All that would have been fine, only Saturday was tomorrow. That meant we had to use the day and night to the full.
We were above our district. Hung scratched the back of his head, spoke:
“I still don’t get it, Alex… A Threat can’t publicize his status. Otherwise Snowstorm gives you a whole bunch of penalties, right down to losing citizenship. How does that work with the interview you want to give to Ian Mitchell?”
“He won’t admit to anything,” Ed answered for me.
“How’s that?”
“Hairo guessed it himself, and so did we. But we’re Subthreats, we have to keep our mouths shut. The security officer doesn’t.”
“Why Hairo?”
“Just as an example,” Malik inteijected. “Alex’s dad guessed it himself too. One of them can leak the info online. Right, Alex?”
“Something like that. There was no time to think it all over properly, but publicity will give me protection. It’s too soon to discuss it now. I want to talk to Snowstorm and clarity a few things. In the contract, they threaten punishment for revealing your status because it means a Threat could collaborate with the preventers. I have no plans to do anything of the kind…”
* * *
The first person I saw in Dis was Trixie. The stumpy man seemed to be waiting for me.
“Hey, Alex!” he shouted in joy, jumping up from the bench outside the tavern.
“Hey. You alone?” I asked, meaning players. Counting NPCs, the place teemed with life: the cultists were performing some ritual on the other side of the fence, and kobold cubs chased each other down the streets. I heard Patrick causing a scandal in the tavern. “How’re things?” I asked.
“Good. Gyula is waiting for you at the temple,” Trixie answered. “Stephanie and Eniko are in the tavern. The rest are at the mine.”
“Infect, Crawler, Bomber?”
Trixie shook his head and took me by the hand.
“Come on, I show you something!”
“Where? What for?”
“I plant. Much. It grew!”
I followed him all around the fort’s perimeter. I had to admit, Trixie had worked hard! Just the garden of fruit trees and berry bushes behind the tavern must have taken a huge effort. In mere days, everything he’d planted around the fort had grown and shot up in level. Maybe thanks to the special fertilizer that the kobold shaman suggested.
All along the fort stretched bushes of Fiery Wasabi— tall grass with broad round leaves. They covered a five-yard area outside the fort like lilies on a pond.
“Very hot!” Trixie said. “No trampling!”
The Fiery Wciscibi’s base damage wasn’t impressive yet, but it gave me hope that as they leveled up, the bushes would deal more damage.
“Very hot,” Trixie repeated. “Stand too long, you die quick!”
“What’s that?” I pointed at some tall thick stalks with flowers reminiscent of windmills at their tips.
“Windblow Clover. Blows weak for now.”
Trixie had planted the Windblow Clover behind the strip of Fiery Wasabi, which was tactically useful. From what I understood, the clover would blow away low levels right into the wasabi, with vines curling behind it.
“What’s that?”
“Explosive Grapes,” the gardener answered, puffing out his chest. “Boom! They make big bang if you step on them. One kobold lost leg! Rvg’har was very angry!”
“At you?”
“No, at the kobold. Said he was dumb. Look there.” He pointed a short finger at a strange sunflower-like plant. They had sharp teeth where ordinary sunflowers had seeds. “Grasping Swiflower. They bite hard. They bit scary one. He wanted to pick them.”
“Scary one? Who do you mean?”
“Two heads, big. Said you brought him.”
I realized he must have been talking about one of the cultists of Morena. But wait, one of them had two heads…? An ogre, maybe?
“What happened to him?”
“Screamed loud. Two heads, both screamed. I heal him with Healing Aloe.”
“We have that too?”
“Yep. Miners bring it with them. Leaves heal. Invigorate.”
“Well done, Trixie!” I patted the little guy on his shaggy head. “Soon you’re going to have your own capsule…”
“I know!” A smile lit up his grubby face. “Uncle getting one too. He’ll sit in tavern. Won’t be bored at home!”
Trixie told me that he’d decided to take out a clan loan for a capsule for old man Furtado. I’d promised to equip him at no charge, and seeing his successes now, I had no regrets at all. I’d heard about high-level fortification lines made of defensive plants that could easily take down a raid of top players. It wouldn’t hurt to have that. And with divine fertilizer, too, thanks to the Montosaurus!
“Say, when we upgrade the fort and expand the borders, what happens to your plants?”
“I replant them,” Trixie answered. “Don’t worry, Alex. Is easy.”
Apparently he could ‘replant’ the same way Gyula could build…
Speak of the devil.
“Alex! Just who I’ve been looking for.”
The builder approached us. He was eating a mango just plucked from a tree. We hadn’t had the chance to talk about the temple in Cali Bottom—I didn’t want to tell Hairo what we were doing in-game just yet.
I’ve invented a design!” he said proudly. “When I started restoring the temple, I decided to try using that stone you gave me…”
“The Inert Reinforcement Stone?”
“Yep,” Gyula nodded happily.
The smile hadn’t left his face in real life either, when he and Manny and Hairo had been examining the new apartments. “Truly, God brought you to Cali Bottom!” the builder whispered, wiping away a tear. More like Andrew Clayton, who controls the lich boss Dargo, I thought, but left the thought unsaid.
“Now we have a design for a Reinforced Temple,” Gyula continued. “Where could we get more of those stones?” I could try making an upgrade for both the desert temple and the fort.”
“They don’t grow on trees, I’m afraid…”
Gyula sighed sadly and took me to the restored temple. Because of the game mechanics, Behemoth couldn’t take up residence in it without a consecration. I decided to take care of that first.
Suddenly,
