Chapter 34: Chapter 34 Depression

Chapter 34 Depression

We rode into Malcum searching for the disturbance. It was easy to find it as the townsfolk had gathered near the general store. We dismounted and Curraen was the one who spoke, “Lord Tallis…Gwen has been slain by a player.” He held his head low.

Tanguin and Galana appeared and Galana spoke, “Lord Tallis, I am sorry I failed you. The player Hellspawn entered the town and was shopping in the general store. Savannah, the elf child, identified him as a player who attacked her family on the road and killed her dog. Gwen asked him to leave…he quickly got angry and killed her.”

There was a somber mood around the body. Gwen had been the older woman who was the leader of the town when I arrived. She had given me the tasks to win favor with the townsfolk which led to her handing over control of the small village to me. Galana hadn’t failed me…I had failed the town. Gwen wouldn’t be resurrected. The game didn’t work that way. If she had been a companion I could have resurrected her for a price.

Some townsfolk took the body away. I was informed she would be left on her bed in her house. Her body would disappear after 24 hours. Grinder said that in the games looting mechanic for NPCs, you had 24 hours to claim items that dropped, mostly quest items. I shook it off, Gwen had a personality…she was more than an NPC to me. I needed to figure out how to protect my villagers from not just the monsters but players.

I hadn’t been stupid. I figured players would want to take over my village eventually but I thought I had a lot of time. I could have recruited powerful NPCs to guard my village like other players in the NPC auction house…I already had a few. I told the townsfolk there would be a celebration at the inn to honor Gwen and her life. Jaesmin came to me and gave me a reassuring hug.

Mad Dog and his crew went to the inn and I followed shortly after. I had hung back as I worked my town management screen to mark the player Hellspawn as KOS which meant kill on site. I also planned to build my new guard house. It required stone, lumber, and 12 soul gems filled with tier-three creature essences. At the inn, I joined the celebration as townsfolk retold stories of Gwen’s generosity and leadership. Mad Dog and his crew couldn’t believe how realistic everything seemed. They still just saw these NPCs as computer code. If you really thought about that is all humans were as well…a brain full of stored memories and emotions.

I sighed and contributed with my own retelling of how I met Gwen and what she did for me when I arrived in Malcum and we all toasted. The memories flowed well into the night with the ale.

I didn’t remember how I got home but I woke the next day next to Jaesmin. She looked me in the eyes. “Death is not the end Tallis. This village has seen more than its fair share of it but those who live must make their best effort at living. Remember those lost, but do not despair.” I sighed. “I see it on your face Tallis. This is not your fault.”

I looked into her eyes and they seemed wise beyond the years of a woman still in her late teens. “Thank you. I plan to do everything I can to protect you and Malcum going forward. I thought I was doing well but trouble found us and will again. I need to become stronger…I need to make the town stronger.” I pulled out the guard house and took them to the inn to find Mad Dog. I was hoping he could get me my twelve tier three soul gems.

They were eating breakfast, and getting buffs before heading to go goblin hunting. “Tier 3 soul gems? I have seen a few on the auction site but they cost quite a few coins…maybe 50 gold each? And I don’t know if there will be 12 available.” Mad Dog said while stuffing a cheesy soufflé into his mouth.

“Can I give you all essences we collected to sell in the city. I don’t feel right traveling right now to establish my own portal stone connections. I think I can give you six platinum coins for the soul gems too.” I said hopefully. They had just purchased their horses so most of the coin I was giving them was from that sale.

“Sure! We can do that for you. We were going to head back after a day in the forest to resupply and sell loot mate,” Mad Dog said with a smile. “If you think of anything else let us know.” They all got up to leave.

“Auction house plans,” I said.  “I have a trader getting them for me but just in case… you can pick up 7 platinum from the general store when you leave.” I paused for a second. “Are building plans selling on the auction house for players?” It hadn’t occurred to me because I thought I was the only player constructing buildings. Also, the plans dissolved after I used them. But all I would need to do is redraft them, just a few hours of work depending on their complexity. “Great I will spend the day working on preparing some for you to post on the player auction site but can you do it anonymously?”

”No problem mate. See you in a few hours!” He turned and left with his group.

I went and got Sanso and Jaesmin. I wanted them to do all the site prep work for the guard house. I decided to follow the advice and put it next to my portal stone. That way if something or someone portaled in they could respond quickly. I wasn’t sure if the material quality would play a role in the effectiveness of the building so I asked Sanso for his best stone. I retreated to my house and looked over my plans.

I guessed I had about 8 hours before Mad Dog and company returned.  The drafting time for the leatherworks and smithy, both were rare buildings, were both 4 hours each to recreate the plans.  The alchemy shop was very rare and would take 6 hours.  The epic grand library showed 144 hours!  So I was not going to be redrafting the plans for that building anytime soon.  I decided to go with reproducing plans for the leatherworks and the smithy.

Rare Tannery/Leatherworks, Health 50,000, Requires Masonry: Structures 43, Woodcraft Carpentry 23 (Bonus 33% chance to increase tanned hide quality, +5 defense bonus to leather crafted armor, 1% chance to increase rarity of crafted armor)

Rare Blacksmith, Health 90,000, Requires Masonry: Structures 23, Woodcraft Carpentry 23 (Bonus 5% chance to upgrade smelted ore quality, +4 to Forging skills, +25% to forged item durability)

I worked steadily and had the plans ready in just under eight hours.  I thought the blacksmith was by far the superior building.  I took the plans and went to get some food at the inn as my satiety bar was dangerously low.  Fareth waved me into the back kitchen.  Oh my lord!  The smells back here were heavenly.

“Lord Tallis!  Things are going well.  Those adventurers you brought here are a literal gold mine!  That large demonkin eats four or five meals in a single sitting, a real glutton.  I wanted to ask you if you could quickly increase the town population,” the gnome looked distracted.  “You see Lord Tallis I have been cooking non-stop but over half of my food goes to waste.  If you can get the town’s population over 500 in the next 90 days I will prepare you my epic dish.  I brought enough ingredients to make it once.”  She relaxed and looked at me.

“Epic dish?  I don’t know what that means but I think we should be able to reach that goal, 500 population.  We have over two hundred soldiers coming to man the new barracks in a few weeks.”  My response caused the gnome to nod furiously in satisfaction.

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“When a chef reaches the grand master rank we are able to create our epic dish.  It functions similar to an elixir that alchemists can make.  The difference is there is no one-year cool-down like an elixir.  But you can only benefit from an epic dish once and each grand master only has one epic dish.  My epic dish is spicy mushroom chili.  It gives +5 boost to your charisma permanently…but you need to eat an entire bowl…not an easy feat.”  She chuckled to herself. 

“If you give me a list of the ingredients…”  I started before the gnome visage clouded.

“Lord Tallis are you trying to steal my epic recipe?  If you are not going to become my apprentice don’t ask again!”  She softened as a shock at the outburst had me recoiling.  “No harm Lord.  Epic recipes are guarded by grand master chefs and only passed down to apprentices.  Apprentices cant create the permanency of the effect but they can still cook it and it helps them progress more quickly in the cooking skill,”  I apologized and backed out of the back room. 

So Fareth wanted to be kept busy cooking and she wanted people to enjoy her food.  It wasn’t a terrible quest…and yes I did have a quest offered so I accepted it.  Five hundred village population shouldn’t be too hard.  I got a quick meal from the waitress and rushed to the general store.  I needed to catch Mad Dog before he left.

Mad Dog and crew were walking toward me as I approached.  Of course, they were headed to the portal stone!  I fell in step with them and handed over the two plans I had drafted for them to test the market.  I wasn’t expecting to get too much.  There were just not a lot of players and those that were playing probably didn’t need the plans or couldn’t afford to pay a high price for them.  Black Beauty said she would shop the plans around the NPC shops before placing them on the auction site for players.

“Before we go Tallis the in-game communication system is supposed to be live tomorrow.  If you set us to friend status we should be able to communicate through the texting feature.  We made good progress in the forest, 59 goblins slain with four being magic wielders.  We will need a few days to draw groups away from their village and whittle down their strength.  We think they repopulate around 10 goblins every day.” Mad Dog gave me the intel.  He transferred their explored maps to me.  This was a huge measure of trust in my opinion.  Not only did I get their explored areas of the forest but every place they had explored in the world.  Looking at the map I was in shock at how expansive the world was.  This party found 7 large cities and 68 smaller cities/towns.  Unfortunately, my little Malcum didn’t even register as a town on their map…maybe after I completed my town hall.  We said our goodbyes and they expected to return in two days as they needed to log off and rest as well.

Jaesmin and Sanso were nearby and I started working with them on the guard house.  It was just a simple two story building that was not overly large, just 30 feet square.  I made some improvements to the aesthetics of the building but it didn’t alter the plans for good or ill.  We finished late into the evening and I bought them dinner at the inn.  The inn was even more lively, with over fifty townsfolk tonight.  As I sipped on my ale I looked over my interface and my building plans.

My skills were first.   I had four skill points remaining.

 

So close!  I used my four skill points, adding two to Masonry and two to Masonry Structures.  If I could make level 19 and work my skill masonry structures skill up one level I could finally complete the town hall!  This was amazing…so many projects would fall into place.

I checked my build projects currently ongoing:

Rare Blacksmith, Health 90,000, Requires Masonry: Structures 23, Woodcraft Carpentry 23 (Bonus 5% chance to upgrade smelted ore quality, +4 to Forging skills, +25% to forged item durability)

Uncommon stone brewery warehouse, 75,000 health, requires masonry 23, masonry structures 23 and woodcraft 23, (bonus +11 to brewery skill)

Rare City Hall, Health 80,000, Requires Masonry Foundations 23, Masonry Structures 43 (Bonus +12% to City Population Morale, +2% Tax Revenue)

Rare Guard House Plans, Health 120,000 Requires Masonry 43, Woodcraft Structures 23 (Bonus: Houses 12 City Guards, Spawn Rate of 1 Guard per day)

I also had notes to design some civilian housing structures, a wood craftsman shop, a dedicated bakery building, a new defensive tower emplacement to be placed at intervals in the town’s walls and a small tavern downtown. The last was a request from Zion.  He wanted someplace close to his barber salon so he could drink during the day.  It was low on my priority list but since he was over level 100 I wanted to keep him as happy as possible. 

I thought we could finish the brewery in the morning.  Then I could spend my afternoon with Titan trying to get to level 19. With any luck I could get my masonry structures to level 43 tomorrow!  Not likely but possible!  I needed to break out of this depression from losing Gwen.  It was worse than the after-effects of the orc attack.  Jaesmin took my hand and said it was time to go home.

We walked the streets and I thought we should add some street lighting.   I told Jaesmin to look into it with Sanso.  He could make some fancy stone light posts and there had to be some magic spell or enchantment to light them at night.  Jaesmin said I should decide who should replace Gwen as the Master of Guilds.  I stopped walking and looked at her.  She explained how important the position was in town…Gwen had made it an important position.  She was the glue that brought everyone together and worked toward a common objective.

I felt a little taken aback but her statement…isn’t that what I was doing?  Seeing me upset she calmed me.  “Tallis you are the one who provides what Malcum needs…but you are mostly absent from running the day-to-day operations.  Gwen was managing and meeting with all the important people in town every day.  You should probably select one of the guild masters for the position.”  I opened the tab and looked at it.  Gwen’s name was shown in red.  Pain hit me again.

I gathered myself.  So which of the guild masters should I promote?  I studied the town list for a few minutes and then smirked evilly.  I moved a name into the position of Master of Guilds and kept walking.  Jaesmin paused as I walked and then sounded flustered as she screamed at me.  “Tallis!  I’m too young and inexperienced to be the Master of Guilds!”

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