Sweat and rain worked together to matt down Winston’s fur but he ignored it as he placed the last brick into place. It had been a rough few days. Not so much because of anything bad happening, or even the new family drama, but because he’d had so much crap to do. He’d been working his butt off for five days since Christmas. He’d been logged in nearly constantly and he was getting worn down.

He’d gotten everything on his farm repaired and at a quarter of the palisade wall done, as well as harvests for all his remaining crops. Today he’d decided to needed to update his Runa quest. It hadn’t had a time limit that he knew of but quests in otherworld had a tendency to get more difficult the longer you left them.

He’d gotten up early and started on the shrine at the lizard-person village. Now it was nearly lunch time, but the small shrine was almost done. He’d downsized from the larger shrine he’d made at the Sword’s keep. This one was only about three feet high, easier to build and sufficient for the dozen lizard-men of the village.

Winston placed the small brazier on top of the bricks and stepped back as his quest updated.

[Quest Update!]

[You Have built one of three shines to Runa.]

[Task: Convince three villages to build a shrine to Runa 1/3]

[Kill the divine champion of Grisith 0/1]

[Sacrifice the boss loot form Jugda Caverns 1/1]

Winston waved the messages away and headed back towards his farm at a walk. The rain got harder and lightning flashed overhead. Winston looked up and sped his pace to a jog. It was raining at least 20% of the time in the zone so he was used to it but he didn’t want to be caught in a storm. The wind picked up and the trees started to jerk back and forth. Winston broke into a run with Bog pacing him.

They didn’t make it. Winton was soaked when he finally got back to his hut. The wind was howling and rain blew sideways just outside hanging furs that acted as a rough door . Winston sighed. He’d had more he’d wanted to get done but it didn’t look like he’d be accomplishing much else today.

Kelsia was already inside the hut and playing with her alchemy equipment and with Winston and Bog inside as well it was pretty cramped. Kishia seemed to have arranged the empty barrels and crates inside the hut into a make-shift dividing wall. Then she’d set-up all her equipment in the new space.

Winston tried to use water magic to suck the water out of his fur and met with limited success. Sighing, he peeked into Kishia’s lab and watched her take a tube of blue-liquid out of a make-shift centrifuge. She used an honest-to-god pipet to suck some of it out and dropped it into another flash full of pale green liquid. There was a flash of bizzare light but it died instantly, leaving Kelsa looking down at a flask of disgusting brown liquid.

She sighed. “I can’t figure this one out. I can do basic mana and basic health no problem, but the stamina potion is giving me fits.” She hissed. Winston looked back to the storm outside and shook his head. He didn’t know crap about alchemy but it wasn’t like he had anything else to do. Kishia also was his apprentice and he had to admit he hadn’t been doing a great job actually helping or teaching her. He walked into the lab and sat on an empty crate.

Winston then took on the awkward roll of trying to help someone with something he knew nothing about. He felt like a parent trying to help a teenage daughter with math he’d forgotten at least twenty years ago.

Winston popped open a browser and looked frantically for info on stamina potions. Unlike most games, Otherworld didn’t have alchemy recipes, at least not in the traditional sense. Instead there were a number of plants that had various properties. When mixed together that’d create a potion that did something, but there were recipes hard coded into the game. Just things players had found that worked, or had gotten in quests, or found in old books.

Kelsa was using a fairly obscure recipe and something was off about it.

“Why’d you do with Havok Fern and Greernut instead of one of the more common mixtures?” Winston asked as he looked over Kelsia’s shoulder. “It’s at least twice as difficult as the others.” Winston said as he checked an alchemy wiki.

Kelsia voice sounded a bit annoyed as she worked the pedal driven centrifuge.”Because Havok Fern and Greernut are both common here. You could walk a half-mile into the jungle a find a wheelbarrow full of both.”

Winston read the process she was supposed to be using. The greennut had to be opened up, then the meat of the nut was ground into a paste. The paste was then made into a sort of tea. After that a Havok Fern frond was ground into powder, added to water, then stuck into a centrifuge. The middle layer of the solution was sucked out and added to the Greernut tea. At the point some semi-magical and chemical process was supposed to take place and turn it into a stamina potion.

He watched as Kishia tried twice and failed both times. Each time she tried to add the Havok Fern to the Greernut tea something odd happened. The mixture seemed to go wildly out of control and turned the should be potion into brown sludge. Kishia got more and more frustrated as she kept failing.

“I think your getting something in the potion that shouldn’t be there causing a bad reaction. Try extracting the part you need. Then run it back through the centrifuge and see if anything else separates out.” Winston told her. He didn’t know how the reaction was supposed to happen but it was pretty obvious something foreign was getting in the way and contaminating things.

Kishia frowned at him but took his suggestion. The second round in the centrifuge showed a tiny layer of liquid that shouldn’t be there. Kishia sucked it out with her pipet, spun it again, found nothing, then finally added it to the mixture. This time the flash was much smaller and the flask turned a bright green.

More light flashed around Kisha as she leveled up and she through her hands up in the air. “Finally!” She shouted then turned and hugged Winston. “thank you” She said into his overalls. Winston patted her scaley back a bit awkwardly.

“Mix me up a few of those. Some of my skills burn stamina and those could be handy in a pinch. Also I think I’m going to try and head to a new village tomorrow. You said one was near the edge of the zone. I’ll wait till Troll’s next visit for that one. There’s still another I need to find somewhere though.” Winston told her.

He might be able to call Trish for that. The Hounds trained noobies in this zone. They should have pretty detailed maps. He might need to bribe her with dinner and a backrub but he was willing to pony up for the cause.

Winston looked back outside into the raging storm and sighed. He might as well logout. Nothing else was going to get done today.

****************************

Six hours later Winston sat at a table in Marnie's next to Trish while Josh and Jessica sat across the table from them. It had taken a minor miracle to talk Trish into coming but Josh had invited him and Trish on a double date when he’d logged out of Otherworld. Josh was a bit of a mess at the moment so Winston had decided to try and talk Trish into coming.

Winston had always had issues with his family. He’d never felt welcome and had years to come to grips with the fact his family was screwed up. Josh on the other hand was the golden boy. He’d gotten nothing from his family but love, assistance, and understanding. Mom’s revelation and John’s anger had really hit him hard.

He’d spent most of his time since Christmas at Jessica’s or in his system playing Otherworld. He’d only been around a few hours and Winston was worried about him. Winston had agreed to the double date just to see him and try to get a feel for where his head was at.

Jessica and Trish were glaring at each other across the table. Josh just looked awkward as he sipped his coke. Winston shuddered. He honestly should have figured out long ago they were only half brothers, anyone who preferred Coke instead of Pepsi couldn’t be his real brother.

He saw Josh looking at his can of Pepsi. Then their eyes met and they both snorted, Maybe they were brothers. Josh looked over at the two girls glaring at each other and took a deep breath.

“So uhhhhh. What’s everyone been doing in game? I know you and Jessica are big shots.” Josh said, trying to break the silence. Winston’s pepsi nearly came out his nose. Seeing his too cool, too charming brother acting awkward was too hilarious. Then again, Winston was way too chicken to try and get some conversation going at this table

Jessica and Trish both shifted their glares to Josh who shot both of them his best Captain America smile. Jessica seemed to soften a little but the smile just bounced off Trish. She turned her glare on Winston.

“He’s way too pretty.” She grumbled.

Winston snorted. Another person might have been jealous but you could only be second fiddle to your brother for so long before such things just stopped bothering you. He’d never be as handsome as Josh. He’d never be as popular. All that was fine with Winston. Trish was going home with him.

“He really is.” Winston agreed. “Sometimes you just want to hit him, just to split his lip or bruise one of his cheekbones. Anything so that he’d not so damn perfect.”

Jessica laughed and some of the tension at the table finally broke. Winston decided now was the time for his own conversational volley.

“What are you guys doing for New Years?” Winston asked.

“Big party at the Sword’s Bastion. Everyone’s going to get hammered, fight some duels, and make trouble. Then everyone can all log out to fix the hangovers and escape from whoever they ended up in bed with.” Jessica said. That drew a few laughs from the table.

“Sound like a typical New Year’s.” Winston said. “I just planned on going over to Rugers with Jason, and Brad. We’ll play some video games, drink too many energy drinks, maybe play some poker for a few bucks. You wanna come?” He asked Trish.

She thought about it for a moment, then nodded. “Our guild’s having a party too, but honestly I’d rather hang out with you guys. I’ll be nice to do something out of the game for a change. I’ve been playing too much lately with the expansion and everything going on.”

“Same here.” Winston agreed. “It’ll be nice to just hang out with the guys. I feel like it’s been forever. We used to hang out almost every weekend. I’ve been a sorta crappy friend now that I think about it. I started playing so that I wouldn’t be left out. Then went off by myself to do my own thing.” He’d been pouring too much of himself into the game. At first it had been the challenge and building up his skills and cash reserves. After the latest sales he had almost 90,000 gold now. He was no longer a small time farmer.

Maybe he should tear out some of his trees. Work with lower quantities and higher qualities. He could scale back the time he spent in game and be a real high-school student again. He could work smaller scale, pay more attention to fertilizers, soil conditions, and try to go for maximum quality, see if he could hit excellent or masterwork. He didn’t even want to think about what masterwork chocolate would be worth a high level baker. It would be thousands of gold a pound.

Winston shook off the thoughts. No, he wasn’t there yet. He didn’t have the skills or the tools for something like that. Most of his abilities revolve around boosting production not quality. Still, it was something to think about. If he kept burying himself in game he’d be wasting his last years of high-school. Then again he’d need the money if he did decide to go to college. It wasn’t like his family was going to pay for it. It was a problem for another day and Winston pulled his thoughts back to the dinner.

The food arrived and soon everyone was eating and chatting as if Jessica and Trish hadn’t been gearing up for a brawl a few minutes before.

“Now that everyone in a better mood. What is everyone doing in game?” Josh asked again.

“Getting ready to raid the Roc’s Citadel.” Jessica said. “First Raid-Class dungeon in the expansion zone. Should be worth a pretty penny but its a pain in the ass working around all the guilds fighting us all the time.” She answered and shot a glare towards Trish.

“Don’t look at me. We’re trying to build a keep up there. We’ve been purley on defense for at least a week. Should give us some place defensible and teleporter access if we can find a high enough level enchanter for a special anchor. Damn things cost as much as my parent’s house.”

“No kidding. We had to buy two last year and it nearly bank-rupted us.” Jessica agreed. Winston caught Josh’s eye and shook his head. Josh had joined the swords but neither of them were part of the world the top level guilds played in.

“I’ve just been trying to fix my farm.” Winston said, a bit self-consciously. “Got ganked. They broke my house and burnt down some of my trees. Finally got everything fixed yesterday.”

“That sucks.” Jessica said. “Is that because of you helping us out?”

“Pretty much. Price of doing business though.” Winston said. As calm as he sounded he was less calm inside. He’d have to do something to the Hound’s just to show them he’d hit back if pushed too far. He didn’t want a war but giving them a black-eye would be enough. A deal only worked if both sides had relatively equal power.

Winston was far from the Blood Hounds and they knew it. Which is why they’d dared to screw him over in the first place. He had to show them he could still cause problems if they broke faith.

The date went pretty well after that. Jessica and Trish weren’t exactly bosom friends, but they’d at least stopped glaring at each other. Two hours later Trish’s car idled in Winston’s driveway She looked over at him with a resigned expression.

“You’re going to attack my guild aren't you? You got that look on your face back at Marnie’s. The one you always get when your angry and looking to bite back.” Trish asked.

“Attack is a strong word. Your guild could crush me. It wouldn’t do me any good to make you guys into blood enemies. Besides, it’s your guild and you love it. I’m not going to tear something down you’ve poured some much of yourself into.: Winston said honestly. “No, I need to do something annoying enough to sting, but not enough to really piss you guys off. It’s a tough line to walk but I should be able to manage it.”

“Do you want my help?” Trish asked. Winston raised an eyebrow at that.

“Oh course not. It’s a game and we’re on different teams temporarily. It wouldn’t be fun if you helped me and it would make you look bad. It might cost you your seat as part of the triumvirate. No, it’s gotta be something they know I did on my own.” Then Winston remembered something.

“Oh, I do need a map of the zone I’m in though. I need to find all the monster villages for a quest. I will take your help with that” Winston said.

“Alright, but it’ll cost you.” Trish said with a grin.

“Cost me what?” Winston asked before Trish leaned forward and kissed him. Winston decided things were looking up after all.