he was working and couldn't play, she'd left.

  She returned now and when she launched herself at him, knocking him over backwards, then started licking his face, it gave him an idea. Her fish breath reminded him that there were fish in the smaller pond right out back of the inn, and he could test his net casts there without having to go down to Rat Lake and his boat.

  Lucky followed him down to the lake and darted over to her favorite fishing spot. Eddie had to use the small sandy beach that was there since it was the only area on the shore of the pond clear enough of trees and undergrowth that would obstruct the net when he threw it.

  It took him a good half hour to get the net casting down to where he was satisfied with it. He knew, instinctively, how to do it the first time, but with each successive cast he found it getting easier. By the end, he'd also picked up another point in fishing.

  Alright, he thought, the only other thing I need to do is try it out on the lake. I imagine casting the net from the boat will be different from casting it on the beach.

  A glance at the sun told him that he wouldn't be doing it today, it was nearly dinner time already. So Eddie headed into the inn. Tiana was waiting at their normal table.

  “Have fun?” she asked. “I saw you tossing that net around, but you looked like you were concentrating pretty hard so I didn't disturb you.”

  “I think I've got the cast on that down. I just have to make sure it works as well from in the boat, and then I can train our fisherman and we'll have another food source,” he replied.

  “Did you see Lucky? She wasn't sure if she wanted to attack the net or run away from it,” Tiana answered.

  Eddie's face reddened.

  “No, I didn't even notice that. I'll have to apologize to her. Although I did give her the fish I was catching. After the first few she stopped eating them right away, so hopefully that was good enough as a tacit apology for now.”

  Eddie found that he was actually hungry now, his activities having taken more out of him than he'd thought. Evidently net fishing was fairly stamina heavy since he still hadn't regenerated back to full from the massive drop he'd had earlier on.

  Well, that might limit how much the fisherman can do, maybe we'll need a second person fishing or something to make it work right. We'll see, he thought.

  After dinner, Eddie and Tiana headed to their room, but this time Eddie opened the window and called Lucky in right away. The cat showed up a couple of minutes later and Eddie immediately apologized for missing her reaction to the net. Then he spent a few minutes wrestling with her on the floor. After several near accidents where they almost broke something, he just sat on the bed and patted it. When she joined him on the bed, he wrapped his arms around Lucky and cuddled with her for a bit.

  Lucky wasn't exactly happy about that, but she stayed. Tiana told him it looked like she was torn, both liking to be that close to him, but at the same time really wanting to be playing instead, and he made a mental note.

  Okay, Lucky doesn't mind quick hugs, as long as I don't mind maybe wrestling with her, but she really isn't the cuddling type, he thought.

  The next morning Eddie actually slept in for a bit. He didn't have anything that really needed taking care of immediately. Dominic had moved his gear into the brewery and was starting to experiment a little so he'd be better equipped for large scale brewing when the grain crop for it came to harvest. Paul was working on the leather worker's building, and the night before had told him it should be done this afternoon.

  His big plans for the day were to take a hand cart and pick up a load of wood so he could make more furniture for the guards' office after testing the net. Aside from his normal checks on everything else, that is.

  For the first time he could remember, Tiana was up before him, and this time she brought him a tray for breakfast. As he dressed, after he'd eaten, he kind of got her complaints about him liking to watch while she did, since she was doing the same thing he normally did and he felt a bit conspicuous with her watching him like that.

  He made it out of the inn with enough time to test the net before lunch time and headed for the crossroads, net in inventory. The crews were doing well, so he continued on to the lake, pulling out the spear to control the boat as he climbed into it.

  Once in the middle of the lake he cast the net out, only rocking the boat a little bit.

  Good, this will work. Now I just need to find the time to meet the fisherman and bring him out onto the lake for training, Eddie thought.

  ~ ~ ~

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Cooper
looked around the clearing. He was waiting for Freyja who had said she'd be transporting the squad elsewhere this morning. Everyone else was lined up and waiting. They'd grabbed all the gear they thought they'd need from the camp and now were just waiting on the AI to arrive.

  She didn't show, but Cooper suddenly found himself slightly lightheaded and surrounded by a gray mist, he scanned around himself, and was relieved to find that the rest of the squad was with him here. Olson looked like he was about to shit a brick, but everyone else seemed just fine.

  They were only in the gray mist for a few seconds before it seemed to dissipate, leaving Cooper and his squad standing in a large meadow. Far off in the distance he saw a bunch of buildings, but much closer there was a road cutting through the meadow.

  “Alright everyone, remember we're just an adventuring group. No mention of anything else, got it?” Cooper called out.

  He got a series of nods and a couple of 'yes, Specialist' for answers.

  “Yeah, none of that, if you need to reply like that for whatever reason, call me Cooper, or boss, no Specialist, got it?”

  “Yeah, Cooper,” came the reply.

  The one exception was Campbell who grinned and called out:

  “Got it, Coop.”

  “That'll do, now that road looks like it heads to those buildings in the distance. Let's get on it and head north, see what we're dealing with.”

  Ten minutes later they found themselves at a crossroads. There were several buildings and a small marketplace surrounding it. To the east a fort protected a mostly bare field. There were a few houses, and a pair of towers inside of the fort, but the rest of the ground inside was empty. Beyond that there were a few more houses and what looked like an inn.

  North of them rose a long series of houses, most of them with gardens or fields out back. In the distance, along the north road, were crews building what looked to be more houses.

  The south road they'd come up had run through empty fields until very close to this crossroads, and to the west there were a few more buildings that looked like houses on either side of the dirt road.