Chapter 22

While the last valley was not very big, there were still a couple of different biomes there, although the differences between them were not as obvious as they could be.

The village itself was in a flat area surrounded by fertile ground. It gave off the impression of being an idyllic middle-aged farming hamlet, even if there also were some simple modern looking shacks sprinkled in amongst the more traditional log and brick cabins.

You didn’t need to move far from the village before that changed. 25–30 minutes of efficient walking would take you to an area with small hills, some groves, and even a meadow or two. Still adequate farmland, but not of modern standards.

Twice that distance would bring about forested hills slopping upwards towards the tall mountains even further away. This area would have to be cleared for trees before anything could be planted, but considering the rocky and steep inclinations, it would be a fool's endeavor.

The border between the different areas was irregular, and for the direction Nathan was going, the second area was closer than any other. As he walked, some of his old training kicked in, and he considered how he would set up in the different terrain he passed.

He was still thinking conventionally, considering the placement of fire zones, machinegun nests, and tripwires. He supposed a lot of the same principles were still valid in the game, but he didn’t feel like he knew enough about the capabilities of this world yet to say anything for certain. There could be monsters that made his preferred setup obsolete, or that made an otherwise useless strategy viable. Time would tell, but that didn’t stop him from running through different thought experiments as he walked.

That came to a crashing stop as he suddenly received a notification.

[Quest Failed] Check up on the Shearers

You were unable to get to Shaun Shearer in time.

What? In time for what? If this were a time-sensitive quest, he would have appreciated some sort of warning. Here he was almost sauntering along, while he could have gone much faster.

[New Quest] Who sheared the Shearers?

You failed them once. Will you fail them again?

Discover the fate of the Shearers: 0/2

Reward: XP

Some kind of scripted event, perhaps? Despite having kept a slow and measured pace, according to his calculations, he should be just minutes away. He prepared his crossbow and hurried along the road. When he came to the path Olli had mentioned, he stepped off the road and continued parallel to the path, moving tactically from cover to cover.

Over a hill and through a stand of trees, and there was the cabin below him. On the ground a couple of meters from the door was the unmistakable form of a dead person, face down in a pool of blood. He also thought he saw some movement through one of the shutters but couldn’t make out any details.

He crawled closer while switching between focusing on the cabin and the area around it. As nothing else moved, he scampered all the way to the cabin wall and inched his way over to one of the windows.

“Did you find anything?” he heard a male voice with a pitch just a tad too high say from inside.

“Nothing”, someone answered slowly, by the sound of it from another room. They made a lot of noise at this point, throwing stuff around. The slow-voiced one continued. “This is actually the worst one so far. Even the old lady had more loot.”

“Yeah,” answered the first one. “I hope the rifle is worth something, or this was all a waste of time. Shit XP as well.”

Nathan had heard enough to make a pretty good guess as to what had happened, but he didn’t want to jump to conclusions, and his quest hadn’t been updated with any info yet. Perhaps he should just ask them what happened?

He stood up and moved over to the cabin entrance. The body was a woman, presumedly Ms. Shearer, and it looked like she’d been struck down from behind as she was running away. The door was shut, but not closed, so he decided to simply kick it all the way open. It bounced off the wall and back into his shoulder as he stepped in yelling. “What the fuck is going on here?”

One of the men – the high-pitched one – had his face halfway inside a cabinet and bumped his head on the shelf in his hurry to pull it out. The other one came running out from the only other room, coming to a stop behind his comrade as soon as he saw Nathan.

“...the fuck are you?” he blurted as he pointed a rusty short sword in Nathan’s direction.

The one in front grabbed an equally rusty axe from the table beside him. The axe reminded Nathan of the one he himself had been forced to use until recently, although unlike himself, both of these guys had hide armor on their upper body. Minimum 1 DR, but restricting, he mentally reminded himself. “Are you the guys that bartender sent? He asked me to help someone kill something in the hills around here?”

The two guys looked at each other, confusion mixed with embarrassment. “Yeah, that’s us,” one of them finally admitted.

“Ok, good!” Nathan exaggerated while allowing himself a controlled smile. He casually pointed his crossbow to the floor to defuse the situation. “What happened here? Did the monster or whatever attack, or did the NPC’s give you trouble?”

They looked a bit taken back by Nathan’s change of disposition but relaxed quick enough. Nathan used the time to focus on each of them, discovering that he was able to see both their level and path.

???

Level 2, Brawler

???

Level 3, Thief

“Bah, you know how these NPCs are,” said the brawler as he sheeted his shortsword. “Always asking us to do their shit. But when we ask for fair compensation for services rendered...”

“Or about to be rendered”, interjected the thief with a smirk.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“...or about to be rendered,” repeated the brute slowly while giving his friend an irritated look, “then they suddenly get all prissy. While we... negotiated, my impatient mate here decided that it would be quicker to just literally take things into our own hands. Pocket something of worth equal to what we were owed, and then be on our way."

“Better for all parties, that. We get collateral and can move on to solving their issue.”

“Better for all parties, indeed,” repeated the slow one, this time sarcastically.

The thief laughed. “Well, better for us at least.”

“I hear you,” agreed Nathan. “Some of these NPCs treat us like suckers, thinking we're supposed to please them, while in fairness it’s the other way around. The way I see it they need to be reminded of this from time to time. Put in their place, so to speak.”

The thief nodded and eagerly agreed. “Exactly. This guy gets it! They need to be shown who’s in charge.” The last part was said to his buddy as he gave him a small shove.

“That what happened? You pushed, and he pushed back?”

“Weeeell,” drawled the thief, “he kind of caught me pocketing our payment, and took offense. Started yelling all kinds of hurtful stuff. Demanded we leave.”

“Just leave without anything to show for our effort? We couldn’t accept that, could we?” the other one said.

“Not bloody likely. One thing led to another, and before we knew it, the guy was dead as a doornail.” He spit as he finished his explanation, as a punctuation of his tale.

“Fucker actually cut me,” said the brawler while halfway turning around and raising his arm, showing a gash in his side. “I mean, not deep or anything, but still... Had it coming, he did.”

“Well, if he started it, then who can blame you?” asked Nathan. The two players looked at each other as if in hesitation but didn’t correct him. “What about the lady out front?”

“Bitch did a runner, screaming about how we would hang. Didn’t leave us much of a choice, did she? Besides, she was a witness.”

[Quest] [Who sheared the Shearers] has been updated, Discover the fate of the Shearers: 2/2

[Quest] [Who sheared the Shearers] has been updated, Get justice for the Shearers: 0/2

Nathan wasn’t surprised to see the quest update. He figured this was the game’s way to handle those who stepped off the narrow path. Either way, it didn’t change his plan.

“Doesn’t sound like she did, at that,” Nathan shrugged. He looked around inside the cabin and concluded that Shearers didn’t live a luxuries life. “How were the pickings? Slim?”

The brute’s eyes narrowed, and just for a second, they shifted to Nathan’s crossbow. “Don’t you be getting any ideas, now! We earned what little is here.”

Nathan laughed and put his crossbow on the table beside him, pointing it in a safe direction. “Just curious, is all. There’s a lot of these small farms around here. If it’s lucrative to clean them out...” He left the rest unsaid, but the others heard him even so.

The brute relaxed again, and looked over at the thief, indicating that it was his turn to talk. “Unless there is a cache somewhere that we haven't found, there’s just a couple of silvers worth here. We’ve had a look inside some of the other farms you mentioned, and they had more stuff, on average. But they were bigger as well. But there is an old antique rifle on the bedroom wall. Should bring a pretty penny, if we can sell it.”

“A rifle? Really? That sounds awesome! Do you mind if I have a look? Maybe I can put in an offer?”

The thief considered for a moment. “Yeah, ok. It’s in here.”

He indicated the other room.

“Great, lead on”, Nathan casually said as he allowed the other two players to move in front of him. “By the way, what was the problem the Shearers needed help with?”

“Uh, we didn’t really get that far in our conversation,” muttered the thief over his shoulder, as the brute disappeared into the next room.

“Ah, pity. Then again, at this point, it doesn’t really matter.” His words hid the sound of him scuffing his cloak to the side. Ruth –or her husband, whoever did the work – had really done a marvelous job on the baldrick. A small tug and a roll of the wrist, and the mace was free. In one smooth motion he brought it up and around, smashing it into the side of the thief's head. There was a crushing sound, and the man simply folded as the mace continued its downward trajectory.

The Brute roared in anger and came running back into the room, one hand reaching for Nathan, while the other struggled to unsheathe his own weapon. The adventurer dodged to the side and delivered a swift kick to the midsection as he ran past him by. The kick didn’t do a lot of damage, but it took his breath away and partly caught his hand, making him fumble the release of his sword.

“Wait”, the man tried to say as he turned back towards Nathan, but he didn’t have enough air in his lungs. Instead, all he was able to make was a short grunt as he raised his arms in defense.

A defense found lacking. The first swing of the mace snapped his wrist, while the backswing caught him in the face. One of the bone spikes latched on to something, and while he couldn’t be sure, he was pretty sure his nose and part of his jaw were ripped off.

The brute dropped to the floor wheezing, fighting to breathe, with blood and small unidentified pieces clogging his throat. Deep down he knew that he only felt a fraction of the real pain of such an injury, but even so, this really hurt.

Nathan looked down on his broken opponent. His voice turned cold as all traces of the understanding he had shown earlier disappeared. “For what it’s worth, there is no judgment in this. While I might find your activities distasteful, this is after all a game. Far be it for me to say how one should find enjoyment. While I do not understand it, I assume some of the thrill of a bandit life must come from the excitement of being chased, the risk of being caught, and the inevitable punishment. Well, consider yourself fortunate, because you are about to experience the complete outlaw lifecycle - after only a few days. If that was your goal, you can now try something new. Something different. Looking at it that way, I suppose you could say this is ‘better for all parties’. Besides... I really want a rifle.”

He couldn’t say if the man on the floor had actually heard anything he’d said. Nathan looked into his eyes as he spoke, but he could only see fear. No understanding. But he didn’t need him to understand.

One solid strike was all that was needed.

When it was done, Nathan looked through his log while reviewing the fight in his mind. This was something he often did, as an exercise in learning.

[Attack] You critically hit [Thief] for 12 blunt damage ((5[d6]+1) x 2). He dies. You gain 300 XP

[Quest] [Who sheared the Shearers] has been updated, Get justice for the Shearers: 1/2

[Attack] You hit [Brute] for 1 blunt damage (2[d3]-2)

[Attack] You hit [Brute] for 3 blunt damage (3[d6]+1-1)

[Attack] You critical hit [Brute] for 10 blunt damage ((5[d6]+1-1) x 2)

[Attack] You critical hit [Brute] for 8 blunt damage ((4[d6]+1-1) x 2). He dies. You gain 200 XP

[Character] You have reached level 7. Congratulations! You receive +1 hp.

[System] Please note, as a level 7 character your respawn time is 7 days.

[Quest] [Who sheared the Shearers] has been updated, Get justice for the Shearers: 2/2

[Quest Complete] Who sheared the Shearers?

Discover the fate of the Shearers: 2/2

Get justice for the Shearers: 2/2

While you were not able to meet them in life, you provided them some consolation in death.

[Quest] For completing [Who sheared the Shearers] you gain 200 XP.

He was surprised to see how much punishment the last guy had been able to take. Especially considering that he’d already received a wound - although a minor one. The calculations showed that he had 1 in natural damage resistance, so that means he had to have at least 15 in Constitution. Considering his level, that translated to a minimum of 16 hp, perhaps more. Now, at level 7, Nathan had 16 hp as well, but during the fight, he’d been at a disadvantage health-wise. Still, his opponent's dexterity was clearly suffering for it, and in this fight that had been decisive.

Another takeaway was the increased XP he apparently got for killing players compared to monsters. That would really incentivize PvP compared to PvE. Something to keep in mind for later.

Enough math, time to look at this rifle everyone is talking about.