Ruler Light Online five

by Larcombe, Tom

The AI-L server spiked again, but it was the middle of the day and all the people who worked in the building were present. They were trying to avoid doing it like that since it would have the people who could do something to the game at Greenshaw's orders present in the building. Aaron was hoping for an occurrence just after most people had gone home from the building. Even with the second shift there, the people who had the kind of access he worried about all worked the day shift.

  So he went back to monitoring the game, the AI-L server, and his trace program, impatiently waiting for the chance to act.

  ~ ~ ~

  Eddie caught Becky at breakfast the next morning.

  “Hey Becky, can I beg a spell or three off of you?” he asked.

  “What did you need, Eddie?”

  “Well, Liv wants a root cellar along with her dairy barn. I can do the barn just fine, but I don't relish digging out a root cellar. I was hoping that you could use that dig spell of yours and then I'll reinforce the inside with supports and call it good.”

  “Oh sure, that'll only take five or ten minutes, I can do that,” she said. “Only half my mana now too, depending on how big you want it?”

  He led Becky back through the kitchen where they stopped to talk to Liv for a moment. She was busy again, so she was short with them, until she discovered that they wanted more details on the root cellar so they could get it done. Then she was all smiles as she explained what she wanted in more detail. Once she was done explaining, they went out back.

  The dairy barn was going on the side towards the smithy. Eddie had made sure that it extended onto the second land claim he'd made, the one adjoining that of the inn. He didn't know if merged claims needed something built on each so they wouldn't revert, and didn't want to find out the hard way, especially with all the new people who were thinking about having structures in the Meadowlands.

  “Let's put it right beside the barn here, so it's well away from the pond. I've got no idea what the game does about water levels and I don't want it to flood,” he said.

  “Yeah, good plan. I didn't think about that when I placed my tree. Now I wonder if I'll be able to put in a basement or not,” Becky said.

  Then she started casting. With no blueprint, Eddie had just asked her to dig out a ramp heading down, then a large square area underground. Once she was down and hollowing out the room, Eddie was going to quickly set braces in after each cast to support the ceiling.

  In the end it took almost an hour, but Becky said she wasn't worried about it, she already had her helpers watching the bridge and with a Justiciar in the area, she thought the new players would be less likely to just try to kill her helpers instead of paying the minimal fee to cross the bridge.

  “Although, I don't want to push my luck,” she said after her last cast, “so I'm heading back down there right now.”

  After Becky left, Eddie worked on putting some more supporting braces in. His engineering skill came in handy for that, showing him where supports should go when he concentrated on it. The first time it had happened he'd stopped in shock. It looked almost exactly like the highlights from the blueprints for carpentry or masonry. He quickly realized what it was though and set the supports.

  No point increase though. I bet you don't get the engineering points on things like that, it's probably just a side benefit of the skill like seeing out of place stuff in carpentry or masonry. I never got any points for fixing a flaw in a build on those either, he thought.

  He came up from the root cellar, noting to himself that he'd have to put in a door for it, to find Jern and Tiana lounging nearby the partially completed dairy barn.

  “So Eddie, any stonework for me today?” Jern asked.

  Eddie shook his head.

  “Sorry, I'm going to check with Griff and if there's nothing he needs me to do, I'm going to finish the dairy barn hopefully. I might need to grab a carpenter or two to help, but the stonework on it is finished.”

  “Then I'll be off to talk to Paul again,” Jern said. “He's already got a contract for one compound, they can't make up their mind if they want stone or wooden walls though.”

  “Tell them, from me, that if they're worried about goblins, then wood is fine. If they're worried about anything more powerful then they want to go with stone,” Eddie said.

  Jern nodded.

  “That's about what Paul told them. I was surprised by that since he just does the carpentry, but not that surprised. Paul's the type to give everyone a solid strike.”

  “Wait, a solid strike?” Tiana asked.

  “Solid strike?” Jern said. “Like a nice solid productive strike to the metal on the anvil? Er, like being honest and not trying to convince someone to do something another way if it won't benefit them?”

  “Oh, we'd say a fair shake,” Tiana said. “At least that's as close as I can come, but I understand what you're saying now. Paul's honest and won't try to sell them on something just because he'd profit more from it if it isn't what they need.”

  “Aye, lass, that's it. I'll be off now. Either way there's a fair bit of stonework to do in that compound. So even if they want the wooden walls, I'll have myself some work for a while. Keep me busy after this raid. Any word on that?”

  “Charles said very soon. He was asking if I wanted to be the one to trigger it and I told him it didn't matter. I also mentioned that he might want to take his group to do it so he could see the town we'd be attacking. If he's arranging the whole thing it would probably be good for him to see it himself as soon as he can, well before the raid preferably.”

  “Good thought there, lad. I'm off then, I guess. If he tells you when it's going to happen, let me know.”

  “Oh, I think we'll know,” Eddie said. “Everyone will.”

  Jern nodded, then strode off. Tiana turned to Eddie.

  “I'm going to head down to the temple. I was wondering, did you want me to take Lucky with me so she can play at the pond?”

  “Let's ask her, shall we?” Eddie said.

  He gave a short whistle, not as loud as normal so as not to disturb those still sleeping in the inn. He knew Lucky was nearby though, last he'd seen her she was fishing in his pond, so a few moments later the bobcat came streaking up, ending her run by slowing and butting her head into Eddie's hip.

  He staggered slightly, only partly for effect, then knelt down in front of her.

  “Lucky, Tiana is going down to the temple. Did you want to go with her and play near the pond? I'm going to working here most of the day after I visit Griff.”

  Lucky swung her head back and forth before settling in on Eddie.

  “Well, you can have a few minutes there while I talk to Griff if you want, then we'll come back here. Okay?”

  Lucky sat down on her haunches and chuffed at him.

  “Alright. Give me a minute here Tiana, then I'll walk you down to the temple before I go talk to Griff. Lucky can hang out at the pond while I do, then I'll pick her back up before I come back here.”

  Eddie picked out a few boards for the door to the root cellar and laid them across the hole so he wouldn't forget that he needed to do that also. Then he took Tiana's arm and headed down the road towards the temple, Lucky trotting along behind them.

  Griff didn't need anything and when Eddie asked for a couple of carpenters to assist him, Griff knew just who to send.

  “These guys have worked with you before, so maybe they'll be more to your liking. I know you were complaining that a lot of the newer ones were less than friendly while you worked. You like informality, maybe their previous experience with you will help,” Griff said. “They'll meet you behind your inn as soon as I can get a hold of them.”

  “Thanks Griff,” Eddie said.

  He'd noticed that Griff was avoiding using honorifics with him finally, but doing so by simply not using Eddie's name at all. Which Eddie was fine with.

  More informality beats the hell out of sir this and mayor that, Eddie thought.

  He headed over to the temple grounds.
Knowing that it would be a bit before the other carpenters arrived, he simply sat and watched Lucky play. Giving her the extra few minutes seemed like what he ought to do, since he knew she loved playing with the koi.

  Finally he decided that he'd stalled long enough and called out to Lucky. The bobcat spun and raced towards him. It wasn't until she put her paws up on his chest that Eddie realized they were covered in mud. Lucky didn't care though, licking his face and then dropping to all fours again. Eddie chuckled, brushed as much of the mud off as he could, then led Lucky back to the inn.

  ~ ~ ~

  With the help of the two carpenters he'd borrowed, the dairy barn was finished before dinner. When he went in to tell Liv that her root cellar and dairy barn were both done, and ask if there were any furnishings she wanted for it, he found Liv cooking furiously. A large pot of something was on the stove, there were cuts of meat laid out, ready to cook, loaves of bread staying warm near the stove, a pot of her crumbly soft cheese, and mounds and mounds of vegetables all over the kitchen. Liv was very busy. So Eddie backed out of the kitchen slowly.

  I think I'll tell her after the dinner rush, he thought as he made his way around to the front door. In the common room, Charles was sitting at a table surrounded by people Eddie didn't know. He was going to just slip up to his room when Charles saw him and waved him over.

  “Eddie, over here,” Charles called, waving.

  Eddie caught himself from visibly sighing, relegating it to a mental effort as heads swiveled to look at him while he made his way over to the table.

  “So yeah, this is Eddie,” Charles said. “Arguably the reason that the Meadowlands has become such a desirable location.”

  “You're the guy we keep hearing new globals about?” one of the men at the table said. “I've heard that 'expanded the world' one a hundred times or more, but you've been pulling new stuff, no?”

  “I wouldn't know if it's new, well correction, I know some of these are new because I get notifications about being the first player to do X. But yeah, most of those have been me claiming and upgrading the settlement,” Eddie said.

  “Remind me to talk to you after this raid deal is done,” the man said.

  “This is Xavier,” Charles said, gesturing towards the man that Eddie had been talking with. “He's in charge of something that isn't quite a guild, but a loose association of a bunch of different groups of different levels. He's too high for the raid, but he came along to shepherd a couple of lower level groups from his association.”

  Xavier dipped his head to Eddie, who returned the gesture.

  “Hi, nice to meet you,” Eddie said.

  Charles went around the table introducing the other people, along with telling Eddie why they were there. A couple of them were just group leaders that Charles had known, Xavier was an association representative, and the last two were from guilds that had sent some groups to participate in the raid.

  They all had questions for Eddie, and most of their questions weren't even about the upcoming raid. Finally Eddie begged off.

  “Listen, I'll be happy to talk to you about all of this later on, but like Xavier mentioned earlier on, let's do the raid first, okay? As for those of you who want to set up compounds, I've got no problem with that at all, there are laws posted here and there that you'll have to follow to be part of the community, and I don't enforce that, there's a Justiciar here for that. Other than that, if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to what I was doing.”

  He got a couple of angry looks, but just as many nods of understanding from those who also had a hand in running their respective organizations.

  “Charles, you'll let me know when you're going to trigger the raid, right? Give me a day's notice too?”

  “I thought your group would want to do it,” Charles said.

  “We can if you like, I don't think it'll make much of a difference who does it though, do you?”

  Charles shook his head.

  “Probably not, I just figured you'd want to do it.”

  “Karl may, he's the one who stumbled on it this time, but he might not also. He already decided that he doesn't like being the focus of attention, he tends to freeze up. I'll ask him tonight and let you know after dinner.”

  Charles nodded, then turned back to the people at the table as Eddie slipped away from them and headed for his room at top speed. When he got there, Lucky was already sprawled out on his bed waiting for him to pet her.

  He took the time to create another pair each of Biting arrows and an Arcing arrow since his mana was full. He'd been pausing whenever it was full to do so and had a fair number of the arrows tucked into his inventory now.

  Eddie stayed in his room playing with Lucky until dinner. When he went down for dinner, he actually had to wait for a table, and didn't get his normal one. By the time he did get a table, everyone but Dominic and Jern were there, waiting with him.

  The server led them to the table and they settled in. He shook his head in wonderment, he recognized less than half the people in the common room.

  I hope the tavern didn't get as much extra business, they were already full the times I checked, he thought.

  Charles stopped by before Eddie was done eating.

  “Tomorrow,” he said. “Whether it's you or someone else, we want to trigger it tomorrow.”

  Having already discussed it with Karl and the scout not caring who triggered the event so long as people knew who found it, Eddie glanced up at Charles with a grin.

  “Let's let one of your visiting groups have that pleasure, shall we? Just tell them what's involved in getting to it and give them one of Karl's maps?” Eddie said.

  “Won't be as hard as you think,” Charles said. “Lots of the visiting groups have been running the Forest of Fools already. Some of them started out here, or in other spots around the Forest and they all, evidently, have the same goblin village setup. So the first three villages are pretty much guaranteed to be cleared if they wait until later in the morning to start.”

  Eddie shrugged.

  “However they want to do it. Heck, if you want you can take your group to do it. I had no idea what it would be like when you said more people.”

  “I've got a confession to make,” Charles said. “Neither did I. I knew the groups I told would come, and they'd probably tell a few others. From what I've been able to make out, those groups told even more people. There are more adventurers here that I don't know than I do at this point. That's why I said tomorrow. I want to get this over and done with before we get swamped any more here.”

  “Yeah, I'm avoiding Liv. She looked like she was buried in the kitchen earlier, so I kind of avoided her. Once things slow down I'll talk to her, but I'm sure I'll get an earful,” Eddie replied.

  “I don't envy you, even with Bjorn around she's still got the best tongue lashings of anyone, real world or game, that I've ever encountered,” Charles said.

  “I've got a secret weapon though,” Eddie said. “I wanted to talk to her to tell her that the dairy barn and root cellar she's been asking for are done.”

  “That might ease things you for a bit, just make sure you get that out there before she builds up too much steam and you'll be fine,” Charles said.

  He turned to leave and Eddie distinctly heard his last words.

  “Better you than me though.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Liv was surprisingly happy when Eddie tracked her down later in the evening. It only took him a moment to realize why when she started gushing about how much coin the inn had taken in over the last few days.

  Ah, I knew there was a reason she and I got along well, Eddie thought. Kindred spirits, to a point at least.

  Her mood grew even better when Eddie told her that he'd finished the barn and root cellar. She did want a few furnishings, but not that many, and nothing Eddie would need a new blueprint for. He made note of her requests and resolved to pass them on to the other carpenters the following day, unless he didn't have anything else that he needed
to be doing.

  “Don't you worry, Eddie. I'll have your cook for the tavern soon. One of these two are going to stay on to help me after all this rush subsides, the other will go down to the tavern. You said you had recipes for that? Do you want me to go through them with these two girls so whichever one goes down there will know them?” Liv asked.

  She had a sly look on her face as she said it and Eddie realized that she probably wanted them for herself as well. He grinned back at her.

  “Sure, I'll get a few of them for you soon, maybe tomorrow. I'll have to write them out though, with as busy as it's been I don't think we can just settle down in the kitchen and experiment.”

  Her face fell slightly at that, but not by much.

  “Get them to me tomorrow morning?” she asked.

  “I can do that. I'll have them to you before lunch tomorrow.”

  Eddie hastened his departure in case she thought of something else she wanted or needed for the inn. She'd been mostly good, but he could easily see getting all the requests she made fulfilled leading towards her making even more of them.

  Instead he left out the back door, whistling to call Lucky down from his room. He saw Tiana lean out the window for a moment, spot him, then pull back into the inn. A moment later Lucky was at his side, and a minute later, while he was getting ready to create more of his arrows, Tiana came out as well.

  Once he'd made his Biting and Arcing arrows, he waited a few minutes for his mana to regen a little, then he stood and offered his arm to Tiana.

  “Shall we go on a moonlit stroll? Or a moonlit hunt for you, Lucky.”

  Tiana smiled at him and they walked to the north, into the light woods that Eddie and Lucky normally hunted. It was a peaceful respite, the quiet of the nighttime woods contrasting the hustle and bustle of the Meadowlands over these past few days. By the time they returned to the inn Lucky had delivered several bunnies to Eddie while he and Tiana had calmed some from the peace and quiet.

  ~ ~ ~

  Chapter Four