Chapter 7: A lot of Bull

Chapter 7: A lot of Bull

Day 2

If anyone didn't wake up from the rooster crowing, they got a second chance from Rory cursing at the cock and throwing rocks. The rooster didn't mind, he was used to performing for harsh audiences and the irate human was a bad shot. A surprisingly bad shot, with no rock even coming within six feet of the amused bird. After tossing a few dozen rocks, Rory gave up. The cock gave a loud cock-a-doodle-piss-on-you of victory and ran off to check on his hens.

Ozzy and Ben joined a grumpy Rory outside, all three trying to stretch out sore muscles before joining the morning traffic jam at the out houses. Suzette walked up to them with a sack over her shoulder. "C'mon, I've got our work assignments from Billy and breakfast in the bag; we can avoid the morning pep talk."

Ozzy noticed that Suzette was looking a lot better this morning. Her clothes were still the burlap peasant outfit they'd all started the game with, but whereas his was a shapeless tube with holes for arms and head, hers was contoured to her body, cut down in a V at the front of her neck, and the edges were hemmed. "Did you start sewing, Susy? Looks good."

"It's the blood sacrifice that does it." Holding up her hands, they saw numerous small punctures where the needle had punched through the thick fabric. "I swear it's like I don't know how to sew. I've sewn in and out of games for years, and now it's like my mind knows what to do but the fingers are stupid. More practice I guess. Wonder how much it takes to earn a sewing skill?"

Ben nodded. He'd also been wondering about skill increases. He'd been spending each evening poking at a tree with a makeshift spear. It was clumsy, and he'd not seen even one hint of a message about learning basic spear skills. In most games it took little to earn them; a couple of successful fights, a half hour with a trainer, or an hour of practice on your own. After six hours of practice with basic thrusts and blocks, he'd seen nothing.

Moving to the back side of the warehouse Suzette opened her bag and tossed each man an apple before biting into her own. "Fruit! Suzette, I forgive you for several bad things you have done to me over the years." Ben happily bit into his. "I'm getting a bit tired of groatmeal muffins and boiled groats."

"Well, you get those as well. Or save them for lunch. I also have the breakfast of champions. Pull out your mugs." As they complied she took out a her water skin and squirted a cup of fresh milk into each cup, followed by a raw egg. "There you go. Fruit, Moo, cluckcluck, and groat: the four basic food groups."

"Amazing," Ben said as he stirred up his eggcream until it was foamy. "And how did you manage all this?" Suzette shrugged, "Just noticed a few things yesterday. The Tavern has a barn and chicken coop behind it. I 'volunteered' to do some chores, milking and gathering eggs, in exchange for four eggcreams. The apples are from a tree near the bridge. I think we four should take turns doing some chores for a bit each morning and get some better food out of it. Billy has me on baking duty making muffins for all the meals. I'll be in the kitchen, baking the first batch. If one of you three does the chores we all get to eat a lot better. It's a start at least."

"Ok, lets see where you boys are working. Ozzy is facing off against those stupid cow things. You're doing a better job than the other two that they tried on the same job. Rory gets to use his 'shepherding skills' to manage the herd of sedge beasts and help Lyle get them to Ozzy. You're also supposed to expand that corral more as they cut wood for fencing, and if you see one of the sheep that just wander in the hills try to move them into a corral."

Rory was none too excited. "Have I mentioned how much I don't like playing Bo Peep? Shit, I don't even get a sheep dog. If this was a pet class, I'd be happy. I love pets in games! I wonder if I can evolve shepherd into some special class with attack animals?"

"Whatever makes your heart sing, Rory." Turning to Ben, "And you're supposed to assist the tanners in stretching and scraping skins. Billy says you should have leatherworking skills, right? So after you have some hides to the point where you can work them he wants you to start making things to outfit people better."

Ben raised an eyebrow at that, smiling. "Why, certainly! and I must say that I just love vague commands like that from the boss. I am pretty sure my skill is limited to making reins, saddles, and tack as part of the courier skills, but I'll see what I can do. I'll give a go at making some more shapeless shoes and aprons, but I think outfitting our group in some leather armor for our first day off might be a side project as well. I'll see what my limits are."

"And why don't we all work on getting ready for our day off? If Suzette can squirrel away more food that will help, so we can leave early before breakfast. I'll work on some armor. Rory, you're out roaming around looking for sedgebeasts and sheep. Keep your eye out for some straight dry wood for spears. Ozzy can save us some nice thick bones for making spearheads. It's a start and we can get working on getting some combat skills. Rory can also find us some nice starting areas." Ben's plan approved, everyone got off to their work for the day.

The second day came and went. Muffins got baked, cows got slaughtered, and hides were turned into leather. Rory found a nice meadow with large rabbits chewing on yellow flowers. Halfway through the third day things got a bit more interesting for Ozzy. He'd just finished butchering a sedge beast when he heard a loud DING!! and a message appeared.

Congratulations! You've managed to level up something, despite having turned off notifications. Wouldn't it be nice to know what happened? Maybe you should go look at those? Most people enjoy the constant barrage of skill-up messages, but if you want to ignore them you also can just request a summary since your last inquiry. Simply say, subvocalize, or think hard on /Summary to bring up the window.

"Lyle, I need a break for a bit."

"Take a break." Lyle needed little to convince him to take a short nap.

Looking at his settings, he saw the way to enable summaries of messages and used the command to bring one up.

Good for you! Hard work is paying off. You have:

Killed 50 adult sedgebeasts and earned 50 EP in the skill Slaughter.

Butchered 50 adult sedgebeasts and earned 25 EP in Hack Flesh and 25 EP in Cut Bone

Earned 100 EP in STR.

Congratulations! You have increased your STR characteristic by +1 to a total of 4. This affects all skills using the STR attribute including Haul III and Dig II.

Congratulations! You killed an Angry Sedge bull with a Caber!

Caber is a Primary skill for your class Contract Worker.

You have learned the weapon skill: Caber.

You earn 50 EP in STR and 50 EP in the weapon Caber.

Good for you! Hard work is paying off. Since your last notification you have:

-Killed 100 adult sedgebeasts using the skill Slaughter. You have earned 100 EP in the skill Slaughter. You have earned +1 rank in slaughter bring you to Level 1. You have earned 50 EP towards level 2.

-Butchered 100 adult sedgebeasts using the Chop Bone and Hack Flesh skills. You have earned 50 EP in Hack Flesh and 50 EP in Cut Bone. Your total EP in these skills is 75. Reach 100 EP to bring these skills to level 1.

-Earned 220 EP in the STR stat.

- Congratulations! You have increased your STR characteristic by +1 bringing it to a total of 5. This affects all skills using the STR attribute including Haul III and Dig II.

Your STR of 5 allows you to lift 1000 lbs. In situations where Haul III applies you can increase that to 3000 lbs. Warning: Your muscles might be able to handle that, but not the rest of you.

Ozzy staggered upright. "Ok Lyle, you can come down now. Your reward for being so helpful is you get to find one of the other butchers and help him finish this thing up. I'm done for the day.

Staggering back to the table in front of their hut, Ozzy sat on the table holding his side. The pain was getting better and as long as he kept his hand over the wound it didn't seem to be bleeding too badly. His health was down, but not dropping too fast, about a point a minute. "HEY BILLY! GET ME SOME FIRST AID".

Summoned as if by a spell, Billy came out of the 'Headquarters Hut.' His eyes got wide and he stood still for a moment trying to figure out the scene. He thought he recognized Ozzy, but he was covered in blood and holding his wadded up tunic against his side. His muscles bulged out from behind the gore smeared leather apron. The man was HUGE. He had to be nearly 7 ft. tall. None of the other serfs were nearly so large. He'd have to find out what was going on. The man looked intimidating as hell, especially with the cleaver hanging from his belt.

"No problem, Ozzy. I see you have a bit of an injury. I'll get someone to get you some first aid and you take the last 15 minutes of the day off." He walked quickly off in the direction of the tavern.

'Someone' turned out to be Suzette who came running over with a basket of greens, some clean cloths and a needle and thread. "I'd ask what happened but I'm guessing a cow didn't go down easy. If you aren't dead yet, it's probably ok, but lets see about cleaning it and I'll sew you up. I've found some herbs that I think will help the wound heal cleanly. Bite down on this."

Placing a wooden stick in Ozzy's mouth, she pulled off the bloody tunic from the wound, and seeing it wasn't bleeding much, cleaned it up. Pulling back the edges she cleaned the wound with the leaves she'd gathered. Attempting to sew stitches went poorly. The thread got stuck, and it took a lot longer than she had hoped. Ozzy bit through the first stick and she had to find a thicker one. Finally, she had a row of clumsy stitches in the wound, and a bandage on it. "There, all better! I'm disappointed though....I was hoping for First Aid experience."

Ozzy rolled his eyes and declared he was heading for bed. Probably would have been less painful to let the damn cow kill him and respawn.

Later that night Suzette was awakened by a loud 'DING!' and a notification.

Congratulations! You have killed a sentient being using Hermetics!

Since Hermetics is a Primary skill for your class: Contract Worker you earn the following:

100 EP in Hermetics

100 EP in INT

You have learned the Hermetic subskill: Poisoner at level 0

You have Increased your rank in INT and gained +1 INT