Continuing with our work in the field, Rumble and I managed to clear a decent section of grassland just off of the path up to the shack. Chugging away, the work ended up going a lot faster than I had expected. We had mostly focused on chopping the grass down close to the dirt. While I did the chopping, Rumble kept a lookout for monsters while piling the stalks of grass up into several piles taller than he was.
Now standing over two feet tall, he was quite the little defender. With his root like appendages now as thick as my arm, he was starting to shape up as something formidable and terrifying for the local vine lashers. At this point his main attack consisted of charging them and using his momentum to grab them and forcibly yank on them. The momentum usually did one of two things, either rip them up and away from the ground or to yank them apart. Either way Rumble usually slammed what it was holding onto the ground or back onto the main portion of the monster. After having dealt with the threats, they were all then piled onto a separate loot stack to be sorted through by Mia during dinner.
As the morning came to an end and lunchtime arrived, I realized that I had never seen Rumble “eat” outside of his early morning sunbath.
“Rumble, do you ever need to drink water?” I asked curiously.
Upon the question being asked a box popped up informing me that Rumble’s datasheet had been updated. Opening the menu with an inward groan, I saw that Rumble did indeed have water requirements and that he was mostly full.
“How are you mostly full of water? I have never seen you get a drink of water from the well like I have.” I remarked.
Rumble popped up a laughing emoji while walking over to the monster pile. Upon reaching the pile he picked up one of the thicker vine lashers and ripped its main trunk open. As the wound opened it released a thick sap like ooze which Rumble sipped up with a few of his finer roots. The roots didn’t absorb it very quickly, but they did soak it up all the same.
“Isn’t that cannibalism?” I asked Rumble.
What I got in return was a red-faced steam eared emoji, obviously Rumble thought it was quite different.
Having had my question answered, I started up the path towards the shack while yelling back to my familiar. “I am going to get something to eat, do you want to join me for a break?”
Rumble replied with a quick side to side motion. Upon finishing his obvious negative response, he proceeded to go back to monster hunting the nearby grass. As one of the predators hunting the area, he was well on his way to the apex of the local pecking order.
Back at the shack I decided to grab Mia’s pot that she brought with her other starting supplies. Where I had a pan, she had gotten a pot. Not the best for a lot, but much better for boiling than my pan was. Trying to change up the menu I filled it with a few cups of water and placed it over the fire. Once I had a steady boil I threw in a few eggs.
After my lunch had finished cooking and cooling down, I sat just outside of the cleared portion of land looking over the morning’s progress. We had cleared a rough square that was about 20 feet per side. Not the biggest plot of land, but I doubted I would ever have to hand clear that much grass again. As my thoughts continued to ponder the remaining work, I saw and heard what appeared to be a large stick tossed up into the air and out into the road. One quickly turned to two, and then suddenly Rumble shot into the road carrying a third in his arms like a club. Glancing up to the right I saw his HP (hit points) were already at half and continuing to fall. Throwing my half eaten egg at the monsters in the road, I ran over to grab the machete and join Rumble in combat.
By the time that we had won the battle, Rumble was down to just a few leaves left and a pretty bare trunk that should’ve been covered with bark. As for myself, I had quite a few minor cuts and a fairly large one down my leg. We both ended the fight with less than 15% health left, with my unarmored frame having taken quite a bit of damage from relatively minor wounds. I was however greeted with a great message. My plant familiar skill had reached level 4! With it came a larger pool of hit points for myself and Rumble. He was also visibly larger, now standing at around 2 and a half feet tall and just as wide.
As we both remain sitting in the road, waiting to finish healing, we saw a horse drawn cart approaching us from the direction of Westbend. On the cart sat an old man and a young woman. The old man seemed to be healthy, but fairly thin and haggard. Next to him though sat a bright eyed Mia. It was obvious from her expression that good news was abound and that we were going to be doing well in the coming days.
Once the cart arrived where we were laying, Rumble and I had already recovered and were starting to dust off our clothes. With Mia and the old man looming over us from the carriage, I threw up a hand in greeting. With my gestured returned we were formally introduced by my business partner.
“This is “Old Sal”, he owns a large plot of land a few hours up the road that produces most of the wood used locally for construction. Mia said for the introduction. “Sal, this is Brad. He is the business partner that I told you about. And as you can see, he did just fine this morning with monsters and clearing the area to plant!”
“You were right, he did indeed handle himself in your absence.” Old Sal said. Upon seeing the confused look on my face he continued ; “This little lady and I met in town while we were both shopping for seeds. She had asked me for recommendations on what to buy as a new farmer and upon hearing her out I was quite worried that you were here by yourself during a monster swarm area quest. Obviously you have seen your share of monsters judging by that pile over there, but I can hardly believe such a new farmer is strong enough to fight them all off. I myself have to keep guard dogs around in order to protect my workers from harm.”
“Well, I am not alone. As you can see I have my familiar to protect me.” As realization hit me, I got worried that someone had seen Rumble and about the amount of questions heading my way.
With a quick glance at Mia, I saw her motioning for me to quit speaking and to drop the topic. Being confused I looked around and didn’t see Rumble next to me, only a sway in the grass just off the road.
Old Sal after having not seen anything cleared his throat and started speaking once more:”Ha, they do that quite often from what I hear. Whenever familiars first get to a new plot of land, they spend weeks establishing to the local fauna and wildlife that they are the top of the totem pole.”
“Oh, that makes a lot of sense actually. He has been obsessing about monster extermination. I’ve already hit level 4 from all of his fighting!” I said.
Mia with a surprised look exclaimed: “LEVEL 4!? Are your serious? I was so happy to have hit level 3 today. I literally spent hours researching the farming markets, asking around, and haggling for better deals!”
“Well, it looks like your friend here will help you catch up soon. Look over there Mia, you have plenty of monster drops to haggle with traders about. Y'all will do well with that loot and will have a respectable business in no time.” Old Sal said to calm her down.
With my curiosity piqued I asked: “So with all that talk about your time in town and how well you did, what did we get!? You’ve kept me waiting to long already!”
As Mia started to open her mouth Old Sal interjected: “Its been wonderful meeting you two, but I really must get along. I sadly don’t have time to dawdle much longer, but I promise to be back next week to pick you up if you need to go to town again. I usually pass by here an hour before dawn.”
“Oh! Of course, once again I am super thankful of how much help you gave me! I’m not sure if I can wake up that early, but I will try to be ready at that time!” Mia replied as she hurriedly tried to pass off a crate of supplies down for me to grab. Once I had firm control of the crate, she swung around, grabbed 2 small pouches, thanked Old Sal, and jumped down from the cart. “Thanks once again, I hope your ride home goes smoothly!” She added.
“Thanks, I’ll be sure to take it easy. I don’t want anything to charge out and catch us unaware.” The old man stated as he started his horses back on down the road.
Waving goodbye until he was a ways away, we eventually turned to look at each other once again. “What happened while you were in town”? “What happened while I was in town?” We both asked at the same time.
“Well I…” We both started.
After an awkward few moments of going back and forth we decided that I would go first since it was a pretty straightforward story. Having explained my story, Mia was impressed by all that had went on and the fact that an area quest started so soon.
“I heard about the quest from some farmers who got to town just after it had started. I was actually worried and tried to come back!” She insisted. “The guards wouldn’t let anyone below copper rank leave until it ended, unless they were escorted by someone iron or higher.”
“Well the quest is still on… so I guess you got Old Sal to be your escort?” I asked curiously.
“Yes, that is exactly what happened. He was helping me pick out some guides, tools, and seeds when the news broke. With a little bit of asking and a bit of pity on his part, he promised to bring me out here on the condition that we would barricade ourselves in the shack if things seemed to need it. I told him that you were more than able to clear out a few monsters and actually made a small bet with him. If you were barely surviving then I owed him breakfast next time he passed by, but if I won then he would let us have a few planks of wood before he sold the rest at market next week. I’m pretty sure he thought level 2 or 3 stone rankers would make for a safe bet.”
“He seemed pretty nice, and judging from that bet he is a pretty caring person. If he won, then he would’ve just increased my chances of survival by bringing you here for minimal reward. And if you had won, then that meant I was okay and he just gave away more money than we both have collectively.”
“I did not think about it that way. I think you are right on that point. We both better thank him when he passes by next week.”
With a laugh I shook my head no and said: “You think I’m waking up that early? I’ll catch up with him on his way back! So, stop stalling, what did you get?”
