Greenshaw wrote out the orders longhand. He hated the virtual keyboard that came with his implant, so he avoided it at all costs. He was sure typing in mid-air made him look like a fool and his previous secretary had reinforced that idea by staring at him, jaws agape, when she came into his office and found him typing on it. That was several years back and since then, he'd just forgone email. Things tended to get done more quickly when he called people directly or handed them a hard copy of their orders, at least that's what he'd decided.
He called his secretary in.
“Make a clean copy of this and make sure it is immediately delivered to Aaron Opman. You're to make sure he understands that this is a priority mission and takes precedence over everything else he's going, got it?”
“Yes sir, he'll have it within the hour and I'll make sure that he understands its importance.”
Greenshaw was much happier with his new secretary. She'd never given him the least bit of trouble and understood that when he gave an order, it was an order.
Which is why I drew on the military for the new one instead of the civilian sector. The old one from the civilian sector just didn't understand so when it was time to fire her for gaping at me, it was almost a relief, he thought.
Less than an hour later his phone rang.
“Mr. Greenshaw, are you sure about this?” Aaron asked, after the trivialities of beginning the conversation were out of the way. “Not connected to any network, just a clean copy of the game with an option for configurable terrain areas, and an AI to handle the system? I don't understand why, we can just test anything we need to in the game proper and then we understand the interactions with the rest of the code better as well.”
“You don't need to understand. You just need to follow my orders. It shouldn't be too difficult. It's not like we're spinning up another massive game world, just a clean copy of the world code and an AI to handle everything. Someone else will input the parameters needed to the AI and it can handle any adjustments we need from there. We just need exactly what I specified there.”
“Alright sir, I'll get right on it,” Aaron said. “It will take a few days, you understand, since I'll have to order the hardware made specially, much like we do the game servers.”
“Do it, and pay for priority on it, both creation and shipping, assuming they offer the service.”
The silence on the other end of the line told Greenshaw that Aaron was trying to formulate another question, so he cut it off before it could occur.
“Just do it and let me know when it's up and running. That is all.”
Greenshaw hung up before Aaron could get another word out.
He leaned back in his chair again, wondering why his subconscious was clamoring for him to put more stipulations on the virgin server.
Why in the world am I even considering that I insist he use AI-L as the AI for the virgin server? If I want clean testing, why would I put the AI that represents treachery, mischief, and chaos in charge of it? he wondered.
~ ~ ~
Eddie spun around, staring at Karl. The scout had followed him, a few paces back, and stopped when Eddie did.
“Tell me I didn't just see that,” Eddie said.
Karl shook his head, a wide grin spreading across his face.
“Good, I'm glad I wasn't hallucinating,” Karl said.
“I'm amazed you didn't just keep going and trigger it,” Eddie said.
“I thought about it, but realized that the rest of the group would never forgive me if I did that without warning them.”
“Well, it's good that you didn't. Raid level? Global announcement? Our group would've been dead as a doormat if we tried it on our own,” Eddie said.
“Yeah, well, I didn't do it, okay?”
“Good, I think we need to head back and clue in everyone else around the Meadowlands. They can prepare and we can trigger this at some other time once we've got a bunch of people prepared for it.”
“Let's let everyone else see this first?” Karl said, hopefully, “and let them know I was the one to find it for a change?”
Eddie chuckled.
“Yeah, we can do that. Let's slide into the bushes back down the trail a ways until they show up. I've got no clue if we could be spotted and have them come after us, maybe not the full raid load, but if it is qualified as a raid then there have to be hordes of goblins, and probably a bunch of stronger stuff as well.”
Karl nodded his agreement and the two slipped out of sight, waiting for the rest of the party to catch up. Once they had, they intercepted them and told them to slow down as they kept moving forward and be ready for a surprise.
Jern stopped dead in the trail and Tiana almost ran into him. She stepped up alongside him and stopped cold as well. Allie, who'd been bringing up the rear, kept an eye out as those two stayed still, despite Eddie and Karl being there to keep watch as well. When Jern stepped back shaking his head and Tiana followed him, Allie finally stepped to the point where they'd been.
It had been utterly still and mostly quiet while Jern and Tiana read, but when Allie stopped and began to read, an outcry rang out somewhere on the road towards the town they'd seen in the distance.
Eddie peered down the trail but all he could make out was movement. After a few more seconds he began to distinguish shapes. Someone that was about the size of a human, but of a more slender build, was sprinting down the trail at top speed, chased by a bunch of smaller figures.
“What the hell?” Karl said, staring.
“Allie, off the trail,” Eddie called out urgently.
She came back to herself after reading the message and saw the movement in the distance. She leapt for the bushes at the edge of the trail, right behind Tiana and Jern who'd taken cover the moment they heard the disturbance.
They waited a few moments until the sight became more clear. The leading shape looked almost human, but it was more slender and had an almost ethereal grace to it, or at least it would have if it weren't limping and occasionally almost falling. The ones following it were definitely goblins. They looked a lot like the goblins from the Forest of Fools villages, except they were a bit thicker, more stocky, than those.
[group chat: Eddie - Karl, move up alongside the path. Don't trigger the raid, but get as close to that spot as you can. The rest of us, out onto the path and slowly fall back towards the last village. Once we engage, Karl knows what to do.]
There were somewhere around fifteen or twenty goblins chasing the Elf and they'd nearly caught it. Once the group stepped out onto the road, the Elf seemed to get another burst of energy, sprinting towards them quickly enough to widen the gap between it and its pursuers.
The Elf passed them, then collapsed in a pile on the road. He was speaking, but it wasn't in a language Eddie understood. Eddie was distracted anyhow, firing his bow at the pursuing goblins. Allie was doing the same, but she paused for a moment to toss a few words, liquid sounding words much like the Elf's, over her shoulder.
“Who the hell would've thought having the Elven language due to making an Elf character would come in handy for something other than talking to other players who have it,” she said as she continued to fire.
Eddie shook that off, they could worry about it later. The goblins coming at them seemed to have better armor and weapons than the ones in the village, at least he saw that most of them were wearing chainmail and what he could see of the swords among them looked sturdier than he was used to from the goblins.
Dominic was shooting off spell attacks, his Fiery Arrows striking goblin after goblin. By the time the goblins reached the party, there were only twelve left of the original seventeen.
Allie dropped her bow and pulled out her ax and shield from her inventory. She stepped up alongside Jern, who'd set to receive the goblin charge. As the goblins closed in Jern yelled.
“I thought slimes were a lot slower than this. Looks like we've found a whole group of exceptional slimes.”
The goblins heard him, and although they'd
been a bit more spread out so they'd be attacking both Jern and Allie, now they focused in on the dwarf.
Before they'd even gotten into melee range, Jern hollered again and struck with his hammer. The special Eddie had seen him use before activated, the hammer lengthening in the midst of the strike. One goblin was sent hurling off the side of the trial, impacting a tree with enough force that Eddie was pretty sure it was out of this combat.
As the rest of the goblins closed in on Jern, Allie swung her ax, attracting the attention of another one with her vicious strike. Dominic and Eddie were still firing, thinning the numbers and even Tiana had her armor and mace out.
I guess she thinks this is going to get down and dirty, Eddie though, and she might be right.
The goblins were surrounding Jern now and the dwarf was taking damage even as he fended off most of the attacks. Karl shimmered in behind the goblin farthest down the path towards the town, striking him and killing him with the backstab.
Eddie put his bow away and pulled out his sword. Dominic was down to using his wand again, the individual missiles from it less likely to cause problems with party members in the melee. Eddie stepped forward and struck, drawing another goblin off Jern.
Lucky came roaring out of the bushes on the other side of the path from where Karl had been, hamstringing a goblin with her first strike. Jern pushed through until he was next to Karl, then spun. As Eddie saw what was happening he moved towards the opposite side of the path from Lucky, and Allie stepped back beside Tiana. Now they had the Goblins surrounded, even if the party was still outnumbered, and the rest of the fight didn't take long from that point.
~ ~ ~
Eddie had no idea what the Elf was saying as it spouted more of that mellifluous language. Allie, on the other hand, did. She replied in the same language, although more slowly, like a tune had that had slowed as it was taken over by a musician of lesser skills.
“So what did he say?” Karl asked.
“He said that his group was scouting the goblin city for a potential attack, but they were ambushed. He's the only one that survived, as far as he knows,” Allie said.
Eddie shook his head, disgusted that it had taken him this long to put some clues together.
“The Elven town, the new starting town? I bet that's where he's from,” Eddie interjected. “Can he lead us there? I mean eventually, we've got way too much to do for right now before we do that.”
Tiana, having just finished healing first the Elf and then Jern, straightened.
“Yeah, and I think we probably ought to move farther back down the path,” she said. “Because that wasn't a very large group for us to take on, but I see a lot more movement over near the Goblin town.”
Eddie glanced over and saw the same. Goblins, or at least he assumed that's what they were, were gathering at the edge of the town.
“Let's go, we can talk about this later and I don't know about the rest of you but I need to check what I got from my level. I already added my points, but I should've gotten a new spell also. I don't want to get lost in my screens until we're back in town though, so...”
He started back down the path, leading the group away from the Goblin town. Their way back was uncontested, the five villages having been leveled earlier in the day. Meanwhile, as they walked, the elf kept talking.
“Damn,” Karl said. “That guy's worse than my kid sister, and she hardly ever shuts up. Has he stopped talking since Tiana healed him?”
Eddie shook his head. The language was pleasant to listen to, but he was somewhat irked by not knowing what was being said. Not irked enough to spend another skill point on the language though. Allie had stopped translating everything the elf said after the first few minutes, when she realized that he wasn't going to stop talking.
Every now and again she'd give a brief synopsis of what he'd been saying. Evidently he was worried for the rest of his group, he was impressed with how they took out the walls of the tier five village since his group had simply gone over the similar ones they'd encountered, and he wondered where they were going.
Eddie heaved a sigh of relief as the inn came into view.
“Allie?” Eddie said. “Would you ask him if he wants to stay here for the time being or try to find his way back to his own town, or what? If he wants to go back to his town, we should send someone with him so we know where it is.”
Allie glared at him.
“That someone being me? Since I'm the only one in the group that can talk to him?”
She shook her head, but spoke to the Elf. After his reply, she turned back to Eddie.
“He wants to stay here for the moment. Says he's physically healed, but still staggered from his losses.”
“Okay, I'll track him down a place to stay. Let's head in and get some food. I'll make an announcement later on tonight about the raid, but I want to talk to Charles first, keep him in the loop.”
“That's a good plan,” Tiana said. “He's the highest level around now that he made twenty, plus he did good work arranging the defense of the castle walls. See if he has any thoughts about a raid level encounter.”
“That's the idea,” Eddie said.
The Elf stared at the interior of the inn, his gaze darting this way and that before he let loose with another torrent of words.
“He said it's been a very long time since he's seen a proper Human settlement in this area. Decades, in fact. That he didn't actually see it himself, but he'd heard about it from the elders of his tribe,” Allie said.
“Well, let him know what his choices are for food and drink, will you?” Eddie said. “Damn, if we start trading with them we might have to have a few people learn their language.”
“No,” the Elf said. “Some know, I know little. Just hard...”
He made an odd gesture with his hand that Eddie assumed was him searching for a word. He let out a burst of Elvish and Allie supplied him with a few words.
“Hard to think on it right now,” the elf finished.
“What's your name?” Eddie asked.
“Adonioth,” the Elf replied.
Eddie worked his mouth for a moment, desperately wanting to shorten it to Adon, or something similar, but resisting.
“So Adonioth, I'll be happy to offer you food and lodging for a few days while you recover, but I would like to find your town. I'm kind of in charge in this area and it would good to know about our nearest neighbors aboveground,” Eddie said.
“Is kind of you,” Adonioth replied. “Will show way when return.”
“It's a deal,” Eddie said.
He left the table then, leaving the rest of the group sitting with Adonioth as he moved into the back of the common room. Charles had been doing almost everything he needed to prepare for the settlement he was going to start from the same table back there and Eddie was relieved when he saw the Paladin in his normal spot.
“Charles,” Eddie said, sliding out a seat and sitting. “I'm glad I found you.”
“Well, you've got about two days before that'll be a lot harder,” Charles replied. “I'm almost ready to head out and build the settlement.”
“Um, not to disrupt your plans, but you may want to wait a little longer than that,” Eddie said.
“Alright, Eddie. Spill it. What have you done or found this time?”
Eddie settled in and told Charles the whole story. When he was done, Charles stood and took a few steps into the middle of the common room.
“So you found a goblin town, attacking it is a raid level event for low levels, and you've got a lead to the new starting town. Is that the gist of it?”
Eddie nodded.
“That's the Elf you rescued? At the table with the rest of your group?”
Eddie nodded again.
“Well, fortunately I can put off the departure for the new settlement for as long as I need to,” Charles said. “I told everyone going that I'll give them twenty-four hours notice before we leave, but that it would be sometime in the next few weeks.”
“I'll need to talk to Adonioth later on, but for now tell me everything you remember about the town, okay?”
Eddie readied himself to have his brain picked apart and started talking.
~ ~ ~
After Charles had stopped speaking with Eddie he'd gone over to Adonioth. After gently asking if the elf was willing to talk about the Goblin town, Charles had led Adonioth over to his table and they'd started talking. Evidently Adonioth knew a lot more about the town than Eddie had noticed because Charles talked to him for nearly an hour before leading the Elf back to Eddie.
“Okay, I'm glad it's a global raid, because we're going to need more people than we have here,” Charles said. “That town has Goblin types I've never heard of before, as well as Giant Wolves for mounts, like the ones the Orcs had. Do you mind if I let a few people know about this so they can start making their way here? A lot of people that level aren't going to have fast travel options to get here in less than a day.”
How does he manage to take everything with such aplomb? Eddie wondered. Doesn't matter what we've tossed at him, he takes it in stride and knows what to do.
“Go right ahead. I was just thinking of warning everyone around here and giving them two or three days to get ready.”
“Let's do a week, if you don't mind,” Charles said. “I'll send a few messages out tonight and I think we'll be in much better shape a week from now.”
“Okay, how many people are you expecting?” Eddie asked.
“Oh, I figure there'll be at least a couple hundred that can show up in time. I'll let the people I'm thinking of know and they'll probably account for twenty-five to thirty, then any others they think they should bring. Plus, there's probably a fair number that will have fast transport options and can make it in under twenty-four hours from where they are. Plus everyone from this area, so yeah, at least a couple hundred in total,” Charles said.
Eddie couldn't conceive of trying to manage anything that size that was all adventurers.
I mean sure, I'm doing that for the town, but that's mostly NPCs. Trying to control or coordinate that many adventurers doing the same thing? It'd be like trying to herd cats.
Defender Light Online Four Page 36
