Vol. 8 - Intrigue - Chapter 7

System Notice: New Quest!   
Fokgrag Coalheart wants you to rebuild his home and workshop for him. The better you do the more impressed he will be.
Requirements: Build a workshop with a house on the second floor. Must include stations for Blacksmithing, Enchanting, Leatherworking, Tailoring, and Alchemy.
Rewards: 15,000 Exp, Bonus for style
Failure: Fokgrag Coalheart will forever refuse to teach you how to make an U.L.T.R.A.
Time Limit: 48 hours    

Thomas looked over the quest and groaned mentally. He was truly beginning to believe that Fokgrag was just trying to take advantage of him! If the next quest was something similar to this one he was planning to just give up on the U.L.T.R.A. and deposit Fokgrag right back in jail. He'd already spent a ton of money on the old man and now he was expected to spend more. Sure, he'd get the bail money back in a few days but that wasn't the point!

He pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a long drawn out sigh while Snowlily looked up at him in concern. After taking a few moments to collect himself, Thomas refocused on Fokgrag, "Show me where your place is."

Fokgrag just nodded with a shit-eating grin on his face. The dwarf had a merry bounce in his step as he led Thomas and Snowlily through the city streets and toward the location of his residence. When they arrived, Thomas was a bit surprised at what he saw. Given how the guards and everyone else spoke he'd expected to find a giant crater surrounded by destroyed houses. Instead, he was presented with a two-story house that had one entire wall blown out with the ceiling of the first floor and roof partially collapsed.

He moved closer and looked over the damage from different angles. From what he could tell, the explosion seemed to have originated from the first floor. He guessed that became that was where the damage was the most intense. The damage to the second floor looked like it came from a loss of structural integrity on the first floor from said damage. He turned to look around and could see where the charges for damaging other people's property came from. Several Dwarves were working to repair the wall of his neighbor's house that had been damaged by shrapnel from the explosion. The shrapnel was definitely dangerous. Considering that the walls of the houses looked to be around fifteen centimeters thick, it would take a lot of force to destroy so much.

After looking everything over, Thomas began to smile to himself. Fokgrag likely expected Thomas to either make the repairs himself in a traditional fashion or pay to hire Dwarven repairmen to do the work. Thomas, decided to do neither. Instead, he turned around and walked back over to Fokgrag, "Where can we get some stone?"

Fokgrag just nodded his head. There was no need to be surprised about the request, after all the house was made of stone and would require stone to repair it. If there was one thing that was easy and cheap to come by inside of a mountain with an active mine, it was stone. Fokgrag led Thomas to a small office manned by an elderly Dwarf. Negotiations were quick and easy. One ton of stone would be delivered to Fokgrag's residence early the next day. The price really only covered the labor involved in moving the material around, the stone itself was actually free. Still, the transaction cost Thomas another five hundred gold that he otherwise wouldn't have had to part with.

Once the deal was made, Thomas turned to look at Fokgrag, "I'm heading back to my Inn. I will see you tomorrow morning."

Fokgrag just nodded and left to go to the Inn room that Thomas had rented for him. Thomas wasn't the least bit concerned about Fokgrag getting out of the mountain and escaping. The entrance was well guarded and all the guards seemed to be well aware of who Fokgrag was after the incident. Unless Fokgrag had a hidden escape route the odds were he was going nowhere. There was also the quest to consider. If Fokgrag left there was no chance he could successfully complete and turn in the quest. As realistic as things were inside of AoG, it was still a game and followed game rules. Any good game would never give out an impossible quest.

Once he stepped outside of the mountain, Thomas inhaled deeply and slowly let it out. Being inside of the mountain could be a little stuffy. He wasn't uncomfortable and thanks to the hollowed-out interior of the mountain he didn't feel claustrophobic inside. Still, fresh air was fresh air and it was good to breathe it in once more after spending most of his day in mild darkness. He looked down at Snowlily to see that she too looked much happier to be outside. Her blue eyes were staring up at the orange sky above them. Thomas joined her in observing the sky for a bit before they made their way to the inn they shared with Selena and the others.

By the time everyone had gathered in the common room of the inn, the sun had set and night had truly fallen. The group spent their time chatting. The women just explored the city and did a little shopping. It turned out that there was no dungeon inside of the city, it had been built around the mine and nothing else. Thomas wasn't entirely surprised that a city was built around a profitable mine. Still, it was his first time visiting any city without a dungeon somewhere inside of it. After they told their short and simple stories, Thomas went on a small tirade about Fokgrag and everything the old bastard had done to make his life more difficult.

As they listened their eyes widened a bit at everything Thomas had to go through. When he was done, Lexiana was the first to speak up, "You know, if you just went to Sunden you wouldn't have to deal with all of this."

Thomas rolled his eyes. Of course Lexiana would want him to go to her countries capitol. He didn't bother explaining that he couldn't get what he wanted by heading there and just shook his head. Selena spoke up next, "I still don't understand why you came all the way here and put up with that man. Couldn't Hekrin have thought you what you want to know?"

Thomas just shook his head, "No. Hekrin showed me what his master made, but only Fokgrag knows how to make them. If I want to learn how to make my own or get my hands on one of my own, I can only turn to him."

Selena could only sigh. Thomas was still certain he was being taken advantage of but that didn't matter to him. Once he had the blueprints for the U.L.T.R.A. he planned to make one by the book before going on a modification spree. The U.L.T.R.A. could potentially be so much more than just a portable workshop. Depending on the cost of materials and effort required to make the item, it could be a portable house for players. Thomas was one hundred percent certain there would be a market for something like that. After all, not everyone would be able to join the massive guilds that would eventually begin to take over the countries within the game. He knew such things were only a matter of when, not if.

In any game where players could take over kingdoms and claim land for themselves, they would. He suspected it would only be a few more months before the biggest guilds started making their moves. He didn't expect an all-out war between players and NPCs anytime soon though. Despite the large player base, the NPCs still vastly outnumbered them and the higher-ups had more power as well. He doubted there were more than a handful of people who could fight someone like Fokgrag on the side of the players. Not many of them would have cheat-like weapons similar to The Destroyer that they could use to defeat strong enemies from a distance.

When dinner was done, everyone retired to their rooms for the night. Thomas had rented a room with two separate beds for himself and Snowlily. With her staying in her human form all the time at the moment, it was only appropriate to give her a bed of her own. Once they were both comfortable, Snowlily turned to look at Thomas, "That old man isn't very nice. Why don't you just bite him and make him do what you want?"

Thomas laughed at that for a bit before smiling at Snowlily. He'd noticed that she didn't talk much, or at all, around other people. He briefly wondered if there was a way to get her to be more open and interactive. Then again, the people she spent the most time with were his personal stalkers so he could understand why she didn't want to talk to them very much. Especially Lexiana. He let these thoughts pass and answered her, "If that would work I would happily do it. Sadly, not everything can be solved by biting. Once I've gotten what I want from him we'll leave and deal with our promise to Lexiana. The thing I want from him will give me a place to work and hopefully a place we can call home even as we move around the world and explore."

He leaned his back against the headboard of his bed and got comfortable before he continued, "Once I have an U.L.T.R.A. from that old bastard we can go wherever we want. I can teach you whatever you want to know and we can have adventures of our own. Once we're done with the promise to Lexiana we'll run away from everyone else and begin the business that I love to run." He smiled broadly, "But tell me, what is it that you want to do? We don't have to do just what I want, you know."

Snowlily crossed her delicate arms and furrowed her eyebrows as she thought about it. If she was honest, she really wished to revive her people and see them flourish as they had in the past. However, without a male Garou it was impossible for her to do so. Breeding with a human would only produce halfbreeds that would dilute the bloodline over time and lead to a race similar to Lexiana's. Which meant it was pretty pointless. Seeing Snowlily lost in her thoughts, Thomas spoke up, "You don't have to have a dream right this moment. You're still young and have plenty of time to grow and find a dream you wish to follow."

Snowlily looked at him and nodded her little head, "I will."

Thomas smiled warmly at the scene of her sitting on the bed looking determined to find her path in life. He was in no rush for her to grow up. He was long used to her silent company and would miss it the day he fulfilled his promise. With nothing else for them to say, the two lay in their beds to get some sleep. Though, Thomas didn't forget to spend a bit of time circulating between his skills to expand his ever-growing inventory. For him, it would never be big enough.

After breakfast the following morning, Thomas returned to the dwarven half of the city. One the way in he received disgusted looks from some of the guards and heard one mutter something along the lines of 'dwarf lover'. He just shook his head and ignored them. He honestly couldn't understand the very concept of racism. It just didn't make any sense to him. What did skin tone, height, or heritage have to do with an individual and their worth? Dwarves were just short, hairy, drunken humanoids. The defendants of the Garou were just humanoids with tails, animalistic ears, and heightened senses. Hell, he technically wasn't even a human at the moment. What made him different from humans was just a set of wings and some inherent abilities.

Thomas chose to ignore the bigots and moved through the dwarven city until he found the inn that Fokgrag was staying at. He found the old dwarf sitting at a table sipping on a giant mug that emitted an alcoholic scent strong enough for Thomas to pick up from the doorway. When Fokgrag spotted Thomas, he boisterously called out, "Finally! I've been waitin' fer ya for an hour!"

Thomas just rolled his eyes and gestured to the door, "Come on, I want to get this over with."

Fokgrag chugged down what was left of his drink, spilling some into his beard to join crumbs from his breakfast, "Ah, ya found some workers ta fix muh house?"

Thomas just shook his head, "Not exactly."

Fokgrag nodded as if he understood, "Right right, yur not familiar with where the right places are. Don't worry kid! I'll show ya ta the right place!"

Thomas looked down at Fokgrag with a raised brow. It seemed like the old man was pretty excited to be getting his house repaired. However, when he saw Thomas shaking his head, he frowned. Before he could ask, Thomas spoke, "I'll have your house fixed soon enough. We don't need anyone else to fix it."