Town Builder

Chapter 34: Dealing with Loss

We rode into Malcum, searching for the disturbance. It was easy to find as the townsfolk gathered near the general store. We dismounted, and Curraen was the one who spoke, “Lord Tallis…A player has slain Gwen.” He held his head low.

Tanguin and Galana appeared, and Galana said, “Lord Tallis, I am sorry I failed you. The player Hellspawn entered the town and was shopping in the general store. Savannah, the elf child, identified him as a player who attacked her family on the road and killed her dog. Gwen asked him to leave…he quickly got angry and killed her.”

There was a somber mood around the body. Gwen had been the older woman who was the leader of the town when I arrived. She had given me the task of winning favor with the townsfolk, which led to her handing over control of the small village to me. Galana hadn’t failed me, I had failed the town. Gwen couldn’t be resurrected. The game didn’t work that way. I could have resurrected her for a price if she had been a companion.

Some townsfolk took the body away. I was informed she would be left on her bed in her house. Her body would disappear after 24 hours. Grinder said that in the game looting mechanic for NPCs, you had 24 hours to claim items that dropped, mostly for quest items. I shook it off, Gwen had a personality, she was more than an NPC to me. I needed to figure out how to protect my villagers from the monsters and players.

I had been stupid. I figured players would want to take over my village eventually, but I thought I had a lot of time until the game launch. I could have recruited powerful NPCs to guard my village like other players in the NPC auction house…I already had a few, but they were unable to stop this tragedy. I told the townsfolk there would be a celebration at the inn to honor Gwen and her life. Jaesmin came to me and gave me a reassuring hug.

Mad Dog and his crew went to the inn, and I followed shortly afterward. I had hung back as I worked my town management screen to mark the player Hellspawn as KOS, which meant kill on site. I also planned to build my new guard house. It required stone, lumber, and 12 soul gems filled with tier-three creature essences.

I joined the celebration at the inn as townsfolk retold stories of Gwen’s generosity and leadership. Mad Dog and his crew couldn’t believe how realistic everything seemed. They still just saw these NPCs as computer code. If you really thought about that, all humans were as well…a brain full of stored memories and emotional tendencies.

I sighed and contributed with my own retelling of how I met Gwen and what she did for me when I arrived in Malcum, and we all toasted. The memories flowed well into the night with the ale.

I don’t remember how I got home, but I woke up the next day next to Jaesmin. She looked me in the eyes. “Death is not the end, Tallis. This village has seen more than its fair share of it, but those who live there must make their best effort. Remember those lost, but do not despair.” I sighed, still depressed at my failure. “I see it on your face, Tallis. This is not your fault.”

I looked into her eyes; they seemed wise beyond the years of a woman still in her late teens. “Thank you. I plan to do everything I can to protect you and Malcum going forward. I thought I was doing well, but trouble found us, and I will again. I need to become stronger…I need to make the town stronger.” I pulled out the guard house plans and took them to the inn to find Mad Dog. I was hoping he could get me my twelve tier three soul gems.

They were eating breakfast and getting buffs before heading to go goblin hunting. “Tier 3 soul gems? I have seen a few on the auction site, but they cost quite a few coins…maybe 50 gold each? And I don’t know if there will be 12 available.” Mad Dog said while stuffing a cheesy soufflé into his mouth.

“Can I give you all the essences we collected to sell in the city? I don’t feel right traveling to establish my portal stone connections when I needed to defend Malcum’s cittizens. I think I can give you six platinum coins for the soul gems, too.” I said hopefully. They had just purchased their horses, so most of the coins I was giving them were from that sale.

“Sure! We can do that for you. We were going to head back after a day in the forest to resupply and sell loot, mate,” Mad Dog said with a smile. “If you think of anything else you need, let us know.” They all got up to leave.

“Auction house plans,” I said. “I have a trader getting them for me, but just in case he doesn’t find them. You can pick up seven platinum coins from the general store when you leave for them.” I paused for a second, considering. “Are building plans selling on the auction house for players?” It hadn’t occurred to me because I thought I was the only player constructing buildings. Also, the plans dissolved after I used them. But all I would need to do is redraft them, which would take just a few hours of work, depending on their complexity.

Black Beauty shrugged, “Not that I recall.”

“Great, I will spend the day working on preparing some plans for you to post on the player auction site, but can you do it anonymously?”

“No problem, mate. See you in a few hours!” He turned and left with his group.

I went and got Sanso and Jaesmin. I wanted them to do all the site prep work for the guard house. I decided to follow the advice and put it next to my portal stone. That way, if something or someone portaled in, they could respond quickly. I wasn’t sure if the material quality would play a role in the effectiveness of the building, so I asked Sanso for his best stone. I retreated to my house and looked over my plans.

I guessed I had about 8 hours before Mad Dog and company returned. The drafting time for the leatherworks and smithy, both rare buildings, was 4 hours each to recreate the plans. The alchemy shop was very rare and would take 6 hours. The Epic Grand Library showed 144 hours to recreate the plans! So, I was not going to be redrafting the plans for that building anytime soon. I decided to go with reproducing plans for just the leatherworks and the smithy and see how well they sold.

Rare Tannery/Leatherworks, Health 50,000, Requires Masonry: Structures 43, Woodcraft Carpentry 23 (Bonus 33% chance to increase tanned hide quality, +5 defense bonus to leather crafted armor, 1% chance to increase rarity of crafted armor)

Rare Blacksmith, Health 90,000, Requires Masonry: Structures 23, Woodcraft Carpentry 23 (Bonus 5% chance to upgrade smelted ore quality, +4 to Forging skills, +25% to forged item durability)

I worked steadily and had the plans ready in just under eight hours. I thought the blacksmith was by far the superior building. I took the plans and went to get some food at the inn as my satiety bar was dangerously low. Fareth waved me into the back kitchen. Oh, my Lord! The smells back here were heavenly.

“Lord Tallis! Things are going well. Those adventurers you brought here are a literal gold mine! That large demonkin eats four or five meals in a single sitting, a real glutton. I wanted to ask you if you could quickly increase the town population,” the gnome looked distracted. “You see, Lord Tallis, I have been cooking non-stop, but over half of my food goes to waste. I will prepare my epic dish for you if you can get the town’s population over 500 in the next 90 days. I brought enough ingredients to make it once.” She relaxed and looked at me.

“Epic dish? I don’t know what that means, but I think we should be able to reach that goal. We have over two hundred soldiers coming to man the new barracks in a few weeks.” My response caused the gnome to nod furiously in satisfaction.

“When a chef reaches the grand master rank, we are able to make our own epic dish. It functions similarly to an elixir that alchemists can make. The difference is there is no one-year cool-down like an elixir. But you can only benefit from an epic dish once, and each grand master has only one epic dish. My epic dish is spicy mushroom chili. It gives a +5 boost to your charisma permanently…but you need to eat an entire bowl…not an easy feat.” She chuckled to herself.

“If you give me a list of the ingredients…” I started before the gnome visage clouded.

“Lord Tallis, are you trying to steal my epic recipe? If you are not going to become my apprentice, don’t ask again!” She softened as a shock at the outburst had me recoiling. “No harm, Lord. Grandmaster chefs guard epic recipes that are only passed down to apprentices. Apprentices can’t create the permanency of the effect but can still cook it, and it helps them progress more quickly in their cooking skills,” I apologized and backed out of the back room.

So Fareth wanted to be kept busy cooking, and she wanted people to enjoy her food. It wasn’t a terrible quest…and yes, I did have a quest offered, so I accepted it. Five hundred village population shouldn’t be too hard. I got a quick meal from the waitress and rushed to the general store. I needed to catch Mad Dog before he left.

Mad Dog and crew were walking toward me as I approached. Of course, they were headed to the portal stone! I fell in step with them and handed over the two plans I had drafted for them to test the market. I wasn’t expecting to get too much. There were just not a lot of players, and those who were playing probably didn’t need the plans or couldn’t afford to pay a high price for them. Black Beauty said she would shop the plans around the NPC shops before placing them on the auction site for players.

“Before we go, Tallis, the in-game communication system will be live tomorrow if the devs don’t fuck it up. If you set us to friend status, we should be able to communicate through the texting feature. We made good progress in the forest, with 59 goblins slain and four being magic wielders. We will need a few days to draw groups away from their village and whittle down their strength. We think they repopulate around ten goblins every day.”

Mad Dog gave me the intel. He transferred their explored maps to me. This was a huge measure of trust, in my opinion. I got their explored areas of the forest and every place they had explored in the world. Looking at the map, I was shocked at how expansive the world was. This party found seven large cities and 68 smaller cities/towns. Unfortunately, my little Malcum didn’t even register as a town on their map…maybe after I completed my town hall. We said our goodbyes, and they expected to return in two days as they needed to log off and rest.

Jaesmin and Sanso were nearby, and I started working with them on the guard house. It was just a simple two-story building that was not overly large, just 30 feet square. I made some improvements to the aesthetics of the building, but it didn’t alter the plans for good or for the ill. We finished late into the evening, and I bought dinner for them at the inn. The inn was even more lively, with over fifty townsfolk tonight. As I sipped my ale, I reviewed my interface and building plans.

My skills were first. I had four skill points remaining to be allocated. I looked at my masonry and its sub-skills.

Masonry

39

Masonry: Foundations

34

Masonry: Structures

38

So close! I used all my skill points, adding two to masonry and two to Masonry Structures. If I could make level 19 and work my masonry structures skill up to one level, I could finally complete the town hall! This was amazing…so many projects would fall into place.

I checked my build projects currently ongoing:

Rare Blacksmith, Health 90,000, Requires Masonry: Structures 23, Woodcraft Carpentry 23 (Bonus 5% chance to upgrade smelted ore quality, +4 to Forging skills, +25% to forged item durability)

Uncommon stone brewery warehouse, 75,000 health, requires masonry 23, masonry structures 23 and woodcraft 23, (bonus +11 to brewery skill)

Rare City Hall, Health 80,000, Requires Masonry Foundations 23, Masonry Structures 43 (Bonus +12% to City Population Morale, +2% Tax Revenue)

Rare Guard House Plans, Health 120,000 Requires Masonry 43, Woodcraft Structures 23 (Bonus: Houses 12 City Guards, Spawn Rate of 1 Guard per day)

I also had notes to design some civilian housing structures, a wood craftsman shop, a dedicated bakery building, a new defensive tower emplacement to be placed at intervals in the town’s walls, and a small tavern downtown. The last was a request from Zion. He wanted someplace close to his barber salon so he could drink during the day. It was low on my priority list, but since he was over level 100, I wanted to keep him as happy as possible.

I thought we could finish the brewery in the morning. Then, I could spend my afternoon with Titan, trying to get to level 19. With any luck, I will get my masonry structures to level 43 tomorrow! Not likely, but possible! I needed to break out of this depression from losing Gwen. It was worse than the after-effects of the orc attack. Jaesmin took my hand and said it was time to go home.

We walked the streets, and I thought we should add some street lighting. I told Jaesmin to look into it with Sanso. He could make some fancy stone light posts, and there had to be some magic spell or enchantment to light them at night. Jaesmin said I should decide who should replace Gwen as the Master of Guilds. I stopped walking and looked at her. She explained how important the position was in town…Gwen had made it an important position. She was the glue that brought everyone together and worked toward a common objective.

I felt a little taken aback, but her statement…isn’t that what I was doing? Seeing me upset, she calmed me. “Tallis, you are the one who provides what Malcum needs…but you are mostly absent from running the day-to-day operations. Gwen managed and met with all the important people in town every day. You should probably select one of the guild masters for the position.” I opened the tab and looked at it. Gwen’s name was shown in red. The pain hit me again.

I gathered myself. So, which of the guild masters should I promote? I studied the town list for a few minutes and then smirked evilly. I moved a name into the position of Master of Guilds and kept walking. Jaesmin paused as I walked and then sounded flustered as she screamed at me. “Tallis! I’m too young and inexperienced to be the Master of Guilds!”