Town Builder

Chapter 38: Bob the Builder

I never went to sleep during the night. I drafted a copy of my Rare Giantkin Townhouse and Rare Apartment Building. The addition of these two apartment buildings would give me seven residences to add to the town. I left before sunrise to go and plan out where to put them.

I was not happy when I walked downtown. People who had migrated had started building their own houses within the city limit. I talked to two gnomes putting up more of a shack than a building. The building would reduce Malcum’s rating. They were a very nice married couple, even if I couldn’t tell their gender. From my conversation with the gnomes, I learned seven new couples were in the town. Most had settled outside the earthen walls, but this couple were candle makers and wanted to live and work within the city limits.

I really needed that city planner to handle things like this. I told them they were on the shortlist for new housing, and as for a shop to ply their craft, they would be able to rent one from the city soon. Sanso found me while talking with the gnomes and approached when I had finished.

“I see you have met the Waxers. Yes, that is their surname. They had asked me last night where they could build their home in the city, and I couldn’t find you. They are a nice couple, if a bit odd. So, Lord Tallis, what is today’s focus? I was at the site for the new lumber mill and workshop, and you were not there, so I came here looking for you.” Sanso finished and pulled out a cinnamon roll—the aroma was definitely a product of Fareth.

“Yeah, Sanso, I am trying to ensure all the new arrivals will have a place to live and work. I came to mark off some locations for new homes. I considered putting them around the central park I marked off earlier. But the gnomes beat me to it. Here are the new plans.” I handed him the three plans and he got some sticky frosting on them as he looked them over.

These shouldn’t be too difficult. If Jaesmin helps, we could probably get them all done today.…” He looked at my face. Yeah, Jaesmin was busy in her capacity as Master of Guilds. “Maybe a day and a half for both of us then.”

“Since I just learned the new arrivals immigrating to the city need places to sleep and work, I was thinking about building a row of ten apartment buildings. I could charge people rent and start generating funds from our work.” I asked more of a question waiting for feedback.

“If you want to keep control over the buildings going up within the city you need to appoint a Master of City Planning. Don’t you dare!” Sanso warned with mock anger. He obviously thought I would do the same thing to him that I had done to Jaesmin and appoint him without asking. He was already the city’s High Wizard of Defense.

I sighed. “A few more days Sanso. I just need to hold it together for a few more days.” With Sanso’s help, we summoned stone and marked out a row of apartment buildings along one side of the park. Seventeen would fit in the space.

We then went to the general store and got something to drink. This street had a few businesses on it. The general store, baker, barber shop, and alchemy shop. Maybe I could line this street with multipurpose buildings? Similar to what I did with the alchemy shop but much smaller scale and simpler. The first floor was a shop and crafting area. The second floor was a residence. Just another thing I needed to draft. We spent a little while marking off twelve of these future shops before returning to the Brownstone-style three-family houses along the park. We finished all the stonework on two foundations and completely finished the stonework on one of them before Sanso said it was time for dinner and clapped me on the back. Sanso was becoming a friend and an invaluable asset for building Malcum. It had been a productive day.

We went to the inn and found Mad Dog and his crew there. He saluted me with a beer in hand, “Dropped off your furnishings this morning. Jaesmin is excited, and Black Beauty is helping arrange it all in the offices. We are still waiting for her to get here to go to the forest, but it looks like we may just eat and drink away the evening.” Grinder toasted to that comment.

“That is great! We are working to build housing in the downtown area. We are going to be adding at least a half dozen shops as well to Market Street. Should attract more immigrating NPCs.” I said as I was served a whole roasted chicken.

“Oh, that’s right, I have some info for you regarding your portal stone. Although players need to physically touch a stone to add it to their network NPCs don’t need to. I was confused about how your NPCs were getting here via the portal stone from the auction, so I investigated.” Mad Dog said. I was glad I had someone to help figure these things out.

“It hadn’t occurred to me. Does that mean it is easy for NPCs to invade cities?” I asked as I tore into the chicken. One thigh was already missing, and Grinder was cleaning the juicy meat off the bone.

“The other item you may be interested in is how you are making such unique and frankly awesome building plans,” Mad Dog said as he munched away at some thick chips.

I waited a few minutes before throwing up my hands, “And?”

He smiled and spoke, “You are not using the autopilot for the skill system.” He waited for me to figure something out. Autopilot…yes, there was that option. I used it when I had to carve small wooden Simba statues.

He gave up on me waiting to figure it out, and explained. “You are doing all the work and not utilizing the system to help you along! We found an old post from an enchanter. He was trying to figure out the mechanics for actually enchanting items within the game. He found a rarity discrepancy from when he was on autopilot and when he did all the work himself.”

Wow, I considered the implications. So, I could have just done all the plans on autopilot and saved myself a lot of thinking. But half the fun of drafting was doing the work myself. The results also spoke for themselves. Mad Dog added, “Also, you chose a shitty profession to get experience from. Crafting only gives 25 experience points for every item crafted. The programmers said they were going to correct it based on the item’s difficulty level, but it seems really low on their priority list. There is an alchemist in one of the cities that is getting over 1000 experience points a day crafting the cheapest and simplest potions. Just some food for thought Tallis,” as he shoved my other chicken leg into his mouth, savoring my dinner.

After deliberating a bit, I asked Mad Dog, “When can you clear the forest of the Darkskull goblins?”

Grinder answered, “Three or four days, we think. They have buildings similar to your guard shack that spawn replacements for their ranks. Once we eliminate those structures in their village, we think you should be ok. Also, Tallis is there any way in your town interface that you can set up trainers for improving or learning new skills?”

That was an excellent question, and I reclined back in my chair to view my interface tabs for town management. They took it as an opportunity to split the remainder of my chicken dinner between them. I couldn’t blame them. Fareth’s food was much better than anything my mind could recall in the real world.

I found the tab. It was grouped in with NPC quest giving. All I needed to do was switch over the NPC to a trainer. As long as they had a master skill or higher, the trainer designation worked. I did it for all the NPCs who I currently paid to work in Malcum. Unfortunately, I couldn’t set their rates, but I could set the taxes I would receive from their efforts. I set this to 20%.

“I think it is done, Grinder. You will need to talk to an NPC that has the skill you want to be sure I did it currently,” I finished as Jaesmin and Black Beauty came in, having a lively conversation. I caught a word that chilled me a bit—baby.

They sat with us, all smiles as they ordered. It was the happiest I had seen the sun elf. As we waited for the food, she said, “Jaesmin said you are going to be a father?” Mad Dog and Grinder’s eyes turned to focus on me. They were focused intently on my reply.

“Yes. I am a test case for the game. As far as I know, I am the only one.” Eyebrows went up at that.

“That is not something on the forums. Can we post that information….it should be worth a lot and probably would make waves with all the ethical bleeding hearts out there.” Mad Dog said.

“It is okay with me but just don’t mention me or where the child is,” I said. This group had earned my trust.

Black Beauty looked at Mad Dog with steely eyes, and he caved, “Yeah, maybe we won’t reveal anything about the in-game kid.” The food arrived, and Mad Dog and Grinder began pilfering more items from plates that were not their own. “Tallis, do you know why we are called The Silver Linings Playbook guild?”

“No, I don’t think you told me,” I said, sipping on some ale.

“Well, it is from a movie made from a pretty good book. If you ever watch it, just watch the original as the two remakes were terrible. The story follows a man who runs into some life trouble. His whole family falls apart. He needs psychiatric help, and his family helps put his life back together. That is how we all met before we started our guild.” Grinder slapped Mad Dog on his head. I got an alert that a player had attacked another player in town and had to cancel the guard’s response.

Grinder said, “We met in a support group for depression. Not in a psychiatric hospital. Mad Dog likes to lead people to think we all escaped from an asylum before telling the truth. Black Beauty and her sister lost their parents to a crash. I lost my two sons to a terrorist attack. Mad Dog lost his wife to cancer. Everyone in our guild lost someone close to them, which caused them to reconsider living. But we banded together, and now we all live together in the same block of houses in Australia. Mad Dog owns the units, but we live mostly rent-free.”

Mad Dog quipped, “Yeah, that assault on my person just doubled your rent, mate!” It was said in jest as everyone was smiling.

That was a lot of information to take in. “I think I trust you all more now that I know that. Is that why you are helping me?” They nodded. “I don’t know what to say.” A tear rolled down my cheek and I wiped it away, slightly confused from my emotive response in the game. Grinder excused himself as he was about to cry too. I was crying in a video game? I think the programmers needed to work on their priorities.

As we walked home later that night, Jaesmin said she thought Black Beauty and her were now friends. I nodded, and for the first time, I was starting to feel hopeful. It felt like I had some support in the real world. People who wouldn’t betray me, good people. Then I thought back….Simba….he had been the one who told me these players were coming. Did he know what type of people they were in the real world? Did he send them to me for this reason? Just what kind of AIs were running this game?

The next three days were a focus for Sanso and me to finish the housing and shops. We completed seven of the apartment buildings, the townhouse for the giantkin, and a dozen shops with housing above them. The lumber mill and woodcraft shop were also well on their way to completion. We would prioritize them once our new group of townsfolk arrived. In the evening, I ate with Mad Dog’s crew and Jaesmin. We talked and joked like old friends.

A lot of the discussion focused on their efforts across the river. They had been working hard and running into constant hurdles they needed to clear the Darkskull goblins. Now they only had to kill the goblin clan leader, but he was supported by six elite warriors and four shaman healers. They had tried twice but had to retreat because they couldn’t get to the healers. They also guarded a large structure that respawned the entire group in thirty minutes. Mad Dog assured me they would figure out a plan soon and allow me to build my logging camp.

The NPC auction was closing tonight in six hours, so I was excited. Mad Dog said they would stay logged on to help with the NPCs as they arrived just before sunset in the game. Persephone had started adding enchanted lamps on the streets in town, so Malcum was well-lit at night now which should make it easier to settle the new arrivals in. I had several townsfolk ready to help for the mini influx.

My task was to meet the dwarf city planner and do whatever I needed to get her to settle in Malcum. Jaesmin was going to focus on the fire giantkin who was going to take over her duties. She had worked with Galana to furnish the giantkin townhouse and the town hall to make it as comfortable as possible for him. Sanso was going to take the two builders. Manto, with some hesitation on my part, was responsible for the brewer.

The two human knights were the responsibility of Galana and Tanguin. The lumberjack and wood craftsman were the responsibility of Manarag and Curraen. The halfling farmer would be going with the other farmers in town. And the last NPC, the gnome Hospitaller, would be Mad Dog’s crew responsibility.

Time passed, and I checked the auction site for the hundredth time to see the countdown. I had a message. I had two unused auction slots. Did I somehow get more slots....my spine chilled as I opened the interface. The gloves were off, some one had bid on two of my NPCs!