The Mountain Valley War

by M. A. Carlson

  “Did what?” Baby asked.

  “Bye-bye’s advice was dead on, thank you so much for your help with that. If not for your advice, I never would have known what to look for. Anyway, I found the spirit of a dead Shaman just like you said I should and after some . . . conversation, I made him into a totem,” Micaela explained, pointing at the emerald gem embedded in the stone of her chest armor. “He is able to increase my spirit by a lot, like, I gained +90-Spirit. Ninety! He’ll increase my spirit by 10 for every level he gains. It’s bloody brilliant!”

  “And it was super scary,” said Vision, popping into view and vanishing quickly after the scowling look Micaela gave him. Apparently, the wolf pup didn’t agree with his Boss’s assessment of how successful they were.

  Micaela ignored Vision’s comment, instead sticking her tongue out at him childishly. “We lived,” she added.

  “You’ll need to tell us all about it,” Olaf said.

  “That’s fantastic,” I said, very happy that it worked.

  “Meditation?” Baby asked, drawing my attention from Olaf and Micaela.

  I nodded. “I think it might be one of the most powerful abilities in the World Tree.”

  “Wish we would have known that sooner,” Baby complained. “I’ve been meaning to use it to bring my own Intellect and Wisdom up but reading still does slightly more for me.”

  It was my turn to frown. “How many points are you still getting?”

  “Maybe 2 an hour,” Baby answered.

  Baby was only one level below me and yet she was getting so much more in stat gains than I was. I was curious just how much of a boost she was getting compared to my own.

  “What about your physical stats? Have you been able to bring them up at all?” I asked.

  “Strength, not at all. Dexterity, maybe two points from using ‘Ariel Acrobatics’, same for Stamina. At least Endurance is at level cap. My 140-Endurance isn’t a lot but better than nothing. I admit, I haven’t been doing much to even try to train my other physical stats,” Baby answered.

  That made me feel a little better. My physical stats were all climbing pretty well. I still should have been making bigger gains from my mental stats. I would need to pay a visit to the Goddess Issara later to see if she could tell me anything. Thinking of the Goddess Issara made me think about the ‘Higher Power’ interfering with my ‘Meditation’ skill. Who could have been involved? I suddenly had a sneaking suspicion that a ‘Higher Power’ might have been interfering with my stat growth in order to force me to use ‘Meditation’. It was too much of a coincidence. I was starting to get really annoyed with being made into an errand boy of the Gods. I was tempted to pick up a book to test my theory to see if my growth rate was restored but now was not the time.

  “How about you, Rose?” I asked, looking for confirmation.

  “Neither mental stat is a priority for my class,” Rose answered. “That said, I still get at least a point every 45-50 minutes reading.” Her answer was honest but felt cold.

  “I will be ready to depart in 30-minutes,” Mardi said, interrupting our conversation and excusing herself. She seemed to no longer be interested in the conversation. I vaguely heard Micaela regaling Olaf with her story and Vision occasionally adding a detail here and there.

  “Rose, mind taking a short walk with me?” I asked, hoping she would be willing to have a talk with me.

  Rose narrowed her eyes. “I’m not in the mood,” she answered succinctly.

  That wasn’t good.

  “Rosie, don’t be like that. Go for a walk with him and talk,” Baby ordered.

  Rose’s head snapped in Baby’s direction so fast I thought she might have injured herself. The way she was glaring at her sister suggested an injury might still happen, but Baby would be the one getting injured.

  Baby glared right back, not relenting.

  Rose’s eyes narrowed before she finally scoffed. “Fine,” she said, storming away from the table toward the front door.

  “Don’t just stand there, chase after her,” Baby ordered, spurring me into action.

  I caught up to Rose and walked silently next to her, unsure how I should broach the subject of my idiocy.

  “You’re an idiot,” Rose said, breaking the silence first.

  “I am,” I said, looking down at the ground ahead of me. “I didn’t think there was any danger in using a skill while I was in a safe place like Mardi’s home. I had no idea it would look like I was dead.”

  “Then you should have told one of us,” Rose retorted, sounding angry.

  This wasn’t going well, that was certain. And that last comment lit a spark of anger in my gut. I had a choice to make. Fight back or take my punishment. The problem was, I knew that if I just took it, I would start to question everything I did, something that might cause me to resent her. I’m a risk taker, how else could I find all the crazy quests and shenanigans I do if I wasn’t? But if I fought back, I might lose her, and I really didn’t want to lose her. I was between a rock and a hard place.

  “I am sorry, Rose. I really am,” I started, letting that spark of anger spur me on to fight. “But you weren’t around. None of you were. I had already used ‘Meditation’ earlier while I was at the archive doing research for Micaela, so I knew it was perfectly safe. Research, by the way, that all of you insisted I do to help our friend. Don’t get me wrong, it was something I was happy to do. But you seem to have forgotten that it comes with a cost. You think I wouldn’t notice as you reached level 15, something I congratulated you on achieving because I was genuinely happy for you, all while I was stuck in the archives? Or that I wouldn’t have noticed Olaf hit level 17? I chose to help our friend while you were out having fun, completing quests, and fighting for Hammerton without me. Every night, you would come home and get to retell the story of your day's adventure and the only thing I could do was smile and enjoy the story, a story I wasn’t part of.” I took a few calming breaths. I didn’t realize how angry I was at having been relegated to research monkey. To have been cut out of the fun with my friends.

  “I am sorry I scared you again, you will never know how sorry I am for that. But I won’t stop playing this game to the best of my ability, and sometimes, that will mean taking risks and doing something stupid. I need you to accept that sometimes it will work, sometimes it won’t,” I said, trying to be clear with Rose.

  Rose looked like she was going to protest, but I continued on before she could. “Don’t forget, taking stupid risks is something you are equally capable of doing, or did you think I had forgotten our discussion and your subsequent story the next day about charging into a Captain then pushing him and yourself off a cliff to kill him with the fall, an action not so unlike my own from a few days ago? And don’t even try to defend your actions just because you lived through it,” I said, grumbling a little for that last bit.

  “I’m . . . sorry,” Rose said hesitantly, it was her turn to not meet my eyes as she looked away. “I didn’t think about how much you were missing out on by trying to help Micaela.”

  “I was happy to help our friend,” I said, I didn’t want her to think I regretted helping Micaela. “I just wanted you to understand my perspective on things.”

  Rose sighed heavily, “We really suck at this relationship thing, don’t we?”

  “Maybe,” I said. It seemed like I might have gotten through to her. “Our relationship is new. I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure that means we’re both going to make mistakes. I guess, the only question is whether or not we can survive those mistakes.”

  “You’re still an idiot,” Rose said. “But you’re my idiot,” she added, a small smile forming and her eyes finally meeting my own. I felt her hand slip into mine and clasp it tightly. “We definitely need to get better at this communicating thing.”

  “I miss the days of in-game messaging,” I said with a sigh of my own. She was right, we definitely needed to improve on our relationship skills. It made me wonder if there was a set of skills for rel
ationships. I guess it would just be one more thing I needed to research.

  “Next time you try something new, make sure you have supervision,” Rose said, teasing me.

  I rolled my eyes. “It will depend on the situation,” I replied honestly.

  Rose didn’t like my reply, her frown said as much as did her groan of acceptance. “I’m just going to need to get used to you doing stupid things in-game, whether I like it or not.”

  “Yes,” I said bluntly. “I will always be a risk taker in this world. I wouldn’t find half of the interesting stuff that I do if I wasn’t a risk taker. Using ‘Meditation’ shouldn’t have been a risk and I will definitely be bringing it up with Maggie when the logout interview comes.”

  “Fine, but please, limit your stupid risks to the World Tree. When we meet in real life, I expect you to be more cautious with your own safety, I don’t want to lose you,” Rose stated firmly, gripping my hand tighter for a moment.

  That caused me to pause for a moment. Did she just say, ‘When we meet in real life’? Did that mean she wanted to meet in real life? Was she thinking about that same as I was?

  Trying not to obsess over what might have just been a slip of the tongue, I changed the subject. “There might have been something else I left out of our conversation earlier,” I said mischievously. I wasn’t referring to the Charisma thing either.

  “Oh, do tell,” said Rose, seemingly interested.

  “So, I found out something else about ‘Meditation’ and its benefit to ‘Lore’. I held back from telling everyone until I had a chance to tell you,” I said, stopping Rose in her tracks.

  “Talk,” Rose said, baring her fangs a little and looking both beautiful and intimidating and maybe just a little terrifying.

  After I shook the chill from my spine, I decided she was teasing me. I returned the favor. “I don’t know if I should,” I teased back.

  Rose moved in closer and whispered in my ear, “Tell me, please.”

  My knees almost gave out. “Why should I?” I asked, my own whisper into her ear.

  Before I knew it, we were making out pretty heavily. When we both came up for air, I explained to her about ‘Shamanism’ and the two bonuses I got from it and how I think I earned it.

  “Do you think it stacks?” Rose asked, asking something I was also wondering about. If she could get the same bonus and it was to apply both hers and mine that would mean double the effect, something that could very quickly become overpowered . . . if we had enough time to read.

  “Only one way to find out,” I said, expecting Rose to break the embrace.

  Instead, Rose kissed me. That wasn’t what I was thinking of as a way to find out, but I really didn’t mind.

  The not so subtle cough of a child eventually broke us apart.

  “Don’t you glare at me, Rosie, we’ve been patiently waiting for the both of you for fifteen minutes and Mardi is getting impatient,” Baby chided her sister.

  “You could have gone ahead without us,” Rose replied. “We would have caught up to you.”

  “Not the point,” Baby said with a huff before flying back to our waiting friends.

  Rose and I followed. Our hands still joined. It was a minor public display of affection, probably as much as we were comfortable showing in front of others.

  Mardi only gave us a sly look before stating, “Alright, time to go.”

  After dropping Mardi off at her office, we navigated the ‘not-quite-hidden’ passages to the barracks and down into the command center where dozens of players were anxiously waiting to get to work already.

  Olaf moved toward the Colonel leaving the rest of us on our own to mingle.

  I looked around the room, I recognized several of the players now from the various battles, people like Icyhot’s group. The annoying Myst and Robin, who were apparently a couple now, were both level 14 and looked considerably more competent than when I met them. Leafy the scout was there, chatting with Death Hunter, it looked like they were talking about bows versus crossbows. Unfortunately, Pwn Star69 was still around and worse than that, he appeared to be well liked by the other players. A little more searching, and I noticed Bushy Bunny was not around. It made me realize I hadn’t seen Bushy in quite a while.

  “Hey, what happened to Bushy Bunny?” I asked, looking around again.

  Rose frowned. “I haven’t seen her. Actually, I haven’t seen her in a while.”

  “When did you last see her?” I asked, looking for any sign of the rabbit ears that were long enough to be seen over most people’s heads.

  Rose’s frown was unmoved. “I don’t think I’ve seen her since that first attack on the Brewery.” She paused in thought, then mumbled, “Or did I see her then? You know, I don’t really remember if I saw her or not.”

  I looked around the room again before my eyes settled on Pwn.

  Pwn noticed me and smirked.

  “That was about the time Pwn joined our side, right?” I asked.

  “Yeah, but I don’t think Pwn would have done anything to her,” Baby said. “He’s a jerk, but he wouldn’t risk getting banned from the province. I bet she just lost track of time and was forced to log out.”

  Baby had a point. I didn’t know Bushy’s schedule, it was entirely possible she just logged off the game for her week off.

  I frowned. It just didn’t feel right to me. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything I could do about it at the moment.

  Olaf returned a few minutes later, “Not much we can do today. Heath’s group is working the sabotage angle tonight. The Hammerton Soldiers are securing the supply lines, moving cannons into position, and digging trenches.”

  “Anything for us to do?” Rose asked, now displaying a ‘Hammerton Captain’ rank and title on her nameplate, similar to my own.

  I looked around the room and was surprised by how many ‘Hammerton Lieutenant’ titles were on display. Icyhot and his people reflected ‘Hammerton Captain’. Then I saw Baby also displayed ‘Hammerton Captain’. I really had missed out on so much the last few days.

  “The Colonel assigned some supply quests to the ‘Lieutenant’ ranks,” Olaf answered. “Said we could do those if we wanted to, but she didn’t have anything else for us to do.”

  “When does the actual attack begin?” I asked.

  “Tomorrow the cannons will start firing on the main gates,” Olaf answered.

  “How long does something like this take?” I asked, keeping in mind that we only had a few days left.

  “Considering the number of cannons we’ve secured and with Heath’s and the Rebellion’s sabotage efforts, it shouldn’t take more than a few hours to crack open the front door. I’m thinking maybe a day to secure the outer gates and ramparts,” Olaf answered, motioning to the diorama.

  I followed his gaze. The diorama had changed, it was now focused on Anvilton, the outer gates, the inner gates, the ramparts, the barracks, and command center all had statuses.

  Outer Gates – Anvilton Controlled – 7,200/10,000 Structural Integrity 500/500 Soldiers, 2/2 Officer – Sabotage Successful Siege Damage +15%

  Ramparts – Anvilton Controlled – 150/150 Soldiers, 15/15 Cannons, 1/1 Officers – Sabotage Successful Soldier Health -10%

  Inner Gates – Anvilton Controlled – 5,000/7,500 Structural Integrity – 150/150 Soldiers, 2/2 Officers – Sabotage Successful Siege Damage +25%

  Barracks – Anvilton Controlled – 200/200 Soldiers, 20/20 Elite Soldiers, 4/4 Officers

  Command Center – 1/1 General

  It seemed those were the priority objectives. I noted it didn’t say anything about a throne room or soldiers that might be scattered throughout the city. I also noted with some appreciation the amount of sabotage Heath and his people had already done.

  “Most of the sabotage is from the Rebellion,” Olaf said. “Their leaders aren’t the easiest to work with, but they do the job . . . if we pay them enough, bloody mercenary mentality.”

  “You’ve met with the rebellion?” I ask
ed. I still had my quest and there had been no update to it.

  “Yeah, we’re on ‘Welcome to the Rebellion 4’ already,” Olaf said, sounding a little sheepish. “Mostly it was just choosing missions for them and providing the resources to do it. Money for bribes, black powder, acid, and poisons to help with the sabotage. Things like that. Right now, we have them working on hiding the civilians, sheltering them from the damage to come. I was required to provide a lot of metal and stone for that so they could build fortifications in homes and the like.”

  “I’ve missed way too much,” I said, feeling a frustration creeping up again. Four days of inactivity cost me more than I knew. At least Micaela was good now and I learned just how valuable the ‘Meditation’ skill really was. I was trying to focus on the good things, but I couldn’t help but feel a little out of place.

  “Okay, seeing as we have a free day, Rose and I are going shopping,” Baby insisted, flying across the room to Icyhot’s group and flying back a minute later with Jay, the Harpy from his group. “Let’s go, Rosie. Jay is going to make us custom clothes.”

  “Hmm, you have good bone structure, I like your hair and eye choices . . . though your skin tone is going to limit our color options,” Jay said, studying Rose. “Nevertheless, Jay will make you something fabulous, darling.”

  Before Rose could protest, Baby and Jay were dragging Rose away.

  “Is it safe to let them go like that?” I asked. I wanted to protest them going off like that. If we had a free day, I really hoped we would spend it together. Maybe go find some kind of monster to kill, a rare spawn or something.

  “Wait for me!” Micaela called loudly, chasing after them.

  “They’ll be fine,” Olaf said. “You know what this means, right?”

  “No,” I said, confused by Olaf’s question. Was this something I should already know?

  “It means guys day. Now, I’ve no interest in a Dwarven gentleman’s club, but their beer is quite good. Now, are you with me?” Olaf asked.

  I wanted to say no and focus on more training, especially if the attack on Anvilton was tomorrow, but I could tell that wasn’t going to cut it right now. “Yay, pub,” I said sarcastically.