Matt had just enough time to have both a shower in game and then a real one after logging out before the phone rang.

“He’s pissed.” Sarah said before he could even say hello. “I don’t know what you did but he’s been shouting in his office for the last twenty minutes now.”

“I figured he would be. Go ahead and put me through.” He said, taking a deep breath.

The hold music hadn’t even begun to play before the phone was picked up again.

“Harper,” August said, his voice devoid of emotion. “Do you remember what I told you to do?”

“You asked me to give the seeds to the person who comes to collect them.”

“And did you do what I asked?”

He hesitated. “I thought I had.”

August went silent for a moment, the sounds of papers being rifled through coming down the line. “That’s what this report says as well. Now explain yourself, and I’d strongly advise you to be honest with me.”

Matt told him as best he could about the man in black that had come and taken the seeds, and that while he had seemed suspicious he’d handed them over anyway.

“I did wonder about him,” Matt said as he tried to defend himself. “But he knew about the seeds, and I thought only you, Sarah and I had been told about them, so I figured he was your guy.”

Again the call went silent, And Matt wondered whether he should keep away from the windows, but after a minute August returned, sounding frustrated.

“You’re…right. No one else should have had that information, or been able to track your characters whereabouts. So, I guess…you’re off the hook.”

“Then…who was that?”

“No one important, much like you. They’re just another pawn for someone moving against me. And while I can’t be certain, I have my suspicions… never mind that, it's well above you’re pay grade. Although if I can track down the person who took the seeds off of you, perhaps I can…”The line went dead suddenly as August ended the call.

Matt, surprised he’d gotten out of it without even a warning, called Sarah, wanting to make sure there wasn’t something he missed.

“Matt, what’s up? The boss is still pissed and on the phone, but is everything ok on your end?” she said anxiously once she picked up the phone.

“Yeah, he’s sure it’s someone else trying to screw him over, so I got out of it. So he’s moved onto someone else already? In that case, there’s something else I’ve been meaning to ask you. You said that people can’t see my information if I set it to private.”

“Yeah, that’s what private means.”

“See that’s what I thought too. But the other day, I ran into someone who could see them anyway, with some ability called true sight.”

“What? I mean yeah I’ve heard of that skill, but like only…” there was the sound typing through the phone. “Fourteen people have ever had that skill, and only eight of those are active accounts. Did you really run into one? Did they figure out-” She said, starting to sound stressed.

“They know I’m Maser, or that I was, but they don’t seem to really care.”

“Could be true, the people who manage to unlock those weird abilities are often pretty weird themselves. But I’ve got a feeling that Mr. Fronz is going to want a background check on anyone who figures you out, so did you get their name? Their character name will do.”

“Oda.”

“…do you have any idea how many players we have named Oda? You don’t have anything else?”

“Well, you figured out how many people have the skill, can’t you look him up there?”

She sighed exasperatedly. “Different systems. The whole confidently agreement makes it difficult for us to pull up much info on anyone.”

“Then what are you going to do?” Matt asked curiously.

“I’ll admit, it’s not entirely legal to go through some of this stuff, but you’ve dealt with the boss now. He doesn’t exactly go by the same rules as everyone else, and we’re forced to go along with him. So just… pretend that all this info doesn’t exist, and hopefully it won’t come back to bite us. How’d you manage to run into a player like that anyway?”

Matt gave her a quick rundown on what he’d found out about the Rising Moon. “They should be able to help me out with what I’m trying to do,” He said, “and I can probably help them with theirs. Is a guild trying this sort of thing okay? Or am I going to need to report this?”

She laughed. “What, a bunch of people rising up against the establishment and fighting the system? There are literally hundreds of groups trying to do that on any given day. The fact they might pull it off is less common, but it’s perfectly normal, and most in game companies even take out insurance for things like that. So by all means, if you think you can trust them, play with your new friends. I’ll send you a message if anything comes up.”

With that weight off his mind, Matt said goodbye and went to his computer, checking his emails and looking through the forums to see if his wolves were still managing to beat players. Most people still hadn’t figured out the new threat, but there were now a number of threads giving legitimate strategies to beat them. Most ideas seemed to rely on light magic to burn away the shadows they used, so that they were left with just a normal, if larger and stronger, wolf. A couple seemed to have been written by people near Ardenvale, since they had run up against Penumbra and hadn’t survived the encounter.

Looking at the overall opinion of people, Matt figured that he probably had a few days left of experience from the silhouwolves before it died down to a trickle. Deciding to make the most of the time he had before he could go into the mines, he went to log back in and go produce some more pills.

~~~~~~

You have received EXP from Evolution! You have reached level 20!

You have 5 points left unassigned. Assign points now?

Or he could level up as soon as he logged back in, he thought with a sigh, before reading the rest of the message.

New abilities unlocked.

Medicinal Abilities:

Antitoxin- Create a dose of medicine that can cure most physical poisons

Effect: Cures target of poison effects. Success chance is reduced by 1% for each level of difference between the poison and the antitoxin. Recipe: 1 unit of water, 1 unit of oak sap, 40 mana. 20 minute cooldown.

Surging steroids- Provides a buff to either strength or dexterity. Afterwards the target will become exhausted for a time, receiving a penalty to the selected ability.

Effect: When crafting, choose strength or dexterity. Target receives 30+1 per level to selected ability for 5 minutes. Once duration expires target receives penalty equal to half of bonus for 10 minutes. Recipe: 2 units of water, 1 unit of iron dust, 3 units of blood, 60 mana. Cooldown 30 minutes.

Poison abilities:

Choking cloud- Create a dose of poison that produces a cloud of choking gas when released.

Effect: create a 5 foot + 0.5 per level radius cloud. Creatures within cloud have sight, breathing, speech and verbal spells reduced by 40%. Recipe: 2 units of water, 1 unit of oil, 3 units of sawdust, 50 mana. 2 hour cooldown.

Jicker looked through his new abilities happily. As a crafting based class he didn’t get as many abilities as combat ones, or get them as often, since he could work out a lot of things himself if he worked on it. But the ones he got would give him a lot more variety to work with, and to use as bases for new recipes. He was saddened to see that there wasn’t any new life shaping ability, but with the scope of what adaptation was capable of, he couldn’t say he was surprised.

He did notice, however, that the ingredients he needed were becoming harder to come by. These ones were still easy to come by, the crafting halls having barrels of iron fragments and various plants, but at this rate it wouldn’t be long before they started getting expensive.

Since he’d already planned to go, he spent the morning putting together a few of each of his new potions, as well as some of the others. Bothe the antitoxin and steroids converted into pills easily enough, but due to the nature of the choking cloud it had to remain as a vial of liquid. Deciding he was as ready as he was going to be, he grabbed a roll to eat for lunch and headed towards the cloud.

Stopping in at a blacksmith on the way, he asked whether they had picks available, and what other mining equipment they recommended. The dwarf behind the counter pulled out a selection of picks from a crate behind him.

“We have a wide range of picks,” They said cheerfully. “Suitable for both mining and combat. Can I ask for your proficiency in mining, as well as you budget?”

“None, and cheap.” Jicker said flatly. Anytime a merchant started asking how much you were willing to spend, they made sure to take you for every cent of it and more.

The dwarf’s expression became colder as they grunted. “Just another trying to strike it rich in the cloud, should have known.” He picked up most of the tools on the table, leaving only three, which looked somewhat worse for wear. “Here, these three are the only ones I have in stock that you’d be capable of using unless you plan on learning the art of mining.” He began gesturing to each of the picks in turn, describing them lazily. “This one’s an old copper pick, second hand. Its old owner left it in a puddle for so long its half rusted as you can see, but it’s the cheapest one and will give you some use. Next we have this steel one and old apprentice of mine made. The materials are good quality but the workmanship is poor so it won’t work well, but it’ll last as long as you don’t throw it away. Next I’ve got an iron pick someone tried to enchant. It didn’t take, so all that’s left is a pick with a bunch of useless engraving on it, but it’s still well made, and is the most expensive of the three.”

Jicker picked up the steel pick, its head flared out like a hoe on one side, while the other came to a rounded point, too blunt to work on harder rock, but he thought it would manage for what he needed.

Apprentices Steel Pickaxe

Item type: Tool

Grade: Common

1-14 damage

Despite the quality of the materials, the craftsmanship has resulted in a loss of control.

“I’ll take this one. How much?”

“Hundred and forty gold, but for another ten and a few minutes I’ll clean it up for you.”

“Done and done.” He said, handing the pick back to the dwarf as he opened up his pack. As he pulled out the golds, a thought struck him.

“Do you do any custom work here?” He asked the dwarf who had begun sanding back the picks edges.

“Depends on how I feel, and what you want. What do you need?”

Pulling out his blowgun, he laid it down on the counter and let the dwarf take a look. Wrinkling his nose, the blacksmith picked it up gingerly.

“Whoever sold you this piece of trash cheated you badly.” They said after inspecting it, dropping it down and quickly wiping their hands.

“I made it myself under fairly harsh conditions. I’m looking to have a proper one made.”

The dwarf shook they’re head. “You got lucky on this one, the pipe being as straight as it is. I could hammer out something that would be an improvement, but if you want something decent you’d be better off seeing a carpenter. Try Laura’s down the road and tell her Jorgurson sent you. She should be able to sort you out.”

After his pick was finished being repaired, Jicker repacked everything and headed out, looking for the carpenters. But after walking up and down and down the road a few times he was unable to find a carpenter anywhere along it. Right before he was going to head back and ask for better directions he spotted a small shopfront selling instruments, under the name ‘Laura’s crafts’. Heading inside, he saw a wide variety of instruments lining the walls, as well as a number of them hanging from the high ceiling. While looking through the various items, he called out.

“Hello? Is anyone in?”

“Just a moment, feel free to browse.” A voice said from the back of the store.

Continuing to do so, Jicker began to wander. The first thing he noticed was the sheer range of items. Normally a store would specialise in a single type of instrument, like strings or drums, but here there were not only selections of every kind he could think of, but also a number of copies at different scales, allowing multiple sized species to come and shop. He’d just picked up a violin that seemed to be suited for his size when his instincts made him spin around.

Behind him stood an enormous figure, looming over him at almost sixteen feet tall, grey skin covering thick muscle. The giant, or giantess to be precise, looked around before their eyes focused on him, narrowing.

“Oh! I didn’t see you there!” They said in a surprisingly light and cheerful voice. “Welcome to my store! Have you seen anything you like?”

“I…I, um...” He began to trying to get his heartbeat to slow down. She noticed his reaction and groaned.

“I did it again didn’t I? I learned that rushing up to people in this body scares the life out of them, but I always forget that sneaking around quietly can be just as bad.” She pointed a finger at him. “It’s your fault too though. Why were you hiding and sneaking around? If you were trying to steal from me I swear I’ll-”

“I wasn’t sneaking.” He said quickly, not wanting to get into a fight with someone who could kill him by accident just by stepping on him. “I’m just…hard to spot.”

“Well then,” she said, calming back down. “I guess that makes sense. Not an issue I ever have myself, but that’s not the issue here. Now how can I help you today?”

“I was looking to have some work done, and the blacksmith Jorgurson recommended that you’d be better suited for it than he would.”

Her mood visibly brightened. “Jorgy sent you? That makes this easier then, let’s go over to my work table and see what you need.”

Needing to almost jog to keep up with her long strides, Laura led him over into a back section of the store past numerous instruments both completed and under construction.

“I’m surprised to see such a variety here. Isn’t it harder to practice making all of these?” Jicker asked curiously.

“Oh, you know how it is. You get bored working on one thing and so you try out something as a hobby and before you know it you’ve picked a little bit of everything.”

Reaching her huge desk she went over to a cabinet and rummaged around inside before pulling out a tall collapsible chair designed for someone his size. Climbing up its steps and taking a seat, Jicker found that not only was it surprisingly comfortable, but put him at eye level with her.

“Thank you.” He said honestly. “Most people wouldn’t have bothered with something like this.” She waved him off.

“I deal with people of all shapes and sizes, so I like to be prepared. It might be true that some people aren’t suited to be a fighter, but I’ve never heard someone say you’re too short to play music. Now, what are we looking at today?”

Pulling out his blowpipe, Laura had same reaction the dwarf had, wrinkling up her nose.

“I see. Well it’s not really what I do normally, but like Jorgy said, I can definitely make you an improvement. So what exactly are you looking for, requirement wise?”

“I need something that be used to block a decent sword swing, but still be able to shoot one of these accurately at about fifty feet.” He said, pulling out one of his poison pellets and offering it to the giantess who carefully picked it up with a pair of tweezers.

“Ok, that’s doable. I’d say we’re looking at a hard wood base, with a thin copper, or maybe steel cover to minimise damage, some wax, or a resin to seal the ends and inside, with some lead weights to help-”

“I can see,” he said, cutting her off. “That Jorgurson was right. I’ve done a bit of tinkering and crafting myself, so I know that a design process like this tends to shift around as you go, so I’ll tell you what. Take what measurements you need now, and I’ll leave a deposit of, let’s say 400 gold with you now. I’ll come back in what, two weeks? To see what you’ve made, and we’ll decide what the final price is then. Does that sound acceptable to you?”

Laura looked at the pipe on her desk thoughtfully. “Hmmm, not what I’d normally do, but you’re right that this job will probably end up as something different than what I’ve thought of so far. Okay, you’ve got yourself a deal!”

You have unlocked the Charisma Statistic.

Do wish to accept?

Each point of Charisma influences people’s reactions towards your words and actions. Also effects creature’s hostility and market prices.

Warning: Once a statistic is selected it cannot be removed. You have 3 Stat slots remaining.

Jicker thought about it for a moment, and then rejected the stat. While it would be handy to have, and could make him a lot more money, he spent so much time avoiding direct interactions with people that it wouldn’t be worth using one of his limited slots for it.

It only took a few minutes for her to get everything she needed from both him and his weapon, and then he left her to her notes and began making his way to the cloud in earnest.

Climbing up the winding stairs to the mine site was no less time consuming the second time around, but at least he was expecting it this time. One he finally reached the top he waited in line and has his level rechecked, proving that he was a high enough level to enter.

“Back already?” The bouncer said when he approached. “The rules haven’t changed since the other day.”

“They might not have, but I did. I qualify to enter now.” Jicker said somewhat proudly.

The ogre raised an eyebrow. “That’s pretty impressive; though I'm sure you had some help. Still, you are now free to enter, so as long as you follow the rest of the rules for working here, I officially welcome you to the Cloud of Stone.”

Stepping forward, Jicker felt a subtle shift in the air and received a message from the game.

You have entered the dungeon: Cloud of Stone.

Type: open mine

Status: uncleared

Danger: N/A

Special: Due to the type of dungeon, difficulty and rewards may vary greatly depending on what is uncovered.

Note: All items collected within a dungeon will be dropped if the owner dies inside.

Mat smiled. It had been a while since he’d been in a proper dungeon, even before he started from scratch. Dungeons varied a lot, even from the areas they were found in, and creatures and items found inside varied even more. Of everything that had changed since the upheaval, the chance of finding a new dungeon was what people generally considered the most exciting.

This one should be fairly safe though, Jicker thought, since until someone uncovered something dangerous there wouldn’t be much in the way of-

You are receiving an outside call from:

Sarah Tolson

Jicker groaned, getting a glance from the bouncer.

“Is there anywhere around here where people log out?” He asked the bouncer.

“We’re mostly all players up here so it’s not a huge deal, but try to use one of those stalls over there if you can.”

Thanking the man before going and entering one of the small wooden stalls, he shut the door before logging out.

~~~~~~

“I thought everything was fine on my end.” Matt said when he picked up the phone.

“I thought so too. But since then August has been calling dozens of people and putting through piles of paperwork. I don’t know what’s going on exactly, but I’ve been ordered to put you through immediately. Good luck with whatever this is.” Sarah said to him before putting him on hold. Seconds later, August’s voice cut through the hold music. “Ah, Mr. Harper, please say something.”

“Err, what?” he said confused.

“One moment.” He could hear the CEO talking to someone in the background. “And again please.”

“I don’t understand what’s-”

“Stop there.” Again a conversation took place on the other end of the line. “Right, that seems to be working. It seems, Mr. Harper that you were entirely without blame for the earlier incident, at least as far as your intent goes. I’ve had some of my more trustworthy tech people look into my phone lines and it seems that a certain person managed to record a number of my calls, including several involving you. While the problem has now been dealt with, I’m not in the habit of letting actions like this stand without retribution.

The person in question is a fellow business man by the name of Gregory Bech, a competitor of my company in a few fields. It seems as though he has extended this into Genesis, attempting to literally steal the market on your new crop out from under me. Now if he had simply bought it from you, or tried to patent the idea somehow, well business is business. I’d be upset, but things would largely end there. But sabotage and treachery will be met in kind. I have been monitoring his actions, and found he has purchased several large tracts of farmland around the city of Ardenvale, seemingly to begin production of the Incendiberries as soon as possible. He has even gone as far as starting to sell them in advance, on the advice of a few people I may have made suggestions to. I have taken out a number of contracts and policies on both his lands and these sales that, while costing me a great deal now, will ensure I take him for all he’s worth in the event he is unable to follow through on his deals.

As my hand in this, your job is to ensure that these contracts remain unfilled, or become impossible entirely. I don’t care what you do to achieve this, though I’d prefer it if it remains isolated to his lands. And before you start thinking about letting his deals go through and costing me a great deal of money, I assure you, such an act would be far more costly for you.

Do you understand what I'm telling you to do?”

“Yes.” Said Matt simply.

“Really?” August said, sounding mildly surprised. “That’s it? I tell you to help me ruin someone, and all you say is yes?”

“No one likes being betrayed or robbed. You see a way of getting even and you’re taking it. I can understand that, and I can promise you this. The moment I find a way to repay you for my current situation, I will do it without hesitation.” Matt said, hatred slipping into his voice. For a moment the call went silent and he wondered if he’d gone too far, then...

“Ha ha ha! Finally he shows some spine!” He laughed. “I’d been wondering if you were actually capable of doing what I need to keep Genesis alive and growing. I’d be disappointed with you if you weren’t actively trying to get out of your predicament. Able to blow up most of a continent but can’t get around a business man? I’d think less of you to say the least. So do what you can, get together with your little friends, both in game and out, and put everything you have into besting me, I won’t try and stop you. But know this: when you come for me, you will find me ready and waiting, and if you fail, I will ensure you wished not even your parents had been born.

The contracts on the berries are due in two weeks. Good day, Mr. Harper.”

And with that, the line went dead.

Matt stared for a minute at the phone in his hand, before glancing to his headset lying on the couch next to him, then a copy of his contract sitting on the table with a note pad.

Making his decision, he ignored both, went to the fridge and grabbed a beer before sitting down on the couch, staring blankly at the ceiling.

“Well....Shit.” He said to himself.