《Beginner Reforger》 Chapter 1 - The Village James slowly walked into the border village with 3 other individuals at his back. He took large steps for his size, which wasn¡¯t saying much due to his 4 foot height. It made his ability to look imposing slip away, just like his goal to reach 5 feet in height. He didn¡¯t try to compensate. No, he merely had his 3 companions at his back for protection. The village they entered was small. Only a dozen buildings differentiated the village from the desert region surrounding them on all sides. The heated sand and the beating sun constantly reminded James that he was far away from his homeland filled with forests and water. As the group came closer to the center, they found no-one in sight. ¡°Maybe the city is abandoned,¡± James thought. Eventually they came to an inn. As they entered, they were surprised to find what appeared to be the entire village sitting and having a discussion. ¡°We are sure they are coming this direction?¡± ¡°Yes, there can be no doubt.¡± ¡°What are we going to do?¡± James kept listening, and as he began to understand what they were discussing, he brightened. ¡°Excuse me,¡± he forced himself to say. Everyone looked up and began staring ¡°It, uh¡­¡± he coughed. ¡°Seems to me that what you folks need is¡­ a hero¡­¡± ¡°Dammit, I meant a mercenary. A Mercenary! I¡¯m a mercenary, yes I am, and I can help!¡± he rapidly exhaled. There was a moment of silence. Then everybody started talking at once. After a few seconds, a middle aged man took charge and calmed everyone down. ¡°Thank you for the offer, but aren¡¯t you a little young to be a mercenary?¡± The man said. He had a point. In addition to his small size, James'' features were that of a child. A 12 year old child. ¡°Dammit, I¡¯m old enough to be a mercenary!¡± he exclaimed. There was no way he was using expletives to demonstrate he wasn¡¯t a child. ¡°Well,¡± the man said, ¡°Here¡¯s the problem.¡± The villagers began to explain they were on the cusp of an invasion by slimes. Normally slimes wouldn¡¯t pose much of a problem to even non-combatants. Unfortunately that was when the two sides were within a magnitude of the same size. This time, however, it appeared the villagers were outnumbered 1000 to 1. ¡°That¡¯s a problem.¡± James stated the obvious. ¡°How much can you pay?¡± James stated the next obvious problem. The middle aged man who introduced himself as Mace said, ¡°I don¡¯t want to be offensive, but what can 4 people do against so many slimes?¡± ¡°Well, you know that combatants can handle nearly 25 to 1 odds against slimes,¡± James began. ¡°So we can handle an extra 100 slimes,¡± Mace deadpanned, not looking convinced. ¡°And if we are sufficiently supported that can rise to 100 to 1,¡± James continued. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. The villagers perked up at this comment. ¡°And if we can slow the flow of slimes so that we approach them in groups of 400, we can safely dispose of the groups 1 at a time until we finish them all,¡± James finished. The villagers let the moment stand as they considered what he was saying. ¡°How can we prevent them from completely charging and overwhelming us?¡± Mace said after a while. ¡°Unless I¡¯m mistaken, you have many Sand Dunes around the city that could be fortified to restrict how many slimes could enter at any point.¡± James responded. ¡°How long till they will be here?¡± James needed to know how long he had to prepare. ¡°A week¡± Mace responded. They took a second to consider James¡¯ idea, while James considered if a week was enough time. ¡°A bottleneck would only work until they decided to go around, and we don¡¯t have enough time to fortify the entire village.¡± ¡°We don¡¯t have to,¡± James grinned. ¡°We only have to ensure that they won¡¯t look anywhere else. Have you ever heard of a Potemkin Village? Dammit I meant George¡¯s village, I don¡¯t know where that came from.¡± Mace nodded his head slowly. ¡°Instead of us creating fake buildings, we will create a fake wall. We then just have to fortify the chokepoint, then capture the slimes attention and make sure they don¡¯t see that the rest of the walls are fake.¡± ¡°That George was a wiley one,¡± Mace whispered, remembering the feats of the man. ¡°But how can we make sure the slimes only enter where we want them to?¡± Mace asked. James looked at one of his men. ¡°What¡¯s your taunt skill at?¡± James asked the man ¡°25, I raised it after the catastrophe of our last mission,¡± The man said with a heavily accented voice. The group was stunned with the number. James looked at the group. ¡°Now that we have the beginning of a plan, how much can you pay us?¡± James asked. ¡°Welllll,¡± Mace drew the word out way past its expiration. With such a strong answer James began to think. Although money didn¡¯t seem to be on the table, his band of mercenaries were looking for work. Although they were ready for a fight, they needed supplies and support. ¡°What can you offer?¡± James asked. ¡°I can cook!¡± A Woman shouted. ¡°I can mend!¡± A man shouted. ¡°I¡¯m a carpenter!¡± Quickly it became apparent that there was a wide breadth of skills available here, but that the city was down on its luck so much that instead of a thriving economy, they all subsisted on bartering. James begged his leave and began talking to his team once they left. ¡°Well, it¡¯s not much, but it could get us prepared for the next contract,¡± James stated. ¡°Mark, what do you think?¡± A tall and reedy man, Mark had the look of a bookworm more than a Mercenary. ¡°I heard one of them say they were a blacksmith. We could get our weapons repaired. We might also restock on arrows. The main problem is how do we handle the slimes? There must be over 20,000 if their estimates are right.¡± This gave everyone a pause. James looked at the lone female of the group. She was hardened in every way, but had a confident air around herself that turned the hardness into competence. ¡°Dara, do any of the villagers show potential?¡± Dara took on a pensive look. ¡°I would say a few could help out, but their helplessness would leave them vulnerable¡± James finally directed his attention to the last man. His unkempt hair and beard was disheveled as the others were tidy and neat. It was in stark contrast to his bulging muscles that spoke of extreme care and order. He looked as much the mercenary as James didn¡¯t ¡°Jusuf, you think you can handle long odds and protect the villagers?¡± ¡°A few trifling slimes mean nothing to my strong body,¡± The man slurred with a heavily accented manner of speaking. The man began flexing. As everyone rolled their eyes, James began to lay out a plan. ¡°I know this might be hard, but I think we could use even bartered resources. I also think we might have a chance If we use our heads. We can design the entrance to the village so the slimes can only enter in small groups. While we finish them off, the villagers can weaken the next group so we can maintain the pace. We can train some of the villagers to take over when we need a break.¡± They all looked dubious. ¡°20,000 slimes is a lot,¡± Mark said. ¡°That''s only 50 groups of 400,¡± James responded. That changed absolutely no-one''s expression. Eventually James had to pull rank. ¡°This is what we¡¯re doing.¡± He could tell his explanation had worked because they only mumbled a little as he took the group back into the inn. He looked at the group of villagers and stated strongly, ¡°We¡¯ll take the job.¡± Chapter 2 - Preparation

I

¡°On one condition.¡± James continued. This wiped the smiles off of the town folks'' faces. ¡°You all have to help us prepare and then fight the slimes.¡± The townsfolk stared at him. This quickly turned into talking, then shouting. ¡°Oh and help fit us out for the future.¡± He added to the general cacophony. No one heard him. Once Mace had calmed the group down, he looked at James. ¡°We can¡¯t possibly fight, we are all non-combatants.¡± ¡°Not if you rank up your skills¡± ¡°We wouldn¡¯t know how to do that!¡± Mace exclaimed. ¡°That¡¯s what you have us for¡± James plastered on his biggest grin.

II

It took the rest of the evening but the details eventually got ironed out. The villagers agreed to help with the preparations and to learn the basic fighting skills. In return the Mercenaries would be the front line defense and prevent any slimes from getting past. To ensure the villagers could contribute, they would need a lot of bows and arrows, and some emergency weapons to support the Mercenaries if they got tired. James assigned Mark to work with the carpenter, Dara to arrow production, and Jusuf to manage the fortifications. James, with Earl at his side, began talking with the carpenter to see if he could somehow manipulate his skill with wood to make arrow shafts. The carpenter, Tom, had an adolescent child who listened in on their conversation. ¡°Dad, why can¡¯t you work the wood like you do for everything else?¡± The young boy named Will asked. ¡°Will, it¡¯s because the skills for arrows are under the weaponsmith class. I won¡¯t be able to use all of the bonuses of my carpentry skills which will drastically reduce my speed and skill.¡± ¡°How much of a difference would that make?¡± Will inquired. ¡°Well, for each level of carpentry it increases my base speed for a task by 1 unit, and my skill level average by 1 unit. For a wood rod similar to an arrow shaft would take 60 units. When I first started carpentry I was able to perform 1 unit a minute. This means a shaft would take an hour to make. With my current level of 9, I¡¯m able to perform 10 units of work per minute, thus being able to make a rod in 6 minutes. This would allow us to work 10 times faster than if I couldn¡¯t use it. I could also train you up to get close to level 5, which could increase the output to 15 base if we could manage it.¡± ¡°What about for a bow?¡± Will asked. ¡°I¡¯ve had to steam bend similar pieces of wood before, which requires around 200 units of work with forms pre-built, with 600 units for each form. Because I have to wait at least 3 hours between heating the wood and the wood holding the new form, I would need at least 9 forms to keep me busy, with each form taking an hour to build. Without my skill it would take 10 hours for 1 form. We would be severely limited in both bows and arrows. We would also be losing a huge amount of quality. It would likely be close to trash compared to my low quality.¡± ¡°What are the levels for quality again?¡± ¡°They are trash, bad, low, below average, average, above average, good, great, exceptional, exquisite, and legendary.¡± ¡°How does quality affect performance?¡± Will asked. ¡°For most weapons, it impacts both its durability and damage. Above great quality, the quality also adds special effects like additional combat abilities or even elemental effects. Most of the characteristics of the heroes I tell you stories about, like the flaming sword, are from the quality of their weapons. On the other hand, trash weapons regularly break after only a few uses.¡± During their talk James had been thinking about the problem. He had 2 levels in weaponsmithing. ¡°I think I might have a solution to take advantage of your carpentry skill¡± He finally stated. ¡°How?¡± Tom exclaimed. ¡°If you provided me with materials that were close, I could then finish them with my weaponcraft skill. It¡¯s level 2, so not great. But with your materials so close to the correct form, I could do the final finish for a fraction of the unit cost. It would reduce the quality, but at least we could have enough for everyone. It would also allow us to make substantially more arrows which we will need plenty of to have a chance.¡± Tom sat there thinking about the proposal. ¡°I would probably have to leave it a little bigger for you to be able to finish to the right diameter¡­¡± He mumbled. ¡°But in the end it is exactly like taking appropriately sized stock! It will work!¡± He excitedly exclaimed. With nearly a vibrating energy Tom excused himself stating he had a lot to work on. James took that as a queue to continue on¡­

III

¡­to the blacksmith. Once he arrived, James saw the man heating up his fires. They quickly made introductions where the man introduced himself as Earl. ¡°You have a second?¡± James asked. ¡°I have all of your swords I have to sharpen before I can even think about doing something else.¡± Earl said. ¡°Not even to think about arrow tips?¡± James mentioned innocently. ¡°Not even to think about how I can¡¯t make arrow tips.¡± Earl growled. ¡°I think we might have a solution, but if you¡¯re too busy¡­¡± James said shyly. Earl put down his hammer. He looked annoyed. ¡°How are you going to make an arrow tip using blacksmith abilities that don¡¯t allow making an arrow tip?¡± He grated with his teeth. ¡°By having you make funky shaped coins, which I will turn into arrow tips.¡± James smiled. Earl¡¯s grumpiness instantly vanished, replaced by a pensive look. ¡°I¡¯ll leave you to think about it.¡± James said as he hurried out.

IV

As James entered the butchery he kept thinking about how they would solve the issue of fletching. Sure, they could get the feathers, but without a way to maintain quality and speed, it would likely become the bottleneck for the entire production path. He didn¡¯t even want to think about making bowstrings. After a brief introduction where the butcher introduced herself as Laura, James jumped right into business. ¡°I wanted to see what options we had for feathers to add to our arrows.¡± ¡°We have plenty of desert turkey feathers, and some from smaller birds.¡± She said politely ¡°Perfect! Now all I have to worry about is finding material for the bowstrings and fletching¡­¡± He began to mutter to himself. ¡°Oh, I have lots of sinew I could donate to the cause, and I have heard of some individuals making glue out of the sinew as well!¡± She said with a smile. James¡¯ smile eclipsed Dara¡¯s. ¡°Really¡­¡± James began to think furiously.

V

James took a look at the terrain just outside the village. He saw his Mercenaries, Jusuf and Dara, talking with what appeared to be a large group of farmers and the lone miner. When James got closer he took Dara aside and asked what was going on. ¡°Well,¡± said Dara, ¡°we have these 2 Dunes on that outskirts that could make a strong chokepoint. However, it is still too open to allow us 4 to protect the village. We are thinking of creating a small structure in the center to allow us to push the sand up to it to both constrict access by the slimes, and to make the height more uniform for use by archers.¡± ¡°So what¡¯s the problem?¡± ¡°How do we get this done with the wrong skills? The farmers aren¡¯t laborers or stonemasons. The Miner focuses on finding ore, which is great for weapons, but not for getting building material. Additionally we only have 1 week! Thankfully these dunes are pretty small, but unless we are able to work miracles, the slimes can easily just bounce up and over the dunes into the city.¡± This put James into a pensive mood. ¡°Let me talk with them.¡± James approached the group. ¡°Dara has informed me of the issues. Any ideas for getting a structure built?¡± A man dressed in overalls that was unmistakably a farmer started answering. ¡°Well, that¡¯s the problem,¡± He stated with a southern drawl. ¡°We¡¯re living in a desert with no light material. Moving stone is too heavy to be done quickly. Then we would need to move sand for days.¡± ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± James inquired. ¡°I¡¯m Bo, and these are my compatriots: Brett, Billy, Bob, and Brake.¡± ¡°Brake?¡± ¡°His Mom couldn¡¯t find another B name she liked, so she made it up.¡± ¡°I know this is off-topic, but what do you grow in the Desert? And why are there so many of you?¡± ¡°Well now,¡± the farmer chuckled as he laughed at himself. ¡°That might be my fault. Deeper in the Kingdom there are too many workers. I told my people we should go where we are needed. I didn¡¯t quite look into what type of land was here. When we arrived 2 months ago, we saw our mistake¡­¡± ¡°This town was even smaller just two months ago!?¡± James shook his head. ¡°It is a border town, so you get attacked from both side.¡± The Miner answered helpfully. ¡°And you can sit it out in the mine?¡± James directed his attention to the man. ¡°Well, if we had a mine¡­¡± The Miner trailed off. ¡°So what do you even do here!?¡± James had no idea how this village functioned. ¡°I Help! Names Carl by the way. I found an area with some small iron deposits, so I¡¯m able to supply Earl. Kindof¡­¡± Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. James was starting to wonder if the slimes were actually a good thing for the village. Maybe having them all leave was the best thing for the villagers. ¡°So what have you farmers been doing for the last couple of months?¡± ¡°We¡¯ve been harvesting the reeds. We wanted to see if we could turn them into tradable goods to make some money to buy food.¡± ¡°Because you can¡¯t farm here¡± James said pointedly. The farmers looked down. After a couple of moments, James Sighed. ¡°Well we don¡¯t have to build an amazing wall, just one 4 feet high so the slimes can¡¯t jump over.¡± James strained out. ¡°Wait, just 4 feet?¡± Bo asked. ¡°Most of the reeds we¡¯ve been harvesting are 5 feet. This place is overgrown with the stuff! We might be able to use the reed for the walls! I bet we could reinforce it with some wood from Rob.¡± The beginning of hope lit Bo¡¯s eyes. ¡°I have some waste rock I can¡¯t use that I could cart up here if it would help,¡± Carl added, trying to be helpful. It would be ugly, but the beginning of getting the structure in place was beginning to form. ¡°What about moving the dirt?¡± James reminded them all. ¡°Wait, I mean sand.¡± Bo looked at him. ¡°Did you say dirt? Because I can move dirt like no one''s business. One of our farmer skills is to dig irrigation ditches in dirt. I even brought my lucky hoe!¡± ¡°Can you pretend you are hoeing dirt and try it out?¡± James questioned. Bo took the everpresent lucky hoe and tried to make a small ditch. It went too well. Sand began flying in all directions, only to fill in quickly after he finished. ¡°Well, that''s why we need the structure. Do we have enough time?¡± Dara started doing some calculations. ¡°We would need to start with a base of rocks over the reeds to make sure they hold up. We can use the wood to create a 4 ft support. Slimes are incredibly stupid, so we can taunt them to ignore going around, so we would need things to look strong for 20 feet each side?¡± He sounded doubtful about that last number. ¡°With 20 feet, we could get that done in 4 days, then take 3 to move the sand? It would be tight.¡± ¡°Do 15, and fake the other 5,¡± James said as he left them to it.

VI

Later that afternoon the village was busy with sounds of industry. James walked around the area checking in on the hastily made crafting chain he had organized. He looked down with a small smile. That smile was just like an iceberg with his true emotion much larger. ¡°We might just make it,¡± he thought hopefully to himself. He mentally went through the different skills represented by the village: Sewing, Carpentry, Cooking, Blacksmithing, Butchery, Lumberjack, Mining, Innkeeping, Hunting, and Farming. Nearly all of the classes only had 1 individual, with the farming class having 12 individuals. James began to think through how he had organized everyone to make sure it was as efficient as possible. It was during this moment of reflection that Will approached. During James¡¯ conversation with Will¡¯s father the size difference between them hadn¡¯t been obvious, but when it was just the two of them it was clear Will looked both older and bigger than James. ¡°My Dad just came up with a way to help you finish the arrows easier. He made a contraption similar to what we use to peel an apple. He made an outline for you, so all you have to do is plane some of the parts, then assemble it. It should help you finish the arrows quickly.¡± James tried to clap Will on his back like a father to a son, but the size difference was too great. Instead he tapped Will¡¯s middle back awkwardly. ¡°Great News!¡± Will commented. ¡°I have some questions about what we¡¯re doing here I was hoping you could answer,¡± Will cautiously asked. James shrugged his shoulders. ¡°I¡¯m reviewing it now in my head, so going over it with you might help me improve it.¡± ¡°Can you explain how you will use my Dad¡¯s work to speed everything up?¡± ¡°To answer that, I have to get into details of what''s slowing us down. Right now the problem is that we mercenaries are the only ones with weapon crafting skills. This is only an issue because none of us are above level 2. We would slow down the entire process if we led things directly. What your Dad has done will enable us to break things into non-weaponcraft and weaponcraft activities, allowing the specialized workers to take advantage of their skills. We can use your Dad for initial molds, with one of us finishing the process to turn it from woodcrafting into weaponcrafting. In a similar vein we will have the butcher create the strands from sinew, let the sewer begin to braid, then have one of my people finish the braid into a bowstring. We also need arrow tips, our weapons sharpened, and some makeshift weapons for the villagers. These bits will be worked on by the blacksmith. He has focused on non-combat skills, so his sharpening of our blades was interpreted as preparing them to harvest. My men and I will finish the sharpening to make them ready for combat. We also need to make fletching for the arrows. I¡¯m having the mender sew the feather to the shafts, then having one of my people apply glue to transform it into a fletched shaft. Finishing the arrowheads and weapons should be the same thing¡­¡± ¡°Do you have any ideas of how efficient it will be?¡± ¡°It all depends on what the unit costs will be with the stock materials. I¡¯m hoping that the arrow shafts will be 5 units, Fletching and attaching tips should be the same.¡± ¡°Any idea how it will affect the quality?¡± This caused James to smile. ¡°I¡¯m pretty hopeful that with the village''s help, we won¡¯t lose too much quality due to our poor weaponsmithing skills. I should only lower a level or a half level of quality by our assembly.¡± ¡°How can you lower it only a half level?¡± ¡°Anytime we create something, the output has a distribution of quality that can be achieved. As beginners, we will predominantly produce bad quality weapons. We will often make trash and low quality items. As we level, we decrease how many lower quality outcomes we have, and increase the amount of higher quality outcomes. Eventually it becomes nearly impossible to make trash items, but we are far from that. We can prevent that from happening by choosing to add more unit cost to improve quality, but that increases the time to completion. The cost is exponentially increasing for each additional quality boost. This makes it too costly to use except by the very best, who are likely to use it to cross thresholds into magical weapons. When I say we will only lower the quality by a half, I mean that if the village produces average quality items, we will split the outcomes between below-average and average. Thus we don¡¯t bring it down a full quality level, but bring our distributions lower.¡± ¡°How did you learn all of this? You look younger than me!¡± Will exclaimed. James put a strained smile on his face. ¡°I¡¯m older than I look.¡± He said sulkily as he huffed off.

VII

When they arrived at Tom''s shop, Tom was still moving with energy. ¡°I¡¯ve been working through this contraption since you left, and I think we¡¯re ready to test it out!¡± Tom said excitedly. Tom began to explain how he would assemble it within the carpentry class. As James listened, he began to focus what he was hearing into his weaponsmithing class. He started by lightly sanding each piece, then assembling them as Tom instructed. With his entire focus on weaponsmithing, he smiled as he analyzed the finished device.
Name Shaft Finisher
Class Weaponsmithing
Quality Below Average
Description Helps turn a piece of wood into a shaft for arrows. Increases quality by two levels for shafts finished with this device. Maximum quality: Below-Average
James and Tom grinned at each other. Tom produced a relatively rounded stick and gave it to James.
Name Wood stick - refined
Class Carpentry
Quality low
Description A wooden stick with a notch at one end
With Tom¡¯s instruction, James stuck the stick with the notch onto the notch holder. He then brought the blade on the device up to the shaft. Then, with Tom¡¯s urging, he began to spin the wheel and watched as the blade evenly shaped the stick. Once the process was finished he looked at the stick.
Name Shaft
Class Weaponsmithing
Quality low
Description A shaft used in producing arrows with a notch at one end
James started shouting for Joy. It looked like a child¡¯s exuberant outburst on receiving his desired gift. James felt it was a mature demonstration of happiness. Then he received a notification. Congratulations! You have learned the carpentry skill - Level 1 Congratulations! You have been instructed by a knowledgeable instructor and have increased your weaponsmithing - Level 3. Congratulations! You have learned a new skill - Militarizer
Name Militarizer
Class Carpenter, Weaponsmith
Description Some people want to turn swords into plowshares. You want the opposite.
Level 1
Effect For each level, converting non-combat items into combat items increases the quality by 1/10. Base quality effect on conversion: -2 quality levels.
This shocked him into silence. He didn¡¯t even realize there was a Militarizer skill. He also didn¡¯t realize there were hybrid skills. And how did his skill in Weaponsmith increase through a skilled instructor!? Tom cut his own celebration short upon seeing James. ¡°What happened?¡± Tom asked. James explained what happened, which led to Tom growing a pensive look. After a few moments he looked up and asked. ¡°Can you show me how to use your device?¡± James looked at Tom funny. Didn¡¯t Tom design the device? ¡°Do we have any other shafts ready?¡± Tom took another shaft lying around and approached the device. Under James instruction, Tom inserted the stick and began turning it. Once he was done, he looked up. ¡°I got the Weaponsmith and Militarizer skill¡± he breathed heavily. ¡°Why did it say I was taught by someone who doesn¡¯t know what they¡¯re talking about?¡± James Scowled.

VIII

After more discussion James asked if they could apply Tom¡¯s device to wood less processed. ¡°It wouldn¡¯t work well. We would need to start with small enough pieces that the blade wouldn¡¯t get dulled. I get most of my wood as big cuts from Rob, the lumberjack.¡± ¡°Couldn¡¯t we just ask him for smaller pieces?¡± ¡°Good luck with that.¡± Congratulations! Your Luck has increased by 1. With that hopeful message in his mind, James approached the lumberjack¡¯s hut where Rob was splitting wood outside. As James approached he wondered where the wood Rob was splitting came from. He decided to vocalize this. ¡°Hey Rob, Tom sent me to talk with you. I¡¯ve been curious about where all your wood comes from as we are in a desert¡­¡± With the intense stare Rob leveled at James, he trailed off the end of his question. ¡°There is wood all around, and it grows wherever someone tree touched wills it.¡± Rob slowly explained. ¡°What is tree touched?¡± ¡°Someone who can hear and follow the will of the trees.¡± James looked at the kooky lumberjack. James had never heard of ¡°Tree touched¡± and he was pretty sure Rob was making it up. ¡°I assume you are tree touched?¡± James finished delicately. ¡°Of Course. I have followed the Way of the Tree for years now¡± James ran out of things to say. An awkward silence fell upon them. ¡°So you have lots of wood?¡±

IX

It turns out the Way of the Wood imposed restrictions on what Rob was willing to do as he performed his work. He had to replant more trees than he cut down, and had to perform certain rites before he cut a tree down. All were fascinating cultural irrelevancies (As James was still sure the Way of the Wood was made up). ¡°The reason I¡¯m here is to ask if you can split the wood into smaller pieces.¡± James explained. ¡°Although it seems a trivial request to you, it requires me communing with the trees to see if it is allowed.¡± James stared patiently at Rob. ¡°I cannot do communion with you here.¡± Rob stated James shook himself. ¡°Yeah, I needed to get going anyway. Nice to meet you!¡± Chapter 3 - Hard Work

I

With everything progressing well, James, his mercenaries, and the other villagers went to sleep, hoping to make strong progress the next day. The next day James decided to look into how the Smithy was progressing. When he entered the Blacksmith shop, he saw a small stack of misshapen pointed coins.
Name Misshapen pointed Coins
Class Blacksmithing
Quality below-average
Description This appears to be a purposefully distorted pointed coin. Hopefully it will find a coin purse that won¡¯t judge it.
It was exactly what James was hoping for. Earl noticed him, and though he seemed happier, he was still very grumpy. ¡°It turns out your idea had a bit of merit. I had to derange a coin to make it work, but I think it came out well. I¡¯ve also got some good news,¡± Earl smiled menacingly. ¡°I¡¯m afraid what that might be,¡± James said based entirely on how scary the smile was. ¡°It turns out I can make these from our iron coins, cutting the time from 200 per unit, down to 40,¡± The smile was still far from pleasant. ¡°Does the village have plenty of iron coins?¡± James asked innocently. ¡°No, but if you ever find any, I can make heads quickly for you.¡± He growled. James thought that might be good news for the future. He searched his pockets, and found he had 20 iron coins he could donate to the cause. ¡°It¡¯s only 2 copper, but we will need more of those arrow heads soon,¡± James said as he handed the coins over. Earl unenthusiastically took the coins. ¡°If you can get that lazy bastard Carl to ever figure out how to get enough iron ore, and maybe some coal, I could probably come up with a faster way to make the iron heads. ¡°I¡¯ll keep that in mind,¡± James waved as he left.

II

James entered the inn where he found Mace writing on a piece of paper where it appeared he was doing math. ¡°What are you doing Mace?¡± James asked. ¡°I¡¯m trying to figure out what task will prevent us from being ready on time.¡± ¡°Any ideas?¡± ¡°I¡¯m just trying to figure out what our problems are. Right now we have Tom and his son making wood shafts and the outlines of the bows. Tom decided to focus on the bows first, while his son focuses on the wood shafts. Tom currently is making 1 bow-form an hour, then spends 30 minutes making a bow to fit on the form. He will eventually have 3 forms allowing him to make around 9 bows a day. He should be finished within just 2 days. However the bows are not the problem. Arrows are. Right now Will is making 1 rod every 12 minutes. That''s 5 shafts an hour, and after 10 hours, he¡¯s able to make 50. If we are facing 20,000 slimes, there¡¯s no way that will be enough. We should have, what, double the shafts as slimes? So nearly 1,000 arrows per person?¡± James started to chuckle. ¡°I think its worse than you think. At the beginning you can¡¯t miss with the horde this size. You also have us mercenaries killing many of them by hand. However once the slimes start thinning out, everyone will start to miss a lot more. Add in the need to hit each slime around twice to take them down, I think we will need around 3 arrows per slime.¡± Mace sighed. ¡°Right now we are on task for around 1,000 total arrows produced. We need to make 30 times more arrows. This doesn¡¯t include the spear shafts you want Tom to make as well as the tips and fletching for the arrows. There¡¯s too much to get done in time.¡± ¡°How is the fletching and arrow attachment going?¡± James asked. ¡°It¡¯s coming along. Raine the mender is able to tie on the feathers every minute. Laura is able to prep the feather every minute as well, so they can pump out arrows quickly. Your mercenary Dara literally takes a sponge with Laura¡¯s glue, passes over the sewing and feather for 1 minute, and calls it good. The strings for the bow are much more time consuming. Laura has provided Raine with the sinew. It takes around 600 units of work to complete the string. Luckily Raine is level 15 in sewing, so he¡¯s able to make 1 in less than an hour. He stops just before the end and lets Mark finish so it becomes something usable for a weaponsmith. We still need to figure out a better process for the arrowheads. We don¡¯t have a good solution for that right now.¡± ¡°I think we have ideas for that,¡± James said as he tossed the misshapenned coin to Mace. ¡°How about the construction of the fortifications?¡± Mace distractedly replied as he started inspecting the coin. ¡°We are lucky Bo and his people had cut down the reeds earlier. It normally takes 2 weeks for the reeds to dry. With what we are planning we can use reeds that have only been dried for 1 week. We have 3 weeks of work that we can use which I think will just barely be enough, especially now we are only doing 15 feet. Honestly, it¡¯s the one bright spot in whatever is coming.¡± ¡°At least we have something positive going for us,¡± James sighed. ¡°I think if we can collect iron coins from the people we can solve the arrowhead issue. Any ideas for solving the arrow shaft problem?¡± ¡°None right now, though now that I see what we¡¯re missing I can start focusing on it.¡± Mace said. ¡°Why did you even start looking into this?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve alway found myself compelled to focus on whatever is needed to make things work. When I¡¯m running the inn I have to make sure I¡¯ll have enough food and drink for the next couple of weeks. Hearing your plan and talking with the rest of the village just got my mind going.¡± James¡¯ felt a tingle in mind. It was like he had found the solution to a problem he didn¡¯t even know he had. It was also the wrong problem right now. He decided to put these ideas away for later. ¡°I¡¯m glad you shared your thoughts. I think it has helped me to know where to focus. On a different note, I wanted to see what you thought of using the Inn as our backup fortress?¡± Mace took on a pensive look. ¡°It could hold everyone easily, and with just the one entrance, it would be easily defensible. With the second floor, we could have people shoot arrows from the top.¡± James continued. ¡°And we need a backup in case the front gate doesn¡¯t work or gets overrun,¡± Mace finished. ¡°I¡¯m not excited about the idea, but I¡¯m willing to do whatever it takes to save the village.¡± ¡°At this point, I don¡¯t think there are any ideas that make what is coming anything other than extremely difficult. Hopefully we can string together enough not exciting ideas to make what is coming at least possible.¡± James said with a grimace. He started to leave. ¡°If I come up with any other ideas, I¡¯ll let you know.¡± Mace said to James¡¯ back.

III

James made his way over to the Woodcutters Hut. He approached Rob with a smile. ¡°How did the communing go?¡± James asked with an excessive focus on being polite. ¡°The forest and I conversed for hours. It was both spiritual and elevating.¡± Rob said with his eyes closing in fond remembrance. James waited patiently. Then impatiently he said. ¡°So smaller cut wood?¡± Rob slightly jumped as if he had been surprised by James¡¯ presence. He then responded with deep annoyance in his voice. ¡°The forest is willing to contribute to the protection of the village. I will make smaller pieces to help in the defense. I have also contributed bigger pieces to the construction of the barricade.¡± Rob handed James what appeared to be square arrow shafts. James immediately changed his opinion of the man. Kooky SKILLED woodsman. ¡°How many of these can you deliver to the carpenter?¡± James asked with the exuberance only a 12 year old could match. Probably because James looked 12. ¡°I¡¯m able to make 10 of these for each log I have. I can probably deliver 20,000 in the next 5 days.¡± James whistled. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Tell me more about being wood touched.¡± ¡°It¡¯s called tree touched.¡± The woodcutter muttered, annoyed with James.

IV

James skipped over to the Carpenter. James felt it was a very mature skip, and not one that looked like a little child frolicking. James was wrong. As he entered the Carpenter¡¯s workshop, he presented the square arrow shafts to Tom. This immediately brought a smile to Tom¡¯s face. He stopped his work on the bow he was working on and took out the shaft finisher. After a few turns of the wood chipper, his smile grew feral. ¡°My weaponsmithing skill increased to 2.¡± He handed the shaft to James.
Name Shaft
Class Weaponsmithing
Quality below-average
Description A shaft used in producing arrows with a notch at one end
¡°The quality also went up.¡± Tom commented. Tom got his son¡¯s attention and had him come over and use the machine. Mark, who had been working on finishing some shafts also came over to watch. ¡°It worked for me as well!¡± Will exclaimed excitedly. ¡°Wow, I got the weaponsmith skill and the militarizer skill! It says I was taught by a master as well!¡± James got a little annoyed by this comment. He was good at what he did! ¡°What level of weaponsmith are you now?¡± James asked. ¡°Level 3!¡± Will shouted. This left James speechless. How was this boy already a higher level than him in Weaponsmith? No time to worry about it. ¡°I have thousands more of these that will be coming your way soon.¡±

V

James left the carpenter shop with Mark in tow. Now that Will seemed as capable as Mark, there was no need to waste the man¡¯s skill there. Instead they headed to the blacksmith, where Mark was tasked with finding a way to drastically increase the production of tips. After showing Mark the misshapen coin, Mark suggested Will try to get as many iron coins as they could. Mark also suggested James should try and find a way to get more iron. After Dropping Mark off, James made his way to the ¡°Mine¡±. James found all the farmers and the miner there along with Jusuf. After exchanging money with everyone who had any spare irons, James asked for a status update. ¡°The stones are being used to keep all the wood and reeds in place. The project is going well due to my big strong muscles!¡± The man said with his heavily accented voice. Weirdly enough, none of the farmers rolled their eyes. Probably because the bravado was merited this time. James then directed his attention to the miner. ¡°What exactly are you doing here anyway?¡± The miner, who had been lounging comfortably, suddenly took on a strained air of working hard. ¡°I¡¯m helping the miners with my waste rock! I¡¯m making sure they have enough to be able to finish everything they¡¯re working on!¡± He said like a school child defending why he skipped school. Jusuf snorted. ¡°He thinks he¡¯s helping so much, but all he does is tell us where the rock is, and we already know that!¡± James put on a wicked smile. ¡°Well, Carl, I think your vacation is finally over¡±

VI

After getting Carl away from the group, he started questioning the man. ¡°So, why can¡¯t you get more iron to the blacksmith?¡± James asked too directly. ¡°You see¡­ Well¡­ You know¡± Not one word Carl said was meaningful. After a few moments, Carl gathered himself and started over. ¡°We just don¡¯t have a big iron vein.¡± Carl seemed to push out every word as if it burned on the way out. ¡°I think that was rather clear. Is it completely out?¡± James questioned. ¡°No, it still has plenty of ore left, but¡­¡± Carl hesitantly said. James was quickly losing patience. He began to glare at the man who was acting how James looked: Childish. This fact didn¡¯t make James feel any better. ¡°Out with it already!¡± James could help the frustration that accompanied the outburst. ¡°The big problem¡± Carl rapidly said. ¡°Is that I¡¯m too low level to be able to harvest anymore ore in the area!¡±. Carl said nearly too fast to understand. ¡°What level are you in mining?¡± ¡°I¡¯m level 5.¡± ¡°And how is your level getting in your way?¡± ¡°The less dense the ore, the higher the level required to refine it. Right now I can dig plenty, but I can¡¯t turn it into anything usable for Earl.¡± ¡°What level do you have to be in order to refine it better?¡± ¡°Level 6! It¡¯s so infuriating to be so close, but until I get there, I can¡¯t give him anything useful!¡± ¡°Have you talked with Earl to see if there might be a work around?¡± Carl looked at James sheepishly. ¡°Nooo¡± Carl dragged out the word slowly. ¡°Bah, I¡¯m going there now to see if we can figure something out,¡± James let out with exasperation. He dragged Carl with him

VII

James entered the blacksmith hoping to find a solution quickly with Carl in tow. Earl looked up from the forge where he was showing Mark how to sharpen the misshapen coins into arrowheads. James quickly jumped into the dilemma with Earl. Earl began shaking his hand. ¡°These young boys don¡¯t even think when they run into a problem. Yes, he might not be able to use his skill to directly extract the iron, but he can still use more mundane processes to refine the ore.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± James was confused ¡°Blacksmiths used to BE the class that would refine iron. We wouldn¡¯t use skills to drain the iron from the ore. No, we would POUND the slag out of the ore. I¡¯ll have him work on refining the ore he mines.¡± The explanation brough relief to James. He took a look over at Carl. James did not envy the man his long future in the blacksmith with the cheerful (or not) Earl. He also was happy that they might have a potential future source of iron for the arrow heads. James took a look over at Mark. ¡°How are things going with the arrowheads?¡± ¡°Earl has been having me just sharpen them. Even with my basic skill at Weaponsmithing, I¡¯m able to finish sharpening them in less than 5 minutes.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not fast enough to keep up with the rest of the arrow parts¡­¡± James mused nearly to himself. ¡°Keep looking into it. We need things to pick up here, or this will stop the whole operation.¡± James went over to Earl and handed the rest of the iron coins he had. He had been able to scrounge up another 43 from everyone else. ¡°Here¡¯s everything I¡¯ve found in the village.¡± Earl snorted. ¡°I guess we can make 80 arrows. I¡¯m sure that¡¯s enough to take care of the slimes.¡± Earl deadpanned. ¡°I¡¯m trying! What else can we do?¡± James suddenly didn¡¯t feel so relieved.

VIII

Once James left, Earl began training/berating Carl. It wasn¡¯t what Earl said, but how he said it that made the process more painful than it needed to be. It was like a bear half growling at a piece of salmon it was about to eat. When the Salmon flopped, the bear would roar in earnest. Eventually Carl began banging on heated pieces of ore, extracting all the impurities under the careful and belligerent purview of Earl. With a missed swing, the berating began again. Once back on track Carl began pounding the ore until it had the semblance of usable iron. After nearly 2 hours of work, Carl looked down and analyzed his work
Name Bloom Iron
Quality Trash
Description This Iron has not been completely refined, with a high content of slag
Congratulations! You have raised your mining skill by 1 to 6. Congratulations! You have been instructed by a knowledgeable instructor and have learned Blacksmithing- Level 2. Eyes going wide, Carl looked around to see if Earl had noticed the change. Luckily Earl was focused on his own project. Carl took some untouched ore and used his mining ability. Immediately all of the iron was extracted from the ore and formed into a usable iron bar. Carl quickly replaced the bloom iron with his iron bar in the forge and heated it up. ¡°I did it!¡± Carl exclaimed with his best attempt at showing joy. Earl, grumbling, looked up from his work and came over to inspect Carl¡¯s work. Suddenly his grumbling stopped. Earl looked even closer at the metal. ¡°This looks surprisingly good,¡± Earl begrudgingly admitted, nearly not sounding annoyed. Congratulations! You have learned a new skill- Acting Level 1. ¡°Guess I¡¯ve learned enough here, I¡¯ll be on my way.¡± Carl rushed to the door. ¡°Wait, what is this trash on the floor?¡± Earl shouted as Carl quickly left the forge behind.

IX

James walked towards the entrance of the village. He found the place bustling with activity. Jusuf was front and center carrying a large boulder. ¡°Is too light for true exercise,¡± Jusuf exclaimed as James approached ¡°We can leave exercise for later,¡± James said. ¡°Without exercise, big muscles become small muscles. Is too big of risk,¡± Jusuf continued, oblivious of James¡¯ eye roll. ¡°Well, keep focusing on getting the fortifications ready,¡± James said as he took a look around. He was thrilled with what he saw. The wooden posts were used as a structural outline to allow the reeds to lean against them. The stone was placed behind them to ensure the reeds would stay in place. James saw some of the farmers working on extending the fence, placing the reeds, and some at the end pushing sand down to create platforms that would be used by the archers. ¡°This is great!¡± James exclaimed as he saw the finished platform look nearly level. ¡°With these platforms, the archers can fire without fear of the slimes overwhelming them. This small gap should make it easy for us to keep the large number of slimes from overwhelming us,¡± James said excitedly. ¡°Now all we need are arrows,¡± James said with less enthusiasm. ¡°And a way to create some space so we can rest and recover,¡± James said sullenly. In his newfound sullenness, he began to look around pensively. At first he was just venting his frustration. Then his mind seemed to notice something. He began to pay attention to what he was looking at. He began observing the farmers as they rhythmically took their hoes and moved the sand down behind the reed structure. It looked extremely similar to some of the motions he used when thrusting with a spear. Okay, not at all and not even close. But he saw control over the hafts, and familiarity with body movement that he didn¡¯t have when he first learned the spear. ¡°Maybe if we stretch out the motions a little more¡­¡± He started musing to himself. He began frantically working on a plan.