Chapter 12: Lunch

Hugh turned to his Engineer next. "Macro, stop what you're doing. I'd like you to build us some basic weapons using whatever you can find within a hundred yards. Wooden spears will be okay to start with. When you're done with that, I'd like you to search the area for anything useful or odd and report back."

"Odd?" Dex repeated as the fox ran off into the forest in search of straight branches.

Hugh shrugged. "Better safe than sorry. Sometimes games like to hide things around starting areas as a prize for players who take their time to explore every nook and cranny. I'm the one who built this continent, but obviously things have been added by the system. The Nomads for one. For all I know, there's a bunch of auto-generated ruins and towns out there now."

"There's one ruin and one town," Dex hesitantly confirmed. "We'll need to go through the ruins to advance the explorer's route and get the associated achievement. The town will have been erected at the Spear's location, so avoiding it is impossible."

"I thought so," Hugh replied. He expected something of the sort. "Is there anything else we should be doing before we get back to unlocking the Book?"

Dex shook his head. "No, I don't think so. Food will have to wait until we have weapons to hunt. There won't be any edible plants to gather until we get our hands on the Spear."

Hugh wrinkled his nose. "So we're stuck eating meat until then? How does that work with vegetarian players?"

"The bread in the gift basket is bespelled. If you dismantle that loaf specifically, each of its slices will become a whole new loaf in your inventory."

"What happens if you eat it without dismantling it?"

"The same thing happens, in a way. The moment you take a bite, the bitten off chunk will grow back."

"That's disturbing. And the fruit? What if I dismantle that?"

"You'll get fruit slices, peels, and seeds," he said. "It's not bespelled with an infinite supply. Once you eat it, it's gone."

"I'm getting hungry now," Hugh replied, mournfully thinking of all the groceries left abandoned in his fridge in the real world. "Let's get some water from the well and find a spot in the shade for a picnic while we unlock more of the Book. Sitting on stone was making my bum numb and you're sweating."

Now that he noticed it, it made him curious. The sun had climbed higher in the sky, yet Hugh still felt as comfortable as if he'd been sitting in his air conditioned apartment.

"Of course I'm sweating," Dex grumbled. "It's getting hot out and, unlike you, I don't have a Tech enhanced robe providing plus one hundred to comfort."

Hugh looked down at the purple sleeve of his Robes of Affluence with new appreciation. He hadn't realized it was anything more than fancy clothes.

Dex muttered something under his breath and stomped over to the water well tucked into a corner of the flagstone patio. Hugh quietly followed, watching as his Navigator expertly worked the attached hoist to draw a fresh bucket of water up. He held it out for Hugh to sample first.

Hugh tucked his Book under his arm and took a sip. The clear water proved to be cold and refreshing, although it possessed a slightly fishy aftertaste. He smacked his lips together as he handed the bucket back to Dex so he could have a turn. They traded it back and forth several times until they'd both had their fill, then Dex reattached the bucket to the hoist and locked it back into place so it wouldn't drop down.

Several nuanced clues came together in Hugh's brain. Without a word, he gently moved Dex aside and unlocked the crank, letting the bucket fall again.

"Still thirsty?" Dex asked.

"No. Didn't you taste it in the water? There's fish and other stuff at the bottom of the well. Look." He pointed at the length of rope still unwinding from the hoist as the bucket sank deeper into the well's hidden waters. "Remember what I said about games liking to hide stuff in starting areas? If you let it go all the way to the bottom, I bet you have a random chance of pulling up prizes. Maybe it'll just be fish we can eat for dinner, but it could be treasure. We should let it go all the way down and see what we pull up."

Dex grunted as he stared at the well, his disgruntled expression clearly reflecting his lack of knowledge on the subject. "This isn't in any of my reference files."

Hugh tried not to smirk, but it was hard. "Why would it be? You're here to help me, not play the game for me. It wouldn't be much fun if all I had to do was follow you around like a puppy in order to win."

"I don't like it," he said, crossing his arms over his chest like a petulant child. "How am I supposed to guide you properly if I don't have all the necessary information?"

"You do have what's necessary. You know the basics needed to get me started. After that, we'll figure out what to do together as a team. I'm still going to need you to watch my back once we start getting into uncharted territory. This just means you'll need me, too."

Hugh didn't hide how happy the fact made him. With how confidently Dex had been talking about the routes they could take, he'd started to feel rather superfluous. Now he knew he could actually contribute to their budding partnership.

Dex continued grumbling under his breath as they found a level place to sit under the boughs of a thick maple tree. He started to sit on the bare ground, but Hugh shrugged out of his Robes of Affluence and laid it on the ground to test whether the effects could be shared. The heat of the day washed over him in a wave of stifling, humid air, although the affects eased as soon as he sat on the Robe.

His Navigator sighed in relief as he sat on the trailing end beside him. "That's so much better," he said. "It feels ten degrees cooler and the humidity is gone."

Satisfied they were both relatively comfortable, Hugh went to the page in his book for his inventory and explored how to use it. The mechanism turned out to be somewhat unwieldy. He had to press a button to summon the inventory wand tool. And he needed the inventory wand to summon the items held in digital stasis.

"How can you tell whether an item has a special effect or a spell on it?" Hugh asked as he summoned the bread loaf into Dex's lap.

"You're coming up on that part," Dex replied. "Go ahead and dismantle this so we can eat while you read the next page."

Hugh did as he was asked, touching his wand to the loaf as he said, "Dismantle bread." Two icons reappeared in his inventory—the original loaf of bread and a stack of ten loaves. Hugh pressed his finger on the stack as he directed his wand at Dex's lap and said, "Summon two bread loaves."

The two loaves popped into existence without any fanfare. Dex immediately took a massive bite out of one while he handed Hugh the other. Hugh ate more daintily, breaking off a piece to cautiously taste test. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. It was simply cold bread intended to be eaten for sustenance rather than pleasure. He imagined the bread he bought from any in-game baker would make this stuff seem like military rations.

Since no bakers were forthcoming, Hugh returned his wand tool to his Book by pressing the requisite button, then munched quietly as he flipped to the Table of Contents. Five new entries waited on him and the titles alone promised an hour of dull menu exploration.