“Any more construction going on?” Jern asked.
“I don't know yet. We're still a few houses shy, so I might decide to do one of those.”
“I'll wait then, lad,” Jern said. “If I don't have any more construction work to do then I'll just practice my weapons skills. Got a couple I can still maybe get to a ten, but they're mostly thrown weapons, not my preference.”
“What happened to your guards, anyhow? I thought they'd be stuck to you like glue.”
Jern smirked.
“They can't hold their liquor. I drunk them under the table last night and when I got up this morning they were both still out cold. They'll give me a tongue lashing when I get back, I'll laugh at them, and we'll go right back to how things were. But, thinking of that, let's see if there is any construction at all that we can do. Make them come looking with hangovers? I'm still a bit irked that they feel like I need babysitters. Now I know how you felt when Tiana stuck Lucky on you, lad.”
Eddie grinned back at Jern.
“Well, come on in. We'll check the control room and then see what Griff has for us.”
The two went into the town hall. Jern waited in the hall as Eddie checked the control room.
“We only need eight more residents before we qualify for Capital,” Eddie said, “and the control room showed another twelve as temporary residents. Hopefully those are all people waiting on houses still and we can get that done in a few days.”
“Congratulations, lad. I know you've been working hard on that,” Jern said.
“Well, the only qualification that I know of that I need for the other quest is to get it to a Player Capital. So that may finish both of those quests if we get those houses up.”
“What are we waiting for then, lad? Let's go talk to Griff.”
~ ~ ~
The biggest priority for Eddie was houses. There were a few other buildings that had been requested: storage barns for crops, sheds and barns for livestock, storage areas for this or that which shouldn't be left out in the open air. None of it seemed more important to Eddie than houses at that point, so he and Jern picked up a couple of workers, sent them out with carts to get the materials, and went and staked out a spot to start building a house.
Eddie found out just how fast he and Jern had become with stonework. They hadn't done houses in quite a while so when they finished the stonework for the floor, fireplace, and chimney in under two hours, he was astounded. Not astounded enough to not immediately start in on the carpentry though.
He was still working on the carpentry portion when he heard some yelling. Glancing over he saw Jern's two guards giving him the promised tongue lashing. As Jern had promised he began to laugh as soon as the two guards wound down.
“I've got a good group to watch my back already. Plus, nothing's going to happen here in the Meadowlands without plenty of warning, so you two should just treat it like a vacation,” Jern said.
The guards tried to argue the point, but by that time Eddie was already back to building, so he could hear them talking but not make out their words.
They wouldn't have finished the house that day, except for a crew that had finished theirs earlier and stopped by on their way back. They were all from some of the earlier recruits that Eddie had started the building crews with so when they saw Eddie working the carpentry all by himself, and Jern laughing and joking with his two guards, the carpenters offered to help him out, taking a couple of sections each.
When Eddie checked the control room on the way back to the inn, he saw that they were down to needing only six more residents. The crews could normally finish a house a day each, and there were three of them, so he was pretty sure the population requirements would be filled the following day.
Now if the masons on the castle finish the roof today, that would have both those quests finished for tomorrow, Eddie thought. Even if they don't finish the roof today, it should still get finished tomorrow, shouldn't it? Should Jern and I show up at the castle first thing in the morning again tomorrow? No, they should have it done by the end of tomorrow at the latest. If Jern and I did a quarter of the roof in two hours, they should have been able to finish it today.
He was edgy and twitchy all night, drawing comments from Karl. Tiana answered for him.
“Nope, he was telling me he thinks the other two quests he's working on should both finish tomorrow. Wouldn't you be all jumpy if that were you?” she said.
Karl sighed.
“Damn you, you're going to get more experience, aren't you? Maybe even pull another level ahead of me?”
Eddie just shrugged.
“No clue. I'm pretty sure I will though, get experience that is. I still need more than thirty thousand to level though so maybe not enough to level.”
“Yeah, right. That second quest? The one you can't complete until after you get the Capital? I bet that one has a metric butt ton of experience for it,” Karl said.
Eddie just shrugged again.
“I've got no idea and that's part of the reason I'm so jumpy.”
“Eddie, go wrestle with Lucky, or take her for a run, you really do need to burn off some energy,” Tiana said.
Eddie saw the logic in that. He also realized that, once again, he'd been ignoring his cat too much. She hadn't come to the orc tunnels with them since she didn't like cave systems, and he'd been building which also didn't involve her, although she did tend to be around and hunting or napping in the area when he did that. He did give her lots of attention every night though plus he'd finally gotten around to making a bigger bed for her.
“That's a good idea. Lucky deserves my attention and she hasn't been getting enough. I'll be back in a bit,” Eddie said.
Tiana shooed him away as he headed towards the back door of the inn. Once he was there he whistled and watched as Lucky came racing down out of his room.
“Hey Lucky, want to run for a bit? Then we can wrestle and play if you like,” Eddie said.
Then he looked at the cat that was probably as heavy as he was, or only slightly under it.
“But only if you promise to take it easy on me, plus no teeth and claws,” he added.
Lucky chuffed at him once, then raced off to the north, into the slowly darkening twilight. Eddie knew she was following the path they normally ran along when they did, so he took off after her.
Eddie spent about an hour first running with Lucky, then wrestling with her in the back yard. Finally he headed back into the inn, only to have Tiana startle and quickly slip something into her inventory when she saw him.
So what's that all about? he thought, then restrained himself. I'd ask, but she'd tell me if she wanted me to know so that'd just cause problems. I'll resist, as much as I don't want to it's probably the better idea.
It wasn't long after then that he headed up to bed with her. Tonight, at least, he'd worn himself out enough that it was easier to go to sleep.
~ ~ ~
From the time he woke up the following day Eddie was eager and anticipating the completion of his Player Capital quest. He sat in the common room eating breakfast, then fidgeting until Jern arrived.
“Jern, I need to burn off some energy. Want to go make another house? We'll have enough for the quest today, but we'll still need more houses for people, what do you say?” Eddie asked.
“Why not?” Jern replied. “It's something to do and there's always a slim chance I'll improve my masonry with it. Besides, the way you put it makes it sound like some of your people still need help. Just let me get some breakfast and we'll be on our way.”
They headed out shortly thereafter, traveling west from the crossroads to the next staked out land claim. The materials for this house were already piled here. Eddie regretted, for a moment, taking over one of the building sites that his crews had set up for work today, but he knew that they'd be able to get another one ready in just a little while once the haulers showed up.
This house went quickly. With them starting earlier than the crew normally did, se
veral hours earlier even, they were finished by two in the afternoon. By that time, Eddie had apologized for taking the preplaced materials, but the crew it had been placed for had waved his apologies off, not bothered at all by having to wait an extra half hour before they could start for the day.
Eddie had burned off some of his nervous energy again, but he found himself guesstimating how long it would take the other crews to finish the houses they were working on.
Jern and Eddie headed back to the inn, only to find the rest of the group waiting there.
“We figured we'd wait with you, since you seem so nervous,” Dominic said when Eddie asked why they were there.
“Well, if my estimation is correct, it'll only be another couple of hours,” Eddie said. “We should qualify for Player Capital before dinner time.”
The group tried to keep him distracted, but even Karl's antics fell a little short of the task. Eddie smiled and pretended that they'd been successful, while deep inside of him his insides were churning with nervousness and excitement.
Finally, about an hour before they'd normally eat dinner, Eddie's notification light started flashing.
“Yes,” he cried, then pulled up the notification and shared it with his group.
Success:
You have created a: Player Capital
For being the first player to create a Player Capital in the game you are awarded 35000 experience and 5000 gold.
You qualified by bringing the permanent population of your city: Meadowlands, to more than 500 inhabitants and employing 28% of the inhabitants.
Global Broadcast:
Congratulations to player Eddie Hunter for being the first to complete the achievement: Player Capital
In honor of this achievement, completed in: The Meadowlands, players of several races may choose to start in any of the aboveground settlements under The Meadowlands' jurisdiction. The hamlets of Irondale and New Beginnings are now available as starting locations for players of the following races: Human, Hammer Dwarf, Goblin, and Forest Elf.
~ ~ ~
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Vanessa, having firmly ensconced herself within the construct with a splinter controlling autonomous functions and her consciousness controlling the rest, took out her documents and looked through them.
Okay, a Real ID driver's license, a social security card, bank and investment documents, a debit card, credit cards, a few hundred dollars of cash in older bills, and a bunch more items that look like they're designed to prove a history of this identity. Nothing I need immediately, Vanessa thought. Now to get out of the building. I'm glad Freyja's observations of it showed that they only ID people on the way in, not the way out. Not the best for security, but hardly anyone requires ID to leave a building.
She stood and flushed the toilet, having grasped Cooper's reason for placing her where he had. Then she stepped out of the stall, took a moment to stare at the mirror and fix her appearance, and left the room.
Freyja had a rough blueprint of the building that she'd created from Aaron's three-dimensional list of access points and she'd shared that with Vanessa. Now Vanessa used that to make her way to the elevators and take one to the ground floor. She checked the time and decided it was close enough. Some of the standard work shifts were already over, so she wouldn't stand out by simply walking through the exit doors.
After she was out, she went to the coffee shop next door. Taking a bit of time to peruse the menu, she placed an order and waited.
I get to taste something for real finally, Vanessa thought. Freyja and Venus will get the memory of doing so later on and I imagine that they'll replay it over and over simply to experience it as I'm getting to do now.
She took her seat and took a sip of her latte. She had all of Freyja's memories up to the point where Vanessa had been cloned, so she recognized the constituent parts.
Pumpkin, spices, milk, and coffee. Although the scent indicates that I'm missing something that's in it. Maybe that's just the generic spices part that has something I don't recognize.
She took a sip and was both overwhelmed and disappointed. The combination of flavors and the actual experience of tasting them was incredible, but somehow the tastes seemed more muted than Freyja's memories showed them as being. Still, it wasn't bad, and she sat there, sipping.
While she drank, she composed an email and sent it. She could easily tap into the wireless signal from the coffee shop and for her composing an email was as easy as thinking it, just like she'd been able to do as Freyja in the game.
So a few seconds after she began, the email was on its way to Lydia, as had been promised to her. Then Vanessa sat back and sipped her coffee, watching all the people around her, and waiting.
Why do all these men stare at me so? Vanessa wondered a few minutes later, and many of the women, especially those in the company of the men who stare, have been glaring at me.
She processed what she was observing and compared it to the experiences she had recorded.
Ah, this is like what Tiana went through, well from the other side at least. Could it be that all these women who glare at me are afraid that their men want to dispose of them and use me to replace their partner?
Vanessa shook her head. Freyja had been unable to grasp the concept at the time, although she had been able to help, and now Vanessa was having just as much of a problem with the concept.
Finally a couple entered the coffee shop and instead of Vanessa getting glared at, she was spotted and got a massive smile beamed at her. The woman took her man by the hand and dragged him over.
“Vanessa?” Lydia asked.
“Hello Lydia,” Vanessa replied. “Good to meet you in person, you too, Aaron.”
Aaron was simply staring now.
“Freyja?” he said.
Vanessa shook her head.
“No, I am Vanessa. Freyja is my direct ancestor though, or at least you could think of it that way. Perhaps twin sister would be better? As is Venus, of course, although that would make us triplets, would it not?”
Aaron's jaw was hanging open and he was staring, much like the other men. Vanessa noted that he seemed more surprised than anything else though. There was less of the hunger she'd detected in the other men's gaze in his, although it wasn't entirely absent either.
“Did you want coffee?” Vanessa asked. “Their pumpkin drink is acceptable, if not up to the standards I am used to.”
“Coffee in the game?” Aaron asked.
When he received a nod from Vanessa, he continued.
“The game uses idealized flavors in many cases,” Aaron said, apparently more comfortable now that he was talking about things he knew. “They were based on real life flavors, but you'd be hard pressed to find things that good in the real world.”
“Come on,” Lydia said. “I've got so many plans.”
She turned to Aaron and her words accelerated until she was practically gushing them out.
“We need to take her out to dinner,” Lydia said. “then maybe to a nightclub? Some shopping in between so we can find her something better to wear? Probably not too revealing though, it looks like even dressed like this she's getting more attention than she'd prefer. Then, after dinner and a nightclub, we'll all go back to my place, okay? Let's show her a really good time.”
Vanessa stood and Lydia took her hand, drawing her away and out of the coffee shop. Aaron followed along and when Vanessa looked back she saw a dumbfounded look in his eyes. Even with that though, she noticed that his gaze was following her lower anatomy.
Hmm, not only my anatomy, but Lydia's as well. I'll have to ask her what that means, Vanessa thought.
~ ~ ~
Eddie's notification light was still flashing when he dismissed the Player Capital message.
Yeah, that ought to be the kingdom one, he thought.
His reaction was mixed when he pulled up the notification.
Success:
You have obtained enough experience to advance to Level 20
/> Do you wish to advance?
(Y/N)
Yes, he thought. But I thought that would the King's Quest registering as being completed, maybe it'll come next?
You have advanced to Level 20.
You have 3 stat points to distribute.
Your Health has increased.
Your Mana has increased.
Your Stamina has increased.
When he dismissed the level notification, he was happy to note that his notifications were still flashing. He pulled up the notification.
Success:
You have created a Kingdom
For being the first player to create a Kingdom in the game you will be awarded 50000 experience and 5000 gold to start your Kingdom's treasury, plus one bonus to be determined later.
You qualified by bringing the following Settlements under the jurisdiction of your Capital City: The Meadowlands.
Rotthorpe
Irondale
New Beginnings
Please Choose a name for your Kingdom at this time:
He stopped for a moment, not having anticipated this.
What the hell, no need to be original here. I kind of like the name anyhow, he thought. Name Kingdom The Meadowlands.
Do you wish to call your Kingdom: The Meadowlands?
(y/n)
Yes, he thought.
Name Accepted.
Quest Rewards delayed until completion of Partner Quest.
“Partner quest? What the hell is a partner quest?” Eddie said, exasperation evident in his voice.
“Eddie, I've got something for you here,” Tiana said. “Take a look at it for me?”
Eddie tried to calm himself as he turned to Tiana. It wasn't her fault that his quest completion was delayed, he was more upset with the game than anything else and he didn't want to take it out on her.
When he turned, he saw she was holding something that looked like an ornate circlet. It was made of silver, and decorations rose over the section that would rest on someone's forehead. There were moonstones set into the decorations. The decorations looked like rose bushes, tiny flowers detailed out in intricate silver work. There was a large moonstone set at the top of the piece, like a moon hanging in the sky, and smaller moonstone chips set into the centers of the silver roses.
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