— CHAPTER TEN —

A Couple of Boys in the Plains

  -Fritz-

 The Stonehearth Plains - breadbasket of the Kingdom! Golden wheat swayed in the breeze, stretching as far as the eye could see. Bushy blossoming potatoes and broad leaves of cabbage added deep greens to the landscape. Along the winding brick roads, vibrant wildflowers bobbed - crimson poppies, azure cornflowers, and buttery dandelions making a shifting kaleidoscope highlighting the way forward.

 Out beyond the orderly farmland, mobs roamed. Clumsy bumblebees the size of dogs with tiny wings hovered between sunflowers. Big ol' cows with shaggy coats and sharp horns grazed on the long grass, looking docile enough from a distance, but I wasn't going to go out there and test it. Beady eyes glared out from dark burrows honeycombing the distant hills, watching us. But Ted was right, while we were on the road, nothing came near. So we stuck precisely on the brick boulevard cutting through the countryside.

 As we followed along a shallow valley, a wooden watchtower came into view, poking up from the top of a hill. And a quaint little village sprung up around it soon after. Tidy cottages with thatch roofs made a ring around the watchtower, trickling down the hillside to where the main road wrapped around its edge. The smell of hay and livestock wafted from the pastures where NPCs were letting their goats graze. Others sat in front of their homes, weaving reeds into baskets.

 I was about to suggest we stop and look around when a voice called out, "Ahoy there, travelers!"

 Rocking back in a chair on a cottage porch sat a dude in a Hawaiian shirt and khakis.

 "Hey Fritz, that guy stole your clothes." Percival said flatly.

 "Yeah, and he looks great."

 As we approached, his nameplate popped up, naming him as 'Titus X'.

 "What's good, man?" I asked, stepping up to his front porch.

 He spread his arms wide. "It all is, my dude! Fresh air, wide open skies - just 'cause we're trapped here doesn't mean we can't take it easy, ya feel?"

 "I'm right there with you, man." Next to him, nailed to the wall beside the cottage door, was a sign painted with the name 'Titus X'. "You living here?"

 "Hell yeah!" Titus kicked his sandaled feet up on the porch railing. "No rent, good neighbors, what more could you want? Hey, could I buy you guys a drink? I guess that's something we don't have a lot of - real faces. Hopefully more people come out here."

 "I'll never say no to a good time!"

 "I think that's why you're indebted to the mob." Percy said flatly.

 Titus sat up straight, sandals thunking to the floorboards. "Woah, there's a mob around here?"

 "... Let's talk over a drink." I suggested. "There a tavern here?"

 There was, and it was rustic as hell. A long, squat building cobbled together from thick-hewn timbers, gold hay poking from between the logs and littering the floor. The hazy air was warmed by a crackling hearth. A smattering of NPCs were sipping tankards, and the braying and clucking of animals seeped in from outside.

 We claimed a table off to the side, beside the hearth. Titus and I got ourselves some ciders while Percy stuck with water.

 Titus nodded as he sipped his drink. "Rumors, huh? Well, not a lot of people pass through here - I've met about a dozen or so. One guy mentioned he was looking for farm spots so he could sell the locations."

 "Did he find anything?" I asked.

 He looked down at his mug and shook his head. "Who knows? Never came back. Most of 'em don't. I hope they took different roads back to the city. Every time they blow through here, I wonder - what's the rush? The world's not going anywhere."

 "They're scared." I said, sipping that crisp, sweet cider. "Things'll settle down as they dig in for the long haul."

 After a contemplative drink, Titus set his mug down. "What I can tell you is that I've walked the whole road to Stonehearth and back, and there's one thing that's stuck with me. A little west of the main road about halfway between the cities, a woman stopped me. She was crying, begging for help, screaming that they were going to kill everyone in her village. I felt terrible saying no, but... I'm only level 2." He shrugged helplessly, staring into the cider.

 "It's natural to want to see them as people, but it wouldn't have made a difference." I tried to reassure him. "It'll all reset for the next player that passes through."

 Titus met my gaze, nodded, and raised his tankard. "Cheers to video game mechanics, eh?!"

 We clinked mugs and drank deeply.

 It was a nice little lunchtime stopover, but after we finished, we set out to continue toward Stonehearth. That encounter sounded promising, so we left the paved highway for the network of dirt paths that surrounded it. Still safe from the mobs, but a little slower to travel along than the direct route.

 As we continued to walk, the distant silhouette of a tower, tall as a skyscraper and black as pitch, rose over the horizon. It stood alone - a dark obelisk in the middle of nowhere.

 "What is that?" I squinted, trying to get any details through the haze of the atmosphere.

 Percy opened his map and oriented it to sight the landmark. "I think that's Stonehearth City."

 "Are you sure? They didn't plop Orthanc down between us and it?"

 "Nope. It's all farmland."

 "Visit Stonehearth City today - come see our beautiful pastoral landscape, then stop in at the evil wizard's tower for lunch!"

 "Maybe it needs to be cleansed of the Corrupted King's influence?" Percy suggested.

 "Maybe." I said. "Hey, so, Faustenburg is a Loyalist city, right? Resistance players can't go there? And Townsville's the same for them, yeah?"

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

 "Yes. The guards are hostile to the other faction."

 "Then what's the downside of being neutral? Aside from not being allowed in the faction headquarters?"

 "A lot of task areas and towns in later zones are faction-based. It will be more limiting then."

 "Ok." I nodded. "So what's Stonehearth City? Loyalist?"

 "The Capital and three major cities are controlled by the King. Technically neutral to all players."

 The sun sank lower, dying the fields in the bright oranges and dark purples of twilight. And we walked on, curving through the patchwork hills. I didn't feel tired, not physically - we didn't need to eat, and our muscles didn't get sore. But I was mentally fried. Anything to break the monotony.

 And then it appeared - Eden.

 Around the bend, a sparkling lake emerged from the hills.

 "Let's stop here!" I suggested, already veering off the path.

 It was specially made for camping. Some fallen logs had been rolled over from a copse on the far side of the lake and set around a stone firepit. And the water! That was the perfect spot for some fishing! I rubbed my palms together, fishing my rod out of my inventory.

 Percival said, "The sooner we find this quest, the sooner you can fish all you want."

 I waved him off. "Oh relax. We're not on a timer. And get a load of that sunset; enjoy the beauty while it's here!"

 The lake mirrored the gradient of the sky, ripples making the first glimmers of starlight dance. Just beneath the surface, the shadows of fish lurked like star-devouring monstrosities, occasionally coming up high enough to splash a nebula of shining droplets into the air.

 I kicked off my shoes, rolled up my pants, and waded into the shallows. "Come on, fish with me!"

 "I'm not much of a fisher."

 "Even in video games?"

 "Especially in games."

 "Oh come on; how can you hate fishing in games? It's relaxing!"

 "It's boring."

 "That's the point! You take your mind off things, let the nothingness flow through your head."

 "If I want to do nothing, I don't need to pretend to fish. And if I want to do something, I can do better than fish."

 I waved him off again. "Bah, fine. Go do your nothing, then; I'm catching a lunker!"

 I flicked my rod, sending the lure sailing. It plopped into the center of the reflected sky with a satisfying splash. Leaning back, I watched the bobber drift on the mirrored heavens. Kid didn't know what he was missing; this was the life!

(Percival) I walked around the campsite, gathering twigs and branches and tossing them into the firepit. When I had a sufficient pile, I sat down on one of the logs.

 There were three ways to cast a spell in Dawnfall. First, use the associated hand sign or, for more complex spells, draw the symbol in the air. Second, simply shout the spell's name. 'With FEELING!' the instructions said. I believe it was measuring emotional intensity to differentiate between idle chatter and intent to cast. Third was to issue a system command.

 "Command Sharp: Spell: Igni." I stated. That materialized a small orb of flickering flame that hovered just off my left shoulder. Dawnfall also didn't have your standard cast time on abilities, instead using a 'queue time'. Once triggered, they took a moment to charge up, then sat in the cast bar until needed. Effectively the same output as a normal cast time, but it let you load up before hand to use them on split-second reactions. I liked it.

 To release the spell, I could have either physically reached toward the spell ball and threw it out or used another system command. I was feeling lazy, so I went with the latter. "Command Sharp: Spell One: Cast."

 The fireball shot forward, striking the pile of tinder dead center. The twigs burst into flames, crackling as they released a wave of warmth that blew away the evening chill.

 I reached out and picked a twig from the fire's edge. The flames steadily crawled from one end to the other, devouring the texture of the wood and showing the underlying wireframe. Then, as the fire passed by, the texture regenerated in a blackened, charred state. However, I poked one of my fingers into the flames. A light stinging sensation pricked as it burnt away the texture of my skin, but when I withdrew my hand, it remained in that raw wireframe state - no burn marks. It seemed to work that way with mobs and creatures as well - anything intended to be a combat unit kept its texture damage. But did every bit of scenery have a burnt texture? And is 'texture' really the right word? Because they weren't 'image files' in a normal sense; they were some kind of mental impression being fed directly into our brains.

 Then, if I tilted the twig so that the flames were burning up the shaft, it climbed faster, but turning it upside down, the fire was slower. Was that a specifically programmed behavior, or an emergent facet of underlying systems? Just how 'designed' was this world?

 A sudden splashing from the shore interrupted my thoughts. Fritz was grappling with a fish as big as his arm, water spraying everywhere as they thrashed. I'm not good with fish, so let's call it a crappie.

 "Boring my hiney; look at this bad boy!" he called over, even as the crappie whipped around and slapped him across the face with its tail. The pair fell backwards into the shallows, splashing and struggling against each other. "Gah! Get me a knife! It's dinner time!"

 "Command Sharp: Spell: Geo. Command Sharp: Spell One: Cast."

 A glob of packed earth shot past my ear and bonked the fish square in the head. It spasmed once and fell limp. Fritz lay back in the water, clutching its body against his chest as he laughed between panting breaths. "Nice shot!"

 He hauled himself up, water streaming from his clothes as he sloshed toward the campfire. He collapsed on another log, eyeing the fish in his lap before turning to me. "You said you have all the crafting classes, right? You know how to cook this sucker?"

 Most crafting required specialized stations, but the tutorial briefly mentioned that cooking was more flexible with its utensils and appliances.

 "As long as you want something basic, I can try." I offered.

 "I'll take anything!" He tossed the fish in my direction.

 I caught it, getting a little fish taste in my mouth as it flopped limply in my arms. Ugh; not a fan of fish. Pulling up the interaction menu, I looked through the cooking options. With the campfire nearby, it said I could prepare a simple roasted fillet.

 "Fillet?" I asked.

 "Fill-up my belly!"

 I selected the recipe, and a small knife materialized in my hand. Translucent holograms appeared around the fish, outlining each step of the process. I followed the guides, removing the head, scraping away the scales, readying the meat for cooking. Finally, I speared the prepared fillet on a stick and held it over the flames to roast.

 When it was done, the whole thing disappeared, replaced by a plate bearing a steaming hot, greying-brown slab of slightly charred meat. 'Crappie Fillet (Poor)'.

 I held the plate out to Fritz. "Here you go."

 He drew a dagger out of his belt - a combat dagger, mind you - and chopped it in half. Spearing one of the halves on the blade, he raised it in a toast. "Bottoms up!"

 I wasn't hungry, but since I made it, I felt obliged to try it. I took the other half and bit in.

 It was... like eating cardboard.

 Fritz burst into laughter, falling backwards off his log. "Oh that is... rough! Next time we've gotta bring seasoning!"

 "Or pre-cook meals at a real crafting station."

 "But that's half the fantasy! Roughing it in the fields with nothing but a rod and knife! Man (and a spice rack) versus nature!"

 "You're a strange one, you know that?"

 He pushed himself back onto his log with a smile. "Pot calling the kettle black there, buddy!"

 Shabby cooking aside, for a brief moment, I got what he was saying. There was a... calmness to just sitting out there with nothing else going on. Once I turned off the concern for the job we were out there to do, it was nice.

 But only for a moment.

 "Is that... smoke?" I pointed over his shoulder at a broken pillar of thin and wispy dark smoke rising up from beyond the nearby hills, rapidly vanishing into the purple dusk.

 He followed my gaze as he put his shoes and socks back on and folded his pant legs down. "Looks like a forge fire; could be another town. We could crash there for the night." He smirked and took off at a run. "First one there gets dibs on the biggest house!"

 "What happened to roughing it?!"

 "Later - I want a big, cushy bed!"

 "And you're calling me strange?" I put the fire out with a water spell and took off after him. Surprise start or no - I was always first around the track at school; he wasn't getting away from me!