Ruler Light Online five

by Larcombe, Tom

  Several quick little puffs of the powder showed and Jern backed away from them, dropping the sack.

  Eddie sniffed at the powder, then licked it.

  Flour? he thought, then had an epiphany. Jern knew his cousin could do that stealth thing, but those puffs of flour are Jari's footsteps.

  Jern was playing with his cousin, making him think his normal procedure would work. Eddie knew, though, that Jern didn't normally spin his hammer while waiting for combat and when he looked closer, he saw that Jern's eyes weren't staring straight ahead. They were looking at the last place Jari's feet had touched down.

  Suddenly a puff of flour rose into the air, right between Jari's last known position and where Jern was. Jern spun, his hammer lashing out and hitting Jari hard enough to send him flying through the air to the edge of the ring. His stealth broken, Jari was visible with a dagger in either hand and a trickle of blood flowing from his lip.

  Pretty sure Jern hit him in the chest, so he must've bit his lip either when he was hit or when he landed, Eddie thought.

  Jari was back on his feet in a moment.

  “That's one for me, plus first blood, cousin,” Jern said. “So if my memory of the last fight is correct, I only owe you about another twenty strikes or so, plus five more bloodlettings.”

  Jern crouched slightly, so his shield covered even more of his body, then started slowly moving towards Jari.

  Jari dropped into his own crouch and tried to circle Jern. Jern moved more quickly though and got his cousin trapped in a corner. He moved in, hammer raised as though he were going to strike.

  Jari tried to dodge the hammer, only to be struck hard by Jern's shield. It left him stunned for a moment and that was when Jern sent his hammer following to slam into Jari's body.

  That movement was a critical one, for the observers if not for the fighters. The guards from the dwarfish party saw that Jern had trained as a warrior, one willing to fight with all the weapons at his command, not just something called a weapon, and they began to cheer for him. It was soft at first, but as the fight progressed it grew louder and louder.

  Brokkr, beside Eddie, took a moment to wipe away a tear and then began to cheer for Jern as well. In between cheers he leaned over to Eddie.

  “It's been a long time since we've had an heir that's willing to do what needs to be done, using whatever tools are available to do it. Some of our great families have taken to the traits of human nobility,” he said, shaking his head. “But once Jern takes over for his family, he'll quickly put paid to that, if he doesn't change his own ways. If, gods unwilling, Jern takes over for his family and then the King dies and Jern inherits, well, that'd be good for all the dwarfs, not just the Ambolts.”

  “Wait,” Eddie said, “Jern's in line to inherit the kingship? He said his family wasn't noble.”

  “He would say that, and technically it's true,” Brokkr replied, breaking off to cheer a particularly vicious hammer strike that found its mark. “The kingship passes through the three Great Families. Only the king is nobility, but the Ambolts are the next in line for the kingship. So if the Ambolt family leader dies and Jern takes over, he'd be king if the current king died while he was in charge of the Ambolts. Should the king die first, then Jern would simply be the head of the Ambolt family after the current Ambolt family head assumed the kingship.”

  Eddie shook his own head. It sounded like a relatively straightforward setup, if you grew up with it at least. He was just surprised that Jern was as close to the kingship of the Hammer Dwarfs as that and had actively worked to not let them know.

  Not that the topic ever really came up, so maybe he would've told us if we'd asked, Eddie thought.

  Then he went back to watching the fight. Jari had yet to land a proper blow. Most of his strikes that made it past Jern's guard had simply been blocked by Jern's armor. Jari, on the other hand, wasn't doing so well.

  Jern had taken to picking his shots. Jari was quick, but not quite quick enough to evade all the blows that came at him, especially when Jern managed to get him in a corner as had happened several times. But Jern was strong enough and fast enough that about half the time Jari tried to block instead of dodge, Jern's strike drove right through the blocks to land anyway.

  Finally, Jari began to tire. His blocks were slower, his dodges took more effort. Jern took no pity and began to strike in a predictable fashion: left, right, left, right... Even knowing where and when the strikes were coming gave Jari no relief.

  “Ah, so now you're the one running out of stamina, aren't you cousin? How does it feel to be on the other side of the fight this time?” Jern called.

  He finally broke his rhythm of strikes and Jari didn't see it coming when Jern wound up and brought his hammer straight down on his cousin's head instead of the next strike of the pattern he'd been following. Jari simply collapsed under the strike, unconscious.

  “And that's a win for Jern,” Eddie called out.

  “A good thing too. You did well son, but I wasn't giving it my all,” Brokkr said to Eddie.

  Eddie laughed.

  “Well, my cat wasn't fighting with me, plus I'm normally missile and magic support and I didn't use my bow or my spells against you. So all in all, since I'm like third in line for fighting on the front line of our party, I thought I did pretty well.”

  “Really?” Brokkr said, now showing more interest. “I don't suppose you could demonstrate your other skills for me? It would go far to assure the family if I could assess your skill more appropriately.”

  “Jern, you okay?” Eddie called out.

  Jern was breathing heavily and had broken a sweat.

  “Better than that, Eddie lad. I'm doing wonderfully!” Jern called back.

  Jern put away his hammer and shield then walked over to Jari.

  “Um, Jern?” Eddie asked.

  “Let him be, Eddie. Jern owes Jari for a similar incident, although not with that substance.”

  Jern had started scooping up powder and sprinkling it all over Jari, making sure to rub it into the other dwarf's beard and hair, then pulling out a waterskin and making sure all the flour got wet.

  “Are you sure?” Eddie asked.

  “Aye, Jari humiliated Jern when Jern first asked to be included in the orc clearing parties. Beat him unconscious and covered him in mud. Jern disappeared a month later and we've only just found him again now.”

  “Well,” Eddie said, “in that case if you want to come over to the archery range I can show you my other skills.”

  Eddie took the time to fire a few normal arrows first, then pulled out an Arcing arrow and a Biting arrow, explaining the effects of them as well as the spells they came from, not really having a target to cast the spells on. He raised a Wall of Thorns as an example though, as well as casting an Accelerated Heal and targeting Brokkr, who claimed his shins still hurt, with a Nature's Binding.

  “I've got a few other spells also, but they aren't combat related at all,” Eddie said.

  Brokkr's grin had been growing wider as Eddie demonstrated his skills.

  “Plus, in addition to myself as one of Jern's companions, he has Tiana who's a priestess of Freyja. She has a large number of healing and miscellaneous spells as well as combat spells. There's also Karl, who's a scout. Allie, who can either tank alongside Jern or do ranged attacks like I do. Finally, there's Dominic, who's a fire mage, and also an alchemist. Oh, and Dominic is also our local brewer. Why don't you come into the inn and try one of his ales?”

  Brokkr's smile had just grown wider and wider as Eddie continued. But finally, he spoke.

  “Alchemist? And brewer? Can you introduce me to this individual?”

  “Sure, he's probably in his brewhouse, right over there,” Eddie said, gesturing, “but, let's not disturb him. I'd hate to ruin a batch of potions or a batch of ale.”

  Brokkr nodded fervent agreement.

  “Aye, either would be a waste to be avoided.”

  Eddie looked back over to the ring, where the gua
rds were encircling Jern, all talking excitedly.

  “So, Jern's good then? He's not going to be forced back to Hammer Hold?”

  “Aye. We've verified his level, verified at least one of his companions, and checked his combat prowess. He's succeeded in all the tests, but we will want him to keep us up to date on his location should he go anywhere else.”

  “I think we'll be staying here. Anywhere else we go will only be temporary,” Eddie said. “I do have two more settlements we're building to the east and west, and we'll want to visit those, plus go adventuring from time to time.”

  Brokkr's grin was like a solid fixture on his face now.

  “Wouldn't expect anything less, lad. Now, you said I could sample this Dominic's ale?”

  Eddie chuckled and led Brokkr into the inn for a drink.

  ~ ~ ~

  Chapter Twenty

  Cooper's attention was caught as a message flashed into his vision.

  System Generated Mission:

  The Drive to Win!

  Take your group of subterfuge constructs on a mission to retrieve data from a guarded office. Bonus points for lack of casualties and remaining undetected.

  Reward: mission completion, one night in Venus' inn.

  Accept: (y/n)

  Okay, what's artifact and what's Venus just messing with us? Cooper thought. As far as I can tell that's the standard quest template, just slightly rewritten.

  He shook his head, trying to drive out the errant thoughts and then selected yes.

  The team immediately had a change of viewpoint, finding themselves inserted into the constructs for the mission. Cooper looked around, taking in the very generic looking individuals that now surrounded him. His team were mostly dressed in guard uniforms, except for one who was wearing a button down shirt and tie.

  [C-net: Cooper – Alright, looks like we're testing undercover insertion of assets and data retrieval today. Everyone have the mission specs?]

  One nice side of using the constructs was that the missions specifics were available at a thought, no paper trail involved. In this case there was allegedly a separate network of computers in the basement that were being used for illicit purposes and the team's mission was to get to them and download as much data as they could.

  Cooper had wondered about the ability to transfer data. A normal flash drive couldn't hold the amount of data they needed to retrieve. Then he'd been shown the specs on the subterfuge model. They had the capability to carry weapons and ammunition, but not nearly as much as the combat models. First, the subterfuge models were smaller, human-sized, and designed to pass entirely as human. He couldn't tell that it was happening, but Venus was in this construct with him, or at least one of her splinters was. It was making the body do all the normal things a person would while Cooper controlled all the non-autonomous parts.

  Because of the necessity for the splinters in these models, the majority of what would otherwise be storage space was taken up by computers and data storage. In addition to hosting the splinter, they could directly connect to most standard data transfer ports and simply download what they needed to the onboard storage.

  [C-net: Cooper – Let's go then. Evidently a bunch of us are supposed to be guards. We have the patrol routes and timing in our mission pack. Bob, you going to be okay as the data retrieval person?]

  [C-net: Bob – No problem, Coop. This particular model has even more data storage capability than the others. A little less armor and fewer weapons though due to the space requirements so I'm backup only if it comes to a fight.]

  Cooper was astonished by the tech he was testing. If it all worked right, it was going to revolutionize a whole bunch of different things, from combat to spying. He was loving every second of it too, even if he did prefer putting the combat models to their paces to what they were doing right now.

  He'd been worried, at first, that these non-combat models were going to be fragile, but the game translated the durability to health for him and he'd found out that this subterfuge model he was in had more than ten times the health that he, personally, would have in his body. Plus, there wasn't much that would put it down immediately, no critical areas. Sensors were built in so even if the head was removed, it could keep going. The only way to destroy these units was to destroy them utterly. You could take away mobility by removing all the limbs, but the units had small reserves of repair nanites that would get you moving again if that happened, assuming you had a little bit of time for them to work. It wouldn't be pretty, wouldn't restore the limbs, but at least you'd be able to move again.

  Cooper gave the orders and they moved into the building. The onboard splinters were able to hack the security for the building, pulsing the correct codes as the team 'scanned' their id tags. Then they were in and moved towards the basement.

  The mission was easy, at least compared to the combat ones they'd tested. They'd only had to take care of two guards and one technician. The subterfuge models were also equipped with fast acting tranquilizing darts so they didn't even have to kill them, they just tranquilized them, then moved in, recovered the data, then left.

  Success:

  You have completed the mission: The Drive to Win!

  Mission Completed.

  One night in Venus' inn awarded.

  [C-net: Cooper – Well, that was different. Doesn't matter, mission completed, but I anticipate they'll make this style mission much harder next time.]

  ~ ~ ~

  Eddie noted that Brokkr seemed very fond of Dominic's ale, and he could put it down as well as anyone but Bjorn while still staying sober. Eddie slowed after his second, nursing the third. Brokkr was on his seventh ale when Jern and the rest of the guards came into the inn. Jari was nowhere to be seen though.

  Jern and the guards were talking and laughing, but split up, going to different tables. Jern and several of the guards came to Eddie's table and had a seat.

  “Welcome cousin,” Brokkr said. “I see you've found quite the place to settle yourself.”

  Jern grinned.

  “It certainly has its merits cousin Brokkr. Jari asked me to tell you, well properly he asked one of the guards to tell you, but I overheard it. He said he's going back to the Hold and he should be safe along the path you followed to come here.”

  “Ah, I'd wondered how he would react to that magnificent beating you gave him. Well done, Jern, if I didn't say so earlier. Seems you've earned your right to be out of the Hold well before your majority.”

  “I credit that to Eddie and the rest of his group. You saw some of them with me when I arrived. They granted me a few temporary buffs that certainly assisted with my fight. The older lass was Tiana, High Priestess of Freyja. The younger was Becky, a sometimes member of our group and a druid. The man was Dominic and I can see you've been introduced to his product,” Jern said, motioning for an ale of his own.

  He turned to Eddie.

  “Eddie, would you mind if you acquired a few more temporary residents to the Meadowlands? Some of the guards wish to stay with me and I've nothing against that so long as they aren't trying to drag me back to the Hold.”

  “That's no problem at all. If things go as I hope, we can perhaps build an embassy for the dwarfs and include housing in it,” Eddie replied. “Since I'm pretty sure your cave is plenty for one, and crowded for any more.”

  Jern beamed a smile at him, his current joy obvious to anyone with eyes.

  “Aye, lad, that'd be a grand thing. Perhaps near the smithy? There are several small caves along the edge of the spur that contains the path to the the Hold. We could dig out one of those, and then build a stonework front to it. Perhaps a rear entrance that leads into the safe passage? Always better to have more than a single exit.”

  Brokkr's eyes were sparkling as he watched the interplay between Eddie and Jern and he cleared his throat gently.

  “Why would we need an embassy here, lad?” he asked Eddie.

  Eddie flushed, realizing that he'd revealed something he hadn't intended. He
looked around and saw no-one but the dwarfs close enough to hear him. Even so he lowered his voice.

  “I've a quest to form a kingdom and I'm well into it. It shouldn't be long before I complete it. So, I thought with a kingdom, perhaps embassies with the neighboring races would be appropriate.”

  Brokkr sat up straighter.

  “Really lad? Races? What others?”

  “Well, we recently got a lead on a Forest Elf town in a nearby forest. We have a representative of them here currently and he's going to lead us to the town once he's recovered. There are goblins as well, but they seem so disparate I think that we won't have an embassy for them, just their settlement nearby.”

  Brokkr's eyes widened.

  “A goblin settlement? Where is it?”

  “Well, actually, it's my settlement. I've just got the goblins running it for me. They really are very industrious. The batch I've got were rescued, they were slaves to orcs. So we cleared the orc settlement, I claimed it, and installed the goblins to run it for me.”

  Eddie grinned.

  “They're providing me with coal, iron, silver, and the occasional gems. They'll be part of my kingdom since I need three additional settlements beyond the Meadowlands.”

  “So still slaves then?” Brokkr asked, his eyes darkening as he looked at Eddie.

  “Nope, more like employees really. I own the place, they work it, and I get a percentage of what they mine. I helped them get mostly self-sufficient and when they need things they can't provide themselves, I provide it,” Eddie said.

  “Ah, more like serfs then? That's good. The bloody orcs and their enslavement of anyone they can capture have set us firmly against the matter. Not that we ever held with slavery ourselves. They even take dwarfs as slaves, the gods be damned orcs do.”

  Brokkr's eyes were flashing again now and not in the pleased sparkling fashion they were earlier on. Eddie decided a quick change of subject was in order.

  “So, I've got a friend who's starting a settlement to the east currently, and we have plans to start another one to the west as well. So that will cover all the settlements we need. We're building a castle—“