Micaela and Sergeant Butters both followed the slightly stumbling Mayor out of the town hall and into the streets where he made a quick right and stopped. “What do you think? Right in between the Doghouse Inn and the town hall. I could not think of a better place to build. It is also the most valuable piece of real estate in the village. Doc B has been looking to buy it for years, but Margie would not have it. She did not want a brothel built right next to the town hall.” Homer snorted, “Truthfully, she did not want a brothel anywhere in town. She would be glad to see the land going to something like this. Anyway, enough reminiscing. What do you think of the land? Will this suit your needs?”
Micaela looked the spot over, it was maybe forty yards from the Doghouse Inn to the town hall. It wasn’t quite big enough to build a castle, but it was decent enough. Seeing that, she asked, “How far back can I build?”
“All the way to the moat, but I would not recommend getting too close to the moat. The water makes the dirt soft, so you need to worry about sinking,” Homer advised thoughtfully. “Unless you know something I do not about construction.”
“I do but that is still more than enough. I think I’m going to build more up than out,” Micaela replied, thinking more to herself than anything. “Okay, yeah, that’ll work. Mover, dig us a hole, two stories down, twenty-five yards by twenty-five yards. That should make for a good foundation.”
Sergeant Butters and Mayor Simper looked confused for a moment until the earth in the allotted space suddenly began to move.
“Okay, I’ll catch up with you two in a little bit. I need to help my totem dig this out,” Micaela said, ignoring their looks of astonishment.
“Do what you must, Mrs. Crushhammer,” Mayor Simper said. “I wish you luck with the construction, I will have the guaranteed supplies brought over as soon as possible. It might take a few hours,” he said then paused to look at the sky, “or maybe until tomorrow to move everything from the warehouse at the other end of town. And workers will be here as soon as the supplies arrive.”
“Thank you, Homer, I appreciate it,” Micaela replied.
“I suppose I should also get back to work. If I locate your daughter, I will be sure to send her your way,” Sergeant Butters promised, leaving Micaela to her work.
“Okay boys and girls, we’ve got a foundation to dig, let’s get to it,” Micaela said, sitting down at the edge of where the foundation of her new order house was to begin. With just a thought to activate her spell ‘Spiritwalk’, she was once again in the grayscale world of the spirits.
Mover, the gorilla spirit was easily manipulating the earth to dig out a single layer of the ground to form the square foundation as Micaela envisioned it.
“Shaker, think you can help out?” Micaela asked, looking to the other gorilla spirit. “Maybe loosen the dirt?”
Shaker sighed but nodded.
“What are we doing with all the dirt once we move it?” Mover asked.
“For now, just pile it up behind the foundation pit. There should be enough room there, right?” Micaela asked.
Mover stopped moving the dirt in the pit to look at the area Micaela indicated then nodded, “It should be fine. You are still going to need to find a more permanent solution.”
“Ooh, I know, use the dirt to form a berm on this side of the moat,” Micaela said after a minute of studying the issue. It would already improve the town’s defenses if the inner edge of the moat took more effort to climb up.
“It will take longer,” Mover warned.
“Worth it,” Micaela replied. “While you work on that, the rest of you are in training mode. You know what to do, and I need to start recovering my Spirit while I have time. By the way, Mover, crazy question, but can you teach me to do what you do?”
“No,” Mover replied gruffly. “If you want to help, go back to the mortal plane and grab a shovel. Otherwise, find something else to keep you entertained and out of my way.”
Micaela stuck her tongue out at the gorilla, instead turning her attentions to her other totems.
“Boots, you are fast, be faster,” Kali ordered, pushing the horse spirit to increase his speed. “Sundance, if Boots slows down, you better hit him with a fireball, or I will have Coffee, Barista, and Espresso douse you again. And Palm, you are supposed to be teaching Butch strategy, stop staring at my chest or I will disperse your eyes.” Kali was so young but already so accomplished as a Shaman in Micaela’s eyes. The dark-skinned spirit was tall and slender with very short hair, not quite shaved but close. She was quite beautiful. Micaela felt for her, to have her life snuffed out so young. Still, if things had not happened as they had, Micaela might not have ever met her. Getting her to join with Micaela’s other spirits was a big win for the Shaman. It gave her a very large boost to her Spirit, more than even Palm granted. Micaela would have liked to help, but it seemed Kali had everything well in hand.
“Micaela, if you are bored, I suggest you work on trying to sense the fourth astral plane, it will help your ‘Spiritwalk’ improve faster,” Kali said, not even looking in Micaela’s direction.
“How do I do that?” Micaela asked.
“Open your senses to the third astral plane and then try to feel further,” Kali said, then shouted, “Boots, move faster or else!”
Micaela had barely sat down in her astral form to do what Kali said when she felt a tap on her shoulder, or rather the shoulder of her real body.
“I’ll be right back, all of you keep working,” Micaela said, sitting down into her mortal body. With a slight start, Micaela was back in the mortal plane and stood up to see who tapped her shoulder.
It was another Minotaur, and not her husband. The nameplate read
“Do you really think so?” Penelope asked nervously.
“Sure, after he teases you about choosing the name Penelope,” Micaela teased her daughter.
“I loved that cat, she was just the sweetest,” Penelope countered.
Micaela shook her head and laughed. Penelope was only slightly shorter than Micaela. She didn’t have Micaela’s short pink hair, choosing instead to go with long blue hair that hung far down her back. She was also quite a bit more . . . slender than Micaela was. And finally, she was young, so much younger than Micaela but that was to be expected. “Well, whatever name you choose, it’s yours. But look at you, you’re gorgeous. I’m going to need to ask Maggie if I can do a little remodeling.”
“Stop, mum, you look great,” Penelope said.
Micaela grinned then said, “I do, don’t I?”
Penelope laughed and shook her head.
“So, Minotaur?” Micaela asked, looking her daughter up and down again. Penelope wore the simple starter pants and shirt with a blue cloak.
Penelope nodded, “Do you remember when you told me about how you and dad became super Minotauri?”
Micaela nodded.
“Well, it turns out, it can run in the family. I’m a Minotaur Maiden. I get +3-Strength, +1-Stamina and +1-Endurance with every level. I never planned to be a melee fighter, but with those kinds of stats, how could I not? And with Wen . . . erm, Lady Bell casting magic damage spells, we’ll be really well balanced,” Penelope said excitedly.
It was then Micaela noticed
“Lady Bell?” Micaela asked, looking at the fairy.
“Nice to see you again, Mrs. Crushhammer,” Bell said with a wide grin and a wink.
“Ah, I see. Good to see you as well, Ms. Bell,” Micaela replied, giving the fairy her own wink.
Bell giggled, sounding just as childlike as Babies Breath.
“Alright, let’s see what we can do to get you two started. First, have you been to the Sundry yet?” Micaela asked, eager to get her daughter and her daughter’s friend properly started on their first adventure in the World Tree.
Chapter 4
“Over my dead body,” Rose snapped, clapping her shields together and stepping forward.
A red-headed human suddenly ran up and kicked Pollock in the back and surprising him enough to knock him to the ground. She then began to berate the Elf, “Damnit, Pollock, stop doing stuff like that, you brainless dolt,”
Rose didn’t ease back at all, prepared to be attacked at any moment.
“We’re getting off on the wrong foot here. I’m Red Five,” she introduced herself, then shooting a glare at Pollock, she added, “This is my dumb, idiotic, brainless, twit of an older brother. Please forgive him, he knows not what he does.”
“So, you’re not here to kidnap our friend?” Rose asked.
“No,” Red said quickly, glaring again at Pollock. “We need her help.”
“Help with what?” I asked, feeling very suspicious of this woman and her group.
“Ouch! Sis, I had this handled,” Pollock protested from his spot under his sister’s boot. “It’s just an NPC and we have them outnumbered.”
“I swear, if you don’t shut up right now, I’ll send you for respawn myself,” Red threatened, causing Pollock to go still. “Again, I am very sorry about him.”
“Again, help with what?” I asked, ignoring the ridiculousness of the situation and byplay between the brother and sister.
“About a week ago, we started playing in Vag’gron Mountains. Not much for quests and the townsfolk are a little hostile, but there are plenty of monsters to kill,” Red started to explain, which didn’t surprise me at all. If she was in any way like her brother and so many other players out there, she had a really bad Charisma stat. And as Titan learned . . . well, pretty much everyone we ever interacted with learned, Charisma matters and is something that needs to be built up from day one. She continued, “We had barely begun killing the local monsters when some undead showed up out of nowhere. The forums all said Vag’gron was prime hunting grounds. Plenty of two headed jackals, fire wolves, and dark vultures, but they didn’t say anything about undead. We killed them but then an hour later, more of them showed up . . . a lot more. We killed them as well, but just barely. We decided we would try to track them to their source, hoping to find something. Anyway, we think they came from somewhere along the southern border of the province but couldn’t find a way past the mountain range. We tried asking the village . . . more outpost . . . never mind, that doesn’t matter. Like I said before, the people were a bit hostile and wouldn’t help, not even the priest, stubborn old fart.”
“Okay, I still don’t see why you need Marie’s help,” I said, still not surprised by the treatment from the locals.
“Because of the undead, we need a way to fight them off or they will overwhelm the only safe place to sleep in the province. We’ve been fighting them, but there are just too many of them for us to handle. At least, not with our current weapons and armor,” Red said, pausing to take a breath. “Anyway, we were looking around the crafting ring for weapons with Holy damage effects. Turns out, they are really expensive, even if we were to provide the materials. That was when Winterbloom, our Halfling Thief saw your Dwarven friend with that gem. Being a Thief, he got it into his head to try to steal it, hoping it would be enough to pay for the weapons and some armor.”
“You’re not helping your case,” Rose said, her shoulders bunching in agitation. I wasn’t too far behind her either. We were outnumbered and they seemed to be somewhat competent fighters based on the story Red was telling. I wasn’t worried about Rose or me dying. If we die, we just come back at the closest graveyard. But Marie didn’t have that luxury.
Red looked slightly panicked, “Sorry, I know how bad it sounds. Please let me finish?” She paused for a moment and when neither Rose nor I said anything or attacked, she pressed on, “Anyway, he followed your Dwarven friend to her hotel. and after determining that breaking into the hotel and stealing the gem would be exceedingly difficult, he decided to find out if it was even worth it. He went back to the gem cutter’s and after a little coin changed hands, he found out that the gem was a crafting material that was worth a lot of money. Then the gem cutter let slip that the Dwarven woman was obviously an amazing smith to be able to use that gem. That was when Winterbloom brought the information to me. I didn’t like the idea of stealing the gem, but when I heard that the Dwarf was a great smith, I thought it might be worth trying to have a conversation. Fast forward a few days, and you three were spotted leaving the same hotel. But instead of going to the crafting ring, you came here, to a Temple of the God of Crafting. A temple we couldn’t enter without taking a lot of damage from the sheer heat that the place emanated, like a really high-end forge would put out.”
I was starting to get annoyed. “And you couldn’t just go into the hotel and ask about her? Ask to speak with her?” I asked.
Red blushed, then said, “I know, I know how bad this looks. Anyway, I told my idiot brother to keep watch while I went to try to get information about the Temple. He was just supposed to ask you to wait, not threaten you,” Red said, glaring again at her brother, who now had his head propped up on his hand, looking up at us with a bored expression as he laid on his stomach. Red looked back to us and continued, “I asked around and found out that this Temple was also a divine forge capable of producing Holy weapons and armor, and if the white glow coming off your spear is anything to go by, then she really can make Holy weapons. Which brings us to now, where I’m asking for your help. We need Holy weapons and armor if you can make some, and if possible, we need them cheap.”
That was a lot of story to just ask for Marie to make them cheap holy weapons.
“So, holy weapons and armor?” I asked, just to confirm.
“Yes,” Red replied.
I could only shake my head, relaxing my stance. Then looking to Marie, I asked, “Marie, what do you think?”
“I can make them sure, but I do not think we have enough time for that,” Marie answered. “And they are not likely to be cheap.”
Red looked defeated. “Sorry guys,” she said, looking back to her friends. “We’ll just look for another province.”
“But the quest-” Pollock protested then suddenly clammed up as if he realized he made a mistake.
“Quest?” I asked, feeling my inner Easter Egg Hunter senses tingle.
“Damnit, Pollock,” Red snapped, stomping down on her brother again. Then sighing, she looked back to us, “Yeah, we have a quest to stop the undead invasion of Vag’gron Mountains.”
“Level recommendation?” I asked.
“The province is recommended for level 20-30. The quest is recommended for level 25-30,” she replied.
Sadly, that was just a little too high of a level for the others and me . . . well, except for Olaf, but even he was just barely a high enough level.
“Unfortunately, that is probably beyond our current capabilities or I would be glad to help. However, I can give you a little advice. Do you have a priest or paladin in your group?” I asked.
“Yeah, both actually,” Red replied.
“They need to acquire a holy damage buff spell. The Paladin can pray for one at the temple of their patron deity. The Priest should just be able to ask one of the elder Priests of their patron deity for the spell,” I said.
Red suddenly turned and looked at one of her group who just grinned sheepishly and shrugged. “I didn’t know I could do that,”
“Me neither,”
Red groaned in irritation. “So
much wasted time,” she complained. “Thanks for the advice. Sorry about all the . . . you know, attempted theft, kidnapping, etcetera.”
“If that fails,” Marie spoke up. “Come to Hurlig Ridge. I will be there for the next week or so, just be prepared to pay for it.”
“Hurlig Ridge?” Pollock asked with a laugh. “Ha, going to noobtown. What? Are the other provinces too tough for you? Noobs.”
“I will have you know we are going to help our Order build an Order House,” Marie snapped back.
I don’t know when Marie decided she was part of our Order . . . soon to be Order, but I wasn’t going to fight her on it. That said, I really wish she hadn’t said anything about building an Order House. I didn’t like the way several of the players eyes lit up, some with excitement, some with greed, and one or two with something a little more sinister. It didn’t promise good things.
“An Order House? In a province?” Red asked, she was one of the excited ones. “That’s amazing. How did you manage that?”
“Very carefully,” I said before I gave too much away. I wasn’t sure how much we could say, and I wasn’t about to say something that got my friends in trouble with Dawson.
“Oh, come on,” Red pleaded. “No one else has done it as far as I know. How did you get that much reputation with the province?”
“Quests,” I answered, sighing, and knowing they would question me further. “We completed a lot of quests. Hard as it might be to believe, you can gain a lot of quests by actually talking to the citizens for more than just quest seeking.”
“Bull,” Pollock replied with a snort.
“You be quiet,” Red snapped at her brother. “The grownups are talking.”
Pollock grumbled something under his breath but kept quiet otherwise.
“Please tell me more,” Red said, smiling flirtatiously at me.
“Alright, we’ve told you enough,” Rose said. “Time is short.”
“Rose is right, we’ve got to be on our way,” I said. “Good luck with your province.”
Red sighed. “Alright, thanks anyway. Good luck with the Order House.”
World Tree Online: The Order of Epic Grinders: 4th Dive Page 6
