The Good Guys Chronicles Box Set

by Eric Ugland

  I offered to take over his watch, and Lee was more than willing to zonk out for a few extra hours. Looking out at the river, watching it go by, the fire smoldering behind me, I just absorbed the world around me. There were still a few hours to go before the sun rose, but life was already active. Bugs zipped just above the water, a few birds sang their morning songs, and, on occasion, fish burbled.

  Perfection.

  I pulled the bag of holding open, reached in, and thought of my fishing gear.

  The rod and whatnot came to my hand, and I took a moment to look over it. I was pleasantly surprised to see it wasn’t quite as basic as I’d feared. The line wasn’t monofilament, but it was thin, and it felt strong. There was only a super basic reel, but the rod itself was made out of bamboo. Very strong, very flexible, and looking like it’d do the trick.

  I dug a hole near the river bank and found a healthy variety of worms. A bit of rock stacking, and I had a seat. I was ready to go.

  There’s a special sort of peace that comes over me while fishing. A particular joy in the art of it, in the singular focus and the attempt to overcome nature. The ability to feed yourself. The act and art of self-sufficiency. It was my favorite part of being a Boy Scout, the thing I’d most look forward to on the camping trips. Well, that and playing D&D with the other Scouts. I learned how to fish from one of the only people I wished I’d kept in contact with, an older Scout who took me under his wing when I’d been in Cub Scouts. He taught me how to fish. We wouldn’t really talk about anything; we’d just fish. I loved the pleasing constant of sitting by the shore with him. It was something I carried with me through my life — when everything else in the world was falling down around me, I could grab a rod, and I could sit and fish. I could have a victory, bending the smallest slice of the world to my will.

  Every once in a while, I had to get up and do a walk around camp, make sure there was nothing nasty sneaking up on us. But it certainly seemed like we’d finally found a place that was more calm than calamitous.

  As soon as the first bite hit on the bait and I snagged a fish, I got a notification.

  Cool Beans, you’ve uncovered the innate skill Fishing (lvl 9). You are able to catch fish! +9% fish catching chance, +4.5% fish yield.

  I wondered if an innate skill was just always 4 levels, because I knew I had the five extra levels because of Eona. Probably, but actually figuring that out right now wasn’t worth the brain time. Instead, I thought about the one bonus I hadn’t spent yet, the 10 skill levels for hitting two Choices in a single day. There hadn’t been any time limit set, so I figured I had some time. And it didn’t seem prudent to use that bonus while I had all these new skills popping up. I should save it until I wanted to progress from, like, level 90 to 100.

  I was handy with the rod, and the river was generous. By the time the others woke, I’d caught eight fat trout and had them cooking over the fire.

  Nikolai gave me a slightly raised eyebrow, and a nod.

  Cleeve just dug in, eating voraciously.

  “Find what you were looking for?” I asked, feeling a little smug that everyone was enjoying the fruits of my labor.

  “We did,” Cleeve said through a full mouth. “Better than we could have hoped.”

  “Montana made friends,” Lee said.

  “Oh?” Cleeve asked, eyebrows going up.

  “Some dandy fuck nugget was over there with his sister. He did a whole host of talking down to me, and then challenged me to a fight.”

  “I see you won,” Cleeve replied, seemingly unconcerned with anything that might or might not have happened.

  “No fight, actually,” I said. “The sis asked me to let it go, so I did.”

  “Did you get his name?”

  “Got the sister’s name. Eliza Northwoods. Only real reason to bring this up,” I said, “is that she thought her father was going to control this land, not you.”

  Cleeve jumped to his feet.

  “Time to move,” he said.

  Nikolai barked out orders. We tore the camp apart and were across the river before the fish stopped steaming.

  Once across, we sped up to a light jog, going mostly downhill.

  It wasn’t particularly long until we found a large clearing that was dominated by colorful tents, lots of men-at-arms and plenty of cooking fires. It almost looked like someone was out on campaign.

  The soldiers, at least the ones I saw, wore a green tabard with a white tree on it.

  “Northwoods,” Cleeve hissed.

  We didn’t stop moving, just zipped by through the woods. But seeing the wagons, we knew there had to be a road nearby. It only took a small amount of searching before we found it. Then we were able to nearly double our speed.

  By midday, Lee had to request a break. He looked haggard and exhausted. Nikolai opened his pack, pulled out a stout green bottle, and passed it over to Cleeve. Cleeve drank a few gulps, and then passed it to Lee. Lee finished off the bottle. The color returned to his face, his breathing slowed, and he looked a million times better.

  “Is that a stamina potion?” I asked.

  Nikolai nodded. “It is. Do you have need of one?”

  “No, I just wasn’t sure they existed. I saw health potions being administered, just, you know, didn’t know—”

  “There are also mana potions.”

  “Why don’t we have, like, tons of them?”

  “They are very expensive,” Nikolai said, “but we have some. Do you need one?”

  “No, but, I mean, why didn’t anyone tell me about them?”

  “You never asked.”

  I tried to think of a response, but the man had me there.

  After another minute or two, we were running again, moving through the woods on the new road.

  Chapter 86

  Somewhere in mid-afternoon, a few hours after we’d switched from jogging to hiking, a group of masked figures leapt from the woods, brandishing weapons.

  Instantly, Cleeve and Nikolai had their swords out. Ragnar and Skeld had their spears aimed at the men behind us, and Lee and I stood like idiots in the middle.

  I pulled the axe out of my bag, and I heard one of the ruffians exclaim in surprise.

  “Magic!”

  “Gods dammit,” Nikolai shouted, “you think you can avoid doing shit like that when someone is trying to rob us?”

  “Good note,” I said. “I’ll make sure of that from now on.”

  “Now,” Cleeve said, “is there something we can help you with, gentlemen?”

  “I think we can help with the heavy bag that big idiot has there,” one of the masked men replied.

  “Big idiot?” I asked. “Really? You barely know me.”

  “Not the time for banter,” Nikolai said.

  “Oh I disagree,” Cleeve said, “perfect time for banter, right gents?”

  “What does banter mean?” Mask One asked.

  “Means we have a little talk, and then either go our separate ways peacefully, or, ’tis your last little conversation.”

  “Not sure you can count, oh mighty lord, but you are greatly outnumbered.”

  I took in the situation, and did a bit of counting on my own. Five of us who were armed and one non-combatant. Twelve of them. That I could see. If they were smart, some of their number would be out of sight, either as melee backup, or even better, as ranged fighters.

  “Yes,” Cleeve said, “I can understand why you might think you have an advantage. But I do not believe you know what kind of trouble we would cause.”

  I did a quick bit of magic and fired off my only useful spell, seeing who I could identify.

  The nearest masked figure, tall with a bit of a paunch and a sword spotted with rust came back:

  Human (Lvl 12 Ruffian)

  Going around the circle, I found mostly ruffians and bandits, one farmer and one hunter. The highest was level 15, the lowest a 7.

  “Hey,” I said to the farmer, “what are you doing with these idiots?”

  He blin
ked and looked at me, and then the rest of the masked bandits.

  “You’re just a farmer, bro, you don’t have to do this—”

  “Uh,” Nikolai said, “just because his Choice says farmer—”

  “Magic user!” The farmer shouted. “Bounty!”

  “Oh, you is in trouble now,” the leader said, a big smile spreading over his face below the mask. “Maybe you just hand over the magic user and his bag, and we pretend we found him defiling out here on his own.”

  “I am afraid,” Cleeve said, “as much a fool as that man is, I cannot allow you to harm him. Nor turn him in.”

  “We waste too much time here,” Nikolai said. “The Northwoods will be along any minute.”

  Cleeve glared back at Nikolai.

  “Running from Lord Northwoods, are we?” the bandit asked. “Reckon I can understand that. Suppose you got a bounty with him, too, eh? Maybe we ought to just kill the rest of you and skin your furry friends—”

  Faster than I could see, Cleeve snapped his blade up and to the side. A bloody rent opened up in the masked man’s neck, and the ground was suddenly awash in crimson gore.

  Nikolai, perhaps even faster, decapitated one man, and stabbed through another.

  As the head plonked on the ground, mouth still working out what had just happened, the rest of the bandits looked around, leaderless. The capacity for sheer violence our party possessed began to sink in.

  “He cut off Norrin’s head!” came a cry.

  “Kill ‘em!” came another.

  I’m sure it was my fault for pointing the man out, but it was pretty clear the farmer had something to prove now. He came at me with a vengeance.

  Ragnar stepped in front of me, set his spear against the ground, and let the farmer impale himself. Then the Lutra released the spear and pulled his sword out, ready for the next comer.

  Feeling like everyone else could probably keep their shit together, I pushed Lee behind me and swung for the fences with the big axe.

  One of the bandits put his sword up to parry the blow, but the axe just knocked his sword out of the way as if it weren’t there. The blade went through him and thunked solidly into his neighbor, just as his neighbor was bringing a mace up to hit Skeld.

  The man tottered. The axe felt stuck in his spinal column. I got my foot up and pushed the corpse off. Lee still knelt behind me, making himself as small as possible in the midst of the fray. I checked for my next target, getting the axe up and in ready position.

  Nothing.

  No one was left.

  Two minutes max, and every one of the masked men was dead. I was both impressed and horrified. I let my axehead come to the ground, trying to ignore the gore slowly dripping off the blade.

  “Montana,” Nikolai said. His face was impassive, which most definitely meant he was pissed. “I thought this could go without saying, but please do not perform magic and then tell people what you have done.”

  “I was just—”

  “You were trying to save someone who had already made their own decisions. And in doing so, you put the rest of us in danger.”

  “But—“

  “No more on this. Keep your magic to yourself. Now check the bodies.”

  In video games, checking bodies is neat and simple. Usually it’s a matter of just walking over or near the body. You’re given the option of seeing what valuables are available. Reality is significantly more unpleasant because, well, dead bodies for one, and two, you’ve got to deal with all the ramifications of the recently deceased, which means lots of blood, lots of guts, and usually recently evacuated bowels. So I got the fun job of sorting through piss, shit, and blood. In this case, it netted us two rusting chain shirts, three sets of severely damaged leather armor, five sets of busted studded leather, twelve masks, six rusty swords, three iron maces, one shoddy warhammer, two hand axes with broken hafts, and a grand total of three gold, twenty-two silver, and fourteen copper. There were also three gold chains, one jeweled dagger, and a small pouch with two heavily jeweled rings and one very thin chain with a huge gem on it. Outside of the bag of jewelry, there was nothing of real value amongst the group, which, I suppose was to be expected from low-leveled bandits.

  I started to lay everything out for the group.

  “Into the bag,” Cleeve said. “We do not have time for this. If the bandits were here to catch us, it means they expected to catch some of the wealthy fools behind us. If they get to the Charter Office first, I can guarantee they will snatch this parcel of land out from under us.”

  “Shit,” Lee said. It was the first time I’d heard him curse. “More running?”

  “More running.”

  And we were off.

  Chapter 87

  We kept moving, even though night had fallen. When we finally took a moment to breathe, Nikolai walked along the group, and handed out a small root.

  “Nightroot,” he said as he pushed it into my hand. “It’ll help you feel less sleepy.”

  “Uh—”

  “We have to keep going through the night if we are to stay ahead of those who move with horses.”

  Lee passed out some dried meat. We all ate. The two Lutra clambered up on my pack, tying themselves onto the top.

  I was going to say something, but I realized that with such short legs, all this running with us long-legged fools must have exhausted the two little guys.

  And then we were back to running.

  Being on the road made things easier, but there was still the occasional stone sticking out, or a low-hanging branch. Plenty of little things to trip up those who couldn’t see in the dark. For me, it was just managing the boredom more than anything else. No one could talk and run at the same time, so I was somewhat left to my own thoughts.

  I decided to take that time to take a peek through the UI of this game I was living. See if there were menus or wikis or something. I constantly felt like there was too much I didn’t know, and I was tired of living in ignorance. And the running was more or less on autopilot.

  A little guided thought, and I got a menu up. There were three choices at present: SELF, FAMILY, and WORLD. An additional choice, HOLDING, was currently grey and a little hard to read.

  I chose SELF and got the usual breakdown of things. Character sheet at the top, and then everything little thing explained more fully in case I needed the information. The ATTRIBUTES screen listed a definition of everything, in case I needed to know what strength was, or, perhaps more important, what skills and aspects of life that particular attribute covered. There was an inventory, which I excitedly opened, but it only listed the bag of holding. Not all the things inside the bag of holding. I was a bit worried I’d never empty the bag out. SKILLS had all my skills laid out in more detail, with slightly more robust descriptions, replete with added snark. Basically, everything outlined on the character sheet had a section where I could look deeper into things. There was a button in the top right corner which simply read: JOURNAL. I punched the button.

  It brought up a full list of quests, both completed and active, a list of all the individuals I’d met, and a spot where I could actually journal. I could write down my feelings and thoughts. Which, you know, was a nice touch.

  FAMILY brought up the Heraldic Achievement under a banner that read Coggeshall. The Heraldic Achievement was true to what was on my body, with the missing pieces still missing. There were a few tabs: KNOWN RELATIVES, LIVING RELATIVES, FAMILY RENOWN, and other such stuff. Being that I knew very little about my new family, and there weren’t very many of us left, I had virtually nothing in that menu to read.

  I thought WORLD might be interesting, but, again, because I knew next to nothing, next to nothing was available to me there.

  Hoping there’d be more, I tried to think of other screens to pull up, but that just didn’t work. I only had access to what I had access to. I wondered if there were other things hidden in the system that would come along as I progressed.

  I let it all go, and focused on the world a
round me again. We were going along a flat section now. The trees had largely given way to tranquil flatland, and there were a number of rivers I could see just from my mildly elevated position on a bit of a hill. I knew we had to be somewhere near the delta, if not within it. Ahead, the mountains loomed. They formed a massive barrier, cutting into the sky itself. Except for one point, where it was just empty, as if some god had come down and knocked down a section of the wall.

  Like most of the region, perhaps even the world, the landscape was epic, bizarre, and awe-inspiring. I was more excited than I should’ve been to see the Emerald Sea. I couldn’t begin to imagine what this world’s oceans might hold.

  Night bled into day as we ran, the miles disappearing beneath our feet. Chowing down on the dark root and dried meat for every meal, we managed to keep a pace that would have killed the old me. Lee wasn’t looking too hot, and frankly, neither was Cleeve. Nikolai seemed more or less unfazed, and I didn’t exactly have stamina any longer, so I was basically peachy keen. I needed to get some sleep in the following night — I seemed to only need about three hours every other night to keep the fatigued debuff from firing off.

  As the day wore on, there continued to be increasing signs of civilization. We’d see a faint wisp of smoke curling over some trees. A signpost indicating a farm’s name. Then there were planted fields. Actual farms. Cows with bells, barns full of hay, and small houses well back from the road, usually behind a few trees.

  As night fell again, Cleeve finally called a halt, and we wearily stumbled to a stop in the middle of the road. There was a large tree about twenty yards from the road, its massive crown thickly laden with red fruits. It provided a bit of protection from the elements. We chose to make our camp without a fire, setting our bedrolls on the far side, hoping the wide trunk would hide us from other travelers.

  The Lutra, who were well-rested, divided the watch between the two of them, and I didn’t fight them over it. I ate my ration of dried mystery meat, and fell asleep immediately.