***Post Arrival, PA Day 100 9:01:00 pm, Time Remaining until transfer 7.23:59:00; transfer rank 3,429,431
The first thing he did that night was to take a nap. Doing it while in the dream felt like double dipping, but it rejuvenated him more than he thought it would. [Two worlds equaled more time for the important things.]
Sometime later he finally woke up to a growling stomach. It was absurd to think that he had eaten a little while before bed and was still hungry in the dream, but he was. It also made him realize how reliant he was on always having something in the fridge. His pack and rings were not like the mythical storage rings of literature. Neither would hold a hot cup of coffee or plate of food indefinitely. Triple P could keep things fresh, but he had sacrificed the last of her stores baiting the goblin trap.
That left him with only one option if he was going to get something to eat. [Time to hunt.]
The river was quiet, and he really didn’t have time for goblins right now. Also, he wasn’t in the mood for fish. Eventually, he found a small flock of Silverhorn goats climbing the side of a cliff. He had mostly located them because of the noise. Two Rams were banging heads trying to determine who was in charge of the Harem.
Silverhorn Goats – one of a variety of goat breeds known for inhabiting rocky or Mountainous regions. They are easily distinguished by their coarse silvery fur which provides superior protection against both slashing and piercing damage. They are adept at climbing steep, rocky terrain and are well adapted at surviving in regions with sparse vegetation. During mating season, the male of the species will consume exposed veins of silver to aid in the growth of their prodigious horns. Miners can often tell the quality of a nearby vein of ore by the size and quality of their horns and pelts.
The steaks of Silver were evident even at a distance. Gin was hungry but wasn’t sure about taking on the two goats and the herd all at once. He was also pretty sure attacking the harem would result in a cease-fire as both of the males did the needful and protected the herd. About to give up, Gin stopped when one of the females took a tumble as a section of cliff broke away revealing a hidden seam of silvery ore. The she-goat was nimble and didn’t fall far before regaining her footing and bounding back to the top of the cliff.
Gears were already turning in his mind as greed took hold.
Settling on a rock face within range, He started casting. This would be totally cheating if it worked, but he was willing to give it a shot.
It was a lot more difficult to cast while in bird form and the spell backlashed twice before he was able to concentrate long enough. The losing ram had moved away from the herd to recover by the time he started whispering. The timing had to be perfect. First, he would “Kaw” and then strike out at the goats with a wind blade. Striking Shadows made it, so the sound and blades were projected from the surrounding shadows allowing him to hide his current position. The herd circled up to defend the younger members, while the Ram frantically searched for the source of distress. After the third strike, Gin took off gaining altitude as he screeched loudly to draw the ire and attention of the male. Turning, Gin dove as quickly as possible at the herd, always aiming for the side opposite the male, only to spread his wings wide at the last minute and soar away. Each pass infuriated and confused the Ram more and more.
When Gin felt comfortable with his aerial skills, he dove one last time, only this time he was aimed at the Ram. Pulling out of the dive to glide mere feet above the ground. Gin didn’t need to see the Ram to know he was being chased, but he did need to see to cast. Gin emptied 3 mana from his core to insta-cast Faerie Fire on the infuriated Ram’s head blinding him to the cliff’s edge they both soared over. [Huh, who knew Goats and Coyotes had so much in common? BEEP! BEEP!]
Triple P cleaned up the resulting mess and Gin happily flew home to have some breakfast. He even stopped and pilfered some fresh eggs along the way. Breakfast was so good that he vowed to do that again. Maybe he could drive the herd off long enough to get some of the ore too, at least that was the plan.
After breakfast, Gin settled down to work on acquiring some tools. He had spent a little over 30 mana on the goat, so he still needed to go slow. Technically he could recover from the strain if he spent about half a day resting, but it might take all day if he didn’t rest. Even though he paced himself he still developed a massive headache before he got very far. Still, he managed to turn the rocks and clay he had collected into a stone knife and the walls of a portable foundry. He still needed to carve the runes on the inside, but he had the beginnings of a way to smelt the filched metal.
He spent the rest of his recovery time tracing out patterns on the various hides and trimming everything down into various rough pieces. Most of the strips were nothing more than short wide belts that would eventually be used to make a Roman Battle skirt, but the large pieces had been sized to create a leather cuirass. He also might have taken a peek at pages 30 through 103. They were interesting but nowhere near as embarrassing as Autumn had insinuated.
They did, however, offer some much-needed advice on proper leather care and how to avoid chaffing.
***Post Arrival, PA Day 100 9:06:00 pm, Time Remaining until transfer 7.23:54:00; transfer rank 3,747,192
“Nine Mississippi. . . Ten Mississippi, M, eye, crooked letter, crooked letter, eye, crooked letter, crooked letter, eye, humpback, humpback, eye” Matt still looked up to verify that the fairy monitor had grown bored and slipped back through the shield.
He should have trusted the book. He could only read the hidden text when a monitor wasn’t present, but it never hurt to verify. The shield was the product of the enchantment on the Medallion. It provided a ten-minute privacy ward against being recorded. The monitors would still peak to verify you weren’t doing something interesting, but usually only the one time right after the shield went up. If you were doing something they thought was entertaining then you got a two-minute warning to drop the shield, or else. The book was pretty vague on what “or else” meant, but it stressed not crossing the Triumvirate or their Fae lackeys.
Matt was disturbed when he saw the same black shield used during the nightly broadcast. At first, he thought the red-headed Elf was another member of the rebellion, even if she had poor tastes in men, but the book confirmed that she was Fae.
It was the first real proof that he had seen of their existence. The book warned him that most of the portable shops were run by Fae merchants. There were other merchant houses of course. The book provided code phrases for identifying friendly merchants, but also strictly warned about the dangers of doing business with the Fae.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
The big question was if he could trust Gin. At first, Matt thought he was another rebel, but he never responded to any of the hand signs. He also had a big mouth.
The tutorial cave was the best place for the rebellion to recruit new members. Dreamers weren’t really interesting until they faced the terrors of the True Dream, so the Triumvirate tended to ignore them as long as they remained uninteresting. The tutorial trainers even had orders to push new Dreamers through the training as fast as possible. The rebels had determined that it was safe to stay in the tutorial cave until around the 27th tutorial. If they pushed much further than that, the Triumvirate would start to pay attention to what was happening.
The plan was to focus on Skills and Attunements that could be easily taught to others. These skills would be shared with others in the Dream and together they would become powerful. Maybe even powerful enough to escape.
A flash of light in the distance caught his attention. He had burned the goblins out of the cliffside dwelling in the early days after he had left the tutorial cave. Trees were nice but they didn’t really play well with his chosen skill set. Plus, the cave provided a great defense and overview of the entire valley. From here he could launch death down on anything that dared to approach. Not that there was much left in the area to fight.
That was the downside to all the extra time he had between leaving the tutorial and now. All 3 bosses had been cleaned out. The rock crab had been the hardest as the other two proved to be highly flammable. Matt wasn’t really sure why he even bothered to come in here anymore. Other than to train his attunements or read the book, there just wasn’t much to do. Still, he felt more alive in the Dream and definitely more powerful.
Today had been a good day. Someone had finally responded to the hand signs, so he no longer felt alone in the fight. One person had become two and by the end of the day four. Pat wasn’t part of the rebellion, but maybe he could bring her in later.
He spotted another flash and heard the sound of a tree crashing in the woods. Whatever it was, it was coming closer.
Matt eased back from the edge as he kept his eyes on the forest edge. Soon enough, he saw two shaggy wolves limping out of the woods. The lead wolf was carrying something in its mouth and they both were visibly covered in blood. They didn’t get very far before a giant lizard carrying a hooded figure scurried out of the forest in pursuit.
Matt watched as the figure launched an arrow at the fleeing wolves. The arrow struck true and took the smaller of the wolves down.
Matt saw the larger wolf drop a tiny ball of fur on the ground before turning to face the hunter. Even from this distance, Matt could tell that both the wolf and the Archer were at least Tier 2.
Dodging to the left, the wolf darted from cover to cover as it tried to get closer to the hunter and its scaly mount. Matt heard a hissing laughter as the hunter reveled in the chase. Finally, the hunter scored a direct hit but not before the wolf released a bolt of lightning point blank into the rider and its mount.
The arrow wound was fatal. Matt could already see that the wolf wouldn’t survive the fight. This wasn’t his fight and Matt should have turned away, but it somehow just didn’t seem fair to him. The wolves were majestic, and he couldn’t even match that lightning bolt, but it wasn’t enough. The archer’s hood had been thrown back in the fight, and Matt watched as the pointy-eared freak started to stir.
Matt wasn’t sure if this was a Fae or something else, but he released the mini meteor anyway. Not even waiting for the first to strike he released two more as quickly as he could cast. All three struck the prone archer before he ever saw them coming. Two to the chest and one to the head. If the archer had any skills to tank the damage, they were all used up by the time the meteors struck.
The wolf was barely hanging on by the time Matt made it down from his cave. She whimpered as he moved into sight. Matt wasn’t sure why, but he felt like the wolf was female. Her wild nature almost called to him as he locked eyes with her.
You have been offered a blood pack by an Alpha Storm Wolf. Protect the last of her pack, Dreamer, and she offers you the minor bloodline, Storm Rider.
***Post Arrival, PA Day 100 8:00:00 am, Time Remaining until transfer 7.13:00:00; transfer rank 3,429,431
It felt good to sleep in a little and the showers were blessedly free of company as well. However, the walk to breakfast was confusing. People still pointed and whispered, but several of the guys flashed him a thumbs up while the reactions from the females were incredibly varied. He received winks and shy smiles but also stares of death and one “She could do better. Serves you right!”. The problem was that some of the visible reactions conflicted with what he sensed creating a dissonance of mocking laughter, jealousy, anger, and curiosity.
Ever since he was given the bloodline, he would occasionally be able to sense a person’s mood. Especially if they were near or if the emotion was very strong.
[Something is definitely not right! Ears didn’t evoke this kind of response. Especially when that one lady was sporting green hair that didn’t look like a die job.]
Gin decided to skip the garbage buffet and just grabbed a banana and a bottle of water to eat on the way to the shop. He was half tempted to find a quiet place and cast Fade to avoid the attention. His face went beet red as he entered the shop, not because of the catcalls, but because Corey asked, “Do any good Haggling last night?”
[By the Nocturnals, I’m going to kill that woman!] “What . . . No, how do y’all know about that?”
“Easy, you made it into the dream thingy last night. They ran a short clip of you and the redhead. You even got nominated for one of those ‘Dreamy’ awards for best make-out scene or something. You’ll probably lose since most of it was blacked out and because it mostly focused on you and not her, but hey at least you were nominated. Just satisfy our curiosity and tell us she was hot? The only good pic’s we got were when she was mauling you and then her smile when she left you hanging.”
[It’s going to be a very long day.]
The shop eventually calmed down and the guys didn’t really give him too much grief over it. The most exciting thing to happen that day wasn’t even related to Gin’s fictional love life.
Around noon, they ran out of copper and couldn’t make any more bronze until someone went down to pick up their requisition from the hanger serving as a temporary supply depot. Gin managed to talk his way into being part of the requisition team by arguing that there might be more stuff they could use if he just got a look at what was there.
Eventually, He, Corey, and Corporal Hensley made it over to the hangar. Gin had talked the shop guys into relinquishing 2 of the enchanted blades along with a section of rebar for demonstration purposes. Bribes in hand, they managed to get a guided tour of the stacks and Gin made a shopping list for later that evening.
Gin eventually ran out of pearls that he was willing to donate to the cause, so he and Corey spent the afternoon expanding the available arsenal by designing a spearhead and a banded wood shield. Gin promised to hunt for some more pearls so they could finish up the remaining blades. The guys did let him make a couple of bronze plates for his portable smithy when he explained their purpose. They even threw in enough metal for a hammer when he complained that he needed to work out some frustrations.
He couldn’t help but smile as he left for dinner. It had been a profitable day and would hopefully be a profitable evening.
Dinner was the usual vomit he had grown to hate, only brightened by the continued attention of his peers. Thankfully, he had avoided Pat and her new toy.
It was almost ten before the activity at the hanger slowed down enough and he was left with just a couple of guards. The moment of truth went off with a muffled ‘Kaw’ and he glided silently into the hanger through an upper access vent. [First on the list: Copper pans, so that’s in Home Goods on aisle four towards the back.]
There were lots of good things in Home Goods and he felt bad that he was having to save so much space for the copper pipes and raw tin and aluminum he had seen in some of the other sections. Still, there were those Brass grommets and tiny glass vials in the hobby store section that looked interesting as well.
Shopping had to be cut short when he knocked over a pile of copper pipes, but he had saved those for last, so it wasn’t a complete loss. Maybe he could come back tomorrow if they didn’t beef up the security too much.