The Adept, The Fighter and the Farmer - Day 24
Rain washed over the crude mud house that Tiller had built with Reader’s help. Ordinarily the rain was freeing. Watering was one of the largest tasks of each day and when it rained Tiller was set loose to complete other tasks. On Day 24 of their time in Scape, however, there was nothing left for him to do. He had harvested all the wood that there was to harvest. He’d prepared all the ground that he could. So he sat in the mud house with a distracted Reader who was attempting to continue his research, and a frustrated Cutter who would have preferred to have been somewhere else.
Tiller said, “One more day. We’ve come this far. We can harvest tomorrow, hit Medley, and get the composter. If we can get a good enough price for the harvest, put together with the kitty you built adventuring, then we’ll have enough for the composter and hopefully enough seeds to replant the whole farm.”
Cutter pointed a finger, “And then we go back to salaries! Right?”
Tiller nodded, “Yes. Absolutely. That was the deal. I didn’t mean to go around you with that. But the panic is real. Based on my conversation with Cronk the situation with the ogres is more complicated than I expected. Tonk has a following and Cronk suggested that following might be enough to take us on.”
Cutter grumbled, “I wouldn’t mind a little action. He could come out here with a bit of a crew give me a chance to do something.”
Tiller said, “You don’t really mean that.”
Cutter fixed him with a wry glance that strongly suggested that he did.
Reader looked up from his desk. The mildest mannered of the three, it was discordant to see irritation written plainly on his face. “There’s nowhere else you could be having this conversation?”
Cutter said, “Like out in the rain? I don’t think so buddy.”
Reader grumbled and turned his head back to his desk.
Cutter blew air through his lips and looked around. Tiller rested a shoulder against the doorless doorframe and watched the rain. Reader’s concentration deepened, his eyes glowing intermittently as he retrieved knowledge from Grim’s banks, and continued drawing his weaves.
Cutter sat forward suddenly, “Hey! Where are we all with your progression?”
Reader sighed and dropped his pencil, turning to look at Cutter with no small amount of exasperation.
Cutter smiled, not that genuinely, and held his hands up in surrender. “Sorry, sorry. But wouldn’t it be a good idea to check in. Shit will change real fast when we start getting to Iron, won’t it? I know what will happen to me, I’ll get even more kick ass and be able to take fatter contracts and kill meaner shit. What will it mean for you guys? How far off are you?”
Tiller didn’t turn back to them, but spoke as he continued to watch the rain. “I’ll see better harvests I think. Maybe see faster growth of crops. There’s probably more to it than just that. Cronk is an iron ranked farmer and I got the impression that his whole farm benefits from his rank, even when he’s not farming it directly. My sigils suck though, which is a problem. You fighting types have a really easy path for progression, and a really simple way of getting new and useful sigils. It’s trickier for non fighting paths.”
Cutter said, “I’m actually not so sure about that. Early on, yeah. But the further I get along my path the nastier the things I’m going to have to kill to progress which will mean more risk. For you, all you need to do is keep growing your farm and take in bigger and bigger harvests and stuff like that.”
Tiller said, “So how far away from the next level are you?”
Cutter grinned broadly, holding his wrist up and rotating it so they could both see the green bar.
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Reader’s eyes widened, “Holy crap. That’s like… 90 percent. Maybe more.”
Cutter nodded, his face a perfect picture of satisfaction. “That’s part of why I’m so pissed to have to be hanging around here until we get Bonk turned into earth. Another couple big fights and I bet you I level up.”
Tiller whistled lowly. “That’s going to bump your earning potential a hell of a lot. It would make Tonk think twice before causing trouble out here if you were Iron-banded as well. Wow.”
Cutter said, “What about you guys? You can’t be that far behind.”
Tiller shrugged and offered his own band for them to inspect.
Cutter said, “See. Shit, you’re most of the way there. About three quarters? 75 percent.”
Tiller said, “I’ve had some crops out there that have been harvest ready for a few days, but I’m holding off so I can pull them all on the same day. Levelling seems to increase with achievements rather than, like, grinding. So I’m hoping to fill this a good chunk when I harvest tomorrow.”
The fighter and the farmer turned their faces towards the adept. Reader wore a sheepish expression. “Aw, guys, I’m a little bit behind you….”
Cutter said, “Come on, give us a look!”
Reader reddened slightly as he extended his arm.
Tiller said, “Hey, that’s not so bad. You’re at sixty percent or so.”
Cutter said, “And, like Tiller, I’ll bet you’ll have an easier progression path later as well. What do you need to do? Just keep doing more weaves?”
Reader nodded. “Yeah. It seems like I get a boost whenever I execute a new weave really right for the first time. I’ve been working on a few of them, but none of them have been mastered yet. I could have a good day and nail two or three of them and I guess I’d catch right up then.”
Cutter said, “I bet if you can get that ET phone home weave combo to work it will be worth a bundle.”
Reader said, “Oh yes. That’s like five or six weaves all working in concert. That might take most of, or even all of the way there. But I’m a fair bit away from executing that one. I’m still trying to plan out the steps.”
Cutter glanced to Tiller’s back, then to Reader once more. “Is there anything we can do to help?”
Reader’s eyes widened slightly with fresh interest. “You know, actually there is…”
Cutter said, “Dish.”
Reader squirmed a little, uncomfortable with making the request. “I have a staff which is good for making big weaves. Great for combat stuff, I understand, but not brilliant for finer work and less useful when you’re trying to apply weaves to objects. What I really need is a wand. It will make everything work better, I’ll accelerate my progress towards making the carts, the contact home spell, everything.”
Cutter said, “Great. So how much is a wand?”
Reader sagged, “Cheapest I’ve seen is about a thousand gold.”
That was enough to provoke Tiller to spin back to look at him, “A thousand? Shit, everything costs money.”
Cutter waved the comment away, “A thousand gold is a drop in the ocean. When we really get rolling here we’ll be making enough to cover that and barely notice. Tiller, you’re the one who’s all about growth growth growth. A spend like that would be an investment. So, yeah, we can’t do it right now, but it won’t be long. Besides, next contract I pick up from Spinner might be to take down a necromancer or a dark magician or some shit and I might score his wand. Is there anything else you need?”
Reader said, “Yeah. To make the actual communication device I need three things. A disk of polished blue steel. I think they make metal like that in the Leohom realm. It’s not cheap either. I need precious stone. Any precious stone will work, it’s used like a capacitor to store up energy before releasing it to make the connection. The more precious the stone the better, so a diamond would be great, but I think I can make do with less. And then… well…”
Cutter said, “Jesus, come on.”
Reader smiled thinly, “Well…”
Tiller said, “Today Reader, come on.”
Reader said, “I also need… a dragon’s horn.”
Cutter whistled. “Wow. I don’t need to know how this place works to guess that’s a tall order.”
Reader grimaced. “Yeah. I’ve been doing some reading. Dragons are seriously hard to take down. And they’re really rare. There’s a lot of variation though. A top-tier dragon is like a god, one of the most powerful things in the whole world. But there are, apparently, some pretty weak ones out there as well. The biggest problem is actually finding one. They’re like super rare.”
Tiller arched a brow. “That’s funny…”
Reader said, “I didn’t think it sounded that funny.”
Tiller said, “No. It’s just odd that you’d mention needing to find a dragon…”
Reader said, “Because…?”
Tiller said, “Cronk told me where one hangs out. He said his brother was killed by a dragon. He wasn’t specific but he said there was a spot somewhere towards the Xantion Realm. I don’t remember if he said what class his brother was, but it was probably stone or clay. So, even though he might have died fighting it, if he bothered to take it on at all, it kind of suggests it wasn’t a heavy hitter.”
Cutter’s face was suddenly bright and burning with fresh eagerness. “You gotta find out where that is.”
Tiller said, “Slow down there slugger. It killed Cronk’s brother remember, we don’t need you going and getting yourself… you’re not listening to me, are you?”
Cutter was standing, staring into space, his eyes sparkling with wonder. “Cutter the Hoo-man… Dragonslayer!”
