CHAPTER 10: EVERY DAY IS A GRIND

The school/library was a little big on my first draft. It was four stories and was a match for any modern-day library. I had not seen many books in the game and wondered if there were only skill, spell, and ability books.

Simba, who had been MIA for a while, jumped on the table and answered my mental question, “There are many books of knowledge in the game. Your reading ability reflects whether or not you can utilize them. Each book is locked by a tier value. Your reading skill is limited, so you can only read children’s books.” I could sense sarcasm in the cat’s voice.

He continued, “Books offer many benefits. They can increase your knowledge percentage in certain skills, although you can only benefit once from each title. They can reveal information and monsters, such as weak points or abilities. They can reveal locations on your maps. They can even unlock skills you don’t have.”

I thought, Well, damn, where can I get me some books?

“There are book merchants in the larger cities,” Simba answered my unvoiced question. I would need to rethink my building. I worked on an improved chicken coop for the rest of the evening. I wanted something challenging for Jaesmin to help improve her building skills. My efforts yielded a nice set of new plans.

Rare Stone Chicken Coop, holds 30 chickens, Health 1200, Requires Masonry: Structures 7, Woodcraft Carpentry 7

No fox would be getting into this hen house! The sun was rising, so I geared up and prepared to join the hunting party when Jaesmin came down the stairs. I had worked on my drafting table in the kitchen all night. I was slightly surprised but decided to ignore the fact that she had slept here two nights in a row.

I gave her the new chicken coop plans and told her to master them. When she could build the structure without fault, she could build one for everyone in town who wanted one. I had learned from Simba that if I built something without the required skill levels, the structure would have at least a 50% penalty to health and reduced functionality. Fortunately, I had not run into any such issues yet. I told her I had confidence in her, patted her on the shoulder, and left. I think she may have blushed, but that wouldn’t make any sense.

I arrived at the guard tower to find Galana and five militia. Three of the militia were women. Galana and all the militia sported a dark blue and white jacket. They were mostly a deep blue with just some white trim here and there.

I asked Galana about it, and she reminded me I had given her permission to choose the gear and uniform for the city’s guards. It was a nice jacket that reminded me of a high school varsity jacket except it was all leather and short-sleeved. Everyone wore a long-sleeved white-silvery shirt under the jacket to cover the arms. She had only been able to outfit ten guards this month with her allowance but said she would have everyone up to par next month. She also planned dark blue ‘over’ pants with a white stripe down the leg and high black boots.

We started walking toward our first target and continued to talk with the militia walking behind. The plains had grass ranging from a few inches to almost as tall as me. It was still easy enough to see each encounter; usually a shape moving about a quarter mile away. Sometimes, you could not see clearly if the grass was too high.

Galana had chosen to equip the militia with a long sword, two daggers, compound short bow, buckler shield, and hand axe. Once the blacksmith arrived, she would be able to get everyone completely outfitted. Everyone had the bow, two dozen porcupine arrows in a quiver, and an assortment of poor melee weapons.

We approached our first plains cat, and I told everyone I wanted to try out my new axe, to hold back, and to only assist if I got in trouble. The beast and I squared off. With my bonuses and heavy strike ability, I managed to do 106 damage on my first swing. It took two more swings before the level 6 beast fell. I suffered 29 damage in the encounter, but my hit points were registered at 2 per minute, so it would not be long before I was full again.

I moved to the back of the group and used my stone bullet spell for the next few encounters. We started taking down animals this way, working a pattern that took us 2 miles out and then back to within sight of the tower as we patrolled the area. One of the militia found a silver object in the high grass slightly buried and presented it to me.

Ancient Amulet of Pursuit, +30 speed for 2 hours, 3/30 charges

It was platinum, quite lovely, and probably worth a few hundred gold. I told her she found it so she could keep it, but she should charge it. My understanding was that if an item with charges reached 0, it would lose its ability. She asked how to charge it, and I didn’t know, but as I was searching the limited game wiki, Galana said that an enchanter was the only person who could charge items. Or someone with the enchanting skill.

We had killed our seventh cat and I noticed only Galana was harvesting the beast. She had a large backpack, bigger than my bag of holding. I asked her how many slots it had, and she said 18. Damn, my henchmen had a bigger slot allowance than me. She had paid 50 silver for the bag. I needed to upgrade!

We came across a small herd of plains deer, maybe 11. Normally, you could get one or two before they got out of range, but Galana fired her first shots of the day and killed six by herself before the rest got into some high grass. One shot, one kill every time.

I had figured the beasts had close to 300 health, so I was suitably impressed. She said she was holding back from engaging earlier to get the militia experience. She had also let me lead the group even though she probably had higher leadership skills than me.

The day passed quickly, and the only exciting thing was our first encounter with a Pride Master. It was a level 15, and I was out of magic, so I decided to engage with my axe. Its first attack did 148 damage to me!

Galana managed to distract it after I was hit, and as a group, we took it down quickly after that. Galana admonished me, saying that I was naked with the armor I was wearing currently and not to be foolish again. I took the scolding, and I knew she was right. I should only melee with weak creatures, but I wanted that lion kill! It was close to sunset, so we headed back. Galana was not happy with the fact that we bagged only two giant porcupines in the hunt.

We unloaded our prizes at the tannery, and Curraen was impressed.

32 Cleardusk Plains Lions

2 Giant Porcupines

48 Cleardusk Plains Deer

3 Cleardusk Pride Master Lion

Before leaving for my house, Galana told me she thought she saw signs of hoof tracks during the hunt, probably from the orcs we were expecting. She hadn’t mentioned it because she was not 100% certain. She was going to have all the militia on alert tonight. She also requested to hire an alchemist to make potions of healing and stamina for the guards. I put it on my to-do list.

I checked in with a few people back in town before going home. There was no time to play with the kids tonight, but the young elf girl ambushed me and made me promise to make her a dog carving. When I got home, Jaesmin was there, and a meal was on the table. I was a little unsure what was going on now. Did I somehow marry this young woman in the game? Did the game assign her as the lord’s maid? I was a little too afraid to ask her, but I needed answers.

The story, it turns out, was just as awkward. After the first time she had dinner in my house, the village rumor mill began to churn. Her mother had assumed she was making an ‘honest’ man out of me. Some villagers were happy I was not gay and encouraged her. Others were jealous of how close she was to me. Her mother kept pushing her to bed me and said she couldn’t do better than a Lord. Feeling pressured, she had offered herself to me; that was the night I found her in my bed.

When she didn’t come home that night, her mother thought she had succeeded. Her mother was so happy that Jaesmin did not disappoint her with the truth. So she packed her things and moved in with me. Wait what! Was she living here? She had been beet red the entire time she relayed the story to me. I asked her how she felt about all this. After a very broken response, she admitted that she wanted to ‘bed me.’

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Did this A.I. even know what that meant? How was sex in this game? I had not felt much sex drive in the game until this conversation, actually. I felt something now, like teenage lust. Was the game adapting? Perhaps I was switching from thinking of the NPCs as programs to actual people. Either way, I needed to make sure. I told her she could live here and tell the other villagers whatever she wanted about our relationship. As to the sex part—I would let her know, just not tonight.

I sat down in a chair, carved the promised dog, and put it in my bag when I was done. The carving was a great distraction, but it didn’t help as I only thought about the recent conversation. It actually made me ornory, and I wanted to explore sex in the game.

I started thinking about the other women I had met, Galana and Vivale foremost. Vivale definitely won the beauty contest in town. Galana, although large, wasn’t far behind in my mind. My mind pictured Kytalia next; she was definitely willing and attractive, albeit an orc. I shook my head, cleared it, and went to my drafting table. I worked on the library/school plans. After a few hours, I still couldn’t focus, with sexual thoughts pervading my mind. In the back of my head, I knew the game was somehow influencing me.

I opened the notifications screen to see how well I raised my abilities today. The axe and two-handed axe both made a level, which is good since I had not used them too much today as I had plenty of magic. Drafting had gained three points! I wanted to stand up and dance, but remained calm. Earth magic was up two levels, and stone magic was up three! This seemed too big a gain for my time, and I knew there was no real-world equivalent like for drafting to accelerate my progress.

I nearly jumped out of my seat when Simba jumped on the drafting table, “Yes, combat does expedite skill growth. You probably remember your first fight with the lion, which lasted only a few minutes, yet you gained some advancement. The formula the Open World game uses is complicated, but let us just say you get 1 minute of equivalent training for every point of damage you do. There are modifiers for difficulty, party size, monster level etc.… but you get the idea.”

“Where the hell have you been?” I asked, ignoring the info he had just provided.

He sat down and began licking his paw. “Well, I was on the kitchen table for the last two hours watching you, but before that, I was undergoing ‘upgrades.’ The programmers are processing beta testing feedback and beta testers’ requests. I can now be leveled as a companion, which should make you love me even more. I get one skill at level one and one every level divisible by ten. I get four stat points every level as well.” He finished up cleaning and stretched.

I had visions of the Monty Python and the Holy Grail Movie. The cute tiny bunny coming out of the cave and wreaking havoc. “Well, what skill do you have?”

“None yet, you have to choose. You can also change my body with the update, but it will be locked after this. You can change it to a humanoid race if you wish.” The cat stopped and stared at me, waiting. I thought he could be my Alfred! Keeping the place clean and serving dinner. Or maybe a sex toy female elf like Vivale to relieve the newfound sex drive I was experiencing. Maybe a horse for transportation? I was getting excited at the options.

I thought it best to take the decision out of my hands. “Simba, you can choose your form and assign all your stats and skills as you level. It is completely in your control.” Nothing happened. I waited. Nothing happened. “So, uh, what did you choose?”

“I choose my current form and the skill of nature magic. All my stat points went into magic. I need a spell to practice, so please get one as soon as possible.” Huh, ok. No butler, ferocious bunny, or sexy companion.

“So why did you choose this path?” I inquired.

“Simple. I am accustomed to this form, and once I become an expert in Nature: beast magic, I can transform into anything once I acquire the proper spell. So it offers the most versatility.” The cat replied as a matter of fact.

“Well, your body, your life,” I said. I went back, looking at my skills. Maybe Sanso had a first-level Nature spell he could teach him. I will check tomorrow.

Let us see where I was. Leadership was up two levels, which is nice. I wondered if that was affected by the same battle quickening? No reply from Simba. I looked around and saw that he was stalking a small spider. He leaped on top of it and crushed it. He then turned to look at me. “One experience!” He sounded happy. Did the programmers just create monsters? I could see thousands of bonded A.I.s killing everything in sight to gain experience!

I turned back to my notifications, but there was no answer to my question. Nature and plants were both up one. I should get an offensive spell to help level this skill… Ranged was at 7! It leveled four times. My stone spell made me David!

Finally! Woodcraft and carpentry had both leveled once, but woodcraft was now level 23, which meant the next notification was…

You have achieved an expert level in woodcraft: carpentry. NPCs will now recognize you as a competent craftsman, and the quality of your constructs with this skill is now greatly improved!

I actually stood up and danced a little jig this time. Simba got distracted from his next target and watched me. I could have sworn he was shaking his head from side to side in disappointment.

I sat down and looked over the rest of the alerts. Level 9! I had gained two levels! What the hell? I went into preferences. I had set it so no notifications popped up, but notifications were instead stored for viewing at a later time.

However, I wanted to know when I leveled, damn it. I had 12 stat points and four skill points. Skill points were easy; all went into masonry to raise it to 21. Just two points away from expert! But really, I needed the foundations to make an expert to build the inn. I could probably start the inn, and by the time it was done, my skill would have met the requirements, but I did not want to risk a lesser-quality building. I could end up with a crappy inn.

I focused on my stat points…my stamina was still low, and speed was my lowest stat. I was doing really well with magic, too. I just needed higher-tier spells. I put two points into stamina, one into speed, and nine into magic. It was not ideal, and if I wanted a strong character, I should probably focus more on maxing certain stats, but I really wanted to build things like I was planning to do in real life. Maybe intellect would help? Next level maybe I would invest.

Next I checked my NPC auction. No one had outbid me, and the auction expired in 16 days. My blacksmith timer said he would arrive in 5 days. I sat back and looked at the village overall. The quality level had not increased, which was too bad. Total population 105. Double of that when I arrived. It was diverse as well, and it was going to be more so when the cat beastkin blacksmith arrived with his family.

The map of the city showed the yellow ‘wall’ in progress, and the green, safe areas were expanding. Once the wall was built, everything inside would be green and safe. I looked over the buildings and their placement. Not bad. I guessed no need for sewers under the streets because who used the bathroom in the game? It had been weird for me not going taking a morning shit, but I was getting used to it.

I headed outside and started toward the docks but turned when I saw the children playing. I walked up to them and found the elf girl. She looked at me, actually quiet for once and expectant. I reached into my bag and produced the figurine. She took it reverently and then started to scream in joy. It was like I had just given her a pony on her birthday. I turned to walk away, but before getting too far, she hugged my leg and was crying. “Thank you, thank you. They killed my dog on our way here, and I missed him so much.” What?

“Who and where?” I asked seriously.

“One of you outworlders. He was with some others but was the only mean one. His name was Hellspawn. I said his name was stupid, and he grabbed Druffy, broke his neck, and walked away laughing.” She was fighting tears back now. I went into my interface and flagged Hellspawn.

“If that bastard shows up here, he will not be welcome.” I turned with a stern face and left. There was evil in this realm, not just the evil created by the AIs.

I returned, found Jaesmin, and brought her to the future sight of the inn. We marked off the inn, and I told her to start digging. It would have a double basement, so a lot of earth needed to be moved. I was sure Sanso could do it quickly, but I wanted to give her another project on top of the chicken coop palace she was trying to perfect. Also, Sanso was busy hardening the structures in town, and I wanted to get the inn started. I told her not to worry about paving the crossroads anymore.

I then went to find Sanso. I noticed Simba had been following me from the house. He now trotted next to me. Oh, yeah, I had promised to get him a spell. I found Sanso talking with Elice at the store. I greeted both of them, and Elice took her leave, seeing I was looking for Sanso. I first asked about a translocation stone. Could he build one with his magic? The answer was yes, but it would require a master enchanter to activate it.

I then asked Sanso if he had any first-tier nature spells. He had two: sense life and forecast weather. No damage-dealing spells. I then produced ten silver coins and asked him to teach Simba the sense life spell. He looked at me, then at Simba, and then back at me about a dozen times. I had forgotten I was the only one who could hear Simba. I eventually said, “Just do it.” Rather than explain too much, “The cat might not look like much, but he is smart,” I told Sanso. I left them with Simba staring at Sanso with big, sad eyes. I decided to head to the plains today. It was not a hunting day, but I could go be myself.

There were six guards atop the tower. They said Galana was home making more arrows, and there were four guards inside sleeping. The rest of the guards were in the village, getting supplies and resting. I would need to upgrade this structure if we were going to have this many guards here. The earth wall was getting longer but not much higher. It was probably almost a half mile long to the south now. Curraen and his son were very busy as well. I told the guards I would be gone all day and get Galana in an emergency.