Waking up, Jicker was about to get up when he remembered that he hadn't exactly gone to sleep voluntarily. Carefully opening his eyes and looking around as much as he could without moving, he tried to make out his surroundings. From what he could tell he was on the back of some wagon travelling through the forest, though considering the size of it that didn't tell him much, and he couldn't even be sure if it was still a part of Greyleaf forest or he’d been taken somewhere else entirely.

“About time you woke up. Don't bother trying to pretend otherwise, you’ve been collared,” a voice came from off to the side.

Hearing that, he threw off all pretence of being asleep and reached quickly towards his neck, finding a band of cold metal wrapping seamlessly around his neck. Swearing, he looked around to find an elf sitting in the back of the wagon with him, wearing a similar collar themselves.

“Names Salt, been in for two months,” the said offering a hand.

“Jicker,” he grumbled, shaking the hand as rubbed his neck where the collar sat, cursing his carelessness.

Taking people prisoner had been a big topic of debate in Genesis, since the idea of slavery was always a touchy subject. But it hadn’t taken long for people to try to kidnap people, so the company was forced to takes steps shortly after the games release for player’s protection. It was possible to conscript someone by equipping an enchanted collar onto a helpless target, with both the collar and the person using being a higher level than the target. Once equipped it couldn’t be removed except by the person who put it on, though there were a few magic’s and abilities that could get around this.

Once conscripted, they were forced to work for the one that held the other end of the contract for three months, at which point they would be freed and rendered immune to the effects of the collars for a year. What a conscripted person could be order to do was limited to combat or labour, and any attempts to force a person to go beyond these restrictions were met with...severe responses. In addition, those in control were encouraged to take a degree of care of the conscript, since if they died five times while in service then they’d be released early.

This meant that there was a good number of people who would simply try and kill themselves until they free, view the loss of levels and skills the lesser of two evils. Jicker wasn’t a high enough level for the loss to be too substantial, but it would still be more of a setback than he’d like.

“Who’s grabbed us?” he asked the elf. “And what are they having us do?”

“No one you’d know I expect, a group of bandits calling themselves the Woodsmen, players mostly, but they’ve got a few NPC’s amongst them. They normally spend their time attacking people along the roads, raiding caravans that sort of thing. As to the what, mostly we’ve been forced to help them fight, carry the loot and other stuff like that. But lately, there's been talk of them setting up a more permanent base, and since they’ve been on something of a recruitment drive, I'm guessing that they’re ready to start.”

“So I’m looking at a few months of building work?” he asked, mulling it over.

“That's my guess, but you’d only have my word for it. So, are you going to stick it out, or do you want to borrow my knife?” Salt asked, drawing out a large blade.

“They let you keep your weapons?” Jicker asked in surprise.

“Like I said, we’ve been doing some banditry around the area, and I wouldn't be much good if they left me unarmed. They’ll probably give you your stuff back once they’ve given you your orders and can trust you not to stab them in the back. So, knife?”

He shook his head. “I’ll pass, though depending on what I actually end up doing that might change. So where are we anyway? Are we still in Greyleaf forest, because I can't say I recognise the area.”

Salt laughed. “You’ve been out for almost a whole day, and I can assure you the woodsmen don't hang around after grabbing someone. We left Greyleaf a few hours ago, and now we’re in the Blightwoods.”

“The... Blightwoods? Where the hell are those?”

“Officially, I'm not sure they’re anywhere yet. This place used to be all fields and open plains, with a few quarries and mines about from what I remember. But when the upheaval hit…”

“Things changed.” Jicker finished, while thinking about where he’d caused a forest to grow. Most people wouldn't look at growing plant as a way of causing widespread destruction, but to keep things balanced, he’d explored every option he could find. And some of those options had resulted in places like this, where things had been swallowed up by the rapidly growing vegetation, and the various other effects that had come along with it. The trees they were surround by looked much more familiar to him now that he knew what to look for, though calling them trees would be a mistake. Tall reddish plants stood around them, with thick broad leaves forming a canopy above them, but the trees plants themselves lacked any form of bark, and were instead covered with a thin layer of sap. The entire “forest” was made of a type of fungus that he’d pinched from a high level dungeon and spread across the area along with some strong fertilizer agents with the blast. From what he could recall, it should have covered everything in a good fifty mile radius or so if it gone to plan, and by the look of things it had, overrunning everything in the area. Anything coming into contact with the sap on the plants would meet with an unfortunate end as the fungus would respond by rapidly producing more, attempting to coat and trap whatever had touched it, before following it with an acid to try and kill and digest its now trapped prey.

“They actually live in this place? It's a damn death-trap!” He exclaimed.

“It sure is,” the wagon driver said without turning back, speaking up for the first time. “But it’s our death-trap, and it's going to make us rich.”

~~~~~~

It took a little less than an hour for them to reach their destination, and Salt decided to fill in the time by talking about himself, while the driver resumed his silence. Jicker had a suspicion the elf was something of a liar, since if he were to be believed, then not only had he personally conquered several cities, but had also invented the concept of magic. But the random stories and tales were entertaining, and it was a pleasant distraction for the trip.

Eventually they reached a small clearing, which seemed to serve as their camp, tents covering the area while giving the plants a good distance away. Around a hundred people were wandering about the place, with a few dozen of them wearing conscription collars.

Once, the wagon had come to a stop, Salt wasted no time in dragging him off to where most of the conscripts were milling about.

“Jim! We‘ve got another one to put to work!” he shouted out to a dwarf who was busy discussing things with some others, marking things down in a ledger.

“Tone it down Salt, its way too early for that level of enthusiasm,” they replied tiredly.

“What? It’s past noon!”

“Your point?”

Salt shook his head before turning back to Jicker. “Jicker, this grump is Jim; he’s in charge of assigning work amongst the conscripts and will be acting as your boss while you’re stuck here. Jim, this little green is Jicker, a brand new conscript who's going to be sticking it out with us for a while.”

“Another one? I suppose our turnover rate is high enough, but at this rate we’re going to outnumber the woodsmen. Anyway, good to meet you I suppose, though it's not like either of us has much choice in the matter. There are a few perks to being charge of everyone else however, though I’d have to be real grump to use some of them, right Salt?” he said, looking at the elf who winced.

“Ah, come on Jim, you’re not going to retaliate for me saying you’re a grumpy bastard are you?”

“Of course not, that would be childish. But the latrines do need to be moved, and I am the one who dictates whose job that is. And it’s is my great pleasure to say that it’s all yours, so grab a shovel from the shed and get to work.”

As salt trudged away grumbling, he turned back to Jicker, looking down at him. “Now that he’d dealt with, let's get you sorted out,” he said, his eyes losing focus as he began to speak as if reading off something in front of him. “You are to obey all orders given by members of the Woodsmen, so long as they obey the laws of conscription. You are not to attack any member of the Woodsmen, nor any other conscripts currently working for them. You are not to use any abilities or spells in an attempt to escape.”

You have been given conscription orders that you will be required to follow while they are within the rules. Attempts to break the orders will trigger degrees of AI control over your actions.

“They’re trusting you to hand out the orders to us? Isn’t that a bit risky for them?” Jicker asked as he dismissed the message.

“I wish, but they were careful about what orders they gave me, so they haven’t left me any real room to screw with them. But let’s put that aside for now, and cover what you’ll be doing. What did Salt tell you?”

“A million different things, but I'm pretty sure almost all of it was useless or false. He did say you were building a base or something?” he said, scratching his head.

“Sounds like him, but as usual he’s wrong, though not as much as usual. We’re not building a base, were clearing a road.”

“That doesn’t sound as... bandit-like as I was expecting.”

“Well if it gets done properly, and they maintain it well enough, they’ll be making money by the bucket. When this forest sprang up, it sealed up the entire area between the mountains, forcing people and merchants to go all the way around, taking weeks longer than it used to. But if they carve a new road through here, they’ll officially own it and can charge a toll to use it, and everyone’s going to be taking it.”

Jicker was impressed. Most people only worked towards goals that helped them in the short term, or gave benefits on along the way to their final objective. Hearing that bandits, people who always took the easy way out, were working towards such a far reaching goal was surprising.

“So what are we doing?” he asked.

“First step is clearing the way, which is harder than you’d think since the trees keep trying to eat anyone who goes to cut them down. That’s why they’ve been grabbing people to work on it, to replace who we’ve lost. Now, you got much experience in being a lumberjack?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Look at me. Do I look like the type who goes around cutting down trees?”

Jim chuckled. “No, you look more like something I’d find stuck under a log. But you’ve got some time to learn now, so go grab something from the shed and I’ll show you what to do.”

Heading over to the small wooden hut that served as the tool shed, he looked over the wide range of tools and equipment available, most of it rusty and in desperate need of repair. Searching through the piles of garbage he found an axe suitable for his size that was still sharp enough to put to use.

Small Iron Axe

Item type: Tool

Grade: Common

3-5 damage

This small axe is on its last legs, and will need to be replaced before long.

Jim spent the next half an hour showing him how to put his axe to use and cut down the trees, while avoiding becoming the forests lunch. As long as nothing organic came into contact with the plants, they wouldn’t react, though you still had to be quick and careful. If you stopped cutting for a minute the damage would begin to heal over with sap undoing your work in moments, making it a test of endurance more than skill. Once he had the basics down he was given a section of forest to work on, and instructed to cut down everything he could manage.

As a gremlin, he wasn't built to be a physical labourer, which became clear after he struggled to cut down his first tree. The wood visibly flexed to push back against him with every swing, making him fight for every inch of purchase and forcing him to lean into every blow and get dangerously close to the deadly sap.

Walking back after over an hour of only managing to take a single tree down, Jicker went to track down Jim, who looked to be in a discussion with someone.

“Listen,” he said in a pleading tone. “I’m telling you we can’t do it! With the people and equipment we have, it’ll take us months or even years to put a road through this place, and that's if nothing goes south on us again. If you want to get this done then you need to-”

“You don’t get to tell me what needs to be done! I’ve told you what has to happen and it's your job to ensure that we meet the deadline. Now get back to work before I send you out to go hug a tree.”

As the person walked, leaving Jim to stew over his words, Jicker went up to him.

“Jim, do you have a second?” he asked.

“Hmm? Oh, yeah I've got a moment, what do you want?”

“What was up with him? Is there a problem somewhere or-”

Jim raised a hand, cutting him off. “Nothing that you should worry about, and you should just forget you heard anything to be on the safe side. Now was your eavesdropping all you wanted to speak to me about, or did you have something else?”

“I was hoping to get my stuff back. Salt said I’d get it back later, and there are a couple of things in my bag that could make this easier on me.”

Jim looked at him oddly for a second before shrugging and walking into another building he hadn't gone into yet, and after a few minutes came out with a bag containing his belongings.

“It should all be in here, though I wouldn't be too surprised if some of your gold had gone walkabout. Conscription only lets them disarm you, but there are enough thieves and other shady classes amongst the woodsmen that minor theft is pretty common, even amongst themselves. So do you have your own lumber axe in there or…?”

Jicker snorted. “I’m no lumberjack, and I never plan to be. But if i can up my strength and stamina a bit, it should make things a bit simpler,” he said as he opened up the bag. Sure enough, about half of his gold had been taken, but everything else seemed to be intact and was quickly re-equipped. Looking through his pockets, he was happy to see that he still had a number of battle drops left and took one out, popping it into his mouth and feeling the faint surge of power that came with it.

“You’re going to waste potions on this work? It’s your money I guess, but…” Jim said as he watched him.

“I make them myself, so it's not exactly expensive. Besides I'd rather drop a few coins than stagger around and get eaten by the woods.”

That got Jim's attention. “You’re an alchemist? Normally the only people getting brought in are fighters who were off adventuring.”

“I'm not an alchemist, but I dabble in it when I've got the time to work.”

“Made anything good?” he asked thoughtfully.

“A couple of things I’m sort of proud of, but most of its pretty generic. Why, are you interested in buying some?”

“I don’t know about buying, but if you can put together anything to help get through this place then I'm pretty much going to order you to make it.”

“I could probably make a few strength enhancers, but I doubt they’d make a big enough difference to most people to be worth the effort.” He said with a shrug.

“Damn. Well, it was worth a shot I guess.” He said as he turned away, before pausing as a thought came to him. “What about something to kill off these damn plants directly? Do you have much experience with poisons?”

Jicker grinned. “Now that,” he said as he cracked his knuckles. “Is something more my speed.”

~~~~~~

It took only a few hours for him to repurpose the poison he’d made for dealing with farmland to affect the hardier fungal life of the forest. It had taken far less for Jim to get him permission and access to all of the Woodmen’s alchemical equipment and supplies. While they saw the value of the items they’d been taking and collecting, they were almost entirely warriors and combat focused mages, leaving very little in the way of people who could put it to use.

Mother of invention!

By studying reactions between substances and other toxins you have created a new poison

Recipe: 3 units of salt, 1 unit of water, 1 poison pellet, 1 unit of active Blightwood sap,

Item type: poison (3)

Grade: Uncommon, created by Unknown

Effect: Causes poison damage and slowing effect if consumed. If spread over terrain, will destroy most plant life and leave area unable to grow indefinitely until cured. 1 dose can cover fifty square feet.

As the new version of the poison, simply named saltycide 2, was sprayed over the vegetation, it quickly turned a pale grey, the sap layer drying out and breaking apart as it became a fine powder. But despite the change the plants themselves remained standing, even if their leaves drooped lifelessly.

“Not exactly the effect I was hoping for, but it’ll do.” Jim said as he took a few swings at one of the treated plants. “Still, not having the damn things fighting us for every inch is going to make this a hell of a lot easier.”

“Easy enough that you’re going to hit that deadline?” Jicker asked.

Jim shot him a look. “I told you to forget about that. There are plenty of things going on that you don't want to get involved with, and this is one of them.”

“Considering I was literally grabbed and dragged into this workforce, I'm pretty sure I'm already involved.”

Looking at him, Jim turned and spat. “I suppose you are somewhat, but this is still far above you. The long and short of it is that a lot of money changes hands in Genesis, and some of those hands don't mind if they have to get dirty doing it. Trust me when I say you don't want to get involved with this stuff.”

Jicker sighed. “It’s a bit late for that, but I hear what you’re saying.”

~~~~~~

With the poison proving effective, work began to pick up pace and Jicker was left to continue to produce more for the other workers. Lacking any good glass ware or other containers, he was left to follow along behind the main group of cutters, continuing to replace what was used to keep up with their progress. Where it had taken them over an hour to get through a dozen feet before, now that they’d been reduce to normal plants, the work force was managing to progress at just below a walking pace, with another half of the force constantly shifting cut lumber out of the path.

“You know,” Jim said to him as they watched the work progress. “You seem like a smart guy, so why are you sticking around doing this? Why not take the loss of levels and go adventure somewhere? It’d have to be more interesting than this.”

“I could ask you the same question.”

“The simplest answer is that I'm killing some time before meeting with some old friends in a few months. But you didn’t answer the question.”

Jicker thought about it as he absently stirred up the next batch. “Before this, I recently finished up a… project of mine. It was a massive thing that took up pretty much all my time and energy, even cost me a lot of my friends as I focused on pretty much nothing else. While the results weren't exactly what I’d hoped for, I don't regret it. But now that it’s done? It’s… relaxing to just deal with things as they come, rather than put myself on a path. Even if it’s forced labour, it’s still simpler than before.”

Jim stood silently for a minute as he continued to mix up the poison before replying. “I’ve known a few people who’ve gone through similar situations, even went through something like it myself once. A good friend of mine almost ruined his marriage when he got too focused on a marketing campaign he was running. But when you get to the end of these things, you need to keep moving. If you just stop and let yourself drift about, sure it's easier, but you won't get anywhere.

You need to get back on that horse as soon as you can, or it’ll get harder and harder to reach that place again. It doesn’t need to be a big thing, not compared to what came before, but as long as you’re always moving forwards towards something you’ll be okay. Anything else, and you’re just slowly sinking into nothing”

They sat in silence as Jicker considered his words, mulling them over in his mind. Jim was right, he thought, he’d stopped trying to do anything for himself. Ever since he’d pulled off the upheaval, he’d only being reacting to things, letting himself get pushed around from one place to the next. Even these bandits were doing better than that, try to build something that would last. Everything he’d done of late had always been as a reaction, always on the defensive. He didn’t have a lot of options when it had come to what August had thrown at him, but it had caught him so off guard he’d just accepted that as his fate, and since then it been a growing trend. He’d been pulled into situations, into groups and battles not of his own choosing, and he kept letting it happen. And why? Was it because it seemed like a good idea, or because he had not other options? No, it was that he couldn’t come up with a good enough reason not to.

And that, he decided as he ground a poison pellet into a fine powder, needed to stop.

“You’re right Jim; I should do something with myself.”

“Oh, and what will that be?” the dwarf asked, sounding interested.

“Not totally sure yet, but I've got a few ideas I'm tinkering with. First things first though, need to deal with being a conscript.” He said, scratching at where the collar rubbed against his neck.

“Sensible of you. It’s important to plan for the future, but only an idiot doesn’t pay attention to the present. Are you going to stick it out or try and take the loss?”

“I’ll need to think about it, since I'm not sure what I need to do. This batch is done by the way, I should probably pass it along.” He said, getting up from his sitting position, when an idea popped into his head. “Out of curiosity, do you know if these collars work on other creatures?”

Jim snorted. “If you want to catch yourself a monster, you wouldn’t be the first. Sorry to say that while they exist, they cost a fortune and are rare enough that ill doubt you’ll ever see one, where as these things only work on players and regular npcs. Hope that doesn’t ruin your plans of glory.”

“On the contrary, it should make things a lot easier.”