“We shall go meet with the elders before going off to sightsee and get the bags you request. They need to be aware of the new changes that have come to the Glade of Everhein,” Woody states, leading the way forward.
“I definitely have to give kudos to the game artists. This place is astounding,” says Ifalna in a low voice, with a twinkle in her eye.
There are murmurs of agreement from the rest of us as we come up to an entrance into the main trunk that doesn’t look to be cut, but rather as if it grew that way. Interesting.
The room we enter is rather large and has stairs spiralling the circumference of the inside, going up and down. We take the stairs that are to our immediate left and climb up them, passing several different rooms with nymphs doing various mundane things.
When we come to the top of the stairs, we are led across a semi-large room with a single elderly nymph sitting behind a large, thick wooden table. Several chairs sit unoccupied around the table.
“Please, Guardian and honoured guests, sit and be welcome.” The elderly nymph gestures to the open chairs before sweeping his eyes over the rest of our party. He stands up in shock and anger, shouting and pointing a finger at Dosan’s undead. “What is this?! Have you become a traitor and come to take over my village?”
“Elder Sylan, we have much to discuss and for you to be aware of,” Woody says while taking a seat. The rest of us calmly follow suit and sit as well. “Firstly, I have been defeated during a Challenge of Authority quest and bound into service to Lord Dosan as a Bonded companion. Secondly, the sorcerer Lord Varim and all the subsequent tainted beasts have been defeated by these adventurers, from the guild Venatores.”
“What do you mean he was defeated? I can clearly see him standing right there!” exclaims Elder Sylan, his eyes glowing as if he is about to fire off a spell.
“Elder Sylan, if I may,” Dosan starts. “These are my reanimated minions and are quite dead, I assure you. I am controlling them, and my mana gives them life, but the souls that once occupied these bodies are long departed.”
Elder Sylan blinks slowly at Dosan in acceptance. The light of holding onto a spell slowly fades from his eyes as he sits back down at the table and calms himself.
Woody continues as if he was never interrupted. “Thirdly, due to my inability to continue filling the role of Guardian of the Glade, these adventurers have become the owners of the Glade of Everhein by right of might. Fourthly, the titles of duke, earl and countess have been granted to the guild leader and his officers, as they now are in possession of the Glade. They now rule Everhein and all within its walls.”
To say that Elder Sylan is shocked would be quite the understatement, as he starts to look a bit woozy and starts swaying in his chair.
“Woah there, Elder Sylan,” exclaims Ifalna as she quickly casts a heal on the elder, letting him save face and get a grip on himself.
Elder Sylan looks upon us with new eyes, and I feel like he is especially weighing and evaluating me more than the others. I guess that may be because of the duke status.
He suddenly smiles wide and bows his head. “Lord Sybaal, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. My role here is to look after the village and keep it running smoothly. As you are the new ruler of these lands, we shall need to discuss how you wish to improve and maintain them. We submit ourselves to your rule.”
You have gained 200 vassals. Current Vassals: 504.
Gain more vassals to help protect your Duchy.
Congratulations! You have earned the Title ‘Many hands make light work’. Increase the speed of all gathering and crafting skills by 10% for you and all vassals.
I sigh inwardly. Well, that’s a nice bonus for all the paperwork I’m going to have to do. Does this mean I can do it ten percent faster? At least I’ve had the trip from the fortress to here to think about what I want to do.
Pasting a smile on my face, I reply, “Well, Elder, I believe you would be the best person to get me an itemised map of all the various locations within the Glade, along with a list of all the resource materials we could use for crafting both inside and outside the village. I would then like to go over how many of my subjects live within the Glade that you are aware of.
“The Goldeneye Clan we have already met, and their leader Han is now the lord steward of Everhein. He is running the day-to-day upkeep of his clan and our fortress. Once that is finished, I’ll have his warriors, crafters and merchants head into the forests of the Glade and begin to gather resources for crafting and trading. Depending on the skills of your village, I’m thinking that you all should be doing the same.”
The elder nymph blinks impassively for a moment. “That’s quite the list of things to do. I think I’m going to have to meet with the lord steward myself and organise things. Though I will begin to document all you require and inform you of when the information is ready. Before I undertake the many tasks that you have given me, would you be able to shed some light on a rumour about an adventurer acting unseemly to one of my nymphs?”
Dosan lets out a squeak, and when I look over at him, his eyes have gone all shifty.
Chuckling, I say, “Well, I believe something might have accidentally happened in the past. If someone were to see someone else again, I’m sure there would be an apology at hand.”
The elder nymph looks at Dosan with an unreadable expression for a moment before nodding his head. “That is agreeable to me. My lord, my apologies, but I have work to attend to.”
That said, Elder Sylan gets up with a spry spring to his step and makes his way out of the room. I smile, as it’s almost like he wanted to get away before I could saddle him with another task or some such.
“Finally!” exclaims Kazzrak, throwing his hands into the air as he gets up. “This is why I hate meetings. They take so damn long! Now as much as I love money, I’m kind of sick of lugging it all around in a bloody pink sheet!”
“Okay, okay.” I make a placating gesture. “Let’s go find those bags of holding.”
“If you will follow me, I shall direct you towards the merchant room. They might have something of use other than just bags of holding,” says Woody as he gets up and heads towards the stairs.
We make our way back down the tree and bypass where we entered originally. Eventually we get to a room that is full of random weapons, armour, crafting gear and miscellaneous items.
Glancing over all the gear, the damage is quite small compared to what we currently have, so this must be the beginner items that we would have had to save up to buy if we hadn’t done things a little differently. We make our way over to the counter, past most of the shelves of items.
A small female nymph pops up from under the counter and is startled that we are there. “Oh! Visitors! Hello, welcome to my shop. I’m Voria. How can I be of assistance?”
“We are after all your largest bags of holding!” Kazzrak exclaims while pushing forward and dumping his heavily laden sheet on the floor in front of the counter.
“Right!” Voria scarpers off her seat at the counter and disappears through the curtained door behind the counter. She pops right back through, holding five smallish leather satchel bags.
She places them on the counter then peers at us with a smile and waves her hands over the bags. “I figured since you can only equip a single Bag of Holding at once, you would want to only buy five of them. These are the best we have, with twenty-five units of storage capacity. Some items will stack within the same unit; some won’t. Depends on what you put in there, really.”
“Only one?” Ezekial sighs, looking sadly at the bag in front of him.
“Beggars can’t be choosers,” states Ifalna.
“So how much coin are we talking here? We aren’t made of money, you know.” Dosan squints at Voria.
A gleam enters Voria’s eye as she calmly addresses Dosan. “These are very rare bags, much better than the five- or ten-slot ones we have. Though I’ll give you a deal and part with these for a single gold coin each.”
&
nbsp; My eyes widen at that large a sum. Are prices really that expensive here? Surely not. Although, we are out in the boonies.
Dosan clutches a hand to his chest. “My word! A full gold? Heavens no, that cannot be! You’ve given this poor lizard a dreadful fright. Why, just the other day I was listening to a merchant trying to sell a fifty-unit bag for a single gold coin, and he was laughed out of town for being a joker. Because of this I just couldn’t bring myself to pay more than ten silver.”
Voria makes a slight gasp as she sharply intakes a breath. “Dear sir! Surely you must be mistaken, as the material cost alone is thrice that, not to mention the cost of labour and transportation. I couldn’t possibly sell at a loss, you see, definitely no less than eighty-five silver each.”
I tune out their dithering and glance around a little more at the items within the counter itself. Different types of health and mana potions take up the majority of the space and are of varying prices, all under ten silver each though. The other potions look to be ones that enhance base stats, and there are even some specialised ones.
“Sold!” Voria whacks her hand onto the table, which makes me look up. “Thirty silver each and not a copper less!”
“Kazzrak, pay the good lady,” Dosan says haughtily as he snatches one of the bags. “Then be so kind as to divvy up the loot.”
We all grab a bag and equip them after Kazzrak hands over the one hundred and fifty silver.
You have equipped a 25 slot Bag of Holding and now have access to your inventory. Bags of Holding are indestructible and soul bound. They will stay with you when you die, as will all their contents unless you have a discoloured name tag.
Warning! If you die, all equipped items not soul bound on your person will be left on your corpse. Your corpse will disappear when you respawn one hour after you have died, though it can be looted by anyone immediately.
“Finally.” Ezekial sighs loudly. “Some information on PVP. We need to get our stuff soul bound, and I’m assuming the coloured name tags are player or NPC killer related.”
“I’m so glad we don’t have to lug around any more loot. That was getting tedious,” says Kazzrak as he divvies out our silver.
Kazzrak has initiated a trade with you.
Accept?
Yes/No
I mentally hit yes, and up pops a window where we can both put things into to trade. Kazzrak trades me two gold and sixty-one silver, which must have automatically converted itself when put into his bag. I pull out the nine other gold I have secreted on my person and place them within my bag. Just over eleven and a half gold earned and it hasn’t even been twenty-four hours yet.
Damn, maybe there is something to this Luck stat after all?
“Ah, the sweet, sweet tinkle of money hitting my inventory.” Ifalna sighs loudly and then turns to the merchant. “So, how do we go about soul binding our gear?”
“Well, you would need to have your gear enchanted by an enchanter. Artisan Pottle is who you need to speak to about those matters,” Voria replies as she picks up a health vial from behind the counter, then looks thoughtfully at Woody. “He is two floors down, though I’m sure the Guardian can show you the way. Before you leave though, can I interest you in some potions?”
“I am no longer the Guardian of the Glade,” rumbles Woody then points to me. “That title has been passed on to Duke Sybaal of Everhein until he wishes to select another to be Guardian.”
“D-Duke?” Voria gasps in shock, and the vial she is holding slips from her hand to smash onto the floor behind the counter.
“Yes, and these other gentlemen are all earls, and the lady is a countess of Everhein,” continues Woody.
“You mean I-I, and with an earl no less.” The little nymph promptly passes out and falls off her chair to the floor with a thump before anyone can react.
“Ifalna, if you please?” I sigh, gesturing towards Voria’s unconscious form.
“Guess you still got pilfered for the bags,” Ezekial whispers loudly to Dosan, giving him a nudge and a grin.
Dosan just sighs and rolls his eyes. There has always been competition between the two of them for who could get the best bargain.
The healing glow from Ifalna’s spell surrounds Voria, and she groans before pulling herself to her feet with a face full of shame, on the verge of tears. “I apologise profusely! I wasn’t aware of your status or I wouldn’t have tried to rob you blind.”
Chuckling, I make a snap decision. “It’s fine, whilst some good-natured haggling is all par for the course, we don’t want to just take without paying. We wouldn’t mind a discount, to be sure, but you still need to be able to make a profit.”
I probably should have thought about it more, but what can you do after the words have already been said?
Voria’s tears seem to still be at the edges, but she doesn’t look like she will be shedding them now with that determined look on her face. “I promise to give you twenty-five percent off. It’s the best I can do, as my prices are already pretty low.”
“Deal!” Dosan says loudly as he smacks his hand on the counter, grinning widely at Ezekial, who just looks back nonchalantly.
Kazzrak leans on the counter and gives Voria a grin. “Now how about those potions?”
Voria points to each vial as she responds, “Well, these three potions heal immediately for 50, 150 and 350 health respectively. This one is a regeneration potion and increases health regen by 10 health per five seconds for two minutes. This blue one regenerates your mana the same as the regen potion. These three are mana potions and replenish your mana the same as the health potions.
“This one is a stamina regeneration potion and does the same as the others but for stamina. Then you have the really expensive ones, which increase your main stats by ten for ten minutes. Which ones would you like? They all have price tags on them. Oh, and I also have a Potion Bag, which can store up to fifty potions and only takes up a single slot in your bag. Interested?”
Thinking it over for a moment before responding, Kazzrak points to the ones he wants and tells Voria how many of each before turning to us with a wink. “I’ll buy this round, boys.”
A trade window opens up from Kazzrak, and I accept the potions and a Potion Bag from him. He bought me five of each potion except for the stat ones. He only bought one each for Wisdom and Intelligence. They really were quite expensive.
“What else would you recommend for us adventurers that are ‘must haves’ if we were to be travelling around?” asks Ezekial, taking a look around.
“Well, let’s see. You probably want a decent map, a tinderbox, rope, rations of food and water, and a camping swag or tent,” Voria replies with another grin.
The twinkle of tears is replaced with the anticipation of turning a profit as she continues, “Oh, and of course the Explorer’s Bag, which holds all these items and others if you buy them as a package. You’ll want a Cooking Bag too, which has everything you need to make your own meals except the ingredients. The Fishing Bag really helps with that, I hear. I have all the other profession bags too, if you’re interested, of course.”
“Why do I get the feeling we are being swindled out of all our hard-earned coin?” Ifalna sighs to no one in particular.
“Probably because if we had started the way the devs wanted us to, we would have done all this much slower, as we wouldn’t have had the coin to spend on everything at once like some mad shopping spree,” replies Ezekial with a squeal as he clasps his hands in front of him at the thought of so much shopping.
I swear I can see Ezekial’s flamboyant side coming out. Who doesn’t like a spot of upgrading their gear once in a while?
“Voria, could you please tell us what the profession kits you carry are? Then create five identical trades with us with all of the items you mentioned before. Just give each of us the specific profession bags we each individually want,” I say, as it would just be a hassle of sorting that much stuff out in one of our bags for everyone else.
“Sure!” V
oria agrees enthusiastically. “Just remember that you can only learn three professions at a time until you become a master in one. There are higher attainable levels, but once you become a master, you can choose another profession to learn as well. I’ve heard somewhere that once you are a master of two professions, some really amazing bonuses are unlocked for each one afterwards! Now, I have bags for Alchemy, Herbalism, Mining, Blacksmithing, Jewelcrafting, Skinning, Leatherworking, Tailoring, Enchanting and Engineering. There are others, but they are specialised and I don’t stock them. Who would like which ones?”
Holding up a hand, I gesture for Voria to wait and turn to the others. “Hmm, one moment, please, while we discuss this. I propose conventional rules here. Everyone picks at least one gathering profession and that the crafting professions match your character. Fair?”
Kazzrak scoffs. “As if we would do any different. I’m a bloody dwarf, for heaven’s sake. I’m just surprised we could choose three. I was expecting only to be able to have two. Mine are Mining, Blacksmithing and Engineering. Maybe I’ll be able to combine Engineering and Blacksmithing to make different recipes.”
“I really want to experiment with the equipment we didn’t really get to do much with where we fought Lord Varim. Looked like there was a pretty good Alchemy set-up on that table that Ezekial kept Shadow Stepping under. I’ll choose Alchemy, Herbalism and Engineering,” says Dosan excitedly.
Ezekial shrugs his shoulders. “Leatherworking for armour, Skinning to go with it, and Herbalism because I’ll be able to stealth and reach the hard to get to places.”
Ifalna rubs her hands together with a grin. “Tailoring for the magical aspects of gear, if DSR1 is anything to go by, not because they might also have a flying carpet in this game. Definitely not. Oh, Enchanting and Mining as well. It is just practical for a healer that doesn’t have to do much, if anything at all, to mine the ore while you all keep smacking any beasts we run into. Not to mention, I can make clothes with enchanted stats while we also wear armour on top.”
Dream Stream Reality: Publisher's Pack Books 1-2: (A LitRPG Adventure) Page 16
