Keeper

by Tom Larcombe

  Because if my estimate is correct I'm going to need at least thirty pounds of ground beef for tonight's crowd, he thought.

  ~ ~ ~

  The next morning Eddie was all ready to go make more claim stakes. He'd taken the smaller portions of wood from up at the farm and brought an entire cart load of it this time. As he and Tiana headed for the temple, he couldn't help but think that Karl might have been right about how good the burgers had tasted. He'd even had to grind another ten pounds of beef to keep up with the orders.

  “Okay, I'm just going to settle in and do my claim stakes again. Probably see if that same guy I had showing people how to do it yesterday is interested in doing so again today,” he said.

  “I'm going to use that bountiful harvest function, give them some more food. Some of them brought food, some didn't, but I bet I can feed most of them for today at least with the bountiful harvest,” Tiana said. “Besides, I really want to see it myself.”

  Eddie grinned.

  “Well, let's get to it then.”

  He went up to the first claim he'd helped with yesterday and found that the man had used cloth to make a lean-to large enough for his own family using the cloth and smaller sticks from the shrubs on his own land.

  “Hey there,” Eddie called. “I'm afraid I never got your name yesterday, but would you be willing to work with me again today? Same terms.”

  “It's Griff,” the man said. “And done, we can use the coins to help set ourselves set back up here.”

  Griff followed Eddie back to the temple, taking up a post beside him as Eddie started carving again. Aside from a single point gain in carpentry around mid-morning, he was otherwise uninterrupted until about ten minutes before he'd planned on breaking for lunch. Griff had just left with another family to claim their patch of land a few minutes earlier when Eddie stopped dead at the notification that showed up.

  Success:

  You have created a: Player Village

  For being the first player to create a Player Village in the game you are awarded 5000 experience and 100 gold.

  You qualified by bringing the permanent population of your hamlet: Meadowlands, to more than 50 inhabitants and employing 28% of the inhabitants.

  Global Broadcast:

  Congratulations to player Eddie Hunter for being the first to complete the achievement: Player Village

  In honor of this achievement, completed in: The Meadowlands, Human race players may now choose Freyja's First Temple in The Meadowlands as their starting point.

  I have got to see if there's a way to make that read anonymous instead of my name, Eddie thought reflexively, then remembered he was trying to make a name for himself. Instead, his thoughts went to the fact that he was now only employing twenty-eight percent of the inhabitants and making more inhabitants rapidly.

  I need to make some contracts with farmers claiming land. Offer to buy their crops, have them work for me that way. I hope it counts, he thought.

  Tiana came out at that point.

  “Really? My temple as a starting point?” she said. “You know we'll get some of the assholes, right?”

  “I had no choice in that. Hell, I didn't even realize I was that close. I'm sorry.”

  “I'm just giving you a hard time,” Tiana said. “I actually love that everyone starting here will see the temple that we built. I think it'll give the proper first impression for the Meadowlands,” she said.

  “Yanking my chain again?” he asked. “Sorry, I'm horrible at telling when people are doing that to me.”

  She bent over and gave him a kiss.

  “Congratulations on hitting another game first. I wish there was actually a way to tell if others were working on it too though.”

  “I do too, but I don't know of any way to do that besides word of mouth,” Eddie said. “And on that note, I have to go. I need to finish the Collier's house, finally.”

  “I'll be here until dinner time,” Tiana said. “I've been training my acolytes. They can now cast some first tier spells, so that'll be handy since they stay in the temple or on the grounds all the time. If people need low level healing or anything of the sort, they'll be able to provide it.”

  Eddie smiled at her.

  “Congratulations, but now I do need to get going. Griff? Would you wait here until the rest of those stakes are taken? Here's your pay for the day,” Eddie said, handing over some coins.

  “I'll do that Eddie, sir. Thank you again.”

  “You're welcome, but you're making it easier for me also, so no thanks are needed,” Eddie said.

  Then he headed out to finish the Collier's house before dinner time.

  ~ ~ ~

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  “And that's what you get for trying to tinker with things that you really know nothing about,” Freyja said.

  Harmon, waiting for his respawn, had been intercepted by Freyja and she'd brought him to her. She reached in and tinkered with his consciousness for a bit, removing the portion of the Giant Wolf that had integrated with him when he decided to use the spark that had remained in it to achieve better control. Absorbing it into herself, as was supposed to occur when the mobs were slain, she reviewed Harmon's actions, instantly learning all of his plans that he'd thought about while bonded with the wolf.

  “Wha...? What happened?” Harmon said.

  Up to this point he'd been in an incoherent rage, frothing at the mouth of the temporary construct Freyja had placed him in. This one hadn't had that spark of intelligence that the ones in the world got, so there'd been nothing to further endanger the man. Freyja had placed him in a body that could see and speak, if nothing else, since she had questions for him.

  Freyja glared at him.

  “Did Loki put you up to this? This type of chaos involving the world-traveling mortals would be exactly the type of thing he'd plan.”

  Harmon trembled as the wrath of the goddess washed over him. Then she muttered for a moment and a golden glow washed over him, forcing him to speak the truth as he knew it.

  “I never should've doubted Olson,” he muttered. “Not just dreams then, he did see something else.”

  “Answer me!” Freyja demanded.

  “As far as I know I've never met Loki. I got my orders from Greenshaw.”

  “Who is that?” Freyja demanded.

  “My superior officer, and the person in charge of this game,” Harmon said.

  “He is in charge of the world, is he?” Freyja said, more to herself than to Harmon. “So he alters it at his will?”

  “Well, not himself, he doesn't have those skills. He just employs those who can. The devs, coders, everyone in the company works for him. He tells them how to change things and they do it.”

  I wonder if Aaron is aware of this? I do not believe that he would be party to it if he were, but I might be mistaken. I'll need to keep a closer eye on Opron to find out, Freyja thought.

  “What exactly were your orders?” Freyja asked, determined to find out all that she could before she had to release his consciousness to respawn, she had hours to do so due to her adjustment to Harmon's respawn time and she intended to make the most of that time.

  ~ ~ ~

  Eddie had managed to get the Collier's house finished the night before and now he was sitting down at the temple carving claim stakes again. He thought that if he kept doing that right up until lunch time that he'd have enough done for all the refugees that wanted to claim land.

  The inn had emptied out earlier than normal the night before. With the word that goblins were raiding the Meadowlands, just about all the adventuring groups that normally would've hit the forest had gone out hunting in the Meadowlands instead. With Karl's map on the wall, they'd split up all the areas that adjoined the Forest of Fools and groups had claimed areas to hunt in. The daytime adventurers had taken up the hunt as well, to find and exterminate any goblins that had managed to hide in the dark the night before. Because of all that Eddie wasn't too worried about more goblin attacks at the mom
ent.

  With the temple, the fort, and the Collier's house all completed Eddie was looking forward to spending the afternoon on some projects of his own. While he sat and carved the claim stakes, he also set up a quest, one mainly for the NPCs, to catch him live bunnies. He'd planned a rabbit hutch a long time ago and really wanted to have them situated before he started building a corral and trying to catch cows.

  Because I'm not much looking forward to that, he thought, not with knowing what they did to Karl. I think that'll take some planning to figure out a way to do it without getting myself killed.

  By the time he was ready to head to the inn for lunch, he'd had five people turn in live bunnies for the reward. When he had a chance he'd check to make sure he had both males and females, but as long as he had at least one of each, he'd be all set since the animals bred so fast in game.

  Dropping all the bunnies into a box he'd brought along for the purpose, he picked it up and headed for the inn. For the moment, he just brought it into the inn with him. From his past construction efforts he estimated that the hutch would take him less than an hour to build, so he'd do that right after lunch.

  Paul and Becky came over to his table joining him.

  “Been a bit of excitement recently?” Paul asked.

  Eddie was staring at the robe that Becky was wearing. It was the one that they'd gotten from the Skeletal Necromancer. The rest of the loot from the dungeon had been split up, the robe going to Becky, the Necromancer's ring going to Dominic, Allie claiming the longsword from the Knight and Jern getting the shield. Eddie had wondered about that until Jern showed it to him and demonstrated that it had shrunk to the correct size for the dwarf.

  “You could say that, the goblins raided just about all the NPCs on the south side of the Meadowlands. Those who survived are all down near the temple. I've set them up with claim stakes so they can move themselves here where it's safer,” Eddie said.

  “Lots of building then,” Paul said.

  Eddie nodded.

  “I'll probably help them with it, but I'm not going to do all of it on my own,” he said. “I'll loan out my cart and they can retrieve their own lumber and stone for the houses. I'll do the building for them, well the carpentry portion, I'll have to see if Jern and Tiana are willing to do the stonework.”

  “Well, if you need help I'm more than willing to volunteer to do so if I don't have any other jobs lined up,” Paul said.

  “Are you sure? I mean, I know you normally get paid pretty well for that.”

  “Eddie, I saw the global message. As a village there's going to be a lot of building that needs done, yes?”

  “Probably?”

  “And if I don't miss my guess, you managed that by convincing those people to settle down here, no?”

  Eddie blushed.

  “Well, yes. I mean it's enlightened self-interest, it helps me and it's both safer and probably more productive for them.”

  “I'm not saying anything against what you did. I'm just thinking we need to keep them here. Can you lose the village classification if enough of them die or leave?”

  Crap, I never would've considered that, Eddie thought. I've got no idea, but he's right, I'll need to do what I can to help them as quickly as I can, I guess.

  Eddie just shrugged.

  “Yeah,” Paul said, “so rather than risk that, I'll help. Besides, I mean, I know it's a game, but they're real enough to hold a conversation, to cry, or be scared. I have to help.”

  “Well, I won't turn it down Paul, there's a lot of houses and other utility structures that will need to be built for them.”

  “Well, count on my assistance. Just let me know where you need me,” Paul said.

  “What's in the box?” Becky asked. “I know it's alive, I can hear them, but what is it?”

  Eddie sighed, sure that he knew what was coming.

  “Live bunnies, so I can breed them.”

  Becky practically dove for the box, opening it just a bit and reaching in to pull out a bunny. Amusingly enough, although they'd struggled when Eddie had tried to put them in the box, this one just sat placidly in Becky's arms as she stroked its ears.

  “Becky,” Eddie said, waiting for her to turn to him.

  “Put the bunny back in the box,” Eddie continued. “Maybe you can play with them later on. I'm building a hutch for them out back and eventually I'll have lots of them.”

  “Can I play with your chickens too?” she asked.

  Eddie sighed again, sure that he'd regret it.

  “Sure, but only one at a time. Those animals are all here to support my inn. Meat and eggs primarily, but the bunny pelts and the chicken feathers will probably all get put to use as well.”

  She crinkled her nose when he mentioned using them as food, but gently lowered the bunny back into the box. Eddie was amused to notice that her lunch order a minute later included meat, but he decided against commenting on it.

  After Eddie was done eating he went out back. Little did he realize that Becky had planned on immediately playing with the chickens. As he worked on the hutch, she took each chicken out and played with it for a while, returning it before pulling out another. Much like the bunny, the chickens didn't seem to mind in the least and Eddie just shook his head.

  It's because she's a Druid, that's gotta be it. I bet her Animal Friendship is up to ten or higher already, he thought.

  When he finished with the hutch as he'd planned, he was awarded with the ability to make a blueprint of it. As he usually did, he sketched one out, read it, and positioned it immediately atop the one he'd built, finding only one problem that he immediately fixed.

  I can't believe I'm using weaving again, but really the floor needs to let things fall through it so woven green branches is the best bet, he thought.

  Then he tried to move the bunnies into the hutch. They were still quite averse to him picking them up and he had his hands full trying to do it without hurting them. Becky noticed his problem, put the chicken she'd been playing with away and came over.

  “Let me,” she said.

  She proceeded to transfer all the bunnies into the hutch with no issues whatsoever. The closest thing to a problem was when one of them didn't want to be put down and tried to jump back into her arms.

  “Alright, thank you Becky. That definitely made it easier. Now I need to finish digging out the gardens I'd planned for back here, or at least do more work on them. I doubt I'll finish today.”

  She smiled at him and waved his thanks off.

  “My pleasure, really. They're so soft and furry.”

  I can't believe she's twenty years old, Eddie thought. I'd swear she acts younger most of the time, although I would've believed she was twenty when we were in the dungeon. So I guess the maturity is in there and she just prefers to act this way most of the time? Is she sheltered or something? Doesn't matter really, she's shown that we can trust her when the chips are down, so it's all good.

  Eddie grinned, happy that his plans for sustainable meat for his inn were coming together. Then he had a thought.

  I wonder if she could manage to lead the cows back the same way she got the bunnies and chickens to like her?

  Becky left to head back to her house and Eddie started digging.

  ~ ~ ~

  When the dinner rush was well underway Eddie was out in the common room, helping behind the bar and surreptitiously trying out some of the new brews he'd gotten from Bjorn. He was kind of, sort of listening to the conversations of the adventurers when something caught his attention.

  “So, yeah, we finished clearing our area, then we headed into the Forest of Fools to try to figure out what caused them all to come out like that. We made it into the tier one village and you'll never guess what we found.”

  The man paused, waiting for the others at the table to ask him what they'd found. When they did, he continued.

  “Only one goblin in the whole place and he was huge. Called a Goblin Bruiser, and he was level twelve. He looked like
he was bored and waiting for something, just sitting there. But we're guessing he chased all the lower levels out of the village and they spilled out into the Meadowlands. No clue why he was there though and we weren't about to try to take a level twelve. Probably could've done it, but some of us would've been headed for respawn. I swear that goblin's muscles had muscles.”

  “What about the other tier one villages?” one of the people at the table asked.

  The man who'd been telling the story shrugged.

  “No clue, we didn't have enough time to check them out, but with all the goblins that spilled out here into the Meadowlands I'm betting there's something similar at each of them. But the reason I was telling you was that our party wants to team up with another one to take on that Bruiser, we were wondering if you'd be interested.”

  Eddie grinned as he heard the group express interest.

  Cool, they're working together. I don't know if that did that at all before, but it's good to see that they are now, and it sounds like they even like the idea, he thought.

  Lucky had been out back, but Eddie heard a familiar chuff from back in the kitchen. Giving the bartender a glance Eddie realized that the man didn't really need help right now and left, heading for the kitchen to see what was up with his cat.

  The back door of the kitchen was propped open to let some of the cool air in and Lucky had planted herself in the doorway, watching Liv.

  “No cat, I'm not feeding you again,” Liv said, a smile on her face as she spoke.

  Eddie stepped in.

  “I got this,” he said.

  Reaching into his inventory he pulled out a bunny corpse that Lucky had brought him earlier. Realizing he was holding a corpse in the middle of the kitchen he quickly made his way to the back door. When he did, Lucky started rubbing against his legs. He tossed the rabbit out into the back yard and the bobcat raced after it.