Chapter 10

The path wasn’t very wide and was clearly only for walking. A horse or a donkey could navigate it fine, but there was no room for a wagon or anything of that size. Nathan could only see a small part of it, as it quickly disappeared into a dark pine forest.

He turned and looked at the temple. Despite the high-tech stuff inside, from the outside it didn’t look like much. There was a concrete entrance built into a mountain side, and not much else. If anything, it reminded Nathan of a small military storage bunker, although they normally had doors made of solid steel, and not glass. There were no signs or candles or anything like that to identify the bunker as a temple.

Beyond the entrance, there weren’t much either. The path stopped at the temple, and the steep mountain behind it did not look too inviting. There was snow at the far mountain tops, and no apparent way to get to them. He decided to follow Echo’s advice and head for the village.

The walk to the village was a simple one. Nathan walked through the forest for 5 minutes or so before the forest gradually turned into grassland. At that point the village was easy to spot in the distance. He could also see what looked like a logging camp to his left, and a scattering of small farms in the area. All in all, he got the impression that everything was closer together than what they should be but figured that was due to this being a game and them trying to minimize boring empty areas.

The village was not too impressive. Even from a distance Nathan could recognize a tavern, a blacksmith, a shop, and a handful of other small buildings which seemed to be housing. All of them were built of wood. The village didn’t have any form of stockade or anything like that, but there was a bored-looking young man leaned up against one of the houses by the road. He looked up when Nathan approached.

“Hi there, traveler. Haven’t seen you around here before”, the man said unenthusiastically.

Nathan stopped and considered the man. He didn’t look like a guard, especially not armed with a pitchfork as he was. He looked like someone not trusted to do actual work, but who could be a lookout in a pinch. “I haven’t been here before”, he finally answered.

The man nodded to himself and looked everywhere else then at Nathan while he talked. “Well, welcome to the village of Last Valley, I guess. The mayor likes to talk with newcomers. He’s the barkeeper at the tavern. There are also shops and stuff”.

The introduction delivered, he lost interest in Nathan, and continued looking at the ground. “Are you the village guard?”, Nathan asked.

“I... guess? We had a small goblin attack a few days ago, and the mayor thought it would be best if we had a watch. I was given the day shift, but so far it has been a waste of time. A couple of travelers like yourself have shown up, but nothing else.”

“I see. I’ll head over to the tavern, then. Thanks for the time.”

The tavern was a two-story building with an attached stable and a generic ‘tavern’ sign outside. He figured it didn’t need a name, being the only tavern around. Inside the tavern was small and cozy, but functionality was clearly more important than esthetics. There was seating for around 30 people, but currently there was only one guest; an older man, nursing an ale by the bar. A small bell chimed when Nathan entered, and quickly enough a fairly large middle-aged man came out from the back, wiping his hands on a towel. He smiled as he looked at Nathan.

“Hi there! Welcome to Last Valley. My name is Ollie, and I am the head villager and owner of this fine establishment. What can I do for you today?”

“Hi Ollie. I’m Na... I mean Eclipse. What do you charge for one of those ales?” He stumbled a bit over the unfamiliar name. Considering everything seemed so real, it was easy to forget that it wasn’t.

“Best ale in the valley, this is. And cheapest. A bronze coin a mug. Same for some porridge, if you’re interested?”, Ollie enquired.

“That sounds like too good an offer to pass up. I’ll have both, and perhaps some information as well?”

Nathan pulled out three coins and deposited them on the bar disk. In most games he played there was never a lack of coins, so he figured he could spend what he had as he no doubt would get more soon enough.

“A wise choice”. I anything Ollie’s smile got even wider as he disappeared the coins down into one of his pockets. In no time at all Nathan had food and drink in front of him. He looked at the food and confirmed that it would heal him at the same rate as his rations. The ale didn’t give any healing, but could potentially give a strength buff and a dexterity debuff.

“What kind of info do you want? I know most of what goes on around in these parts.” Ollie asked as he served Nathan.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Why don’t you start by telling me about the goblin trouble you are having. I just came from the temple, and they had some goblin trouble of their own. I managed to help them, and who knows, maybe I can help you as well.” Nathan drank and ate as he talked, eager to discover what it felt like to drink and eat virtual food, besides the dried meat he tried earlier. And it tasted great! Although both the ale and porridge were somewhat watered down, he could clearly make out the different ingredients used. The ale was actually quite complex, and he really liked it.

Ollie raised his eyebrow. “You one of them clones? I'm not judging, but those cloners normally keep to themselves. Weird bunch if you ask me. Anyhow, a couple of days back a handful of goblins came out of the forest and attacked one of the outlying farms. The family there managed to barricade themselves in the main building, while one of the boys ran for help. We gathered some men and ran them of. Killed most of them, but some escaped. We’ve been on edge ever since, mostly because we don’t know where they came from. The goblins we saw were pitiful, but if there’s a camp nearby the next attack can be much worse.”

“I see. Have you tried to track where they came from?”

“No, we don’t have the people for it. I have one hunter who perhaps could follow the tracks safely, but I need him to scout the surrounding area in case there are more of them around.” The barkeep scratched his chin while giving Nathan a once over. He looked uncertain, but decided to continue as if the ide just hit him. “You know, if some industries wanderers were to take it upon themselves to verify the source of the goblins, they wouldn’t find the village ungrateful. Such a task is not without peril, but for someone who has already handled a couple of goblins...”

Nathan smiled while considering. “That is a thought. Exactly how grateful do you think the village would be, in a monetary value?”

The mayor pretended to speculate. “Oh, that depends on the level of success, I suppose, but at couple of silvers worth, no doubt.”

“It seems to me that five silvers would be a fair compensation for such a task, if it results in handfast information”, Nathan speculated further.

Ollie narrowed his eyes just a bit. “Hm. Yes, I suppose that is not unreasonable. That would be a lump sum for the information, mind, and not per person or anything like that, should some likeminded individuals group together”, he finally decided.

“Of course. So, just out of curiosity, where is the farm that was attacked?”

“It’s northeast of here near the forest. Not far. There is no-one there at the moment. The family who lives there got scared and moved to some kin temporarily. Can’t blame them. One of their barns caught fire during the attack, too, so the farm should be easy to identify.”

“Should be”, Nathan confirmed. He finished the food and the ale, verified that he had received a new quest with the agreed upon reward, and accepted it as he stood up. “Thanks for the food, Ollie. If I am to go hunt goblins, I need to see if I can scrounge up some better equipment.”

“You do that, son. You do that”.

Nathan didn’t have to go far. Just next door was what seemed to be a general store. The sound of hammering on steel could be heard from the back of the store, leading Nathan to believe that this was a combined general and smithing store. As he entered, the different weapons on display also helped with this impression. There was plenty of other stuff, a lot of it related to farming. An older lady stood behind a desk over by one of the walls. Identify showed her to be a level 4 merchant.

“Hi there! Welcome to Last Valley. My name is Ruth, and I run this store while my husband runs the forge in the back. What can I get you today?” she said as he entered.

“Hi Ruth. I’m Eclipse”, Nathan greeted the lady with a smile. “I’m not sure if I can afford anything right now. I’m more interested in prices for later, if that’s ok?”

“No problem. Are you interested in any prices in particular?”

Nathan looked around in the store while trying to decide what he wanted. “I could need some sort of armor, probably new clothes, and one or two weapons, for starters.”

“I see. While we do not have too much need for armor around here –at least we didn’t before- we do have some hide armor. That will set you back around 10 silvers or 1 gold. Given some time we could create custom-made full leather armor for you. Cuirass, boots, shoulder pads, bracers, gauntlets and even a helmet. That would probably cost around 20 gold. If you want some simple linen trousers and jersey, we sell that for 2 silvers, but we do have clothes of higher quality as well. Weapons go from 1 to 3 gold depending on what you want. My husband can also take custom orders.”

While she talked, she pointed out some of the things in the room. Nathan analyzed the hide armor and saw that it did have 1 DR. There were some negative sides as well, mainly that it only covered the torso, had low durability, and frankly looked heavy and uncomfortable to use. Even so, he would have bought it if he could afford it, but he didn’t have nearly enough money. To afford the hide armor, some simple clothes, and a basic dagger he needed a minimum of 25 silver which equaled 250 bronzes. Currently he had 2 bronzes, just below 1% of what he needed. And ideally, he should really have a better weapon as well.

“As I suspected, this is outside of my current spending range, but I hope to do something about that soon. In the meantime, what can you offer me for this?” Nathan pulled out the goblin club from his pouch and handed it to Ruth, who didn’t bat an eye as she accepted the club. She was obviously no stranger to storage relics.

“This is... thrash. I suppose I could offer you 2 bronzes for it?”

Nathan nodded, somewhat disappointed, and the deal was made. Starter equipment was harder to come by in this game than other games he had played, and he was a bit surprised by that. Not having much choice, he supposed he had to trust his shabby axe and crossbow a bit longer.

“If you are headed into the forest”, Ruth said, “be aware that there are all kinds of animals there. If you hunt any, I could be interested in some of the parts. But don’t bring any dead animals in here. Bring them around back.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Until next time”. Nathan walked out of the store, and out of the village. It was time to see if he could track down any goblins.