Light Online Book Three: Leader Read online

  Light Online

  Book Three:

  Leader

  By: Tom Larcombe

  Text copyright © 2020, Thomas Larcombe

  All Rights Reserved

  This is a work of fiction.

  Names, characters, businesses, places, and events

  are the products of the author’s imagination.

  Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead,

  or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Dedication:

  For my wife Heather, who makes my writing possible.

  Cover Credit:

  SelfPubBookCovers.com/Daniela

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter One

  Franklin Greenshaw leaned back in his chair. If anyone were to see him they'd think he was napping. Instead, he was simply reviewing the files on several people he was considering as a replacement for his previous specialist, Harmon. The specialist had snapped while in game, and Greenshaw needed a replacement ASAP. He still had tests to run and he wanted a competent specialist to replace Harmon with, one who wouldn't question or disobey his orders.

  Harmon had been good, excellent even, but he'd been given too much slack and ended up disobeying orders in a manner that had left him much less than he had been. Residual anger issues from an AI sliver, programmed as a ravenous wolf, that he'd invited into his psyche had left him incompetent for any form of command, as the slightest provocation would now cause him to lose his temper.

  Wait! Go back, the voice from the deepest recesses of his mind thought.

  Why? Which one? Greenshaw thought, flipping through the pages on his mental interface.

  Stop. That one. That's the one we want, the voice thought.

  This one? He's a real joker. He would've been forced out of the service if he weren't so good. Look, he's got seven official reprimands. That means he's probably got a hundred or more that never made it to his record.

  Trust me. Have I ever steered you wrong? This one's sense of humor, the fact that he is a joker, is what makes him perfect for my purpose, our purpose. He's perfect. He'll understand us much better than any of those other stuffed shirts you were looking at. Plus, you yourself just said how good he was. This one is perfect.

  Greenshaw shrugged mentally. He knew the voice in his head hadn't steered him wrong yet. He considered it to be his subconscious, really, finding a more direct means to communicate with him than vague feelings or intuition. He far preferred it this way. His subconscious had managed to point out quite a few things to him that he never would've even considered consciously.

  He sent the command to have the man transferred, then started drafting his requirements for the in-game command line interface he wanted built, one that was significantly harder to tamper with than the earlier version Harmon had been using.

  ~ ~ ~

  Eddie was able to let his mind wander as he built houses for the refugees that had flooded to this portion of the Meadowlands. He'd finished several already, with the help of Tiana and Jern doing the stonework portions. Even after Tiana had had to take her day out of game recently. He'd simply immersed himself in building while she was gone, finishing the houses scheduled for that day then working on Dominic's brewery to keep himself occupied. She'd been very happy to get back into the game after and he remembered what she'd told him about the painful therapy and tests she had to deal with on her days out of game.

  There were refugees helping him as well. He'd looked through the able-bodied men among them and made a job offer to several. He was paying them and teaching them carpentry, but once they finished the houses he'd keep them on the payroll and have help for whatever projects he worked on next.

  Not to mention that means they're also employed by me, he thought. I need to keep that percentage up. I can't believe that there are still more refugees trickling in. I thought we'd seen all of them already. I sure hope contracting for their crops is going to count the farmers as my employees as well. I mean, I do get to dictate what they grow since I'm supplying the seed, and I'll be the one buying their crops for their first harvest, so they might as well be my employees.

  He wasn't sure if he was trying to convince himself or the system by laying the idea out in his thoughts. Really, he employed a lot of people already, but it just didn't feel like it to him. Maybe it was because he wasn't involved in the day to day nitty-gritty of their jobs, or maybe the idea of being The Boss was still too foreign to him.

  He still remembered showing up in the game only to find out that he wasn't going to be farming gold and items, but actual crops. He'd only farmed like that for a brief period of time before the whole project was brought to a halt when the AIs for the game discovered some irregularities about the pod that held his body while he was connected to the game, along with the pods of the other farmers that had been hired with him.

  When all was said and done, the company had done its best to protect Eddie, and buy his silence. After everything settled out he'd found himself the owner of the farm he'd been working on.

  Another one of his memories of that time had also proven itself useful recently. They'd needed stone for the houses they were building, and there were enough houses to build that they needed a lot of stone. He'd remembered the stony meadows just south of the Hammertop Mountains, and when he'd checked, he'd found that those same stony meadows were just north of the area where he was building. so they'd been hauling stone from there for the houses. Rough-hewn planks came from the light forests that spotted the Meadowlands and they were bringing in just enough materials, from some logging parties Eddie had also hired on, to build two houses a day.

  Once some of the men he was working with got to a skill level of five in carpentry, and could draw their own blueprints, he could assign them to working on the houses out here while he got to work on other projects he needed to finish. Dominic was still waiting for his brewhouse, although Eddie had started that at least, and he had several more projects he wanted to get underway.

  Maybe I should hire a crew for each of these guys once they hit five in carpentry? Eddie thought. Nah, that wouldn't work. We still wouldn't have enough materials for more than two houses a day. Hire more foresters? The single cart we're using is the sticking point there. I suppose I could make another cart, but there aren't any animals to pull it so that's out also.

  There were a lot of things on his to-do list, but it seemed like the one that was slowly making its way to the top was to catch a bunch of the cow-like creatures that Allie and Karl had found. He could try to tame one of those to the harness and have another cart, never mind that if they were enough like cows they'd provide beef, milk, and other dairy products if he could find the people with the right skills to supply them. He could also teach them those skills himself if he took the time to researc
h the basics on his in-game browser.

  Alcohol was still a costly item on his list, but with Bjorn hiring on as a hauler for the inn he wouldn't have to worry about that as much, especially once he got Dominic set up with his brewery.

  So I need to finish building what I can myself, get these guys working on the seemingly never-ending stream of houses we'll need out here, then build a corral for the cows and go capture some. Easy and quick to think, but it's going to take forever, he thought.

  He settled back in to work, his mind wandering to his inn and the gardens he was tending behind them. Knowing that there'd be some new produce ripe later on for him and Liv to work with left him a little bit happier. Points in carpentry were great, he'd even gotten two working on the houses already, but points in cooking came with the added bonus of being able to produce buffs on the food he cooked, so new ingredients to work with were a good thing, since they increased the chance of his cooking skill going up.

  Although, he thought, If I'd taken that option to specialize when my carpentry hit ten points, there might've been interesting things I could do with that too. I'd rather be able to do a little of everything in carpentry though. Weapons, furnishings, buildings, I've got a use for all of those skills.

  He stopped as he finished the second house for the day. This particular blueprint used a lot more wood and a lot less stone than the one he'd used for the Collier's house. He'd gone hunting for another small house blueprint after they'd worked the first two houses next to the temple with the same blueprint as the Collier's. Each of those had taken an entire cartload of stone and the stone took longer to gather and retrieve than the wood did. So he'd dropped a few more gold picking up a couple of blueprints that used a lot less stone and more wood. That had gotten them to the two houses a day rate they were at now.

  Since he'd finished the second house for the day, he was quitting for now. The stonework for the next four were already done and waiting, but he didn't have even half the lumber he'd need for the next house here yet. The foresters would work until dark, dropping off their finished rough-hewn planks here and then hauling the chunks leftover from failed planks up to the Collier first thing in the morning. After that the cart would get used for a load of stone, then it would go back to the foresters for the rest of the day. Paul still occasionally borrowed the cart too.

  Poor ox, Eddie thought. It probably does more work than anyone else around here, but it doesn't seem to mind as long as it gets to eat its fill before going to sleep.

  He was pretty sure he'd also seen the children among the refugees slipping stalks of some sort of greenery to the ox when it was standing around with the cart being unloaded. The kids all loved the ox, and most of them loved Lucky as well, although a few were still scared of her. The rather large bobcat spent most of her time in the woods hunting while Eddie worked, but she also spent an hour or two a day out in the fields near the temple. She'd allow the children to play with her, although if they got too rough she'd simply run onto the temple grounds and lie down again.

  No violence was possible on the temple grounds so the children who were playing too rough found their motions restricted if they tried to continue what they were doing to Lucky once she'd gone there. Even so, they could still pet her, and Lucky could still rub her cheeks on them, scenting them as hers. Eddie still wondered why she did that with anyone she liked, but had finally given in and realized that he'd probably never know.

  He packed up what little gear he'd taken out of his inventory and headed for the temple. Tiana was there. She'd decided on a message and was... not quite preaching it, but definitely spreading it around. She'd decided that her message would be based on what Freyja had done and had them doing since Eddie had arrived on this world. She spoke of comfort, both for oneself and for others, but at the same time she also emphasized that people needed to be ready to fight for themselves or others also.

  He fully endorsed that, but didn't really think it was all that much of a religious message. To him it was more along the lines of his own personal philosophy as of late. More of an enlightened self-interest than anything else.

  After all, he thought, isn't it common sense to want comfort? At least for yourself, for others too if you care about them at all. Defending yourself is common sense too, as is defending those you care for. Easy enough to stretch that out to everyone around you, after all you'll probably know them sooner or later if someone's around all the time.

  He whistled and Lucky, who'd been batting at the water in the pond on the temple grounds, came running. She'd been trying to catch the koi in there for three days now and, as of yet, had come up unsuccessful every time. Eddie had even gone over to watch when she'd been so spectacularly unsuccessful. He was used to her hitting him with fish breath frequently, so he'd been curious why she was failing. When he watched the first of the koi swim furiously across the little pond, at speeds far greater than koi should able to reach, he understood.

  He'd told Lucky that she wasn't going to be successful, that the koi were protected just like everyone else on the temple grounds. The koi that swam back over and seemed to bait the cat into trying again convinced Eddie for good.

  “They're just playing with you, Lucky,” he said.

  The cat had ignored him and gone back to hunting the koi and Eddie had to wonder if Lucky was just playing also. He was sure she understood him by now, so he couldn't explain her persistence any other way.

  Tiana had heard him whistle also and came strolling out of the temple.

  “Whistling for me like your cat now?” she asked, grinning.

  “Nope, just whistling for Lucky. Didn't want you to have to wait. If I were whistling at you, I'd use a very different whistle,” Eddie said.

  “Really, you'd wolf whistle at me?” she asked.

  “Well, not if I knew what was good for me. Which was why I whistled for Lucky and not you.”

  She smiled at him.

  “I'm glad you realize that, although there might be some occasions...” she trailed off without finishing the sentence.

  “Well, just let me know when and I'll be happy to comply,” he said.

  She came over and gave him a kiss, capturing his hand and holding onto it as they walked back to the inn, Lucky following along.

  ~ ~ ~

  Once they got back to the inn, they settled in for a late lunch. Lucky had raced out to the pond behind the inn, a pond where she could, and did, catch fish. Eddie knew he was in for a bad case of fish breath later on. It seemed to him that the more he complained about it, the more Lucky insisted on licking his face right after she'd had fish. Now he'd stopped complaining, but he couldn't hold back the flinch that he experienced every time she came racing up to lick his face after fishing. Lucky was bright enough to notice that, so she knew it still got to him.

  He didn't even admit to himself the other reason he flinched. Lucky was already bigger than he thought bobcats could get, and he was occasionally nervous when she pounced him like that. He could still hold her weight up when she jumped at his chest and he was very careful to do so. He didn't want to know what her trying to catch herself with her claws would feel like if she started slipping.

  Not that she'd ever hurt me, not on purpose at least, Eddie thought, but still...

  When they finished eating, he and Tiana headed out back. He'd been working on getting the other garden beds into production in his spare time from building houses, and three of them were now finished and planted. The fourth was almost there and just need a few more hours of work, but his time for working on that kept getting cut.

  With the bonus to crop growth from the temple, and the additional bonus from the shrine he'd built on the inn grounds, his gardens here grew crops that were twenty percent larger than normal. Freyja's Blessing, which was still active on him, caused them to grow much faster as well, so tending to his gardens here was taking more and more of his time. Not that he was complaining. There had been more dwarfish players showing up from Hammer Hold, plus human
players spawning at the temple. Between his gardens here and the one at the farm, he'd been able to drop the prices for some of the simpler foods he provided to the level that the newbies could actually afford to pay for meals at the inn.

  He'd generated a series of standard quests for the meat drops and carcasses of a variety of the animals that spawned in the Meadowlands so his meat was covered as well. His chickens were almost numerous enough that he could start offering those, and the rabbit hutch he'd put in was nearly full of rabbits since they bred like, well, bunnies. In a week or two they'd be old enough to start being butchered for meat.

  That's a thought, maybe I should see if there's a butcher in the refugees anywhere. I could just build something the size of a house, maybe with a stone area sunk into the ground to stay cooler, and they could get going on a business. Switch the meat quests to there. I could use the majority of it for the inn, but then if there's enough we could set up a stall in the marketplace for the rest of the meat once I get the marketplace running.

  Eddie had been thinking. If he wanted to set a tax once he got the town hall up, then he'd need some sort of financial activity to tax. So far if he set a tax, it would apply to him and Karl, and that was all. There was business going on between the native inhabitants, but it was mainly barter and nothing like a business he could tax.

  He'd already scanned the auction house and found some really cheap blueprints for what looked like market stalls. Griff, the man he'd hired on a day by day basis when the refugees first arrived, was now one of Eddie's helpers. When he hit a carpentry level of five Eddie was planning on handing him the market stall blueprints, sectioning off an area of land, and having Griff build a series of stalls on the land.

  Once that was done, Eddie would rent out the stalls to anyone who wanted to sell. He'd keep the rate cheap for now, only a couple of coppers a day or the equivalent in barter, and the refugees and previous inhabitants could start selling things to one another or the players.