Tower Story -- Chapter 16

Chapter 16

No one accosted Bax as he left the same way he’d come into the building, though he did get some strange looks from the few other guards that were still in the “station”, as the Elf had called it.  He had a feeling that they had gotten what they wanted out of him, so there was no other reason to detain him; to ensure that they didn’t have any other reasons past the one that he’d just been released from, he worked to get his punishment out of the way.

Emerging from the guard station, he found that he was in a part of the town that didn’t look familiar to him; then again, almost everything but the main street leading to the Adventurer’s Guild was unfamiliar, so that wasn’t really surprising.  Recalling his capture and estimating how far they’d gone and in what direction, he took a narrow alleyway to his left and rushed down it, quickly discovering that he’d made the right decision as he emerged back onto the main thoroughfare.  As much as he still wanted to stop and get some clothes, he decided to wait until he had more time; he estimated that he only had a few minutes to get out to the fields and find this “Paulina” woman for his assignment. 

It was difficult to hold back his speed as he dodged through the crowds making their way through the Adventurer shops and the temporary marketplace, but he thought he did a good job tamping it down to what would be considered “normal” for someone of his Level.  He briefly thought about looking for another gate to pass through to get to the fields, such as one that would let out directly into where he needed to go, but he didn’t know where they were and didn’t have time to search; he knew where the gate leading to the docks were, and he’d seen earlier that he could access the fields from there if he ran around the wall.

Which was exactly what he did.  As soon as he was clear of the gate, he ran down the river a bit, following the docks and then a large open space where jagged rocks were clustered underneath the wall, which he had to leap over with probably a little bit too much demonstration of his Dexterity.  He didn’t dare stop himself, however, as he’d already made this choice of route and wasn’t about to turn around.

Rounding the corner of the town’s wall, his path was much smoother and he was able to let out a little more speed as he shot toward the fields in the distance.  He felt that he was probably pushing the bounds of what was likely to be normal for a Level 2 Human, but if anyone asked, he figured he could simply say that he’d worked on improving all of his stats to 10 before he arrived. 

Not even out of breath, as it was a fairly easy—if slow—run, he slowed down as he arrived at the edge of the vast spread of flat fields, seeing what looked like wheat and something similar to corn growing in taller stalks.  Making his way around toward where he saw a gate in the wall – one that he probably should’ve used – he saw a Human woman with long, dark hair pulled back in a ponytail dressed in a white and tan top and pants, staring at the open gate and tapping her foot impatiently.  Behind her was a large group of mostly Humans, with a few Gnomes, Elves, and Natruri spread throughout the restless crowd. 

Assuming that this was where he was supposed to be, he ran up behind the woman, who was just turning around and angrily muttering, “I guess he’s not com—”

She screamed shortly in startlement as he suddenly appeared behind her, his steps fairly quiet for all that he was barefoot.  Taking a step back, she held her hand to her chest as if he’d given her a heart attack, and he could see her eyes widening as she reacted to his sudden appearance. 

An automatic use of his Identification ability revealed more than he expected.

Paulina

Level: 10

Highest Stat: Intellect

Weaknesses: Unknown

Danger Assessment: High

I know her name already?

It suddenly occurred to him what the registration he’d done with that Elven Guard had done.  A brief use of Identification on a half-dozen of the people waiting impatiently in the group behind Pauline showed that he now knew the names of every single person there.  Some of them had their Highest Stat and Weaknesses filled out, but he ignored everything but the fact that it appeared as though “registration” allowed him to know who everyone is. 

I guess that explains why I was picked up by the Guards earlier; being “unknown” full of a town of “known” people, I would’ve stood out.  I wonder how extensive this registration is?  Is for just this town and the people working out of it?  Region-wide?  World-wide?  He’d have to ask some questions later if he thought it wouldn’t put him at risk.

“Where— uh, where did you come from?  I didn’t see you pass through the Gate – and I was watching ever since I got the Task that said you were on the way to spend a shift in the fields.” 

He smiled at the woman, who seemed like she was in her 20s and was quite attractive to him – or it could’ve just been that he hadn’t seen any Human in over a year, but who really cared – and said, “I wasn’t sure where this gate was, so I traveled around from the docks to get here.”  He pointed at the gate he was referring to just ahead.

“You… didn’t know where the gate was?  Who are you?  No, don’t answer that.  We’re going to be late if we don’t get started right now.”  Seemingly recovered from her scare, she shouted to the assembled group of what Bax figured were fieldhands.  “We’re in 46, 47, and 48 this shift!  You know what to do!”

Despite some curious glances in his direction, especially from the other Humans – who all appeared to be a mixture of Scandinavian, Hispanic, African, and Asian descent from Earth, which was quite an exotic blend – the group took off at a steady run, heading down a pathway leading further into the fields, while in the distance down the same pathway he could see a second group of people heading back in their direction.  Even from a distance, they looked tired, but not extraordinarily so; they simply looked like they had completed a tough day at work, but still had enough energy to continue if they had to. 

“Have you worked the fields here before?” Paulina asked as she followed behind the others, though at a slower pace so she could talk to Bax.  He saw her frequently glancing over at him as he accompanied him, and he was made once again aware that he was still largely naked with just a loincloth covering his privates.  For some reason, it made him even more uncomfortable now that it was a Human looking at him; he didn’t think he was hard to look at, and his experiences in the Tower had tanned his formerly pale-ish body to the point where wasn’t too different in skin color from the other Humans, but he was still self-conscious about his state of undress.

“The fields here?  No, I have no experience working these fields, or any fields for that matter.  What do you need me to do?”

She tripped slightly over seemingly nothing when he said that.

“You have no experience preparing the fields, planting, weeding, or harvesting?  Where have you been that you were never exposed to it before this?”

Shrugging, as he really didn’t want to answer that question, he said, “Let’s just say it was a very small village that relied primarily on hunting to provide food.”

“That’s… unlikely, but I guess I’ll have to take your word for it.”  She took a deep breath, before stealing a look at him again.  “Alright, let me go over what it is that you’ll be doing….”

Bax listened to her describe the process of tilling the dirt, planting seeds, weeding out invasive plants, and then harvesting the finished produce.  In all, it seemed fairly simple and similar to what he’d seen on TV and movies back on Earth, though without all of the modern equipment and technology that he was used to.  He supposed that, with everyone having Levels and being much stronger, faster, and have more stamina than the average Human back on Earth, they didn’t necessarily need that technology to perform the same tasks at the same speed – they just needed people in general. 

“…and if you didn’t know before now, the reason we have so many fields here at Lodgepoint is because the area on this side of the river has historically proven to be less dangerous than many other regions in the Arvolian Protectorate.  With weaker monsters—and fewer of them—nearby, we are able to divert a portion of the Deepspring River to irrigate these fields and then export the majority of our produce all throughout the Protectorate.  It’s an extremely important duty that we take very seriously, so I want to make sure that – even if you are here as a punishment – you take it seriously, as well.  Can you do that for me?”

He nodded, understanding a little more about the current conditions in the town, the role that many of the Humans played, and the reality that something as simple as farming could be dangerous, as well.  None of this was covered in the Co-op Archives, and he found that he enjoyed learning about something new.  “Yes, I’m more than willing to put in the work and do whatever you need for me while I’m here,” he said sincerely.  It wasn’t like he expected it to be hard work, given his stats, though it certainly might be boring.  Regardless of that, though, he was intent on getting this shift done so he could move on to more important matters.

The fields, being on relatively flat land which made seeing all of it a bit difficult from where he’d first laid eyes on it, extended even further than he expected.  He was reminded of the massive cornfields he’d driven through at one point in Nebraska as he passed through the state, with row upon row of unending cornstalks as far as the eye could see.  While there wasn’t quite that many fields as there were in Nebraska, it still took them 30 minutes at a light jog to reach their destination.

“Due to your low Level and lack of experience, I’m going to have you pulling out the intrusive weeds that always seem to spring up exactly where we don’t want them, as that is both the easiest and simplest of jobs.  Do you have fairly good eyesight?  What about your Intellect?  You’ll need both to be able to pick out and determine which are weeds and which are the plants we want to stay.”

Bax nearly corrected her assumption that he wasn’t strong or fast enough to do some of the other jobs, but he bit his tongue at the last second.  “Uh, yes, I should be fine on both accounts.  Just show me what to look for, and I should be good to go.”

It didn’t take Paulina long to point out the invasive weeds to him on a field that only had sprouting wheat-like stalks coming up from the rich, loamy dirt underneath his feet.  Unlike the weeds he was expecting, such as dandelions or crabgrass, these plants were alive – or at least they moved very, very slowly – and looked like small bushes of entangles vines.  These weeds would literally stretch out their little vines and rip out the plants that were supposed to be there, consuming the plant matter like a meal, before growing and moving on to consume even more.

What was interesting, however, was that it seemed like there was a fuzziness around these weeds, as if they were attempting to hide from his vision.  Their Phantom Vine name made more sense as he figured that the organism was somehow creating a magical camouflaging effect that made most people ignore it – unless they had a decent perception and Intellect stat. 

This was made even more obvious as Paulina demonstrated what it took to find and destroy these invasive weeds.  Bent over until her face was only a few feet above the surface of the field, she slowly made her way through the field, deliberately taking her time as she observed every inch of what was in front of her.  Stopping over one of these Phantom Vines, she called him over and pointed at it.  “See the blurriness here?  And then how it seems to change to look like on of the good sprouts nearby?  This is what you need to look for, as that is a Phantom Vine.  Now, all you have to do is reach down and firmly grasp it, before pulling it out,” she continued, demonstrating how her hands wrapped around the Vine, easily popping it out from the dirt. 

The Phantom Vine didn’t have long roots, so it wasn’t secured in the dirt very well, meaning that it came out with only a simple tug at the invasive plant.  “Once it’s out, as you can see, it loses its ability to hide.” Bax couldn’t really see the difference, but he took her word for it.  Looking out at the field, he realized that he could see at least another 50 of these Phantom Vines from where he was standing; his perception and Intellect were so far above what was necessary to notice these weeds that they all looked relatively “normal” to him.  “Store it in your internal inventory space—if you have room—until later, where you can empty them into our shredder; Phantom Vines are actually great to use as fertilizer, better than anything else we can produce, but it has the side effect of producing more.  It’s an ongoing cycle to get rid of them, use them for fertilizer, and then pull more, but it allows us to keep each field fertile enough to plant another crop directly after harvesting the last.

“Any questions?”

Bax thought about what was being asked of him.  “When I finish this field, should I move on to the next?”

Paulina chuckled at his question.  “Sure, if you finish—which is unlikely, as it takes so long to search through the entire field—then you can help out somewhere else.  But don’t rush through it all and miss even one; even a single one that is missed can wreak havoc on our crop.”

“I’ll make sure to get them all, then,” he said confidently.

“I’ll leave you to it, then, and I’ll check up on you later.”  As she turned to leave, she stopped and looked at him again.  “I have one question for you, however.”

Bax tensed slightly, unsure what she was about to ask.  “Sure, go ahead.”

“Why aren’t you wearing any clothes?”

Chuckling self-consciously and stopping himself from covering parts of his body with his hands, he told her, “Oh, they got destroyed on my way here and I was picked up before I could buy any more.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to pick up something after this shift out here.”

“That’s… strange,” she skeptically replied, before shaking her head.  “Anyway, good hunting; I’ll be back to check on you later.”  With a last look at him, Paulina jogged away to join a large group of other field workers, who appeared to be harvesting some of the corn-like crop he’d seen in some of the other fields. 

With her leaving, Bax got to work.  It didn’t take him long to reach the first Phantom Vine, and he plucked it from where it was very slowly reaching toward one of the good plants.  Looking at it closely, it still resembled a ball of very slowly moving vines, so he shrugged and stuck it into his internal inventory space.  With a sigh, he moved on to the next and did the same thing, barely hesitating as he moved on to the next, and then then next.  He didn’t move extraordinarily fast so as not to call attention to himself, but he also wasn’t going to go extremely slow and pretend that he actually had to search for these invasive weeds, especially when he could see them easily enough even at a distance.

The hours ticked by steadily as he continually bent over and picked up Phantom Vines, easily finishing the first field that he’d been assigned to weed, before making his way over to one nearby that appeared in need of help of weeding as well.  The monotony of his actions was boring, as he expected, but rather than being tired from working outside in the sun all day, he felt exhilarated for some reason.  Whether it was the simple manual labor being different from his usual day of research or killing monsters, or knowing that he was actually contributing to the well-being of the people of this world already – if in a completely different way than he expected – Bax was somewhat enjoying himself.

“What are you doing over here?!  I told you to go through that field!” he heard Paulina yell angrily at him, her approach noted but not really registering to his monotonous and repetitious weed-pulling.

“Already finished it.  You can check it yourself, but there are no more of these Phantom Vines,” he said as he picked up yet another weed and showed it toward her to emphasize his point, “over there.  So, I started over here.”

“But that is impossible—”

Bax shrugged, cutting her tirade off.  “Not if I can see them even from more than a few feet away.  I told you, I have more than enough perception and Intellect to be fine pulling these things up.”

“No one can see these from more than 5 or perhaps 6 feet away, so you must be mistaken—”

“There’s one approximately 2 feet from your left foot, and then if you take 5 steps directly forward, there will be another one at your feet.”  Each of these Phantom Vines were approximately 40 feet away from him, which according to her was impossible to see; she scoffed, before looking down and seeing the one he’d pointed out first.  With tentative steps, she also did what he told her about stepping forward, finding another Vine approximately where he’d said it would be.

“How— How did you do that?  Did you memorize the position of these before I arrived?” she asked, obviously confused at his ability to see the Vines so clearly.

“No, I didn’t memorize them – what would be the point.  I told you, I can see—”

A loud explosion and then a series of distant shouts coming from the forest that edged the fields reverberated loud enough to reach his ears, and he snapped his head up just as he saw a large, quadrupedal shape about a mile away and one field over emerge from out of the trees.  The cat-like beast was at least 10 feet tall at the shoulder, and its brownish coloring seemed to blend in with the tree trunks behind it, as well as the dirt underneath its paws.

Soiled Pantherin

Level: 28

Highest Stat: Dexterity

Weaknesses: Blunt Weapons

Danger Assessment: Very High

Bax was frozen in shock at the Soiled Pantherin’s appearance, as he hadn’t really been expecting it – nor did the poor guy at the edge of the field, who stood in clear panic as the monster leaped at him.  The Pantherin’s jaws closed over the Level 7’s upper body and torso, crushing through flesh and bone like the Human it had caught was nothing but a snack.  Leaving the man’s lower body still standing where it had been detached, at least until it toppled over a second later, the monster suddenly bounded back into the trees where he heard even more shouting, which seemed to free up his legs. 

Running away from the field, but still cognizant of needing to hide his real speed, he shot off into the trees while ignoring the shout coming from Paulina for him to stop.  He hadn’t been ready to stop the other man from getting killed, but he would be damned if he let the Pantherin kill anyone else.