Light Online Book Three: Leader

by Tom Larcombe

  Ah, just like the brawls and training I guess, he thought.

  The same adventurer as before called out again.

  “I take it back, Eddie. If that's the way women react to you, I don't want to follow you around after all.”

  The inn broke into a relieved laughter and things slowly returned to normal.

  A feather-light touch to Eddie's thoughts preceded Freyja's voice speaking to him in his mind.

  The incident that caused that reaction has caused Allie much discomfort. I can remove, or simply blur, the incident in her memories since it occurred in the game. Would you like me to do so? Freyja asked.

  Eddie blinked. Surprised by the fact that she announced herself in his mind before speaking, but even more so by the offer she'd made.

  I don't think that it's my place to make that call, he thought. Perhaps you should ask her if she'd like you to do so?

  I do not have the relationship with her that I do with you and Tiana, so I thought asking you would be best. After all, are you not the leader of her group?

  Yes, but that doesn't mean I have the right to decide on something like that for her. I know you've appeared to us in an avatar. I suggest doing the same for her and explaining your offer. She might want you to do that, but I don't have the right to make a decision like that for anyone but myself, Eddie thought.

  I will remember that, Freyja said. But it seemed as though she had deferred decision making to you on more than one occasion.

  I'm not sure how to explain the difference between deciding what we do as a group and deciding on something like you offered, Eddie said. But let's just say that the decision affects her and her alone, so it should be made by her.

  It affects you as well, you saw what just occurred. Do you not think that this will cause a rift in your group? Freyja asked.

  Yes, it might, but still. The decision should be hers and hers alone.

  I shall appear to her then, well perhaps to Karl also since he's with her, and make that offer.

  Thank you Freyja.

  No, thank you. Perhaps if I can puzzle out why you feel this way about this then it will enlighten me on other matters as well, she thought, and then her presence disappeared from his mind.

  “Freyja again?” Tiana asked.

  Eddie nodded.

  “And you wouldn't believe what she just offered to do,” he replied.

  He quickly explained the situation to her and Tiana blanched. Jern, who'd been listening in, simply nodded.

  “It would be the most compassionate thing to do, wouldn't it?” the dwarf asked. “She wouldn't even know you'd made that decision for her.”

  Eddie was struck by the fact that Jern was an NPC. He rarely even remembered that any more, except at times like this or when they were about to fight.

  “Yes, and no...” Eddie said.

  He knew that the main AIs had access to the lesser AIs like the one that ran Jern, so he hoped that trying to explain things to Jern would eventually get back to Freyja as well. So he proceeded to explain, to the best of his ability, just why his making that decision for Allie would be wrong. Tiana joined in at several points, fine-tuning his explanation where he just couldn't find the words to describe what he was trying to say.

  I wonder though, Eddie thought. I know the lesser AIs are splinters of the greater ones, do they still report back like that? Will she get what I tried to explain to Jern? And do the AIs themselves end up with memories or other things pruned out of their personality from time to time? If they do, it would explain why she didn't understand my stance on the matter.

  Eddie was sure that he'd find out Allie's decision the next time he saw her. He'd be able to tell just by looking at her face and seeing if she was still pissed at him.

  Why does everyone seem to think that goblins were my selection though? he thought. It's not like I had any choice in the matter.

  He shrugged and proceeded to eat his dinner since his food had arrived while he was thinking.

  Eddie was nursing his last ale before bed when Karl came rushing into the inn.

  “Eddie, what did you do?” he asked, as soon as he got close enough that he could speak without being overheard.

  “What?” Eddie asked.

  “Fre—, um, that tall blond chick? She just showed up in our house, started asking Allie about a choice. After a while they went silent, but I could tell they were still talking to each other. Then Allie went to bed with the other one following and now she's out cold, I can't wake her up!”

  Eddie felt a touch on his thoughts again and held up a single finger to ask Karl to wait a moment.

  She has accepted my offer, although the rewrite will have her unresponsive until morning, Freyja said in his thoughts. There is an issue still though. She has told three people of the incident that caused that, and if they speak of it to her then it might cause an issue. I couldn't remove the data, just remove the access to it, but that access could be forced back open if she consciously tries to remember it.

  One minute Freyja, I need to talk to Karl, then I'll get back to you.

  “Karl, that was her. She offered to remove Allie's memories of the incident that has her hating goblins the way she does. Evidently Allie accepted. She'll be out until morning due to what the blonde had to do to her to get the memories to go away. One moment, the blonde is talking to me now, something about a potential problem.”

  Karl's face had morphed from worry, to relief, but was now back to worried after Eddie's last statement.

  So I assume you'd like to remove the memories of what she said from other people as well? Eddie thought.

  Yes, but only with their permission. You are one of the three, as are Karl and Tiana.

  Go ahead and remove mine after I go to sleep. Can you do it then or do you need me to be awake?

  I can easily do it as you sleep, probably even easier than with you awake. Easier on both of us.

  Ask the others first, Eddie thought. I'm sure Karl will say yes, but ask him first.

  I would have a harder time speaking to his mind, and I don't want to appear in an inn full of people, would you ask him? I will ask Tiana.

  Eddie nodded mentally, then focused back on Karl.

  “She wants to remove the memories of Allie telling you about that, because if it gets mentioned to her at all, then the memories may resurface,” Eddie said. “She asked me to ask you because she didn't want to speak directly to your mind.”

  Karl nodded.

  “It's going to help Allie, right? Tell her to go ahead and do it.”

  “She'll probably do it after you fall asleep, she said it's easier on both her and us that way,” Eddie said.

  “In that case, I'm going to bed. I'll curl up with Allie so she knows I'm there, then do my best to fall asleep,” Karl said.

  With that he stood and exited the inn again, much calmer now. Eddie turned back to Tiana, who nodded.

  “I said yes also, shall we go to bed and forget all about that?”

  Eddie grinned at her and stood, offering her his arm. Tiana took it and they went upstairs.

  ~ ~ ~

  In the morning when Eddie woke up, he had a slight headache. Breakfast and some coffee took care of it though, and when Karl and Allie came in, also complaining of headaches, theirs were taken care of the same way. He took some food up for Tiana, got her to start waking up, then headed out.

  His first stop was the town hall, and he was baffled when he looked at the readouts.

  Why in the world did the population jump by fifty-two overnight, and the percentage for inhabitants employed jumped a lot too, I mean a whole lot, it's like all those fifty-two new residents are showing up as employed.

  As he thought about it, he realized that the goblins in Rotthorpe must be showing up on the population counter now, and since he was employing all of them, in one way or another, they must also be showing up on the employed list.

  Wow, I didn't expect that, but I did put it under the jurisdiction of The Meadowlands
so it kind of makes sense, he thought.

  He headed for the crossroads next, wanting to put in some building time to help get more of the inhabitants under roofs.

  And counting as inhabitants, he added to himself.

  Jern and Tiana had been ahead of him on the stonework so he had all the stonework on the next house to build already completed. He settled in to start work on it and let his thoughts drift as he did.

  If I need two more settlements I'm going to need people to be in charge of them, especially if they aren't all that close to here, he thought. I wonder if any of the adventurers would be interested. Although the only one I currently know that I'd trust with that would be Charles. There are a lot more I don't know so well though, so there might be others. Maybe an NPC could do it also? I could shift Arvid out like that, if he were willing, but then again he might just try to take over the place, so probably not.

  Lucky had broken off from him near the temple, and he was sure he knew just where she was and what she was doing, so he was surprised when his cat suddenly pounced on him from behind. Laughter followed a moment later and he turned to find Tiana standing there.

  “You told her to do that, didn't you?” Eddie said.

  “Nope, I just told her I was going to go visit you while you were working and asked if she wanted to come along,” Tiana replied.

  Eddie ruffled Lucky's ears and the big cat purred.

  “You want to do something this afternoon Lucky? I don't know, fish or hunt together or something?”

  The cat chuffed at him and laid down on the floor of the house he was building. Meanwhile Tiana had come over closer and claimed a kiss.

  “I hope you don't mind, but I shared your new goal with Karl and Allie,” Tiana said. “They said they were bored and looking for something to do. I remembered you talking about resources and convinced them to go do a more thorough map of the Meadowlands, marking down potential resources as well as just making the map more detailed. I thought that might make it easier for you to decide where the other settlements should go.”

  “No, I don't mind at all. I was going to tell them myself last night, but something made it slip my mind. I can't even remember what, so it must not have been that important, but it did mean that I didn't tell them. I'm glad you did. What did they have to say?”

  “What do you think Karl said. He cursed out his luck and you, then volunteered to do what I was asking. Allie spoke right up and volunteered to go with him to guard him. I think it'll be good for the two of them to get away for a bit, she seemed a lot more cheerful than normal after I'd spoken to them,” Tiana said.

  “Well, I was giving it some thought also. I was thinking Charles might want to lead one of the settlements. I think it might be his type of thing, what do you think?”

  “I think you should ask him soon, he's been making noises about maybe moving out of the Meadowlands after he gets the rest of his group to level twenty. That might be interesting enough for him to want to stay.”

  “Well, I'd hate to stunt his character growth if he was planning on going elsewhere,” Eddie said.

  “You wouldn't be. If he wants it enough to stay then obviously it's something he'd prefer, no?” Tiana said.

  Eddie nodded.

  “I just don't like to impose, you know?”

  “I know Eddie, who were you thinking of for the other settlement?”

  “I didn't have anyone else in mind yet, I don't trust anyone else enough, except the members of our party, to even consider it.”

  “Maybe Paul?” Tiana asked. “I bet he'd love to build a settlement from the ground up.”

  “Yeah, but I also bet he'd hate being in charge of it after it was built,” Eddie replied.

  “You've got a point there. Well, we've got time since you need to get this place up to City level, then Capitol level, first.”

  “Yeah, you're right. I think the first thing to do is to get all these houses built.”

  “We'll need even more than have been claimed though, don't you remember Bjorn saying there were others that wanted to come down here and that some of them were even going to try to make it on their own?” Tiana said.

  “There is that, but I think that when the next refugees come in we should probably have them go south, or west of the crossroads, we're already extending pretty far north along the road.'

  “Might be a good plan. How many houses did you want to do today? I'll go start the stonework for the rest of them while you build here.”

  “Maybe another two after this one? But you've already got the stonework done for the next few. Although getting more done isn't a bad plan,” Eddie said. “These houses aren't going to build themselves.”

  Tiana nodded and headed for the next building site. Meanwhile Eddie leaned over and spent a minute or two petting Lucky, who started purring as he focused his attention on her.

  ~ ~ ~

  Greenshaw settled back into his chair, content for the moment. Every now and again his subconscious, his intuition, just seemed to fade to nothing. He assumed it needed time to recharge, but he could feel the stirring in his thoughts that let him know it was active once again.

  He was perturbed that the in-game testing of constructs had been running into snags. He'd been sure it was going to work, his sub-conscious had reassured him that it would, but it hadn't.

  And that isn't our fault, the voice in his head whispered, I suggest you take a deeper look at what the men assigned to that testing are actually doing. I'm sure you'll find the problem there if you do. In the meanwhile, there are portions of code that need testing, things that have never been used since the game came online. We don't know if their code would cause problems with your tests, so we should try that.

  Why would they cause any issues with the rest of the code? Greenshaw thought. Besides, we can't do that kind of thing to the paying customers. They're the only reason no-one knows that the game is actually research and development, not just a game.

  The voice in his head that he considered his subconscious spoke again.

  Because there are often conflicts in code this extensive, and it hasn't been tested for such since the game went live. I've got the perfect subject to test them on also, he's already employed by the company to do some other testing, so it's not like you'd be harassing a paying player either. I think we should start the testing with a procedure named 'Intervention'.

  ~ ~ ~

  To be continued in:

  Light Online #4

  Defender

  ~ ~ ~

  Tom Larcombe lives in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. A wife, two daughters, cats, chickens, and assorted wildlife keep him from getting lonely. Writing keeps his mind from going stale. He's got a thing for Dragons, collecting lots of different types (pewter, stuffed animals, t-shirts, etc...), and writing about them in a number of his stories.

  He's always been an avid reader, but when he first stumbled onto LitRPG as a genre, he read it voraciously. Having already put out several books in a different genre at the time, he decided that once he was comfortable enough with the genre, he'd try publishing a LitRPG book. That takes us to Light Online: Farmer, Light Online: Keeper, and now book three in the series; Light Online: Leader.

  The next book in the series is planned to be Light Online: Defender. There are five books planned for the series if people continue to read and enjoy them.

  If you want to communicate with the author, you can comment on his blog at:

  Tomlarcombe.blogspot.com

  If you enjoyed this book, or even finished it despite not enjoying it, please leave a review. If you liked it, let me know. If you didn't like it, let me know what you didn't like and how you think it could be improved in your review. I write for others' enjoyment as well as my own, so knowing what others would like to be reading can help guide me as I write my next book.

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  Light Online is a LitRPG series. Eddie Hunter joins a game to work as a farmer, just not the type of farmer he'd expected.

  Light Online: Book One – Farmer

  Light Online: Book Two - Leader

  The "An Untimely Error" series is a triology about Merlin reawakening in the midst of WWII.

  An Untimely Error - Series Page

  The Crow Hill series is an ongoing series of books about a wizard in modern times where magic exists but is kept secret from the masses. The story focuses on what such a wizard could do as an economic apocalypse explodes.

  Crow Hill - Series Page