World Tree Online: The Order of Epic Grinders: 4th Dive
Page 29
“Damn, why didn’t they tell me?” Olaf complained. “Well then, I guess I’ll be spending my day with Kirlan and Giggle-Ana working on my professions.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Micaela said. She gave Olaf a quick kiss on the cheek. “I’ve got to go, see you later.”
Olaf smiled, “I might stop by to drag you away for lunch. If not, I’ll see you tonight.”
With that, Micaela left Olaf to handle his business and get back to building her castle . . . erm, Order House.
“Morning, ma’am,” Willis greeted Micaela as she arrived at the build site.
“Anything go missing over night?” Micaela asked immediately.
“No ma’am, all material present and accounted for,” Willis answered.
“Any more deserters?” Micaela followed up.
“Not among the workers,” Willis replied. “Family next door to mine packed up and left this morning. Unfortunately, that is not an uncommon occurrence these days.”
“Well, hopefully once the Order House is done, I can start helping the town recover,” Micaela said.
“That would be greatly appreciated, if you could,” Willis replied. “With Homer the way he is now . . . well, things are going rather poorly at the moment.”
“Like what?” Micaela asked.
“Well, food for starters, ma’am. The surrounding farms aren’t operating due to the undead. Farmer Johnson and his wife have taken up residence in one of the abandoned houses here in town, while the others, at least those not turned undead themselves, have already abandoned the province entirely. And speaking of the Johnsons, it will not be long before they are unable to produce the moonshine the adventurers need to keep the dungeon contained. The Johnsons are already running out of the corn they use to make the moonshine. Not to mention, it will not be long before people start starving,” Willis explained. “The mine has all but stopped producing due to the undead. If not for the crazy adventurers, we would have run out of copper ore a long time ago. And those are just a few of the most pressing issues.”
Michaela hadn’t even thought about the state of the farms or the mine. She’d been too busy with her Order House. The fact the Johnsons were forced to abandon their farm was terrible news, especially when it came to the moonshine.
“We need help ma’am, and a lot of it, if we’re to save this town from being overrun, let alone the province,” Willis finished.
“Then we better get to work,” Micaela said. She now knew just how important it was to finish the Order House. Part of her was regretting being sidetracked by Marie’s forge and Sooty’s tannery. Those were both things that could have been added after the order was up and running.
“Right you are, ma’am,” Willis said with a nod.
Micaela looked at the foundation of her Order house. The stairways had been built all the way up to the ground level using the only completed wall . . . complete to ground level anyway. The two walls closest to it were only about a quarter to a third done and the fourth wall was completely unfinished, as were the majority of the support pillars. For the ease of access to the site, it was decided the stairs were a necessity.
“Dirk, Clive,” Micaela called out as she walked down the stairs to meet her work crew. “Let’s get these walls up and the pillars secured.”
“Yes, ma’am,” both men said absently, the pair were already hard at work applying ‘Fuse Stone’ as each block was laid.
With little effort, Micaela slid in next to them and added her own ‘Construction’ skills to the work, very quickly getting lost in the rhythm of placing a stone, fusing the stone to the stone next to it and below it and repeating. Time slipped past and within a few hours the final subfloor was completed, followed immediately by laying down the wood floor for the actual ground floor of her Order House.
“Looks great, babe,” Olaf’s voice startled Micaela as she was fusing a wood plank to one of the support beams.
“You scared me,” Micaela complained, checking over the board she’d been working on to make sure it wasn’t damaged.
“Sorry,” Olaf apologized immediately. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, I think so,” Micaela replied. “Anyway, what are you doing here?”
“I said I would come by and try to steal you away for lunch. So, how about it?” Olaf asked.
Micaela looked around and saw a few of her workers still working, but most seemed to have gone off to get lunch themselves. “Yeah, alright, let me send everyone to get lunch.”
A few minutes later, Micaela was sitting with Olaf in the Doghouse Inn and enjoying a sandwich. “So, how is your ‘Blacksmithing’ and ‘Engineering’ coming along?”
“Not bad,” Olaf said. “Well, the ‘Engineering’ isn’t bad. ‘Blacksmithing’ is going nowhere fast. Rose might have understated how damaged her Shield-Wall was. Kirlan has been hammering away at it all morning and yet, it doesn’t look like he’s made any progress. I’m afraid he might not be able to fix it.”
“Maybe Marie can help?” Micaela half asked, half suggested.
“I’ll ask her . . . where is she anyway?” Olaf asked.
“She’s been helping Sooty and Loral with the berm still. They are just about done with it,” Micaela answered.
“And how are things with you? Still going to make your deadline?” Olaf asked.
Micaela bobbed her head from side to side, “I think so. It just depends on how quickly we can put in the finishing touches. Every floor requires lighting, and because I intend to continue building upward, I need to build my rooftop with a covered stairway and door. And did I mention, I also need to build a half wall up there? On top of that, there will need to be braziers up there as well, not to mention mounted torches on the exterior of the building . . . I was barely given enough of any of those materials. I have just enough to be able to put two lights on each of the lower floors to start and maybe double that on the main floor, a single brazier for the roof, and two torches that can be placed outside the main entrance. I have no idea how much it will cost me to get everything set up properly. Oh, and we have no furniture either. Thankfully, even without the furniture, the Order House is considered complete when what I do have is all put in place.”
“What can I do to help?” Olaf asked.
“Well, if you can get into the forge, I could use a few more braziers, preferably iron. I also need about four dozen torch holders and torches to go with them, if we want to properly light the inside. And I know this is a big ask, but if you could get Heath to make some chairs with his ‘Woodworking’, I would really appreciate it,” Micaela said.
“I’ll see what I can do,” Olaf promised.
“Thanks, love,” Micaela said, then took the last few bites of her sandwich. “I’d better get back to work. There is still a lot to do.”
“Alright, I’ll catch up with you around dinner then,” Olaf promised.
Micaela got back to work quickly, slightly reinvigorated after the meal. Willis was barking orders when she arrived, and things seemed to be moving along nicely. Once again, she jumped right into the work.
Micaela was only an hour into the work when she was interrupted once again. Surprisingly, it was Rose doing the interrupting.
“Hey there, Micaela,” Rose greeted her friend with a smile and a wave.
“Hey, Rosie, what can I do for you?” Micaela asked, barely looking up from the brick she was fusing in place.
“It’s not what you can do for me, but what I can do for you,” Rose said with a grin.
Slightly confused by the statement but curious, Micaela asked, “Oh, and what’s that?”
“I heard through the grapevine that you are having some lighting issues,” Rose answered. “I am the solution.”
Still confused but far more interested, Micaela asked, “And how’s that?”
“Enchanted lights,” Rose answered. “I ran into Olaf by the barracks and he told me about your lighting problem and was complaining about making so many torch holders. It reminded me
of an ‘Enchanting’ formula I scoffed at back when I first learned the ‘Enchanting’ profession. So, a quick trip over to Malcolm’s, a few Silvers spent, and I can now create Enchanted Lights. And apparently, they can run off a building with a magical power source, just like yours. I only need glass blocks to make them. Which is something Malcolm said you knew how to make with enough sand.”
Micaela was excited by the prospect but quickly sighed. “If I had any sand.”
“Ah, but I do,” Rose said, motioning to the wagon coming up the street, driven by Sooty and filled with brown sacks. “Olaf and I might have made a quick trip to the river with Sooty. Any sand will work, right?”
Micaela couldn’t stop the chagrined smile on her face. “Oh, Rosie, you are the best, you know that?”
“I try,” Rose said, brushing off the statement and turning away to hide the hint of a blush that stained her cheeks.
Micaela nodded and said, “Alright, let me make sure Dirk and Clive are good to continue without me and I’ll get started on the glass.” She started to turn away then paused and turned back, asking, “How big do the glass blocks need to be?”
“Uh, good question, I can do over a cubic foot with my skill level but that would take a lot of mana and drain a lot of mana from your power source,” Rose answered.
“If I want nine lights per floor, one in each section of the floor, how big do you think it would need to be?” Micaela asked.
Rose furrowed her brow in consideration. She eventually answered, “I’m not sure, the formula doesn’t really explain how much light it gives off. We might need to experiment a bit.”
“Then I suppose we should get to work, just give me a few minutes,” Micaela said. She quickly went to let Willis know what was going on.
Thankfully, Micaela’s ability to make glass was a ‘Construction’ subskill. And if Micaela was honest, magic was fun anyway, not that she would ever admit that to her spirits.
Skill: Construction
Rank: III
Level: 29
Experience: 68.22%
Description: Construction is the ability to build. You have the ability to build everything from a simple well to an ornate castle.
Subspells:
Glass Making:
Subspell Effect (Active): Enables you to convert sand into glass.
Mana Cost: -200-MP per 3-feet by 3-feet glass pane
It took a lot of experimentation for Rose and Micaela to get the lighting effect exactly right. First, Micaela had to figure out how to make a glass block and not a glass pane. Something that required she create a mold from stone, fill it with sand and then use her subspell ‘Glass Making’ to heat the glass faster than she thought was possible and thus convert the sand into glass. Then Rose needed to enchant each block and then they tested the newly enchanted light source to see how much light it gave off when fed mana and how much mana it drained when it did. After a couple hours of experimentation, they settled on a one-foot square by two-inch thick glass block which drained -2-MP per ten seconds. This also educated Micaela in the mechanics of the building’s magic source. Each active light reduced the total output of the magic power source. She dreaded to think how much magic the magic forge and tannery would drain once they were activated. She was already planning to issue a quest as soon as she could to find another magic source for the building.
In the end, Micaela had thirty-six enchanted lights made and placed in the center of each grid, setting aside nine of the lights for the main floor once it was completed. And in order to mount the light to the ceiling of each section, she needed to use ‘Cut’ to create a wooden frame then use the ‘Fuse Lumber’ subspell to bind the wood together around the light and finally bind it to the ceiling. It ended up taking much longer than Micaela originally intended but it was worth the effort.
Micaela was admittedly worried that the work would have fallen behind without her help, but her workers really came through for her. The walls were done, the stairway to the roof was nearly finished. Only a few of the pillars and support beams remained before the roof deck could be laid down and fused into a single solid sheet. They were going to make it. They were going to get it done.
Then an alarm bell sounded from the watch tower, followed by the bells of the town hall resounding with the same urgency.
Cries of ‘Undead Horde’ and ‘The undead are coming’ were bandied about by the civilians.
“What do we do, ma’am?” Willis asked, sounding terrified.
“You and the other workers take shelter in the town hall or in the basement here. I’ll go see what’s happening,” Micaela said, already running for the town gates. Hoping to get some answers. She was especially hoping it wasn’t the horde the Sergeant warned of.
As she got close to the gates, she heard Sergeant Butters voice boom out a command before she even saw him. “Archers, range your shots and fire at will,” he ordered, followed by maybe a dozen twanging bow strings as arrows soared into the sky and quickly fell back to earth.
“Sergeant,” Micaela called as she got closer. “What’s the situation? Is it the horde?”
“Not nearly enough to be considered a horde, there are maybe a hundred at most,” Sergeant Butters snapped off the answer. “A pittance in comparison.”
Micaela breathed a small sigh of relief, then asked, “What can I do to help?”
The Sergeant looked out at the forest where Micaela assumed the horde was hidden amongst the trees. His eyes narrowed and his frown deepened. “The arrows are proving ineffective. It will not be long before the undead reach the moat. The Blessed and Silvered Water will slow them further and cause a good amount of damage, but given the arrows are failing to kill them, I do not expect the moat to succeed either. If you want to help, prepare to defend Hurligville from this side of the moat.”
Quest Alert: Undead Retaliation (Recommended Level 8-15)
The completion of new defenses has spurred the Undead to test them. Defend Hurligville or die trying. Eliminate all Undead or hold them off for 45-Minutes
Reward: Experience, Undead Horde Invasion delayed additional 24-hours if all Undead eliminated (0/??)
Do you accept this Quest?
Yes
No
“I’ll do everything in my power to help,” Micaela said, accepting the quest. A twenty-four-hour extension before the horde attacked Hurligville could make a huge difference to her, especially with all the delays in completing her Order House. She also wondered about the new defenses. Was it because of the berm? And what was that about Blessed Water? Since when was the water blessed? Did Trinico do that? Micaela had so many questions, but she knew well enough that she didn’t have time to ask them.
“Excellent, I want you to form a squad with two other guards and move south along the moat. Kill any of the undead that you come across. If you find any adventurers along the way, send them to me and I will put them to work,” the Sergeant ordered.
“You got it,” Micaela promised, surprised when a
“Ma’am,” both guards, a man and woman, saluted.
Micaela instantly greeted them, “Hello, I’m Micaela Crushhammer, I suppose we’ll be working together today.”
“Ma’am,” both guards intoned simultaneously, relaxing their salute.
“Please, do give me your names?” Micaela asked.
The woman, a human and the higher level of the two answered first, “Guard 1st Class, Rachel Haver,” her nameplate updating accordingly. She carried a spear and wore thick leather armor with patches of chainmail visible in the seams.
“Guard 2nd Class Davrag Mor’mo,” the man . . . orc answered, his nameplate also updated to match. He carried a tower shield and an axe along with a crossbow strapped across his back.
“Alright then,” Micaela said. “Let’s get moving.”
The trio moved at a slow jog along the moat. Mica
ela couldn’t help but appreciate the workmanship Sooty, Loral, and Marie put into creating a berm. The dirt was packed down hard but still rose about a foot to a foot and a half above the ground. Any undead that managed to crawl up out of the moat would be slowed by it for sure.
The snap-twang of a crossbow firing instantly drew Micaela’s attention away from the berm and toward a duo of undead slowly creeping up out of the moat about twenty feet ahead. The undead things were charred and smoking as rivulets of water flowed off the animated decaying bodies. They looked like the not-quite human things from the quarry Olaf had described to her earlier.
Micaela was about to swing Sundance to burn the other two when Rachel shot forward, her spear impaling both targets. With a heave of effort, Rachel swung her spear back toward the moat, dislodging the undead where they fell into the water and disappeared.
“Nice work,” Micaela congratulated the guard.
“Thank you, ma’am,” Guard Rachel replied with a nod. “But credit goes to Guard Davrag and your spirit wolf. Without the warning from the wolf and Guard Davrag shooting first, knocking one of them back into the water and slowing the other two, I never would have been able to line up my attack.”
So there were three of them? And when did Vision warn them? Micaela had missed all that. Clearly, she needed to work on her situational awareness. “Good job, all of you,” she said, leaning down slightly to scratch Vision behind the ears. She had forgotten he was around with the way he was constantly hidden from sight.
Wanting to check her progress, Micaela took another look at her quest. She wanted to see if the kill count updated and if it updated to tell her how many undead there really were.
Quest Alert: Undead Retaliation (Recommended Level 8-15)