Chapter 17: I Was Busy Fishing
Jennifer stood on the shore opposite of the tree and could not help yelling at the vampire. “What do you mean it’s been two days?”
“You were in there for two days. What was taking you so long?” The vampire snapped back in amusement.
“It only felt like -” she trailed off. Was it minutes? Was it hours? Time was strange.
“Well, it worked,” the werewolf eagerly replied. “You got the trait, right? Speak With Dead. We’re just waiting on that greenling.”
Jennifer checked her menus. It had been two days, and the trait Speak With Dead was now on her character sheet in purple writing. Everything else was in black writing.
“Yes, I got the trait. This world makes no sense,” she said in a huff. “Now I have less than a day to get the supplies I need to build a house.”
“Yeah, no,” said the vampire. “Since you shared your quest, the rest of the group did that while you were stuck in that tree. We were not able to save the town, nation, or world. Or get a business owner to sign off on a reference letter.”
“Yeah. Kevin even went to the pup’s starting location to find out. Best he could do is find a division supervisor to speak to. Everything these days is getting corporate,” the werewolf said.
“So, where is my group then?” She brought up her mini map in her menus and saw the names beside the dots showing where they were.
Large Soup Bowl appeared as three question marks, Kevin was closer to the center of the shell, Sarah was heading back to their location, Woozle was close by, and Rover was off gathering healing moss.
“Woozle,” Jennifer yelled, trying to get the attention of her familiar. The sound of a rocket engine powering up came from her right, before fully powering up.
The lynx-shark, who was now the size of a small horse, rocketed into Jennifer’s chest, knocking her to the ground. The lynx shark was bigger and now hunting rabbits. The lynx dropped the rabbit it had been clutching in its jaws and rubbed his face over Jennifer as much as he could. She held her familiar up to look at him before holding him close for scratches and pets. He was big, but she was a half giant.
“So, you’ve taken up rabbit hunting?” she asked her familiar.
“Yeah, that kitty has been rabbit hunting and keeping us fed. Those are tasty little guys.” The werewolf licked his lips.
Woozle spoke with a mixture of pride and grumpiness in his voice. “I’m looking for clues. A rabbit stole my tail. So, I’ve been looking into rabbits. They’re everywhere now and the only animals within a day’s travel.”
The rabbit was quickly skinned by the werewolf, cleaned, and put over a fire.
When Sarah arrived, she was followed by a caravan filled with goods. People in sunglasses pulled large carts. The ones that didn’t have carts had oversized backpacks. “So where do you want me to set up shop?” Sarah asked the group.
The vampire raised his hands, interacted with his menus, and a blue bird with a black cape landed on his shoulder. Sarah and the vampire spoke with each other for some time as Jennifer ate.
Her stamina had not gone down more than five per cent in the last two days. Doing nothing for two days did not use much stamina.
Jennifer received a curious notification.
Congratulations, Goblin target not found. You have been given a target not found error.
The group was silent as the small, green-skinned female left the edge of the water. She had on a black t-shirt with white writing ‘I went on a deeply spiritual journey and all I got was this shirt and a log.’ She carried a log as thick as Jennifer’s arm and as long as her leg. The goblin carried it as if it weighed no more than a piece of paper. After depositing the wood at Jennifer’s feet, she waved her finger between the log and Jennifer and spoke in her guttural language. But the goblin looked just as confused as the rest of the group.
Jennifer made a mental note to learn to speak goblin. She picked up the log and put it into her inventory. The log was labeled Ghost Wood in the same glowing blue as the lake. Thinking about it, it was the same blue as the dean too.
“Okay, we need to get to the goblins, then back to town—" She stopped when she spotted something she had not seen in her menus before. A new, shiny purple button labeled Speak With Undead. Jennifer closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and counted to three. When she opened her eyes, she exhaled, and pressed the new button. The mana bar did not budge when speaking with undead toggled.
Jennifer moved her focus to Summon Undead, and a list of nearby skeleton options came up. Some of the skeletons were highlighted in purple. With a smile, she selected a purple highlighted skeleton. Jennifer turned Speak With Undead off and on again attempting to trigger the trait.
“Umm, hello? Who is this?” The voice sounded as if it was coming in over a staticky radio.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Hello, my name is Jennifer. I am wondering if I could have your bones?”
“You woke me for a bone-ing?” A note of disbelief echoed from the disembodied voice.
“Yes, please.” She did not care if her enthusiasm showed.
“Okay, do what you want. Just don’t wake me up again.” With that, the line went dead.
That could have gone better, but she did have a shiny, new skeleton. Well, a dirty, old skeleton that was standing in front of her with rags on. She put the bones in her inventory and set her mending to work.
She could have three skeletons active at one time, so she was going to need to think of names for each one. This one, she decided to call Andera. She had one set of Kevin’s bones left and naming them would make it easier to have six skeletons in her closet. Each set of bones only took up one slot in her inventory. She was unsure how many she could put into a stack and still keep their names.
Most of her contacts with the dead went the same way as the first, with comments like, “Just get on with it,” and, “I have better things to do with my afterlife than care about those old things,” and, “I was in the middle of plotting out my book then you go and interrupt me.” But when It asked, “Are you offering me a job?” that threw Jennifer off.
Blinking at the question, Jennifer took another bite of her rabbit lunch, then a drink of cold river water. Her words came out long and slow. “What kind of job did you have, before, errr, staying dead?”
“I was a pre-law student at the Gilly and Lilly University. I was also a bartender on the campus. Before that I worked at several fast-food places. Oh, and I had a paper route when I was a kid.” The deceased’s voice was filled with eagerness.
“Okay, so if I hired you, what would you want?” Jennifer had no idea what she could offer this dead person in exchange for work.
Jumping on her words, the ghost replied, “Ten percent of all experience points, and one out of ten pieces of gear.”
“Do skeletons even use gear or experience?”
“No idea, but I do.”
Jennifer waved at Sarah to get her attention.
With both a curious and confused expression, she walked over, and Jennifer repeated the spirit’s demands.
Jennifer could see her friend’s brows furrow above her sunglasses.
“That does seem a little high, and what happens if the ghost wants to quit, or you want to fire the ghost?” Sarah asked.
She relayed the question to the ghost, who replied, “I get to keep the experience and gear, and you keep the bones?” After relaying the terms to Sarah, Jennifer gave a half-hearted nod.
She used Summon Undead on her new skeleton worker, which appeared with the name Henery Woker highlighted in blue. Jennifer shrugged at the name and put the bones in her inventory.
When her stamina fell below seventy-five percent, Jennifer turned off her Mend power.
“Okay, I have more than enough skeletons in my inventory now, so I need to get back to town to get the repairs done on the micro foundry. Do you have anything to do here, or are you coming back to town, too?” Jennifer asked her friend.
“I’m going to need to oversee an expansion office here, but that will only take a day or two. The road is safe if you and the goblin want to make the run.”
With a smile, she went over to the small goblin and summoned the Kevin skeleton. The goblin blinked and her eyes widened as she gazed at the skeleton. She turned to Jennifer and pointed at herself.
When Jennifer nodded, the goblin got on the back of a skeleton but instantly dismounted. The green girl went over to the pile of rabbit furs and quickly made a riding blanket. When she threw the blanket over the skeleton, the skeleton’s nose turned red and nodded at Jennifer.
She took this as a sign to get going and gave her goodbyes to the vampire and werewolf, who were giving pets and affection to Woozle before they departed.
Setting off at a jog, Jennifer noticed they were running faster, and she felt lighter on her feet. At this rate, she would be able to make it back to town faster than they had arrived in the shadowland.
In the distance, the town’s walls looked like they were crawling with ants. Once they got closer, she realized people were working on the wall.
The old guard shack had been replaced with a large structure. A small window was set in the square building and a thick garage door gate stood to the side.
The group slowed to a walk as they came up to the new entrance.
“Well, Woozle, it looks like the mayor upgraded the wall.” Jennifer was stating the obvious, but she wanted someone to confirm what she saw.
Woozle did not disappoint. “Yes, the question is why?”
A shiver went down her back. She looked at the goblin on the back of undead Kevin. The goblin, who shrugged and urged her skeleton mount towards the gate, felt that was now much less inviting.
Once they were at the gate, the guard said, “Papers, please.”
“Umm, what papers?” Jennifer tipped her head back and inspected the new construction. Days ago, it was barely a fence. Now it was a proper town wall.
“Argh, what business do you have in the town of Hogback?” The voice came from a small speaker under a one-way glass window.
“I want to see my new house, and I need to repair the micro foundry,” she said while counting on her fingers. “Then I need to find a business owner to sign off on my going to Bishop’s University. Oh, and I will need to gather herbs.”
“Okay, you can enter, but the goblin and the shark thing cannot enter.”
“Excuse me? This Miniature Giant, Rocket-Powered Lynx-Shark is my familiar, and that goblin is something to my party members. And we all took part in the last paper raid.”
After a few long, tense heart beats, he said, “Fine, but the goblin cannot come in, they are not on the approved list.”
Her face grew warm in anger as she glared at the glass.
Giant Intimidation blocked
“Who is in charge of the approval list?” Her voice dripped with menace.
Giant Intimidation successful
The trait, Giant Imitation, has evolved into Giant Imitation II. Who said size does not matter?
“The only one that can change the approved list is the mayor.” The voice from the speaker held a note of fear.
“Get. The. Mayor.” Each word came out hot.
“I can’t just get the ma—”
“Get. The. Mayor.” She kept the same tone.