And really, how many cousins does Ingolf have in the area? Brandr and Osmond are his relations, plus Trygve down at the mill. Maybe I should ask him if there are any more? No, family's a sore subject for him right now, best to not ask, Eddie thought.
They moved out a few minutes later, making fairly good speed since the road was in reasonable condition. Not great, but not horrible either. Eddie didn't expect that to continue, not after listening to Karl's description. It sounded like the farther from the crossroads they got, the worse condition the road would be in.
Something else to add to my list of things to do. Fix the road, eventually get it done with cobblestone maybe? That should keep it in better condition than dirt, and for a longer time too.
They were about an hour out when they got to the grain mill. It looked to be in much better condition than the last time Eddie had seen it, which wasn't saying a lot since it had looked pretty bad the last time.
At least he's starting to fix it up though, Eddie thought. Which means there's probably a lot more business going on here. I wonder if the tax effect extends to the mill here? Probably not, it isn't technically in the city.
Trygve noticed Eddie and recognized him, giving him a wave and a friendly nod as he loaded sacks of flour into the wagon. Once they were done, the miller came over.
“Thanks, Mayor Eddie. I've been seeing a lot more business since that first time you came down this way,” Trygve said.
“You're welcome. We're still growing too, so the demand will probably keep increasing, for a while at least.”
“That's good. I've gotten rid of almost my entire surplus of grains I had. Got more coming in, but not as much as before from the area right around here, a lot more from your city though, and that's been making up for it.”
“I'm glad, good to see you're fixing up the mill too.”
“With the additional business I've finally been able to. For a while I didn't know if I'd ever get it done.”
With that Trygve gave Eddie another wave and returned to his mill. The waterwheel started spinning a minute after he got inside. The stream that ran it was deep where it left the lake, right where the wheel was, but quickly got shallower and wider. The road crossed the stream on what looked like a chunk of bedrock a few inches under the water. The natural ford meant that there was no bridge and Eddie was glad for that. Paul might know how to build and maintain bridges, but that wasn't something Eddie knew anything about.
At least I don't know anything about it yet, I might still need to learn once I get the Meadowlands to a kingdom, he thought. Actually, that's probably the type of thing I can delegate, fortunately.
The trip was actually kind of boring. They traveled through the meadows and the small stands of trees that dotted the Meadowlands. The only things Eddie saw were bunnies and the occasional deer. Lucky, of course, kept bringing him bunnies. Eddie also caught her eyeing a deer once or twice, but the cat resisted the urge to hunt those.
Although she probably could bring a deer down by herself, no problem at all if they're all the same level as the few I've evaluated, Eddie thought. Maybe I can take her hunting near the new settlement site and set them up with a stash of meat to start out with?
It was late afternoon before they got to the settlement site. The journey would've been much quicker if they hadn't had all the wagons along with them. That had slowed them quite a bit, but they still made it before dark and quickly set up camp.
~ ~ ~
Unsurprisingly to Eddie, everyone was up on time the next morning. Since there had been no distractions the night before, most people had simply gone straight to bed. Eddie, with his cooking score of thirteen offered to cook breakfast, or at least help with it.
“No Eddie, as mayor that's not the type of thing you should be doing,” Ingolf said.
Eddie laughed out loud, feeling the freedom of being outside of his city.
“Nope Ingolf, out here that means you shouldn't be doing things like this. I'm not mayor here, you're in charge,” Eddie said.
That stopped Ingolf cold, at least for long enough for Eddie to start cooking. They'd packed appropriate cookware and utensils for cooking over an open fire, not knowing how long it would be until they had a stove or oven set up somewhere indoors, so Eddie had the tools he needed.
About half an hour later, he started serving, happy to have gotten some cooking in. Something Liv hadn't allowed him to do for quite some time.
“Hey Eddie,” Karl said. “Way to go. Agility buff for four hours.”
Eddie had forgotten that he was a high enough level to potentially get buffs on the food he served. He decided that the game had chosen agility because he'd based the meal around some of the bunnies Lucky had given him the day before.
Ingolf came over to the fire while Eddie was cleaning up.
“Okay, maybe your cooking wasn't a bad idea,” he said.
“Midday meal will be cold, but I'll cook again tonight,” Eddie said. “Then tomorrow my group is going to head out to help Adonioth make his way home and map the area.”
Ingolf had taken charge while Eddie was cooking, with a dirty look Eddie's way, and now he got people moving once they'd finished eating.
Oho! Eddie thought. Was he thinking or hoping that I'd take charge once we got out here? For the start at least? Too bad, that's not going to happen, but he does seem to have a handle on things.
Ingolf had told Paul they'd put up a bunkhouse first, so people had somewhere to sleep with a roof over their heads. The town hall would be the second thing they built. Paul had set to willingly enough and once Eddie was done with cleanup he joined the carpenter in his efforts. They had a couple of lower level carpenters with them as well, but the majority of the work was done by Paul and Eddie.
Lucky had been running all over the place, occasionally bringing back bunnies, but now she settled down near Eddie and started whining.
“Let me finish this section Lucky, then I'll see what's got you bothered,” Eddie said.
Once he'd finished, he excused himself from Paul and went down to Lucky. The cat started walking in a straight line to the north, stopping a few hundred feet away. She started scratching at the ground and when Eddie looked, he found that she was uncovering a bone.
A human bone, he thought after it was uncovered.
Eddie pulled out a shovel from his inventory, the one that had been with him almost since he started in the game, then started digging.
His efforts revealed a human skeleton, either it had been worried at after the body was dead, or the cut that had separated an arm from the rest of the body had been what killed it, he didn't know and wasn't sure he wanted to know. Instead he decided to dig a little deeper and give it a proper burial. A couple of inches below the skeleton, he struck stone. As he tried to go out and beyond it he found more and more of the same.
I think that's a joint in the stone even, he thought when the shovel went just a touch deeper on on attempt. This must be a foundation or something. The stone is mostly smooth and seems to have joints.
“Damn, I wish Tamshir were here,” he said aloud.
“Really?” Tiana said behind him.
Eddie spun to find Tiana staring at him, one eyebrow raised.
“Yeah, really. I found what looks like a foundation or something, but digging it out by hand would take forever. If she were here she could just toss off a spell and have it all cleaned up,” Eddie said.
The raised eyebrow lowered and Tiana peered into the hole Eddie had created. Catching sight of the skeleton, the eyebrow went right back up and Eddie found himself explaining what had happened.
“Well, if that is a foundation, Ingolf might want to reuse it, if possible, so we probably ought to move the skeleton well away from here,” Tiana said. “I can use a spell that will ensure it rests peacefully and can never raise as an undead. I always wondered why they did that, until we started seeing undead in the dungeon.”
Eddie nodded.
“Makes sense, especiall
y if anyone wanted to go really deep into role-playing in this game. That sounds like it would be a fairly standard priest ability, you know?”
“Yeah, I just always thought it was useless because I'd never seen an undead before the dungeon. Now that I know they are out there, it makes more sense,” Tiana replied. “But I've never used it before, so this will be a first for me. Maybe bury them well out towards the orchards?”
Eddie nodded. He doubted that there would be any building remnants out that way. The paths that led to it indicated that the majority of the buildings had been in this area, which was why Ingolf had chosen to build here.
He gathered the skeleton up and moved towards the orchards. About midway to them from where he'd found the skeleton, he laid the bones down and began to dig. The soil was packed on the surface, but once he was down a few inches it loosened up a lot and his progress grew quicker.
When the hole was done, he laid the bones in it, arranged properly, and stepped back. Tiana stepped forward and chanted for a moment. Her hand glowed golden for a moment, then it flashed out and the glow moved to the bones instead. When she nodded to him, he started to fill the hole back in.
Lucky nudged him several times as he dug, but he ignored her until he was finished. When he was done he finally gave in and turned to her. She butted her head against him, then turned and stared. Eddie didn't see anything where she was looking, but she definitely saw something.
Cast Eagle Eye, Eddie thought.
His vision zoomed out and when he tried to look where Lucky was, he saw the small group of deer lying in the tall grass, barely visible even with his spell.
“You want to hunt deer, Lucky?” Eddie said.
The cat started trotting away, in a straight line towards the deer.
“Sorry Tiana, Lucky wants to hunt some deer and I think it's a good plan. We can leave some extra meat with Ingolf that way.”
She gestured, her hand sweeping towards the cat.
“Be my guest. I'll wait here,” she said.
Eddie pulled his bow from his inventory and started trotting after his cat, trying to be quiet. A moment later he had an arrow nocked but not drawn as he followed Lucky.
When she got within about a hundred feet of the deer Lucky broke into a sprint that Eddie had no hope of matching. Instead he sprinted forward until he figured he was in close range, then drew an arrow, watching. A moment later Lucky erupted into the tall grass that held the deer and the deer came flying out in all directions.
Eddie drew the arrow and got the little bullseye he'd come to realize meant that his hunting skill was engaged. A split second later he released and the arrow flew towards its target. As it struck, the deer staggered and his notification light started flashing.
You have upgraded the skill Hunting to (4). Look at that, you get a magic bow and the first thing you use it on is a helpless little doe.
Eddie ignored the snarky message, except for a moment's thought.
If that's a little doe, what's a big one? This one is probably a fourth again as large as most of the ones I got back near the city.
Then his attention was drawn away from his own target. Lucky had continued on towards a target of her own after spooking all the deer and now she was attacking a younger buck. The older one had been huge, and correspondingly fast. It was out of sight now, but Lucky had the young one running in circles. She occasionally darted in to rake it with a claw and it would shake its antlers at her, only for the bobcat to jump back out of danger.
Damn it! I can't shoot at it because she's too close. Plus if she darted in just as I released? No, just no, Eddie thought.
Despite that he nocked another arrow, waiting to see if a larger gap appeared in front of the combatants.
It didn't. Over the next five minutes Eddie kept having his breath catch as Lucky darted in and attacked, then dodged the buck's hooves and antlers. Finally she dropped the buck, latching onto its neck at the very last and dragging it to the ground before it grew still.
“Lucky!” Eddie called, once he was sure it was over. “What the hell, Lucky? I thought you wanted to hunt them with me, not take one down on your own.”
Eddie just stared as the cat looked up at him, chuffed, then took a firm grip with her jaws and started dragging the buck back towards him.
Just how strong is she now? Eddie thought, as the bobcat dragged a deer twice her size over to where Eddie's doe was. She let go and sat back on her haunches, looking at him. When he was slow to react, she leaned over and nipped at the buck's stomach, then looked back to Eddie.
“Oh, you want me to clean them, but give you the organ meat?” Eddie asked.
Another chuff rang out.
So Eddie set to cleaning the pair of deer after looting them. He tossed the organs to Lucky as he came to them, but didn't have anywhere to hang them to finish bleeding out.
“Lucky, guard these, okay? I need to go get one of the hand carts they brought so I can get these two deer back to camp.”
Lucky was sprawled out on the ground, spread out in the sun. A soft chuff was the only response Eddie got, so he figured it was enough. He trotted off at his stamina conserving pace, a habit he still hadn't broken despite his increasing stamina score.
When he got back to the camp and took one of the carts, he had to explain himself to first Paul, and then Ingolf.
“Well, hurry up then. If you help we can finish this bunkhouse today,” Paul said.
Ingolf merely gave Eddie his thanks when informed that there'd be a lot of venison available for his newly started settlement.
~ ~ ~
Eddie cooked fresh venison for dinner, along with a few edible plants he'd found with his Herbalism skill. It looked like there'd been gardens nearby and some of the plants they'd grown had gone wild when they were abandoned. At least that was his best guess from the way things looked. Anyhow, dinner was freshly cooked venison and a variety of fresh vegetables. Eddie's portion tasted even better since he'd gotten a point in cooking for it.
Maybe that's why Liv likes to cook in the inn? There's a bunch of people here, more than I've cooked for before, so maybe that has something to do with gaining points? Not only new ingredients, but larger amounts and things like that? Who knows, I'm just glad I got the point. It's been a long time since I increased my cooking skill, Eddie thought.
The bunkhouse was finished before dark, although there were no beds yet. One of the wagons had been filled with the straw tick mattresses available back in the city, so no-one had to sleep on the floor at least.
One of the guards that Eddie had assigned out here stayed up through the night. There were three guards that came out here with Ingolf and Eddie figured he could rotate the guards every few months so no-one got stuck out here permanently, unless they requested it.
In the morning, someone else was cooking when Eddie got up, but he still managed to steal a spot near the fire. He'd brought coffee grounds that he'd ground up back home, and a percolator. So coffee was on the menu this morning, something that kept most of his group from getting cranky, himself included.
Once they'd had breakfast, Eddie and his group followed Adonioth to the west. The Forest Elf was sure he could find his way once they were in the woods since he'd seen Karl's maps and thought he recognized the treeline on this end of the Meadowlands, so they followed him as he moved into the treeline. As they did, they felt the momentary lightheadedness that told them they were entering a new zone.
~ ~ ~
Chapter Twenty-Five
Aaron looked around the workroom. Tom had headed out an hour earlier and the others on his team had left even sooner. He was just playing catch up right now. A few non-important things had gotten backlogged and since Lydia had told him she'd be running late, he'd just started working his way down his list, taking care of whatever he could.
His phone chimed with an incoming text and he glanced at it. Lydia was done and heading out, she said she'd meet him at the entrance shortly.
Aaron saved his
work, locked his system down, and headed out. When he met Lydia at the entrance she had a small smirk on her face.
“Let's go get dinner,” she said. “I've got some news to share with you.”
Despite his urging she refused to tell him until they were seated and had ordered their food. Then she relented.
“So, you know that Freyja's up to a few things, right?”
“Of course, she always is,” Aaron said.
“Well, she's given me a few tips about things she's about to do. I don't know if it was intentional or not, but it was easy enough to read from what she was telling me.”
“If it was Freyja, I count on it being intentional. She frequently communicates things in a fashion that leaves her with an out, at least if it's anything controversial at all. Well, that's how she does it with me at least.”
“Okay, I can believe that. She's cagey, she is.”
Aaron nodded his agreement.
“So, what's she hinting at this time?” he asked.
Lydia leaned forward and started speaking in a soft voice. Aaron's eyes shot open as she spoke.
“That's why she wanted us to track that order?” he asked.
Lydia nodded, then continued speaking.
~ ~ ~
As usual Eddie's head cleared up moments after changing zones. Adonioth stopped after everyone had crossed the treeline.
“Small goblins, weak fighters, but many. Take care,” he said.
Eddie nodded his understanding and pulled out his bow. Adonioth's bow had appeared in his hand shortly before he entered the trees and Eddie had been fascinated. Not only was the bow made from some sort of wood Eddie didn't recognize, but it was adorned with carvings in all the areas where they wouldn't be worn down from use.
Dropping the issue of the Forest Elf's bow from his mind, Eddie started scanning the forest. When everyone had their armor on and weapons out, Adonioth started moving again.
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