Taking the road north, I found not only the stables, but a general store as well. I bought a pack and enough stores to last a month, if I was careful. Four canteens and a water purifying kit. A Basic Survival Guide and the Novice Farming book. Bretta had been right, had this happened if I had built all those houses, I wouldn’t have had a silver to my name. Thankfully I still had enough silver in my accounts to cover all of this and I hit the road out of town as quickly as possible. Only after I asked the stablemaster where the hell I was.
He sold me a map on top of the horse and tack, and I saw that the guard had been right. Everything around here was “X” out, but it didn’t matter, I would die under my own power, if that was what it came too. I only had a week to go, hopefully I could stay hidden long enough for the campaign timer to hit zero. Then Vexi could go fuck herself, along with the shitty lord. They would make the perfect couple.
Chapter Eight
I found a nice cave along the northern territory of Norkia, big enough for both the horse and I to fit with more than enough room.
We spent days together, he wasn’t much to talk to, but it was better to have an animal beside me rather than being alone. I named him Dumas, after me, since I thought of him like my child. He was a queer animal, taken to bouts of affection and equal don’t touch me or I will run, mind sets. I liked him, but he was a noisy fucker. And one morning, I awoke to find Dumas had ripped out the stake I had tied him too and he was gone.
“Goodbye sweet Dumas, may your days be filled with happiness and fillies.” I was starting to go stir crazy in the cave, and I had read both books a dozen times. But as I stared out over the grasslands, I was filled with a thought, “why should I go back?” Life in the game was just one bullshit thing after another, hell if I could be enslaved on my own land once, why couldn’t it happen again?
I entertained the idea of staying out here in the wilds, and I knew I couldn’t. I was no hermit, I might be a loner, but not a hermit. My mind thought of a million different things as I waited for the hours to pass and the campaign to end. All from giving my farm my best effort, to just giving the reins to Bretta and moving into the city. I knew people did the latter, invest in someone who knew what the hell they were doing and just be a sugar daddy until the profits came rolling in. Hell, I could hire more people and expand the farm, cut down all the trees and just make one big ass farm.
My mind went in circles, I weighed risk against effort, and in the end, I was no further along than when I had been when I was captured. I kept coming back to the simple fact, I was invested in the farm, my blood, sweat and tears were in that dirt and I wasn’t about to give up on it now. My Quest was named, “Make something of yourself,” not, “Chill and let everyone else do the hard work.” I was at a disadvantage since the day I woke up in this game. I wasn’t going to let it beat me, bring on the slavers, bring on the Vexi’s and the Dick Lords. I would handle them when they showed up.
I started to pass the time doing the forms Torga had showed me, slowing the process down and figuring out why each movement was needed. Like Karate, there had to be a reason, you did not just waste movements and tire yourself out. I went through them like a mad man, more so because I didn’t have anything else to do, but as they became second nature, I pulled out my dagger and started to go through the movements again. Mixing in some of the forms my mind remembered from my lessons in the real world. It was hard, draining, but the more I did them, the easier they become, I slowed down the movements again until I was going at a snail's pace.
In the afternoon I went full speed, using my dagger like an impromptu sword, I was surprised at my speed but I knew I was nowhere near Torga, let alone Vexi. This was how my days were spent in the cave, until my rations were down to the last two, and I checked my character window. The Campaign counter was gone and I felt like the biggest idiot in the world. How many days had I lost because I was playing swordsman with no sword in a cave in the middle of nowhere?
I checked the map, and saw the “X’s” were gone and I noticed the name changed from the city I had bought the horse at. It was hard to pronounce, so I never tried, but now it was called, B’longs T’me. “Fucking players.” I shook my head with a laugh. So, the dick lord had been conquered in the final days, I hope he died a slow painful death.
I packed up my camp and hit the road within the hour. I didn’t have a clue as what to expect, but hordes of traveling players were not one of them. They all looked tired, beat and just grumpy as hell. But I knew traveling in groups was far safer than traveling solo and I hitched myself to one of these groups traveling south.
One player from the Red Suns Guild, a female gnome with violet pigtails and sunny disposition, started to talk to me and we conversed for days. When I told her where I was headed, she beamed at me, “Harwick, I know it. Hey we have a mage in our guild who knows the portal spell. I will talk to her and see if she has the materials to cast it.”
It was my turn to beam at her, “Wow, that's awesome. You know Shortstuff, you're amazing, has anyone ever told you that?” She smiled from ear to ear, and her cheeks flushed. A little flattery never hurt, and it was a good thing I made an acquaintanceship with her, because that night we were attacked.
“Resistance FIGHTERS!” The call came with the early morning dawn, and everyone was up and ready in a moment. It was a bloody affair and I got to put my forms into motion. Though without a sword, I missed more than that I hit, but a sword freed up once I took my opponent down. With my dagger in my left hand and the sword in the right, I became a force to be reckoned with, at least against these guys. Vexi would have served me up for dinner, but these guys were no Vexi, and I used the skills I learned from her with deadly precision.
They ran off as soon as they found out they were out gunned and I looted the bodies I had taken down personally. I left the others for the guild I was traveling with, and their leader, a barbarian the size of a basketballer and as broad as a vending machine looked me over once the fight was over. “You fight good. What guild are you with?”
I snorted a laugh, he was obviously a roleplayer. “Thanks, and I am guildless.”
“You want in mine? Low start rate, seeing how you know how to swing steel.”
“Thanks, but I'm only trying to get home. I appreciate the offer though. Maybe I could run with you guys next time?”
He nodded and grunted, “You earned your place in traveling with us. You're the good kind, didn’t try to loot me kills.”
“Aw, Tree likes you.” Shortstuff said, with a face full of perspiration. “You should be honored, he doesn’t like anyone at first.”
I laughed, but then I saw she wasn’t joking. “Oh, ah, sorry. I am still very new to the game.”
“I know right, and yet you just took down Tier Threes.” Her big eyes looked me over in a new light. “Who trained you?” I told her my story as we started walking again, “I’ve heard her name before, Vexi, she’s a big-time player on the dark side. You better hope she forgets your name, or doesn’t come after you.” I swallowed. That’s all I needed was for her to show up at the farm and raze it, and me, to the ground. “But darkies can’t just walk around Atheria with no one noticing. Too many people, and you know how racist they are. They look at me all weird when I go down there, and I am on their side.”
“Tell me about it, if they think you're poor, they double the prices on you. And I am a Lord there.”
“OH...MY...GOD! You're a Lord? Seriously?” She was squealing with excitement, “What is it like, do you have a castle and servants? What… tell me...tell me NOW!” She was so damned adorable, how she deepened her voice with the last word. Maybe there were good people in this world?
“No castle, no servants. I am a hedge lord, basic level with a basic land. I am nothing more than a farmer.” The man ahead of us snorted and looked back over his shoulder at me, giving me the evil eye.
“Never seen a farmer fight like you do, most Tier Fives don’t have the talent you
do.” It felt good to be praised for once, and I was starting to develop a little bit of confidence for once. “You might be a newb, but with the right guild and direction, you could be in the top one hundred for fighting. If that was what you wanted, of course.”
“You're messing with me.” I laughed, “I don’t do anything right.”
“Ever think that's because you weren’t meant to do it?” His answer shocked me to my core. “I tried the whole profession course when I started out too, messed up enough the village kicked me out. Then old man Tonka took me in, showed me how to wield steel and deal damage, been cracking skulls ever since. Never looked back once.” He turned his attention back to the road and left me with more questions than answers.
“He’s right you know,” Shortstuff said. “If it’s not right, then move on to the next thing. No point in struggling and beating your head against the wall in frustration. It's a game, it's supposed to be fun.” Her small round face became serious, “I hated campaigning the first time I did it, said I would never do it again. Killing innocent people who had never done a single thing against me. But then I thought, neither did the people I killed when I quested either. This game, it feels too real sometimes, the blood has smell and texture, the people scream when I hit them with fireballs and I can smell their burnt skin. But you know what, Tonka is right, if this was our world, wouldn’t we be doing the same thing there if we could?” She gave me a comforting smile, “think about it, really think about it. We are all human in a sense, we all come from the same world, yet we are more screwed in the head here than there. But if I could throw fireballs while in a traffic jam because some moron is rubbernecking, I would. No doubt about it.”
“Me too.” The man in front of us said. “Without a second thought, I would burn every bitch on their cellphones. Maybe people would stop being idiots and start paying attention more, maybe the world would be a nicer place.”
“Or maybe it would be just like here.” I added.
He turned his head to look back over his shoulder at me again, “Would that be so bad? Your experience here is limited, but there is a lot of content out there. The good far outweighs the bad. Take it from me, I have been here six cycles now with another four to go and to be honest, I would rather stay than go. My home is in a little village in the mountains in Heskie, never seen a bunch of people with such a strong feeling of community. If someone needs a house built, the whole village chips in, me included. They look out for each other, and everyone is truly happy. It’s my paradise, and I have a wife and children there. I would never trade them for anything, I feel more connected with them than I ever did in the real world.”
I took his words with a grain of salt, I had heard a lot of theories about this game from a lot of different people. More or less, they were all the same. It seemed everyone but me liked it here, maybe I was doing something wrong. I didn’t know shit about the dude in front of me, but I could feel the love for the place radiate off him like Bretta did for the farm. Maybe that's was what I was missing after all, love. I hated enough, maybe it was time to open myself up and allow love in.
We walked for days, passed everything I knew and then turned west on a major thoroughfare. “So, Nikki should be ahead in that city. We took it and the one to the north. I am sure she has the mats to get you home. If not Harwick, then Cree and thats like a half a day by Lift away.”
“You're amazing, Shortstuff, if you never hear that again, just know, you are amazing to me.” I loved to see how her cheeks reddened. It was fun to make her blush, she was so cute.
An hour later we were in the city and a half hour after that, I was standing in front of another gnome mage, only this one had blue hair and pink eyes. But aside from the difference in feature colors, they could be twins. Shortstuff was all hugs and giggles with her guildmates and it seemed everyone loved the little gnome with the cheery personality. Save the gnome girl in front of me. “You Persik?”
“I am.”
“Come with me. I don’t want some kid walking through the portal, or some jackass trying to get a free ride.” We walked into a back room that was lit by a single, blue flamed candle. “I can get you to Cree, I don’t have the spell for Harwick, it's a little too backwater for me to give a shit about it.”
“Understandable.”
She pointed to a place beside the circle and stated, “stand there, don’t say a word until the portal is open. You have exactly ten seconds to get your ass through it, fail to do so, well, tough shit, I only have the mats to get my guildies back to Forkum.” She closed her eyes and started to mumble her incantation. A vertical well of water appeared before us and she opened her eyes. “Get going stud.”
“You guys are so weird.” I said as I stepped into the circle. “Thank you.”
From dark room to a city in the midst of night, the air was twenty degrees colder and I was shivering before I knew it. “Fucking desert land.” I said to myself and looked around me trying to get my bearings. Nothing was open this late, but I saw the Lift station, so reminiscent of a taxi stand. I noted the location in my head and moved toward what looked to be an Inn. The door was locked, even though I could hear drunken singing going on within.
Not that it mattered, I was used to waiting and judging by the position of the moon, I only had an hour or so before dawn. I watched the sunrise in this city I knew nothing about, saw its citizens stir from their homes and begin their day. The smell of bread filled the air and shops opened, guards patrolled and one even nodded to me. I returned the gesture with a smile, maybe the game was not so bad after all. I knew I had flipped and flopped on the issue, maybe I was just projecting my shitty time on this whole world. Where the hell was doctor Phil when you needed him, my head was just as screwed up as my time on campaign.
There was a wagon that drew my attention away from the city, the driver looked as tired as I felt, and the bed was full of a familiar looking grain product. He stopped at a store front, and stretched his back like a cat. I was moving before my mind could tell my body to stop, and when he turned my way, I flashed him a smile. “Say friend, who is your supplier?”
I could tell my question caught him off guard, but he recovered quickly. “Some lordling down south, only one selling grain this side of the Finger Lakes. Why?”
“Does this lord have name?”
“He does, but I deal with his partner, big woman, named…”
“Bretta?”
“You know her?” I nodded and he continued,“Hell of a farmer that one, and her Mediator knows how to price out labor, now the guilds won’t touch them.”
“What do you mean by that?”
He gave me a queer look, like I had been hit in the head too many times. “Where have you been? Everyone knows the locusts wiped out the big wheat suppliers. And the guilds were pissed that the lordling pulled his contracts with them before the plague. They lost more silver from him than most of us would make in our lifetime. Thank the gods, though, honest folk like me have more work than we can handle. Making these runs day and night, we are. About time someone stuck it to the guilds, and Lord Persik is the one behind it all.” I swore inwardly.
“Thanks for the information.” I flipped him a silver, “break your fast on me.”
He caught the coin midair, “Thank you very kindly,” he smiled, “Lord Persik.”
I stopped myself from turning around, and was about to question him, but he had moved around the back of the wagon. Figuring our conversation was over, I headed back to Lift Station and waited, first in line for it to open. A man, who was rubbing the sleep from his eyes, carried a large tomb in one hand, greeted me with a wave. “Destination?”
“A farm south of Larvin hold.”
The man nodded, “The Persik estate, been having a lot of people traveling that way lately. Do you want a personal Lift, or do you mind waiting for a full load?”
“What's the difference?”
“Cost mainly, a private flight would cost you about
two thousand silver, waiting for a full load is maybe three hundred depending upon the load size. Might take an hour, maybe two, so if you don’t mind waiting...?” He left the statement unfinished and I decided to wait. He moved me off to a holding area, that seemed to fill up by the minute. And before too long, he called, “those headed for the Persik Estate, please come forward, the cost is two hundred a head, three if you have cargo!”
Just like a herd of cattle, we were loaded up into a carriage and before we left, the man looked in the window. “Last flight out will be at one finger before sunset, make sure you are ready at the drop off point by that time.”
What the hell had happened since I left? Only time would answer such a question and all too soon, we were in the air, and I was crushed by a very muscular man, against the wall of the carriage. Six uncomfortable hours later, we landed and were ushered out of the carriage. I froze in disbelief when I saw what had happened to my farm, or should I say, the size of it now.
Yes, my little cabin was still there, but now there were two massive structures that appeared more like barracks than they did anything else. I followed the crowd toward one structure, but pulled away from them at the last minute. Instead I headed for my cabin, hopefully Bretta was there, but when I opened the door, I saw various tools filled my house. “What the fuck!”
“You there, what are you doing?” I turned to see a very dirty, tall man with a lean frame coming toward me. He had a sickle in his hand, and held it out in front of him. “Be gone rabble.”
“Rabble? Who do you think I am?”
“Adventuring scum, there is nothing to steal here, we are nothing but honest folk making an honest living.”
“Alright, good for you.” He was holding the sickle menacingly at me, but I didn’t feel the least bit worried, not with how it was shaking. Was this how Vexi saw me? “Where is Bretta?”
Noble Farmer Page 10
