Chapter 21 – Contract

We make good time riding through the forest.

Scarfang is an excellent mount. He moves swiftly, most likely due to his breed of wolf being natural inhabitants of the forest. I hardly feel the impacts of moving through the forest. His naturally flexible limbs and the spring to his steps cushions the forceful movements of sprinting on the uneven terrain.

I can really get used to this mode of transportation.

It’s certainly far better than moving through the dense underbrush on my own. It feels nice to be lazy every now and then. Besides, aren’t great leaders supposed to lead from horseback? It helps when I’m this short at least. Makes me feel like Napoleon.

I start laughing as we near my base.

We break into the clearing full sprint. The huge mountain comes into view in all its splendor, and the small shoddy huts and hovels pop up one after the other.

The place isn’t on fire, so I assume nothing bad happened during my absence. I’m not surprised. The odds of something happening during this short timespan is ludicrously-

*Swosh*

A fireball flies above my head.

“Son of a… STOP FIRING YOU DIMWIT!” I shout from the top of my lungs.

Another fireball comes my way.

Scarfang growls as he jumps to the side, effectively dodging the flaming projectile. He goes into a full sprint towards the village. Teeth bared.

“I said hold your fucking fire asshole!” I shout again.

A scrawny goblin with a mage’s hood pulled over his face stops conjuring a small ball of flame between his hands. He pulls up his hood and stares at me. His eyes going wide in fear when he realises who he just tried to incinerate.

The little goblin immediately prostrates himself on the ground.

“C-chief! I- I didn’t expect you back so soon… I saw the wolf…” He cries in fear.

“What the fuck is wrong with you, really?” I sneer at the goblin. He winces.

“P-please… don’t tell master Gut…” He whimpers.

“Give me one good reason.”

He lift his crying face from the ground. “My eyes… They don’t seem to work as well as others… I’m sorry I failed you great chieftain…” He sniffles.

His eyes? What the hell is wrong with his eyes? I throw a inspect his way, opening up the stats list for my generic mob.

Goblin Fire Mage

Class: Fire Mage

Mana: 3rd Rank

Perk: Bad Eyesight

Morale: 5%

Skills

Class skill (Passive): [Enhanced Mana Manipulation]

Spell Mastery: Level 11

-Fire Specialization: Level 11

--[Fireball]: Tier 1

--[Flamethrower]: Tier 2

Equipment:

Head: Tier 4. Enchanted Brown Silk Cowl (50%)

...

Fireball

Fire Magic. Tier 1.

A ball of fire causing moderate fire damage.

Flamethrower

Fire Magic. Tier 2.

A cone of fire erupts from the caster, causing massive damage.

Huh. Seems like the little guy actually has the [Bad Eyesight] perk...

So who the hell put this guy on watch duty!?

Someone should get flogged for this.

I look through the rest of his status screen. I have completely forgotten to check the status of my lesser minions at all since my first days here. It’s about time I learn more about my units since I apparently suck donkey balls at doing the fighting myself.

The screen looks much simpler than my own status screen, or Gut’s or Wrex’s for that matter. It’s simple, but it still gives lots of familiar tidbits of information. Being a [Mage] type of character, I’m not surprised to see he has a mana rank. It’s ranked at three, which means, if my memory serves correctly, that he can throw six [Fireball]s or two [Flamethrower]s per day. Not a lot, but useful nonetheless.

I can also see that he has the hood we looted from Qargon’s advisor. Strange, I would have expected him to receive the much more powerful enchanted staff, considering he is a damage dealing spellslinger compared to the more support oriented [Blood Mage]. Oh well, I suppose that’s his punishment for nearly killing me yesterday. I’m not adverse to some sort of punishment; but, this feels so… inefficient. Not sure if I like it. But meh. It’s doesn’t make a significant difference.

I disembark from Scarfang and stretch my legs. While riding him is far more comfortable than walking, it still makes my virtual legs feel a little stiff after a full sprint. The arrival of an unexpected blue windows causes my mouth to twitch into a smile.

Congratulations!

You have gained 1 skill level in Riding!

Not bad, not bad. I’m not certain what benefits this will give me; but, I’m hoping for some amazing ability down the line.

Being back at base, I decide to spend the twelve free SP I gained after clearing out Scarfang’s pack. I love how I’m able to gain more SP through completing quests. It speeds up development and can also function as a way for weaker players to catch up to the stronger ones.

Opening up the good old unit spawn list, I’m faced with an unexpected surprise.

Summon units.

Available SP: 12

SP generated per day: 12

Goblin Fighter: Cost 2 SP

Goblin Worker: Cost 2 SP

Gray Forest Wolf: Cost 2 SP

I can spawn wolves now? Cool!

I shake in glee as I consider the new options I have. Wolves. Wow. Really. What do they do? What can they do? Do they serve as mounts just like Scarfang? Or perhaps as combatants? Maybe both? Can they follow commands? Dozens of thoughts swirl around in my head as I try to think about all the possibilities. I believe experimentation is in order.

Now that the wolves are no longer a threat, I decide to restock on my food gathering workers. I spawn another [Hunter] and a [Forager] and send them out into the forest. I also spawn two more [Fighter]s alongside two [Gray Forest Wolf]s. I need more fighting units, and I need them fast. I’m struck by the idea that I can start building some sort of mounted force. Some part of my brain screams at me because I didn’t spawn four fighters and start training them to become [Warrior]s, but I just can’t overlook the fact that something cool can come out of this.

I’m a sucker for new and fancy shit.

As my new units arrive in a flash of light, I inspect one of the wolves and open up the extended information screen.

Gray Forest Wolf

Type: Not assigned

Skills: None

Equipment:

Head: None

Body: None

Feet: None

Utility: None

Okay, it didn’t say as much as I hoped, but it’s cool nonetheless though.

What catches my eye is the unit ‘type’ which seems to be unassigned. I mentally select it and two options reveal themselves. Apparently, I can designate the units to be either a [Mount] or a [Beast]. It’s disappointing, but not surprising. One seems to be only for riding, and the other is clearly a combat classification.

I’m not sure if I want to bother upgrading any of them to [Beast]s as of yet. I believe my goblins have a better potential for growth. I’m definitely not going to dismiss the idea quite yet though. There is a load of potential here. I didn’t fail to notice that the wolves can learn abilities, and they should have a natural higher speed. Lots of potential to be discovered at a later date.

As I upgrade both the wolves to become mounts, a bright white light engulfs them. As it disappears, I can see that the wolves have grown slightly in size, and they each received a basic [Leather Saddle].

Huh. Why didn’t Scarfang get one of those?

The two freshly spawned goblins cheer in delight as they each jump onto a wolf. Completely without asking for permissions of course. The wolves howl in response and they all set out into a full sprint towards the forest. The goblins and wolves makes a hell of a lot of noise. The goblins shout obscene battlecries as they swing their wooden clubs in circles above their heads.

…

I hope I won’t regret this…

Meh. It can’t be that bad. Probably.

I shrug and turn to head off to find myself a snack for lunch. There’s nothing like life threatening combat in the morning to give me an appetite. They do say food and sex are best enjoyed after combat.

Well… Since I don’t seem to have any genitals…

I make it about half the way over towards the dining area when a panicked goblin runs over to me.

“C-chief!” He stammers. “Enemies spotted to the north!”

“Huh? Nah. It’s not. It’s just Gut and the boys.” I yawn. I really need to get myself some better sentries. It’s getting ludicrous. “I didn’t expect them to get back this soon though…” I sigh. There is no way Gut is going to allow me to eat lunch in peace after I ran off.

“It’s not goblins!” The goblin pipes up.

I freeze. “What?”

“It’s a tall human with four legs and a big brown butt.” The goblin says.

I immediately turn around and run over towards the northern edge of my village. When I reach it, I immediately stop.

There’s a massive brown horse standing at the edge of the clearing. No wait. That’s not right. That’s a woman. At least from the waist up. Her body and legs is that of a big brown horse. She has a majestic posture as she scans my settlement with sharp eyes.

“Is that… a centaur?” I ask in disbelief. “That’s… freaking cool!”

What? Centaurs are cool. I am not going to lie. But shit. I don’t think this is another beast. The female centaur wields a long copper spear with leather armor across her chest.

It’s a player.

“Where the hell are the mages!? Shit. We have to bring her down. Fast!” I hiss at the goblins to my side. If that’s an enemy scout, then I have to stop her before she can report back to her people.

Fuck. She is so far away, and I doubt I can catch up to her if she runs off. Even with the help of Scarfang. My best bet is to hit her with my blood mage. I covertly grab the crossbow off my back and load it with a bolt. So far, the centaur has just been standing there. Observing us.

That suits me fine. I can hear some soft footsteps from behind. My [Blood Mage] must have arrived.

Before I can order my mages to attack her, the centaur starts walking towards us. She produces a white linen piece of cloth which she waves above her head.

Really? A white flag?

The centaur approaches slowly, and comes to a stop fifteen meters in front of me. The woman is huge. Nearly two and a half meters tall. That’s a lot. Especially when I am a goblin! I gulp at the thought of fighting her. What the hell. How is this fair? There’s no way my goblins can take her on in single combat. She must be from a tier three race at the very least. She feels like a freaking tier seven race though. If that’s even a thing...

I slowly inch backwards, placing myself safely behind my two mages and Scarfang. I doubt they could stop her if she really wanted to kill me though.

“I come in peace!” The female centaur shouts loudly enough for my entire village to hear. “I wish to speak to the Chieftain of this tribe.” She looks down at us without tilting her head. It makes her look incredibly condescending. Really. She is rude. Why bother saying she comes in peace with that attitude?

“He isn’t here.” I say. “Would you like to leave a message?”

Why would I deliberately make myself a target for a sneak attack? Pfft. Hell no. I’m naive, but not THAT naive.

She crosses her arms, scowling at me. “I will wait.”

Uhm. Okay?

She stands completely still. Almost like a statue. Just scowling at me and the rest of the goblins. She looks at us if we are covered in shit, and her nose twitches into a sneer every time she makes eye contact with anyone.

This entire situation is good I suppose. It seems like it isn’t easy to single me out from a crowd. Doesn’t she have the inspect skill? It can’t be a player. No way. Could it?

I throw a quick inspect at her.

Centaur Lieutenant

Name: ???

Race: Centaur

Herd: Swift Mist

Class: Scout

Strength: Strong

Oh. She is a Lieutenant, just like Wrex. And a scout nonetheless. Great. She must have had no problems finding us. Still though. If she’s a scout, then she should have been able to inspect me by now or something.

Perhaps she just sucks at her job, or maybe she thinks it isn’t necessary as if she considers us not worth the effort to inspect. Arrogance. I kind of want to wipe that sneer off her face. I have the perfect bolt for the job...

“Can I get you anything? A cup of water maybe?” I ask the centaur. I don’t know why. This situation is both awkward and tense at the same time. I don’t know how to deal with this shit.

She raises her eyebrow as she gives me a flat look.

“That is not necessary.”

Her hooves stamp impatiently into the ground. I can’t blame her. It must be just as stressful for her to stand among a host of enemies. I just wish she didn’t act like such a bitch. My gut feeling tells me that it’s probably okay to reveal myself to her, but I’d rather not. Gut and Wrex should be back soon. And, I’d rather they be present if things go to shit.

We stand around in silence for about twenty minutes.

It feels like hours. When I’m just about to go grab a snack, the familiar silhouettes of my goblin war party emerges from the northwestern edge of the clearing.

I release a breath of relief. Finally.

The cheerful band of goblins walk towards us at a leisurely pace. That is until they spot the centaur. They halt in their tracks trying to comprehend the odd situation that transpires in front of them.

I can spot Gut squinting at me. His eyes alternating between me and the centaur. I try to give him a look that says the situation is under control; but, I don’t think he gets it. His grip tightens around his staff and some small sparks of fire erupt from the tip of his fingers.

Oh shit.

“Stand down Gut! She’s not an enemy!” I yell. Waving at the old mage. He shoots me an angry glare.

“At least not at the moment.” I add weakly.

The war party heads over towards us. Weapons raised and scowling at the new threat. They take a wide berth around her, taking up position around me. Wrex slides up in front of me. Shield raised.

“Care to fill us in, reckless one?” Gut grumbles from my side.

“Well…” I start.

A loud sigh from the centaur interrupts me.

“I am Lydia of the Swift Mist Herd.” She states as if her words carry a lot of meaning. When she receives nothing but empty stares in return, she frowns, but continues. “I wish to speak to the chieftain of this tribe.”

“Yeah, that’s me. What do you want?” I shout back at her. The look of fury she gives me could kill puppies, I swear.

She closes her eyes, dropping her arms and takes a deep breath. The anger in her eyes hasn’t completely subsided when she eventually reopens them.

“On behalf of my leader, Allison the Wise, I am here to extend an offer of trade between our two people. And also, if possible, an armistice.”

Oh? Intriguing.

“What do you have to offer?” I shout, completely ignoring the not so subtle signs Gut sends me to make me consult with him first.

The centaur straightens her back. “We offer an abundance of food and leather. We are adept at hunting and breeding livestock. We are also expert bowyers and enchanters.” She says with pride.

Hmm. I stroke my non-existent beard to simulate that I’m thinking about her offer. She doesn’t offer anything that I really need. By the time she can provide me with bows, I will already have a decent production going myself. Enchanting sounds nice; but, I sincerely doubt she can offer me anything in the near future. My goblins are also adept hunters and I already have more leather than I know what to do with.

Gut hobbles closer to me trying desperately to grab my attention.

I ignore him as I shout back. “No sorry, not interested. Got anything else?”

Her prideful smile immediately drops and is replaced by a scowl. “What do you mean, anything else? I assure you. We can provide better quality and quantity goods than anything you people can-”

“If your stuff is that great…” I interrupt her. “Then what is to stop me from just taking all your stuff for free?”

“I’d like to see your try, midget.” She snaps back. Her temper flaring.

She takes a step forwards, pointing her spear directly at me.

“Not one more step, you overgrown dog.” Gut hisses at her. A small flame building in the palm of his hand.

She pulls her eyes off me and focus on the mage to my side. They stare daggers at one another before eventually, she lowers her spear. She takes a step back and once again crosses her arms across her chest. Scowling angrily at me.

She snorts. “She figured you might say that…” She closes her eyes in order to calm herself. “We can also offer something of more value.”

“And that would be…?”

“Information.” She says matter-of-factly.

I raise my eyebrow. “What kind of information?”

“Anything. Player locations, their numbers and quality of equipment, current wars they are fighting among much more. We currently have up to date information on twenty different nearby players.” She smirks. “Anything you could possibly need.”

All right. She got me there. That does indeed sound interesting. But, the skeptic in me isn’t quite satisfied.

“And how did you come across this information?”

“Lets just say… We have our methods.” She smirks mysteriously, satisfied that she seems to finally have captured my complete attention.

That sort of information. It’s valuable. Really valuable. Who the hell wouldn’t want access to that? That’s the sort of information that wins wars. I could do some art of war kind of action with that knowledge. I know a good deal when I hear it. I’m tempted to accept right here and now.

…

“You’re full of shit. No deal.”

I mean come on. Really? Does she expect me to believe those obvious lies? To be able to have that much information this early in the game is ridiculous. She would need to have several scouts assigned to every player near her, as well as having a complex network of messengers moving back and forth. Considering she is playing as Centaurs which is a tier three race, I just don’t see how it’s feasible for her to have that kind of manpower only eleven days into the game.

She probably just wants to sell me a crapload of lies and charge me double for it.

Her eyes widen in surprise at my abrupt dismissal of her offer.

“What!?” She shrieks. No longer able to control the tone of her voice. “What do you… Our information is accurate! I swear. How dare you accuse-”

“Drop the act already. You don’t fool me. I said no deal. Now get lost before I lose my patience with you.”

While she stares at me with shocked outrage, I turn away and beckon for Gut to come closer.

“Psst.” I whisper. He looks back at me, confused. “As soon as she turns to leave, hit her with blood magic.”

What? You thought I’d let her just stroll off? Playing honorable is for suckers. There is no way I’m going to let her report everything she saw back to her boss. She saw way too much here. It’s not dishonorable when it’s just a game.

“I can assure you… Our methods are genuine…” She pleads with me. I just shoo her off with a hand gesture.

Her face contorts into a weird grimace, clearly unable to comprehend what just happened. She starts pulling her hair as I can see sweat pouring from her forehead.

“DIVINATION MAGIC!” She shouts panting for breath. “We use divination magic!” She repeats.

“Seriously!?” I blurt out without thinking.

Really? Divination magic is a thing? That… That’s… fucking cheating! What the hell, man! She can use magic to spy on me?

“Yes.” She says. Her cheeks turning red. She probably shouldn’t have told me, and she knows it. “Do you believe me?”

I hesitate.

She could be bluffing, but I don’t think so. VIs can’t be this good at acting, can they? Surely they can’t have the ability to make this shit up on the spot. Can they? Nah. Probably not.

“You’re bluffing.”

“I’m not!” She shouts.

“Then prove it.” I cross my own arms.

She hesitate for a while. I can figuratively see how the gears in her head grinds.

“My mistress told me about of how you defeated the harpy.”

I raise my eyebrow. “She saw that? Crap… Oh. Wait. And how exactly did I do that?”

“You used the fat one over there as bait.” She points at Wrex. “And then you had the angry one hit them with a large fireball. My mistress told me it was the most beautiful firework she had seen.”

“Really?” I can feel the hubris building. “I suppose it was pretty genius wasn’t it?” I grin.

“So she told me.” She nods. “Not bad for a midget at the very least.”

…

That bitch. That was totally uncalled for.

I scowl at the woman. “And, what exactly do you want in return for this information?”

She takes another step forward, forcing a smile on her face. A very fake smile. I know when a woman is loathe to see my face.

“From what we have seen you can provide, we require foraged food and herbs. It seems like you little green creatures have a knack for picking up stuff from the ground. You could also… ah… offer to do some mercenary work for us every now and then.” She nods.

So that’s why they searched me out. They figured I’m at the top of the food chain at the moment. Alright, not bad. I could do without the jabs at my height though. She is going to start making me feel self-conscious soon.

“Sounds like a reasonable transaction to me.” I mutter.

We proceed to hash out the details in a more lengthy negotiation. It’s really tough to put a price on military services and offered information. We ended up making a rough rating system on the information provided. We rank the information from a value between one and three, where three means that’s it’s highly crucial information. I will offer herbs and foraged food for the lesser information and a varying degree of military support for the expensive information.

We also hash out a relay system. The centaurs will have an active messenger that will patrol between our villages several times per day to give status updates and carry traded goods.

Apparently, The centaur’s base is located in a plains biome directly to my north. So far, they have only seen small skirmishes with their neighbours; but, their strength has risen fast due to numerous trade agreements and a network of information spanning several nearby biomes.

Like seriously. I didn’t even know it was possible to go for a diplomatic playstyle in this game.

I didn’t see much need to be stingy in my negotiations, as I figure I’ll just betray her eventually anyway. This is a game, and I’m not really going to put myself at a severe disadvantage just because she said so. I probably offered slightly more troops for good information than I needed to.

I noticed the error of my ways however, when the centaur activates an unexpected ability.

Trade agreement

Contract offered by: The Swift Mist Herd

Contract received by: The Dark Fang Tribe

Contract length: 30 days.

The Swift Mist Herd offers legitimate intelligence per request about players in direct conflict with the Dark Fang tribe. The Main A.I will supervise each exchange. The Dark Fang tribe will offer:

A minor amount of [Foraged Food] and [Herb]s in exchange for lesser information such as the location of enemy bases.

A moderate amount of [Foraged Food] and [Herb]s in exchange for information such as troop amount, type of units and quality of equipment.

A mercenary combat force containing between 15 to 20 percent of their total military force for 24 hours to assist the Swift Mist herd in combat in exchange for information about enemy troops movements or active conflicts with other tribes.

The Swift Mist herd may not withhold information about threats to the Dark Fang tribe for the duration of the agreement.

Both players swear to maintain an armistice for the duration of the agreement.

The contract may be cancelled at any time by mutual agreement between the players.

None of the players may force or coerce a third player to influence the agreement or cause deliberate harm towards the other player.

Warning!

Breaching this contract will cause the offending player to be unable to gain any Summon Points for seven to fourteen days depending on the severity of the breach.

Holy freaking cheese nuggets!

It’s possible to offer trade agreements? Can I do this? What level of [Diplomacy] does she have? What are the requirements?

“Does this deal seem satisfying to you?” The centaur breaks me out of my thinking frenzy.

I read through the trade agreement, mulling over the details. I’m able to share the window with Gut, who stands growling to the side.

This contract feels a little unspecific. I’m certain they put a few tripwires for me in there somewhere. I have no doubt in my mind that this ‘Allison’ person is highly intelligent.

It doesn’t say anything specific about us really having to do anything special at all. We don’t even have to trade any information if we don’t want to. The real kicker from this agreement is the fact that we added an armistice. That’s all well and all. I don’t see much of a downside. To me, it seems like I’m perfectly safe from surprise attacks from the north for thirty days, with a warning system in case someone decides to attack me. I’m not even really interested in knowing much about my neighbours at the moment. I want to clear out the two remaining players in my biome and finish my personalized quest above anything else.

I think I’m the winner in this agreement. She knows I’m the stronger player; and, she pretty much secured her position for the foreseeable future. Hell, I bet she has plenty of tricks up her sleeve to try and exploit the contract in her favor. That’s why I had the idea to add that last point to the contract.

After quietly discussing the terms with Gut in private, I decide to accept the contract. As I do, I quickly receive a notification about said agreement, and that I may view it from my chieftain’s overview at any time.

Lydia waste no time leaving my village as soon as the negotiations conclude. I have to say, she seemed way too happy about leaving. Not that it matters. I can’t say I enjoyed her company either. It isn’t fun to argue with a person that is six times my size.

“What a day…” I sigh as Gut and I watch Lydia disappear into the forest in the distance.

I only receive a grunt in response.

It’s already early evening. Really. Talking with Lydia took forever. My stomach is rumbling and my joints are stiff. I really need to go for a walk. Or perhaps a ride? I’m sure Scarfang would love the exercise.

But, business comes first I guess.

“Did anything interesting happen after I left you in the forest?” I ask the sour old mage.

He scowls at me. Oh crap. Did I just remind him about something I shouldn’t have?

“Nothing of note, reckless one. The two [Fighter]s are ready to be promoted to [Warrior]s. I distributed the new weapons and armor among the warriors and had them carry the resources back.”

Ooh. Promotions. I’ve lost far too many of warriors lately. I’m glad to see them progress.

“Did they drop any skulls?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “No, but we did gain seventeen [Gold Coin]s.”

We gained what now?

“Ehm. G-”

“Did anything else happen when you ran off?” He interrupts me. His voice sounding stern. It scares me a little bit really.

My eyes automatically wander over towards the [Fire Mage] that stands huddled to the side with the rest of my bodyguards. I can see him tremble in fear as my eyes connect with his.

…

“Nah, can’t say that it did.” I lie.