If any of the workers didn't wake up from the rooster crowing, they got a second chance from Rolly cursing at the cock and throwing rocks. The rooster didn't mind; he was used to performing for harsh audiences, and the irate human was a bad shot. A surprisingly bad shot, with no rock even coming within six feet of the amused bird. After tossing a few dozen rocks, Rolly gave up. The cock gave a loud cock-a-doodle-piss-on-you of victory and ran off to check on his hens.
Ozzy and Ben joined a grumpy Rolly outside, all three trying to stretch out sore muscles before joining the morning traffic jam at the outhouses. Suzette walked up to them with a sack over her shoulder and a scrap of vellum in her hand. "C'mon, I've got our work assignments from Billy and breakfast in the bag; we can avoid the morning pep talk."
Ozzy noticed that Suzette was looking a lot better this morning. Her clothes were still the burlap and wool peasant outfit they'd all started the game with, but whereas his was a shapeless tube with holes for arms and head, hers was contoured to her body, cut down in a V at the front of her neck, and the edges were hemmed. "Did you start sewing, Susy? Looks good."
"It's the blood sacrifice that does it." Holding up her hands, they saw numerous small punctures where the needle had punched through the thick fabric. "I swear it's like I don't know how to sew. I've sewn clothes in and out of games for years, and now it's like my mind knows what to do, but the fingers are stupid. More practice, I guess. Wonder how much work it takes to earn a sewing skill?"
Ben nodded. He'd also been wondering about skill increases. He'd spent hours in the dark last night poking at a tree with a makeshift spear. His thrusts were clumsy, sometimes even dropping the spear, and he'd not seen even one hint of a message about learning basic spear skills. In most games, it took little to earn a basic combat skill: a couple of successful fights, a half hour with a trainer, or an hour of practice on your own. After three hours of practice using basic thrusts, he hadn’t gained anything except blisters and sore arms. The tree he was using for target practice wasn’t happy about things either but would recover from the small dents in its bark.
She led them to a secluded spot behind the new building. After learning how easy it was to bring down taller and larger logs, the decision had been made to build one large barn and divide it down the center for a smokehouse on one side and a storehouse on the other. While that work had been going on, a basic corral and slaughter chute hand had been built where Ozzy would work.
Suzette opened her bag and tossed each man an apple before biting into her own. "Fruit! Suzette, I forgive you for several bad things you have done to me over the years." Ben happily bit into his. "I'm getting a bit tired of groatmeal muffins and boiled groats, and it’s only been a couple of meals."
"Well, you get those as well. Or save them for lunch. I also have the breakfast of champions. Pull out your mugs." As they complied, she took out her water skin and squirted a cup of fresh milk into each cup, followed by a raw egg. "There you go. Fruit, Moo, cluck-cluck, and groat: the four basic food groups."
"Amazing," Ben said as he stirred up his egg cream until it was foamy. "And how did you manage all this?" Suzette shrugged, "Just noticed a few things yesterday. The Tavern has a barn and chicken coop behind it. I volunteered to do some chores, milking and gathering eggs, in exchange for four egg creams. The apples are from a tree near the bridge. I think we four should take turns doing some chores for a bit each morning and get some better food out of it. Billy has me on baking duty, making muffins for all the meals. I'll be in the kitchen, baking the first batch. If one of you three do the chores, we all get to eat a lot better. It's a start, at least."
"OK, let's see where you boys are working. Ozzy is facing off against those stupid cow things. Rolly is assisting you with his 'shepherding skills' to manage the herd of sedge beasts and help Lyle get them to Ozzy. You're also supposed to expand that corral more as they cut wood for fencing, and if you see one of the sheep that is wandering, coax it down to the corral."
“I’ll try, but I saw one yesterday, and it looked mean. I swear it had sharp teeth and fangs.” Rolly was none too excited about his role. "Have I mentioned how much I don't like playing Bo Peep without the proper help? I don't even get a sheepdog. If this was a pet class, I'd be happy. I love pets in games! I wonder if I can evolve shepherd into some special class with attack animals?"
"You’ll figure it out, Rolly. Maybe train that mean sheep?” Turning to Ben, she said, "And you're supposed to assist the tanners in stretching and scraping skins. Billy says you should have some leatherworking skills, right? So, after you have some hides to the point where you can work them into leather, he wants you to start making clothing to outfit people better and bellows for the smithy."
Ben raised an eyebrow at that, smiling. "Why, certainly! And I must say that I just love vague commands like that from the boss. I am pretty sure my skill is limited to making reins, saddles, and tack as part of the courier skills, but I'll see what I can do. I know what has worked in earlier games, and also the traditional real-world methods. I'll give it a go at making some more shapeless shoes and aprons, but I think outfitting our group in some leather armor for our first day off might be a side project as well. I'll see what my limits are."
"And why don't we all work on getting ready for our day off? If Suzette can squirrel away more food, that will help us leave early before breakfast. I'll work on some armor. Rolly, while you're out roaming around looking for sedge beasts and sheep, keep your eye out for some straight, dry wood for spears or clubs. Ozzy can save us some nice thick bones for making spearheads. It's a start, and we can get working on earning some combat skills. Rolly can also find us a nice starting area with low-level animals. They mentioned this village would be a starting area for players, so let's take advantage of that before they arrive." Ben's plan was approved, and everyone got off to work for the day.
The second day came and went. Muffins got baked. Ben worked with the leather workers, gathering oak bark and setting up tanning racks. Rolly and Lyle, the druid, rounded up some of the odd cows for Ozzy to slaughter. After making sure Ozzy had plenty of beasts to keep him busy, Rolly went off looking for sheep and spots to gain some experience on their day off. Exploring to the north and east, he found a nice meadow with large rabbits chewing on yellow flowers. That was about as tame as he was going to find. The rabbits didn’t seem skittish and were so fat they could only hop slowly away from him when he got near them.
Ozzy was learning the joys of his profession. The first thing he learned was that sedge beasts were not normal cows. No two seemed alike. They came with at least two horns, and often six, jutting out from different sides of their heads and even straight out like a unicorn. He saw one with a triple tail and another with two udders, helpful since she had three calves following her around. The cows were dark grey to black, and the bulls tended to be reddish brown. Some of the older bulls were huge, the size of a rhino, and he was glad he didn’t have to deal with them. The meat of a sedge beast got both tougher and worse tasting the older the beast was, so Rolly and Lyle were sent to round up animals less than two years old and no cows with calves.
They didn’t have trouble finding candidates. The herds to the north of town were immense, with cattle in the fields and grazing in the light forest that surrounded the area. A type of broad-bladed grass, called sedge, grew in the area, and it was assumed the cattle took their name from their meal of choice. A sedge beast in the corral was coaxed into the chute with a handful of sedge tossed at the other end, and the gate shut, hemming it in. All Ozzy had to do was swing a sledgehammer hard enough to kill it, then open the gate on his end, and with help from Rolly and Lyle, drag it to a huge oak stump where he cut it apart. The meat went to the smokehouse, the hides and brains to the tanners, hooves would be turned into glue for the carpenters, and everything would eventually head to a compost pile to make fertilizer. Ozzy tossed aside some of the better horns that Ben had asked for to make spear points.
It was brutal and bloody work, and Ozzy was very happy to have a stream nearby where he could wash up a couple of times a day. Sedge beasts smelled. Something about the animal was just wrong, from the deformities and mutations to their smell, which only got worse the more he chopped them up. He found out that the meat even tasted horrible. No one wanted to eat it unless it was thoroughly smoked using a mixture of woods that grew in the forests.
Something sedge beasts ate must account for the nasty stink and taste. It took a few days of smoking the meat over a Hollywood fire to take most of that out. Other woods would smoke the meat and cure it but couldn’t get rid of the horrible taste. The thick limb wood left over from cutting trees was piled near the smokehouse, a mix of sassafras, hickory, holly, oak, and apple. By the end of the second day, there were fifteen sedge beast carcasses hanging in the smokehouse, and the fires had been started in pits in the ground. Every morning and evening, wood would be added to keep them slowly burning and creating the smoke that drove out the horrible flavor, replacing it with a sweet, smoky taste.
The third day in Sedgewick started out good, and Ozzy felt like he was getting the hang of the job. He’d cut meat in kitchens before, and this was the same. Bigger pieces to start with, but he was processing each beast quicker than the last. A few quick chops and he was tossing hooves in one pile, head to another. The hide he slit and pulled off the carcass.
Unfortunately, there was no use for things like the heart, liver, or kidneys. The cook said they couldn't be made edible and didn't smoke well. So, all the entrails, organs, and other unusable parts got tossed into a pit that they'd dug. The tallow that would normally be harvested from a bull like this was also useless. Light a candle made from sedge beasts fat, and you made the house unlivable for days. He did save the brains, though. The tanners needed them for some sort of leatherworking project. The rest would eventually get ground up, mixed with leaves, and left to rot for a couple of seasons to make fertilizer for the crops.
Halfway through the third day, things got a bit more interesting for Ozzy. He'd just finished butchering a sedge beast when he heard a loud DING!! and a message appeared.
[Congratulations! You've managed to level up something despite having turned off notifications. Wouldn't it be nice to know what happened? Maybe you should go look at those? Most people enjoy the constant barrage of skill-up messages, but if you want to ignore them you also can just request a summary since your last inquiry. Simply say, subvocalize, or think hard on /Summary to bring up the window.]
"Lyle, I need a break for a bit."
"Good, you take a break, and I’ll take one too." Lyle needed little to convince him to take a short nap. He worked hard when he had to work but was the first in bed each night.
Looking at his settings, Ozzy saw the way to enable message summaries and used the command to bring one up.
[Good for you! Hard work is paying off.
You have killed and butchered 50 adult sedge beasts.
You have earned 50 experience points in Hack Flesh, 50 experience in Chop Bone, and 50 experience in Slaughter.
All three skills have been raised to rank 1.
You have earned 150 experience in STR. STR has been raised to rank 2.
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
Congratulations! You have increased your STR characteristic by +1 to a total of 5. This affects all skills using the STR attribute, including Haul III and Dig II.]
Ozzy could feel the increase already. It was like getting a steroid shot that went to work immediately. He felt a lot stronger. And he knew that Haul III should triple his lifting/hauling of heavy objects. How did STR really work? Even with STR 0, many of the workers were moving some pretty heavy objects. He'd seen people drag beams that he guessed were around 200 lbs. He was nearly able to lift a full carcass and easily shouldered one once it was butchered. What does a bull like this weigh, 2000 lbs.? 3000 lbs.? Time to give it a try.
Grabbing a front leg and putting his other arm under the body of the dead bovine, he just barely managed to lift it to his shoulder. From there, he staggered with it to the stump and dumped it onto his butcher block. "Just barely." He mused as he quickly dismembered the beast. Was this the normal game mechanics? Or did ACME set things up this way? This was going to make their end-of-week adventure much more interesting.
Taking a piece of charcoal, he started drawing on the side of the barn, making a list of people he knew with STR of more than 0 and what he had seen them lifting. And he remembered Suzette being surprised she could lift two full sacks of flour with just base 0 in STR. Jorges, Jon, and Cham had all helped him move logs all day, along with some people who only had 1 point of strength. If the increase was linear, his best guess was 100 lbs. or more at 0 STR and then another 250 for each point you gained. And then the Haul III ability tripled it? He made a couple of charts and drew a graph. He'd come back to it later, but it gave him a baseline to start with.
He got back to work with more enthusiasm. More hacking and chopping meant he'd be stronger for adventuring. There was only one problem with that: he was starving. Right after his increase in STR, he'd gotten damned hungry, and the thought of more groats wasn't cutting it. He was craving meat to keep these new muscles growing. Luckily, that was something he had plenty of. The Legion seemed ok with eating Sedge Beast, and right now, even he was starting to consider trying it out. How bad could it be if he cooked it until well done?
Off to one side of his stump, he made a fire pit and burned the holly wood scraps from the lumberyard. He whittled some oak skewers and loaded them up with meat from what would be the tenderloin area on a cow. Maybe a couple of hours over a direct fire would be enough to cook smaller chunks of meat? For lunch, it was going to be groat muffins, though. He’d try his barbequed Sedge beast later.
In the afternoon, when he got hungry, he popped a couple of the charred lumps in his mouth. The meat was gamey with an odd taste, and it only got worse the more he chewed. So, he quit chewing and just swallowed it down. It was as horrible as he’d been told!
Luckily, he could fix that. With the second chunk, he used 'Tastes like Chicken.' The lump of cooked sedge beast meat in his mouth turned into chicken, which turned out to be a lucky thing. Notifications started popping up as he doubled over with pain in his stomach.
[Warning: You have eaten the flesh of a tainted animal. This will cause sickness and possibly death. Maybe even worse than death! Hopefully, you learn a valuable lesson no matter which option happens.]
[Congratulations!! You have used an ability in a new way. The Perk: 'Tastes like Chicken' has neutralized the poison in the sedge meat by transforming it into tasty chicken. Continue to experiment with this perk. There might even be a way to upgrade it.]
The excitement of having learned something about the system faded as he read the next message and started feeling the effects.
[WARNING: The skill has no effect on the poisonous meat already inside you. Once the bad stuff has gone down your throat, the rest of you must deal with what you chose to eat.]
His stomach cramped, and he felt nauseous, bad enough that he dropped to his hands and knees.
[Congratulations, you aren't Dead!
The poison in your system is not nearly enough to kill you, but it's not going to be fun for the next few minutes. Maybe find a tree to throw up behind? While we don't recommend this to everyone, maybe you've found a way to increase your CON stat to offset that hideous STR score. I'm joking; you'd have to eat a hell of a lot of sedge beast meat to do that.]
[You have earned 5 experience in the skill Minor Poison Resistance and 5 experience in CON.]
Ozzy wasted no time stumbling down the hill and into some bushes beside a small creek. The next few minutes weren't pretty, but after that, he felt better. Later, after washing up in the creek, Ozzy stared at the skewers before kicking them into the fire. He wasn't ready to try that again, CON experience or not today, at least.
Over the next two days, Ozzy waged a war on the herd of sedge beasts. There seemed to be a steady supply of them being herded out of the light forests around the village and funneled into him. The locals were only too happy to see it happen. The things were difficult to deal with and bred amazingly fast. Calves seemed to drop all year round and grew up quickly. Many a garden or field had been destroyed over the years by them. Fences around growing foodstuffs tended to be rock walls. Luckily, fields here in the North produced a lot of rocks. The last course of stones also included Hollywood stakes every 6" set into the mortar between the stones. They gave the fields the look of small fortresses and made a sedge beast think twice about trying to climb over for a tasty lunch. It was rare that it happened, as most seemed to prefer the sedge grass over daintier crops.
The increased STR score made it easier to kill them in one hit with his Slaughter skill. His only worry was breaking his sledgehammer if he swung too hard. He was on his 3rd hammer, and Billy was threatening to dock his pay next time. He could slaughter a beast, dismember it, and haul the carcass to the barn in about 10 minutes. The count was 47 the day before, and he'd just finished the 53rd he’d done today. It had been one of the young sedge bulls with a red hide and nearly killed him!
He'd brought down his hammer in a good swing, but this beast had more than the usual number of horns, and the blow got turned to the side. The pain of a cracked skull and broken horns did nothing for its already poor disposition. Surging forward, the beast crashed through the gate, and a surprised Ozzy didn't retreat fast enough to avoid getting gored in his side by a broken horn. It was more of a jagged wound than a deep puncture; it hurt like hell, and he was bleeding badly from it. The beast reared up to trample him, but its hindquarters were still stuck in the gate, which slowed it down enough for Ozzy to roll away trailing blood. "Dammit, Lyle, do something!" Lyle did, but his plan consisted of running over to a nearby tree and climbing into it.
The bull was stuck in place, with half of it in front of the broken gate and the jagged wood holding it there. Given time, it would break free. Grabbing his hammer from where it had fallen behind him, Ozzy tried to hit it again, but the blows lacked a lot of impact without being able to use his Slaughter bonus. Obviously, it didn't count as restrained anymore with its front half free. Two more attempts at hitting it in the head only got him a hoof to the left shin and lost him his hammer.
"Shit! Fine, we do this the hard way." There was a large stack of wooden beams by the warehouse. Ozzy started packing them down nearer the cow. Picking up the first log, he balanced it upright, took a step, and flipped it end over end at the cow. The first beam went 10 feet in the air and landed on its hindquarters, doing no damage and bouncing off to the side. Ozzy continued to chuck wood at it until the beast was nearly trapped by a pile of lumber and had a few minor bruises. If he could get it pinned, he could use Slaughter on it. Down to his last beam, he picked up the timber and heaved it in the air before going off to find some branches or something else to add to the pile.
The beam flipped in the air, with its end coming down on the beast's head. Its skull shattered, and its brains went everywhere. Ozzy leaned against the warehouse as he held his side. The wound wasn’t too deep, but it hurt like hell. He was startled by the sound of trumpets as a notification appeared.
[Wow, you killed an Angry Sedge bull with a Caber and earned a new skill!
Caber is a Primary Weapon skill for your class: Contract Worker.
You have learned the weapon skill: Caber. Caber is a STR skill.
You earned 50 experience in STR and 50 experience in the weapon skill: Caber.]
Another update followed this.
[All your hard work is paying off. Since your last notification, you have butchered 100 adult sedge beasts using the Chop Bone and Hack Flesh skills. You have earned 100 experience points in Hack Flesh, Slaughter, and Cut Bone for a total of 150 experience points in these skills. All three skills have increased to rank 2. ]
[Congratulations! You have earned a total of 300 experience points in STR for a total of 500 and increased your STR characteristic to rank 3, and a total of 6. This affects all skills using the STR attribute, including Haul III and Dig II.]
[Your STR of 6 allows you to lift 1350 lbs. but you knew that already, didn’t you? Your ability, Haul III, multiplies your STR when lifting and hauling.
Warning: Your muscles might be able to handle that, but not the rest of you. This is just a helpful hint, but an increase in CON will help with that.]
Ozzy yelled at Lyle in his tree. "Ok, Lyle, you can come down now. Your reward for being so helpful is you get to find someone to take care of this bull so we don’t waste the carcass and hide.”
Staggering back to the table in front of their hut, Ozzy sat on the table, holding his side. The pain was getting better, and as long as he kept his hand over the wound, it didn't seem to be bleeding too badly. His health was down but not dropping too fast, about a point a minute. "HEY BILLY! GET ME SOME FIRST AID".
Summoned as if by a spell, Billy came out of the 'Headquarters Hut.' His eyes got wide, and he stood still for a moment, trying to figure out the scene. He thought he recognized Ozzy, but he was covered in blood and holding his wadded-up tunic against his side. His muscles bulged out from behind the gore-smeared leather apron. The man was HUGE. He had to be nearly 7 ft. tall. None of the other workers were nearly so large. He'd have to find out what was going on. The man looked intimidating as hell, especially with the cleaver hanging from his belt.
"No problem, Ozzy. I see you have a bit of an injury. I'll find someone to get you some first aid and you take the last 15 minutes of the day off." He walked quickly off in the direction of the tavern.
'Someone' turned out to be Suzette, who came running over with a basket of greens, some clean clothes, and a needle and thread. "I'd ask what happened, but I'm guessing a cow didn't go down easy. If you aren't dead yet, it's probably ok, but let's see about cleaning the wound, and I'll sew you up. I've found some herbs that I think will help the wound heal cleanly. Bite down on this."
Placing a wooden stick in Ozzy's mouth, she moistened the bloody tunic so it wouldn’t stick and pulled away from the wound. Seeing it wasn't bleeding much, she cleaned it out carefully to avoid any infection. Smoothing the edges, she applied the leaves she'd gathered until the bleeding stopped completely. Attempting to sew stitches went poorly. The thread got stuck, and it took a lot longer than she had hoped. Ozzy bit through the first stick, and she had to find a thicker one. Finally, she had a row of clumsy stitches in the wound and a bandage on it. "There, all better! I'm disappointed, though, I was hoping for some First Aid experience."
Ozzy rolled his eyes and declared he was heading for bed. He thought it probably would have been less painful to let the damn cow kill him and respawn in the morning.