I woke up with my face finding the ground. My body was tied up in my sleeping fur, and I was screaming from the fall. It was only about 18 inches off the bed to the ground but add in the fall and bounce from the dream, and my body seized up and started to sweat from fear. My body attempted to go through all the biological responses to the impacts that my brain had felt. My heart rate went through the roof, and I tried to stop hyperventilating.

It took me a few minutes to stop shaking. When I did, I stood up and went and took a bath even though the river was cold. I knew I needed it after what I just went through. By far, of all the fears that I had lived through, the fear of impact was the worst.

Once I cleaned up, I looked up at the sky. It was around 6 am, so I could take a bit of time to get everything ready to leave. We could make reasonable distance and, if it all went right, end the night in a thicket.

I took a deep breath and slowly let it out. “Okay so let’s see how this mess works. Land acquisition.”

In front of me, a display opened up that was an overlay of my visual mapper. Down my map, in each place I built a room going downriver, was a light blue circle. Around my landing was a darker, larger circle, which joined with the one on top of the landing to form a peanut shape. Around the lake, going from the edge of the boat house on the other side to the edge furthest edge of the dark blue peanut, was a light blue circle like what was around the rooms. Down the path that the rooms made was a single circle that covered all of them, but it was a faint light line. That line went down and circled the forest cluster core I had left with the undead.

There was a set of small icons on the left of my screen. When I focused on the first one, it acted like I was hovering a mouse over it. I checked all of them before doing anything: SELECT CLAIM, MAGNIFY, LINK CLAIM.

I wished there were better descriptions on the screen, but I got the gist of what was going on with the names of the tools. First, I selected the peanut-shaped claim that I had for the landing and thicket. Then, when I got a message asking me if I wanted to attempt to claim, I selected yes, and then the dark blue turned gold.

New Title

Landed

You are now a land holder

+1 social interactions with those who hold no land

-1 Social interactions with those who hold less than 5 times more land than you

I shook my head. “Well that’s kind of odd. People who don’t hold land like me more but people who hold just a little more like me less.”

I selected the boat house next as it was in dark blue. I didn’t get a new title from that one. However, when that area turned gold, the light blue circle around the boat house and the peanut-shaped area turned dark blue. So I claimed that.

New Title

Landed II

You are now a moderate land holder

+1 social interactions with those who hold no land

-1 Social interactions with those who hold less than 5 times more land than you

-1 Social interactions with those who have a lower landed title.

The light blue for the area of the cube trees turned dark blue, along with the closest two rooms. I couldn’t tell, but it almost looked like the ring around the group of rooms was a little darker on the top edge. Out around my claimed area were little hash marks that pushed a good half mile around in a circle. They were light blue, but it made me think they were places that I could claim just because of how close they were to my area.

I spent the next good bit of time playing with the Land acquisition options. Where I had no claim, I couldn’t try, but down in the cluster forest with the undead, when I tried to claim, I was told that I didn’t have a sufficient right of conquest. I was able to get up to the town claimed, and I could claim each one of the rooms, but I couldn’t get the connections.

I smiled as I closed out the interface. I had gotten myself up to Landed VI.

New Title

Landed VI

You are not a noble but you hold the land of a small Vassal

-2 social interactions with those who hold no land. (if they know)

-1 Social interaction with nobles of equal or less land

+1 Social Interaction with all landed who aren’t nobles

I checked the sun and saw that I had been claiming land for a couple of hours which meant I was a bit behind. So I snagged up my gear as fast as I could and headed up to find Kasidy. I figured Blink would either be ready or not.

I came out of the lower dungeon to find Kasidy waiting in the thicket clearing with her pack on. She didn’t have much, but she looked better rested than before. I checked the pouches on my belt and pulled out the set of pipes. Then I double-checked them.

Pipes of the piper

These pipes have a rich magical history

Those who can play them have the ability to do much

+5 all bardic songs while playing

+5 hp per minute per level of pipe while playing for area of effect

+5 Mana regeneration per level of pipe while playing for area of effect

*once at level 3 Pan pipe song of calm can be played.

Target must make a will power check or stop all hostile actions

Number of targets increases 1 every 5 levels of pipe

I smiled and passed them to Kasidy. “Hey Kasidy, I had these laying around I hope they are okay.”

Kasidy smiled and replied, “Thank you. I see they are magical do you know what they do?”

I had forgotten that if you didn’t have an identity spell, then you could only know how powerful something was by the color of the item. Since she couldn’t turn on the visual interface for some reason, she didn’t know what I just gave her.

“That’s the Pipes of the piper. You should get a +5 to all bardic songs while playing and +5 health and mana regeneration. Oh and you should be able to play the song of calm now. Just please remember to try not to mess with my head.”

Kasidy gave an odd curtsy and stuck the pipes to her mouth. Then she started to play. It was a lovely melody, and I saw that I had picked up a buff. I checked on it and saw that my stamina had a 5% regeneration tagged to it. I managed not to laugh since stamina was the one thing I never ran out of. All the skills I had piling on to reduce stamina usage made it so that it never dropped as long as I spent thirty minutes once every other day working out.

I pointed to the exit and said, “Let’s head out.”

Kasidy stopped playing for a moment and looked around. “Where’s Blink?”

I reached out along the bond, trying to find her but couldn’t. Which, come to think of it, didn’t mean much. She could be on another level of the dungeon or even out of the dungeon completely. I thought for a moment about how I wanted to answer.

I shrugged my shoulders, “Don’t know! But it doesn’t matter. She’ll catch up.”

Kasidy looked a little panicked. “You would just leave her?”

“No, well yes. But no. I told her when we would be leaving and she will catch up either as we hike or by the time we set first camp. It shouldn’t be too bad this first day. Once she catches up then she will hang with us and we can go faster.”

“But she’s your little girl! She’s just a little girl!”

I rolled my eyes. “Look, lady. Blink is a ropola, not a little girl. Yes, she can look like a little lizard girl but she is a ropola. She is a huntress who works alone and can blend into the background like she’s not even there. She is perfectly safe by herself. Us not as much. But we should be good for a few hours.”

With that, I turned and exited the dungeon. When I did, I felt Blink’s presence up ahead. I chuckled to myself. Then I watched as Kasidy, with her small pack, came through the gateway.

Blink sent across the link to me. “Readys, Bait!”

I snorted and replied. “I that I was Daddy not ‘Bait’. Remember we have Kasidy with us so I am not sure who is more bait her or me.”

Blink’s reply got my eyes to roll. “Hers.”

I pointed upstream. “We are heading that way for a few hours the first few miles I have scouted, but once we get out of this area, we will need to be careful.”

I felt odd. The last time I headed out, I had just Blink with me. She was kind of talking, but not as much as she does now. I also was only guessing where I was going. This time I had some sort of broke bard traveling with me, and I knew the right direction to go.

* * *