“We need a high-level farmer. I’ll ask the workers who wants to do it. They have a limitation, no more than a dozen animals per farm at rank zero, so we’ll need a few farmers.”
“Or we could just hire a grand master,” Crawler suggested. “We need to feed the guardians too, don’t forget. Flay and Nega cost more in alcohol, but the other two eat like…”
“Oh, that reminds me!” the girl cried. “Anf and Ripta really miss Crash and want to go visit him in the desert. Can anyone take them there?”
“How did you understand them?” I asked in surprise. “I thought our master of tongues was off on a honeymoon with Nega. Well… I mean… Looking for a mortal who sold his soul.”
My friends nodded. I had told them about the Inferno.
“Ripta already speaks the common tongue pretty well,” the girl answered. “You can make out what he means if you listen close. So you’re going to let them go?”
“Both of them? Who will protect the miners from mobs then?”
“I will,” Bomber volunteered. “I’ll take the guardians to the temple too.”
“By the way, how’s that kraken of yours?”
“Same as usual,” the warrior waved a hand. “Never stops eating. I need to get started on his quest, but it’s hard to find the time. Once you and Infect are off at the Games, I’ll get to it then. Do you know when Flay and Nega will be back? We could sure use their help on Mengoza.”
I shook my head. Nega hadn’t contacted me, but I saw in the clan tab that they were in Darant.
“About Mengoza. We’re going to put a full-fledged fort there,” the gnome informed us. “So that the miners don’t have to go from island to island. We’ll send all the newcomers there, no point them hanging around here. Can keep an eye on them that way. And another thing, Scyth — we need a fly-by around the islands to find ore deposits. We’ll have so many hands soon that there won’t be enough work to go round.”
“You need me to do it? That’s all I needed. The archipelago is huge. It’ll take me a month to look round all of it.”
“Nah, we can handle it,” Crawler. “Just keeping you up to speed. Cali Bottom is home to three million people, and a third of them work in Dis. You could have warned us before you opened up hiring…”
“Can we even bring that many people into the clan?”
“We can add as many clan members as we want,” the mage sighed. “But not followers of the Sleepers. What’s your limit on that now?”
“Oh, that reminds me!”
I placed my hand on Irita’s next to me and ordained her as a priestess of the Sleeping Gods. Her eyes widened and she gasped as her stats skyrocketed.
“There. That’s better! I need to make Gyula a priest too.”
“Us too, while you’re at it!” Crawler demanded.
Bomber whispered something into his comm amulet, then turned to me.
“Infect is on his way. Along with Gyula. They’ve both followed the Sleepers around for long enough!”
The builder’s name reminded me of what Trixie had done. We discussed our opinions on the poor little guy, sympathizing with him and at the same time understanding that his ignorance could have killed us. A few minutes later, the bard and the builder swept into the room, nearly knocking over Aunt Stephanie. Patrick was holding her by the arm and managed to pull her out of the way just in time. The couple went to meet their colleague Grand Master Olivier, then sat down at a table in the corner. I caught O’Grady’s eye and winked, and he nodded back to me.
I was starting to get the feeling that life had finally stopped revolving around just me — the castle, though only just built, was already beginning to take on a life of its own.
Four Touches of the Sleeping Gods later and Behemoth and Tiamat had four more priests. Unlike Irita, the newly minted priests felt no great effect — they were already among the first followers, which meant they got almost the full bonus from Unity as it was.
“The troggs are asking for help,” the builder said. “They want to occupy the caves in the mountains, build a settlement there. I don’t mind giving them some builders, but I need your go-ahead, Alex.”
“First the fort on Mengoza,” Crawler butted in. “Seriously, it’s more important. The troggs lived in the sewers for years, what’s another few days without special comforts?”
“Alright,” I agreed. “How’s your work crew doing, Gyula? You taken on more volunteers?”
“Sure have,” he sighed. “But they have a lot of levels to get. I think I’m going to have them build a road on Mengoza from the fort to the mine and the fishing jetty we’re going to build.”
We talked longer, but Gyula didn’t sit down and have lunch with us. Infect didn’t stick around long either, just grabbed a few plates and a bottle of wine, reclaimed his precious artifacts from Bomber, then took the builder to Mengoza. The archeologist was in a hurry, burning with the desire to find the last fragment of the diagram for the Sanctuary of the Departed before the Demonic Games.
After they left, I opened up the adepts tab in the interface. I didn’t have to read it out; the priests could see it too.
Priests (28/39): Patrick O’Grady, Manny, Tissa, Dekotra, Ranakotz, Grog’hyr, Ryg’har, Movarak, Ukavana, Sithanak, Yemi, Francesca, Babangida, Sarronos, Kromterokk, Kusalarix, Hinterleaf, Pecheneg, Horvac, Yary, Sayan, Cannibal, Hellfish, Irita, Crawler, Bomber, Infect, Gyula.
Adepts: 12036/28561.
My gaze froze on the name of my ex. It was high time I kicked her out, but… Damn, that would look so petty! Anyway, while she was still a follower of the Sleepers, Behemoth’s block
