Alpha Zero (Alpha LitRPG Book 1) Arthur Stone (hardest books to read .txt) 📖

Just the meat. The fort will pay you separately for the liver and brain. And scales. That will be fair. All of our procurers of spices get paid. And you can keep the excess meat to do with as you please.”

Recalling the size of the basket from yesterday, I slowly shook my head.

“Master Ash, your offer is very generous, but kote are unpredictable creatures. Today we caught enough to fill three baskets, but tomorrow and the day after we might not catch any.”

“A fair point,” Ash agreed. “But on the days you get a lot of meat, you can turn in two or even three baskets. There are two of you, and the basket isn’t so large. If you put your minds to it, the basket will always be full. You will become people of the fort, and not some wretched drifters. Which means you will wear the fort’s badges. Here, hang them around your necks. Now others will know that you’re untouchable. Anyone who messes with you, messes with the Blackriver fort. And anyone who messes with the Blackriver fort gets their skull bashed in.”

Beko, who had been on the brink of fainting the entire time since my fallacious reply to Ash as to the fate of today’s haul, suddenly perked up, and was now looking at me with near endearment. Of course, he had to be ecstatic about securing protection from the Carps.

“And if we don’t hold up our end of the deal?” I asked.

“Then you will return to your barn. And I will be very displeased with you. Now, this fish,” Ash motioned toward the kote carcass, “will be counted as three days’ quota. Today you’ve managed to surprise and entertain me. So I don’t begrudge you everything you’re getting in return. But on the fourth day, you will need to bring in a new haul. Otherwise, you know what’s going to happen. You’re right: each day is different, and no one can guarantee a haul. So we can wait several days. But no more than that, so don’t drag it out.”

* * *

Watching a couple of burly guards whisk away our haul, tied to a pole with the very same wild leek, Beko let out a sob.

“We had a big fish. Now we have no fish at all.”

“Aren’t you happy to get a new home and two meals a day?”

“Right now, I’m ready to eat myself.”

“Speaking of, what time do miners get their dinner?”

“They end their shift after sunset. But dinner is served earlier than that.”

“How much earlier?”

“Not much.”

“Not for a while, then,” I deduced, looking up at the sun.

“We’ll need to chew leek again,” Beko sighed. “It’s bitter. I’m so sick of it.”

I shook my head with a grimace.

“No, we’re not going to chew that filth today. We’re going to buy decent food from Guppy.”

“You’ve got something to pay with?”

“Sure do. I said we’re going to buy, not steal, right? Come on.”

* * *

Guppy wasn’t at his post, the door to his shop closed shut. We decided not to look for the grumpy trader, opting instead for some downtime in the tavern. There, a couple of minor chi symbols bought us a king’s feast: each got a portion of yesterday’s wild boar stew, a hunk of bread, a large chunk of cheese, a couple of small slices of lard, a bundle of deer jerky sticks and even a thin slice of honey cake.

I hadn’t planned on making it rain, but my empty belly overruled my prudence. Gluttony took over—I wanted everything they had here, and then some. I was ready to eat in one sitting more than I used to eat in a week.

The floodgates had opened.

The sight of all this magnificence caused Beko, who had been subsisting on stale porridge and bitter wild leek, to lose the function of his vocal apparatus. The ghoul ate in silence, unable to utter so much as a word. I didn’t feel like talking, either. Chewing each bite unhurriedly, I was taking the time to look within and conduct some of the most complex calculations I’d ever done in my life.

I needed to decide what changes to make to the superstructure provided to the natives by ORDER. And how to make them.

But before I could make any decisions, I needed to process today’s developments. In one day I had managed to achieve more than some people would in their entire life. Perhaps not from a quantitative standpoint, but in terms of quality? Most definitely.

For convenience’s sake, the composition of this Order superstructure could be broken down into four main blocks.

The first block was the degrees of enlightenment—Rock’s equivalent to character levels in a video game. These were simple enough to understand. They were basic vessels that were filled with chi. As soon as one was filled to the top, the overflow instantly resulted in a new degree.

The second block was the attributes. These were somewhat more complicated. Initially, each degree allowed one to obtain up to six attribute points. Each point was in itself like a chi reservoir, only instead of being filled with the universal energy, it needed attribute marks. Also, each attribute came with its own “record” of how many marks were spent on it, because all of the vessels included in the superstructure were malleable in the process of one’s development. It was possible, for instance, by eating spices and doing all the right things, to expand the initially issued ten units per attribute to as much as fifty. That was the maximum number that could be attained by standard methods, and reaching it was bloody difficult. Raising an attribute increased in difficulty the further it grew, but in return, a denizen of Rock with sky-high attributes could perform feats of wonder that would put comic book heroes to shame.

On any given degree,