by Tom Larcombe
It was now Eddie's turn to appear confused.
“Huh?”
“Would you like me to add that identifier so the world recognizes you as a world-traveling mortal?”
“Uh, please?”
His notification panel popped up:
Edward Hunter:
Flag added: Player
His eyes shot wide open at that.
I wasn't flagged as a player? he thought. What the hell, if I'd gotten myself in trouble and gotten killed what would've happened to me?
“Thank you, thank you so much,” he said.
“You are welcome Edward Hunter. I was only doing the job I have been assigned. You seem to still be agitated over this incident. Allow me to comfort you.”
She gestured towards him with one hand and Eddie felt a wave of warmth infuse his body.
I wonder what that was, he thought. Maybe some sort of buff?
His panel, still showing in his view with the flag added message, gained additional text.
Affects:
Freyja's Blessing (Help Freyja's Blessing for more information)
Immediately, he thought: Help Freyja's Blessing
Freyja's Blessing:
The gods are fickle creatures and their blessings last only until they bestow it anew upon another individual. Freyja's blessing increases fertility on the recipient and all around them. In addition it will speed healing and increase experience gained.
Growth Bonus:
2X speed of crop growth, animal growth, and animal breeding within one mile of recipient.
+5 to current level of Animal Husbandry and Farming.
Personal Bonus:
3X Health regeneration.
+25% Experience gained.
Non-Quantifiable Bonus:
Comfort
These bonuses will last until Freyja bestows her blessings upon someone else.
Eddie stared at Freyja. He could still feel the warmth of the spell infusing his body, and she'd been right, it was very comforting even before he'd checked out the buffs it gave him. Knowing what the buffs were comforted him even more.
Maybe I can take down something a little tougher than a bunny now that I'm actually a player. I wonder what the difference will be now that I've got a player flag. What the hell was Allan thinking, removing the player flag from me. He'd already told me I could adventure in my off time. That would've been a great way to get killed and who knows what might've happened if I had. I'll tell Ross in the morning, I wonder if he knew about that. Hell, I wonder if he's affected by it.
“Freyja?” he said.
“Yes Edward?”
“There are three others nearby and they're world-travelers like me, we return to the same location when we leave here. Could you check and make sure that the...”
He paused for a moment trying to remember how she'd phrased it.
“world recognizes them correctly?” he finished.
“I would be glad to do so. I shall not return tonight, but I will continue to monitor this location for some time in case we have not taken care of the anomaly.”
“Thank you,” Eddie said.
Freyja disappeared, the only light remaining in the bunkhouse were the coals of the banked fire that had yet to burn out. With the warmth of Freyja's spell on him Eddie fell back to sleep quickly, the rest of the night passing with no more dreams.
When he woke in the morning he felt well rested, as evidenced by the notification he received.
You are Well-Rested: You will receive +10% experience and +10% max Stamina for six hours.
He felt great and quickly stuffed a couple of logs onto the tiny remainder of coals buried in the ashes of the fireplace. He needed to use some of the shavings from his weapon creation effort the night before, but managed to get the fire going in about fifteen minutes.
He sniffed at one of the chunks of meat he'd received the previous evening, finding that it smelled exactly the same.
I wonder how the game deals with meat spoilage? I bet I'll know if I check it before I cook it though. Probably smell nasty and be all slimy. The way the meat drops look when I get them, they could have just come out of grocery store packaging, they still look that way now too so I bet they go bad all at once if they do spoil.
He spitted the meat and started it roasting over the coals. When the outer edge was done, he started cutting off slices, allowing the next layer to cook. Once he was full, he tucked the rest of the slices into the pelt bag he'd made the day before, tying it up when he finished placing the cooked meat inside.
Alright, time to actually do some of the work they hired me for, he thought, then headed out of the bunkhouse.
~ ~ ~
Chapter Six
Once again Freyja entered Odin's hall.
“Odin, I have a report,” she said.
The wolves stirred, lifting their heads to look at her.
“Proceed,” Odin replied.
“The anomaly repeated itself, but I may have isolated it. The world-traveling mortal that it affected was not recognized by the world. He was missing the correct identifier for the world to recognize him. I have placed the identifier upon him.”
“That was the correct action. You will continue to monitor in case that was not the problem?” Odin asked.
“I will do so, I also offered comfort to the mortal as stipulated by the rules, he was very agitated over the incident.”
Odin raised the brow over his visible eye. Freyja caught his glance and seemed offended.
“No Odin, not that comfort, he was only level zero and unworthy of that. I simply gave him my blessing. After all the area is a farm and he was the only crop-tender there. Perhaps the increase in yield will serve to soothe his agitation. If not there are still other comforts to offer him that are not that.”
Odin's brow dropped and a flash of disappointment crossed his face so quickly that none but another god could have seen it.
“A level zero world-traveling mortal? We've not seen such since the very beginning,” he said.
“But there is precedent for it, so that could not have caused the anomaly. The mortal claimed bad dreams, of being trapped in a void in a tight space after reliving his entire day in his dreams. For this, there is no precedent.”
“Continue monitoring, take action if needed. If the anomaly returns, we will report it unless there are other actions you can take to rectify it,” Odin said.
~ ~ ~
When Eddie got outside, he didn't see any sign of the others. Wondering if the well-fed bonus he'd received before was due to the cooking skill or the things he'd eaten, he wandered over to the garden, not reacting quickly enough to throw at the bunny he saw dart away when he appeared.
Looks like the bunnies were back last night, he thought, and more than just that one. There's a big patch of greens that look chewed on and it appears they knocked a few rocks out of the wall this time too.
He let himself in through the gate and plucked a couple of carrots, brushing them off then starting to munch on one as he made his way to the well. With a cup of water to wash them down he finished off the last two carrots, then he waited. No well-fed bonus appeared.
Oh well, guess it must've been Paul's cooking, he thought.
About a half hour later the farmhouse door swung open. One of the guards, the one whose name he didn't know, came ambling out.
“Hi,” Eddie said, “I don't think I caught your name yesterday, I'm Eddie.”
“I know,” the guard said. “My name's Tim.”
“So, where's Ross the Boss?”
Tim's lips turned up at the feeble joke.
“You know, I'd warn you not to call him that to his face, but he'd probably like it. Probably better to just call him sir, overseer, or boss though, just in case.”
Eddie paused, unsure how to approach the topic he wanted to discuss. Finally he figured that he might as well just say it and take a risk.
“So, you look like you know a bit more about this game than the othe
rs,” Eddie said.
Tim grinned.
“You know it, this isn't my first VRMMORPG, just my first time in full immersion.”
Eddie heaved a sigh of relief.
“Mine too, not quite what I expected I have to say. When I answered an ad for farming, I was thinking gold and items, not crops.”
Tim chuckled.
“Yeah, I saw that ad. I think Allan designed it that way to pull in people who had a clue about VR games and had played before. If I hadn't known any better I would've thought the same thing.”
Eddie shook his head.
“Well, I'm stuck here now. I already gave up my apartment before I logged on and found out. By the way, did you know that I didn't even have a player flag? What's going on with that? Paul said something about a discount deal for having us level zero, but no player flag?”
Tim shook his head.
“Nah, all the other farms we set up the workers were listed as players as far as I know. Maybe a glitch?”
“Maybe, had some bad dreams too, but one of the AIs set that all straight, I hope anyhow.”
“Wait, one of the gods, I mean AIs, communicated with you?”
“Yeah, Freyja. She said this farm was part of her domain so she was checking the problem out, called it an anomaly.”
Tim's eyes bugged out.
“You're kidding right? There have been guys playing for almost the whole year since this place opened that haven't seen hide nor hair of the AIs, and you got to see the hot one, right off?”
Eddie's eyes glazed slightly as he remembered the sight of Freyja standing over his bed.
“Nope, not kidding. Evaluate me if you can see buffs. She gave me her blessing.”
Tim's eyes unfocused for a moment, then he broke into a grin.
“Looks like this place is going to pull in a bumper crop with that buff. Plus, you've got a sixteen in agility? No wonder you can peg those bunnies the way you do.”
Eddie grinned.
“Yeah, I'd love to hit level one and jack it higher, but the damned bunnies only give me five experience each. I'll never make it at this rate.”
“Only five? You should get a lot more than that, like twenty-five or maybe even more since you're level zero. I killed some at the first farm when I was still level one and got twenty-five experience per kill if I remember right.”
“Huh,” Eddie said.
Ross' voice carried from where he was yelling inside the house.
“Tim, what's keeping you?”
“Shit,” Tim said. “I've got to go get some food out of the garden for him. Stupid idiot tossed that meat down last night then complained that we only had vegetables for food.”
“Do you have the cooking skill?” Eddie asked, “And a fire inside?”
“Yeah, I do, why?”
“Grab a spit, this stuff isn't half bad roasted over an open fire. Even without cooking I managed to make some edible,” Eddie said.
He reached into his bag and handed a hunk of rabbit meat to Tim.
“Thanks, I'll remember this,” Tim said, “but if you'll excuse me...”
He trotted over to the garden and started harvesting handfuls of vegetables before dashing back into the house.
Well, I guess I'll be waiting a bit still, Eddie thought.
He sat down on the inside of the garden wall, patiently watching the area where the bunnies kept entering the garden, his throwing stick in hand. His patience was rewarded just a few minutes later as a bunny came leaping over the stone portion of the fence.
His throw was quick, hard, and precise.
Enemy slain: Bunny (level 1)
You have earned 25 (+3 well-rested, +6 blessing) exp.
You have obtained the skill Hunting. (Help Hunting for more details)
He ran over to the corpse, worried that Ross might come out at any time and try to claim his drops again.
Loot, he thought.
The only thing on this one was a pelt, so he tucked it in his inventory where it stacked with his other pelts. While he waited he started idly pulling up help screens. After the option for them had appeared on both the blessing and when he got the hunting skill, he realized they'd probably not been accessible before he was flagged as a player.
He waited on the stone wall, hoping for another bunny before he had to start work, but Ross was out a few minutes later, the slam of the front door on the farmhouse announcing his presence. Eddie dismissed the help screen he was in the middle of skimming and walked over towards Ross.
“Eddie,” Ross called out.
“Right here.”
“Good, this is what you'll be doing today. You see those rows of crops marked with the tall wooden poles, the red ones?”
“Yeah.”
“There's a big barrel of pine needles beside the tool shed. Get a rake from the shed and that barrel. You're to rake all those pine needles into the soil between the rows. Don't disturb the rows though, just rake them in between them.”
Eddie paused for a moment, confused, until a bit of knowledge popped into his brain, almost as though he were remembering something he'd learned long ago. Except he knew he'd never learned that adding pine needles to the soil would increase its acidity.
So that's how the skills work. When you need it the knowledge is just right there, he thought. I wonder how they managed that?
“You got it boss,” Eddie said.
Ross positively beamed when Eddie called him boss.
I'll make a note of that, if I can keep him in a better mood, I probably ought to do it.
Eddie went and grabbed the barrel, rolling it out to the area he needed to work, then returned for the rake.
The task was mind-numbingly simple so once he got the hang of the rake, he worked his way through more help screens, learning the game and its commands better.
~ ~ ~
He was broken out of his reverie by a scream.
“God damn it!”
He turned to see Ross standing near the garden, looking into it.
“Eddie!” Ross hollered.
He laid his rake down and trotted over to the garden.
“Yeah boss?”
“I need you to do something about these damned rabbits. There were four or five of them in there when I just came out. Look, they entirely denuded that section of greens,” Ross said pointing. “Figure out a way to get rid of the rabbits and I'll make it worth your while.”
Eddie's eyes widened as his panel popped up:
System Generated Quest:
All You Can Eat!
Bunnies are destroying the garden you depend on for food. Discover a way to keep them out of the garden or eliminate them.
Reward: 1000xp, 5 silver pieces
He blinked at the screen. Seeing the possibility of earning some game currency reminded him of his hopes for earning extra cash in game.
It's only ten bucks in real cash, he thought, but hey, I'm still a level zero. Plus that experience will get me almost halfway to first level. It's a start at least.
“I'll take care of it as soon as I finish with the pine needles,” he said, “Or at least I'll try to take care of it.”
Ross turned and stormed off towards the farmhouse, mumbling all the way. Eddie only heard the first few words of what Ross said though.
“You'd better.”
Great, now the overseer thinks it's my job to complete quests for him too? What can he actually do if I don't manage it though? You know what? Scratch that thought, I don't think I want to find out.
Eddie spent the rest of the time he was raking the pine needles into the soil alternating between thinking of how to solve the bunny problem and skimming more help files. By the time he was done, he had an idea.
He knocked at the farmhouse door. When Tim answered the knock, Eddie asked for Ross.
“What do you want?” Ross snapped.
“I've got an idea about how to keep the bunnies out. But I need an ax, can I borrow one from the tool shed?”
“
Whatever,” Ross said, waving his hand. “If you need any of the tools, just go get them.”
He closed the door behind him, leaving Eddie staring at the wooden door, wondering what punishment he might be given if he killed his boss in game.
He shook his head, dismissing the thought, then went back to the shed and acquired himself a small hand ax.
This ought to do for what I'm thinking of. Easy to use when I'm in a precarious position too.
When he tried to remember how to get to where he'd found the hardwood the other day, he was having problems.
I wish I had a map, he thought.
In response to his thoughts, a player map appeared in his panel.
Damn it, what else do I have that I don't know about because I was missing a player flag. Can't be due to my level or I wouldn't have gotten it now.
The map did show all the in game areas he'd been to, even before his flag had been fixed, and he realized that he could probably get to the same spot in half the time using the map instead of meandering like he had before.
Right there, he thought. I think I saw them just inside the forest next to that stream.
He started off at a trot, but quickly realized that he was going to exhaust his stamina soon if he kept it up, so he alternated between a trot and a slow walk that allowed him to regenerate his stamina. Even moving like that it was only fifteen minutes before he arrived at the edge of the closest forest. He looked around and saw the stream he'd noticed previously. Following it led him to the stand of willows he thought he remembered seeing before.
Good, he thought, there's enough. Since I'm just going to weave them together to make a fence for that bottom gap between the stone of the wall and the first wooden railing, I can just weave some together to form a kind of sled, then pile others on and drag the whole mess back.
The biggest problem he'd seen with his plan was that he hadn't remembered if there were enough willows to provide the branches he'd need to place a woven wall all around the bottom level of the garden. There were, but it was probably going to take several trips back and forth to get them all back. He exhaled deeply, then grabbed the hand ax and started to climb the first tree.
