Keeper

by Tom Larcombe

  As he cooked, he had a lot of short spans of time where he couldn't really do anything else, so he spent some time considering the possibilities of his Conjunction skill.

  Let's see, I've got Fox Fire, Accelerated Plant Growth, Nature's Binding, Create Food/Water, and Safe Site for spells. What can I combine any of those with? he wondered. I haven't seen any potions of healing or the like yet, probably due to the fact that I'm low level in a low level area, but maybe I can improvise one? Maybe Nature's Binding combined with Cooking? Hell, I'm in the kitchen, my mana is full, let's give it a shot.

  Eddie mixed up another batch of flatbread dough since the last one was almost gone and the risen bread dough was nowhere near as large as he'd need to supply the inn yet.

  So, when should I cast it? What would be the best spot to get the two to combine. Making the flatbread dough is the major part of the cooking skill here. Cooking it is easy, just flatten and fry, so maybe just am I'm finishing up the dough?

  He put the last ingredients into the bowl and started mixing it with the large spoon.

  I've got it, he thought. Nature's Binding should probably get mixed right in like an ingredient? The dough needs kneading to finish mixing it together and get the right texture. So I'll cast it while I'm kneading the dough and mix it right in.

  He finished stirring the dough and sprinkled a little flour on the large table. Then he slapped the massive ball of dough on the table and drove his hands into it. As he kneaded the dough, he thought.

  Cast Nature's Binding.

  Remembering how it worked with the wall, he concentrated on the healing magic infusing the dough and becoming one with it. Focused on the idea of someone biting into the finished flatbread and activating the healing magic.

  As he finished kneading the dough, his legs buckled beneath him and he fell into a sitting position. His vision went gray for a few moments, the gray only interrupted by a pair of flashing notifications.

  He didn't even try to pull up the notifications until he could see right again. Then, even before he stood, he pulled up the notifications. The first was kind of what he expected.

  Mana is low: 4/84

  But the second notification was far more welcome.

  You have upgraded the skill/spell Conjunction to (2). Masochistic much? Using too much of your mana in a single usage can be hazardous to your health, but you enjoy it, don't you?

  The decidedly nasty, snarky tone of the message convinced him that he was on the right track. As always, it seemed the game got snarkier the better he was doing, if it was being both snarky and nasty, he thought he must be doing something really right.

  He groaned as he stood.

  Although the game has a point, he thought. It freaking hurts to use that much of my mana at once. I wonder if it's based on the raw numbers or the percentage used?

  Eddie got back to work on the flatbread, separating it into individual balls which he rolled out flat and thin. He started cooking them, setting the finished flatbread to the side in a pile. When he'd finished cooking all of them, he stopped and thought for a moment.

  Well, I ought to be able to find out easily enough, he thought.

  He slipped one of the flatbread pieces that had already cooled out of the pile, then stared at it and thought:

  Evaluate.

  Flatbread*

  Consumable

  *Imbued with: Nature's Binding

  Healing:5 health + (1 per 5 seconds over one minute)

  Crafted: Edward Hunter

  “Huh, that's only half what my spell does. But...”

  He looked over at the pile of more than twenty flatbreads.

  “This could be really broken,” he said to himself.

  Then he started picking up flatbread after flatbread, evaluating each of them. When he finished with the stack, he just stared at it for a moment. Every one of them had the same stats. He shook his head slowly.

  “This is so broken, but I have to find out what else I can do with this. I need to get some more levels so I get more spells, learn more skills too. Maybe try to plot them out better than I have been. Figure out what I can combine together with Conjunction.”

  Then he broke into a huge smile, realizing the value of what he'd just made in an area where healing potions were scarce.

  “Hell yeah!” Eddie yelled.

  Tiana came rushing into the kitchen a moment later. She'd poked her head in earlier and seen Eddie cooking, so had gone out to help with the bar again.

  “What is it?” she asked, looking around frantically.

  “You have Evaluate, right?” he asked.

  She nodded.

  “Yes, why?”

  “Check this out,” he said, tossing her a piece of the flatbread.

  “It's flatbread?” she said, looking at him like he was crazy.

  “Well, yes and no. Evaluate it, that's why I asked if you had it.”

  Her eyes unfocused for a moment and when they came back into focus, she looked up and stared at him.

  “You can do this to a piece of flatbread?” she asked.

  He shook his head and pointed to the stack of fresh flatbread.

  “No, I can do it to a whole batch of flatbread.”

  She walked over and started evaluating the stack, her eyes growing wider and wider with each successive evaluate.

  Then she burst out laughing. He joined her and when she finally finished she stared at him.

  “Conjunction?” she asked.

  He nodded, his smile practically splitting his face.

  “Oh my, I think I've created a monster,” Tiana said, a smile equal to his own on her face.

  ~ ~ ~

  Chapter Seven

  Tom, Aaron's head researcher, tapped the screen.

  “That's not right,” he said. “There are some fluctuations in the readings on that pod. Hey, come here and double check this for me, will you Ricky?”

  The other tech on duty came over.

  “Huh, that's weird. Just barely out of limits, and only briefly. When was that?”

  Tom checked the readings.

  “Looks like that was about when we refilled the nutrient solution tanks.”

  “Maybe a pressure issue while we had them open?” Ricky asked.

  “It could be, they're supposed to be protected against that, but these are still Mark IIIs, regardless of how we've souped them up.”

  He thought for a moment, holding up his hand when Ricky was about to speak again.

  “Do me a favor,” Tom said. “Go check the expiration dates on the nutrient solution we're using. We'll rule out it going bad on us first, then I think we'll just keep an eye on it assuming the nutrients are good. Like you said, it was barely out of the limits and only for a few seconds, so I don't think we have to pull him, just keep a closer eye on the readings for a little while.”

  “You got it, Tom,” Ricky said.

  Damn it, why did they insist Aaron take time off now? Tom thought. We're supposed to be researching a potential breakthrough in pod limitations and they put him into the game proper to get suggestions for the game itself? I can code, and I can do it well, but I don't get the intuitive leaps that Aaron does. The ones that let him solve problems as easily as if he were doing basic math. I'm more methodical, but he has spurts of true brilliance. I suppose I'm a better choice for monitoring things, but still...

  ~ ~ ~

  Eddie had quickly wrapped all of the flatbread in sections of cloth. He made two more batches of bread, without imbuing it with a spell, so the inn would have it available. Then he took the six wrapped batches of flatbread and tucked them in his inventory.

  I know we're planning on going deeper into the Forest of Fools tomorrow, he thought. So I'll distribute these to the group as we're leaving. It's nice to have some healing that isn't dependent on Tiana. She's an awesome healer, but having backup is always nice. Hell, for that matter I've got backup healing now myself with the Nature's Binding spell. I keep having to remind myself that I've got spel
ls now.

  When the last of the adventurers finally filed out of the common room, Eddie groaned.

  “Going to be a late start tomorrow,” he said to Tiana as she brought in the last of the dirty mugs.

  “That's fine,” she replied. “Karl and Allie were drinking heavily tonight, so they wouldn't be ready sooner anyhow.”

  “Poor Jern, stuck here adventuring with us, the workaholics and the alcoholics,” Eddie said.

  Tiana shook her head.

  “We aren't that bad.”

  “True, but we have the potential to go that way, wouldn't you say?”

  They chatted all the way up to their room. Then the casual conversation stopped, even though it was another hour before they went to sleep.

  It was well past dawn when Eddie woke the next morning. The scent of fresh flatbread filtered up from the kitchen, along with a hint of coffee. He stood and stretched before gearing up, this time in his adventuring garb. The studded leather armor he'd received as the prize for a quest was nearly as comfortable as the other clothes he wore, so he wasn't reluctant to wear it around when he'd need it later on.

  Tiana mumbled something, still half asleep.

  “You stay there,” he said. “I'll bring you breakfast in bed so you can wake up easier.”

  Eddie had thought that he had a problem waking up until he'd started sleeping beside Tiana. As long as he'd had enough sleep he could get right out of bed and get moving. For her it didn't matter how much sleep she'd gotten, it would be at least an hour before she was fully functional, whether she got four hours of sleep or ten hours worth. He'd discovered that getting coffee in her as quickly as possible was the only way to hasten that.

  He grabbed a tray in the kitchen and loaded it up with coffee, bread, and a few other things to nibble on. Before he could leave with it, Liv interrupted him.

  “How about that baker?” she asked. “You told me to ask later and it's later.”

  “Yeah, but first thing in the morning again,” Eddie said.

  “Maybe for you, some of us have been up for hours already, working for hours even.”

  “Go ahead then, if you know of a decent baker that's looking for work, we can hire them on. I'm going to need to get more flour though if we do.”

  More alcohol too, he thought. These adventurers go through it like it's water.

  Which brought other worries to the front of his mind. He was making a lot of coins running the inn, more than enough to pay everyone and have a decent profit still coming. Now he needed to restock his supplies and there wasn't anything even vaguely resembling a trade route yet.

  It'll be painful, but maybe Paul can get me in touch with the guy who teleported him here. I'll see if I can arrange a shipment of goods for him to teleport. I think I'm making enough that I can do that without the cost of the goods and the teleport itself wiping out my profits.

  “You should check the grain mill west along the road,” Liv said. “As far as I know, there are still a few farmers growing wheat, rye, and the like in the area. The owner of the mill would be able to tell you that, and maybe arrange the purchase of a bunch of grains from local farmers that he can grind into flour for you. I know the grain growers haven't been able to sell all that they grow, so there's a surplus you can scoop up at a bargain price.”

  “I'll do that,” he said.

  Just as soon as I can find the time for it, he added mentally.

  He quickly left the kitchen before Liv could ask anything else, taking the tray back to his bedroom. Once he'd poured Tiana a cup of coffee and she was sitting up and sipping at it, he poured his own. Sipping coffee and nibbling at breakfast, he couldn't help but watch Tiana with a grin on his face.

  When she was finally awake enough, she caught him at it.

  “Why are you staring at me with that grin on your face?” she asked.

  “Just marveling at how lucky I am,” he said. “But if it bothers you, I don't have to watch you.”

  She blushed.

  “Just let me get dressed first, okay?”

  Well that takes part of the fun out of it, he thought.

  He poured himself another cup of coffee, then pulled up his inventory, tapping the pouch icon to pull up his financial records. A glance at his totals told him that the inn was doing incredibly well, which explained why he was going to have to restock so much sooner than he'd thought he would.

  “What are you doing?” Tiana asked. “I can see you're looking at your screens.”

  “Figuring out how much coin I have to restock the inn. It's going to need it a lot sooner than I'd anticipated.”

  “Yeah, it has kind of become the default hangout for everyone,” she said. “So of course, while they're here, they get themselves a drink or a meal or whatever.”

  “Yeah, I need to restock flour and alcohol soon. Liv told me I can get flour in the Meadowlands. But the alcohol is going to have come from somewhere else. I was considering asking Paul for the contact information from the people that did his teleport. If they're trustworthy I can maybe put an order together via Private Message then get them to teleport it here.”

  “Sounds like a royal pain,” she replied. “I'm glad I'm not the one that has to take care of it. Oh, have you paid your staff yet?”

  “Crap!” Eddie said. “No, I haven't. I'll take care of it before we leave. Sooner or later, this'll be a lot easier, once I have a routine set, but for now it's going to be a pain. I'll start trying to figure that routine out after we're back from adventuring today.”

  “Oh yeah, we're going to try one of the second tier outposts today, aren't we?” she said.

  He nodded eagerly.

  “I'm close enough to leveling that I might get level six out of it. Looking forward to having a skill slot to choose. I want to find something that'll mesh with my spells for more Conjunction possibilities.”

  “I get that. That flatbread thing is just wrong, but I'm happy to see them. Now if I mess up there's less chance someone will die because of it.”

  “Hey, don't forget, I've got a healing spell now also. It isn't as strong as yours, but it is twice as strong as it shows up on the bread.”

  She grinned at him.

  “Yeah, and if you have to use it, you won't be messing up the front line fighters again.”

  He groaned at the reminder of his previous error, but quickly shook it off.

  “Being in the back, I can see if someone needs it. Plus, I've got a couple of other spells that might come in handy.”

  She cocked her eyebrow.

  “Fox Fire,” he said. “I can target it on an opponent and if they don't resist, anyone attacking them will get bonuses to their attack rating.”

  “Okay, that's one. You said a couple?”

  “Yeah, I don't know if there are hostile critters out there, but I've got a spell called Safe Site. If there are things like hostile wildlife, I can cast that and they can't detect us. Sentient creatures get a chance to see us even when it's up, but with non-sentient ones it's automatic.”

  “Huh, I know that the goblins farther in have wolves, but I don't know if the second tier ones do or not.”

  “Anyhow, I've got that. Then the accelerated plant growth and create food/water. I'd love to use the accelerated plant growth with weaving and Conjunction in a fight. I think I could entangle all of our opponents within a few feet of each other, trap their ankles with it. But I'm not going to try that it in a fight unless it's absolutely necessary. Almost every time I've used Conjunction in a new way so far I've ended up flat on my ass with my mana almost zeroed out.”

  “Which would be a bad place to be in a fight. I get it. You need to practice that one as much as you can, if it's easier on you as you rank it up, that could be a decent wild card in a fight.”

  He nodded.

  “I know. As soon as I have it high enough that the multiplier doesn't drain me of all my mana I'll try it in a fight.”

  “Alright, I'm ready,” Tiana said.

  She'd work
ed her way through most of the food that Eddie had left on the tray and had another cup of coffee.

  “Good, let's see if Karl and Allie are up, then head to the farm to meet up with Jern and Dominic,” he replied.

  ~ ~ ~

  Karl and Allie were sitting at one of the tables, the remains of breakfast in front of them. Karl was leaning into his hands, both of them supporting his head as he massaged his temples. Allie looked up at the sight of them and grinned. She gestured towards Karl.

  “I told him he was drinking too much last night, but he wouldn't listen.”

  “I assume you moderated your own drinking then?” Eddie asked.

  Allie snickered.

  “No, but I have seven more points in heartiness than he does. That directly affects things like getting hangovers. Plus I drank a few mugs of water after we were done, he just staggered to the room and collapsed on the bed.”

  Karl groaned.

  “Rub it in, why don't you?” he said.

  “Don't worry, I will,” Allie replied. “Until you listen to me anyways.”

  He groaned again, his head sagging into his hands.

  “Well, let's go get Jern and Dominic,” Eddie said. “I've got a surprise for everyone once we're all together.”

  Tiana gave him a knowing grin and he nodded. Allie caught the interplay between them.

  “Oh, so that's how it is, is it?” she said. “Well, I'm pretty sure Karl has a surprise for everyone also, assuming he's in good enough shape to share it.”

  Karl feebly swatted at her leg, Allie caught his hand and just held it for a moment before helping him to his feet.

  “I need one quick stop in the control room before we leave,” Eddie said, heading for the door behind the bar.

  He'd noticed something the last time he was in there. An option that hadn't originally been there and had only appeared when he'd first opened the inn to the public. As he selected the 'pay staff' option and pressed it, a message appeared in front of him.