The Copper Rose

by David Lingard

  My final thoughts were to build a palisade of sharpened stakes all around my settlement on the nearside of a moat-like ditch, leaving a small dirt bridge as the only entry point in. There would be no way that any attackers wouldn’t want to use that as the focus of their incursion.

  I could even fill the moat by using a feeder trench from the lake, it wasn’t too far away, and although plain water probably wouldn’t have made any difference in Freedom Online, Theodore and Sano were real people with (probably) instilled belief that moats were not to be crossed. A man can dream anyway, right?

  I caught up with Rok and told him of my plans, to which he furrowed his brow in confusion for a little while before announcing that the work would probably take a week. I told him to complete his work on the barracks before doing anything else, then to move onto the walls. The last thing I wanted was to be attacked with no defenders and a half-built wall.

  The final thing I had to do was to figure out what to do with my goblin triplets, but as I’d let my mind wander when I looked down to where I had previously set them, the basket was gone.

  A chill ran through my body as my eyes widened, but everything was apparently OK, some of my Goblins had picked up the babies and were wearing them, strapped to their backs like spider monkeys as they worked.

  It seemed to me that perhaps the goblins of Freedom Online were the right team to be on after all.

  Chapter Eleven, Love

  Name: Tandy

  Level: 5 (15%)

  Race: Human/Male

  Attributes:HP: 50/50MP: 5/5

  Strength:4

  Wisdom:1

  Social:0

  Skills: Analyse6 (25%)

  Lumberjack4 (35%)

  Equipment:Hand Axe

  Reputation:None

  A

  s I had been primarily cutting down trees for weeks, my main level had stagnated somewhat which I knew was never a good thing in role-playing games. I needed to get much stronger and as fast as possible, but in my previous experience the way to do this was…well to kill easy monsters like goblins until you could handle something stronger. This was of course not going to happen in my current predicament. I called Ushuk to my side to ask about going somewhere to farm for something a little more XP heavy.

  “Ushuk, when you were with the Sawblades clan, was there ever any groups of enemies that you killed or had trouble with that weren’t used for food?” I’d come up with this method of asking when trying to figure out how to put the question without him leading me to more beetles.

  “No. Ushuk usually not get into fights when in Sawblades. Ushuk not grown up at the time though.” He answered. Of course, I’d forgotten that he’d only been an adolescent when we’d first met.

  With that in mind I went off to find Grish instead, who I presumed had a bit more experience, being a warrior himself.

  “You want enemies?” he asked after I relayed the same question to him as I’d posed to Ushuk.

  “Well, yes.” I replied slowly, “easier ones than those people from earlier,” I added while narrowing my eyes just in case he sent me off on a level one hundred dungeon raid. ‘Oh, how I miss dungeon raids!’

  “Ones that not talk then?” Grish asked catching my meaning.

  “Actually, yes that would be ideal,” I replied thoughtfully. I’d had my fill of seeing sentience extinguished and wouldn’t mind a good old-fashioned wolf pack or beach crabs – something that I was used to using as fodder for my own levelling.

  “There something not far in forest. Can be dangerous. Grish been before,” he continued almost apprehensively. He wasn’t warning me off of the idea completely, which was a good thing, but he did make it sound like it wasn’t going to be easy.

  “Well, what is it?” I asked with a newfound desire to gain some overdue experience,

  “Spiders,” Grish said but didn’t add anything more to his response. It sounded to me as though he didn’t care for them too much.

  “You… don’t like spiders?” I asked as I detected his subtle undertones.

  “They not good for anything. No food, just want to hurt. They take small goblins away,” It sounded to me as though goblins and spiders didn’t get along too well, and if a spider could ‘take away’ a small goblin then perhaps they weren’t the regular inch long creepy crawlies that inhabited the real world. Of course in every game I’d played that had included spiders they were always massive and fucking terrifying.

  It took me a good few seconds to make my mind up, I would be going on a spider hunt. I knew Grish would be coming along for the festivity, but I whittled down the additional party members to simply myself and Ushuk. I’d have liked to have formed a proper specialised team like I was used to, but right now I had neither the people nor resources to make a real raid party. Myself, Grish and Ushuk didn’t make a particularly terrifying group of adventurers, but I hoped that with Grish’s advanced level and Ushuk’s superior intellect perhaps we could make a real go of something.

  I called Ushuk over to join the conversation I’d had with Grish.

  “How would you like to come gain a level or two?” I asked as soon as he arrived at my side, facing Grish. The little goblin straightened his back animatedly and stood as tall as he could in response, before exhaling quickly to ask “how we do that?”

  “Well, what has eight legs and gets killed by two goblins and their human friend?” I riddled rather hamfistedly. Ushuk didn’t answer for what seemed like forever so I decided to help him out with the very same single word that Grish had given me. “Spiders.”

  I’d never seen a goblin turn pale before, where he was once green, little Ushuk seemed to have his contrast dial turned right down until he was a light grey colour, I didn’t need to be told what this reaction meant.

  “You…don’t like spiders?” I repeated the question that I’d asked Grish in the same pitch and tone.

  “No…spiders are…not fun.” I could tell he was trying his best to save face in front of his previous clan leader, but it wasn’t particularly working well.

  “Don’t worry Ushuk, I promise it’ll be worth it – plus you’ll have Grish and me right there to make sure nothing bad happens.” My words seemed to placate him somewhat as he slowly returned to his previous dark green hue.

  I felt like I was going to be heading off on a good old-fashioned quest, but something was bugging me that hadn’t really been present in my mind before – if I was going to be away for x amount of time, what would happen to the goblins that were left behind in Coyote Creek? I was pretty sure that they wouldn’t be able to defend themselves properly if a bad situation arose, however if it was that bastard Sano that found them it wouldn’t have done much good to have me around anyway.

  “Grish, how far away are these spiders anyway? Will we be gone very long?” I asked, trying to formulate a plan as I spoke. Given that not even the walls had been erected yet, the options available to me were rather slim.

  “Not far, three hours maybe,” he answered nonchalantly whilst holding up two green fingers. Watching goblins count always made me laugh.

  That would mean Ushuk, Grish and I would be away for the best part of a day, the smartest goblin, the strongest goblin and me – the one who could summon new goblins on a whim. As much as I didn’t want to take the risk, I felt as though the possible rewards warranted it. We needed some experience in a real-life situation anyway.

  I spent the best part of five minutes deciding that it was definitely the right decision and told Snafu that she would be ‘in charge’ while we were gone. I wondered briefly if I should have been a little more specific with my instruction to her, but the feeling didn’t last long – after all everyone had their jobs to do and we wouldn’t be away for very long anyway.

  The three of us set off in search of our superior prey and I couldn’t help but take stock of our current situation. Grish and Ushuk both had small knives tucked into the cloths wrapped around their waists, while I elected to carry my lumberjack axe in my hand,
partly to make myself feel a little safer and partly because I’d grown accustomed to its feel and weight in my hand. It still was only a goblin-made axe so was very small, definitely too small for me but it was definitely better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

  It occurred to me that I hadn’t really ever looked at the tool-come-weapon in much detail to see if it would offer me any advantages in the forthcoming combat, so I checked its statistics with my analyse skill.

  Crude Stone Axe – Goblin Made

  Type:Axe – Single Hand

  Damage:1-3

  Durability:10/10

  Engravings:None

  Additional:When used to fell trees this axe will not suffer any durability damage.

  +1% Increase to Lumberjack skill increase

  +1% Increase to felling trees

  A crude stone axe, made by goblins for goblins. Primarily used to cut down trees in conjunction with the Lumberjack skill. Although the goblins aren’t known for crafting superior equipment, they do know how to cut down a tree.

  Not taking a knife with me, it was all I had. Without the rags that still shrouded my delicate bits I would have been completely naked – of course not the best way to be going off into battle but I knew from my years of gaming that you’d usually punch your first enemy to death and loot its body for gear upgrades, essentially rinse and repeat until you reach end-game et cetera. Not exactly a master plan I know, but it was a plan at least.

  Ushuk and Grish didn’t seem to want to move on their own, which I found very strange. I’d expected them to be at least a little more enthusiastic than this! I was essentially herding them in the direction that they stood.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked as I came to a halt beside my party, bored of our game of cat and mouse.

  “You make party?” Ushuk asked innocently.

  ‘Holy shit! I can make a party!’ I thought, concentrating on the instruction in my mind and to my absolute pleasure, I was greeted with a menu that I hadn’t seen before.

  You are attempting to create a War Party

  When in a war party, all members receive experience based upon their contribution to the task at hand. Party Buffs apply to all party members as long as they are a part of the party, and within 100 Metres of the party leader.

  Your War Party Leader Level is currently: Level 1

  Active War Party Buffs: None

  Active War Party Leader Buffs: None

  Would you like to invite Ushuk and Grish into the War Party? Yes/No

  I added both of my companions into the party and concentrated in turn on the phrases ‘War Party Buffs’ and ‘War Party Leader Buffs’, having recognised them as phrases that would probably reveal more information.

  War Party Buffs – Level 1

  You currently have 0 War Party Points to allocate.

  Attack Buff: 1WP

  Increase base attack (all)Not Available

  Increase Critical Attack % (all)Not Available

  Increase Critical Attack Damage (all)Not Available

  Increase damage caused by PoisonNot Available

  Increase damage caused by FireNot Available

  Increase damage caused by IceNot Available

  Increase damage caused by ElectricityNot Available

  Increase damage caused by HolyNot Available

  Increase damage caused by DarkNot Available

  Defence Buffs: 1WP

  Increase base defence (all)Not Available

  Increase dodge % chance (all)Not Available

  Increase resistance to PoisonNot Available

  Increase resistance to Fire DamageNot Available

  Increase resistance to Ice DamageNot Available

  Increase resistance to Electricity DamageNot Available

  Increase resistance to Holy DamageNot Available

  Increase resistance to Dark DamageNot Available

  Support Buffs: 1WP

  Increase Effects of healing magic (all)Not Available

  Decrease duration of negative status (all)Not Available

  War Party Leader Buffs – Level 1

  You currently have 0 War Party Points to allocate.

  Attack Buffs: 1WP

  Increase base attack (all)Not Available

  Increase Critical Attack % (all)Not Available

  Increase Critical Attack Damage (all)Not Available

  Defence Buffs: 1WP

  Increase base defence (all)Not Available

  Increase dodge % chance (all)Not Available

  It was hard to tell what the differences would be in allocating these so-called War Party Points to either the whole party or just the leader, i.e. me. Would the increase be smaller to everyone as the buff was spread out? And this looked to me as though the options were going to change at level two, but it didn’t look like I had a way of knowing what changes there would be. There was so much to take in, but kind of thankfully I had no points to spend anyway. Also I didn’t even know how to get more of them! For now I simlply dismissed the information panels and put them right to the back of my mind for later review. As it was I now had a war party with myself, Ushuk and Grish happily allocated, and their names along with a short health bar for each took up a place of permanent residence in the periphery of my vision. We were all set to go.

  After what felt like a lifetime but in reality was more likely somewhere just over two hours or so, the luscious green forest began to change in slight and subtle ways. The sunlight didn’t seem to be as warm or bright as it had been previously, and dead or browning leaves, branches and trees started to smatter our surroundings, sparsely at first but growing more densely the further we walked. It wasn’t an overwhelming change but was definitely noticeable. The forest that had seemed so vibrant and alive now seemed to be growing progressively sicker.

  Spider webs spanned some of the leaves above us, I could see them hanging high above our heads menacingly, It made me itchy just looking at them and I constantly felt as though something was crawling on me. I noticed that Ushuk and Grish had drawn their little knives and held them tightly in their hands, Ushuk looking slightly more alert than Grish did, who seemed to be more used to this sort of thing.

  Within minutes of me noticing the changes to the forest, the sun had been almost completely blocked out by the thickening webs overhead and the air had unpleasantly putrefied. I wrinkled my nose at the plethora of unhappy smells but with steely determination soldiered onwards. After a few moments, the webs themselves started getting closer and closer to my head, with Grish and Ushuk safe many inches shorter than me.

  A solid wall of webs before us eventually caused us to come to a complete halt with nowhere else to go other than back the way we came. Ushuk and Grish shared a quick glance before they began to wordlessly slice a path through the dead centre of the webs. Say what you like about the intelligence of goblins, but they certainly knew what they were doing in a spider infested forest.

  Following the path of destruction made by my two little friends, I couldn’t help but feel like I was travelling through an aquarium tunnel made entirely of spider webs, that would surely be one dolphin that I certainly didn’t want to experience swimming towards me. To my dismay, the cutting of the webs had unfortunately not gone unnoticed by their multi-legged inhabitants. The tunnel around us begun to vibrate, telegraphing the movement of our approaching enemy. The two goblin knifemen as though on instinct quickly cut a wider perimeter around our little tunnel that gave us enough room to stand back-to-back in order to prevent any surprise attacks from beyond the near opaque web-walls.

  Shrill, ear piercing screeches broke the silence as they erupted from all around the small clearing my goblin accomplices had made, the dome of webs around us positively bounced as the spiders were either all moving towards us as one or otherwise attempting to inflict fear into their prey – I made an internal note that it was not completely ineffective as my palms began to sweat heavily and my pulse quickened.

  As soon as the tip of the first spider�
��s leg breached the webbed wall in front of me, I was awash with the fear that I was completely unprepared for this.

  A thick, hairy black leg as sharp as a needle and at least a foot long presented itself through the webbed walls and a huge spider unfolded itself before me. It was huge only for a spider but in reality the size of a house cat, if you were to see it as a spider of course it was huge and terrifying, its dripping fangs protruding from its gaping maw, its sharp legs bent at the knee and razor sharp and it’s ten eyes all looking directly into my soul. Yes if this had crawled out in front of me in my living room I may have just moved out. However huge is subjective as when compared to me it was only a knee-high opponent, and had it not have been of the eight-legged variety and was something a little less shit the bed terrifying, like a wolf, I don’t think it would have given me any trouble.

  The trouble was that the first spider was not alone though - as if egged on by the group’s defence of their perimeter, sharpened legs began to appear slowly through the webs in all directions and four more giant spiders uncurled into view and stood off of the pair of goblins and me.

  Grish and Ushuk weren’t moving to attack and I assumed this was to prevent them from overplaying their hand and moving into a position they’d rather not be in. I followed their lead and did absolutely nothing right along with them, save for analysing our new friends.

  Name: Black Forest Spider

  Level: 3

  Race: Spider

  Attributes:HP: 8/8. MP: ?/?

  Strength:?