Keeper Read online

  Eddie shook his head in amazement, wondering if Becky really was that sly and cunning, if she'd been building up to this, or if she really did have Paul wrapped around her finger like that.

  He finished his dinner and headed back to the kitchen to clean up. As he was about to enter the kitchen he noticed a group of adventurers leaving the inn. When the first of them called out “For luck!” as he was leaving, Eddie turned around and watched as each of them reached up and tapped the base of the inn sign as they left through the door.

  I knew that was gonna happen, Eddie thought. One more thing I owe Karl for.

  ~ ~ ~

  Chapter Twelve

  “Tom!” Ricky called.

  The head researcher hurried over since Ricky's voice had sounded panicked.

  “What is it?” Tom asked.

  “Remember those fluctuations on the pod? I'm seeing them again, a little bit stronger this time.”

  Tom shivered, for whatever reason the room had been much cooler than the standard seventy-two they kept it at this morning. It was slowly warming back up, but taking far too long for his tastes.

  “When?”

  “An hour and a half back,” Ricky said. “We weren't adding nutrients today so now we know it isn't related to that at least. What the hell is it that's causing that?”

  “I don't know. It's already back to normal though so there's nothing I can do. I hate intermittent problems, they're the worst. Well, let's step up the schedule on checking those, better yet, let me run off a script and set up an alarm for if it happens again. Then if we're here in the lab maybe we can actually get to it while the fluctuations are still happening and figure out the problem.”

  He settled in at the workstation, writing and compiling a short script to have this station beep repeatedly until it received input if the fluctuations in the pod started up again.

  “That's all I can do for right now. I wish Aaron were here, I'm sure he'd have a better idea,” Tom said.

  ~ ~ ~

  “Karl, how's it going?” Eddie asked as the inn door opened to admit his friend.

  Karl was coming into the common room of the inn easily an hour before he normally made it there.

  “Good, I mean really good. I love this place,” Karl said.

  “Are you feeling okay?” Eddie asked.

  “Yeah, I'm fine. Hell, I'm not even tired. I only got a few hours of sleep. After Allie fell asleep last night, I couldn't, I wasn't tired enough, so I stayed up and caught up with Rock and a Hard Place,” he said, referencing a current popular sitcom. “The browser screen can handle streaming just fine even if it is a little clunky doing some other things.”

  “Are you sure you're fine? I mean, you're up early and you've never seemed like a morning person before. Weren't you drinking again last night?”

  Eddie was used to Karl spending a little bit of time each morning regretting the drinks of the night before. Today he was downright chipper first thing in the morning.

  “Maybe because I was up for a couple of hours before I fell asleep? Gave me time to process the booze? I don't know. You have anything planned for today?” Karl said.

  Before Eddie could answer, Karl continued speaking.

  “Wait, let me change that to do you have anything planned for today that you need help with. You've never got nothing planned.”

  “I need to talk with everyone in our group, got a serious possibility lined up, with a potential drawback of course,” Eddie said.

  “Look at you, being all cryptic and stuff. I'm going to grab some food then go out for a walk.”

  Eddie stared at Karl.

  “Really? Are you sure you're okay? I don't think you've ever just gone out for a walk here before this.”

  “I gotta burn off all this energy somehow. We aren't adventuring today, I can't really get any new maps going without going into the Forest of Fools or the mountains, and I don't have any other projects on deck.”

  Karl took a seat, made his order, and Eddie started worrying even more. Karl's first plate of food was huge and when he finished it, he ordered another plate full. Once he cleaned his second plate, he stood and headed for the door.

  “Let me know when you want to talk to everyone, and where. I'll come back then,” Karl said.

  He stepped out the door, tapping the inn's sign as he went. Eddie rolled his eyes at that, but was still concerned for his friend.

  That's just not like him, Eddie thought. I'll have to ask Allie if she noticed anything different about him last night or something, tell her to keep an eye on him maybe.

  Karl had been right though, Eddie had a lot of things to do today, just like normal, so he started in on his list. Taking the cart and ox, Eddie headed for the grain mill to pick up the flour he'd ordered.

  ~ ~ ~

  By the time he returned he'd entirely forgotten about Karl's abnormal behavior. He'd helped load the sacks of flour onto the cart, and they were heavy. He'd had to walk back since the cart was close to capacity on weight as well, and the ox hadn't wanted to move very quickly with the full load, so Eddie's mind had wandered as he walked.

  He was just glad that Paul had built the inn from a blueprint because Eddie never would've considered that he'd need this much pantry space. He hefted bag after bag of flour and carried them into the inn, assisted by the baker himself. Liv, when he'd returned, had been on him about getting some sugar beets so they could have sugar as well. She'd gone on and on about how she knew how to process them for use and could do it with just a few piece of equipment. Or how they could just use the sugar syrup, that was much easier to make, in cooking.

  Eddie was nearly cracking up over the way she'd told him. Liv would get a few sentences in each time he passed carrying a bag or going out for another one, breaking up the conversation into small chunks that he had to mentally stick together to get her full meaning.

  Once he was done unloading the cart and the stable boy was taking care of the cart and ox, he stopped near her.

  “So, my takeaway here is that you want me to grow you sugar beets?”

  “That's what I was saying,” Liv replied.

  But with about an extra thousand or more words surrounding the request, Eddie thought.

  “Done then, assuming I can get some seed for them,” he replied.

  Then he turned and walked out back, grabbed the shovel, and started to double dig another section of the garden patch.

  ~ ~ ~

  After he'd dug for an hour or so, he put away the shovel and went to his next obligation of the day, helping Tiana with the temple. He planned to work there until lunch time, then try to get the group together and head up to the farm to discuss Becky and her request, plus her knowledge of a dungeon location. Finally he'd check in with Opron before heading back to the inn well before the dinner rush.

  He was trying to leave himself some extra time to do whatever caught his fancy, but he was sure he'd end up sidetracking himself with one of his projects instead.

  That's normally how things work out, he thought.

  When he arrived at the temple, he stopped dead. Tiana wasn't alone, Becky sat beside her at the base of the tree and the two of them were talking.

  Well now, I wonder what's going on?

  He took a deep breath, then walked onto the lot. Tiana noticed him immediately and looked up to greet him with a smile.

  “Did you know that Becky has Accelerate Plant Growth also?” she said. “She's been helping me here, working on the tree and the other plants on the lot.”

  “Yeah,” Becky chimed in. “I was heading to the inn to hang out there for the morning like dad said I could when I saw Tiana working here and stopped to ask what she was doing.”

  “Then she just offered to chip in and help,” Tiana said.

  Well, maybe she was telling me the truth and just did want something productive to do and people to hang out with. I'll have to ask Tiana her opinion about it later on tonight, Eddie thought.

  “Well, I've got until lun
ch to help out, so let me drain my mana and we can talk while it regens if you want,” Eddie said.

  Lucky had been trailing along behind him, as normal, but now Eddie saw her out on the fringes of the land Tiana had claimed for the temple. He hoped that Becky was honest about not trying to mess with his cat any more and he also hoped that Lucky would get over it at least some, otherwise trying to have them together on a dungeon run was going to be... interesting. Interesting in the 'may you live in interesting times' sense of the word.

  He focused in on the wall of rose bushes he'd been building and cast Accelerate Plant Growth. After a pair of casts his mana wasn't as low as it had gotten the first few times he did it. Partly because of the mana increase he got with level six and partly, he hoped at least, because he was getting better at his skills and spells.

  When he went over to sit down and regen, Becky was still sitting there, staring at him.

  “How...” she started to ask before just trailing off.

  “How can I weave plants with the plant growth spell?” he asked.

  She just nodded, so he launched into an explanation of his Conjunction skill. Before long she seemed to lose interest, especially when he explained the drawback to casting it the first time with any combination. When he'd finished she just shook her head.

  “Not for me,” she said, standing and going over to Tiana to ask what else she could use the spell on.

  Eddie just grinned to himself. He'd hoped that a dry, analytical explanation of what he'd done would manage to do just what it had. He wasn't all that mad with Becky any more, but he was nervous about her, especially with how she'd manipulated her father.

  I wonder....

  Acting on his thoughts he pulled up the help on druids in his browser again, then relaxed when he found out that they did not get a charm person spell. He sighed heavily with relief since he'd had no idea what he'd do about it if she had charmed Paul.

  Is she really that bad or was it just a result of the boredom, he wondered. I suppose we'll find out if she groups with us a few times. All I know is that what she did to Lucky has me predisposed to dislike her.

  He waited until his mana had filled, then got up and did another two sections of wall. He kept doing that until his stomach started grumbling, then called out to Tiana.

  “Lunch?” he asked.

  Damn it, she's actually been helpful to Tiana, he thought.

  Becky, do you want to go have lunch with us at the inn?” he said.

  Tiana had started walking over when he'd called to her, when he called to Becky also Tiana's eyebrows raised and she cocked her head to the side.

  “Really?” she asked softly when she got close.

  “She's been helping you. I may not like her, but I can be polite at least,” he replied, equally softly.

  Becky had about caught up to where they were so they stopped discussing it after Tiana gave a gentle nod.

  “Come on, let's go get some food,” Eddie said.

  He whistled for Lucky, but the cat wouldn't get any closer than around thirty feet away from Becky. Even so, she followed them at that distance all the way back to the inn, then disappeared into the back yard.

  Great, I'll be getting more fish breath after lunch, Eddie thought, but at least it won't be goblin breath again.

  He shuddered at the memory of Lucky's breath after she'd been savaging goblins, then tried to forget it entirely so he'd have an appetite for lunch.

  ~ ~ ~

  “So that's the deal,” he said. “I can get us to a dungeon that's appeared in the Meadowlands. The catch is we have to take a low level druid with us since she's the one that found it.”

  He was standing in the middle of the group, minus Karl since no-one had been able to find him when it was time for the meeting. They broke out into a discussion immediately when he stopped talking.

  “I don't see why she shouldn't come along,” Jern said. “If the dungeon is level one to ten like you said, then it sounds like she still falls into the range.”

  “I don't like the idea of having to carry someone. If you remember right, I was worried we'd have to do that with you and Karl. I admitted I was wrong, but I doubt we'll be as lucky again,” Allie said.

  “She does have some decent spells,” Tiana said. “She was helping me with my project and we were talking about them. She has come things that Eddie and I don't.”

  “Is she someone we know?” Dominic asked, emphasizing the she. “Because there just aren't all that many low level druids in the area, that I know of at least.”

  “It's Paul's daughter, Becky,” Eddie said. “I didn't want to mention that at first because I didn't want anyone to think I was trying to influence their decision. I know Paul's been useful to a lot of us, so when he asked me to see if Becky could group with us, I told him I'd check. I don't think he knows about the dungeon though, or that Becky wants to run it with us.”

  Dominic's interest was piqued at that.

  “Sure, I wouldn't mind having another pure caster around. No offense intended Eddie, Tiana.”

  “None taken,” Eddie and Tiana said, almost in unison. Then started chuckling when they realized what they'd done.

  Dominic just shook his head at them.

  “Alright, I'll cave,” Allie said. “Besides, if she found a dungeon all by herself that no-one else has? Maybe she won't need to be carried. As a caster we'll put her in the middle of the group anyhow.”

  “Good, then we just need to find Karl and get his agreement, then we can plan on a time to run the dungeon, or at least try it,” Eddie said. “I've got no idea what dungeons are like in this place.”

  He got a bunch of nodding heads and several people admitting that they didn't know either in response to his words.

  “Never been one in the Meadowlands as far as I know,” Allie said. “Not any that I've heard of anyhow.”

  “Well, she said it appeared after the message about this becoming a player hamlet,” Eddie said. “With the hammer dwarf race opening up then it wouldn't be beyond imagination for them to have changed other things around at the same time, right?”

  “Karl's gonna love this,” Allie said. “If there were too many changes he's going to have to redo all his maps.”

  She chuckled.

  “Although the chance to map a dungeon and sell copies to others going into it may well make up for that,” she continued. “Now if we can just find him.”

  “Well, like I said when I saw him this morning, he seemed all jumpy and said he was going for a walk,” Eddie said. “I think he headed west when he left the inn. Beyond that? I don't know. I didn't see him when I went out that way to get flour for the inn though.”

  “Well, maybe I'll head out west and see if I can find him,” Allie said. “I know he didn't die because we would've seen that in the group notifications.”

  “Would we though?” Eddie asked. “Chat only goes about a thousand feet or so, I think. At least that's where the group members are shown in green on the group list.”

  “Yes, we would. Group notifications don't have a distance limitation,” Allie said.

  “Okay then, Besides, if he died he would've respawned at the inn.”

  “An hour or two after he died he would, but yeah he would show up at the inn. I'm sure he's out there somewhere though, I just don't know what he's doing and he's got me curious,” Allie said.

  “Well, I need to go make sure that Opron is all set before I do anything else,” Eddie said. “So shall we meet at the inn tomorrow morning and make a plan for the dungeon? I'll tell Becky she's in if I see her there tonight.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Dominic said. “You can introduce me too, I've seen her, but I don't think we were formally introduced even when we were both in the bunkhouse before. She didn't come out of the room Paul made for her much.”

  He isn't, is he? Eddie thought.

  It certainly sounded like Dominic might be interested in Becky. Eddie shook his mental head. His first impulse had been to ask
Dominic if that was the case, but it really wasn't Eddie's business, and he had to remember that.

  At least I just didn't blurt it out like I normally would have, he thought. But I get it, Dominic is probably a little sensitive about women right now since Tiana and Allie paired up with me and Karl. Maybe a little overeager, but he is a good guy, she could do worse, and with our adventuring schedule he'd be around a lot more than some of the other guys in the area.

  Eddie told himself it wasn't his business again, then took his leave, Lucky tailing along behind. Tiana went with him also as he headed for the smithy, but continued on the road towards her temple site when he turned off for the smithy. When he arrived, he heard a lot of banging around inside, but it didn't sound like metal on metal like he'd expected. Instead it sounded a lot like wood, and cursing. Lucky ran over to the stream and started peering into it intently and Eddie knew another case of fish breath was inevitable.

  He stepped inside the smithy to find Delgar trying to piece together the lumber Eddie had used to make a mold casing for Opron's anvil. The apprentice was there also, filing away at the rough anvil Opron had made. Opron himself was trying to help Delgar, but the two were making no headway.

  “Need a hand with that?” Eddie asked.

  The two dwarfs backed away from the wood, both of them flushing.

  “Um, if you would?” Opron said.

  “I dovetailed it so I could put it together without nails. You just weren't putting the boards together in the right pattern,” Eddie said, as he sorted the lumber.

  Once he had it sorted he started building from the bottom up. In ten minutes the box for casting looked just the way it had before Opron had started using it.

  Delgar shook his head.

  “We'd been struggling with that for an hour!” he said.

  “Don't feel bad, it's the carpentry skill. If I tried to smith something, I'd probably be even worse off,” Eddie replied.

  “Still,” Delgar replied.