The forest was peaceful, Morgan letting the cats out to play around his feet as he slowly moved through the forest, searching for things to harvest. The small beasts took turns chasing each other about or lurking on his shoulders. As he bent by a mossy and gnarled fallen tree collecting a few more of the mushrooms, he looked to see the little grey cat chasing a moth; the feline was chittering in frustration at the insect. The moth flew too close to a tree, and the grey cat charged up the vertical bark, turning to pounce about a meter off the ground. The little lunatic sailed a few centimetres past the unbothered moth, and with a shocked face seeing it was now a meter off the ground and realising its mistake too late, it fell heavily to the forest floor. The beast immediately sprang to its feet and resumed its chittering at the moth. Luna, he’d call it.
He kept up a relaxed pace through the afternoon, until he was snapped out of his peaceful trance by a message appearing in his vision,
[Angie: Damn this! They’re turning us into chess pieces for their stupid game. I’ve been allocated to an army, under an aristocrat player called Perlavi. There’re hundreds of us. Got three days of intensive training now before we’re deployed to war. As far as I can tell this isn’t the only army, and I think we’ll all be fighting each other. I have no idea why. I’ll let you know if I can work out what’s at stake here. How's the peaceful herb job?]
[Morgan: Sounds wild, good luck. Take care of yourself, I’ll see if there’s any way I can help, though it’s unlikely I can. All well here, apart from taking a flying goblin to the face and almost dying it’s been pretty quiet. I don’t really understand my targets yet, but if you know anyone who knows what silkbloom is and where to find it, please let me know. Thanks for staying in touch.]
[Angie: A flying goblin? I’m not even gonna ask. No problem, good to talk. I’ll ask about for you about the silkbloom. Catch up with you soon.]
After another hour or so of wandering with the sun was starting to dip to the east, Morgan travelled back to Harl’s clearing where the man was still hard at work. Morgan greeted him as he came near, “Hey Harl, I’m thinking of heading back to town so I can try and learn a bit about these plants. I could do with a bit of perspective on my objective, because I have no idea what I’m doing. Anything I can do for you before I get on my way?”
Harl put down his axe for a moment, wiping his brow with a grubby sleeve. “Cheers Morgan, probably not a bad plan. I think the alchemist is open pretty late and it’s a good place to start. I don’t suppose you’d spare me a few minutes to help me load up my cart?
The two men set to carrying prepared logs into the cart, the logs far too big and sticking out the back end. A few minutes later, the cart was loaded and with thanks received, he started his journey back to town. He checked his days takings, he had 5 stalks of the veloplant, five plates of chitin, 29 of the Versfern and a dozen mushrooms. Knowing the mushrooms alone would pay his overheads, he walked with a light step through the forest.
When he arrived at the town, the day was fast growing dark. He decided to head straight to the grocer and cash in his mushrooms before heading to the alchemist to see what he could discover. As he passed through the gate, Rolin, the burly guard captain intercepted him, “Morgan, about that sword and bow you were given.”
Morgan, disappointed, took the sword out of his inventory preparing to hand it back to the captain, who’s property it ostensibly was.
Rolin looked at him in surprise. “What’s that for, I don’t need it. I was going to ask you if you’d like some training. I’ve been talking with the boys and they’d welcome you, training gets a bit stale when it’s the same crowd and it’s all you do. If you want to come and give us something new to enjoy you let us know. Training sessions are at dusk and dawn at the barracks, feel free to appear at either, neither or both.”
Now pleasantly surprised, Morgan put the sword back and smiled at the captain. “I’m a little busy at the moment trying to work out my job, but once I’m a bit wiser and know what I’m dealing with I hope to come and join you.”
Rolin nodded, satisfied at this answer. “We’ll hope to see you there soon.”
Turning to enter to town, Morgan said his goodbyes to the captain, and headed to the grocer, identifying him as he entered the shop. His name in the display was Rugweard.
The large ruddy faced man was clearing away items on his counter, and stopped when he saw Morgan enter, “Ho there outworlder. What can I do for you?”
With a grin, Morgan extracted the mushrooms from his bag with a flourish, placing them on the counter. The large grocer smiled amiably at Morgan, “Oh, that’s a good amount of Bellishroom. I count twelve. Excellent. Here you go.” With this, the grocer pulled a handful of coins from the air and handed them over, “Thats 12 silvers for you, my friend. I don’t suppose you need any of my fine wares while you’re here?”
“Thank you, Rugweard. I've got to keep moving as it’s getting late, but I’ll doubtless be back.”
The grocer nodded in acknowledgement, “I’m sure I’ll see you soon then. Take care, and I’ll take as many more of the Bellishrooms as you can find.”
Morgan exited the shop with a wave, and headed over to the alchemist’s shop. A bell rung within the shop as he opened the door and an old lady who was clothed in black, looking suspiciously like a witch, appeared from a back room, greeting him. “Hello, young man. I’m Heather. What can I do for you?”
“Pleased to meet you Heather, I’m Morgan. I could do with a little help identifying and finding some plants, and I also have some Versfern to trade.”
The old lady nodded at the request, “You tell me what you need to know, and I’ll try my best. Bear in mind I’m an alchemist and not an herbalist. As for the Versfern, its’ pretty common in these parts and the best I can do is 10 copper per.“
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Morgan was a little disappointed, if not surprised that the brown fern was cheap. At least it netted him a bit of cash while he increased his harvesting level so he would wreck less of the better stuff. He handed his Versfern over, receiving 2 silvers and 90 coppers in return.
“I need to acquire 100 vials of the Valoplant sap, I’ve found a few stems of Valoplant but I’m not sure what to do with it.”
Heather raised an eyebrow at Morgan. “100 vials you say? That’s a tall order. It takes between five and seven stems to fill a vial. The process isn’t hard, but it is time consuming. Around say, ten minutes per vial. I can teach you how for a fee of 25 silver, though you’ll likely waste quite a few materials learning; or you can drop off them with me and I’ll do it, again for a small fee of 50 copper per vial, paid on receipt of finished product.”
Morgan paused for a second as he tried to work out how long it would take for him to do it. Roughly over 16 hours. And he’d have to collect around 600 if the alchemist was accurate about how many it’d take. And he could pay 25 silver to learn the skill, or 50 silver over the long term for her to do it. Until he knew if he had that time to spare, it was better if he left them with the alchemist.
He withdrew his pitiful five stalks and handed them over, "I understand it may not be enough for the first vial, I’ll try to come by with some more tomorrow. The other thing I need to be looking for is Silkblossom. Is there anything you can tell me about it?”
Heather looked a little concerned at this, placing the stems she held on the counter, “Silkblossom, eh. Well, that’s another tall order. As far as I know, the only place to find it is in spider caves. Caves, full of spiders. Big spiders.” The lady shuddered before continuing. “I hear there is a cave complex to the north, near the edge of the forest, but that’s all I know. It’s not a hard plant to identify, they look like silky eggs, but getting to it can be a real challenge.”
Digesting this news, Morgan nodded slowly. He thanked Heather and left the shop. As he headed towards the leatherworkers, he mulled this over. If the silkblossom was easy to harvest, it was probably a good idea to focus on that first, so his level would be more appropriate, and he didn’t wreck all the Valoplant in the forest trying to gather it. However, he’d been warned about the monster situation being tough up north, and he probably needed to get better at fighting before he could take on any big spiders. He resolved to try to find the spider cave soon, so he could better judge what to do.
He was still lost in thought as he arrived at the leatherworkers, and a hearty greeting from Patch snapped him out of it. He traded in his chitin for 5 more silvers before heading back to the inn. He poked his head in through the door, seeing that Harl hadn’t arrived back yet. He headed upstairs with a friendly greeting to the innkeeper and let the cats out in his room before feeding them and having a kebab himself. He played with the beasts for a few minutes, dragging the leather cord around and trying to let all the cats have a go trying to catch it.
Looking out the window at the dying light, he decided joining the guard for training was a good use of his time right now, especially if battling giant spiders was his destiny. He left the cats to their own devices, heading out of the inn towards the barracks.
The barracks were a series of squat stone buildings that clustered around a large courtyard. Eight guards and the captain were in the yard when he arrived, doing some sort of marching drill. Rolin stopped the troops’ march with a shouted command, and once everyone was at attention, he turned to wave Morgan into the courtyard.
The captain shifted to face his soldiers, “This outworlder here is Morgan. He willingly helped against the goblins yesterday, at his own risk and with no offered reward. For this, we recognise him as a man of honour, and fit company. However, “He glanced at Morgan and offered him a wink before continuing, “his enthusiasm is a touch greater than his skill. We will help him to change that. Reggie, step forward.”
A young guard, barely out of his teens by the look of him, stepped from the line of men, turning to the captain with a crisp salute, “Sir!”
Rolin saluted back, and turned back to Morgan. “Reggie here is our newest recruit. He will assist you in basic stance and weapon handling techniques.” He turned back to Reggie, “and I will be watching. You two can take the corner over there.” The captain faced the rest of his soldiers, “The rest of you? Formations!” An audible groan came from the line of soldiers.
Reggie approached Morgan, introducing himself with a grin, “Hi, as you’ve gathered, I’m Reggie. I’ve only been at this for a few months myself, but I’ll do my best. You got a sword?”
Returning the enthusiastic greeting, Morgan withdrew his sword from his inventory, showing it to the young man. The guard inspected the blade for a moment, before withdrawing his own, “Nice, a guard sword. That makes things easier.” The man held up his own identical blade. “However, before we start with the pointy stuff, we need to go over your stance. Put the sword away for now. Now, I want you to stand there, and I’m going to push you over. OK?”
Morgan stood confused at this for a long moment and was about to reply when the guard darted forward, pushing Morgan in the chest hard. The player wasn’t ready, despite being warned, and fell onto his rear on the stone slabs, to the amusement of all around. Reggie offered a hand down to him, picking him back up with a friendly smile, “I’m sure there's a little room for improvement there. Now your turn, you can push me down.” With a grin, he settled into a fighting stance, with his left foot forward and his right foot a shoulders-width apart and angled out slightly. Morgan recognised it from his fencing days. He beckoned to Morgan, who stepped in to give the man a tentative shove, achieving nothing. Rollin’s voice boomed over from across the yard, “He ain’t your ladyfriend, don’t just tickle him, push him!”
Morgan reddened a little at the comment and tried again, throwing his full force behind his hands as he shoved at Reggie's breastplate. The guard rocked back a little, absorbing the blow in his right leg, before snapping back up and pushing Morgan away, who stumbled a step back.
“Better,” came the captain's voice. Reggie nodded, “My armour will protect me from even you, and the stance will keep me balanced. Copy this stance. Now, it’s my turn again.”
Morgan settled into the familiar stance, nodding to the guard. He shrugged off the guard’s push this time easily and grinned back at the man. “I just needed a moment to work out why you were pushing me around.” Reggie laughed, and replied with a wicked grin, “Just you wait my friend, the pushing around is only just beginning.”
The pair pushed at each other for a while, until both Reggie and the captain were satisfied that Morgan knew how to not fall over to an acceptable level. Reggie excused himself for a second, disappearing into one of the buildings and reappearing holding a wooden sword in each hand. “I get the feeling that this isn’t your first time with a sword. Let's see how you do.”
The sword and style of fighting was different than Morgan was used to, and though he put up a good show, he was quickly defeated by the young guard. Rollin came over to give some pointers, expressing his surprise that Morgan lasted as long as he did. “Now Reggie here is a young prodigy, he may only just be starting to grow hair on his chin; but he can beat most of us in a straight swordfight. You did well. Now, again!”
The pair sparred for an hour or so, Reggie and Rollin giving pointers as they went along. Reggie didn’t spare any effort, and by the time the hour was up, Morgan was sporting a healthy selection of bruises. When the sun finally disappeared over the horizon and the darkness settled across the town, the group disbanded at an order from Rollin and Morgan headed back to the inn. He paid for his night and a meal and went upstairs. He fed the band of cats that awaited him, and after playing with them for a small while he went to bed, the cats gathering around him. He was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.