I
“On one condition.” James continued.
This wiped the smiles off of the town folks' faces.
“You all have to help us prepare and then fight the slimes.”
The townsfolk stared at him. This quickly turned into talking, then shouting.
“Oh and help fit us out for the future.” He added to the general cacophony. No one heard him.
Once Mace had calmed the group down, he looked at James.
“We can’t possibly fight, we are all non-combatants.”
“Not if you rank up your skills”
“We wouldn’t know how to do that!” Mace exclaimed.
“That’s what you have us for” James plastered on his biggest grin.
II
It took the rest of the evening but the details eventually got ironed out. The villagers agreed to help with the preparations and to learn the basic fighting skills. In return the Mercenaries would be the front line defense and prevent any slimes from getting past.
To ensure the villagers could contribute, they would need a lot of bows and arrows, and some emergency weapons to support the Mercenaries if they got tired. James assigned Mark to work with the carpenter, Dara to arrow production, and Jusuf to manage the fortifications.
James, with Earl at his side, began talking with the carpenter to see if he could somehow manipulate his skill with wood to make arrow shafts. The carpenter, Tom, had an adolescent child who listened in on their conversation.
“Dad, why can’t you work the wood like you do for everything else?” The young boy named Will asked.
“Will, it’s because the skills for arrows are under the weaponsmith class. I won’t be able to use all of the bonuses of my carpentry skills which will drastically reduce my speed and skill.”
“How much of a difference would that make?” Will inquired.
“Well, for each level of carpentry it increases my base speed for a task by 1 unit, and my skill level average by 1 unit. For a wood rod similar to an arrow shaft would take 60 units. When I first started carpentry I was able to perform 1 unit a minute. This means a shaft would take an hour to make. With my current level of 9, I’m able to perform 10 units of work per minute, thus being able to make a rod in 6 minutes. This would allow us to work 10 times faster than if I couldn’t use it. I could also train you up to get close to level 5, which could increase the output to 15 base if we could manage it.”
“What about for a bow?” Will asked.
“I’ve had to steam bend similar pieces of wood before, which requires around 200 units of work with forms pre-built, with 600 units for each form. Because I have to wait at least 3 hours between heating the wood and the wood holding the new form, I would need at least 9 forms to keep me busy, with each form taking an hour to build. Without my skill it would take 10 hours for 1 form. We would be severely limited in both bows and arrows.
We would also be losing a huge amount of quality. It would likely be close to trash compared to my low quality.”
“What are the levels for quality again?”
“They are trash, bad, low, below average, average, above average, good, great, exceptional, exquisite, and legendary.”
“How does quality affect performance?” Will asked.
“For most weapons, it impacts both its durability and damage. Above great quality, the quality also adds special effects like additional combat abilities or even elemental effects. Most of the characteristics of the heroes I tell you stories about, like the flaming sword, are from the quality of their weapons. On the other hand, trash weapons regularly break after only a few uses.”
During their talk James had been thinking about the problem. He had 2 levels in weaponsmithing.
“I think I might have a solution to take advantage of your carpentry skill” He finally stated.
“How?” Tom exclaimed.
“If you provided me with materials that were close, I could then finish them with my weaponcraft skill. It’s level 2, so not great. But with your materials so close to the correct form, I could do the final finish for a fraction of the unit cost. It would reduce the quality, but at least we could have enough for everyone. It would also allow us to make substantially more arrows which we will need plenty of to have a chance.”
Tom sat there thinking about the proposal.
“I would probably have to leave it a little bigger for you to be able to finish to the right diameter…” He mumbled.
“But in the end it is exactly like taking appropriately sized stock! It will work!” He excitedly exclaimed.
With nearly a vibrating energy Tom excused himself stating he had a lot to work on.
James took that as a queue to continue on…
III
…to the blacksmith. Once he arrived, James saw the man heating up his fires. They quickly made introductions where the man introduced himself as Earl.
“You have a second?” James asked.
“I have all of your swords I have to sharpen before I can even think about doing something else.” Earl said.
“Not even to think about arrow tips?” James mentioned innocently.
“Not even to think about how I can’t make arrow tips.” Earl growled.
“I think we might have a solution, but if you’re too busy…” James said shyly.
Earl put down his hammer. He looked annoyed.
“How are you going to make an arrow tip using blacksmith abilities that don’t allow making an arrow tip?” He grated with his teeth.
“By having you make funky shaped coins, which I will turn into arrow tips.” James smiled.
Earl’s grumpiness instantly vanished, replaced by a pensive look.
“I’ll leave you to think about it.” James said as he hurried out.
IV
As James entered the butchery he kept thinking about how they would solve the issue of fletching. Sure, they could get the feathers, but without a way to maintain quality and speed, it would likely become the bottleneck for the entire production path. He didn’t even want to think about making bowstrings.
After a brief introduction where the butcher introduced herself as Laura, James jumped right into business.
“I wanted to see what options we had for feathers to add to our arrows.”
“We have plenty of desert turkey feathers, and some from smaller birds.” She said politely
“Perfect! Now all I have to worry about is finding material for the bowstrings and fletching…” He began to mutter to himself.
“Oh, I have lots of sinew I could donate to the cause, and I have heard of some individuals making glue out of the sinew as well!” She said with a smile.
James’ smile eclipsed Dara’s.
“Really…” James began to think furiously.
V
James took a look at the terrain just outside the village. He saw his Mercenaries, Jusuf and Dara, talking with what appeared to be a large group of farmers and the lone miner. When James got closer he took Dara aside and asked what was going on.
“Well,” said Dara, “we have these 2 Dunes on that outskirts that could make a strong chokepoint. However, it is still too open to allow us 4 to protect the village. We are thinking of creating a small structure in the center to allow us to push the sand up to it to both constrict access by the slimes, and to make the height more uniform for use by archers.”
“So what’s the problem?”
“How do we get this done with the wrong skills? The farmers aren’t laborers or stonemasons. The Miner focuses on finding ore, which is great for weapons, but not for getting building material. Additionally we only have 1 week! Thankfully these dunes are pretty small, but unless we are able to work miracles, the slimes can easily just bounce up and over the dunes into the city.”
This put James into a pensive mood.
“Let me talk with them.”
James approached the group.
“Dara has informed me of the issues. Any ideas for getting a structure built?”
A man dressed in overalls that was unmistakably a farmer started answering.
“Well, that’s the problem,” He stated with a southern drawl. “We’re living in a desert with no light material. Moving stone is too heavy to be done quickly. Then we would need to move sand for days.”
“What’s your name?” James inquired.
“I’m Bo, and these are my compatriots: Brett, Billy, Bob, and Brake.”
“Brake?”
“His Mom couldn’t find another B name she liked, so she made it up.”
“I know this is off-topic, but what do you grow in the Desert? And why are there so many of you?”
“Well now,” the farmer chuckled as he laughed at himself. “That might be my fault. Deeper in the Kingdom there are too many workers. I told my people we should go where we are needed. I didn’t quite look into what type of land was here. When we arrived 2 months ago, we saw our mistake…”
“This town was even smaller just two months ago!?” James shook his head.
“It is a border town, so you get attacked from both side.” The Miner answered helpfully.
“And you can sit it out in the mine?” James directed his attention to the man.
“Well, if we had a mine…” The Miner trailed off.
“So what do you even do here!?” James had no idea how this village functioned.
“I Help! Names Carl by the way. I found an area with some small iron deposits, so I’m able to supply Earl. Kindof…”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
James was starting to wonder if the slimes were actually a good thing for the village. Maybe having them all leave was the best thing for the villagers.
“So what have you farmers been doing for the last couple of months?”
“We’ve been harvesting the reeds. We wanted to see if we could turn them into tradable goods to make some money to buy food.”
“Because you can’t farm here” James said pointedly.
The farmers looked down. After a couple of moments, James Sighed.
“Well we don’t have to build an amazing wall, just one 4 feet high so the slimes can’t jump over.” James strained out.
“Wait, just 4 feet?” Bo asked.
“Most of the reeds we’ve been harvesting are 5 feet. This place is overgrown with the stuff! We might be able to use the reed for the walls! I bet we could reinforce it with some wood from Rob.” The beginning of hope lit Bo’s eyes.
“I have some waste rock I can’t use that I could cart up here if it would help,” Carl added, trying to be helpful.
It would be ugly, but the beginning of getting the structure in place was beginning to form.
“What about moving the dirt?” James reminded them all.
“Wait, I mean sand.”
Bo looked at him.
“Did you say dirt? Because I can move dirt like no one's business. One of our farmer skills is to dig irrigation ditches in dirt. I even brought my lucky hoe!”
“Can you pretend you are hoeing dirt and try it out?” James questioned.
Bo took the everpresent lucky hoe and tried to make a small ditch. It went too well. Sand began flying in all directions, only to fill in quickly after he finished.
“Well, that's why we need the structure. Do we have enough time?”
Dara started doing some calculations.
“We would need to start with a base of rocks over the reeds to make sure they hold up. We can use the wood to create a 4 ft support. Slimes are incredibly stupid, so we can taunt them to ignore going around, so we would need things to look strong for 20 feet each side?” He sounded doubtful about that last number.
“With 20 feet, we could get that done in 4 days, then take 3 to move the sand? It would be tight.”
“Do 15, and fake the other 5,” James said as he left them to it.
VI
Later that afternoon the village was busy with sounds of industry. James walked around the area checking in on the hastily made crafting chain he had organized. He looked down with a small smile. That smile was just like an iceberg with his true emotion much larger.
“We might just make it,” he thought hopefully to himself.
He mentally went through the different skills represented by the village: Sewing, Carpentry, Cooking, Blacksmithing, Butchery, Lumberjack, Mining, Innkeeping, Hunting, and Farming. Nearly all of the classes only had 1 individual, with the farming class having 12 individuals.
James began to think through how he had organized everyone to make sure it was as efficient as possible.
It was during this moment of reflection that Will approached. During James’ conversation with Will’s father the size difference between them hadn’t been obvious, but when it was just the two of them it was clear Will looked both older and bigger than James.
“My Dad just came up with a way to help you finish the arrows easier. He made a contraption similar to what we use to peel an apple. He made an outline for you, so all you have to do is plane some of the parts, then assemble it. It should help you finish the arrows quickly.”
James tried to clap Will on his back like a father to a son, but the size difference was too great. Instead he tapped Will’s middle back awkwardly.
“Great News!” Will commented.
“I have some questions about what we’re doing here I was hoping you could answer,” Will cautiously asked.
James shrugged his shoulders.
“I’m reviewing it now in my head, so going over it with you might help me improve it.”
“Can you explain how you will use my Dad’s work to speed everything up?”
“To answer that, I have to get into details of what's slowing us down. Right now the problem is that we mercenaries are the only ones with weapon crafting skills. This is only an issue because none of us are above level 2. We would slow down the entire process if we led things directly. What your Dad has done will enable us to break things into non-weaponcraft and weaponcraft activities, allowing the specialized workers to take advantage of their skills. We can use your Dad for initial molds, with one of us finishing the process to turn it from woodcrafting into weaponcrafting. In a similar vein we will have the butcher create the strands from sinew, let the sewer begin to braid, then have one of my people finish the braid into a bowstring. We also need arrow tips, our weapons sharpened, and some makeshift weapons for the villagers. These bits will be worked on by the blacksmith. He has focused on non-combat skills, so his sharpening of our blades was interpreted as preparing them to harvest. My men and I will finish the sharpening to make them ready for combat. We also need to make fletching for the arrows. I’m having the mender sew the feather to the shafts, then having one of my people apply glue to transform it into a fletched shaft. Finishing the arrowheads and weapons should be the same thing…”
“Do you have any ideas of how efficient it will be?”
“It all depends on what the unit costs will be with the stock materials. I’m hoping that the arrow shafts will be 5 units, Fletching and attaching tips should be the same.”
“Any idea how it will affect the quality?”
This caused James to smile.
“I’m pretty hopeful that with the village's help, we won’t lose too much quality due to our poor weaponsmithing skills. I should only lower a level or a half level of quality by our assembly.”
“How can you lower it only a half level?”
“Anytime we create something, the output has a distribution of quality that can be achieved. As beginners, we will predominantly produce bad quality weapons. We will often make trash and low quality items. As we level, we decrease how many lower quality outcomes we have, and increase the amount of higher quality outcomes. Eventually it becomes nearly impossible to make trash items, but we are far from that. We can prevent that from happening by choosing to add more unit cost to improve quality, but that increases the time to completion. The cost is exponentially increasing for each additional quality boost. This makes it too costly to use except by the very best, who are likely to use it to cross thresholds into magical weapons.
When I say we will only lower the quality by a half, I mean that if the village produces average quality items, we will split the outcomes between below-average and average. Thus we don’t bring it down a full quality level, but bring our distributions lower.”
“How did you learn all of this? You look younger than me!” Will exclaimed.
James put a strained smile on his face.
“I’m older than I look.” He said sulkily as he huffed off.
VII
When they arrived at Tom's shop, Tom was still moving with energy.
“I’ve been working through this contraption since you left, and I think we’re ready to test it out!” Tom said excitedly.
Tom began to explain how he would assemble it within the carpentry class. As James listened, he began to focus what he was hearing into his weaponsmithing class. He started by lightly sanding each piece, then assembling them as Tom instructed. With his entire focus on weaponsmithing, he smiled as he analyzed the finished device.
Name
Shaft Finisher
Class
Weaponsmithing
Quality
Below Average
Description
Helps turn a piece of wood into a shaft for arrows. Increases quality by two levels for shafts finished with this device. Maximum quality: Below-Average
James and Tom grinned at each other.
Tom produced a relatively rounded stick and gave it to James.
Name
Wood stick - refined
Class
Carpentry
Quality
low
Description
A wooden stick with a notch at one end
With Tom’s instruction, James stuck the stick with the notch onto the notch holder. He then brought the blade on the device up to the shaft. Then, with Tom’s urging, he began to spin the wheel and watched as the blade evenly shaped the stick.
Once the process was finished he looked at the stick.
Name
Shaft
Class
Weaponsmithing
Quality
low
Description
A shaft used in producing arrows with a notch at one end
James started shouting for Joy. It looked like a child’s exuberant outburst on receiving his desired gift. James felt it was a mature demonstration of happiness.
Then he received a notification.
Congratulations! You have learned the carpentry skill - Level 1
Congratulations! You have been instructed by a knowledgeable instructor and have increased your weaponsmithing - Level 3.
Congratulations! You have learned a new skill - Militarizer
Name
Militarizer
Class
Carpenter, Weaponsmith
Description
Some people want to turn swords into plowshares. You want the opposite.
Level
1
Effect
For each level, converting non-combat items into combat items increases the quality by 1/10. Base quality effect on conversion: -2 quality levels.
This shocked him into silence. He didn’t even realize there was a Militarizer skill. He also didn’t realize there were hybrid skills. And how did his skill in Weaponsmith increase through a skilled instructor!?
Tom cut his own celebration short upon seeing James.
“What happened?” Tom asked.
James explained what happened, which led to Tom growing a pensive look.
After a few moments he looked up and asked.
“Can you show me how to use your device?”
James looked at Tom funny. Didn’t Tom design the device?
“Do we have any other shafts ready?”
Tom took another shaft lying around and approached the device.
Under James instruction, Tom inserted the stick and began turning it.
Once he was done, he looked up.
“I got the Weaponsmith and Militarizer skill” he breathed heavily.
“Why did it say I was taught by someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about?”
James Scowled.
VIII
After more discussion James asked if they could apply Tom’s device to wood less processed.
“It wouldn’t work well. We would need to start with small enough pieces that the blade wouldn’t get dulled. I get most of my wood as big cuts from Rob, the lumberjack.”
“Couldn’t we just ask him for smaller pieces?”
“Good luck with that.”
Congratulations! Your Luck has increased by 1.
With that hopeful message in his mind, James approached the lumberjack’s hut where Rob was splitting wood outside. As James approached he wondered where the wood Rob was splitting came from. He decided to vocalize this.
“Hey Rob, Tom sent me to talk with you. I’ve been curious about where all your wood comes from as we are in a desert…” With the intense stare Rob leveled at James, he trailed off the end of his question.
“There is wood all around, and it grows wherever someone tree touched wills it.” Rob slowly explained.
“What is tree touched?”
“Someone who can hear and follow the will of the trees.”
James looked at the kooky lumberjack. James had never heard of “Tree touched” and he was pretty sure Rob was making it up.
“I assume you are tree touched?” James finished delicately.
“Of Course. I have followed the Way of the Tree for years now”
James ran out of things to say. An awkward silence fell upon them.
“So you have lots of wood?”
IX
It turns out the Way of the Wood imposed restrictions on what Rob was willing to do as he performed his work. He had to replant more trees than he cut down, and had to perform certain rites before he cut a tree down. All were fascinating cultural irrelevancies (As James was still sure the Way of the Wood was made up).
“The reason I’m here is to ask if you can split the wood into smaller pieces.” James explained.
“Although it seems a trivial request to you, it requires me communing with the trees to see if it is allowed.”
James stared patiently at Rob.
“I cannot do communion with you here.” Rob stated
James shook himself.
“Yeah, I needed to get going anyway. Nice to meet you!”