“3000? You can’t be serious. It’s a decent priest focus, but it’s only rare. I’m not gonna drop 300 dollars on it.” Winston and Jason had been arguing about the broken tablet for hours. Jason had been right that priest loot would be the only thing that would drop but when Winston had offered to buy it from him he’d been pitching a ridiculous price.

“Why not, its not like you don’t have the money.” Jason complined. “And you made me walk all the way out here.”

“I have the money because I don’t waste it overpaying for things and I already told you I’d do you a favor. That and this are two different things.” Winston shot back. “Just let me finish up this quest and then we can argue about it. I’ve only got one shrine left to build.”

“Did you bring the stone you needed?” Jason asked?

“No.” Winston said, a bit sheepish.

“Why not? You didn’t even walk, you rose Troll’s wagon. You could have had him haul it over-here?”

“I forgot alright? I had a lot going on.” Winston muttered as he tried to justify himself. “We could just use wood or something. It won’t be as nice but I’m tired of this quest anyway. I should be back at my farm growing coffee beans but instead I’m stuck over here.”

“Fine, I’ll help. If you give me 1500 for the tablet and take care of my favor when we get back.” Jason added. Winston rolled his eyes. Jason was his best friend but he did get whiney sometimes. Then again Winston knew he could too.

“Whatever.” Winston said and the two found a likely tree and got to work. The whole process only took two hours and soon Winston was setting the brazier in his bag on top of the tower of wood. They hadn’t tried to be fancy, they’d just cut grooves in the logs and stacked them into a tower shape. Winston had to admit it wasn’t his best work and his not gaining a skill rank in construction confirmed it.

Winston knelt before the shrine and said a short prayer. “Runa, Bless this village and these people, let your light wash away the ills they have suffered.” The sky rumbled and a flash of lighting came down and lit the brazier with silver fire. Unlike the other time the lighting didn’t stop though. Storm clouds rolled is as silver lighting kept flashing down from the heavens. There was a loud hiss that seemed to shake the sky and Winston and Jason looked up in alarm.

A giant serpent's shadow had appeared in the sky above the zone. It thrashed around and the jungle shook with the power of it, even as more silver lighting rained down on it from the skies. The beast screamed then blew apart as a massive bolt of lightning fell on it. Then the skies calmed and more messages appeared in Winston’s vision.

[Grisith, God of Scales and Silence, has lost Dominion over the Jugda Zone]

[Grisith Zone Wide Buffs Have Been Lost]

[Snakes will spawn less frequently and be less powerful]

[Corruption and Shadow Based Dungeons and Lairs will spawn less regularly]

[Hidden Locations and Treasures will spawn less frequently]

[Runa, Ogre Goddess Of Agriculture and Civilization, has gained dominion over the Jugda Zone]

[Runa Zone Wide Buffs Have Been Gained]

[Soil Quality of the Zone is slightly increased]

[Herb spawn rates have Increased]

[Quality and Rarity of stone deposits Increased]

[Divine Mandate Completed]

[Runa Skill Increased to Apprentice III]

[+30,000 XP]

[You Have Gained A New Skill]

[Bless Stone]

[Instead of using his blessings on the land or people a priest a Runa may pour his faith into stone. The will improve the land around the stone,reinforce the stone, and drive off beasts and preditors. This is especially effective against evil beasts and undead. Additional effects can be achieved as long as they are in line with the will of Runa.]

[[Activation:Active]

[Cost: N/A]

[Rank: Uses [Channel Faith] Rank]

[Effect: User pours his faith points into stone, blessing it.]

Winston sighed as he read the skill description. He really wished his faith would give him something a bit more usable. It was useful for farming but seemed to have so little utility for anything else. Now he had a crapper version of enchanting. He didn’t even know what he’d use it for. He was building his new wall out of wood.

“Get anything good?” Jason asked as the storm-clouds in the sky started to dissipate. “That was pretty awesome by the way. Maybe I should get some religion.” He said as he absently scratched at some of the scales on his chest.

“Not really... “ Winston started, then changed his mind. “Well maybe. I got a sort of watered down enchanting skill but it’s like most of my other skills from Runa. There all useful but not super-useful. Still 30,000 xp and 2 skill levels in my faith skill is pretty nice.”

“You didn’t even level? That’s ridiculous.” Jason said.

“I should be close. I probably would have if I hadn’t died the other day.” Winston muttered.

“That was a week and a half ago. Your not even level 20 yet. It shouldn’t take you a month a level.”

“If I go back to the farm and pick that ginseng I’ve been saving I’ll definitely level.” Winston told Jason.

“Well, then let’s get out of here. It’s gonna take forever to walk all the way back to your farm and I’ve still got a favor to call in.”

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

Two days later they were back on the farm and Winston sighed when he saw all the trees overflowing with ripe fruit. That was the problem with being gone. It threw off his whole rotation. Now everything was ripe at the same time and he’d have to space everything back out again. That would delay harvesting even faster.

Winston summoned his golem and sent it to harvest his apples and pears. Those he cared the least about and it would get some of the work out of the way. Kishia was tending her alchemy herbs and Winston gave her a wave before he turned to scowl at Jason.

“Now what was this favor your all frothy about.”

“I want you to plant me some trees. Mostly mahogany, I’ve chopped down most of the ones within a mile of here and they don’t regrow fast enough. If you could also throw in some…” Jason started waving his hands around as if looking at something in his interface. “Some flaming comet tree’s or a few silverwoods that would be great too.”

“What the hell is a flaming comet tree?” Winston asked.

“That’s not it’s real name. The one the game displays when you inspect it is in elvish and its about 30 letters long with a bunch of unnessisary l’s and h’s. The rough translation is flaming comet tree. It’s grown by some tribes of Jungle elves, mostly in the Russian cluster, but they are worth a fortune. They needs lots of fire mana to grow properly and are great material for wands and staves for fire-wizards, or bows with extra fire damage.” He explained.

“And since every idiot with more than 10 points of intellect and resonance wants to be a fire wizard their worth a mountain of gold.” Jason finished.

“I can give it a shot..” Winston said thoughtfully. “Assuming I can get the seeds without bankrupting myself. It’ll cost me a ton to prepare the ground for something like that though. I’ve never tried to grow anything with an elemental mana requirement.”Aside from those apple trees back in the Swords he supposed, but those he just planted those on a spot with over-flowing Earth mana. It wasn’t like he’d tried to prepare and maintain the point himself. He shook his head and continued.

“The Silverwoods and definitely out. Those take perfect elemental balance to grow at all, and even if I managed to get the soil right to make it start growing, keeping everything right for the weeks it would take to mature would cost me at least two fortunes and I’d have to be logged in nearly twenty-four seven to keep an eye on everything. Then again a whole silverwood tree might be worth twenty or thirty thousand gold.”

“Closer to fifty.” Jason replied.”Think of how many bows and staves you could get out of a whole tree.” Winston whistled.

“For fifty I’d be tempted to try…. Let’s just stick with the Mahogany to start with. Those grow around here and should be easy enough assuming you saved some seeds with all the ones you’ve been chopping down. I’ll talk to troll and see if he can get some blood, bones, and bodies of some fire-type beasts, or some cheap fire-type plants I can use as compost and to prime to soil for those crazy exploding trees you want. They’ll be a fun project and should get me a good bit of skill and experience boosting.” Winston agreed.

Jason handed Winston a coin-pouch full of the odd seed-pod/pinecone things that mahogany trees used for seeds before he logged out. Winston wished he could log out but he had way too much to do. Instead he brought up his interface and started trying to find out how far apart he should plant the trees.

Winston walked around the side of the giant rock formation then shrugged. He’d built his farm in four quarters so whenever he put the next patch of trees was going to mess it up. He supposed this was as good a place as any. He raised his staff and cast [Clear the Land]. The land rippled and smaller rocks and trees went flying before the grass and other plants blew away leaving a perfect quarter-acre plot.

Winston started planting. It was shooting. With the quest done he was finally back to doing what he liked best, growing things. He wondered if he’d get a tree-farming skill when Jason chopped them down. Winston spent the next half-hour planting and the next two hours helping his golem pick apples and pears. He picked out the best to be sold to the guy who’d messaged him and the rest got stuffed into his hut in barrels.

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

“I’m telling you it’s a bad idea.” Trish told Alex and Vera as she sat in the guild’s main conference room. The room was small and the table had only three sides. The table was slightly too large for the room making the people inside uncomfortable. They’d build it that way on purpose to keep meetings from dragging out. Trish was more uncomfortable than usual though. She swore she’d kill Winston when she saw him again. He just couldn’t leave things alone.

“He flipped the zone deity. It’s a training zone and he made it have few monsters, fewer treasures, and fewer dungeons. That’s exactly the opposite of what a guild wants for their training zone.” Alex said.

“You didn’t even know the zone's dominion could be changed. Without the system message you’d have never even known. Now your acting like he undid years of work. He’s already paying a bribe, if you push him you’ll regret it.” Trish told the other two people at the table. Alex was dressed in his normal guild business clothes, a dark wool suit, while Vera was in her polished armor.

“Is that a threat?” Vera asked sharply. Trish sighed.

“No, its a fact. I love Winston but he doesn’t take well to being bullied. He doesn’t get even, he goes way over the top. A couple of kids were bullying him in seventh grade and he made one fail out of English by stealing his flash-drive the morning he had to turn in a five-page paper and he got the other kicked out of school by planting drugs in his locker.” Trish told them. Their eyes widened.

“That doesn’t sound like someone very stable.” Alex said.

“Winston is perfectly calm and logical until someone really makes him mad. Then all bets are off.” Trish said.

“So your saying we should expect him to raid our supplies or hire mercenaries to kill our people?” Vera asked.

“That’s what he was going to do, but I asked him not to and he agreed, on the condition that you guys just took the money he’d paying you and left him alone.” Trish said slowly. She tried hard not to grind her teeth.

“And what did he say he’d do if we didn’t.” Alex asked.

“He didn’t tell me but it won’t be pretty. I don’t understand why you guys are going after him so hard? Yes he screwed up our blockade of the Sword’s but they would have gotten around it soon anyway. You guys got him back for that and both he and I understand and accept it. That’s how the guild game is played in Otherworld but you guys seemed to be making it personal now.” Trish told them. “It doesn’t make any sense from the perspective of the guild to harass a single player so much. We should just take his money and let him grow his coffee trees. If not we’re just bullying him and that’s the kind of petty short-sighted actions that got us fighting against the Sword’s and Crimsun’s in the first place.”

“You’re obviously biased.” Vera said simply.

“Yes, I probably am biased. I have to admit I like him more than you guys and this kind of idiotic crap isn’t helping your case. You guys have always been close, but your hedging me out of the decision making process more and more. A triumvirate only works if there are actually three sides, but you guys just keep ganging up against me to do whatever the hell you want and now you’re picking on my boyfriend!” She tried to stay calm but by the end she was shouting.

“This is about the guilds reputation Trish. We’re not just picking on him for no reason. This was a deliberate slight and something we have to address.” Alex said calmly. Trish rolled her eyes. “It’s time to vote. All in favor of punitive action?” Alex continued. Alex and Vera raised there hands and Trish shook her head in disgust. She’d warned them but she was washing her hands of it now. She’d also recorded the whole meeting and when this blew up in their faces, like she knew it would the video was going up on the guild website. She’d loved this guild once but she’d just about had enough.