Chapter 7: A lot of Bull

Day 2

If anyone didn't wake up from the rooster crowing, they got a second chance from Rory 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, Rory 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 Rory outside, all three trying to stretch out sore muscles before joining the morning traffic jam at the out houses. Suzette walked up to them with a sack over her shoulder. "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 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 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 it takes to earn a sewing skill?"

Ben nodded. He'd also been wondering about skill increases. He'd been spending each evening poking at a tree with a makeshift spear. It was clumsy, and he'd not seen even one hint of a message about learning basic spear skills. In most games it took little to earn them; a couple of successful fights, a half hour with a trainer, or an hour of practice on your own. After six hours of practice with basic thrusts and blocks, he'd seen nothing.

Moving to the back side of the warehouse 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."

"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 a her water skin and squirted a cup of fresh milk into each cup, followed by a raw egg. "There you go. Fruit, Moo, cluckcluck, and groat: the four basic food groups."

"Amazing," Ben said as he stirred up his eggcream 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 eggcreams. 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 does the chores we all get to eat a lot better. It's a start at least."

"Ok, lets see where you boys are working. Ozzy is facing off against those stupid cow things. You're doing a better job than the other two that they tried on the same job. Rory gets to use 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 just wander in the hills try to move them into a corral."

Rory was none too excited. "Have I mentioned how much I don't like playing Bo Peep? Shit, I don't even get a sheep dog. 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?"

"Whatever makes your heart sing, Rory." Turning to Ben, "And you're supposed to assist the tanners in stretching and scraping skins. Billy says you should have leatherworking skills, right? So after you have some hides to the point where you can work them he wants you to start making things to outfit people better."

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'll give 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, so we can leave early before breakfast. I'll work on some armor. Rory, you're out roaming around looking for sedgebeasts and sheep. Keep your eye out for some straight dry wood for spears. Ozzy can save us some nice thick bones for making spearheads. It's a start and we can get working on getting some combat skills. Rory can also find us some nice starting areas." Ben's plan approved, everyone got off to their work for the day.

The second day came and went. Muffins got baked, cows got slaughtered, and hides were turned into leather. Rory found a nice meadow with large rabbits chewing on yellow flowers. 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."

"Take a break." Lyle needed little to convince him to take a short nap.

Looking at his settings, he saw the way to enable summaries of messages and used the command to bring one up.

Good for you! Hard work is paying off. You have:

Killed 50 adult sedgebeasts and earned 50 EP in the skill Slaughter.

Butchered 50 adult sedgebeasts and earned 25 EP in Hack Flesh and 25 EP in Cut Bone

Earned 100 EP in STR.

Congratulations! You have increased your STR characteristic by +1 to a total of 4. 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 lift beams that he guessed were around 250 to 300 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 a full sack of flour with just base 0 in STR. Jorges had a STR of 1 and had shown off by lifting it by himself, which had propted Jon and Cham to both grab two logs each. If the increase was linear, his best guess was 100 lbs 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.

Who said you were just a dumb brute? (Well Rolly did.) You've made observations and compared other workers to your own brawn. You've gained some insight into the STR characteristic and how it works. (At least for Contract Workers.) A STR of 0 allows a normal human to lift 100 lbs. A STR of 1 doubles that to 200 lbs. Further increases give another 200 lbs. Your STR of 4 allows you to lift 800 lbs. In situations where Haul III applies you can increase that to 2400 lbs. Hopefully your bones hold up. Maybe work on CON next?

Well, that was damn odd. He'd never seen a game system that rewarded you for figuring things out. Hmmm, on second thought, he had. Lot of games had puzzles, they were just a lot more obvious.

He didn't know much about the neural links. Was everything he did being monitored? He'd have to ask Billy. He didn't entirely trust Billy, but they technically were working toward the same goals. He got back to work with enthusiasm. More hacking and chopping meant he'd be stronger for adventuring.

A few quick chops and he was tossing hooves in one pile, head to another. The hide he slit and pulled off the carcass. Technically that was the tannery's job, but he could do it a lot quicker and then just hoist the carcass on a hook in the smokehouse.

Unfortunately, there was no use for things like 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 you'd normally harvest from a bull like this was also useless. Light a candle from sedgebeasts fat and you made the house unlivable for days. He did save the brains though. Ben wanted 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 some of the crops.

At least the meat was usable. Something sedgebeasts ate must account for the nasty stink and taste. It took a few days smoking the meat on a Hollywood fire to take most of that out. Other woods would smoke the meat and cure it, but didn't do anything for the taste.

So more jerky it was. The Legion seemed ok with it. Even he was starting to consider eating some of it. 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.

Off to one side of his stump he made a fire pit and burned the hollywood 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 had to be groat muffins though.

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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. Horrible! Luckily he could fix that. With the second chunk he used 'Tastes like Chicken'. The lump of cooked sedgebeast 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.

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 a skill in a new way. The skill 'Tastes like Chicken' has neutralized the poison in the sedge meat by transforming it into tasty chicken. You have earned 5 EP in the skill 'Tastes like Chicken.' 'Tastes like Chicken will gain you EP when converting inedible substances into tasty chicken. As your skill increases you will be able to ingest less edible items.

WARNING: The skill has no effect on the poisonous meat inside of you. Once down the hatch, the rest of you has to deal with what you choose to eat.

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. Joking, you'd have to eat a hell of a lot of sedgebeast meat to do that.

You have earned 5 EP in the skill Minor Poison Resistance and 5 EP in CON.

Ozzy wasted no time in stumbling down the hill and into some bushes next to a small creek. The next few minutes weren't pretty, but after that he felt better. 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 EP or not.

Over the next two days, Ozzy waged a war on the herd of sedgebeasts. 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 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 sedgebeast 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 first day and he'd just finished the 53rd. It had been one of the sedgebeasts with a red and black coat, 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, but it hurt like hell and he was bleeding from it. The beast reared up to trample him, but its hind quarters 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 it was 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 skill. 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 for building 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 it's hind quarters 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 it's end coming down on the beasts head. It's skull shattered and brains went everywhere. Ozzy lay back on the ground, holding his side and saw notifications appear.

Congratulations! You killed an Angry Sedge bull with a Caber!

Caber is a Primary skill for your class Contract Worker.

You have learned the weapon skill: Caber.

You earn 50 EP in STR and 50 EP in the weapon Caber.

Good for you! Hard work is paying off. Since your last notification you have:

-Killed 100 adult sedgebeasts using the skill Slaughter. You have earned 100 EP in the skill Slaughter. You have earned +1 rank in slaughter bring you to Level 1. You have earned 50 EP towards level 2.

-Butchered 100 adult sedgebeasts using the Chop Bone and Hack Flesh skills. You have earned 50 EP in Hack Flesh and 50 EP in Cut Bone. Your total EP in these skills is 75. Reach 100 EP to bring these skills to level 1.

-Earned 220 EP in the STR stat.

- Congratulations! You have increased your STR characteristic by +1 bringing it to a total of 5. This affects all skills using the STR attribute including Haul III and Dig II.

Your STR of 5 allows you to lift 1000 lbs. In situations where Haul III applies you can increase that to 3000 lbs. Warning: Your muscles might be able to handle that, but not the rest of you.

Ozzy staggered upright. "Ok Lyle, you can come down now. Your reward for being so helpful is you get to find one of the other butchers and help him finish this thing up. I'm done for the day.

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 serfs 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 get 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 cloths 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 lets see about cleaning it 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 pulled off the bloody tunic from the wound, and seeing it wasn't bleeding much, cleaned it up. Pulling back the edges she cleaned the wound with the leaves she'd gathered. 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 First Aid experience."

Ozzy rolled his eyes and declared he was heading for bed. Probably would have been less painful to let the damn cow kill him and respawn.

Later that night Suzette was awakened by a loud 'DING!' and a notification.

Congratulations! You have killed a sentient being using Hermetics!

Since Hermetics is a Primary skill for your class: Contract Worker you earn the following:

100 EP in Hermetics

100 EP in INT

You have learned the Hermetic subskill: Poisoner at level 0

You have Increased your rank in INT and gained +1 INT

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