Chapter 12: Getting Some Dirt On My Hands

“Ghost! Where’s your robe?” Suddenly, Elly came and touched all over my body.

“Took you long enough to notice huh, girl?” I gave out a dry smile. Thinking about what happened back then when I had to sacrifice my robe was quite heart wrenching. Truth to be told, I was out of money and with the little loots I had with me now, I would most likely be ‘naked’ for a while.

“You can have a look at my weapon too, Elly.” I showed her my old wand, now broken in half. It was beyond repair for all I knew. Items durability must never reach 0 points. Once they reached it, either one of two things could happen. Broken in pieces was the most usual scenario or rendered unusable until repaired. Looking at my wand, I was not sure repairing it would be any good either.

“I-I’m sorry, Ghost.” Sophia apologized. “If it’s not for me being so helpless and weak, I-I…”

“Shush it girl. I don’t need your sympathy. Whatever happens, happen.” I shrugged her off.

“B-B-But…” She was still fidgeting nervously. Her two party members were standing quite far away from us, perhaps fearing I might go nuts again.

“No buts. Now, please excuse Elly and I. Both of us need to gain our levels before next week.” I looked towards Miranda and called her. She was surprised, letting out a yelp when I did so.

“Apologies if I had hurt you in any way. But a heads-up first for you folks. I don’t really like people pointing their weapons at me.” She looked down immediately and gave a slight nod.

“And you too, Alviss. Next time, if you grab me like that, I’ll definitely kill you.” He went pale immediately when I said that. My experience in the war had taught me to treat everything with extreme caution and prejudice. In the open field, every player was considered ‘the enemy’.

“Why don’t you level up with us, Ghost? Wouldn’t it be better if we work together?” Was she thick or what? Did she even listen to what I said just now and threatening her party members? Looking at her, maybe she was that type and perhaps I could not fault her for that. Sophia continued to pester me to join them. I had told her and the rest that I might help them next week. Not today, and definitely not now. I just ignored her as I beckoned Elly to follow me.

Sophia whimpered a little upon seeing my cold reaction. “Next week, here. Late and I’m gone. Understand?”

I left the three to themselves as I made my way to the deeper part of the forest. The FATE was over when the howls of the wolves penetrated through the forest trailing off slowly and the faint FATE boundary vanished. My plans were in motion for me to tackle the FATE and I needed some shields and a couple of diversions.

“Ghost? Why were you so hostile to them?” Elly asked once we were quite far away. Turning my head towards my flank and rear, I’d made sure that we were not followed. Fortunately, that girl Sophia and her party did not chase after us as I feared.

“You call that hostile?” I asked with a little grin on my face.

She nodded and then added. “Never see you acted like that before.”

“Did you forget how the first time we met, Elly?” The sudden reminder of our first meeting made Elly squirmed a little.

“It’s the same, back then and now. Besides…” I grabbed her shoulder and messed up her hair a little.

“I trust you more than anyone here.” Though her actions might be naïve at times, her intentions were not. She was my ally and so far, she had earned my trust more than anyone else in this game. Trust – for me, was a hard earned privilege. Never a commodity.

“You are all I need. NPCs or not would never betray me when things go wrong, am I right?” Elly blushed and nodded enthusiastically. She looked at me as if I was the best thing that ever happened to her. I could even hear her purred a little. Suddenly, a system message popped -up.

AFFINITY INCREASE!

Elly, the Thief

Congratulations!

You have raised your ally’s affection towards you by 1 point. Her bonds for you deepens.

Ohh? I never expected that. Our bonds had been made stronger since the first time we met. Training her in the Practice Hall and raising her stats did give me a few affinities points with her. But this one was new; not because of combat nor valour, but with just my words alone? The Ally System was one of the few things I did not know much about. Not only it was rare for a player to have NPCs as their allies and no players would have the same ally ever, but each ally was different in how we would raise the affinities. Perhaps Elly was just like any other girls who wanted sweet words and compliments from time to time; besides training her hard, putting her on the frontline and all.

We continued to work on our level more throughout the night. We had killed a few more monsters and gathered a few loots, but sadly, our levels did not increase any further. The EXPs earned were too few to raise our levels, given we had earned extra from the night time buff from the game. The highest level monster was the Tomato Head, which at level 15 minimum but its EXP was even lesser than the night time monster. The risk versus rewards had finally tipped to the point of being obsolete. It was time for us to move into another area to farm. But first, we got a quest to do.

*****

We arrived at a farm just south of the City of Asgardia, beyond the forest trail. It was just after the morning twilight that we first sighted a silhouette of a man tilling the soil away. He was wiping his sweat when he first saw us.

“Hello, travellers. What brings you to our small farm?” The middle-aged farmer walked toward us, tucking his hoe over his shoulder.

“Popo send me here. Heard from him you had some troubles.” The farmer was shocked to hear my reasoning. He nearly dropped his hoe as he called someone else from within the house at the edge of the farm.

“Martha!!! Popo has sent someone here!!!” Suddenly, the door barged open and out came a middle age lady, plump with unkempt hair and a messy apron. She came running towards us at full speed while trying not to trip herself. I could not hold myself but to smirk, seeing that lady acting like that. She did remind me to a certain landlady that kept chasing me once when I rode off with my wheelchair trying to avoid paying rent.

“At long last, our pleas had been heard.”

“Take your time, lady. We had just arrived here.” I tried to ease her down as she was trying her best to talk while under that breathing difficulty. Running was not her forte after all. And the farmer was too excited to say anything else other than the initial greeting.

“I never thought that our quest would ever be accepted.” Martha resumed her words after getting back to her breath. “Bill and I had been pleading the city guards to help, but no one would ever come.”

“And that’s because we could not pay the rewards, Martha.”

Huh? What did that farmer mean by not paying rewards? I was not planning to do a quest that wouldn’t pay me rewards. I was broke, nearly naked and I wanted more than word of thanks. But, I could listen to their request first before I could decide on anything.

“Luckily Popo helped us. He sends you here right?” I just nodded but then added, “We haven’t accepted your quest yet. Fill us in first and we will see whether this is something I want to take or not. Fair enough?”

“Better that than having no one hearing our pleas,” Martha replied with a wide smile. Looks like she was happy to see us coming after all. Or anyone for that matter.

“So, what’s the deal with your farm?”

The two couple began to explain their problem to me. Their quest was simple enough to do. Once done, a quest message popped-up.

Save our Farm! (1)

Please help us, travellers. Weird monsters had been coming into our farm every week and wreaked havoc on our crops. We tried our best to get rid of them, but they were too strong for us.

Quest Rank: F

Completion Requirements:

Kill all the rodents that are destroying the crops. Numbers are unknown.

Quest Reward:

Unspecified.

Again with the weird reward. Could they ever be more direct with rewards and shits? If it was not for Popo, I would never involve myself in this lame quest. Easy but lame. And Elly was adamant that I must accept this quest and help the poor folks. Getting persuaded by NPCs felt kind of weird.

“They will be coming tonight too, judging by their recent activities. What will you do?” Bill wanted my reassurance that I was to get on to my job as soon as possible, preferably now. However, my answer was simple.

“Nothing. We will just wait and let them do whatever they wanted.” My answer brought the wind out of the middle-aged couple. They could not believe what I had just said. And I was not about to explain my strategy to a couple of old farmers. Elly too was quite bewildered by my answer though she now knew better than to speak out of her turn.

“We will go inside the house and wait for them.” And that was the only thing I spoke next. The three reluctantly agreed to my request. Without a choice, they were as docile as lambs.

*****

Observing through the window, I could see a few groups of shadows rampaging throughout the farm. All the hard work that the farmer had been doing so far were destroyed in a single night. However, it was not the usual wanton destruction of a wild animal going berserk. These small monsters were actually eating the crops like they had been famished. Much of the young crops were either pulled from the soil or plucked from the vines and were consumed immediately by these ravenous little shadows.

Amidst the sound of destroyed plants outside, I could hear the couple sobbing quietly at the corner of the house. They too were looking through their windows, feeling hapless as all their hard work yet again went down the drain.

The monsters came and were gone in an instant. But the destruction they had left was anything but heart-aching to watch, at the very least. If these little shadows continued to destroy the farm, this place would have ceased to exist and the farmer would go broke. And Popo would then blame me for not being of any use. I was in a bind.

However, since I was already here, might as well finish up this lame quest. Time to get my plan in motion now. Their next attack would be around next week, so I have ample time to actually plan ahead.

“You three, come here.” I signalled to both the farmer and Elly. “I have some work for all of you.”

*****

“Ghost, is this enough for you?” Bill came over as he completed making the drain around the farm.

“Not enough. I want it deeper.” I gave him my answer as I continued to make a fence around the farm. The farmer couple wasn’t too delighted to hear about my plan at first. But I was adamant that their either do it my way or the highway. Threatening to leave them to their fates, they finally relented.

Part of the problem was how the monsters were able to move freely in and out of the farm. Not only the place had no fence around it, but the safety of the farm by itself was nonexistent. Except for a couple of dilapidated scarecrows. And that was our first job. To create a defence mechanism for the farm.

“Ghost, are the items you wanted enough?” Elly came back with Martha. Both of them had been tasked to procure me a couple of items; sulfur and fertilizer. Though these farmers used them for their plants, I had another idea for it. The amount was enough to last for a whole year. However, they agreed immediately seeing that this was the only way they could protect their farm.

“Good amount for now.” I gave my nod of approval as I checked upon the two items.

“Hopefully. We had spent all our money for this month on those items. We had not more to spare.”

“Doesn’t matter. You will go broke either way.” I was blunt to the point. “Now, mix the two items as per ratio I had instructed earlier. Understand?” I instructed the two ladies to create a mixture for me.

“B-But will this work?” Elly arched her eyebrow, as she was still quite unsure of my plan’s success. Or perhaps the smell had gotten into her.

“It should if you could keep your mouth shut and concentrate on the matter at hands. Leave the rest to me.” I continued to my work, installing a 6 feet log adjacent to each other. This would be the hardest work so far and once Bill completed the making of the drain as how I wanted it, he came and helped me.

*****

One week had passed by and tonight was supposed to be another attack. All the preparations were completed. Unfortunately, the work took too much time and effort that I did not have any time to level up at all.

Elly and I had positioned ourselves near a couple of shacks that were opposite of each other inside the farm. The other two was left inside the house. I was not about to let these two fight the monster in case it proved too strong for them. They would hinder me more than anything. As far as concerned, they had done their dues.

We did not have to wait long for the first horde of the little monsters to come inside the farm. Having a free pass the last time around gave them the sense of false security. Unfortunately for them though, we were well prepared this time. They entered through the only opening I had created from the fence. It was the only way to enter and exit.

Both of us waited for a while and hid until the whole horde of them came down. When it was clear enough for me to see, I could now identify our new enemies.

Mandragoras.

Small little wood folks. Mischievous but never evil and often would avoid contact with the humans. I wondered why they came to this farm anyway? But such a thought must be left later as the last one of them finally entered the farm. The first time they came, I was quietly counting their amount. And now, since all of the enemies’ cast was here, it was time to get this done and dusted.

“Now!!”

I shouted to Elly as I lighted a torch and threw it away into the drain. Elly did the same. The drain was filled with the mixture of fertilizer and sulfur and it caught fire immediately. And extremely well too since in no time at all, the whole surrounding of the farm was set ablaze. Now, I had secured every last one of my enemies without a mean to escape. It was now time to get to work. Taking a borrowed sickle from Bill, I gleefully ran towards the first Mandragora.