In Jack's excitement, he hadn't yet realized that he wasn't listening to music. Now though, he did. Walking back into the church, he looked down and saw that his playlist wasn't on anymore, and neither was the phone. 'No! Man, how am I supposed to...' he looked around, knowing he wouldn't see what he needed but looking anyway. 'No. No. This is seriously gonna suck even more than it was anyway. No sword, no chicks, no tunes?'
At least the cresting morning sun had made the living plants outside happy, though none of the light had begun to filter through the holes between the boards in the walls yet.
-----------------------
It was early enough that Leldro didn't want to wait any longer. He had already put some waterskins and dry rations in his knapsack, and though the rations were supposed to be for emergencies only, he considered this to be one. It wasn't like the Ministry didn't have more on hand.
All he wanted to do was to get more people to pledge themselves to the Ministry like he had, but after the town guard had come into the tavern and said what they said last night, he couldn't sit quietly. With his trusty book in hand, he started walking. It wasn't that he was getting revenge for the destruction of the other church. It was both abandoned and belonged to them, so that was fine. But new monsters invading a town? It would soon become a nest. He'd have to do something.
Even worse, a giant was killed? Where did it come from? This was going to get out of control very quickly. He hastened his step.
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'Dead cell phone, everything around me destroyed or useless. Yeah, so fun.' Jack sulked, and walked back over to the thwomp, still angrily in place near the floor where it was told to go. 'You can go back up there, I wanna see what you uncovered. Just smoosh anyone that goes under you so no one opens the chest, okay? There's a reason it opens where it does.'
The thwomp didn't respond, but it did obey. There was a little more light now, but nothing really looked different except for the color of light. Jack reached down and touched the part of the destroyed church bell. 'Store', he said, as he did the same to the rope nearby. He kicked one of the broken boards floating on top of the water revealed by the lack of flooring, and was given the option again. 'Store. Okay now you're pitying me, right? I can kick stuff to loot it?'
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Reports about monsters, especially undiscovered ones, were to be taken very seriously. At the same time, the Exterminators were obviously both shaken and patrons of the tavern. How seriously could she really take them? The report came in last night not too far from the tavern's closing time, but since it was after hours, no new quests would be written yet. That was her morning job.
She grabbed a blank vellum from the stack, dipped her quill in the inkwell, and started writing.
"Monster investigation. Possibly new species. Located in abandoned peat town church. Reward upon completion."
She wasn't the one to determine prices, that was the guildmaster. Either way, she went over to the quest board and stuck the vellum in place with a thin nail that she hammered in as loudly as she could. It might even wake up some of her co-workers who had fallen asleep at the benches earlier.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
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'Are there any birds on the roofs? A nest?' Jack, wanting to find something to do besides randomly poke at broken pieces of floorboard to store, which he had been doing for a few minutes now, got up and went out. Walking around the church's exterior walls as he had done before, he didn't really see anything. Going across the street to his other 'room' as it was, he didn't see any birds, but something else. 'More trash, huh? At least it would be dungeony. Not like I haven't played enough dungeon crawlers.'
The torches were surprisingly low on the wall. The height of the building, at least the general store, was slightly higher than his head as the ceiling had shown him inside. The torch outside looked to be around the height of his stomach. Were all the people that used to live here small like those guys last night?
[Construction discovered: Rusted Torch Sconce.]
[Construction added to research.]
'So the torch is just an item. Furniture? I guess plants and animals and items and furniture are all just crap to store and then research. But I need a proper store room. And a proper research room. Why not just call it a library? That's kinda what it was. Why not a crafting hall too, and a Frankenstein's lab? And a blacksmithery! Forge room? I can do all that. Need some space though...'
He looked around, and next to the church, towards some hills that weren't too far away, there was another building. With a forge outside? 'Luck! Okay you're mine.' Then he hit an issue. Jack was used to seeing maps from an aerial view, and if you imagined a lot drawn around the church to include a small yard surrounding it, then when he got to the edge of it towards the smith, he felt fine. But the moment he took a step outside that space, he felt hungry and lightheaded.
He quickly took a step back, and in so doing, felt relief. 'So I can't just wander around. Okay, then if I have to stay in the rooms I got, might as well make sure I touched everything, right? Not like that guy in the chair would want to help anyway.'
But it wasn't like Jack had a spring in his step, but he did have his eyes open. It was even easier to get a look around since it was fully daytime now. Inside the abandoned general store, a few more things were acquired.
[Construction discovered: Store Counter]
[Construction added to research list.]
[Construction discovered: Aisle Shelf]
[Construction added to research list.]
[Construction discovered: Support Beam]
[Construction added to research list.]
But then something interesting triggered.
[Special Construction discovered: Termite Nest Unstable Support Beam]
[Special Construction added to research list.]
'What, it's just a support beam that has termites in it.' He thought for a moment. 'Is this how I get the queen and eggs? Okay, you know what, I do need that research room. Probably the first one. Soon! You just wait!'
Carefully, Jack looked around the rest of the inside of the store, but only found an empty eggshell, that looked like a chicken egg maybe, but the sunlight illuminating it showed that it was totally empty. Whatever, 'store', was the response. Same as everything else in the store, which was really just a wooden bowl that had been cracked and flipped over, what looked like a brush for an animal of some kind, and a wooden spoon covered in a spider web hidden in a corner. Spiderweb! 'If you're here, then...' it took a thorough look in the top and bottom corners to find a spider, which looked to be standing guard in its new web, right over an eggsac. 'Store, store!'
'Hoarder time! Did I get everything?' Jack asked himself out loud as he went back outside and walked around, looking at pretty much everything at this point. There was a somewhat wide circle near the outside wall of the general store with no plants, which kind of stood out. 'Move you out of the... right. I can't actually move things unless I store it first. Fine. Store, store, store. Store all the grasses no matter what kind they are. St-' but a message cut Jack off.
[Construction discovered: Abandoned Fire Pit]
[Construction added to research.]
'Yeah, that'll work. Also, shut off that confirmation already. Tell me what I found, yeah, but I don't need the confirmation message. They're that annoying.'