Cora slowly stood up and wiped the sweat from her brow. Fixing the steps to City Hall had been both easy and hard. First, she had to use her little scythe and hoe to remove the grass that had sprouted between the old, broken bricks and then the brick pieces themselves. More than half of the brick needed to be removed before the option to fix the step would appear.
It was rather disconcerting to realize that it was repairing the entire thing brick by brick. The broken bits didn't even register as shards, just as waste rock. Luckily, the system recognized that as a thing and would whisk the bits away after doing the repair.
At least that's what she hoped the 'Waste Rock +2' notices she received after every brick was done meant.
So far, she'd done about half of the steps leading to the doorway, and then that was barely a quarter the width of the steps. She was only interested in being able to enter City Hall without tripping on a broken brick and incurring damage.
Cora had a feeling that if she broke any bones, she'd be thoroughly out of luck. She was the only one here, and Blue didn't seem to know any medical advice. She called up her display. There was a new tab attached that hadn't appeared until she activated the Mayor title labeled 'Wilderven.'
The tab showed her information about everything going on in Wilderven, including little subsections that listed the amount of resources she had. She found the Stone display very interesting as it listed bricks, slabs and granite blocks. Cora had a feeling that the more stones she discovered and stored in the warehouses, the more details would appear.
Farming showed that she still had two untilled fields somewhere in the town. She had no clue where they were but planned on searching. With luck, she'd be able to convince a farmer or gardener to move here and put them to use. It also showed the seeds she had available at the moment: corn, clover, sorghum, and pepper. There were pluses behind each plant, and pressing it would show which varieties she had.
That gave her an idea that the plants she grew weren't fixed until she created the seeds from the final product. The sorghum sack actually had two dividers in it, separating the seeds into quadrants. It had been pure luck that she'd wound up planting a grain variety.
She added identifying the seeds to her list of things to do. Cora wasn't sure that it was possible with the other three; when she'd planted the corn and clover, it hadn't specified just what types they would grow up to be. It had been a surprise when it fruited. She'd just been lucky to get blood corn twice.
Cora closed her display with a sigh. Her brick count was down to a mere fifteen from the glorious one hundred fifty it used to be. Even eight of the slabs had been used in the course of repairing the steps, one being used with every step upwards.
She carefully scrambled to the top of the stairs and turned to look at them. It was strange to see only a quarter of the steps repaired, and that only halfway, while the rest was in ruins, a mass of broken stone and grass.
Cora mentally calculated. She would need about twenty-two more granite blocks to finish the job. She'd turned down the requests to fix the edges of the steps as she worked. That called for medium general use slabs. She had no clue how many of those she'd get out of a granite block.
Cora dismissed the issue and walked into the building, heading for her office. She paused at the doorway.
The office wasn't as desolate and destroyed as it had been. Even as she watched, a crack in the wall shrank a minute amount.
'Waste Rock -1 used' flashed in the corner of her eye. Cora blinked as it vanished, her mouth forming an 'o.'
"Explains what use that stuff's for," she muttered to herself.
There weren't any 'repair' tags floating in the office. Instead, there were descriptions of the items therein but grayed out.
Cora spent a few fruitless minutes trying to activate them before giving up and leaving. She headed towards her field and Blue's tree.
"Do I really get a teleportation circle?" Cora called up to the leopard who blinked down at her.
"You want to leave?" Blue yawned. "If you want to use it, we do have one. Coming back is the issue for you."
"Why?" Cora asked, frowning up at Blue.
"While you're the Mayor, you're also very, very low leveled. The Wildlands isn't a safe place for anyone under level 350, and even that is pushing it." Blue leapt down from the tree, casting her favorite lounging spot a longing look. "I'll show you where the circle is."
Cora followed Blue back towards the material warehouses. Then they continued past them and entered another empty, broken street lined with what looked like abandoned shops and workshops. She could see glimpses of broken counters and shelves when she passed by the empty, gaping doorways.
Cora sighed. Yet another reason she needed to go mine. Fixing the steps hadn't granted her much experience, but upon thinking about it, a mason or bricklayer would deal with thousands of bricks and stones to create a building. If doing that earned a lot of experience, then the person at the top of the leaderboards would all be crafters of one ilk or another.
They stopped in front of a large building that lacked a roof. Faint gleams in the air showed that there was a barrier arching over it instead.
"This is like the barriers over the lathes, isn't it?" Cora asked, glancing at Blue.
"It is," Blue agreed. She sat down and glanced around. "Once you break it, you will be the official mayor of the town."
"But I thought I was already the Mayor," Cora cried.
"No, you're sort of the Mayor. Once the teleportation circle's barrier is broken, Wilderven will officially acknowledge you as the new Mayor. This is a very important thing," Blue continued.
Cora sighed and approached the building. Unlike the rest, this one still had doors, huge wooden double doors with that fancy embossed 'W' printed in the center of each. They were also barred by a gold painted log of wood.
Even with the barrier in place, there was a sense of age and disuse floating around the doors. The paint was even flaking in places on the log.
"Why is the door barred?" Cora asked.
"Well, you see how it looks old?" Blue asked, turning her attention back to Cora.
"Yes," Cora said, taking a few steps to the side. There wasn't even a blade of grass growing around the building.
"Well, that's because it's not really sealed. It's just sealed against intruders. Once you break the barrier, Wilderven will acknowledge you as the new Mayor, and the need for seals will disappear," Blue explained. Blue blinked at Cora. "Essentially, if someone with enough power was able to appear and break the barrier, they would be the new Mayor instead of you. Luckily for you, that hasn't been the case."
"That's why the door is barred from this side: to keep intruders out," Cora exclaimed. "Then does that mean that the circle is already activated?"
"You can't deactivate a teleportation circle, only destroy it, and once it's destroyed, it takes a vast amount of time and resources to rebuild." Blue yawned, displaying her dainty white fangs. "Wilderven is still listed amongst the locales in the bigger books, but no one has come because we're officially closed."
"But this will open it back up," Cora said, reaching out a finger to touch the faint shimmer of the barrier. The option to break it appeared, and she accepted right away. "So, why would it be hard to come back after I use it?"
"Because until you reach level 10 and the next level, you can only leave, not return." Blue stood up and started to saunter away. "Still, you might have a useful title or two that could help."
Cora listened to the barrier shatter as she watched the leopard disappear down the road back to her tree. Then she glanced at the barred door.
"Maybe I should see what April's up to before I go," Cora mused silently. "If I take the sacks, then I could maybe trade or something while I'm out there."
She headed back to City Hall. She'd left the sacks in the storage shed next to City Hall when she'd decided to repair part of the steps. At least she could grab her little scythe and pickaxe while she was at it. There had to be chances to mine and maybe harvest some herbs and flowers to plant in the little sitting area next to City Hall.
*****
"Wait, you did what?" Cora asked, pausing in mixing up blueberry pancake batter.
"I said that I bought it, set it up, and decided to be a ranger warrior type person," Heidi replied blithely. She paused. "Are you making french toast?"
"Nope," Cora promptly replied, eyeing the pancake batter. She scooped up another handful of blueberries and tossed them in. "I'm absolutely not making french toast. Sorry."
"Oh, well," Heidi nattered. "So, let me tell you about this evil little grr-grr that I ran into."
"What's a 'grr-grr?'" Cora laughed as she scooped a teaspoon of butter into her hot frying pan. She adjusted the heat when the butter sputtered as it went in.
"In this case, it's this evil little whelp calling herself 'Blue Heaven Arises.' Can you believe it," Heidi scoffed.
"Well, most people use such decorative names in the game. It's probably safer that way," Cora refuted. "I only use my first name, and I was lucky that it wasn't taken in the first place."
"Hmm...I used 'April June July' and it was still available." Heidi laughed. "I told Lorenz and his first words were 'you skipped May.'"
"Figures," Cora said absently. She ladled two scoops of batter into the pan. Studying it for a second, she tossed a few blueberries on top of each cooking pancake. "What's Lorenz' name in the game?"
"Well, 'Lorenz,' of course," Heidi said. "You two have no imagination." There was a rustle on her end. "I can't believe he got away with it. He said his mom is calling herself something awesome, something like 'Avenging Wargirl' or something."
"They're perfectly reasonable choices. Besides, our names aren't that bad. They're unique," Cora said, opening up a drawer and rummaging for her spatula. "Do you think she's scandalizing Lorenz by running around in another skimpy outfit?"
"There are no skimpy outfits in the beginning, but I could see her buying something once she leaves the beginner areas." Heidi paused. "What's that sound?"
"Hmm? Looking for something," Cora said. "Can't find my spatula."
"You're making waffles!" Heidi accused. "Making waffles and not inviting me!"
"Nope, absolutely not making waffles," Cora refuted. She glanced in the direction of her refrigerator, wondering if she had bacon.
"You're making breakfast! I should have known," Heidi accused. "You never call me this early just to talk unless you're busy with something."
"I could have been suffering from too much game time," Cora weakly replied.
"I will be there in twenty minutes. I'll bring some bacon and sausage," Heidi said before hanging up.
Cora sighed, flipped her pancakes and pulled out an extra plate.
*************
Author's Note: So I went to Biloxi and had a blast even though it was just an overnighter, and I only went to two casinos, The Palace and Island View. Palace was awesome and very, very dedicated to keeping their machines clean. The much bigger Island View (I've been in smaller Vegas casinos) was much less so… only saw two people wiping down machines and even then it was in a limited area and most of the machines weren't being kept up with.
Which is why the chapter was late! ^_^ Had a lot of fun, though!