Becoming a Farmer

You were relieved when Alice Hollow left. Even with a busty zombie and a speedy quickling, she could probably kill you in your weakened state. Come to think of it though, where was Serita? You hadn’t seen her since the fight began, and the fairy dust was almost definitely her doing, but now she had vanished as quickly as she came. You were almost sad that she was gone so soon, but then again, you might not survive another encounter like this one. Throughout your brooding, the zombie had only adjusted to standing up straight and looking around, scanning for threats you assumed. Even though it was obviously dumb compared to your own substantial intellect, it had enough reflexes that it would be useful.

Thinking about your own intellect got you thinking about your character sheet. You probably wouldn’t find much change, but it could be worthwhile to keep checking it.

Hero Fallenstar, Level 5
Monster, Slime, Miniboss, Explicit
Experience to level up - 186
Attributes
| Strength 16 | Dexterity 18 | Endurance 25 |
| Charisma 8 | Manipulation 10 | Appearance 8 |
| Perception 25 | Intelligence 25 | Wits 20 |
Skills
Athleticism 15
Awareness 25
Dodge 15
Occult 10
Presence 10
Resistance 20
Stealth 25
Feats
Absorption
Amorphous Body
Monstrous Appearance
Split Mind
Weird Talent

Yeah, that’s what you expected. You were closer to level 6, but there was nothing else that was particularly interesting. On to your fame.

Fame: 60
Defeated adventurers +4
Shamed an adventurer +2
Took an adventurer’s body +4
Positive diplomacy +4
Positive diplomacy +6
People are talking about you +33
Evolve Form: 500 Fame, must be at least level 10
Liegelord 2/10: 40 Fame
Summon Worker 0/5: 50 Fame
?????

Now that was more like it. You had apparently gained fame from defeating the two level 2 adventures, sending one back to town naked, and reviving the other as a zombie. You apparently also made a positive impression on both Serita and Alice Hollow, and to top it all off, people were talking about you. All of that was great for your fame, but possibly not great for your survival. You were only doing as well as you were by fighting low level adventurers. If any really high levels took an interest in you, you would be dead in a day.

So, you determined to do something about it, preferably something that involved this new busty zombie warrior. Then the idea hit you like a falling tree, you could farm like the adventurers. You kind of had one here, and nothing had popped out of her inventory, so you assumed she still had an inventory. She was, for better and worse, without any armor on her upper body, so you would have to be a bit careful with her in combat. The goblins didn’t use much armor either come to think of it, so she would be a match for them as long as they didn’t get the jump on her. This whole farming idea was sounding better and better.

The biggest issue now was wether or not you could control the zombie. Since speaking your commands was out, you could try thinking them and hope that the magic would somehow transmit your ideas. Now what to test it with?

‘Pick up that mace.’ You commanded mentally, focusing on the mace-like silver rod that used to be the cleric’s.

The zombie looked down at the ground and kept sweeping her head side to side until she spotted the mace. She walked over to it and picked it up in her left hand. Then, having executed the command, she held the mace in her left hand and the great sword in her right and continued scanning for danger. So, the zombie could be commanded mentally, and it might even adapt a little considering the slightly different stance it was holding with two weapons.

‘What’s in your inventory?’ You asked next, hoping she would have something useful. All you got in response was a head turn and a blank look. Maybe a different approach would work better. ‘Drop everything in your inventory.’

She cocked her head for a moment, then dropped the mace and started pulling things out of the air and dropping them around her. It was total chance that nothing broke as she unloaded the few items in her inventory. There was a shield, two health potions, an axe, and a pickaxe. Apparently, the Alices were planning to collect resources as well as level up. All of those could be used by your new zombie, and possibly you could use the health potions. How much more could she carry though?

‘How much can you fit in your inventory?’ Another blank look. ‘How many slots does your inventory have?’ And another blank look. Maybe she couldn’t count, because she seemed to understand your other commands.

You tried asking in a few more ways before giving up and just telling her to put all the nearby items into her inventory. She proceeded to put her sword in followed by everything else that was lying around, including the cleric’s items and her own leather pants. After a little bit of admiring her totally naked form, you told her to put her pants and boots back on, and take out the great sword and shield. Telling her to lift the great sword, you found that she could actually swing it basically with only one hand, which seemed a bit excessive for a level 2, but she was originally a player.

Eventually, you realized that you had spent half an hour just ordering the zombie around. Maybe you should actually do something with her instead of just testing her. So, you started off for an area with tree resource nodes, telling her to be as stealthy as possible while following you. She did ok, considering you had to practically coach her on what being stealthy meant.

You actually got there without any surprises, perhaps because the surprises were all waiting there. You saw the group of goblins first, then they saw Alice, and charged without a second thought. Why does everyone rush headfirst into battle, do they have no concept of good strategy? You wondered this as all 4 of them were charging without even forming a line. Alice just stared at them, planting her feet before the first goblin leapt at her with a knife. She caught the goblin on her shield and it cut the arm holding the shield to no reaction from the zombie except for her to bash it into the next goblin to reach her, nocking them both sprawling.

You had been momentarily worried for her, but it was hardly deserved as she unfeelingly bashed and cut all of them apart, going so far as to leap after the last one which tried to turn tail and run. She cut it apart as easily as the other three. Looking at her afterwards though, you realized why it had looked so easy, she wasn’t really defending herself, and had taken multiple gashes across her arms and sides, none of which were bleeding thanks to her being a zombie. The problem remained however, any enemy that figured out how to fight her would probably have no trouble with her completely predictable style of trading injuries. She just let the goblins hit her and hit them back harder.

‘Drink a health potion.’ You instructed her. She dropped the sword and took a potion out of her inventory, lifted it to her mouth, pulled the stopper out with her teeth and proceeded to drink it all. She dropped it when she was done and picked the sword back up. It took a few tense moments of waiting before her cuts began to close.

‘Now collect their weapons and anything else they were carrying.’ You instructed her. A few seconds later you had to tell her to put them in her inventory, not just pile them together while you disposed of the corpses in the most efficient way possible for a slime.

Once that was done, you had her begin to chop wood from the tree nodes while you collected it into your dungeon inventory and kept watch. You didn’t really have a purpose in mind for this wood yet, but you figured something wood come along. You chuckled at your mental pun as you waited for the next piece to drop.

Throughout your planned two hours of gathering, a few different creatures and monsters came near enough to fight. A blue slime was one of them, and you handled it yourself with a good deal of contempt for the totally unintelligent ball that dared to be called a slime. A lone goblin also showed up, trying to sneak up for a look, to be surprised when you half-engulfed it from behind. You found it odd that a goblin was scouting alone, perhaps your recent killings had been pushing their population too far. You also caught a couple rabbits, and decided to have Alice keep one in her inventory for future consumption.

You weren’t sure how much you had collected when you decided to continue on, but it was definitely more than you could have gotten from smashing rocks into the trees. You sincerely hopped you never had to do your rock smashing routine again. On that note, you started back towards the mountain, heading for the path this time instead of the cliff. Having a zombie following you had at least two negatives now, route and stealth. Alice could neither climb well nor quite grasp the concept of stealth. She did okay on stealth, but only with explicit instructions on what to do.

Along the way you saw, of all things, a bear. It felt like it was mostly luck that allowed both you and Alice to avoid it. It took time to circumvent it and even more to walk up the shallowest path that was still tricky enough to keep most players away.

A whole two hours later you reached the stone plateau with another rabbit in inventory and more than half the day gone. Now it was time to mine, and time for you to keep an extra sharp watch for enemies.

Only two minutes in, and you were already on edge. You couldn’t quite tell what was wrong, but something was definitely wrong. The feeling stayed for a few more minutes before you realized what was wrong. Some of the normal rocks were moving imperceptibly closer. One in particular looked to be a few feet closer than when you had started your watch, and now it was only ten feet away. As you started to inch closer to it, the side facing Alice began to waver slightly. You got closer and caught a glimpse of something behind the surface. It was fire.

‘Weapons ready!’ You mentally shouted at her. She immediately dropped the pickaxe and picked up her great sword and shield, turning to look for enemies. ‘Here!’ You continued, trying to convey the moving rock’s location as you bunched up to get ready to leap. The rock didn’t wait any longer before it attacked. A gout of fire came from it’s mouth and arced towards the zombie as she turned to see it. She lifted the shield to intercept it, but only caught it on the lip of the shield, spraying droplets across her exposed skin. She didn’t even react to them as both of you rushed at the now revealed attacker.

Level 4 Magneleon
Beast, Elemental Lizard

You reached the 5-6 foot long lizard just before her, diving for one of its front legs. It reacted by rearing back and trying to smash you with its large, clawed feet. Alice was already to it though, and swung her great sword in an arc to meet one of the feet as it descended. It pulled away again and tried to swipe at her instead, only to meet her shield, which pushed her away but left little to no damage. You sized the opportunity it’s distraction offered and started to wrap around its torso, constricting and burning it. The resultant thrashing made it more reckless in its attacks, raking its claws across one of Alice’s legs.

You could feel it charging up another gout of fire as it heated up. Just before it managed to release it though, the shield came crashing into the top of its head, smashing its mouth closed as its jaw cracked against the stone. One more strike from the sword and it went limp.

You felt the change as it died and your body began to digest it. Most creatures you ate had a negligible taste, but something about the magneleon was disgusting, it tasted more like rock than flesh. Extricating yourself from it, you decided to just leave it as a warning to any other magneleons that might try to attack you and your zombie.

The warning didn’t work as well as you hoped, and you ended up fighting three more magneleons over the next five hours. The mining went well regardless, as you collected much more than yesterday, and you probably had more stone and ore than you could use in one night. You had Alice drink the second health potion, and decided to check your character sheet and fame again as you descended back to your hallway shaped cave lair.

Hero Fallenstar, Level 5
Monster, Slime, Miniboss, Explicit
Experience to level up - 108
Attributes
| Strength 16 | Dexterity 18 | Endurance 25 |
| Charisma 8 | Manipulation 10 | Appearance 8 |
| Perception 25 | Intelligence 25 | Wits 20 |
Skills
Athleticism 15
Awareness 25
Dodge 15
Occult 10
Presence 10
Resistance 20
Stealth 25
Feats
Absorption
Amorphous Body
Monstrous Appearance
Split Mind
Weird Talent

You found it a bit ironic that you were almost exactly one level 6 adventurer away from level 6. If only Alice Hollow had let you defeat her instead of leaving, then you’d be level 6 right now.

Fame: 110
People are talking about you +50
Evolve Form: 500 Fame, must be at least level 10
Liegelord 2/10: 40 Fame
Summon Worker 0/5: 50 Fame
?????

Apparently, adventurers have nothing better to do than talk about a crafty slime they encountered in the woods. You were fine with the extra points to spend though.

When you reached your door, you were met with a strange sight, a couple pieces of ore wrapped in two rabbit skins. They were just sitting in front of the door like small offerings, which you supposed they could be. The Liegelord perk had actually mentioned that you might receive gifts. You did wonder how long it took for whoever had left these to find your cave, it wasn’t exactly easy to find, unless they could fly.

You put the offerings into your dungeon inventory and continued inside. It looked more empty than it did in the morning, if that was even possible. You really needed something to fill it with, and maybe something at the end of the long hallway, you thought as you lit a few torches and had Alice close the door for the night.