I gather my thoughts, heading back to the surface. On the way I admire her handiwork again. She really does have a talent for this kind of engineering. I don’t really know enough about real world physics to tell if it would work, but it looks solid enough. Out in the open I find the other side of the mechanism. A long box tilted thirty degrees into the ground, with a tube coming out of one side. After a few meters it ends up in a large wooden basin, half full of the toxic water. I guess I can take the water away when it gets too full, dumping it where it can’t do any damage.

By now the sun has set completely. Even with the moons it’s hard to see where camp is. When I reach it, saying goodnight to Reynard on the way, I stop outside the shed.

Should I sleep inside or should I take the tent. If I go inside she might get the wrong idea. Whatever that would be. But if I stay outside she may take that the wrong way too. Sighing deeply I open the door, skulking inside. The soft sound of her breathing tells me that whatever is going to happen will wait until tomorrow. Creeping quietly, I bed down on my pile of straw. Soon, I’m sleeping fitfully.

***

You are rested

“Tee!”

My jaw aches for some reason. Opening my eyes I look into Tiene’s worried eyes.

“You were gnashing your teeth and writhing in your sleep. Are you okay?”

Coming back to my senses slowly I realise I can’t remember my dreams from last night. I shake my head and sit upright.

“I’m fine. I’m sorry to worry you, I…”

She interrupts me with a gesture.

“Later. Wash up and get outside. We have a visitor, and it doesn’t want to deal with me.”

Her eyes betray a sense of worry, maybe fear. I get up and follow her instructions before heading out the door. The sun is barely up, but the intimidating presence of Grimguard is impossible not to notice. He tilts his head towards me when he notices me.

“Serf. I am here to check on your progress.”

I put on my best smile.

“Hello Grim, good to see you as always. Everything is great. I’ve managed to fill the vegetable quota already. Just some flour and some dairy to go.”

The colour of his eyes changes just a little, gaining a new intensity.

“Show me.”

I take him to the cart, pointing towards the crates. He stomps after me, picking up an ear of the umbral corn. His lack of any real body language annoys me.

“Good enough for vegetables.”

Without missing a beat he picks up one of the crates, holding it in one hand.

“Do not tarry with the rest.”

As he turns to leave I raise my voice.

“Hey Grimguard, before you go…”

He stops abruptly, turning slowly to pierce me with his glowing eyes.

“I was just wondering if you had a moment to chat. There aren’t any other players around here and I.”

A sound like bellows blowing into a furnace erupts from somewhere inside his chest.

“There were two who were looking for you in the keep. They moved on. Your friend in the bar seems alone.”

He turns around again, taking off at a run as I’m left scratching my head. That guy is seriously weird. I wonder if he was like that before he picked the class or if he picked the class because of it. Shrugging, I turn to deal with breakfast when I notice something missing in the cart. There are only four of the glowmaggots there. I can’t see them anywhere nearby, nor under the cart. Maybe some birds decided they wanted an early worm. I sigh, chastising myself as I deal with breakfast.

Tiene is curious about Grimguard, but otherwise stays quiet during the morning. I ask her to build a planter for the soil I brought before going to start my morning chores. When I get close to the field, I notice that the poisoned plots are covered in a layer of black sludge. Hurrying over, I’m met with an unexpected prompt.

Field 2: small (100x100)Current crop: Miners Sludge (143)Soil quality: Poisonous (High mineral content)Growing cycle: Germinated (1)Average health: 21%Needs: Pruning.

The other two fields look the same. A piece of the puzzle falls into place and I check the spore collection setup I prepared yesterday. The mushrooms I placed there are all dried up, but the spores are nowhere to be seen. There must have been a disturbance, a wind maybe. And as a result, the spores flew away. All except for the ones who like the cursed soil. Obvious in hindsight. Cursing myself I start fixing the fields. I may as well let it grow.

Skill increased: Mycology.Skill increased: Herbalism.

When the mushroom field is looking healthier I move on to the voidsiphon.

Current crop: Voidsiphon (384)Growing cycle: Growing (1)Average health: 81%Needs: Watering, Weeding.Estimated Yield: 460.

That’s a pretty good yield for the effort. A few hours work bumps the health up to 85%, leaving me with a uniformly green-yellow grid across my field. As I’m standing there admiring my handiwork, Tiene comes over with the planter. Dumping it next to me, she gives me a sad look.

“I’m going to take Reynard in to town to visit Yadra.”

She turns away and I follow her.

“I can come with you, let me just…”

Stopping, she gives me another look.

“That’s okay Tee. I’d like some time to myself. I’ve been cooped up here for longer than you have. If I can’t make it back by night, I’ll stay with Yadra. Don’t wait up.”

Unperturbed I escort her to the wagon.

“I get that. I’ll unload the stuff you won’t need. Take some samples of the vegetables and the Emgrass to show Yadra. Maybe she wants to buy some. The mushrooms as well, and if…”

This next look tells me she really doesn’t need me to continue talking. I quickly unload the wagon, waving at her as she leaves. How bad did I actually screw up? I haven’t received any updates on our standing. I shake it off, choosing to focus on work instead.

Filling the planter with soil is a quick process. I place it by the field close to the scarecrow and plant the fairyhome. I’m given a 65% chance of success in total.

Basic planterSoil: Standard.Health: 11%.Current crop: Fairyhome (1)Growing cycle: Planted.

Skill increased: Herbalism.

I boggle at the health level. It has been a while since I got the seedling from Korrom, maybe it’s degraded more than I’d expected. I’ll have to be on the ball when it comes to taking care of this little bastard. After that I focus on the mushrooms. In my new experiment I make much smaller tents for the spores, leaving nothing but the mushroom caps in the open air. Hopefully that’ll get me a few spores to actually get my cave project started.

***

The mine is dark and smells of sulphur. With nothing else to do until the plants need more care, I decided to explore a little. Before I go down I crank the pump until the brackish water stops flowing. Afterwards I explore towards the slag pile, meeting another golem. This one is coated with a glistening layer of slime. I manage to get within a metre before it notices me, turning to face me full on. I use the crowbar to test it’s reactions and defences. Now that it’s standing upright it can move towards me, but as a golem it’s severely lacking in agility.

I stab at it, aiming for it’s arms more than the eye, but it blocks each attack. When I overstep it gets in a counterattack, forcing me to retreat or lose a lot of health. I find that my high endurance helps regeneration and hitpoints, but since I’m wearing no armour at all each hit takes off a third of my health. With no way to determine it’s integrity I keep striking it on the same location. Slowly, it’s arm gets more and more battered until the solid iron of the crowbar wins out and the poor golem is one limb poorer. I repeat the process with the other arm, taking another half hour of sweaty work before it’s completely disarmed. I’m about to go for the eye when the monster tilts to one side, balancing on one limb and starts spinning. The whirlwind attack makes it hard to get a solid hit in, so I stand off, content to block its attacks when I can. By the time its third limb is broken, my own weapon is starting to look a bit worse for wear. Luckily, the creature flops onto it’s back, feebly waving the remaining arm at me. By hiding on the opposite side of its body I get the time I need to pry out the core, finally getting a whole one.

Skill increased: Dodge.Skill increased: Bludgeoning weapons.Skill increased: Parry.Ability increased: Strength.Ability increased: Agility.Ability increased: Endurance.

Lesser golem core

As an experiment I stick my head into the slag room, finding it calm and dark as we found it the first time. I take one of the glowworms and crack it, ignoring the subdued squeal, and throw it into the largest pool I can see. It floats on the surface, glowing softly. Those will do nicely. I duck back out before whatever lives in there wakes up, going to the central chamber.

Turning towards the forest, I go to the wall of roots. Touching them, I try talking to Leona for a few minutes, but there’s no reaction. I guess I’ll have to meet her in the forest and ask her about this in person. Only one more thing to check out while I’m here. I head towards the second level of the mines.

The stairs empty into the same large chamber, with the sound of skittering paws everywhere around me. Killing another glowworm I launch it into the darkness, catching glimpses of the furry denizens of this room. Rats the size of golden retrievers scatter from the impact site at first. After a minute of silence, a particularly large specimen starts sneaking towards the worm, sniffing the air. With a lunge it grabs the dead maggot, quickly chomping down on it. As soon as the skin breaks, bio-luminescent fluids splatter all around it, showing me the outlines of a dozen more critters jealously eyeing the bravest one.

When he finishes they turn towards me as one. Then they start approaching me menacingly. They form a semicircle around me, just inside the glow from my torch. I wave it at them and they creep back for a moment before coming closer. I slowly retrieve another worm from my pack, leaving it alone this time, and throw it on the floor in front of me. The big one tries to get it again, but a smaller one gets there first, snatching it and running away. The larger one screeches, following it.

The rest never take their eyes off me, but the hatred in their eyes has changed. There’s a glimmer of hunger there instead, maybe even a little hope. I take the last worm I have, dangling it in the air in front of them. As one of them carefully comes forward, glaring at me with it’s milky red eyes. It sits up on it’s hind legs, stretching to grab the worm with it’s front paws. An idea forms in my mind as I release the wriggling snack into the waiting maw of the ratlike beasts.

“You guys just wait here, I’ll be right back.”