World Tree Online: The Order of Epic Grinders: 4th Dive
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Blueprint: Magical Tannery – Teaches you the blueprint needed to construct a Magical Tannery within a building.
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“And do not let me down,” Sooty added for good measure. With a final nod, he stalked over to the construction site where two of his wagons remained parked, the oxen lowing from where they were tied to a large tree.
Olaf spoke up next, “Don’t worry about a thing, babe. We’ve got you covered.”
Micaela breathed a sigh of relief and said, “Great, now have you seen Penelope yet?”
“Not yet,” Olaf replied.
Micaela nodded. “Alright, thanks, love. I appreciate the help, everyone.”
“Happy to help, Micaela,” Rose said, then added, “And so is Jack.”
Micaela laughed. “Alright, good luck everyone. Sorry, I can’t give you all a quest for this yet, but I promise, as soon as the Order House is built, you’ll have more quests than you’ll know what to do with. For now, I need to go find my wayward daughter and her crazy friend.”
“Good luck, babe,” Olaf said, giving Micaela a quick kiss and leading the party, including Sooty and four miners toward the village gates.
“Right, now to find Penelope,” Micaela said to herself.
“Um, what do you want us to do?” Dirk asked before she could walk away.
“Right, almost forgot about you,” Micaela said. “Okay, I need you and Clive to keep fusing stone to form the walls of the second basement. I should be back before you are done with that.”
Dirk nodded but still looked hesitant.
“What is it?” Micaela asked.
“Uh, can you put up the blueprint?” Dirk asked.
Micaela needed to stop herself from smacking her forehead. She should have already thought of that. A minute later, the blueprint, which was almost an exact replica of the bottom basement, well, the pillars and walls of the bottom basement were overlaid, glowing a soft translucent blue.
With her workers given instructions to follow the blueprint and for Clive and Dirk to fuse the stones, she moved back to the Doghouse Inn to find her daughter.
Before going upstairs and pounding on her daughter’s door, Micaela went to Dogson first. “Hey Dogson, has my daughter been down yet?”
The Dogman looked up from the glass he was cleaning to give Micaela a friendly smile. “She was up early this morning. Her and her small friend. They must have left about twenty minutes before you and Olaf came down for breakfast,” he answered.
“Don’t suppose they said where they were going?” Micaela asked.
Dogson shrugged. “Sorry, they did not really say anything more than a quick ‘good morning, Dogson’ and left. They did not even eat breakfast.”
Micaela groaned in irritation. “Alright, thanks Dogson. If they happen to come back, tell Penelope I’m looking for her and need her help.”
Dogson nodded. “You got it.”
Micaela’s next stop was the front gates. Hopefully, Penelope wasn’t already out questing. Running up to the gates, she saw Olaf and her friends already on the other side of the moat. They didn’t notice her, and she didn’t need to bother them.
“Morning, ma’am,” Corporal Heine greeted her, the young guard now recognizing her on sight.
“Morning, Corporal. Has my daughter and her friend been through here yet?” Micaela asked.
“No, ma’am, and I have been here since last night,” Corporal Heine reported.
“Good, if you see her, tell her I’m looking for her and that I need her help with something,” Micaela said.
Corporal Heine saluted Micaela and said, “Ma’am, yes, ma’am.”
Micaela smiled but didn’t salute. She wasn’t in the military anymore. She just nodded and started moving again. Her mind already trying to figure out where her daughter went.
If Penelope was following Bell, then it was possible they were at Malcom’s shop or maybe the Taylor’s. If Penelope was anything like her, then she would have gone to the Sergeant for weapons training. Or she could have gone to the Temple to pray to the Goddess Pasiphae.
Taking a chance, she went to see the Sergeant.
“Morning, Mrs. Crushhammer,” Sergeant Butters greeted her as he was putting a small Beastkin boy with two daggers through his paces. “What can I help you with this morning?”
“Have you seen my daughter?” Micaela asked.
“Not as yet. She usually comes to see me after she finishes at the Temple, her and her fairy friend,” Sergeant Butters said, hardly straining as he ducked a wild swing from the boy and kicked him in the chest, sending the small Beastkin skidding across the hardpacked dirt of the training ring.
“Thank you,” Micaela shouted, already running toward her next destination.
The Temple to All Gods was empty when Micaela arrived. Not a soul in sight, not even Trinico.
“Okay, where are you hiding?” Micaela asked.
A voice from behind her made her jump. “Where is who hiding?”
Micaela turned swiftly only to see Trinico standing serenely, a small smile on her lips. But Micaela knew better, it was a smirk. Trinico for all her priestly ways had a devious streak to her. Not that Micaela was going to call her on it. She kind of liked that aspect of the Priestess. Instead, she answered, “My daughter. Your husband mentioned she visits him after she spends some time here.”
“Ah yes, young Penelope. I do believe she is in the Puzzle Room,” Trinico said.
Micaela was glad to hear her daughter was taking advantage of the resource. She was less glad to hear her daughter would be occupied for the next little while.
“You know, you never took the time to try the Puzzle Room yourself,” Trinico said.
Micaela recoiled slightly. “What? Me? Are you sure? I could have sworn I did my time.”
Trinico smiled. “I am quite sure,” she said. “Perhaps now would be a good time for you to start, yes?”
“Well, you see, the thing is, I’m in the middle of building my Order House, you know. It’s a big project, lots to do. I’ll need to come another time to try my hand at the Puzzle Room,” Micaela said, doing everything in her power to avoid the bane of her existence. It was bad enough when it was an App. She had no interest in falling down that rabbit hole again. “And speaking of my Order House, I really need to get back to it if we want to have it finished by tomorrow. Could you do me a favor?”
Trinico smiled and nodded, though Micaela believed the woman was holding back a giggle.
“When my daughter and her friend finish in the Puzzle Room, would you please let them know I need their help?” Micaela requested.
“I most certainly can,” Trinico agreed. “And Micaela, please do not hesitate to come to me if you need assistance.”
“Of course, I will,” Micaela promised. “For now, I best get back.”
“I wish you the best of luck with finishing your Order House. May all the Gods and Goddesses bless your endeavor,” Trinico said, offering a small prayer.
Micaela breathed a sigh of relief when she exited the Temple. With that done, she could really get back to work. And work she did. With only a few more stones needing to be changed into Mana Infused Stone, she was eager to finish the forge.
Skill: Mining
Rank: II
Level: 89
Experience: 47.10%
Description: Mining is the ability to extract usable material from earth and rock.
Subspells:
Infuse Mana
Subspell Effect (Active): Used to create Mana Infused Stone.
Mana Cost: -1,000-MP per two cubic feet (additional +100-Mana per higher tier stone density)
It would have been a mana intensive process if not for the Magic Source she built the day before giving her and everyone else working, a boost of +800-MP every 10-seconds. It was also nice that she was able to imbue any density of stone now, even if it cost more mana. The granite for her
Order House was costing her about -1,200-MP per two cubic feet.
There was one downside to working on the forge in the lowest level of the Order House. It was the lowest level. And with the wood or stone flooring above her head and the limited light from the stairway, she was basically working in the dark. Or she would have been if not for her ‘Labyrinthian Sight’.
Skill: Labyrinthian Sight
Rank: I
Level: 29
Experience: 6.77%
Description: Passed down from the first Minotaur, who was born into the darkness of the Labyrinth, you have been blessed with the ability to easily see through the darkness.
Skill Effect (Passive): See up to 29-feet in absolute darkness. See up to 58-feet in low light.
Micaela was deep in concentration, infusing a stone when a familiar voice called from the stairs.
“Mum, you down here?” Penelope asked.
“Here,” Micaela ground out, still trying to focus on the stone. “Be. With. You. Soon.”
Penelope clearly didn’t listen to her mother as she walked the rest of the way down the stairs, and into the forge until she was looking over Micaela’s shoulder. She asked, “What are you doing?”
“Work,” Micaela said, trying to keep her focus for just a few more seconds. When it was done, the stone description updated, and she had another piece of Mana Infused Stone.
Mana Infused Granite – Mana infused stone is a powerful crafting element useful for empowering buildings if used in construction.
“Ah, there, done,” Micaela said, wiping at her brow. “Sorry about that.”
“No problem, what were you doing?” Penelope asked.
“Making Mana Infused Stone, Granite specifically,” Micaela answered.
Penelope furrowed her brow then asked, “Okay, but why?”
Grinning, Micaela made a grand sweeping gesture to the forge behind her, “For our new Magical Forge.”
“I see,” Penelope said, unimpressed. “Anyway, Trinico said you were looking for me. What’s up?”
“Right, I was hoping you and Bell would be willing to guard some of my construction workers while they chop down some trees? I’ll pay you for your time, but I can’t offer you a quest for it,” Micaela said.
“Why do they need guards . . . never mind, monsters. Why do they need to cut down trees?” Penelope asked.
Micaela sighed. “Unfortunately, a few of my workers stole a lot of my lumber and stone last night and ran off with it. I need to replace what was lost and quickly or I won’t be able to finish the Order House by tomorrow.”
Penelope frowned. “How long do you think it will take?”
“I can’t say for sure. Hopefully no more than a few hours, but it could be all day,” Micaela answered.
“And you’ll pay me?” Penelope asked.
Micaela sometimes wished her daughter weren’t so materialistic. Then again, she couldn’t say she was much better when she was at that age. Actually, she could say she was better . . . ish. She was in the military at that age and the military did well to train that behavior out of her. “Yes, I’ll pay you.”
“How much?” Penelope asked.
“A silver an hour,” Micaela said, holding up a hand to stop her daughter before she could ask for more. “A silver is more than you will get from most quests in Hurligville and those take multiple hours to complete. You won’t get a better deal elsewhere.”
“And does that include Bell as well?” Penelope asked.
“Yes, I will also pay Bell for her time,” Micaela promised, though she wasn’t sure why Bell needed the money . . . unless the impulsive girl already spent all her money, even after Micaela tried to protect her from Malcolm.
“Alright, we’ll do it,” Penelope said.
“Great, let me introduce you to the lumberjacks. You won’t need to go far, just to the trees outside the village gates,” Micaela explained as she led her daughter back up into the daylight, blinking several times to adjust to the light after being in darkness for so long.
It took a few minutes to get her daughter and Bell set up with the remaining wagon and the two lumberjacks. Hopefully, everything would go smoothly, and they would be back with the cutdown trees in no time. Hopefully.
Micaela was about to return to infusing the last two stone blocks when an overly excited Marie shouted from the edge of the pit, “They’re here, they’re here!”
Micaela smiled and shouted back, “Alright, bring them down. I’m just about ready.”
Marie nodded and disappeared from view again.
“I suppose I better get the last two stones infused,” Micaela said to herself. Once that was done, it was just a matter of using her ‘Fuse Stone’ subspell to finish putting everything together.
Chapter 13
I came downstairs looking forward to some breakfast and was happy to see Olaf, Micaela, Heath, Marie, and Arch sitting down together. Less happy to see Pwn, but I could live with it. Besides, if he ever stepped into the player killer territory again, I had my spell ready to smack him back down again.
I had barely cleared the stairs when Micaela was rushing out the door.
“Is she avoiding me?” I asked, motioning toward the door Micaela just left through.
“Nah, mate,” Olaf assured me. “She’s got a problem at the construction site where some supplies have gone missing. I promised we’d stop by to offer a hand.”
I nodded in agreement before taking an open seat, at the same time, making sure the seat next to me was open for when Rose finally came down. As hungover as she was undoubtedly going to be, I made sure to flag down Dogson when he looked up to have her cure ready and waiting.
“Alright, just waiting on Rose, Loral and Sooty,” Olaf said. “I figure there is some planning to do now that we’re all here and have a proper healer, no offense Bye-bye.”
“None taken,” I replied, waving away the comment. I wasn’t a proper healer. I mean, I could have become a proper healer with a lot of time and work. And time was not something we necessarily had a lot of at the moment.
While we waited for our friends, I prepared my first spell with ‘Spell Preparation’. I chose to use ‘Holy Lightning’. It wasn’t a true area of effect spell, but being able to hit two enemies instantly, and weakening both of them to the next physical attack they received, was quite nice. It didn’t hurt that the spell was usually a five second cast either. Seeing my mana pool shrink from 4,690/4,690 down to 3,890/4,690 and holding steady was much less appealing. I just hoped that as the spell improved, so would the cost to my mana pool.
Eventually, Dogson came by with my breakfast and I put in the request for Rose’s breakfast and some of his hangover cure for her. He agreed, promising to bring it out once she came down, which wasn’t more than a minute or two later. Her normally glowing red eyes looked dull and tired, it was hard to tell what was bloodshot from the hangover and what was just the natural red of her eyes. She sat silently next to me, head in her hands, waiting on Dogson.
Rose made short work of her hangover cure and was working her way through breakfast when Loral and Sooty finally joined us.
“Alright,” Olaf said. “I’ll make this quick. As far as I know, we still have a rather large kill quest that needs to be completed within the next few days. Have any of you run across any more quests I should know about?”
“Trinico asked us to collect Undead Plague sources, things like the fangs, claws, and talons we’ve been scavenging from the undead,” I volunteered. “Then my Goddess strongly emphasized that this was an important quest for us to complete. And it sounds like she wants us to go above and beyond. Trinico didn’t give us any specifics as to how much she needed, but again, my Goddess suggested we get Micaela’s Order involved once it’s up and running.”
“We can do that. And that’s a good quest for us, especially if Mic needs our help,” Olaf said, then he asked, “Anyone else?” He gave it a minute but no one else said anything, so he continued on. “Again, I know it’s
not quest related, but Micaela needs our help today. Some supplies were stolen, and she needs them back or needs them replaced. I would appreciate it if you would all be willing to give up whatever plans you have for today to help her out.”
“Of course, we will help her,” Marie said. “That Order House is the most important thing for all of us right now. Any delay in its construction could have dire consequences.”
In my mind, the dire consequences were the pending undead horde trying to overrun Hurligville. I had a feeling that the dire consequences Marie was referring to had more to do with the status of her Magical Forge.
Regardless of Marie’s motivations, I was more than willing to help my friends. I volunteered, “Whatever she needs.”
“As if we would abandon her,” Rose added through a mouth full of bacon.
There were no objections, though it looked a bit like Pwn wanted to interject. Still, he held his tongue, which I was curious about. Was he actually holding back and showing some self-restraint from criticizing our plans? Or was the new guy uncomfortable addressing everyone? Maybe he thought we would ignore his concerns? Either way, Olaf was already moving on.
“Well then, if everyone has finished eating, let’s get a move on,” Olaf said, standing from the table first.
We all followed him out and around the Doghouse Inn to the construction site. I could barely see more than the dirt of the pit, but I could see workers moving stone blocks, lowering them with some kind of pulley system. I wanted to get a closer look, but it seemed Micaela already had a mission for us.
“Hey, babe, we’re here,” Olaf said.
“Great,” Micaela said, turning to face a group of four men and women, their nameplates each reading