Homestead Survival

<11 August 2024, GRAND MESA OF SUMMER , A+>
[Theo and Julia]

Julia recounted what had happened with the Corrupted Goblin Chief. "So I am fairly certain he is trying to entice you to strike him."

Theo thought about this. "Can you identify me, please?"

"It says that your multiplier is five times now," Julia said.

"Well, I guess we have two options now." Theo said, "We can either try running away. Or we can simply assume that we are going to face five times the trouble as we would otherwise."

Julia thought for a while, and Theo left her in silence while she did so. Finally, after they had finished eating their food, Julia provided an answer. "I don't want to run. I don't think we did anything to deserve this, and this is our home now. For better or worse."

Theo smiled at that and nodded. "I agree. Let's get some sleep, and tomorrow, we can continue working."

They each lay down on their sleeping platform and fell asleep.

<12 August 2024, GRAND MESA OF SUMMER , A+>
[Theo and Julia]
The next morning, when they woke, both Theo and Julia took a while in the early morning to eat a meal, and then they convened to plan for the day.

"So, first things first. We get one question per day." Theo said, holding up his hand, which had the Ring of Eternal Mourning on it. "What is our question?"

"We should ask it for information about the multiplier." Julia said, "Or something else. I don't know, it's too early."

Theo chuckled, "No, that's a good idea."

He looked at the ring on his hand, and it once again felt as if it were waiting. "What can you tell us about the multiplier for the Mark that affects me?"

>Private Message: Query - "What can you tell us about the multiplier for the Mark that affects me?"
>Private Message: Processing...
>Private Message: Failed Roll
>Private Message: As the Ancestors will not always answer, the System will not always answer.

"Well, that sucks," Theo said, explaining to Julia what had happened.

"It's fine; it just means that we have to put in the work to try to anticipate and prepare." Julia said, "I have three more bushes of berries to find, and you have more to do here, right?"

"Yeah, if you unload the Raspberries that you found yesterday to one of the four corners of the Cabin, I'll get it set up," Theo said, already preparing his mental list of what he would do today.

"Alright, I guess I'm off then," Julia said, giving Theo a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Keep an eye out for that damn Goblin," Theo said.

"Oh, I will," Julia said with a smile and then began her trek for berries.

[Julia]Julia set out and quickly returned to where she had gotten the previous day. From there, she continued on the edge of the Overlook, keeping an eye out for anything that might be useful.

As she did this, she constantly checked her surroundings for the Corrupted Goblin Chief. She didn't catch any indication that the Chief was around.

She followed the edge, looking out over the view at the Northwestern corner of the Overlook.

She was stunned; the view never ceased to amaze her. Nearly a thousand feet below her was the Mesa of Eternal Summer proper, and roughly a thousand feet below that, the Valleys of Ar'Ha'Nura. In the valleys, the massive lake they had originally seen was fed by a river. A smaller river flowed out of the lake, and in the depths of the lake, something large shifted, forming a giant dark spot on the bottom.

"That is fucking terrifying," Julia muttered to herself. "Glad we didn't go to the lake."

She followed the smaller river that flowed out of the lake to the south and was barely able to make out the bridge that the Dwarves were building.

She continued walking as she admired the view until she came upon a spot where she saw a berry bush growing from the side of the cliff, large golden berries shimmering in the sunlight.

They were only a foot or so down the edge of the cliff, so she decided to try for them and lay down on her stomach to try and dig the bush free.

[Theo]
The first thing that Theo did as Julia was leaving, was survey the area between the Cabin and the Rune Circle that was not filled with stacked bricks. He noticed that the ground was not very level and worried about tripping and falling out of the Rune Circle.

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So he took out his Master Tool, having it take the shape of a hand tamper once more, then he set to work, trying to smooth out the ground to ensure that nothing would trip either himself or Julia.

He spent twenty minutes tamping the dirt down and then decided that it was good enough. Then he took a walk around the outside of the Rune circle, looking for the Corrupted Goblin Chief, and could not find him.

What he did notice was that the Lightning Berserkers and the Herald had not dissolved like some things did when you killed them. "I wonder..."

Theo walked over and grabbed one of the Lightning Berserkers, dragging it back to the Monster Processor. Before he started, he used Identify on the creature.

"Well, I guess that I am one of those whom they were automatically hostile to," Theo muttered and shrugged. "Whatever, let's see what we get."

Theo tossed the Golem's corpse on the Monster Processor and activated his skill Process, only for it to forcibly stop, and a blue box to appear.

Theo shrugged, "I like money as much as the next guy."

The corpse vanished from the Monster Processor, and Theo looked at his hand where Hand of Gold indicated his money; he watched the gold indicator tick up, and he was almost fifteen gold richer.

Then he walked out to check, and sure enough, the bodies were gone. The palanquin was still there, but Theo had no idea what to do with it, so he left it for now. Theo walked back and decided to take the deadwood tree out of his inventory and split it into usable firewood to stack along the west side of the Cabin.

He worked at it for another twenty minutes when Julia suddenly appeared, a bedraggled bush with golden berries hanging from her hand and a scared look on her face.

"Theo," She said in a mild panic, "I think I fucked up."

[Corrupted Goblin Chief Gub]
As Gub watched the Cabin, he noticed the Female was heading out again. He had almost gotten her the other day, so he decided to try again. He let himself trail behind her as she rapidly made her way to where he had attacked her before.

Gub saw that the Female was being more cautious than before. So he decided to wait. That was what had made Gub the Chief of the bad Goblins, he waited for other Chief to go to make night soil, then Gub smashed him with rock. Gub wiped the spit from his lips. Previous Chief had been tasty.

Gub was patient; Gub would wait. Gub spent nearly an hour waiting before Female lay down to reach over the edge of high-place. Gub knew that this was the perfect moment. So he creeped forward. One step at a time. It took Gub ten minutes before he was five steps away from the Female.

The Female let out a small cry of victory and stood up a strange bush with shiny things on it in her hand. Gub stepped forward. Female brushed her clothes off, and Gub let out an excited sound and leapt, aiming to push Female off of high-place.

Gub felt his hand make contact, and then, Female was gone. Gub was out in the open air.

Gub saw the ground and had eleven seconds to ponder his fate before he died on impact at nearly one hundred and twenty miles per hour.

[Theo and Julia]
"What happened?" Theo asked.

"I got the berry bush from the side of the Overlook, and when I stood up, I brushed myself off and heard a strange noise that was similar to the Goblin noises that we heard at night, so I teleported myself home. I think..." Julia was interrupted by an announcement.

>Local Message: The Harbinger has been slain, the Horde Arrives.

At the same time, Theo and Julia saw a blue box.

>Local Message: Combat System Active

Theo and Julia looked at each other as two hundred and thirty lines of text ranging from level four to level nine appeared. They each took a breath and spoke only a single word in perfect unison.

"Fuck."