Suddenly remembering a detail from my time spent in the dungeon labyrinth, once more I examine the trinket Ari gave me for summoning Yock.

  [Merchant summoning stone

  Summons Yock the goblin Merchant. Only works in tunnels of the Highline mountains and in player’s home base.]

  This is interesting, I think, scrolling once more through the list of buildings I can add to the guild. Why didn’t I notice before the alchemist and market stalls are highlighted? Could this be because—

  Eagerly, I select market stalls from the list.

  [You have the favor of the Merchant Yock. Would you like to bring Yock to your home base at this time?

  Cost, 0]

  Yes! I get a guild merchant—for free! Woohoo!

  I’m beginning to really visualize a little village here, I think with a giddy feeling as I set the stall down near the river. Once I’ve got it positioned where I want it, the stall materializes with a flash and a small display of fireworks.

  I feel relief and excitement to see a familiar little green face, and I can’t stop myself from running up to him eagerly.

  “Yock!”

  “!@±￥#$, μ÷π&???!”

  “Right back at you, ugly little bastard!” I laugh, clapping him on the back. “But tell me, how’s business been since I left the caves? No good, right?”

  I listen to the goblin’s complaints with a grin on my face, meanwhile Sherbie looks between us with growing confusion and alarm.

  “Rev, you actually understand this guy?”

  “Yeah, turns out Goblinese is pretty easy once you get the hang of it. Anyway, Sherbie this is Yock. You can sell your equipment at his stall, but don’t expect him to give you a fair price. Heh.”

  “Rrright…”

  I leave the hapless Sherbie in Yock’s greedy clutches, and go back to my system screen.

  Let’s see, here. If Yock was able to come over to my home base, then that should also mean…

  [You have the favor of Mad Wim the alchemist. Would you like to bring Mad Wim to your home base at this time?

  Cost, 0]

  Yes! And I don’t have to pay a copper!

  A nostalgic little hut appears in transparent form as I search out the perfect place to set it. Close to the market area, I think. Mad Wim and Yock are both decidedly unpleasant people; they’ll enjoy bickering and harassing one another.

  I set the shop down, and it materializes in all its glory. Mad Wim comes out of his hut with a perplexed look and gets an eyeful of the scenery. I approach him and his glare settles on me, then his eyes light with recognition and he gets the biggest grin on his face.

  “Here, now. If it isn’t the little princess!”

  I wince. I’d nearly forgotten this jerk’s name for me.

  I approach the man and clasp his hand firmly. “Hey, Wim. How’s Tess?”

  “Oh, same as always,” he chuckles. “Well, look at you,” he says, sounding rather like a proud uncle as he eyes me up and down. “You’ve come a long way in a short time, haven’t you, princess?”

  “You might say that…”

  “That little bonus I gave to your Shroomlet aura must be coming in handy right about now, eh?”

  “Yeah. It evolved in a big way.”

  “I knew it would,” he chuckles, pleased with himself. “I’m a genius, I’ve always said it. Never needed anyone’s validation, neither, humph. But this is a nice place you’ve got set up for yourself, here. Quiet. I like it.”

  “We’re just getting started. This is all I can afford for the time being, but I’ll come back and upgrade as soon as I can.”

  “Well you can count on me to make potions for your guild. Now that you’ve freed me from that awful job in Bluebell—”

  “How does this work, exactly?” I query him, curious. “Did they get someone to replace you back in the village?”

  “Oh, I imagine so. I was a quest giver, after all. That’s an important job, you know?”

  “Yes, but, is there, you know, another Mad Wim over there, now?”

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “No. I’m one of a kind,” he assures me with another grin. “They’ll alter the quest a little, get a new alchemist in, change some of the script. They’ll have to. They never figured on anyone maxing out the bonus to their Shroomlet aura and gaining my favor. In fact, you’re the only one in the thousands I met who did.”

  It feels strangely meta to hear Mad Wim speaking of the game in this way, as though he’s somehow conscious of it all. If he’s this self-aware, I wonder if he’ll really be ok, living here in the middle of nowhere with no one to talk to but a misanthropic wizard and a ratchet goblin.

  As though hearing my thoughts, he answers me, “This is where I want to be. Where I always wanted to be. I have a purpose now, a real purpose.”

  “You didn’t have that in the village?”

  Mad Wim smirks, shrug his shoulders. “Who knows what I had then? Nothing but passing days and faces. Too many to count, too many to remember. You were the only one that ever stood out to me. I really hoped one day you’d find a use for me, and…well, now you have. So don’t feel as though you’ve doomed me, by bringing me here. It is my honor and duty to serve you, Master Revelator. And The Whales.”

  “Master Revelator, is it now?”

  “Don’t get used to it,” he says behind his hand with a wink, and I can’t help but chuckle.

  “Well, then. Since I’ve got you here, Mr. Wim, may I see your wares?”

  “My pleasure. I’ve got some good potions in stock. And a few experimental ones I’m working on. I don’t suppose you’d care to try…”

  I confer with Mad Wim a bit, selling him all my old potions and buying back twenty Greater Potions, which he assures me heal three times as much as the ordinary variety.

  “You sure that’ll be enough for you?”

  “Yeah. I’ve got a healer, now. Speaking of whom, I’d better go make sure that goblin hasn’t conned him out of his last pair of socks. I’ll catch you later, Wim.”

  “Yeah. See you around, princess.”

  To my astonishment, as I return to Yock’s cart I find the merchant and the druid talking freely and laughing together like old friends.

  “Getting along pretty well, I see. Yock, I hope you didn’t pay Sherbie half price for his goods.”

  “Not at all!” Sherbie assures me. “In fact, Sir Yock was quite generous. He even offered me a special price for my windberry pies.”

  To this, Yock makes a ribald comment which sends Sherbie into a mild fit of laughter.

  “Ah!” he gasps and removes his glasses to wipe the corners of his eyes. “Ah, he’s got the best jokes, don’t you think, Rev?”

  “You picked his speech up rather fast, didn’t you?”

  Sherbie shrugs and replaces his glasses. “I’ve always had a thing for languages.”

  “Sure. How much money did you get?”

  “1 gp, 4 sp.”

  “Great. Let’s see what I can get out of him.”

  I had big plans for auctioning off the rare items I found in the dungeon, but given the hasty way in which we left Pitola, I never got around to posting them.

  “Here, Sherbie. For you,” I say, opening the trade window and giving him the Amulet of the Goldfish I’ve been carrying all this time. It gives a bonus to MP and Intelligence, so it will be useful for a caster like Sherbie.

  “A token of our friendship,” he says, the eyes behind his thick frames doubtlessly shining with tears. “I shall never take it off.”

  “Please take it off when a better amulet becomes available. Anyway, Yock…”

  After a lot of haggling and abuse from the trader, I manage to come away from the deal with 4 gp and 22 sp, for a total of 5 gp and 26 sp between us, plus what little leftover I had from before. Hopefully with this I can beef up defense a little before we go.

  [Would you like to hire base guards (Archers) for a fee of 12 sp/day?]

  Of course they’re more expensive than the pikemen.

  “Yes.”

  [If you want to hire Archers, you must first build Fletcher’s Hut.]

  “Tell me that first!”

  [Fletcher’s Hut, level 1

  Adds home and workspace for the Fletcher.

  Cost, 3 gp]

  [Would you like to build Fletcher’s Hut level 1?]

  “Yes.”

  I place the fletcher’s hut beside the barracks, satisfied with the overall effect.

  Now, I have 2 gp and 26 sp left. That’s enough to hire several more guards and still leave me enough cushion to figure out a more steady source of income to pay them with.

  [How many Archers would you like to hire at this time?]

  Three.

  [How many Pikemen would you like to hire at this time?]

  Four. Added to the original two, that’s six, making their salary a little under one gold piece a day to pay for them all.

  Good. I can manage this. And now our base, while by no means Fort Knox, should be well enough defended against the idle attackers. Of course if a larger guild comes against us, we won’t stand a chance, but I’m hopeful we’re far enough out of the way here, we won’t attract any attention.

  We could sure use some more finances, though, to build walls and turrets for the archers. We’ll probably need more guild members before we can do that, I suppose. Though the thought of recruiting again has me a bit sick to my stomach.

  I guess we’ll leave it for now, and see what happens. Who knows? Maybe one day I’ll be so famous, they’ll be lining up to join our guild.

  Heh.

  One thing at a time. Right now, we should focus on our main quest, and on getting back to Pitola so we can make a stop at the Druid’s Enclave. Once we get Sherbie’s garbage character build sorted out, I’m confident we’ll be playing a very different game. And who knows—maybe there’s a new skill waiting for me there, too.

  “Sherbie, I think we’ve spent enough time building building up Whale Base. I’m pretty happy with it, how about you?”

  “It’s perfect! I like it so much!” he says excitedly, and I can’t help but think if he were a real golden retriever, he would have already peed on every building here. “The guards are really nice, too. They said they’d play dice with me later.”

  “When did you have time to talk to—you know what? Never mind. Were you able to settle on three animal companions to bring with you?”

  “Yes, I explained to Hannah I had to leave her behind, but only temporarily. And now Bobo can go with us!”

  Bobo? Ah. He must mean the bear cub.

  [Bear Cub

  Level: 1

  HP: 128

  Constitution: 9

  Strength: 8

  Agility: 1

  Intelligence: 2

  Skills: Thick Hide]

  Hm. His stats are a bit more than the smaller animals’, Though I’ll confess I was hoping they’d be higher. I suppose in the end, they couldn’t make the animal companions too strong, or the Druid character would be a total cheat, walking around with three monsters at his beck and call, each as strong as a regular player.

  Fine. I’ll settle with Bobo for now. Maybe he’ll look a little more impressive after he’s gone up a level or two.

  “One more thing, before we go,” Sherbie says, stopping me just as I’m about to cross the bridge.

  “What is it?”

  “We need to set our teleportation stones to the base.”

  “Teleportation stone?”

  “Yeah, we each got one when we first made the guild. If we set it to this place, we can teleport back to it whenever we want, from anywhere in the world.”

  A bit frantically, I do a quick search of my nearly empty bag, already knowing the terrible truth.

  “Shoot. I think I sold it to Yock. Yock!” I scream at the little man, and he gives me a wide, sleazy yellow-toothed grin.

  Well, crap.

  There goes the rest of my gold…