Keeper Read online

  Pay staff from private funds?

  (Y/N)

  He quickly selected yes and then checked his pouch icon. Sure enough the money to pay the staff had disappeared from his totals. He assumed the game would deliver it to them promptly, but made a mental note to check that after he was back.

  When he returned to the common room, the other three were waiting by the door.

  “Just had to pay the staff,” he said. “Hadn't done it yet and Tiana reminded me this morning.”

  Allie nodded.

  “They're doing a good job, so keep them paid and happy. It'll make life that much easier on you.”

  Eddie whistled for Lucky as soon as they got outside. Karl flinched at the noise, but stayed silent. The bobcat came rushing up, writhing around first Eddie's, and then Tiana's, feet.

  “Want to hunt some goblins today Lucky? That's where we're going,” Eddie said.

  The bobcat chuffed once, then fell in behind Eddie as he moved down the road.

  The brisk walk down the road seemed to help with Karl's hangover, either that or the food he'd eaten was finally making a difference.

  “So, what's your surprise?” Karl asked Eddie.

  “Doh! It's a surprise. You'll find out soon enough. What's yours?”

  Karl just glared at Eddie and rolled his eyes.

  “Two can play at that game,” he said, then went silent for the rest of the walk.

  When they arrived, Jern and Dominic were in the yard, leaning against the well. Brandr was in the garden, working, and Eddie could hear two different people swinging axes in the nearby woods, so he assumed Osmond was trying to collect a few more coppers before Ingolf finished clearing the road.

  Once they were all together Eddie accessed his inventory and pulled out five wrapped packages.

  “Don't eat these right now,” he said. “Anyone with Evaluate check them out and tell the others why.”

  He handed out the wrapped packages and the group, except for Tiana, looked confused as they opened them and saw flatbread. Several eyes went unfocused before Dominic exclaimed.

  “What the... How?”

  “Share with those who can't evaluate first, please.”

  “These are healing bread,” Dominic said. “Looks to be a lesser version of the Nature's Binding spell.”

  “Which I put into the dough as I made it. I did it with the new ability I got. It's called Conjunction,” Eddie said.

  Several eyes went unfocused again.

  “Damn it, I can't access the help on that,” Dominic said.

  Eddie pulled up the help on it and shared his screen to the group. As they read the help Dominic groaned.

  “My god, that's got potential,” he said.

  “The problem being,” Eddie replied. “That the multiplier it references isn't a small one. The first time I use it on any particular conjunction it knocks my mana nearly to zero and drops me. As in literally. When I used it on the bread I almost passed out on the kitchen floor.”

  “It gets easier after?” Dominic asked.

  “I think so. I've only used it for two things so far. The first one got easier after the first time, but I haven't tried the bread a second time. The game got really snarky and nasty with me, warned me that it was dangerous to use that much mana in one go, so I've been trying to be more cautious.”

  “Yeah, it's not kidding. You can knock your casting ability out for days if you burn your mana too low. It'll let you cast a spell that leaves you with negative mana, but that knocks out your casting ability for one day per negative point. Removes mana regen for the same period of time, and leaves you with a headache that feels like mules are repeatedly kicking your skull until your mana goes positive again,” Dominic said earnestly.

  He looked around and noticed everyone staring at him.

  “Um, at least that's what I was told?” he said.

  Smiles broke out around the group.

  “You'll have to tell us about it some time,” Karl said. “But, I've got a surprise also. Everyone open your maps.”

  As Eddie watched, his map updated with portions of the Forest of Fools filling in with paths, villages, and more.

  “I had a few takers on my quest,” Karl said, grinning. “Best two gold I ever spent. I now have beginners' maps of the Forest of Fools for sale. Enough to get a group to any of the tier one villages. As you can see, I've got a lot more than that too, but I'm not making commercial maps of these until later on.”

  “Awesome, Karl,” Eddie said. “This should help a lot.”

  Karl grinned, but shook his head.

  “Likewise, but I think you managed to show me up again.”

  “Hey, I couldn't do what you're doing, so don't knock it,” Eddie said.

  “It is pretty cool, isn't it? I never imagined I'd enjoy drawing maps this much, but I love it.”

  “Um, if the mutual admiration society is done its meeting, can we maybe get adventuring?” Dominic asked.

  The entire group turned to him, the comment being very out of character for the wizard. He was grinning hugely when they all looked at him.

  “Um, sorry. I'm kind of looking forward to getting back later on today. Paul's supposed to finish my house today so I can move into it!” he said eagerly.

  More than one of the group chuckled at the wizard's obvious eagerness and happiness.

  “Oh, Eddie. I cleaned up the bunkhouse, shoveled out the ashes into the pile that was already out back. Thanks for letting me stay there.”

  “Not a problem. You're welcome,” Eddie said.

  “So, yeah. I've got all my stuff ready to go. Once we're back from adventuring I'll just toss all that in my inventory and go down to my own house.”

  “Well, what are we waiting for?” Eddie asked. “Let's go.”

  ~ ~ ~

  The first patrol they met on the paths in the Forest of Fools went down in seconds. Dominic might have been distracted by his house earlier, but he was focused on fighting now. Jern was barely touched by the goblin scouts that tried to attack him, not even needing a heal from Tiana to be at full before their next encounter. Lucky had never even managed to get in a back attack in the fight, although Karl had managed one.

  The next encounter was a boosted patrol. The group had walked along the trail like they hadn't a care in the world, talking loudly. When Eddie had seen a goblin scout in the distance, he'd lofted an arrow at it that took it square in the chest with a critical hit. The goblin had died, but not before letting out a squeal that had to have alerted the rest of its group that there were adventurers nearby.

  They waited then and when the boosted patrol arrived, it lasted less than a minute. This time Jern did need a healing spell, but only one.

  The party picked up speed now, moving towards the goblin village they knew was nearby. Lucky and Karl broke off to circle around the village and hide near the area the shaman would appear in, if he did.

  Dominic waited until there was a large grouping of goblins near the center of the village, then detonated a fireball in the midst of them. At a nod from Allie, Jern strode into the village, calling out all manners of insult on the goblins.

  “Where are the wee, green, slaves of the orcs that I know live here,” he yelled at the top of his volume.

  “Come and fight me little snot men,” Jern cried out when the goblins didn't react quickly enough to his first taunt.

  Eddie had to resist laughing at that one, the goblins weren't much shorter than Jern himself, although they were significantly less broad in the shoulders. His aborted laughter didn't affect his aim though, he and Allie were removing the last of the wounded goblins from where Dominic had detonated his fireball.

  A volley of arrows came flying towards Eddie and, although he tried to dodge, he was still hit by two of them. A quick look at his health bar told him that he was good to keep fighting for now.

  Health: 62/90

  But if I get hit with another volley like that, I'm going to need to stop and heal, he thought.
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br />   Tiana turned towards him, ready to heal him, but he waved her back towards Jern.

  He continued firing and the next volley of goblin arrows targeted Allie. She was only hit once and kept firing after tearing the arrow out and throwing it to the ground.

  “Shaman in play!” Allie called out, pointing.

  Eddie fired one more arrow at the goblin archers, dropping one of the remaining three, before retargeting on the shaman.

  He fired on the shaman and, as he'd suspected, the arrow struck an invisible shield in the air, dropping to the ground. But he'd attracted the shaman's attention, which was what he'd been trying to do.

  As the shaman started casting a spell, Eddie matched him.

  Cast Nature's Binding, he thought, targeting himself.

  His health counter bumped up ten points immediately, and then began to count up by two points every five seconds.

  That will have me back to full when it's done, unless I take more damage before then, he thought.

  He raised his bow again, ready to try to hold the shaman's attention, but he still had it. A green glowing orb the size of a large marble raced across the village, striking Eddie in the chest. He gasped when it did, losing another seven health.

  Eddie launched another arrow at the shaman, only to have it stop in mid-air and fall to the ground again just in front of his target, but this time Karl was ready. He and Lucky used the same routine they had before. Karl rearing up and planting his swords in the shaman's back, while Lucky got right in front of the goblin. When the shaman staggered forward, he tripped over the bobcat. As soon as he was on the ground Lucky pounced, shredding the caster's back and biting at the back of his neck.

  Karl cautiously planted his sword into the shaman's back, right beside Lucky, and the goblin shaman stopped moving.

  Eddie looked around. Jern was still fighting a trio of goblin warriors, but one looked close to falling already. He stepped forward until he was sure he was in range, then pulled out a piece of dead wood.

  Cast Fox Fire on goblin, he thought, staring at the one that he wanted as a target.

  The goblin warrior on the outside edge started glowing and Eddie lifted his bow again. Targeting the glowing goblin was somehow easier than normal and he rapidly managed to sink two arrows into it. Another arrow struck it from Allie, just as Jern dropped his first target.

  The dwarf turned to see the arrows sticking out of the glowing goblin. He jumped away from it, positioning himself so he could attack the unwounded goblin warrior as Allie and Eddie proceeded to drop the glowing one with another volley of arrows.

  The sickening sound of a crushed knee preceded the end of the fight. Jern slammed his hammer into the side of the last warrior's knee, dropping him to the ground, before the hammer finished arcing in a giant circle by slamming into the goblin's head.

  Eddie looked around and couldn't see a single goblin still moving.

  “Arrows?” he called out.

  “They'll be in one of the longhouse style barracks,” Allie said, pointing to two buildings. “I'll check this one, you check the one you're closer to.”

  He went in, but came back out empty-handed, to find Allie carrying a barrel partially filled with arrows.

  “A good haul,” she said. “There's probably fifty arrows or more here.”

  “Well, let's loot everything else and we can split them up before we continue on?” Eddie said.

  She grinned at him.

  “You've certainly gotten the hang of this now, haven't you?” she replied.

  He grinned back, happy to have a resupply of arrows. He'd had less than twenty left after this fight and had no desire to pay Old Jeffries a visit for more.

  Once they'd looted and left, Dominic ignited the buildings and a moment later Eddie grinned even more at the sight of a familiar message.

  Hidden Quest (repeatable):

  Three little, two little, one little goblins

  Numerous goblin villages are located in the Forest of Fools. Destroy one to help hold back the goblins.

  Reward: 1000xp

  Success:

  You have completed the quest: Three little, two little, one little goblins

  Experience awarded: 1000 (+100 well-rested, +100 well-fed, +250 blessing)

  A quick check of his experience told him that he was only a little more than four thousand away from level six.

  Experience, he thought.

  Experience: 20,998/25,000

  I might not make it today, he thought, but I'll be really close if we beat the bigger village. Those are supposed to be worth two thousand experience, which will be twenty-seven hundred with my bonuses. Plus there are the patrols between here and there, those are supposed to be as tough as the boosted ones for the weaker patrols, and stronger still for the others.

  This time all the normal goblin equipment was of poor quality when Evaluated. The shaman had nothing except for a common quality dagger, which Karl claimed.

  “You sure about this?” Eddie asked Allie as they prepared to go deeper into the woods.

  “Oh yes, I want to see them burn again,” she said.

  She had a twinkle in her eye as she gazed deeper into the forest. It was a slightly unnerving look, but other than that she seemed ready and willing to continue.

  “Alright, let's go,” Eddie said. “There's a tier two goblin village waiting for our attention.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Chapter Eight

  Specialist Harmon looked at his men, who were scattered around the clearing. Both their avatars' bodies, which were tucked into the tents, and the monster bodies that they were now inhabiting. He shuddered at the sight of Campbell in his Half-Breed Goblin Champion body. The thing was just a monster, incredibly strong, pretty fast, and with a number of deadly skills. Ferring wasn't much better. He looked like an ancient goblin able to be blown about by a stiff breeze, but some of the spells he'd seen coming from the Ancient Shaman's body were horrific.

  The rest were in higher level, but still common, goblin bodies. Ferring had a regular goblin shaman, a goblin master smith, and two elite goblin warriors in his team. Campbell had two elite goblin warriors and two goblin bruisers on his team. The bruisers were somewhere between the warriors and Campbell in size, with muscles bulging all over. They were, as had been tested, equally proficient with weapons or fists and teeth when it came to fighting.

  “Alright men. Here's the assignment. Now that you're used to these new bodies, you are going to infiltrate the Forest of Fools. Stick to the mid tier villages and recruit yourselves an army. Ferring, most of those tier three villages have a smithy. Take one of those over and start churning out better quality weapons and armor for the goblins.”

  Harmon folded his arms and paced back and forth, subconsciously imitating one of his previous superior officers.

  “Campbell, you're on the recruiting end of things. You get the goblins, get them equipped from Ferring's village, and then disperse them back to their own villages. Arrange a signal for when they are to attack the Meadowlands. On word from our superiors, we'll see just how pathetic those players in the Meadowlands are. They expect us to roll over them, as do I. Do you understand these orders?”

  “Yes, Specialist,” bellowed a combination of voices that grated on Harmon's ears.

  “Alright, tomorrow morning I'll be transporting you to your starting points in the Forest of Fools. Get a good night's rest, in the monster bodies this time so you're used to that, then we'll get to work.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Allie and Karl were the only ones that had been to a tier two goblin village before. Karl didn't know about the patrols on the approach since they'd approached it in stealth last time. Allie remembered them though and had briefed the party. The first patrol they'd come upon would be the equivalent of the boosted patrols before the first tier village and shouldn't be a problem. The second patrol would be tougher, no scouts in it, with archers and/or a shaman to back up the goblin warriors that made up the majority of the force.
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  “We ought to be able to take them with little difficulty though. Eddie, make sure you use that glowing spell on the warriors on the outskirts of melee and you and I will focus down whichever one you set to glowing. They won't all be able to get on Jern at the same time, but Karl, you'll want to stay stealthed on this side of the fight unless they've got a shaman. Take the back attacks on any warriors that try to surround Jern. Got it?”

  Evidently Allie trusted Tiana and Dominic to know their roles in the battle since she'd only explained Karl's and Eddie's. Eddie winced slightly, wondering if his previous impetuousness in battle was why she felt the need to explain it out so thoroughly.

  She was right though, the first patrol was exactly the same as the boosted ones they'd taken down before. They cut through it like a hot knife through butter, finishing their opponents in less than a minute.

  “Lucky, can you keep an eye on both Karl and Tiana? Help whichever one needs it?” Eddie whispered.

  Lucky chuffed in reply, swinging her head from Karl to Tiana and back. Then she stopped moving it and stayed focused on Karl.

  “Yeah, he'll probably need your help more, I just worry about Tiana also.”

  A moment later they resumed movement. Allie asked Karl to go into stealth so he could get a surprise attack whenever the second patrol showed up. Lucky kept glancing at approximately the same spot in relation to the group and Eddie wondered if she could see, or maybe smell, through Karl's stealth ability.

  The next patrol showed up about fifteen minutes later. When Dominic detonated a fireball in the midst of it, he was answered by a shower of arrows. Several of them struck him and he cried out in pain. Tiana moved towards him, her hand starting to glow.

  Jern moved forward, screaming insults to draw the attention of the warriors. Eddie, quickly remembering his role, kept an eye on the dwarf and when the five warriors charged Jern, he picked what he thought would be one that wasn't going to manage to attack the dwarf right away and lit him up with his Fox Fire spell.