The Trapped Mind Project (Emerilia Book 1)

by Michael Chatfield

  “So, you’re going to build a village here?”

  “That’s the plan,” Joko said with a smile.

  Dave nodded, eating as he thought over her words.

  “Well, you’re not much to look at, but you can at least make something edible,” Lox said, after finishing his bowl.

  “Glad you like it,” Dave said. “You’re welcome to more if you want it.”

  “I think I may just have to take you up on that.” Lox moved to the pot now sitting to the side of the kiln.

  Dave dug into his stew. It was pretty good—needed some more pepper and maybe a bit of wine to break down the elk some more—but it had softened up nicely.

  He’d also unlocked a new skill making the meal.

  New Active Skill: Cooking

  Somehow you can cook, and people don’t get food poisoning, most of the time. Bravo, Chef Dave!

  Level: Novice level 7

  Effect: Creations effects are 17% higher

  It seemed like it was linked to the Herb Lore, which also increased to Novice level 9, passing level 5 and telling him one of the plant’s effects.

  “So what are you doing out here far from civilization?” Deia asked.

  Dave sat back, full from the meal. “Wanted to get away from all the hustle and bustle, people always wanting to know what everyone’s doing. Just looking for a place to sit back and look out over everything and relax. Make a little something and take some time.” He looked out over his half-built home. The rain was coming down hard; it was fresh and cleansing.

  He took in a deep breath. He hadn’t thought of his other life for a while now. It was so easy to forget what his other life meant.

  “I have seen the cities many times. There are many Elves there, but I find my home out here in the wilderness.” Deia looked out into the rain.

  “There’s something refreshing about being away from it all.” Dave nodded, understanding her feelings.

  “Yes.” She smiled, making something flutter in Dave’s chest.

  She yawned, a good meal and a warm fire taking effect.

  Dave still had energy he needed to burn off. With the increases in Stamina, he’d found that he needed less and less sleep in game. He looked to the house again, knowing that he should get back to work.

  I need those damn screws! He looked over to Lox and his Dwarves as a thought hit him. He reached into his bag and pulled out the smithy box.

  “Have you ever seen one of these?” Dave held out the box.

  Lox’s eyes went wide as he took the box gingerly, almost as if it was a holy artifact.

  The other Dwarves looked at the box as he opened it. They made noises of surprise as Lox looked scared to drop the thing.

  “Where did you find this?” Lox’s eyes flickered between Dave and the box.

  “Along my travels. What can you tell me about it?” Dave leaned forward, sensing their apprehension and shock.

  “This is a magical portable smithy. They act similar to our own magical forges. While it doesn’t contain the power of a regular magical forge, it feeds from its user’s Affinities. The stronger a person’s Affinity, the stronger type of item they can craft using that Affinity, imbuing the creation with those powers,” Gurren said.

  “Enchanting items?” Dave asked.

  “Yes. A forge is imbued with these powers by working different items on the anvil. The enchanted items leave an impression the more enchanted items that have been worked on the anvil, the stronger later enchantments will be. The same with this portable smithy, except with this it is also linked to its caster. If a person with Light Affinity uses this, then the items they make have a chance of imbuing radiance, or healing, or other Light Affinity magics into the items.” Max stroked his beard.

  Those Affinities can come in pretty useful.

  “So why is a magical forge better?”

  “Magical forges take on the strength of the items broken on them and are imbued with the power of a soul gem. They are more powerful than a portable smithy and anyone from any level of Affinity can use them. If someone with a high Affinity of Earth opens this, then someone with Light will be at a large disadvantage to get any kind of enchantment from the smithy,” Max continued.

  “My clan will pay ten thousand gold for this.” Lox looked at Dave.

  Dave had to blink a few times to stop hearing all of the gold coins falling behind his eyes. “Uh, I just want to use it to make a bit of this and that, tinker a little—you know.” Dave had a lot of wealth in real life; here it was about having some fun. He had fun haggling but his main aim was growing what he had, not becoming a master trader.

  “’Tis a shame, though you’ll get more than one interested dwarf willing to march out here to see it.” Lox handed the box around the circle before Dave got it back and returned it to his bag.

  “Why would they want to try this out when they’ve got a magical forge in the mountains?” Dave asked.

  “We have a few of them, but there is a ton of Dwarves,” Lox said.

  Dave nodded, getting the idea. “Too many smithies in the forges.”

  “You got it.” Lox leaned back against his shield. “So, what do you think of Fend, lord under the mountain’s, offer?”

  Quest: Way of the Land

  Lox, leader of a Dwarven warband, comes with an offer from his lord. Will you learn the way of the Dwarves and unlock the secrets of the Earth around you and your own abilities?

  Y/N

  Again, the pop-up screen appeared; again Dave waved it away.

  “I am deeply honored by the offer and later I will be most interested in learning more of the land. Right now, I just want to build my house and relax for a bit.” Dave smiled.

  “A dwarf can understand one’s desire for space and time unto himself.” Lox was understanding, rather than annoyed. “The second part of my lord’s offer I hope you accept,” Lox said.

  Dave’s eyebrow rose in question.

  “We range far from the mountains; they take days to hike to from here. My lord understands that this is your land. He asks that we be allowed to make a barracks here in order to station our forces and clear out any nefarious creatures that lurk in the area,” Lox said.

  Deia looked interested by this but looked to Dave for his answer.

  Dave looked over the hill. It was rather large; he also would be interested with some company.

  These were also NPCs and they seemed honest and kind enough. Although, they might come to his hill, they wouldn’t try to rule over it like other Players. If they did, Dave could haunt them for life after life till he destroyed them all.

  “That would be fine by me, as long as it’s a bit away. I like my privacy,” Dave said.

  “Understandable. I must warn you that while the lord respects your rights to this land, a warband is just one small unit of a large machine. Families, smiths, quartermasters—it has not been decided if they will be necessary, but if you give permission, I know that my lord wishes to move out a sizable portion of the warbands to extend our security,” Lox said.

  “That’s more than just a barracks.” Dave’s voice lowered. A few people were fine; having an entire horde come to his hill would be too much.

  “As this is your hill, you may decide how you want to run things. The Mithsia Dwarves pay their debts in iron,” Lox promised. The other Dwarves nodded their agreement. “You would be lord of this hill and we would be tenants.”

  That would make things easier for Dave to pick what happened and where things went.

  “I know that with the Dwarves that the Elves will also come.” Deia looked to Lox and then Dave.

  “Well, it seems that my hill is going to get a bit crowded.” Dave sighed and looked out over the space. He could understand their wanting to move their people to afford better protection. It would also mean that people were able to have more mobility. He doubted everyone loved to live in a mountain.

  He looked over his hill, Touch of the Land augmenting his vision as he looked for good pla
ces for the Dwarves to set up. It was a rather large hill; there would be plenty of room.

  His house still lay unfinished, waiting for the remaining pieces. He pulled out some pieces of wood, discarding some into the kiln. With a tool, he carved out a mold into the wood. The Dwarves talked among themselves. Gurren took watch as the others turned in for the night. Deia watched Dave with interest.

  “You’re going to burn holes in my head staring that much.” Dave looked at his handiwork before he poured clay out of his bag. There was still a ton of it stored up just for this final purpose.

  “I have never seen a shelter built like this one.” She pointed at the four-foot walls that rested on the brick, clay, and gravel pad.

  “It’s a few practices come into one.” Dave looked at it proudly, grabbing clay and tossing it into the form he’d made out of wood.

  “What is that?” She pointed to his works.

  “These will hopefully be tiles.” Dave pushed the clay in, making sure it went into all of the form’s crevices.

  “What are tiles?” Deia came closer.

  “Think of it like iron plate armor like what Lox has, but with rocks instead of metal.” Dave tapped the tile out of its form and filled it with clay. “What do you live in?”

  “We live in the trees, the elder wood. Over the years, through forms and magic, we have grown them into homes and beautiful structures,” Deia said.

  “I never thought of that, making a house from a tree. Makes sense if you can speed up its growth and shape it.” Dave imagined what it must be like, but he couldn’t get the image of a shoddy treehouse out of his mind.

  “Maybe one day, you will be allowed to see my home.” Deia smiled.

  “I’d like that.” Dave glanced up at her before he hammered out another tile.

  “I could also teach you how to properly care for a kill.” Deia looked at the Karr that were hanging up.

  “I did a pretty good job for a beginner,” Dave countered.

  “Elven young have more skill with a blade than you.” An amused look came over Deia’s face.

  “Well, if you would be kind enough to bestow upon me some lessons, then I would greatly appreciate it.” Dave smiled.

  “I thought that you would have been annoyed with my joke.”

  “Not one to beat around the bush, huh?” Another clay turned tile mold fell out.

  “We live for a long time; it doesn’t mean that we want to stand around trying to figure out what the other is saying.”

  “Ah, I do like it when people use plain speach.” Dave winked. “Why am I not annoyed? Well, among the greater things in the world, being told I’m crap at cleaning up my kills when I know I’m crap at it is kind of a non-issue, don’t you think?”

  Deia sat silent for a while as Dave formed a few more tiles before he put them into the kiln and put his pot outside to gather some water. It hissed with the rain as he put the kiln’s top on.

  “You are an odd man,” Deia said.

  “Why, thank you,” Dave snorted, moving back to his seat and dealing with his tiles.

  Deia moved to get some sleep. Gurren looked around at the rain, thoroughly bored.

  “You want a drink? I’ve got some herbs I picked up; makes a nice tea,” Dave offered.

  “That would be nice. Could do with a warm drink after that fine meal.” Gurren smiled.

  Dave tossed out the water that had collected in the pot, putting in some herbs and letting the rain fill it up. He moved back to his forms.

  “Most would jump at the chance to learn Earth magic from Dwarven masters. Why not you?” There was no animosity, just curiosity in Gurren’s voice.

  “I have a long time yet to live. For now, just taking my time building my home and creating a retreat from reality is what I want to do. Don’t get me wrong—I am interested to learn from a Dwarven master. It would be one hell of a privilege, but right now I don’t want to dedicate myself to smashing metal. Maybe later I will,” Dave said.

  “Well, I for one am going to be happy that you’re staying around. Us Dwarves know how to turn stone and ores into anything, but trees and clay? We’re going to need some help to build homes like your own if you do let us live here,” Gurren said.

  “It’s not that hard to learn.” Dave laughed with a reassuring smile.

  There was a flash of white teeth through Gurren’s red beard. “You sound just like my grandfather Kol.” Something sad flashed behind Gurren’s eyes. “Before the accident, that is.”

  “What happened?” Dave tapped out another tile and went to the pot, which was filling up nicely.

  “He was the master smithy of the Mithsia Mountains. He ran the forges like a veteran warband.” Gurren was clearly proud as he looked off to memories only he could see. “He was inspecting a form for molten iron. It had been giving bad castings so he went to see if it needed cleaning.”

  Dave replaced the kiln lid with the pot, stirring it a little.

  “My grandfather had been so impatient to see the issues that he hadn’t waited for the buckets to stop swinging. Somehow the bucket holding the molten metal dropped some of its contents.”

  Dave took his seat, all of his attention on Gurren.

  “It fell on his face. He lost his eyes and part of his face—got his hands really bad too. He lost his position as master smithy, though he never lost his touch. Even though he is as blind as a rock golem, you’d never think it. He’s a master of Earth magic, can see through the land like it’s not there. You can still catch him working on different blades here and there. Magnificent things, but he always smelts them back down.

  He tells me that there is an art in the metal. With a single blade, it has one purpose, but an ingot is pure beauty, unformed and filled with all manner of possibilities.”

  Dave sat back.

  “Odd thing to say—it’s just another material.” Gurren laughed, curiosity and a spark of interest dancing in his eyes.

  “I can understand that. When I work with the trees, to make the different parts of the house, it almost feels like the wood is talking to me. There are so many possibilities. It could be a wheel spoke, or a door, or a stave. You simply have to find which form you want and work with the wood to bring it out,” Dave said.

  “You and my grandfather would have a good talk with you staring at an inanimate object.” Gurren grinned.

  “Ah, nothing like a good tree to stare at all day long!” Dave laughed. It had been awhile since he had talked to people who were just interested in talking. Lox had wanted to make a deal and Dave was used to that. Though with Deia and Gurren, they didn’t care who he was or what he’d done. They were just happy to enjoy the moment, not letting social conventions or perceived hierarchy control them.

  Dave and Gurren talked through the night, sharing warm tea. They only stopped as Joko woke up and Gurren got some sleep. Dave kept making his tiles while he and Joko talked about different meals.

  Dave found out more about the herbs and how he could use them to flavor foods. He also learned a few ways to use the Karr meat and how to make jerky.

  Morning came with Dave waking to movement.

  Dave looked about; Joko, Gurren, Lox, and Deia were awake. The rain had stopped, the ground smelled fresh and the sun was starting to come over the horizon. Lox and Deia were in a discussion as Joko and Gurren were talking and nursing some of the tea.

  “He awakes!” Joko laughed as Dave rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

  “Mornin’!” Dave stood and stretched.

  “This tea is great. Sent me off like a baby, feel rested and bright as a new gold vein,” Gurren said.

  “Glad you liked it.” Dave poured himself a cup and looked at the array of tiles. There were more around than he remembered there being.

  “Ah, we thought we might as well give you a hand for the food and tea,” Joko said, seeing Dave’s confusion.

  “Thanks.” Dave smiled. Maybe having some neighbors won’t be so bad.

  “Okay, Deia’s going to
go back and let the clans know what’s going on and tell them about your offer for coming here. We just wanted to clarify any points you might have?” Lox asked.

  “Give a man some time to wake up, will ya?” Dave drank his tea.

  “Well, the Dwarven half of ya should be fine!” Lox rumbled, tucking his thumbs into his belt.

  “We’ll come to an amount later—let’s just say, open trading between anyone. Using any resources goes through me. I heard that Dwarves aren’t the best cabin makers, so if my house works fine, we’ll copy it over to the other houses. I’ll teach people how to make them and maybe later we can have stone buildings. When I get the portable smithy working, then I’ll let people use it, if they’re willing to teach me more about smithing. If you’ve got someone with the barracks, then I’d be happy to share it with them. Maybe trade resources for time? I’m not really sure.” Dave scratched his head.

  “We should go with the same agreement between the Elves and Dwarves. Anyone is free to come as long as they pay their fees and accept the wishes of the owner of the land. Resources will be discussed with the original owner of the land. Specialty items will be agreed upon by interested parties,” Deia said.

  “That should do,” Dave said, knowing that back in reality that his board of directors would have his head for his negotiation tactics.

  “I will set off now then. I should be back within a few days,” Deia said.

  “In that time, we’ll start mapping out the area and try to figure out how to make those odd houses.” Lox pointed at Dave’s cabin with his beard.

  “Well, there’s nothing within nearly six hundred meters, so we should be good.” Dave stepped out of the shelter they’d made and into the sun.

  Gurren whistled. “You can sense things up to half a kilometer away?”

  “Yeah, though with you lot, it’s close to a kilometer. Got damn sledgehammers for feet!”

  Joko laughed and Lox grinned.

  Dave was beginning to really like the group.

  “Well then, I think that I will be off,” Deia said.