Chapter 39 - He Returns

When Max came back to Joshua’s camp with fifty obsidian dwarves in tow and a talking gun, it was appropriate to say the little community was surprised.

“Max!” Marie exclaimed as she saw Max approach. “What is all this?”

“This is good news,” Max said, smiling at her. “It’s good to see you.”

“The dwarves are good news,” Maverick said. “But I am the great news.”

“Who said that?” Marie asked, looking around.

“It is I, The Maverick!”

Marie gaped at the weapon. “Your gun talks.”

“My human talks too,” Maverick said. “Pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“L-likewise?” Marie said, still looking at the gun on Max’s holster quizzically.

“You’ll get used to it,” Max said wearily. “Well… you might…”

“It’s good to see you too, Max,” Marie said. “I hate to say, but I am surprised every time you come back. It is dangerous out there.”

Max gave her a dry laugh. Then he looked her up and down. And at the camp. There were definitely more people here. The camp had spread out in every direction, and Max could no longer see every distinct face. But he got the general picture.

Everyone was ragged. Everyone was clearly tired and depressed. A few people were on the ground wincing in pain as their bloody bandages were being swapped. Max thought it a positive they had bandages. They looked a lot like the fabric the jumpsuits were made of. That would mean…

“What happened here?”

Marie sighed. “We have been fighting off attacks. The monsters are becoming stronger and more aggressive. They’ve attacked the camp twice. We’ve managed to fend them off, but a lot of people got hurt and worse…”

“I’ll cull them,” Max promised. “Or drive them off if they come again soon. I plan on staying a bit longer this time.”

Marie brightened at that. “That would be great for the camp. But Max what is this retinue?”

Max looked behind him. In a disciplined formation stood fifty dwarves. At their head was one of the lesser aides of High-King Durum, a young dwarf named Vurukoggonomonnar. He was keeping his head slightly bowed, the magic amulet for communication hanging from his neck.

“These are the obsidian dwarves of High-King Durum. He is a friend I made. He promised to help us build some shelter.”

Marie peered behind the dwarves. Max knew there she would see carts upon carts lined up with bricks cut from hefty black stone. Max had been told that some of the dwarf [Artisans] would have a skill with which to produce lava that could be placed with great precision. It would be used to line the bricks.

Marie turned back to Max. She looked at him like she couldn’t process what he had just said. But it eventually came to her. “They’ll build us what?!”

*

The dwarves were preparing the ground of the campsite for building when Joshua came. When Max had gone to meet up Sid, the boy had promptly fed him and disclosed that Joshua had been out on a hunting trip to learn how it was done and what went into it. Max appreciated his brand of leading from the front.

“Max!” Joshua exclaimed. He was as tired as the rest of the ragtag camp. “What on earth is going on here?”

“I’m not sure that expression works anymore,” Max said, smiling smugly. “I managed to bring something very nice home this time.”

“I can see you sure brought something,” Joshua said, looking around. “What is going on, who are these people?”

“They’re subjects of my friend, a dwarven king,” Max said, trying his best to contain the overwhelming smugness. “They brought us useful items and they’ll build us shelter.”

“Items…? Shelt— What? Max that’s amazing!”

“I think so too, Max said and grinned. The dwarves were almost ready with the preparation work. Most of them were sitting around and waiting for Max to give them the sign to start. But he needed some business done with Joshua before that.

Joshua knew what was up. He turned to Max, also smiling excitedly. “This is exactly what we needed. It hasn’t been easy around here. This quest will give us both so much experience!”

They brainstormed some variations of what would be the appropriate wording for the quest, so that it would include both the tools Max had brought and the houses. Eventually they decided it was as good as it would get. The Framework seemed to be very smart in understand what was happening, nuances and all.

“Max,” Joshua said. “Acquire shelter and tools for the camp.”

[Quest Accepted]

Bring the camp shelter and tools

[Quest complete]

Reward: 20000 experience points

Level up! [Level 16 Graviturgist]

You have gained + 1 Constitution, + 2 Intelligence, + 2 Wisdom, + 2 free attribute points

Level up! [Level 17 Graviturgist]

You have gained + 1 Constitution, + 2 Intelligence, + 2 Wisdom, + 2 free attribute points

“Holy shit,” both Joshua and Max said in unison. Then they looked at each other, as if to make sure that had just really happened.

They laughed in disbelief. The dwarves and people around looked at them curiously.

Max clapped Joshua on the shoulder.

“Come. I’ll introduce you to Vuruk. You can decide where you want to place these shelters.”

It was a busy afternoon of arranging the layout of the camp. There was enough material for ten stout little black bunkers of obsidian stone according to Vuruk. The [Artisans] who could create and manipulate lava even made a smooth floor to each of the buildings.

Each could house eight to ten people in total, depending on how uncomfortable you wanted to be. That was almost enough for everyone in the camp, but Max suspected there would be fights over sleeping places.

They could have tried doing something creative with the piles of black bricks the dwarves had brought, but Max, Joshua and Vurum all agreed that it was better to build something that the dwarves knew to do well.

Joshua ran around the camp talking to people about how to best use the new buildings and how to use the space between them, as there were already nice sturdy two walls to build on. They could put logs and vegetation on the roofs and create little canopies between the buildings. That would mean everyone would get something of a shelter from the weather on bad days. Fortunately most days didn’t seem to be particularly rainy or windy, but when it happened, it was sure to suck.

The dwarves worked fast and many of the [Artisans] and [Laborers] of the camp helped. Sid and a couple of other cooks had prepared the meat that Joshua’s hunting group had brought back. A great feat was attempted and succeeded in that kept all the workers fed.

Shelters hadn’t indeed been Max’s only trick. He had also requested High-King Durum to provide Max’s people with simple tools and containers, including a big cooking pot. Durum had laughed and told Max that he would have given Max his weight thirty times in gold if he had asked, and all Max wanted was cups and spoons.

“Throw gold at a drowning man, and ask him how valuable it is,” Max had said. “If I ever barter you for gold, Durum, know that I am either mad or a king myself.”

Max couldn’t exactly tell which evoked more joy, the shelter or the tools Max had brought, but the depressed mood of the camp was far gone, by the time night fell and the stout little houses were done.

People were laughing and having animated conversations. Some of the kids and teenagers were even dancing in turns as the others clapped. The stew was a delicious enough a treat for Max, who had had the displeasure of dwarven cuisine for the last days, but to Joshua’s camp used to half-cooked meat and raw berries? The hot stew was an absolute feast.

Sid and the other cooks received almost as much praise as Max did. Max grinned when he saw the flustered teenager receive a kiss on the cheek from some girl his age after she’d received a second serving.

“So these are your minions?” Maverick asked Max when the commotion had finally slowed down. The dwarves had left back to their homes, with a promise from Max that he would return to Durum soon. Now Max was sitting on a log in front of a fire, as he always liked to do. Joshua, Marie, Elena, Sid, Bill, Lily, Martin, and many others were gathered around.

Joshua laughed next to him and Max flushed and groused.

“Stop calling them that,” Max snapped. “They’re my friends.”

“So they can be my minions, then?” Maverick asked, clearly considering the possibilities.

“What do you need minions for?” Max asked exasperated. “You’re a gun. You don’t have any needs.”

“I am a person!” Maverick said in indignation. “I have all the needs of a normal person. Need for expression. Need for conversation and company, need for continuous adulation…”

Max groaned.

Joshua leaned in closer. “If you’re a person, what is it that you want, Maverick?”

Maverick hummed thoughtfully as he considered the question. “Well I need to take care of Max. That lost little lamb couldn’t find his way out of a wet paper bag without me.”

“How do you even know what a paper bag is?” Max asked.

“I can sense your thoughts,” Maverick explained. “And your dreams. Boy, you guys would be surprised by—”

“Okay, next topic!” Max interjected.

Maverick huffed. “I’d also want to not get interrupted when I speak, but I guess we can’t have it all, can we?”

There was laughter around and Max could sense Maverick was pleased.

“Shouldn’t we go over the items I’ve received,” Max asked Joshua. “What about the attacks? I could check the perimeter.”

Max was almost about to get up, but Joshua placed a hand on his shoulder. “Let’s worry about that tomorrow. Have another bowl of stew.”

“I’ll grab one for you bro,” Sid said and got up.

“Fine,” Max said. “Thanks, Sid.”

Joshua squeezed him on the shoulder before letting go. “You’re going to stay a bit longer anyway now, aren’t you?”

“I am,” Max said. “I might as well Cultivate here, and I need to make sure I have a home to return to when I come back from my next adventure.”

“Home,” Joshua mused. “I like that. I suppose the camp is starting to look like home.”

“I can’t believe we have houses now!” Elena said excitedly. “Max, you keep outdoing yourself.”

“They’re barely houses, but I thought they’d help…”

“Barely houses?” Marie scoffed. “We had barely two sticks together as a shelter before. Next thing we know you will bring us a bathtub and blankets.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Bill said. “Max is a hell of a lad. Too bad he’s got that yammering gun now, though.”

“I’ll yammer you to the ground!” Maverick. “Max let me have a go at this guy. He’s fat, he’ll move slow. We can take him on easily.”

Max ignored Maverick. “What did you guys do with the planks, Bill?”

“After a bunch of arguing,” Bill cast a glance at Martin. “We decided to make tables for Sid. The boy needs a bunch of space to prepare food for this whole lot, and it’s better if there aint too many chunks of dirt in the meat.”

“Good choice,” Max said. “I got another material box. We’ll see what—”

“Tomorrow!” Joshua and Elena said in unison. Max relented and let out something between a sigh and a laugh. Sid came back with a bowl of still warm stew for Max. It tasted like a place he belonged to.