ã€ŠNPC 210Mã€‹


 101 To the bottom

    "Fire those grapeshots, Drop that corvus now you dogs, JUMP OR ILL DROWN YA LOTS IN A BUCKET FULL OF EELS", the cannons belched out their deadly loads and the spiked bridges were dropped, smashing through wood and bone and locking the two ships into place, dozens of pirates didn¡¯t wait for the shock from that final shot to clear before swinging to the other ship''s deck. Swords drawn and slashing at arms and faces.

    Blood splattering everywhere, "archers shoot that mage in the nest", the captain''s voice was amplified by the magic of virtual reality, Slom picked up his rifle and fired at the now visible mage, the player character fell from the nest and was probably dead before it hit the deck.

    Slom put the rifle down and aimed his cannon to the victim ship''s aft deck where the defenders were packed too heavily for attackers to gain a foothold, his screen lit up with a list of player names that his shot killed and he quickly ducked below the rail as his crew pushed the cannon back to its ready position.

    Today he had a good harvest, the pirates had a good shot at winning this fight if they could finish it fast enough. His cannon was prepared, he picked a wrecker shot this time and fired down to the belly of their enemy, the hollow brass ball smashed against the wood wall and the kinetic dispersion blew a hole in the hold, a timer appeared on his peripheral and he knew this was how long they had to sack the ship before it sank thanks to his efforts.

    Defending player characters started logging off and the NPCs were all surrendering soon after, Slom and his friends knew what was coming and had nothing to do about it, the attacking players started rampaging through the surrendered crew, raping, torturing and murdering the poor NPCs, never knowing the truth, or never caring for it.

    Winning NPCs were carrying loot to their own ship''s holds, Slom was no different in this, carrying a keg of wine when he was stopped before exiting the sacked hold, "so this is the dog that ruined our fun ha? Fucking NPC, how did you manage to bust the ship you cur?", "210m, what does it even mean?", there were five of them, all big chested armed and armored player characters that could snap him like a twig.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

    Slom tried to push through like he was told by the mission program but they broke his path, pushed him back down and knocked the keg from his hands, he stood up quickly and was in his waiting position, "hey broke your program little fish? Answer the question", Slom looked at the burly black haired man, "what question sir?" the player looked at him with disgust "what does your name mean?", Slom reacted slow looking at the man''s face and answerd "I am designated male number 210, sir", there were only a few ways to avoid what these players were going to do to Slom, the best was to play the dumbest dumb doll to ever be programmed, almost any other behavior will just make it all worse fast.

    The big blonde to his right pulled out a knife, the timer showed 17 minutes before the ship sank, plenty of time to be nasty, the knife cut his face, "Im gonna make you pretty", the player smiled as he was cutting a scar from his forhead down his cheek, slashing his eye on the way, Slom could feel the blood dripping down his face as he was struggling to ignore the pain that was sent into his nerve centers.

    Slom was cursing this stupid "James Crusher" with all his heart, memorising his player number with every bit of pain that was driven into him, James stabbed his shoulder, and cut a deep gash into his chest before another player pulled Slom to one of the walls, Tanner took out a hammer and nails and crucified Slom to the wall, "gonna sink with the ship you wrecked on us you piece of shit", they picked up the keg and moved away to get more entertainment, other NPCs saw what happened but they knew nothing could be done, this wasnt a battle and these players were on "their" side so they couldnt hit them anyway.

    Long before he could die from the bleeding the timer came to zero and he got the message that he had sank the Odacious, it took another 12 minutes before the hold he was in started filling with water and after another 20 minutes Slom realised that the water will not get over his waist, the ship was probably stuck on a reef and he was bound to die from blood loss or some poisoning from his wounds long before a sea creature could eat him.

    After hours of agonizing pain Allen''s shift was finally over and he could log off, "fucking bastards better hope they die before i get my hands on them". He heard more of his shiftmates cursing as they logged off their shift, some of them probably suffered right along with him, left to die on a ship that wouldnt sink after being tortured and abused.

 102 New horizon

    "Fucking ship wouldn¡¯t sink." Allen cursed as he removed his gear, then a thought struck him, "Yea, fucking ship wouldn¡¯t sink, wait, WAIT", he called out loud, "log back in, Tom log back in, Janice get back in there, instance was Q783/3, we have a ghost ship", he quickly put the gear back on and called again "log to instance Q783/3, talk inside, try to hijack player characters".

    the pain from 210M flooded his nerves as he started receiving the signals, before he got fully immersed he opened a tech log so the NPCs could communicate, it was one of many tricks they knew that let them survive in otherwise a rigged system where they were all pawns and meat sacks used to feed hungry customers.

    [List: 210M so who is online? /List]

    [List: 341F Anne here, what are we doing?/List]

    [List: 210M Taking over a ghost ship /List]

    [List: 562M What is a ghost ship?/List]

    [List: 923F Lea here Nice catch whoever got this /List]

    [List: 210M To chat just think "list" and whatever you want to say/List]

    [List: 1102M wow how did you find this out /List]

    [List: 93F I got a wizard PC /List]

    [List: 283M I got a healer, how are we going to own this ship?/List]

    [List: 210M can someone come and get me down? Im nailed to the wall in the aft hold/List]

    [List: 1102M where is aft hold?/List]

    [List: 354M: on my way buddy, nice catch/List]

    [List: 283M fucking rapists and murderers, we better get this gig moving before they come back/List]

    [List: 2520M what are we doing? /List]

    [List: 458M can anyone swarm? We probably got some rats and insects around to fix the ship/List]

    [List: 122F I can swarm, I got this /List]

    While the chat log was scrolling down to nonsense a woman wearing a healer''s robe and two other men came down the aft hold ladder, "gee man water up to your waist, and they did a damn fine job on you scarface",she said while wading in the water.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

    "This player just got tossed around and some nasty stuff was poured on her, also got totally robbed of everything except her undies and this starter robe she had in her inventory, probably logged off as soon as the timer started, boy am I chatty today, it''s all the excitement about a real ghost ship, so yea here let me just", and she pulled his hands free from the nails to cast a quicken heal spell to close his wounds, "Name''s Betty, nice catch"

    [List: 122F I got some giant rats evolved starting to fix the ship, could use someone to take out the water though/List]

    [List: 1423M: how are giant rats fixing the ship? /List]

    [List: 93F if you can fix the big wall I will start taking the water out /List]

    [List: 122F wall is fixed but I''m losing a lot of rats to the water /List]

    [List: 93F I got you, casting water manipulation now, hold on everyone/List]

    [List: 1423M what do you mean hold on /List]

    Soon after 93F gave the warning water level across the ship started dropping quickly and the water was pumped out from the holds and everywhere around the ship.

    [List count active NPC: <SYSTEM> currently active 57 NPC in instance 783/3 /List]

    [List: 210M quite a lot of us in here, can someone take over the ship? /List]

    [List: 52M haven¡¯t done animate object in a while but I got this /List]

    The ship shuddered and suddenly the figurehead opened its mouth like it was about to scream and water sprayed out for 20 meters.

    [List: <Odacious> still a lot of holes, any healers can cast healing on me? /List]

    [List: 452M I got you on this /List]

    [List: 967F how do you heal a ship? /List]

    [List: <Odacious> just cast heal on the figurehead /List]

    [List: 967F oh ok /List]

    [List: <Odacious> how did you get a healer? /List]

    [List: 967F when they said hijack I just pushed into this girl and it let me in, she didn¡¯t seem wounded and I was really hurt after what the players did to us /List]

    [List: <Odacious> yep that¡¯s how you do it, ok people get ready we are moving now /List]

    The ship turned about and started moving fast towards the deep oceans where the newly crewed ghost ship was bound to hide.

 103 Deep blues

    The ghost ship was accelerating towards an unknown horizon when Allen heard shouts coming from the main deck, he hurried over there and saw seven NPCs surrounding a player, "Shit, this cant end good, who are you lady?"

    "I am the owner of this ship" she was about 175cm tall and had a curly short black hair "I demand that it be turned about" her face was red with rage and she started pulling out some weapon from her stash.

    "Why am I even talking to stupid NPCs?" as she started drawing the sword 210m pushed through the crowd and slammed her hand back, she looked at him in absolute terror as he and the other NPCs stood around her, like she was seeing some crazy robot shooting bystanders in the street.

    "I suggest you log off now lady, the ship is undergoing some maintenance and in about an hour you can have it back in harbor with no problems", Slom smiled at her but her eye seemed drawn to his scar and especially his ruined eye that he didn¡¯t cover.

    She was shaking her head when he took a small step aside letting her see the giant rat swarm and all the other wounded and broken NPCs some of which she recognized from the cruise, "please lady just an hour", she gave a little nod and logged off, "SOMONE GET IN THAT CHARACTER NOW, WE NEED TO OWN THIS SHIP".

    A little girl stepped forward, her dress all bloody and torn and after a second of staring at the vacant character she collapsed and the woman was turned to an NPC, she pulled out the ownership document that you had to have in your available inventory for the ship to sail, and handed it to Slom that was trying to send a message through the list function.

    [List: 210M Shut up /List] while dozens of messages ran through saying nothing

    [List: 210M Shut up /List] another five messages trying to figure out why they were all here

    [List: 210M Shut up /List] one more message before the next

    [List: 210M Shut up /List] and he got a second of silence in the list function

    [List: 210M thank you, we need to get rid of the unoccupied players /List] half a dozen messages asking what and why

    [List: 210M, take stock of our food supply and plot out course to the forbidden islands where players can''t catch us /List]

    [List: 730M who are you to boss us around? We are here to have some fun /List] stuck in Allen''s mind

    [List: 625F yeah you shut up /List] got him really pissed

    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.[List: 210M fine do whatever we still need to drop all the players or they will take over when they log back in/List]

    [List: 730M sure boss /List] and he just ignored the scroll

    The ghost crew dispersed and started throwing unoccupied player characters overboard, so they will respawn at the nearest harbor town, Slom noticed some NPCs carrying a few characters to the back of the ship but ignored it mumbling "If they want to carry them farther it''s their problem, I don¡¯t mind their harder work"

    [evolution success: 210M is now captain of Odacious pirate ship]

    The message popped to everyone''s vision and they all turned their eyes to him,

    [List: 1368F what is evolution? /List] started the flood

    [List: 79M NPCs don¡¯t level /List]

    [List: 79M we evolve when certain conditions are met /List] he explained further

    [List: 326F being an NPC sailor and holding ownership deed will make you captain /List]

    [List: 122F like I evolved these rats to giant rats by making them eat each other /List]

    [List: 1368F how do you know the conditions for evolution? /List]

    [List: <Odacious> no one knows, you just learn them /List]

    [List: <Odacious> usually we don¡¯t have so many experienced NPCs in one instance so no chance of asking anyone about it /List]

    [List: 252F and don¡¯t ask in list, just ask the others in private maybe they will give you their secrets for free but I''m not going to and its flooding my view so stop /List]

    The ship was sailing fast, leaving behind white crests, while the NPCs were all over the player owned rooms trying outfits and eating the prepaid food when Slom walked up to the bulkheads to talk with the player that took over the ship, "You from Gen1?"

    Turning its head slowly to look at the captain, Odacious measured him and finally nodded, "long time since I enjoyed this world, long time indeed".

    "we need to think about shifts if we want to keep going", turning his head to look into the wind with his hair whipping back, "I have a friend that can take over as captain, though she won''t like this look", he traced the scars on his face with a finger, "do you know somone on day shift that can take over animating the ship?".

    After some time thinking Odacious replied "I might know someone for it", nodding slowly as if considering the person, "but he isn¡¯t an inmate anymore"

    Slom reached out to grab the rail, "can you contact him from within?"

    "Yea, we elders have our ways", leaning forward to look down at the rushing water the statue looked like it was diving, "will tell him to switch in an hour, before you have to leave".

    The Odacious seemed to move faster towards its mysterious goal while its passengers and crew were moving about their day with a swarm of giant rats guarding the food stores and a few players got the message that their character has respawned in shallow water harbor, while one pissed off owner realized she lost her ship permanently when she was forced to create a new character.

 104 Broken wave

    Slom was checking the maps in the captain''s quarter when the face of Odacious'' figurine appeared in the mirror, "Hey captain, going to switch now, thought you should know" the face turned aside as if looking at something off screen "the gentleman''s name is Rick, and you can trust him most of the time"

    The face in the mirror blurred and then froze for a few seconds, "Why hello there, nice ship you got here, i especially like the torture chambers"

    Slom glared at the mirror "what torture chamber?"

    Rick blurred for a second as his concentration on the mirror aparition broke "oops, looks like somone was hiding things from the captain" and he vanished from the mirror.

    Slom displayed the ship map and found an area he didnt explore, remembering how the giant rats kept turning him away until he dismissed it being just a small hold and a couple of cabins, now he regretted not checking things further.

    With everyone''s shift close to its end he knew only a few people would arrange replacements before logging off, if any.

    Moving quietly through the silent empty corridors he could hear the planks creacking all around him.

    With no giant rats he almost got to the aft hold when he started hearing grunts and cries of pain with some whip cracks and an occasional cane slap, he listened for a few minutes and tried to gather his resolve before dealing with whatever he might find inside.

    Leaning against the wall Slom slid silently closer to the open door, while he was thinking what to do he heard words drifting from the room, a booming voice was laughing "damn man i never had so much fun before".

    A lisping answer came "Yeth, this ith greath, how did we get to do dith anyway?".

    The booming voice replied "some fella they tortured figured out the ship is out of the system and called us back" a short time later he continued"stupid captain guy doesnt know how to have real fun".The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    A woman with a raspy throat added "We gotta log out soon, meet you back here next shift"

    Lisper whined "do we have to?"

    And Raspy replied "yeah you wont get any credits and they will cut on your recreation time if you stay after hours"

    Slom checked his time and noted he had to stay away for at least 20 minutes before everyone takes off so he slithered along the wall until he got to another door and entered that room, finding himself in a food cellar with stacks of barrels and sacks of grains and the floor littered with offline giant rats.

    Not wanting to take over or kill the swarm he moved to the next room, finding it empty he tuned his receptors down and let the idle routines make his character walk around the room while he was thinking away the 20 minutes.

    Slom could feel the ship emptying, like a wind whispering through the hallways, taking out the mirror he picked from the captain''s room he called for Rick, as soon the face blurred in he asked "did everyone log off?" and to rick''s nod he moved back to the corridor, the rats were still in their idle routines and he entered the torture chambers with a fluttering heart.

    Blood, smeared on the walls, ceiling and floor, arms, legs and other body parts were scattered about the room, three single beds turned to torturing racks had human things tied to them, one man was in idle mode, his belly open and a giant rat dangling above him tied to the ceiling from its tail, its idle routine making it bite at the exposed flesh when it healed under it.

    The other two women were online, a look of absolute terror on their faces as they were whimpering in the dim lit room, "please kill us" one was saying, "please, no more", she wascrying with a broken voice.

    When Slom got close she changed completely "oh it''s someone else", her voice got flat, "are you an admin captain?" .

    They stopped struggeling against their ropes and the other woman turned to him "im really not into this ''revenge'' thing you got here so just despawn us and we will be on our way"

    Slom walked over to their beds and stabbed them through their hearts, then he took out the mirror and called "hey rick do you know how emergency evacuation works?"

    Rick''s face blurred into view "yeah whoever is stuck somewhere can ask the ship to put them in a dingy"

    "So i want you to put these assholes in a boat and anchor it" Slom eyed the idle NPCs around the room "and if there are any others that came in this room in the past 2 hours dump them too", he cut down the rat, "except for the rat girl, ill talk to her".

    "Aye aye cap''n, emergency evacuation it is" and the room fell silent as all the idle NPCs were gone.

    A ghost ship full of horrors was sailing on crystal waters, headed to uncharted seas when one last NPC logged off.

 105 Swimming fishes

    Winding down after the log off sequence, Allen ordered food to his unit, the little servo unit came with the evening dish of pizza and orange juice, he sprawled in his rig, letting the haptic machine immitate a couch and turned on his feed screen.

    Knowing what he was looking for and the cranial interface put him in the public forum for V.E.R.G.E in less than 20 seconds. He started scanning the messages to try and figure how deep was the shit he sunk himself in was.

    Finding only a few complaints from players being respawned in some crap island instead of the continent while others were trying to find out why the ship didnt respawn for a new voyage he realised he was quite clear from any faults about the incident, company policy was to only punish if an NPC was exposed to be a person, nothing else would get him into any real trouble.

    Done with his pizza and caught up with the news he cared about allen read a few personal messages when he remembered he had to contact carol to replace him on the next shift as captain, he sent her an invite to chat and while waiting he started planning his recreational time, now cut down by a third with him sticking in the ship instance for an hour to clean up all that shit the other NPCs were doing.

    When Carol joined him in the chat room he quickly explained what was happening and gave her his entry codes so she will get his captain character and can keep the instance online with Rick''s help, she was quite revved up and soon logged in to the ghost ship instance.

    Allen remembered he had to call the rat swarm girl and looked up her instance player number, sending her a PM and stretching out in the rig for his hour of excercise, he put on some swashbuckling arena sequence and started practicing his sword and pistol fighting skills so he could get the extra credits in the game.

    He found his renewed interest in the game weird, after 3 years as an NPC you just stopped caring,after 10 yearsthe idle and blocked interfaces did most of the work anyway.If therewas nothing youwanted to spend credits on,why bother getting currency you couldnt use once you got out of jail and couldnt trade for anything you cared for.

    This new old sensation filled him with happiness he almost forgot existed, skimming the forum pages while slashing and jumping around the cell, he got an invite to chat from Deborah Mckinney, distracted he hit reply and saw the swarm rat girl in her bare persona jumping back from his slash, "whoa there dude, called me here to kill me?".

    Allen stopped the program and called a chat cafe'' scene where they could sit and talk, "burning credits on me?", she looked surprised as the old paris street was displayedin the window,"what do you want?".

    "I have a proposition for you", allen tried sounding serious but his breaths came up short from the exorcise, "I figure you aren''t into all that torture players shit that was going on", he said catching his breath.

    "Not sure what you''r talking about but go on", she looked at him almost blinking.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    "I can give you an evolution sequence for your swarm if you never talk about what happened in those rooms" he looked at her flinching a little, "I guess you got drawn by those other guys", taking a deep breath "I dumped the off the ship so you dont need to worry about them", turning to look out the window while waiting for her reply.

    "What do you mean by evolution?" surprise sounded in her voice, "there is no evolution for direrats", breathing out "they are like direwolves", straightening up in a lecturing tone "thats the top you get for any animal".

    "There is one over it" he breathed out "But i want your word about the incident before i tell you more".

    "Fine you got my word i wont tell anyone about the torture stuff" she sounded sceptical, "if you know a higher evolution than Dire to any animal", she paused "Hell i wont even talk about the ship to anyone", she looked outside "and you can be damn sure i wont talk about the evolution".

    He used his credits to call a dire rat to the cafe'' scene, "take over it", the woman vanished and the direrat looked up at him, "now you need to break the idle protocols manualy", he pointed at the vacant seat in front of him "sit upright".

    Oordering breakfast for two with salad, eggs and toast he looked at the awekward posture the ''rat'' was sitting at, "now pick up the knife and fork with your ''hands'', its not easy" he breathed out as she tried to do it, "take your time and think it through".

    Picking up the knife from its blade he held it for her to grab, "now the hardest pard, eat with the fork and knife", he demonstrated"dont shovel, cut, pick, eat", every motion looked agonizing, slowly she did as he told her and the movementbecame more fluid.

    "Good" he pointed at a tall glass "now drink the juice" and she picked it up, "dont gulp, let it slide slow", the silent rat looked at him sceptically when suddenly something shifted, her fingers lengthened, eyes open wide and staring at a message "I see you got it", he said finally.

    Her face contorted, became more human and somehow more rattish, the hair on her head elongated and falling to her back that was now straight without the strain, she choked on the juice she was still drinking and he went around to pat on her back until she caught her breath.

    "Oh my GOD"she breathed out "how the hell did you find this out?"

    "Thats a secret i wont share" he answered quickly before she asked more questions, "you still have some improvements to make" he dismissed the cafe'' scene and activated the swashbuckler training, "this one is for free" he handed the wererat a sword and using his own he slashed at her.

    Instinct made her defend against his slow attack and the idle routine made a slash at him that he stopped, "you are no longer an animal", he stabbed and she pushedhissword aside using her''human'' sword skill, "you are a monster now", he fended offher reply "and you can get classes", picking up the pace he drove at her untilshe gained all the regular idle routines and opened up the swashbuckler class for her wererat.

    When allen saw her skill wasdisplaying a class feature he turned off the excercise and put themback in the cafe'', Deborah slashed with an empty hand at the air in frontof her, "OMG OMG OMG" she squealed with delight, "wow wowwow", looking at him with anew appreciation, "dude WOW" she breathed in "I totally owe you one"

    He smiled at the happy woman "just what i asked you", remembering the happiness he fealt the first time he evolved to a monster, "dont talk about torture club".

    "Dude you got this" sitting back down "are you some hacker or something?", breathing in, "no dont tell me" breathing out "i dont care", putting her hand on her chest "i owe you one".

    They finished eating in silence and she left, Allen returned to his training session to finish his hour and then logged to his own player character for the 2 hours he had left of recreational time.

 106 Digging it

    Allen logged in to his recreation therapy session, NPCs were encouraged to create Player characters in the game worlds so they would become more familiar with the game and to make them part of the community where they held their day ''jobs''.

    The only problem was that NPC recreation characters could only be chosen from the free to play races and classes and their rank up levels were restricted which left most of them at the bottom of the food chain.

    The kobold slave used his pickaxe to loosen up another ore laden rock, he picked it up with both hands and dropped it in the sack the troll overseer was carrying.

    Letting idle routines take over the mining Allen switched between his kobold characters, holding more than one player character was a crime punishuble by prison in the Neuro Psychological Correction facility, also known as NPC, being the biggest joke ever made on the plebian society.

    After goingthrough the motions for his 13 kobold minershe moved over to his human adventurer, being banned from all payed classes and races hurt the inmates a lot, a lot of them being used to play at the top whether through hacks or exploits, it wasnt even punishment, just a statement that the company was trying to help them regain their financial capacity and that charging money foronline content would be counterproductive to their mandate as a correction facility.

    Allen joined a group going through one of the starter quests, hunting a giant wolf that was terrorizing a small community, the quick travel gate put the group in the village square, their leader talked with the elder to pick up the quest.

    Making the idle routine follow the group hechecked his kobold tribe for any trouble, finding nothing peculiar he rejoined the quest just as the group was facing the charging bull.

    Stepping aside and stabbing the back foot of the bull as it passed him gotthe glitched spot to shoot out and the bull fell over the river bank, being last in the group made sure no one would see what he did and their archers could kill the fallen bull with ease.

    The next encounter was in a forest clearing, playing the ambush as a NPC told him all the idle routines for the small pack of rabid chickens and he spotted the NPC enhanced chicken in half a second when it wouldnt charge through the brush, he made the agreed signal but got no confirmation so he killed it with a slash while the group killed the other 22 monsters.

    "Why aren''t you doing anything?" the tough looking dwarf had a distinct feminine voice, "only killing one chicken isnt helping us", she puffed her chest "my group has no room for poachers", pointing a finger at him "either pick up your act or i kick you"

    Allen nodded "ok" he said meekly, "what do you want me to do?"

    "Whats your class?" she huffed at him, Allen sent her his sheet and her eyes went wide, "who picks peasant for a class?", she looked him over, "oh, ohyou''re one of them Neuro Correction players?", lingering on his sword, "tough luck buddy", checking his boots and gloves something clicked"BAHAHA Grandpa''s sword", her eyes were tearing with laughter, "yea fine you do your best, bahahaha" she held her stomache laughing in short bursts and trying to catch her breath.

    The other players started making jokes about how a farmer was the best class to fight charging bulls and rabid chickens while Allen was doing his best to hide his impatience.

    "Next fight is the big one" she started explaining, "we will get 3 to 8 wolves and a direwolf", measuring them all up she added "that direwolf is sometimes smart", picking up her axe "like his got some kind of better AI controlling it", she swinged the axe "so pay attention and point any weird acting wolf"

    Pointing at the archers, "Dan, Osh and Sam you stay back", she drew a line in the dirt "we will come to a narrow trail" she put a few pebbles at one end of the line, "me Kain and farmer boy will walk here" she drew anX at about a third of the line from the pebbles, "the wolves will attack", she added to the line "we will pull them all the way to the middle" and added a twig, "the direwolf will appear around here" she moved the pebbles to about a third, "you walk here and take it down".The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    She looked at Allen, "do you have some pole weapon like a pitchfork or scythe you can use?", when he just moved his head from side to side she blurted "useless farmer, fine, stick with me".

    The group walked through some brush and breaking through it they could all see the fissure in the ground.

    "don''t look like much but it widens up and its a nasty place to get caught unaware" the dwarf hefted her axe and pointed "so you archers stay at the start till we call you" and she climbed down using the rocks for hanholds.

    At the bottom the air got chilly and the group spread out across the floor "there is another way in down the path" the dwarf pointed with her axe at the left wall, "but that''s certain death for low levels like us".

    Thirty meters in the group heard a growl and looked up to see a wolf with his heckles up and drool dripping from its mouth, "keep walking" the dwarf ordered and the group obeyed.

    An hour into the quest and they still didn''t kill any wolf, Allen thought this was a personal record when the 4th wolf joined the pack that followed them, this dwarf woman knew her business but she apparantly only knew the stupidest paths for the quest and no side questsor secrets.

    Five wolves blocked their way, the biggest one was more than twice the size of the others and Allen almost slapped his forehead when he figured this newbie NPC actually used credits on this with an added wolf and the enhanced size, he drew out his sword and took a step to the right, putting the dwarf between himself and 7 out of the 9 wolves including the big bad brute.

    A sharp whistle cut through the growls and two seconds later the big wolf was riddled with half a dozen arrows, two coverd in oozing acid, one frosted over its fur and the slowest to hit exploded when it hit the wolf''s head and sending hot shrapnel that hit its companions.

    The wolves from the walls jumped down and charged at the three adventurers while the direwolf seemed to be dazed from the blast, another flurry of arrows sunk in its fur while the dwarf was smashing the attacking wolves with her axe.

    A wolf gnashed its teeth at Allen and he stabbed at it, seeming to miss but the wolf whined in pain as its eye started bleeding, another stab and the wolf wasdropped to the ground and allen''s luck had betrayed him as the wolf gave one last charge and buried the farmer under its dead body.

    with the big wolf neutralized the others were done with quickly between the dwarven axe and human swordsman, alone, blind and frozen it only took a few hard hits to kill the direwolf by splitting its skull, when the last blow was dealt they all vanished and a few seconds later a pile of pelts, coins, feathers and magic items appeared where it stood.

    The dwarf picked up the pile and started passing on items to the other players when she noticed she couldnt pick one of the items up, "well well, looks like our farmer killed the chicken king", the pointed at the item spinning an inch above the ground, "you need to pick it up and hand it over by our agreement", she seemed pissed "dont try to scam us, i know what this is".

    Allen stood up from where he was sitting and walked over to the gathered players, he picked the ''golden rooster feather'' and handed it to the dwarf, "what is it?" he asked as if ignorant, knowing its value was in the tens of thousands as an ingredient for enchantments but testing this group to see if they were good enough to playwith.

    "This my silly friend is the main ingredient for creating feather fall capes" she held it up, "its the most prized item this quest can drop", drawing circles in the air with it "its probably worth at least 5k gold to the right person", exaggarating the motion she swished it up and down with obvious excitement "our agreement sais i get first pick on every drop", she could barely contain her excitement "but to show you all i am fair I willpay for it to the whole group", she drewa purse and counted out "thats8 platinum coinsI will giveeach of youiffarmer boy lets the feather go".

    Not quite unfair, she probably didnt even know that the feather was used to enchant boots of flying and to summon flying mounts, her assessment of 50% from a feather fall cape didnt drop too far and Allen decided it was good enough for him, "ok" he nodded, deciding to trust her that far.

    The group erupted into cheers as this was the a great prize on top of everything else they got in less than an hour and no grind on this quest that was the top of the newby list and sometimes even at the bottom of the advanced quests.

    When they got back to the Gates Of Eden where all adventures started in V.R.G the group dispersed and allen logged off and went to sleep.

 107 Later soon

    Waking up in his cabin, ''no cells in a neuro psycology correction facility'', Allen ate breakfast alone while reading through his news feed and private messages, with nothing interesting going on beside another ''crazed AI'' scare and ''computers gone mad articles'' he skimmed quickly before going to the courtyard for his sunshine hours, ''its good for your rahabilitation'' the doctors said, and the slaves were ordered to walk around outside.

    Finding Tom in his usual spot Allen joined him, "I gave rat girl the wererat evolution"

    "Gee man you don''t start with light topics", Tom turned to look at him, "Why would you do that anyway?"

    "Needed her to shut up about something we found in the ship", Allen raised his hand, "nothing to concern you", patting Tom''s shoulder, "just some player mess i had to clean up".

    Losing interest Tom nodded, "so whats the plan?", he looked at the yard, "just sail to the forbidden islands and act like players?", the last few words held a dark tone to them.

    Allen looked at Tom "I don''t think so", rubbing his chin "im guessing just keeping it active as a resort for those in the know", he nodded "a place to blow steam and relax".

    "You know they will find it", Tom stared at nothing, "they allways do".

    "Remember our plan?" it was Allen turn to sound brooding "hide nothing, its not worth it to be caught lying".

    "Easier said than done", Tom turned to Allen "a lot of newbies on your cruise", he nodded "they dont know how it can get".Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

    Allen looked at Tom, "thats why we need to show them", he turned back to the yard "so they don''t lose everything".

    The two friends sat there for twenty minutes when a big man approached them, he was at his fifties, with tattoos all over his massive arms, chestand shoulders, "are you Allen?"

    "Who wants to know?" tom replied quickly.

    "Yes" Allen answerd at the same time.

    The big man looked at Tom, then back to Allen, "name''s Luke, but you know me as Odacious" he reached his arm to allen who grabbed it quickly.

    "Nice to meet the man behind the boat Luke", the hand he was holding was firm and steady, "we were lucky to have you".

    "Rick told me you took out some trash", Allen squinted at him, "you should knowI approve, though I could''nt do it myself".

    "Glad I could help Luke", he let the huge hand go, "it was my pleasure".

    Tom took this moment to enter the conversation "did you animate ships before luke?"

    Looking Tom in the eye, "yes, long ago it was a prime job", he seemed distracted by thoughts "nothing like today with all the idle routines and navigation aid stuff", turning to Allen "its a pleasure to meet you sir, good find on that ship".

    Allen decided it was time to bring up his idea "I want to give it to you and Rick", he saw the man''s surprise and added "so we can keep it" seeing Luke''s hesitation, "NPCs cant keep property" and added "we can barely use stuff with our ''recreational'' characters" and finished "a boat like this, somone will just take it, but you cant take a boat from itself" adding lately "especially when you dont know to even ask".

    Scratching his head Luke thought this over "it could work", taking a breath "but we will need more than 2 people", he crossed his arms "i will get the people if you are willing to give up the deed"

    Before tom could cut him off Allen shot his hand forward "its a deal sir Luke" and the big man took his hand and shook it for a second time, "we will work the details later", he hesitated "stuff like who gets to visit and maybe a black list" a final shake "nothing substantial, the ship is yours".

    After Luke was gone Tom shook his head "something is wrong with you my friend" he patted Allen on the back "deeply and thoroughly wrong".

    Less than thirty minutes later their break was over, it was soon time to start another shift.

 108 Breaking habits

    Rigging up and logging in Allen found himself sitting in front of his cabin mirror with Rick''s face already displayed "What the fuck?", he asked.

    "Good morning to you too ''captain'', i was just chatting with Carol when you booted her off" Rick answered coldly.

    "Shit, what is the deal with the pink flowery eyepatch?" Allen exclaimed.

    "I think itaccentuates your scars", Rick answerd, "Luke informed me of your deal", he smiled "I accept it".

    Allen looked at Rick, "Good, should I give the deed to you or should i wait for him to log in"

    "I am already logged in", the mirror answerd in Luke''s voice.

    "Thats a nice trick you have there", and Allen shut up when the mirror seemed to split to 6 different screens.

    "Its a remenant from days long past" the left middle image spoke, "we decided to trust you with it" Luke looked at the image of a woman set at the top left of the mirror and she added "its possible to make room for another when you occupy a body" and the bottom right image of an elderly man finished "but you really have to trust the person you are letting in".

    Shivers were running up and down Allens arms as he thought of the implications and applications but he let it go and focused, "I captain Slom hereby transfer the deed to the ship Odacious in my possession to the ship Odacious", the document in his hand changed and in the ownership list Odacious was added as current and the names ''Luke Scraper'', ''Rick Nroll'', ''Sasha Hashs'', ''Moody Morning'', ''Tim Tram'' and ''Halia Ashfort'' were added as co-owners of the deed.

    Another letter shuffle and the name ''Allen Pearlson'' was added to the list bringing the shivers back when Luke said "a little bonus for playing fair with us", the faces in the mirror faded leaving Allen to stare at his scarred face and the flowery pink eyepatch.

    Walking around the ahip Slom found a lot of things that needed doing and he started issuing quests to tie knots, break salt, count bean sacks and preparing food when he got a popup message

    [System: it appears your ship is infected with wererats, do you wish to issue an extermination quest to draw more active players to your ship? Y/N]

    "NO" he shouted in his mind, the last thing he needed were real adventurers crawling all over the ship.

    [List: <Odacious> Everyone better get up on deck I feel something big coming from below]

    The most frequent question after the big red messagewas not, what is coming but how to paint the messages, as soon as some people figured it out Allen''s headache multiplied with the plethora of edited messages flooding his vision, at least most people got to the deck to see what was happening.

    [System: It appears your ship is being targeted by monsters from the deep, do you wish to issue a S.O.S quest that will guide heroes to your location? Y/N]

    Thinking a clear "No" Slom ran to the figure at the head of the ship, "what is happening?" he asked between heavy breaths.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

    "We crossed to The Unknown Waters of the north" the statue said while looking at the water, "This is supposed to be a guardian monster from the deep"

    "If its a border guardian we cant outrun it" Allen said when he caught his breath, "do you think its an NPC?"

    The statue paused before replying, "if it is then it has to be a contract" he sighed "we have nothing to fight it with"

    Allen looked at the statue, "but it also has nothing to gain from us", turning to the water, "we should try and talk with whoever it is".

    The statue nodded and the ship slowed down, messages started popping when a giant shadow loomed from below the ship.

    After some thought allen used his credits to paint the ship sails with words.

    "NPC SHIP"

    "WANT TO TALK"

    The water around the ship started churning and a monster from the abyss shot out to be taller than its masts.

    Giant dark tentacles wrapped around the ship knocking the NPCs about and throwing some of them into the water.

    Before allen could react some people were already hacking at the monster''s arms and he had to use his credits again to shout "STOP".

    The creature''s head rose above the water and looked at him then at the sail he was pointing on and back to him.

    The arms retracted and the creature started convulsing in the water, flipping up and down and creating huge waves that tossed the ship all around.

    It took Allen a few seconds to realise the moster was heaving with laughter and when it caught onto him he started laughing as well, catching other crewmembers into the fit of laughter while others were just staring at the mad show of mirth.

    It took a few minutes for the monster to calm down and retrieve the fallen crewmembers back to the ship.

    [Whisper: Kraken so this is the famous Odacious /Whisper]

    The message aopeaering on Allens'' vision was a different, it wasnt pushed by the tide of chat madness in the list function and it took him a few seconds to figure the command.

    [Whisper to Kraken: 210m we didnt do anything to be called famous /Whisper]

    [Whisper: Kraken Oh but in certain circles you are/Whisper]

    [Whisper to Kraken: We can''t fight without players]

    A girl pulled Allen''s hand and asked "what is going on captain?"

    Allen looked at her player id "Janice?" he explaimed, "Why the hell are you a little girl?"

    "It was my NPC on Odacious before the attack", her face contorted, "sick fuck has a thing for little girls and payed for a bunch of them", she looked at him "but you are derailing" and added "what is happening?"

    Slom pointed at the aea monster that seemed intent on its rescue mission "its a NPC", he rolled his shoulders "i was talking to it before you came".

    She looked at him, "talking to it how?" turning her eyes to the monster "can it take over your mind".

    [Whisper to 85f: 210m like this, you think whisper to and the id and it sends the message on a different scroll /Whisper]

    [Whisper: 85f omg this is a game changer for NPCs everywhere /Whisper]

    [Whisper: Kraken please tell them to stop fighting me, i cant save them like this /Whisper]

    210m used even more credits to shout "THE KRAKEN IS FRIENDLY LET IT SAVE YOU" which at first seemed to have no effect but slowly more people were thrown on the deck to dry.

    [Whisper: Kraken wait till Poseidon hears about this, we had a bet going about who will meet you first]

    When all the people were back on board the Kraken moved to the head of the ship.

    [Whisper: Kraken it costs me credits to speak but it is my pleasure to say]

    The monster seemed to stand in front of the ship with two of its arms raised high when a booming feminine voice shouted "YOU MAY PASS" and it took a dive into the water splashing everyone on deck and knocking too people off.

    [Whisper: Kraken Oops /whisper]

    The fallen crew were lifted each with an arm and then the beast was truly gone.

    [Whisper to Kraken: 210m thank you]

    [Whisper: Kraken your welcome]

    Janice burst into giggles and rolled on the deck laughing her ass off, it took her a few minutes to catch her breath and sit up, "so you do have a thing for big women?"

    "It''s nothing like that", he blushed, "we were just chatting".

    "Oh sure captain", janice put on an idle routine for the girl to fix her hair adorably "you cant get them bigger than her though"

    Slom played with his eyepatch and it got Janice to start laughing again which broke the idle routine, "it suits you" she leaned her back against the rails "tell Carol i said hi when you chat with her".

    The ship started moving again and soon after a group of islands appeared on the horizon.

 109 Third Right

    [System: for defeating the Kraken ships under your command are granted free passage to the Unknown North Sea]

    The message popped on his vision as soon as the islands came into view, "must be some regional barrier" he mumbled.

    "What?" Janice asked

    "We crossed some kind of border and i got a system message for it" Slom answered, not realising he spoke out loud before.

    [System: you entered the domain of the sea serpent, do you want to issue a quest to call heroes to your aid? Y/N]

    "No" 210m said irritably.

    "What now?" Janice asked.

    "The system keeps prompting me to issue quests for heroes to come save us" he deflated "it seems now we have to deal with sea serpents".

    "I never heard of a sea serpent contract" Janice seemed worried, "do you think its a private region?"

    "It could be" Slom looked towards the islands "it can also be just a very old closed contract".

    Janice leaned over the rails "Like a dragon that was never defeated?"

    [Whisper: Kraken My name is Karen by the way, forgot to mention it, and yes its intentional i chose the kraken for the joke /Whisper]

    [Whisper to Kraken: 210m nice to meet you Karen, my name is Allen /Whisper]

    [Whisper: Kraken I thought you should know you have players on your ship, I got credits for interaction and for hurting a player /Whisper]

    "We could be in trouble" He said to Janice "Some players are still on board"

    [Whisper to Kraken: 210m thanks for the warning /Whisper]

    [Whisper: Kraken you should take off the sign or you could get someone in a lot of trouble /Whisper]

    Slom changed the words on the sail to just read "Odacious".

    Turning around he looked at the ship and tried to figure out who or where were the players they didn''t find on the first sweep, none of the NPCs was reacting to prompts, they were all just lazing about in the sun like pleasure cruise guests.

    He walked down to the main deck when Janice caught up to him "what do you mean sea serpents?"

    Her question brought him back to the previous conversation, "oh probably just some prowling monsters", he shrugged his shoulders feeling a slight pull from his scar, "they shouldn''t bother us since we don''t have players to give them credits".

    As he finished the sentence he heard somone cry to his left and looked to see people standing and pointing.A splash in the distance and an impossibly long body erupted from the water. Shooting up like a rocket the blue and green monster was rushing towards them. Slom turned back to the front and shouted "TURN RIGHT AND FULL SPEED AHEAD".Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    "They wouldn''t bother us" Janice said in a mocking voice from the stairs.

    [Whisper to Kraken: 210m Karen do you know the sea serpent in this area? /Whisper] Slom sent while running up to the deck.

    [Whisper: Kraken that asshole is supposed to guard the treasure island why is he bothering you?] he read after turning to look at the behemoth chasing them.

    [Whisper to Kraken: 210m can you talk to him? /Whisper] he grabbed for a rope tied to the main mast.

    [Whisper: KrakenI can try/Whisper]

    [Whisper to Kraken: 210m thank you, please give him my id and tell him to whisper me /Whisper] pulling the top ring of the knotand took a swing out.

    [Whisper: Devourer I''m busy what do you want? /Whisper] the monster was closing in on the ship in great leaps

    [Whisper to Devourer: 210m we dont have any players on board /Whisper] he was flying to the side of the ship

    [Whisper: Devourer too bad for you /Whisper] it took a dive and didnt surface

    [Whisper to Devourer: 210m is there anything we can do for you? /Whisper] he landed at the back and looked out to the water

    [Whisper: Devourer you can die /Whisper] a shadow appeared in the water behind the ship

    "HARD TURN LEFT" Slom used credits to amplify the order and the ship turned almost on the spot, the serpent shot out of the water and missed the ship by less than twenty meters, its tail flicked and almost hit them and the ship was sucked towards its entry hole in the water.

    He was searching for serpent underwater when he figured who the players were and it got him to think of a plan that could work.

    [Whisper to Odacious: 210m Luke get Rick or one of the other players to take over the ship /Whisper]

    The serpent broke the water in front of them, blocking their path to the island and thumping its tail on the water with a rhythem that caused the waves all around it to swell.

    [Whisper: Odacious This is halia, what do you need captain? /Whisper] Slom could almost feel her giggling

    [Whisper to Odacious: 210m I know how to deal with the serpent /Whisper] the monster finished its thumping by thrusting its tail into the wavefor alift.

    [Whisper: Odacious what serpent? /Whisper]

    [Whisper to Odacious: 210m look to the front /Whisper] the monster was riding the crest of the tsunami it created.

    [Whisper: Odacious What the hell? /Whisper] the ship started to turn.

    [Whisper to Odacious: 210m Dont panic, like i said i have a plan /Whisper] turning with the ship the monster was riding the wave in a intecept course.

    "TURN RIGHT" Slom burned through his credits to add a huge bladedram to the ship''s prow, "RAMMING SPEED" he ordered and the ship slammed into the serpent''s maw slicing the monster in half for about a third of its length, they broke through the wave and in seconds the sea calmed and the corpse sank to the bottom.

    The NPCs stared out to sea with mouths open and thencheered when the whole ship started to creak and stretch, becoming longer and wider, adding another mast and a whole new floor to the front and aft decks, the figurine at the head seemed to double in size and was now holding a giant spear that ended with the blade Slom added earlier.

    [Whisper: Odacious I leveled up AS A SHIP, you crazy maniac, DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS /Whisper] Allen started laughing and fell on his rump

    [Whisper to Odacious: 210m i dont think there was ever a Player Ship before today sono, I didnt know it was possible/Whisper]

    [Whisper: Odacious how did you figure this out? /Whisper]

    [Whisper to Odacious: 210m Karen said she got encounter credits from hurting a player and i figured the only players around here were you guys /Whisper]

    [Whisper: Odacious who is Karen? /Whisper]

    [Whisper toOdacious: 210m the kraken /Whisper]

    [Whisper: Odaciousthe kraken''s NPC is called Karen? /Whisper]

    [Whisper toOdacious: 210mshe said it was intentional /Whisper]

    The captain walked to the front of his leveled up ship and looked at the island that they were closing on, a small lagoon with a sandy beach welcomed them under the looming shadow of a dark rainforest.

 110 Water Log

    A warship sailed into a lagoon like a queen, a pack of Orcas accompanied her as she glided over tranquil waters but stayed behind as the ship neared the shallows.

    [System: congratulations captain you have discovered a secret cove, this will be your ship''s home port, shoose one

    A] Pirate haven

    B] secret hideout

    C] native village

    D] vacation villa

    Your choice will create a permanent change in the game world]

    "Oh my" 210m said, he walked to where Janice was talking with Halia and described the message, they decided to let everyone vote for what they wanted.

    The ship stopped about 100 meters from the sandy beach and Odacious informed them the reefs were too shallow to continue without a navigator or some map to get the enlarged ship in and out of the shallows, since none of the NPCs had that class they lowered the smaller boats and rowed to the beach.

    In the clear waters they could see the elaborate coral castles that housed a multitude of colored fish surrounded by giant algae and weeds. As they drew nearer the beach the corals changed to rock formations and then to clear soft sands before they hit the land.

    Slom decided he wanted to use one of the boats and try to find a path so the ship could get closer to the beach. The other NPCs took the opportunity and went scouting in the jungle or soak some sunlight on the beach and decks of the ship, this was a payed vacation for all of them, they were officially working and gaining credits while at the same time there were no actual players around that they had to serve and follow their orders.

    A small group decided they wanted to climb the mountain that was visible from the ship so they dropped some credits for machetes and exploration gear and entered the jungle where it looked a little thinner in the south side of the beach they landed on and vanished in the dense folliage.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

    As a group they voted to create a native village and the huts were peaking through the jungle at the northern part of the beach, a totem pole with sea creatures was topped by a crowned Orca and the NPCs started taking on native life jobs of cannoo fishermen, pearl divers and jungle hunters while others just used the native skimpy attire to play in the sandy beaches.

    Looking into the water got 210m relaxed, he could see the schools of fish swimming among the algae and he just let the idle routine continue rowing, not caring for the mapping or anything else, he started thinking about what to do next, being captain was a problem, he didnt care that much about pirate stuff and he knew they would soon be the focus of quests for players to find and attack them as they were drawing a lot of resources from the game system.

    Over 40 active NPCs burning credits with no player to actually pay for it was not something the system was going to ignore for long, even their "player" character was benefiting from the freebies and not actually playing the game as intended, he had no idea what a ship player character was supposed to do but sitting idle in the middle of an unnamed island was probably not it.

    He was startled from his thoughts when something at the bottom of the sea caught his eye.

    [System: Quest initiated, you have seen the sunken galleon while exploring the deep seas, you are now able to inform players of its whereabout and guide them to the location where they can find the lost treasures of ancient kingdoms, extra credits will be granted when players take on this advanced quest if initiated by NPC.]

    The sunken ship seemed to be full of life, surrounded by giant squids and a platoon of sharks was making its rounds in the water just above its broken masts, every now and then a shark, he recieved a list of possible treasure that could be found inside and around the ship, and some of the pieces were truly worth going on this adventure.

    [Whisper: Odacious another ship is coming I got a message to prepare for battle with a list of quests i can give player crewmembers /Whisper]

    [Whisper to Odacious: 210m I am coming back /Whisper]

    Slom could see the silouet of a ship on the horizon, it looked bigger than even the leveled up ship they had and it was growing bigger fast, he also spotted a group of ratmen rowing a dingy towards the Player ship and couldnt fathom a reason for deborah to do something like that, not wanting to give the secret for whisper to a possible traitor he didn''t use the newly found long distance comunication to find out.

    The captain boarded the ship and recieved a multitude of quests to give to players that wanted to run a sea war campaign,hesighed as he read through the message, it seemed like he could never catch a break since this whole ghost ship thing started and decided to try and save what he could from his soon to be lost freedom and riches.

 111 Drop Pod

    "RAISE ANCHOR" Slom shouted, not sure why he was wasting credits on a lost cause but he didnt want to go down without a fight.

    "We seem to be short on crew captain", the figurehead turned to him, "I cant use most of the idle routines without them"

    The ship started to turn but the motion was agonizingly slow, Slom heard a splash to the right of the ship and ran to look over the starboard rail, a dingy with the last few crewmen was making a run for it towards the shore, the captain came to a final decision "hide their movement Odacious" he said to the ship, "give them the best chance to reach the beach without players catching them"

    "Aye aye captain" the ship said and started slowly moving to put its bulk between the pursuers and the fleeing crew, it was then that Slom saw the enemy ship angling itself and slowing down "It looks like they think you plan to broadside them captain" he heard Luke saying.

    "So they will ran at an angle until we are in their range." Slom wanted to cry when he fealt his dreams of running wild sinking below the crystal waters, "it doesn''t seem like they are waiting for the Rats to catch up to them", he played with his eyepatch, "can you turn so we keep our broadside to them?".

    "I will try" came the answer, "it was a good ride skipper", the ship started turning very slowly to impose her broadside towards her enemy, "the others gave up their deeds so you can surrender without them sinking her".

    "How did they find us so fast?" Slom asked nobody in particular, "damn ratgirl" he answerd to himself when he thought about the rats going to the enemy ship.

    The captain stood on the deck of his abandoned ship, looking towards the closing enemy while every now and then he sneaked a look towards his fleeing crew and it seemed like they were going to make it to the abandoned beach, he could now read the name Devastacious on the side of the nearing ship.

    It was in gun range but no shots were fired, and the slow motion of the ghost ship made the other captain realize they were low on crew so he decided to capture the ship without wrecking it first.

    Devastacious turned her bow towards them and was speeding up again when suddenly Odacious shook with a BOOM from below, the shot hit the incoming ship''s prow and made a hole in its front wall, another BOOM was heard a few seconds later and another hole was made as the ship started to turn so its cannons can return fire and a third cannon shot before Slom hit the deck and burst into the dark empty holds below.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

    A group of girls was pushing a cannon that was as tall as them back into position and when it was ready one of them aimed and shot the incoming ship, "Why didn''t you run Janice?" the captain cried in frustration, we cant win this".

    "We can never win silly" was her answere as she shot the cannon, "we aren''t even allowed to play".

    Slom peaked through the gauge hole and saw the other ship turned its broadside to them, "this doesnt look good", he said as the whole side of the ship lit up and the thunder of a full broadside washed over them and snd flung him to the other sidwall like a ragdall.

    Splinters blasted through from every direction as cannonballs crashed through the walls, beams breaking and whole sections of the wall were missing, he could clearly see the other ship when the timer for the sinking ship was the last thing he read before the routine for a captain took over.

    Running up to the deck he was issuing orders no one could hear, he took his position in front of the wheel and spewed out meaningless orders and futile curses when the Devastacious closed the distance and its crew jumped over to Odacious, Slom stabbed the first Player that rushed him and shot the second with his pistol but he was soon surrounded and dropped to the deck where they died him up.

    Looking aside he could see Ratmen walking on the other ship''s deck, "what the hell is this?" someone was shouting, "you said at least ahundred slaves", a foot stomped the deck beside 210m''s head, "all we could find is this NPC captain and group of wounded girls in one of the holds".

    Slom recognized the raspy voice that answered to the accusations, "they were here", someone picked him up by his hair "where the fuck is everyone?"

    "I will never tell scum like you anything", the captain said valliantly and turned his head to look at his attacker''s groin, "you will get nothing from me".

    "Don''t count on it Captain", the man dragged Slom to the stairsand let him look at the deck below where a group of girls was leadat sword point towards a plank leading to the other ship,"I know you care about your people", and Allen flinched as he fealt that jab was meant for him.

    These NPC were pissed and they were burning credits to get their revenge on him and his friends,"had to sacrifice most of the crew to the sea serpent", he said while shaking his head.

    "This is great, I''ve never seen NPCs act so lifelike before", whispered a woman from behind Slom, "Shh, dont ruin it" she was quickly hushed but it was already too late.

    "Stab her", the raspy man called down to the man leading the girls and his sword slipped between her ribs as she cried from the sudden pain and was pushed to the water,210m was dragged down the stairs and towards the plank connecting the two ships.

    While the girls were taken down through one of the doors in Devastacious'' holds Allen was dragged to the main deck and he was hauled up the mast by a rope hooked to his handcuffs.

    Hanging free in the air Allen could see the laggoonas he swayed with the wind, he glimpsed a pod of killer whales swimming in the open sea, then the cliffs and beach and jungle came to his view and back to the open sea, he closed his eyes when he saw Odacious with a gaping hole running all along her side and sinking fast to the bottom of the sea.

    A ghost ship drifted through clear waters, her destination already known as she was gliding down towards a sandy bottom.

 112 Die Cast

    [Debby pov]

    Debborah was bored, her ratmen swarm were frolicking on the deck, playing volleyball with an inflated puffer fish she found in one of the cabins was challenging only in the first ten minutes and then the system took over and put in the idle routine that never missed a pass and allways hit their spot.

    One of her Ratmen was fishing when he saw the pod of killer whales playing in the water at the lagoon''s entryway, she couldn''t let them off her mind and soon a whole swarm of Ratmen were standing by the rails and looking at the orcas, thats when the idea hit her to try and play as one of them.

    She used her ratmen to lower one of the boat and row it in the direction of the jumping sea kings, when she got halfway to the pod a new ship appeared on the horizon, it was obviously a warship and her speen and direction left no questions about her intended prey.

    Debby decided to push for it, making her Ratmen row harder towards the unsuspecting creatures to try and reach them before their intended killers hit them. As the boat came among the ships'' would be victims and Debborah jumped into the water, never noticing the ship has changed its course.

    She was sinking and her fur got soaked, bubbles came out of her nose when she fealt something bump into her, reaching for it she felt the slick skin of the giant fish and immediately pushed her conciouseness into it.

    The sensation was weird, she never fealt like this before, it wasnt really cold or wet, but the water were gliding over her skin as she pushed the big rodent out of the water and took a deep breath, the rat tried to claw her but she pushed it away and its idle routine made it swim back to the boat.

    She could feel the danger from the two ships as they were closing the distance between them but the creature she was in didn''t seem to care, it was more intent on swimming around with its pod and the idle routines combined with the whole new enviroment and sensations overwhelmed her.

    She took a deep breath but the reaction she got was that her body shot out of the water in a spectacular leap and when she breathed out she found herself diving in a mind numbing speed.

    All her reflexes and reactions were messed up, trying to look around made her spin in the water, stopping got her to flip in place, turning right had her swimming in a circle and moving left just changed the direction of her spinning.

    Feeling sick and dizzy Debborah decided to take a different approach, she laid back mentally and let the idle routines play themselves out, the monster got back to its family and they were all just playing in the water.

    They all turned as one when food entered their range of smell, a pack of sharks was drawn to the battle where the system knew blood will soon be spilled, the big whales were gliding through the water and forming a wedge, Debby was fascinated by the animation and sophistication of the idle routines, diving below the school of sharks the Orcas then changed direction and attacked the predator fish from below, and then one of the sharks was isolated and pushed away from its group, it didnt take five minutes from when she identified before the Orca she was in took a bite from a dead shark.

    The Orcas killed a dozen sharks when she heard a blast in the distance, taking control over the body she let the routines do most of the work while gently guiding it to the surface, looking towards the two ships she saw the Ratmen boat hitched to the attacking ship and the humanoid creatures climbing onto the ship.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    She saw the Odacious sinking and the captain taken off and hung from the mast of Devastacious, her concentration broke when she realised she was getting to close to the players and took a dive before they could see her, seeing the Odacious sinking hit her harder than she thought an animated constract ever could, she remembered playing on it deck, and walking around the holds, swarming and evolving, it was the best day of her life since she became a NPC and now it was drifting to the bottom of the sea.

    Following the sinking ship a slight movement caught her eye and she saw the statue of Odacious'' prow straining and guiding the ship forward, Debborah got closer and when she saw the ship was trying to move she pushed it a little, but the it was ten times her size and the ship barely budged.

    Aiming her orca to push she hopped to another orca and overriden its idle routine to help pushing, jumping from whale to whale she got about half a dozen of them to do as she wanted before the first tried to swim away and she discovered her limit for this particular swarm, but half a dozen of the big creatures were enough to make a difference and they pushed the ship in the water, with the ship''s NPC guiding them they were getting closer to the cliffs surrounding the lagoon.

    Her senses of pressure and currents told her there was something pulling them along, an underground cave loomed before her and the ship was pulling away from her pod, getting distracted had given the other orcas time to resume their idle routines but they kept following their new big friend into the cave.

    [MC pov]

    Blisters covered his face, a player payed money to have a scorching heat effect active on an NPC, his tongue was dry and swollen, his skin red and peeling, he was swaying in the wind, the ship anchoredwhere the battle was fought.

    Thenative village that sprawled from the jungle to the beach wheremost the other NPCs turned to natives when given the chance to try and hide from the players,it still didnt spare them from the abuse.

    The ratmen that plagued the Devastacious were all idle, playing around and obeying orders with no guiding hand, at one time he saw a group of them playing catch with the head of a native but all the motions were perfect and flawless, so he knew it wasn''t some sick joke Debborah played on the other NPCs, she was gone and he didnt want to know where to.

    Slom took it all in, trying not to think about the ship he lost, some of the Players here knew about active NPCs and were abusing that knowlege while others just came for the adventure and new island with unknown quests. He was confused, he figured the ratgirl lead them here somehow, and he guessed some of the Players were actually fishermen characters of NPCs that joined the ride to mess with their inmates though he couldn''t understand why, except for the two NPCs that came back from the emergency evacuation he pulled on the torturers, none of it made sense and his blockers were tasked to their max to mitigate the burning sensation on his skin and turning it to a very annoying itch.

    Villagers were brought in by boats, they were asked to sing and dance and perform all sorts of menial tasks around the ship, it was just another abuse of the system by the few who knew about the inner works of ''ai'' in VRG.

    After a few hours dangling from the mast 210m thought his shift would end soon and he could simply log ib to another instance for his next shift, the captain will die or be contracted out and he wouldn''t have to suffer for credits he didn''t even want.

    As the sun moved lower in the sky he noticed that most players got bored or didn''t care about pirate scenarios and either went to the village and island to explore, logged off or changed instance to something they preferred.

    He realized that the pityful fight and no resistance given made the whole thing boring to most players and that left only the hardcore sailors and the crazy torturers on the ship.

    Slom was abruptly dropped to the deck below and he could feel bones in his feet and calves creak as he hit the hard wood.

    "Thought we forgot about you?" A brown haired big muscled man picked him up with the hook they used to haul him, just saved you for dessert, captain"

    "You won''t get anything from me" the idle response came bfore he could resist.

    "There is literaly nothing for you to give except screams" the big man dragged him to the dark corridors below.

    A ship moved along hidden currents with no hands on deck, her captain was captured and they were both carried into dark places below the waves of a quiet lagoon.

 113 Cringe Counts

    Carol logged off from her NPC captain and chuckled to herself when she thought about the pink flower eyepatch, climbing down from the rig and walking to the gym for her hour workout, virtual reality wasn''t her thing and she preferred to feel the real tension in her muscles as she was pulling herself up and doing all her workouts.

    Patty was the trainer today and she let Carol do her own routines without inteference, her weights session went well and she added another half kilo to her exercise, after squatting and legs she went to the mattress and did a full five flips drill ended with a double flip and a perfect landing.

    Picking up her dinner and sitting down with Manni and Jill, from behind her she could hear some girls talking excitedly about changing shifts to go on the new ghost ship, it was hard to ignore them, she really wanted some company on her ghost shift, but it was a favor to Allen and she wasn''t going to mess up his cruise more than the few pranks she pulled on him.

    Thinking of the eyepatch made her giggle again, he was a good friend, and pulled her out of fires often enough for her to owe him a few lonely shifts, and that Rick guy had some good jokes in him too.

    She logged in to her recreational character and started swearing her head off, finding herself stuck in the middle of the sea surrounded by a bunch of NPCs it took her two seconds to realise her sister took their character on Allen''s ship, before Allen''s people took over.

    [System: you seem to be lost at sea, would you like to respawn in the nearest safe zone? Y/N]

    "No" she looked around her at the group of idle NPCs and started prompting them to row the boat, every few minutes she told them to stop and let the boat rotate freely until it pointed without moving, it was a simple navigation method for Players to go back to their ship if they ever got lost, all the lifeboats will allways point towards their mothership if left unmoved for a few seconds.

    It wasn''t long before she saw a ship closing in on her, it came from the wrong direction but she didnt care any more she just wanted to meet other people, prompting her NPCs to stop the boat she made them jump into the water to wash off the blood and gore from their sick games, this proved to be a mistake when the blood in the water produced sharks that started swimming in circles around the boat.

    She made the NPCs start rowing towards the other ship and in a few minutes they were all pulled out of the water, "thank you for saving us good people of Devastacious", she breathed out when she was finally up on deck, "what are you doing all the way to the middle of nowhere?"

    The captain shook her hand "we were hunting pirates when we heard rumors of a ghost ship sailing these parts", he smiled, "so we had to come and see for ourselves", he lead her up to the main deck "but what would a young lady such as you be doing out here is much more of a mystery", his hand sneaked behind her back "do tell me your story".

    She turned around when she heard a cry of "WHAT THE FUCK", and she saw a man standing before one of the NPCs that came with her and he could be its mirror image, they looked so much alike that she couldnt tell which was the player and which the NPC before an idle routine made the NPC scratch its head, "HOW THE HELL DID THIS THING GET HERE".

    The captain looked at the player "calm down Samuel", he pointed at Carol, "she brought them here".

    Sam looked at her and a smile spread across his face, "she isn''t part of this crew right?", to the captain''s nod he continued "then by our agreement i get first choice of our captives", the captains'' eyes opened wide when he realised what the man in front of him was going to do.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    "But she is a player", the captain said worrily, and started shaking his head, "besides our agreements said you will help us find and capture a ghost ship".

    "She is how we will find that ship", he made a step towards her and gestured to his idle clone to grab her, "this is going to be very interesting to play", he added, "you can use the lifeboat she came with to find the ghost ship".

    "How do you know its the right ship?" the captain asked.

    "Because thats where i met her" sam finished and helped his clone drag the struggeling woman to the dark holds below.

    "Garry, Devo come over here" he shouted as soon as he slammed the door behind Carol, "I have the perfect test subject for our new toys".

    They entered a cargo hold with scattered barrels and piled crated roped to the floor and ceiling.

    Carol decided it was time to play her hand, she rolled back and jumped to the top beams kicked the man in the face to get on top, his eyes glazed for a second as the blockers took their effect and she used her theatric retreat skill to disappear in the darkness.

    Crawling, dodging and jumping on top of crates and dancing along ropes brought her to one of the trap doors used to haul cargo into the ship.

    The locked door was no match to her magician escape tricks skill and she was soon on the deck outside.

    It was time to find a safe spot to hide and log off before they caught up to her again so she used the change character skill from her stage artist class and soon emerged as a skinny man wearing a loose shirt and a moustache holding a mock sword and joining the search quest to find the woman that attacked Sam and ran away.

    She joined with another man and two women to form a party Seth and Mor were a couple and Jill was Seth''s cousin but they let her join them anyway so they could form a full party for the quest.

    "There are two other groups searching in our area'', Seth said, "so it should be easy to find whoever this runaway is".

    "We are close" Mor added, "I''mgetting asteady trickle of xp from this area".

    "Shut up" Seth hissed at her, "don''t let the others be first to find her".

    "This is getting too long" Carol added to their argument "shehas to be somewhere around here".

    "HA, GOT YOU" someone shouted from the room on the other side of the hallway and they all ran to see what it was about.

    A young woman washiding in acloset and as she was struggeling to get free of the other group she ran into Carol''s hands, weapons were drawn and the xp tripled for the search quest when a call to assume battle stations was heard throughout the ship and better quests were delivered for manning guns and boarding positions.

    All three groups delivered the woman to the captain and were dissappointed when they got no quest reward but moved on to their stations to take over the pirate ship.

    The ships maneuvered to fight each other at range and when only one cannon fired from the enemy the captain decided to give his broadside crew only a single pass before they would board and take over the Odacious.

    After the second broadside the timer for sinking the ship started which surprised Carol but she could not be more shocked than when she saw the only man standing on the deck was a certain NPC captain with a pink eyepatch.

    The teams swarmed the other ship just to get the quest rewards and surrounded the captain who managed to kill two players before he was disarmed and subdued.

    She was with her group searching for treasures when someone found the girls and marched them on board Devastacious, "damn it" Seth was cursing, "this whole quest isn''t working out for us".

    "Yea we should probably just give it up and go see that native village for better quests than this stupid empty ship"

    "Why are there so many Ratmen on Devastacious?" Jill asked "and why is that man hanged from the mast?"

    "That''s the NPC captain", Mor replied, "see that stupid pink eyepatch?"

    "I think the eyepatch makes him special" Carol chimed in.

    "Like retard special", Mor retorted, "probably some player payed for it to get a gag or something."

    "Lets go to the village", Seth concluded, "there is nothing for us to do here anyway".

    A ship anchored in a lagoon was sending delegations to a native village to try and understand why the other ship came here, at the same time another ship was sailing under the mountain to a cove full of riches followed by a pack of Orcas that helped push her when she got stuck in rocks or reefs.

 114 Chute down

    Slom was dragged downa hallway the smell was the first thing that hit him and he remembered another hallway smelling the same, as they drew near he could hear a whip cracking followed by cries of pain and the smell of blood and sweat was heavy when they neared the open door.

    Two Ratmen were standing guard outside the room, the first thing he noticed when he entered were the row of NPCs tied naked to the wall, "again" he heard a man say in a quiet voice and the whip cracked, followed by a whimper.

    His captors took him to a second room and there he saw a naked girl holding a whip, a short man standing to the side said "again" and the girl whipped an NPC that was tied to a bed standing against the wall "ahh our guest of honor has arraived"

    The whipped NPC is released from the bed and thrown into the other room, Slom is tied in his place and the man walked over, "welcome captain scarface", he ripped off the eyepatch and threw it on the floor, "our tests are finished and we are at last ready for you".

    "My name is Devo and I am the reason you are here", he scratches his chin, "you ruined our fun", a slap flew across 210m''s face making his head turn, "took over our ship", a punch to the stomache, "stole our stuff" another slap, "who the hell do you think you are?"

    "I am captain Slom and you are blocking my sunlight" he picked one of the options from his list.

    "Oh?" surprise sounded in Devo''s voice, "a funny man" he punched him again "who the hell do you think you are?"

    "I''m not that guy" Slom picked one that came with a gesture and spit out a tooth.

    "Whip him girl" the man was obviously not amused anymore as he shouted in rage, the whip cracked and Slom fealt a burning slash across his chest "who the hell do you think you are?" Devo shouted again.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    "That''s a personal question, do you really like me that much?" another high yield retort that gave 210m some good credits for active participation in his own torture

    "I know your secret", Devo whispered in his ear, "I know there is a person inside there", he grabbed Slom''s chin, "and i know how to drag you out", he waved at the other men standing to the side, "this little thing removes your blocks", he held up something that looked like a remote control tied to a needle, "we already used it on your little torturer", he pointed at the naked girl, "and boy did we have some fun with her then".

    Allen couldnt stop himself from staring at the device in horror, "are you crazy?" he payed credits to say a line out of character, "you can''t do this"

    "Oh but we most certainly can", he said and shoved the needle into Slom''s neck, "i would say you wont feel a thing" he laughed, "but in just a few seconds you will feel everything"

    Slom thrashed in his ropes while Allen tried to think of ways to escape, he tried to force a log off sequence but all he got was a maintenance error message, he pushed his avatar to the max burning credits like they were coals in a steam engine combustion chamber but nothing seemed to work until he suddenly fealt a jabbing pain in his neck whn Devo yanked the needle out.

    "Now you will learn about sticking your nose in other people''s business", a slap burned through Allen''s face, "whip him", and the whipcracked was followed by pain such as he never fealt before, "again", and by the fifth lashhe waswhimpering and begging them to stop, he could see tears in the girl''s eye but for some reason she couldn''t resist the commands shouted at her.

    Slumping over Allen could feel nothing beside the pain, he was broken and bleeding, the whip only a beginning to torments he never knew existed, they cut his flesh, maimed him, stabbed his arms and legs, all the while talking about how this was a lesson.

    They moved the bed so he was layed over it, he heard some shouting and a fight broke in the other room but he could feel only pain, unable to log off, unable to act, his very being was enslaved to the pain, "it seems some of your friends snuck in on us", he heard someone other than Devo, "killed our girls and ran off", he fealt something heavy smash into his chest, "but we still have you", another smash "i wonder if they died for real without blockers on", Sloms'' ribs cracked with the third hit "our plan was to heal you before letting you log off", his shoulder broke with another hit "but now it seems we shouldnt worry anymore".

    A silent ship found harbor under a mountain while her captain was drowning in a sea of pain and darkness.

 115 holey wrap

    Allen was tied to the beds turned to torturing rack and could barely move any of his limbs, pain permeated through his body, broken bones, cuts, intusions and other damage done to his body in the last hour that seemed to take forever.

    "Did you ever have to play a crippled NPC?" The short man asked Allen, "and i dont mean wounded", he was looking at something on his display, "i mean cripple as a main feature" he seemed to choose something as he nodded.

    "I had to play a cripple once", Devo started talking again, "it was a private contract", something twisted in his hand, "the man asked for the full immersion pack on the AI description", his voice got quiet, "you think its just a game", he measured Allen with some slimy rope, "but it does something to you", he leaned close to Allen''s ear.

    "Deep down it touches you", the hot breath in his ear contrasted to the ice spell that permeated in the room, "but that wasnt all of it", he kneeled near the bed, "sick fuck had a twisted thing for a crippled old man", he touched his forehead to Allen''s temple, "tortured me for almost a year by the contract", he put a hand on the tied man''s forhead, "after the psyche evaluation the company settled with me for three things"

    A finger touched Allen''s forehead "one was that i will never have to do contracts again", another tap on his forehead "two was that i would get to play as the sea serpent for as long as i like or until i died", a third tap "and i could use credits to make one character crippled any way i want"

    A hand clamped on Allens forehead and held his head and he fealt something terrible slithering into his ear, the pain made him scream and he could feel the thing crawling inside his head, he lost control of his bowels, he could feel his right arm and leg go numb, his tongue was dry and heavy in his mouth and then his mind started slipping away.

    The lamp that was used to hurt his eyes became dim, sound was starting to lose its edge as Allen fell down a black infinite hole, all he could feel was the pain, all over his body it fealt like fire under his skin and he could feel nothing else, all the interfaces that made up his life were shut down and replaced with pain.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    "What the fuck did you do?" Trent shouted at Devo, "his blockers are down" he grabbed at his head "we fucking hacked his interface".

    "Good" Devo replied, "motherfucker should suffer for what he did"

    "You probably killed him" Trent was pulling at his hair in frustration.

    "So fucking what?" Devo turned his head to look at trent''s tantrum, "its just a game".

    "No you moron" trent was screaming "his blockers were down" he ran towards the bed "it means whatever you did fucking hit his brain".

    "Well why didn''t you stop me then?" Devo started to panic, "do something"

    Trent used his access to read Allen''s interface but all he got was a blank screen with no response, he dropped to his knees and hit his head on the bed staring at the black interface window.

    "Come on man wake him up" Devo was whining beside Trent, "dont fuck me over this piece of shit".

    Trent had an idea and started shuffling through menus and furiously entering commands.

    "What are you doing man?" Devo kept pestering him as trent uploaded more data into Allen''s interface.

    Allen''s chest moved and his eyes snapped open, he tried to move but found he was tied to some sort of surface, trying to sit up resulted in no change so he just layed back and waited for new input to be added to his enviroment.

    "You did it man." Devo exclaimed excitedly and then punched at Allens'' stomache, "you fucking shitstain", he hit him again, "damn bastard", when he raised his hand to hit the tied man again Trent stopped him.

    "He cant feel anything" relief and anxiety were warring inside him, "lets wrap this up before his shift ends".

    At the end of the shift Allen logged off, when the bell whistled he got up and walked to the cafeteria, he sat down next to Tom and started eating.

    Tom stared at his friend with wide eyes and his jaw dropped, Allen dragged his leg and was using only one hand, he was holding a knife and trying to cut his food single handedly, his right shoulder twitching with the movement of the knife but his hand wouldnt respond.

    After staring for three minutes Tom started getting chills up and down his spine, then recognition hit him like a bat to the face, Allen Pearlson, his best friend for eleven years was a walking corpse worked by idle protocols like an NPC in the game.

 201 Working works

    When he limped to the dining hall some people were clapping while others were cheering, he ignored the hands given him to shake and just walked past the other prisoners, his only attention to the commands telling him to take food, sit, eat, remove platter, walk away.

    Prompts from the other people recieved no response, for some reason his arm wouldn''t obey commands but someone helped him finish the task at hand, he thanked the man and walked out from the dining hall followed by the silent stares of the people left behind.

    Allen logged in to the exercise program and followed the prompts to the letter, the haptic suit and cranial implant working together to fix his crippled hand and leg and made him do special drills taken from their medical files, he was also issued an appointment with a doctor for tomorrow morning.

    He switched to his recreational charecter and recieved prompts he ignored in the past.

    [System: Congratulations player, it appears you have acummulated enough gold to purchase a plot of land, would you like to do so now? Y/N]

    "Yes" he answered to the prompt as the overide working his cranial implant directed him, the system then guided him through the purchase process which used his character level and money to purchase the maximum size plot available to him.

    [System: This is the first time you purchased a possible spawn point, would you like to move your spawn to this location? Y/N]

    As soon as he selected Yes the system moved him to his new land with another set of short questions, his land was agroup of low hills setnear a beach with a river delta marking its border.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

    [System: To begin your farm please dig a well]

    The cranial implant took this as a prompt and Allen started digging into the ground

    [System: You could use better tools for the task at hand]

    a group of popup commercials appeard and Allen bought everything offered, from magical spades to simple leather stockings, when the series of popups stopped he started recieving private messages from players that sold him the items, being worded as questions and not prompts he ignored them and the system deleted his incompletepurchase orders.

    A simple sturdy spade appeared in his inventory and the system asked if he would like to equip it, after doing so the digging went much faster.

    [System: Attention player you are digging too deep and may cause a flood, would you like to proceed anyway? Y/N]

    Choosing yes several times had caused the well to gush out and flood his field.

    [System: Your field is ruined, would you like to turn it to a fish farm instead? Y/N]

    Picking the same answer as allways Allen then shose to grow golden gilled gliding gupies, which were the first and most costly choice.

    [System: Your chosen fish require a special ecosystem that includes algae and water snails would you like to add them to your farm? Y/N]

    The algae he bought was a large leafed brown green variety that the snails preferred

    [System: Now that your farm can produce base ingrediants would you like to build a house? Y/N]

    Following questions and suggestions from the system Allen built a two story house and an adjacent warehouse and started buying and placing various items in the different rooms, the system designed house would have driven any normal human insane, with corridors leading nowhere, splendid rooms filled with treasure and traps, the kitchen was filled with self activating appliances that no player bothered to buy.

    Withover thirty NPCs placed around the house with no apparent guide or reason, guards, staff, creatures and living furnitures all prompted by a system that never met a Player that didnt refuse her.

    A lonely ship was sitting idle on calm dark waters waiting for a captain that she had lost.

 202 Random encounter

    Taylor couldn''t let go of the riddle that the Peasant presented her with, no one chose this class, it was utterly useless with a skill set that made watching paint dry sound exciting, it''s one redeeming factor was letting you choose a special type of weapon proficiency through Legacy Weapon, you could basically used any weapon with the legacy prefix, like Grandpa''s sword, but these weapons were mostly trash, min max tools that were unpredictable at the best of times and downright useless more often than not.

    And yet this Allen guy played her like a harp, joining her group based on level alone, she should have checked their classes but who would ever level up a useless class like that?

    Something caught her eye, she checked again to make sure and then started reading in earnest, it was too odd, the benefit from something like that was so broken in the game that she had to call Brenda, "I found something off in one of the classes", she started, "look at the level cap on the Peasant class".

    "What am I looking for?", Brenda sounded skeptical, "It''s been 10 since I started playing".

    "Now look at the resurgence costs", referring to the drop in skills, attributes and other statistics that made up a character in the system she could almost hear her friend''s mind ticking away.

    "OH MY GOD", Brenda shouted, there is no resurgence cost, if anything you get a new legacy weapon every time you go through it, "What''s the catch here Taylor?" she exclaimed "Why did nobody find this until now?"If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    "Apparently someone did find it", Taylor told Brenda about her quest with Allen, "I thought it was a lucky one in a million critical hit when he killed that dire wolf", he frustration could be easily heard "but he could have killed every last one of them alone if my suspicions are right".

    "But it would take years", Brenda tried to mitigate the benefits "years and years of grinding to be ever stuck on level 10"

    "And you can never use any weapon of power", Taylor added and then thought about it "except a legacy sword that is unbreakable because its too low level and has no repair costs", she thought some more "you can only do as much damage as your skill and attributes modifiers",she breathed in sharply"infinite skill and attribute modifiers" she breathed heavily out.

    ----

    Allen logged off exactly four hours after starting the recreational game, even though more prompts were popping up and some timers had only a few more minutes to complete it was like he didn''t see them at all.

    Sleeping, waking up, eating all played on schedule with a group of NPCs following him with growing anxiety, the doctor prescribed restive activities while in work sessions and more therapy exercises to speed up healing of his apparently cramped leg and arm detecting no problem beside overworked muscles.

    He logged in as 210m and found himself floating under water, the system tagged a location to his left and he started swimming towards the prompt, the cold water bothered him only for a few seconds, the breath timer was disabled as well as other prompt timers, which he would have thought strange if he thought about them at all.

    An underwater current carried him faster and faster towards the location indicated on his map and he swam past a pack of killer whales that followed him for no apparent reason.

    A ship was sunk in a dark abyss, her captain a memory and light a fleeting thought, no waves lapped her keel for she was lost in cold forgotten depths.

 203 Lost soles

    It was dark, not cold or warm, just a thought, Allen forgot where he was, currents were running down to his arm and leg but he couldnt feel his body, only pain and darkness.

    "Throw it overboard", Sam answerd Devo''s question about what to do with the body, and they did just that, "good riddance", he muttered, "I deleted his memorys and everything about us so even if they scan him they will only find he died after hanging from the mast".

    Kobold slave 211m was digging in the deep bowels of a mountain when the wall he was hammering with his pick broke down and crushed to the floor.

    [System: Congratulations Kobold slave 210m you found an uncut ruby, would you like to give it to the foreman in exchange for a better pickaxe? Y/N]

    "Yes" the nameless Kobold chose the same answer as the last few hundred times he was asked that question

    [System: Congratulations Kobold slave 210m you have been given a magical pick that will allow you to dig through harder rock, would you like to try it now? Y/N]

    The system guided him to a region where the rock was giving off a dark purple light

    [System: Congratulations Kobold slave 210m you have mined your first Adamantium node, would you like to keep it? Y/N]

    He put the nodule of metal in his pouch and continued to mine as indicated by the system.

    [System: Congratulations Kobold slave 210m you have filled your first cart with Adamantium ore, would you like to return it to the foreman for a better helmet? Y/N]

    "Yes", He returned the cart and was given a helmet with magic diffusing lamp that allowed him to dig through the magical rock and not just scrape its surface.

    [System: Congratulations Kobold slave 210m you have found an Adamantium core, would you like to keep it? Y/N]

    He put the item in his pack and continued digging, filling his cart and turning it in time and again.

    [System: Congratulations Kobold slave 210m you have found a deep vein of Adamantium ore, would you like to assign NPCs to help exploiting it? Y/N]

    More kobolds appeared and started mining the ores, all the credits from selling the ores were turned to Kobold slave 210m''s account and the numbers were growing to a staggering amount that was far beyond the costs of the operation.

    [System: Danger Kobold slave 210m you have uncovered and ancient Wurm, would you like to attack it with your pick? Y/N]

    Swinging his pick the kobold bit deep into the skin of the monster like it was soft rock, the monster curled around itself and lunged at the gnat biting it.

    [System: Danger Kobold slave 210m you have been devoured by an ancient Wurm? Y/N]

    He continued to swing the pick at the soft rocks surrounding him

    [System: Notice Kobold slave 210m your weapon can not harm your enemy are you sure you wish to keep using it? Y/N]Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    [System: Notice Kobold slave 210m your weapon can not harm your enemy are you sure you wish to keep using it? Y/N]

    [System: Notice Kobold slave 210m your weapon can not harm your enemy are you sure you wish to keep using it? Y/N]

    [System: Notice Kobold slave 210m your weapon can not harm your enemy are you sure you wish to keep using it? Y/N]

    [System: Congratulations Kobold slave 210m you havekilled an ancient Wurm would you like to loot the body now? Y/N]

    [System: Congratulations Kobold slave 210m you have found a set of magic resistant wurm skin armor would you like to equip it now? Y/N]

    [System: Congratulations Kobold slave 210m you have discovered a wurm egg, would you like to incubate it now? Y/N]

    [System: Congratulations Kobold slave 210m you have discovered a wurmtooth neclace would you like to equip it now? Y/N]

    [System: Congratulations Kobold slave 210m you leveled up and are now level 25]

    [System: Attention Kobold slave 210m max level reached would you like to start a resurgence process? Y/N]

    [System: Attention Kobold slave 210m the classes available for resurgence from slave miner are

    [slave miner +3 to all stats]

    [runaway slave -3 to charisma]

    [free miner -3 to strength]

    [System: Congratulations Kobold slave 210m you chose [Slave miner] as your resurgence class, the resurgence price is +3 to all attributes would you like to proceed? Y/N]

    [System: Congratulations Kobold slave 210m you are now a slave miner, would you like the system to direct you to the nearest mining area fitting your skills and attributes Y/N]

    The slave followed the system to another glowing rock, this one emanating a green hue.

    [System: Congratulations Kobold slave 210m you have mined your first Glazium node would you like to keep it? Y/N]

    Packing the unrefined ore and then filling the cart and delivering the precious metal to the foreman was by now a routine, when he delivered the ores a group of players started following him into the mine.

    [System: Attention Kobold slave 210m Your keen senses make you aware of a hidden presence following you]

    [System: Attention Kobold slave 210m Your keen senses make you aware of a hidden trap, would you like to sneak through it? Y/N]

    [System: Attention Kobold slave 210m Your keen senses and trap making skill allow you to learn the crushing wall trap]

    [System: Attention Kobold slave 210m This seem to be a perfect location for a crushing wall trap, would you like to place one? Y/N]

    [System: Attention Kobold slave 210m Your trap making skill has reached its maximum level would you like to evolve it to the magical trapmakingskill? Y/N]

    [System: Attention Kobold slave 210m This seem to be a perfect location for amagical pittrap, would you like to place one? Y/N]

    [System: Attention Kobold slave 210m This seem to be a perfect location for amagical pittrap, would you like to place one? Y/N]

    [System: Attention Kobold slave 210m This seem to be a perfect location for amagical pittrap, would you like to place one? Y/N]

    [System: Congratulations Kobold slave 210m you have placed 200 traps in a cave would you like to claim it as your property? Y/N]

    [System: Congratulations Kobold slave 210m you are now the owner of Hidden Cave Mine, would you like to make it your spawn point? Y/N]

    [System: Congratulations Kobold slave 210m your new spawn point is set, would you like to respawn now? Y/N]

    [System: Attention Kobold slave 210m You have 233 hired Kobold NPCs in your cave would you like to make them your tribe? Y/N]

    [System: Attention Kobold slave 210mYour tribe needs a source of food would you like to make one now? Y/N]

    [System: Attention Kobold slave 210mAvailable food sources are

    [Worm farm]

    [Ant hive]

    [Mushroom grove]

    [Fish pond]]

    [System: Attention Kobold slave 210mYou have chosen Worm farm for a food source in your cave, are you sure? Y/N]

    [System: Attention Kobold slave 210mYou have in your possession a Wurm egg suitable for cultivation as food source in worm farm would you like to use it now? Y/N]

    [System: Attention Kobold slave 210mYour worm farm has evolved to Wurm farm eating from this source will enhance magical protection, would you like to use it as a main source for nourishment? Y/N]

    Finished with all the popped up windows Kobold slave 210m was back to his mining rock and logged off to go to sleep.

    A ship sat in silence, it''s captain lost and currents pushing it against the walls of a hidden tunnel.

 204 Taken gifts

    Floating on the sea of conciousness, carried on waves and currents of pain and thoughts drifting in a world of dreams and memories Allen couldn''t tell in from out, up from down, being became his truth, restless thoughts of somewhere he needed to be.

    [System: Notice your current respawn location is invalid will you pay 2,000 credits to return to your last safe respawn point? Y/N]

    As soon as Allen approved his avatar appeared in the captain''s cabin on board the Odacious, it cost him a hefty sum of credits because his last respawn was chosen for him by a player but he still had a good balance from years of not bothering to pay for anything.

    [System: Notice captain, your ship is wrecked, do you want to contact its owner and initiate a salvage quest? Y/N]

    As soon as he replied another window opened in Allen''s user interface;

    [System: Notice a captain of your ship has suggested you issue a salvage quest to regain facilities of your ship would you like to do it now? Y/N]

    When he approved the quest he got another poppup

    [System: Notice your ship location status is <hidden> you can pay 1.2m gold to have your ship fixed by local NPCs would you like to do it now?]

    When the sum of about 10% of his life''s savings was deducted from his account it was noted by the system and mail was sent to the company''s accounting division.

    [System: Notice captain the player holding the deed to the ship has issued a repair quest to local NPCs, do you want to start now? Y/N]Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

    [System: Notice captain to exit the cabin you will need to repair the cabin door would you like to do so now? Y/N]

    Walking to the cabin door he examined it as the system prompted him to do.

    [System: Notice the door hinges cracked, do you want to pay 50 credits and bash the door open now? Y/N]

    Putting his weight behind his push he broke the hinges and the door slammed to the floor throwing him into the hallway.

    [System: Notice the door to the captain''s cabin is broken do you want to earn 350 credits to fit in a new door? Y/N]

    He selected the first door from the menu and lifted it to the opening, it was a heavy steel door gilded with pictures of sea monsters and ships.

    [System: Notice most the ship is filled with water do you want to earn 1,100 credits to fix the magical pump? Y/N]

    Walking down the hall following the instructions of the system map he came to stairs that were sunk from the third stair onwards, the system prompted him to dive and he soon found himself floating in the dark bowels of the ship.

    Coming to the main magic room he was prompted by the system to redraw the magical runes on the floor and soon his efforts were rewarded.

    [System: Notice the magical pump is now functional do you want to earn 750 credits to start extractinging the water from the holds? Y/N]

    The system moved him in a strange dance inside the magical circle and soon the ship was surrounded by a magical shell and water vanished from its holds, he started examining the rest of the ship by the system prompts and highlights.

    [System: Notice the main mast is broken do you want to earn 350 credits to fix it? Y/N]

    He selected the mast offered him, made from magical wood that helped shaped the wind around it.

    [System: Notice you haven''t eaten in 3 days, do you want to pay 5 credits for a fresh meal before ''hunger'' condition is applied? Y/N]

    Eating the plate of fish he was soon filled and read the next message on his interface

    [System: Notice local wildlife asked to join in the repair quest, do you want to delegate parts of the repairs to them? Y/N]

    The Orcas were fast workers, fixing the breaches in the ship hall in minutes, it didnt seem strange to him to see killer whales using hammers and placing planks, because he had no other memory related to them, his life was summarised by system analysis and prompts.

    A ship surrounded by hard working sea life was being repaired before embarking on its next adventure

 205 Fresh start

    Ori jumped off the boat to the sandy beach, the waves lapping behind him and a soft breeze carrying the cries of birds and a salty smell, he walked towards the jungle when the last vote was cast and it was a clear decision to make a native village.

    [System: you are now a resident NPC of a native village in the Unknown northern sea, choose your profession

    [a] shark hunter

    [b] pearl diver

    [c] jaguar trapper

    [d] canoo carver

    [e] shadow dancer

    [f] thunder caller]

    He picked thunder caller because it sounded awesome and immediately recieved the outfit and a list of idle routines that would let him beat the jaguar drums and bring forth a storm of sounds and illusions, looking around he saw others picking up the other professions as their outfits were all different, he found another man and a woman dressed like him and when they came together they had to option to buy a thunder hut to live and work in.

    Soon other huts joined theirs and in front of his hut were placed three big drums covered by jaguar skins, when he picked up a stick and started beating the drum a sound permeated across the beach and he could see the jungle opening up around their huts, becoming more civilised, canoo boats lined the beach and some were already taken out by shark hunters to gather the rich bounty in the feef.

    Beating the drum was second nature, the idle routines let him move from a quick staccatto to a thundering roar passing on emotions and giving the other NPCs credits as they plied their jobs in the rhythems he conjured, after two hours of beating the drums he recieved the message.

    [System: it seems the drum you are beating cannot express the full power of the thunder caller, would you like to issue a quest for players to gather Jaguar skins for you to improve your drums? Y/N]

    [System: it seemsthe heads of yourdrumsticksdont create theperfect beat, would you like to issue a quest for players tobring you pearls of better qualityto enhance your music?Y/N]

    [System: it seems your drums are cracking, would you like to issue a quest for players to aquire better bodys for your drums from the canoe carvers? Y/N]

    [System: your music has swayed the hearts of many, but the bodies of few, would you like to issue a quest for players to form a shadow dancer troupe that will bring your performance to new heights? Y/N]This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    Picking yes for each of the messages was a mistake as immediately his drum broke, the skin ripped, the sticks shatterd on the broken drum and he could feel his spirit falling as he just stood there staring at the broken tools of his trade.

    "Your new at this aren''t you?" the woman asked, "never issue quests unless a player is close by".

    He stared at her "but this doesn''t make sense?"

    She leaned over her drum "it does when you consider it in their perspective", giving a couple of beatings to her drum, "we are here to entertain the paying customers", she sighed "you could use credits to get a new drum" then she pointed at his broken items "but it won''t be as good as what you could get from the players"

    "I don''t understand" he just looked at her as if she fell from the sky "what do they need us for?"

    "we create diversity" she started beating a rhythm "we teach our NPCs how to play their roles", speeding up the tempo "after you will interact with a few players you will get credits and be encouraged to either move to another role or evolve your current character".

    He tried to pick the sticks from the other man''s drum and beat it but no sound came out, he sat down and held his head in his hands "this is stupid".

    "Yes it is" she said "my name is Leo by the way", slowing down her beat "why did you choose a music class if you dont know all this?"

    Turning towards her "it just sounded cool" the idle routine made him hug his broken drum, "now what do I do?"

    "Now you wait for players and issue your quests for them", she looked at him "and when they finish you play your music until they leave", she pointed at the drum "or you use your credits to get the pieces from other NPCs".

    "I am Ori" he reached with his hand and she shook it, "what do you think i should do?"

    "Now you ask", she sighed, "you should issue the quests as the system offers them" pointing towards the ships fighting in the distance, "soon we will be swamped with players", she shook her head, "most of them will just rampage and harass the characters", then she breathed out, "but some allways look for things to do".

    He looked at her quizzically, "why don''t they just play the game?"

    "The violence is the game for them", Leo was starting to give up on him, "they come here to get their thrills, to most that means violence and mayhem in a controlled enviroment"

    Three small boats left the Odacious and were making their way to the shore while the ship itself moved to hide them from the enemy.

    "What is happening?"Ori asked Leo but no sound came out.

    [System: Notice NPC do you want to pay 10 credits to add new lines to Thunder Caller character? Y/N]

    He chose to pay but there was no reply from Leo, when he looked at her she seemed transformed, somehow less human.

    "Whlcome to our village stranger" came from Leo''s direction, "A storm hit our village not long ago".

    Ori knew he was way out of his depth in this character, having previously only played at low levels of the game where the character had huge vocabularies, he now realised that was thanks to previous NPCs that played thos characters and payed to add more dialogue lines to their menu.

    "Praise be to our ancestors" he muttered and watched as the battle played out.

    A ship and its captain were fighting for their lives under the watchful eyes of local villagers that held their breath to see what the fates held for them tomorrow.

 206 Bunny bones

    Currents shot down his arm and leg, crippling him, causing pain he never fealt before, thrashing in agony became his whole existense, nothing else was real, only pain.

    "Lets go to the village and see if they have any real quests" Seth was taking command of their group again after the raid to the torture chamber and freeing the victims.

    Carol shook her head "I have to log off soon and get some sleep before work", then she added "But it was fun playing with you so I''ll try and come back tomorrow", she entered a cabin and payed its fee so it would become her respawn point and safe room.

    Logging off she breathed hard, seeing Allen like that terrified her, thinking it could be her and not him was a horrible nightmare she never wanted to live through, deciding never to log to the captain Slom character unless Allen was fine she immediately sent him private messages and chat requests that he will recieve as soon as he got out of that horror show.

    Another message she sent to Janice to see if her rebellion succeeded and a last message to the authorities she worded carefully to imply someone was tampering with NPC blockers and implants.

    With a sigh she went to sleep and was haunted but even worse nightmares than usual, player characters had a wider feed than NPCs and the experience was much more vivid.

    Waking up she found the forums buzzing with questions about special classes now called "resurgence classes", after checking the lists that different players put together she realised they were talking about NPC approved player characters, it was no secret to her that grinding those was a sure way to become over powerd if you put years into it, but compared to other types of characters it just wasn''t worth it.

    Getting the same stats a legendary sword was possible but took months of hard work where getting the sword was a simple as paying a few bucks, so why would anyone bother?

    She posted her message about the stupidity of the whole discussion and got back to her day, eating breakfast alone in her cell, logging in to the NPC server selection brought her the list of current open NPC contracts and requests and she skimmed it until she found a group request for a healer.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

    Picking her favorite NPC which was technically a healer put her in the shady inn where the quest started, "Hello there" she approached the group highlighted by the system "I hear you need a healer for your quest to hunt the abominable bushman".

    Their jaws dropped, looking at the NPC approaching them was like seeing a legend come to life, she looked like an angel from some grotesque depiction of hell, spikes through her arms and body were linked by dark metal chains, her face had no features, just a blank slab of skin, a pain maiden was a healer only if you interpreted that term on a very broad scale.

    "What the fuck did you call for moron?" one of the women in the group slapped the ranger looking guy on the head, "you were supposed to ask for a healer of our current level", she shook her head "now it will cost us double to call for something else".

    "My name is Roman" he answerd, "and I didn''t ask for this", he pulled up his request and sent it to her, "see, need NPC healer for grotesque bushman quest", stopping another slap to his head, "and im not paying for another one".

    "Fine" she sook her head, "I guess we can work with that thing", she kicked his leg "but no kinky stuff".

    They slotted Carol to their NPC role and started the quest, drawing stares from bistanders and players as they were walking down the street, which elicited a few elbows to Roman''s side.

    [System: Notice, side quest available to group, would you like to offer it? Y/N]

    "We should go look at those ruines", Carol said after accepting the side quest prompt.

    "What?" the woman turned and looked at her, "did you just speak?"

    "We should go look at those ruines", Carol repeated and pointed to the side of the road.

    "Why should we do that?" Roman chimed in.

    "Did that NPC just speak?" a staff wielding fighter asked from the side.

    "Yeah", the woman answered, "Duke I think we found a side quest"

    "Never heard of a side quest on the Abominable Bushman hunt", he looked at Carol, "What do you think is out there?"

    "I can hear the cries of fallen dwarves", she started the quest lines "guarding their treasures even in death".

    Duke looked at the other woman "What do you think Lena?"

    "I don''t know", Lena said putting a hand on her sword, "I never heard of dwarven population in these regions".

    Carol continued her narration "The dwarves were vanquished long ago", her voice emantaed from where she should have a mouth but her face never moved, "only their spirits haunt their long lost halls".

 207 Down blow

    Stiff fingers sent jabs of pain up his hand with every jolt that coursed from his shoulder, pain was fracturing in his mind creating segments of reality where his conciousness formed between the cracks.

    Debby used her hands to fix the outer halls of the ship, the huge orcas were thrice evolved before they became true monsters, from animal to beast, to dire beast and then to monster, but she endured, retaining control and forming more complex idle routines that let her spread control over more monsters.

    She accepted the player issued salvage request and her bodies morphed to their current state, she could now turn to almost human form with legs and hands, only huge in size and having sharp teeth in giant powerful jaws, but she enjoyed the water too much to hold that form for long.

    Following Allen around gave her the weirdest feeling, like he was a ghost, never acting, only reacting to things he saw on his interface.

    With the ship now fixed she moved her swarm back to the lagoon, hunting and playing with the other sea creatures, keeping her distance from the player ship and boats that went back and forth to the village and the ship.

    Trying to leave brought her too close to the player ship, almost losing control on her pack when the idle routines took over and forced her to pay credits so she could run away back towards the hidden cove where Odacious was resting.

    Inside the cave she set a routine of hunting and playing for the swarm and logged off, she needed to decide what to do with her swarm as soon players will come to the new area and the cove will be found, she could hide in the caves for a while but they will find her eventually.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

    Other options were to run to the open seas and maybe lose some or all of her pack to player hunters and the last option was to kill any player that entered her area which would make them mark it as dangerous and probably leave it alone as animals weren''t worth killing for higher levels and they wouldn''t know the swarm was monstrous for a very long time.

    Logging off she found herself hanging from the rig in an awekward position and her muscles were all cramped from all the strange contortions she did to force the animal body to resemble human postures and movements.

    She did a long stretch and entered some changes to her daily excersizes, enhancing flexibilty and motion over strength and speed.

    Debby went to eat at the cafeteria in her usual spot where she phased out and listened to the conversations around her, naturally a lot of it was focused on the ghost ship, many asking what was happening and others lamenting its loss for the NPCs as they wont get a chance to ride the instance now that players found it.

    A familiar name caught her attention, "If you see this trent guy don''t mess with him" the woman behind her was saying "they are all blacklisted".

    "Who is?" Debborah asked

    The woman studied her "there were four people but we only know the names for three", she looked at her friend who nodded, "Sam, Trent, and Devo, the fourth was a woman using rats or ratmen", she seemed upset "they fucked Janice bad, even messed with her blockers"

    Then the friend added "But nothing like what they did to that poor captain guy", shaking her head "turned him into some kind of zombie for real".

    "So if you see any of them just walk away and don''t interact with them", the first woman said gravely, "I wish we knew who the rat woman was".

    Debby nodded and stared at her food, losing her appetite with a stone sinking in her stomache, she thought to defend herself, after all she wasn''t there at the end, but prudence was to be quiet and just walk away before she said something, this was a prison, and her inmates were mostly violent and dangerous criminals, she should know, being one herself.

    The ship was rocking softly on the waves as its captain was busy fixing small things and carving faces and mural on its inner walls and doors.

 208 Taking refuse

    It hurt to breath, every time he inhaled the currents shot from his arm to his chest, it hurt to be alive and he didn''t know how to stop.

    [System: Notice AllenP your ship''s repairs are done, would you like to set it''s home port to the nearest available dock? Y/N]

    [System: Notice AllenP your ship''s home port was set to <HiddenPirateCove19>]

    [System: Notice AllenP a new destination <Village821> is available for your ship would you like to set course now? Y/N]

    [System: Notice AllenP connecting your house to the main road will increase your income by 3% would you like to do it now? Y/N]

    [System: Notice AllenP a NPC at your employ can upgrade your <Trodden Path> to <Trench Road> would you like to do it now? Y/N]

    [System: Notice AllenP your house foundations are deep enough to connect to the <Underway> would you like to do it now? Y/N]

    [System: Notice AllenP connecting your house to the underway has made it a starting point for the <Hunt the Calophalis> quest would you like to start it now? Y/N]

    [System: Notice AllenP the quest <Hunt the Calophalis> is recommended for raiding parties only would you like to issue a <Call to Arms> campaign now? Y/N]

    [System: Notice AllenP your level is <9> would you like to set it as the max level for your <Call to Arms> campaign? Y/N]

    [System: Notice AllenP DemonKing12 would like to join your party do you accept? Y/N]

    [System: Notice AllenP BeraBree would like to join your party do you accept? Y/N]Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

    [System: Notice AllenP ColeD would like to join your party do you accept? Y/N]

    [System: Notice AllenP SharonK would like to join your party do you accept? Y/N]

    [System: Notice AllenP LaLaLaand51 would like to join your party do you accept? Y/N]

    [System: Notice AllenP KennyK would like to join your party do you accept? Y/N]

    [System: Notice AllenP Devourer would like to join your party do you accept? Y/N]

    [System: Notice AllenP HollyN would like to join your party do you accept? Y/N]

    [System: Notice AllenP DennisB would like to join your party do you accept? Y/N]

    [System: Notice AllenP KillQueen24 would like to join your party do you accept? Y/N]

    [System: Notice AllenP your party is full would you liketo invite other parties for your raid? Y/N]

    [System: Notice AllenPAshMourn party would like to join your raid do you accept? Y/N]

    [System: Notice AllenPDeedSquad party would like to join your raid do you accept? Y/N]

    [System: Notice AllenPLionKings party would like to join your raid do you accept? Y/N]

    [System: Notice AllenP your raid group is full you must remove members if you wish to add more]

    Players started gathering at the crossroad, riding mounts made of fire and ice, dragons, grypons, and through portals they all rushed to the new low level quest that would allow them to level new classes fast.

    "Where the hell are we Sharon?" a skinny man asked the green haired elf to his right

    She looked at her interface and shrugged "No big city anywhere around here" she concentrated "we seem to be on the shore of an inner sea or a big lake in the main continent but thats all i have mapped", she smiled "I don''t think we are in kansas anymore Cole".

    A few of the people laugher when one of the women added "This is supposed to be the southern wastes" she patted her frostwing panther and looked at the blonde girl riding a bull phoenix to her right "me and Holly were flying over Crater Mountain and then were teleported to about half a mile east of here when we accepted the quest"

    "Geography lessons later" a chubby dwarf interfered "let''s get this raid started"

    "If one of you pull a Leeroy on us",Devo said"I will hunt you down and kill you a thousand times", then headded"in the worst ways i can imagine"

    "Don''t threaten us shorty" a half gian woman burst at him, "but he has a point", she looked around at all the strangers "we play this raid by the fucking book".

    The waters rose in a hidden cave, carrying on them a ship destined to the open seas and a captain that was ready for new adventures.

 209 Carp Load

    In the darkness there was only pain, twisting in agony as wave after wave of agony washed under his skin, trapped inside his own conciousness and unable to resist the crushing weight of suffering without end.

    "Karen Adeline Morgan" the judge called out, "for stealing corporate secrets while under the persona of Khali", she looked at the jury podium "and having been found guilty by your peers", her eyes piercing through Karen''s heart "of the terror attack on the Hillian Consortium Buildings", lips tighten for a heartbeat, "you are hereby sentenced to 150 years of rehabilitaion in the Neuro Psychological Correction facility" the hammer struck.

    Karen stood there unmoving, looking back at the judge who sentenced her for a life of torture and misery in what was most likely a hard labor camp where she would be subject to all sorts of abuse.

    Her memories from that day were mostly lost in the confusion, grieving families assaulted her and the police officers escorting her, the silent van where those same cops looked at her with disgust and hatred, ready to attack her if anything went wrong on the way to the NPC facility.

    The rules were simple, nine hours of the day she was logged into various games and acted as medietor for non player content, another hour of excercise in the virtual reality without blockers so her body would be conditioned, four hours of recreational activity in the game world chosen for her by the facility medical staff an hour to eat and prepare and then seven hours of sleep before another hour to eat and relax and back into the cycle.

    These facilities never had revolts, NPCs were never subject to correctional punishment, there were never problems from any inmate, and the staff was mostly there to protect the equipment.

    Logging in for the first time to the NPC interface was delirious, her senses were stunted, most of her body functions blocked out, all she had was visual and auditory sensations and even these blurred into an almost monotone world of prime colors and clear sounds.

    [System: Welcome NPC Karen Adeline Morgan, you are assigned as a shopkeeper in the <General Store>of <Carrion Village> your job is to sell and buy items and upgrade the shop through quests given to players]

    A short man was already checking the shop moving around and opening crates and chests when she gained control of her avatar, "may i help you?" was met with a system notice that it cost credits to add new lines to the character so she scanned her given dialogues and found it was just a list of disconnected words.

    "Hello", "Sir", "Welcome", "General Store", "What", "Looking", "For"

    "Oh an interface", he said jovialy, "I need bolts of cloth"

    Karen searched the item in her list "5", "silver".

    "Wow thats a lot, can I get a discount?"

    [System: Notice Shopkeeper1 a player initiated interacion, you earned 3 credits]

    "I", "can", "go", "as", "low", "as", "4", "silver"

    "Thats still a lot for me, can you give me 2 bolts for 6 silver?"Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

    [System: Notice Shopkeeper1 for player continued interacion, you earned 1 credits]

    "I","Can","Give","You","2", "Bolts", "for", "7", "Silver"

    "Deal", the player passed on his coins, "Pleasure doing business with you", he scratched his chin in thought "Thats one hack of an interface"

    [System: Notice Shopkeeper1 a player concluded a transaction, you earned 10 credits]

    "I also need a knife", he looked at her, "got one of those?"

    "Yes", she screamed in her mind, this was the worst comunications system she ever saw, if her life were going to be broken to single word sentences her mind was going to blow, then she remembered the option to buy new phrases.

    "That would be 12 silver coins" she tried

    [System: Notice Shopkeeper1 the requested sentence will cost you 18 credits]

    "12 silver" trying again and figuring it was credits per word.

    [System: Notice Shopkeeper1 the requested sentence will cost you 6 credits]

    She was glad to be right about the price but not thrilled about the thought of having to pay for each and every possible combination of coins so she fiddled with the interface until she found a <Help> file that stated that bracketed numbers were interchangeable in interface sentences when added with question mark, also locations and statements could be changed when used the same way.

    "<12?> Silver" she finally said

    [System: Notice Shopkeeper1 the requested sentence will cost you 10 credits]

    she sighed and allowed the deduction and her avatar said the words, brackets and marks cost almost as much as words it seemed.

    "12?" he cried, "thats way too much", he knocked on the counter, "give me a discount"

    [System: Notice Shopkeeper1 for player responded favorably to your interacion, you earned 7 credits]

    "<11?> Silver", she answered

    "Thats way too much" he leaned over, "show me the knife"

    The <Help> file saved her again as she used the [Display] command and the knife appeared over the counter, the player reached for the knife but his had just floated through it.

    "What is this?", he hit the table, "show me the real thing"

    [System: Notice Shopkeeper1 for player special interacion, you earned 13 credits]

    Trying to be helpful she decided to try something and put the knife price on zero so she could produce it, the man immediately grabbed it and stabbed her.

    [System: Notice Shopkeeper1 for player favorable interacion, you earned 25 credits]

    She was bleeding on the floor while he was dancing a little jig on the other side of the counter "Thats a great interface", he stabbed her again and she fell.

    [System: Notice Shopkeeper1 for player favorable interacion, you earned 25 credits]

    Laughing maniacly he jumped on the counter and then dropped beside her and started stabbing her again and again

    [System: Notice Shopkeeper1 for player favorable interacion, you earned 25 credits]

    [System: Notice Shopkeeper1 for player favorable interacion, you earned 25 credits]

    [System: Notice Shopkeeper1 for player favorable interacion, you earned 25 credits]

    [System: Notice Shopkeeper1 for player favorable interacion, you earned 70 credits]

    [System: Notice Shopkeeper1 you died, you will be respawned in 2 minutes]

    "I want to buy a short sword", she was standing behind the counter again, and the man stood beside her.

    "No"

    [System: Notice Shopkeeper2 for player favorable interacion, you earned 25 credits]

    [System: Notice Shopkeeper3 for player favorable interacion, you earned 25 credits]

    [System: Notice Shopkeeper9 for player favorable interacion, you earned 25 credits]

    [System: Notice Shopkeeper11 for player favorable interacion, you earned 70 credits]

    [System: Notice Shopkeeper22 you died, you will be respawned in 2 minutes]

    Screaming inside, her mind broken from the abuse even though she didn''t feel the pain, dying was terrible, but dying over and over again was worse, she finally said "<25?> silver", and he killed her again before even realising she agreed.

    He jumped to the other side of the counter and assumed his ''negotiation'' posture, "give me a discount", she knew he looted her body each time he killed her, that was the source for extra credits in the last message, he even looted her a few times before she died, groping all over her before stabbing her again in frustration.

    "<20?> Silver" she said and he accepted, he cut off her head with the sword and left the shop laughing.

    The world was dark and full of horrors, but the worst of them were those who only saw it as a game.

 210 Grub holed

    Laced in the pain he felt a void, thoughts untouched by the emanating waves of shredding power, just out of reach from his conciousness like nuggets of gold hidden in the spark of sunlight on a rushing stream.

    "I don''t have all day" a heavily armored gryphon riding woman cut the chatter, "my name is Rose and I suggest we start this quest".

    The group looked at her asserting command but most of them were experienced enough not to bother arguing about who took point before even getting the quest brief.

    "Why should we listen to you?" A man chirped from her left.

    "You can stay here if you like" she cut him before he could say anything else and started walking towards the house.

    Allen was waiting by the door and when they came up the hill he started narrating from the quest script.

    <Workers digging into the underway were lost, only one escaped, bringing news of a monster lurking below the house, you must find and kill the Kalophalis in its lair, great riches await those who will face a great danger>

    "Yeah sure, but who the hell are you?" Rose asked when he finished.

    [System: notice AllenP a player issued a querry would you like to reply from previously set answers? Y/N]Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

    "That is a personal question'' do you really like me that much?" He answered from the shuffled list.

    "Are you a fucking npc?" She was getting mad from being surrounded by fools.

    [System: notice AllenP a player issued a querry would you like to reply from previously set answers? Y/N]

    "Do you know who I am?", her jaw clamped audibally and she was ready to kill that clown before calming down.

    "Fine" she said from clenched teeth, "take us to your stupid basement"

    He turned and opened the door, to their left was a downward staircase lit by magical orbs that shifted colors when a player moved below them.

    "These are god damned appraisal orbs" one of the mages called from the back, "each is worth a fortune", looking around at the walls and ceiling he was shocked, "who builds a house from fucking null bricks?"

    The group started chattering up their finds, the house was built from rare and costly materials, stairs decorated with monster tusks, walls made of magical grade materials, it was like some lunatic developer with too much time on his hands macroed out the most expensive construction site possible.

    As they descended the stairs one of the players pushed forward until he reached Allen.

    "I will pay you 500 gold for a tour of the house after this quest", he said pulling out a small sack of jingling coins.

    [System: notice AllenP would you like to show your house to players for <500> gold? YN]

    "I will give you a thousand if you take me first" a woman cried from behind.

    The auction was raised up to 5800 gold with the system correcting the amount before Allen could reply, before it came to blows the parties stopped and negotiated coming up with the sum of 7500 gold which allen accepted.

    They reached the place where the construction tools were left but no bodies could be seen, deciding to split up and check the 3 entrances while leaving one group as backup for anyone that came into trouble.

    The ship rose with the tide and was soon moving slowly towards it''s destination under the starlit sky.

 211 Bare Harm

    Opening his eyes brought searing pain, the light scorching through his mind and tears caused him to close them again, he tried to blink a few times and gradually sight returned, he didnt know where he was, the walls around him were made of coarse wood that Allen couldn''t recognize, he looked to his left and right and could feel something on his face, he reached up and removed the eyepatch, colored pink with flowers he couldn''t remember having it.

    Moving his hand before his face he realised that he could see from only one of his eyes, trying to sit brought searing pain from his leg and arm, but pain was his friend for a long time and he pushed through, maybe there was an accident, but then why was he on a ship?

    "It''s the motion", he said to himself, "I can feel the waves", he got up from the floor and went outside, not sure how he knew the way, could be he hit his head and lost even more memory than he could figure out.

    The ship was a huge five mast armored galleon but there was no one else around, only him, he tried to activate his cranial implant to get some information about his surrounding but there was no response, thinking maybe he was in a game he requested his status.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

    [Captain 210M of Odacious]

    All he got was his title as captain and the ship name, uncertain what the number meant he still tried to log off but got no response, figuring he''d have to sit somewhere safe and analyze the system before he could get back out, it was probably some trap game one of his friends was trolling him with.

    He started walking around the ship when suddenly a huge Orca whale, at least three times the size of a normal Orca jumped on deck and changed into a human form, Allen drew his sword but knew he had no chance against this monster.

    "Repairs are done captain Slom", the thing said standing in attention, "ready to sail back to the village".

    Allen almost sighed with relief, uncertain what death here will do to him, when the pain was so real in his arm and leg, he looked at the sailman and replied "Very well, lets go there" when almost three dozens of the creatures hopped on deck and started pulling ropes and tying knots the ship started moving faster than he thought possible for anything approaching it''s size.

    Exploring the system made him realise most of it was locked away from him, having access to only a few attack and command skills and almost nothing else he figured he really needed to get out of here before something else happened to him.

    Circling around the island brought them to a lagoon where another ship was anchored, uncertain about it he used the <battle stations> command and his Orca crewmen readied the ship for battle.

 212 Dye Heart

    Opening his eyes brought searing pain, the light scorching through his mind and tears caused him to close them again, he tried to blink a few times and gradually sight returned, he didnt know where he was, the walls around him were made of hard packed earth and supported every few meters by a wooden arch.

    Trying to stand up made him trip on his tail, he had a tail, his skin was covered in scales, the light was the dim aura of glowing metal on the wall beside him, this was trippy, he had two sets of eyelids, and claws, holding a pickaxe that glowed with inner light.

    Looking around he saw nobody in the same tunnel, but he could hear the din sounds of picks hitting rock from one end, trying to use his cranial implant got him no reply so he figured he was inside some sort of virtual enviroment that disabled his interface, so he called his status from the inner interface.

    [Name Miner Slave210]

    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.[Race Kobold]

    [Class Miner Slave]

    [Level 13/15]

    A list of over a hundred skills all maxed except [Mine Magic Ores 3/10] ran down his vision and he guessed this was the skill he was working on at the moment, he raised his glowing pickaxe and hit the glowing rock surface which drew sparks but was otherwise unaffected.

    Hitting the rock again and again finally resulted in a small section vanishing and a piece of glowing rock appearing on the floor in front of him, he picked it up and immediately recieved a message asking him if he wanted to add the rock to his mining cart, "yes" he said and the rock vanished.

    [System: Attention Miner Slave 210M thanks to your investment in food sources your tribe has grown to 18, you can now assign special classes to three individual NPC available classes are]

    [Stone singer]

    [Rock shaman]

    [Wurm Breeded]

    [Wurm rider]

    Allen didn''t understand, was he the chief of his Kobold tribe?

    [System: Attention Miner Slave 210M the intruders passed through your trapped corridor and are now inside your domain you should stop them before they steal your treasures]

    "My tribe is under attack?" he asked the empty walls, "what kind of game is this that i can feel such pain?", he cried with frustration, "did I die and reincarnate into some game?"

 213 Gross Emblem

    Waking up in a new body, straked with pain, lying on the wooden floor of a ship, Allen wanted to believe this was a prank, he remembered reading about people reincarnated as some fantasy hero from another world when he was a teenager but it was all power fantasy books that had some god or divine being pushing an ordinary man to be a hero.

    This was not his life, he was a programmer for a renowned security corporation and had a life to live, not sure what the time dilation on the prank program was he needed to finish the stupid "quest" he got to anchor at the village and then see how he was going to get out of here.

    "Battle stations" he cried using his skill, and the Orca crew moved to their posts, having over thirty giant meremen with killer whale origin was a fun addition to his situation and this seemed like it was going to be fun, the fact that the black and white people were all naked didn''t bother him since this was all just a game.

    [System: Notice 210M your ship is in range for chaser cannons to hit the enemy]

    "Fire Chasers" he read the command from his prompt skill list and the twin cannons at the front of the ship boomed, a small ploom of smoke washing the figurine at the head of the ship.

    [System: Notice 210M your attack caused minimal damage]

    "Fire Chasers" he cried again when he recieved the message, thinking he should shoot faster he didn''t wait for the system message this time before shouting "Fire Chasers" again.

    [System: Notice 210M your attack caused minimal damage]

    [System: Notice 210M your attack caused some damage]

    [System: Notice 210M a player has responded to your actions, you earned 15 credits]

    The ship in front of him started turning its broadside towards him and he decided to try something else, he concentrated on the other ship, hands on the rudder and aimed his prow at the enemy''s guiding ropes, holding his breath and waiting for the exact hight on the wave''s crest he screamed "Fire Chasers", the boom was muffled by his concentration, he looked as one shot passed to the right of the other ship and hitting the water but his other shot hit the guides dead center, exploding ropes unwound as the main and stay sails of the other ship dropped on its decks

    [System: Notice 210M your attack caused substantial damage]

    "Fire Chasers" he shouted one last time before turning the ship for a broadside.

    [System: Notice 210M your attack caused minimal damage]

    [System: Notice 210M your ship is in position for broadside cannons to hit the enemy]

    "Fire Broadside" the boom was deafening as both sides of the ship exploded in puffs of smoke

    [System: Notice 210M your starboard attack caused no damage]

    [System: Notice 210M your port side attack caused substatial damage]

    "Fire

    Broadside" he gave the command and this time only one side fired, all his shots hit the water about half the distance between the ships, and the enemy was yet to fire a single shot.

    [System: Notice 210M your attack caused no damage]Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

    Looking at the other ship he realised the green and red auras were his broadside cannons and he could concentrate his fire at 4 spots where groups of cannons converged, experimenting a little he ordered "Fire

    Broadside", this time all his shots hit the other ship at the four spots and its armor exploded inward

    [System: Notice 210M your attack caused substantial damage]

    Smoke was covering the other ship when the first cannons started shooting back at him, he aimed his convergence points at the smoking gun holes and said "Fire

    Broadside".

    [System: Notice 210M a player has responded to your actions, you earned 50 credits]

    [System: Notice 210M a player has responded to your actions, you earned 50 credits]

    [System: Notice 210M a player has responded to your actions, you earned 50 credits]

    [System: Notice 210M a player has responded to your actions, you earned 50 credits]

    [System: Notice 210M a player has died from your actions, you earned 250 credits]

    [System: Notice 210M a player has died from your actions, you earned 250 credits]

    [System: Notice 210M a player has died from your actions, you earned 250 credits]

    [System: Notice 210M a player has died from your actions, you earned 250 credits]

    [System: Notice 210M a player has died from your actions, you earned 250 credits]

    [System: Notice 210M a player has died from your actions, you earned 250 credits]

    Not sure what the credits were for he decided to investigate later, another cannon bloomed on the other ship, but its broadside was mostly a wreck, he aimed his front battery at the firing cannon and shot the whole broadside at the other ship.

    [System: Notice 210M a player has died from your actions, you earned 250 credits]

    [System: Notice 210M a player has died from your actions, you earned 5000 credits]

    [System: Notice 210M a player has died from your actions, you earned 250 credits]

    Wondering what the increased payment was for he shot one last time before the other ship was out of his port range, he turned the wheel but the enemy also responded this time turning its prow on allens'' ship and maneuvering to stay in the shadow of his fire, it was pretty close by now and he decided to try and attack it with his crew of giant monsters.

    The ships almost collided when he remembered to order the attack, instead he heard someone shout "now" from the other ship and people started swinging to his decks.

    "ALL HANDS ON DECK" he cried ant the Orca giants materialised as if from thin air, wielding hammers and and saws of giant proportions they fell on the attacking people like an avalanche of flesh and doom, the "players" attacking his ship were shocked, stanging there staring at the behemoths trampling and smashing them to death in seconds, he recieved over twenty death notices from the system, oddly enough not all the attackers were "players" and when the last "player" died the others were quick to surrender.

    [System: Notice 210M you captured the Devastatious'' deed, would you like to add the ship to your fleet? Y/N]

    "Yes, ofcourse" he said out loud, and the ship aura turned green in his vision, parts of it were visibly shattered and he had no idea how to fix it when the message popped up.

    [System: Notice 210M ships in your fleet are damaged, would you like to issue a repair quest for <Devastacious>? Y/N]

    "Sure" he thought and the quest log popped in his vision, listing damages and resources and also pointing the nearest port was not the village he was going to before.

    Looking towards the village he noticed a small fleet of boats making their way to him, but soon recieved the message.

    [System: Notice 210M a player has responded to your actions, you earned 50 credits]

    And realised this was probably the crew from the other ship and them not being on it was the reason it couldn''t fight, he positioned the Odacious between them and their ship and shouted "Surrender immediately or I will shoot you".

    The first boat had some kind of mage on it because a lightning blasted at his mast when the "player" raised her hands, he aimed one of his broadside batteries at them and fired, the seven cannons boomed and the boat became a shower of water, blood and splinters, all the other boats stopped moving forward and were holding their hands up in the air.

    [System: Notice 210M a player has died from your actions, you earned 250 credits]

    [System: Notice 210M a player has died from your actions, you earned 2000 credits]

    [System: Notice 210M a player has died from your actions, you earned 250 credits]

    [System: Notice 210M a player has died from your actions, you earned 250 credits]

    [System: Notice 210M a player has died from your actions, you earned 250 credits]

    Seeing the extra credits on one of the notes he figured the other spike was also from some high level "player" and decided to check on it later.

 214 Brief Cause

    Sharp pain coursed through his chest, he remembered drowning, gasping for air and then an eternity of pain in the void, maybe he died and this was his second life, another chance in another world, he missed his cranial implant, knowing everything as soon as he thought to ask was so convenient that even an hour without already had him chewing rocks and gritting his teeth in frustration.

    Gathering the tribe took only a few minutes, the chirps and calls running through the tunnels were familiar even when he didnt know what they were saying, a few dozen reptilian humanoid armed with picks and spades, looking them over gave him a list of meaningless stats and skills, he chose the one with highest wisdom to be his shaman and the one with highest agility to be the Wurm rider, not sure which of the other two to give to which of his Kobolds he left it for another day.

    "We have enemys in our warren", Allen said, "I want to capture as many as I can", he gestured with his hands as if they were tied, "to understand why they came here", the other Kobolds nodded and grunted when he divided them to five groups of seven and another group of six that he lead himself.

    "I think we should trap them at the east tunnel", he examined the map that popped before his vision at a thought, "before the wurm farm", his hands were waving empty air as he pointed points on the map only he could see, "two teams can open a tunnel from this wall", he traced one of the walls, "and the team with the shaman will wait here in ambush", he circled a room that didn''t exist yet, "then the group with the wurm rider can close in on their escape", he pulled a line across the east tunnel, "and we demand their surrender".

    "Your job", he looked at one of the team leaders, "is to delay and draw them towards the east tunnel", he traced a line from where the system marked the intruders, running through the central cavern and away from their living spaces and magic rocks.

    [System: Attention Kobold Slave 210M your designed modifications to Kobold Warren will cost 32,843 gold, would you like to proceed? Y/N]

    Not sure if it was a lot or not he tried to check his gold balance, finding that he had a little over twenty million gold he figured the thirty two thousands weren''t much and simply approved the demand.

    The earth shook for a minute after he approved the payment and his map of Kobold Warren changed the lines he drew became walls and doors.

    [System: Notice Kobold Slave 210M atunnel was added to Kobold Warren for <3000>]

    [System: Notice Kobold Slave 210M awall was added to Kobold Warren for <1200>]If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    [System: Notice Kobold Slave 210M atunnel was added to Kobold Warren for <2400>]

    [System: Notice Kobold Slave 210M aroom was added to Kobold Warren for <12000>]

    [System: Notice Kobold Slave 210M apillar was added to Kobold Warren for <200>]

    [System: Notice Kobold Slave 210M adoor was added to Kobold Warren for <35>]

    [System: Notice Kobold Slave 210M apillar was added to Kobold Warren for <200>]

    [System: Notice Kobold Slave 210M apit was added to Kobold Warren for <175>]

    [System: Notice Kobold Slave 210M awall was added to Kobold Warren for <1200>]

    [System: Notice Kobold Slave 210M aroom was added to Kobold Warren for <2600>]

    [System: Notice Kobold Slave 210M ahall was added to Kobold Warren for <1400>]

    [System: Notice Kobold Slave 210M a doorwas added to Kobold Warren for <35>]

    [System: Notice Kobold Slave 210M a pitwas added to Kobold Warren for <160>]

    [System: Notice Kobold Slave 210M a tunnelwas added to Kobold Warren for <210>]

    [System: Notice Kobold Slave 210M a wallwas added to Kobold Warren for <780>]

    [System: Notice Kobold Slave 210M a doorwas added to Kobold Warren for <35>]

    [System: Notice Kobold Slave 210M a rockwas added to Kobold Warren for <3>]

    [System: Notice Kobold Slave 210M a stashwas added to Kobold Warren for <18>]

    [System: Notice Kobold Slave 210M a pilewas added to Kobold Warren for <26>]

    [System: Notice Kobold Slave 210M a gratewas added to Kobold Warren for <11>]

    [System: Notice Kobold Slave 210M a doorwas added to Kobold Warren for <35>]

    [System: Notice Kobold Slave 210M a roomwas added to Kobold Warren for <4200>]

    [System: Notice Kobold Slave 210M a hallwas added to Kobold Warren for <2310>]

    [System: Notice Kobold Slave 210M a pillarwas added to Kobold Warren for <200>]

    [System: Notice Kobold Slave 210M a hidden doorwas added to Kobold Warren for <320>]

    [System: Notice Kobold Slave 210M a crooked doorwas added to Kobold Warren for <30>]

    [System: Notice Kobold Slave 210M a glowing orbwas added to Kobold Warren for <40>]

    [System: Notice Kobold Slave 210M a stashwas added to Kobold Warren for <15>]

    [System: Notice Kobold Slave 210M a rockwas added to Kobold Warren for <5>]

    Not sure what most of the items even meant Allen decided to go exploring, it was when he reached the east tunnel and saw how the changes were arranged that he realised all his hand waving and lines in the map were considered editions in the Kobold Warren complex.

    The new map of the whole area was made of broken lines and half circles which he realised made it perfect to mess with and trap "players" when his Kobold tribe lead them on a wild chase.

    He and his team entered the room with the hidden door to wait and ambush the players when they entered the area, meanwhile Allen started checking out the map he was looking at, with it being an editor he could use to make other changes and maybe even add another floor it seemed like he had a lot to do in this new life he got.

 Not a chapter questions

    1. Should i make a different short story about karen?

    2. Should I thicken up previously written chapters to add more details?

    2.1 if 2 is a yes then should i add an expansion chapter or edit the existing one?

    3. Which type of poll do you like best, Plot, decisions, prompts or details?Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    3.1 do you think the polls are silly and i should stop using them?

    4. Are you enjoying the plots?

    5. Is there any character you like?

    6. Is there a character you think needs more "game time" in the story?

    7. Is the story too slow?

    8. Is the story too fast?

    9. Is the story too broken up?

    10. Do any characters feel too OP and should be downgraded for better plots?

    11. Is the distinction between Player "classic" character builds with skills and classes and levels, and the NPC characters that have protocols and prompts clear enough or should i elaborate it more?

    12. Is there anything you want to ask me?

 215 Casual Inflections

    After three days of torture Karen could hardly bring herself to log back to the game, her penalty for being late yesterday was being forced to stay online for another hour after her shift was supposedly over, with tears in her eyes she logged in and the shop materialised around her, she was already on the floor, blood pouring from several wounds before she died and respawned just so she can die again.

    The Kobold patrol was running away, Jimmy wanted to chase them but Talia held him back, "something is strange", she said, "we didnt even attack them yet", and she pointed to the walls and door, "this place gives me the creeps".

    Andrej scanned the hallway for more traps, after using more than half his supply of disarming equipment on the dozens of traps from where they saw the strange Kobold Slave and here, he wasn''t going to be fooled by anything that the creatures could make.

    Signalling to the group that they could move forward again he let them pass him so he wasn''t exposed to sudden attacks from the creatures themselves, the foreman NPC was a formidable enemy and Andrej didnt want to be hit by anything that could shatter a paladin shield with a single strike.

    Reaching a curve in the tunnel Nuar and Talia checked and only saw the Kobolds running inside a room at about two thirds of the way, on their left there were three doors and on their right they could see a two dark openings leading to some other parts of the Kobold Warren, as this place was called, the hall they were walking in curved again after the doorway the Kobolds slammed shut.

    Andrej scanned this new hallway and wasn''t surprised to detect no less than three pits, two rigged pillars, a drop trap and even a rigged wall, the hidden door was also iluminated in his vision but he ignored it for now as there was a lot of work to be done right here and now before they could even move another step.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    Taking out his extended pole Andrej triggered the roof trap, rocks the size of watermelon dropped and broke through the floor revealing a pit below, he used the pole to hop over the pit and from the other side threw a rope ladder to Talia that hammered its hooks to the floor, when the group got to him he decided to leave the makeshift bridge in case they needed to retreat, just another item from his inventory that he just lost to a silly little trap.

    Poking the wall to his right caused a small avalanch and he barely pulled back the tool before it too was broken, walking over the gravel he fealt something klick and jumped barely in time before the pillar dropped on him, he signalled the group to move closer before checking the first opening to his right.

    Lighting a flare and throwing it at the darkness had little effect as the flare hit the wall after about five meters, casting its eery light and creating strange shadows in the small hallway only revealed that the tunnel cuved left, he listened for a few seconds and decided to check it.

    Curving again Andrej was sure meant the cave would lead back to the other opening so he walked back to the group and they all moved towards the hidden door, finding no mechanism to pick he called Sienna to use a [Knock] spell on it.

    One diamond and fifteen gold later they looked in to see an empty room, checking it for traps and hidden objects revealed nothing so the group moved on the the next door which opened to another empty room, Andrej looked down the other opening before moving to the next door, when he couldn''t see his flare''s glow he decided to explore the cave.

    Almost too late he remembered to check for traps and stopped almost on the trigger for another pit, when the floor dropped he managed to use the pole to jump away but his hasted movement caused the pole to snap before he could change course.

    Worried from his almost empty inventory Andrej will soon need to resupply, and buying items in a wilderness shop was allways a costly affair even if he could get one of the creatures of the cave to interact with him.

 216 Blasted Bores

    Karen logged in already consigned to her death, she didnt care any more, the little murdering hobo will stab her and she will bleed to death, he got no experience from killing her over and over and the loot she could offer was diminished to a few copper coins, while her virtual body died she was organizing the shop inventory when she noticed one peculiar item she could offer Players, "wanted <> dead or alive" posters, it gave her an idea and when she resurrected next she held on to life just long enough to create it, and the system popup was so satisfying her last thought before respawning was now she could die a happy woman.

    Walking down the stairs gave Lilia the chills, the magical light that changed as players moved below the appraisal orbs was so bizzare she had to wonder what whoever built this place was even thinking, the two players before her were an over powered Celestial Wizard and a devastating Chronomancer, both of which had maxed attributes for their classes, the orbs couldn''t lie.

    In comarison her Soulguard was powerful but not overwhelming, in her third resurgence for the class she had some good skills but low attributes and she hoped this strange low level high profile raid quest would give her the edge she needed to breach the first block on 9th level.

    Being a type of healer mage had a lot of advantages over the more powerful yet system dependant divine healers, and it gave her much satisfaction to play as a hero for whole groups even at low levels, the strange combination of area of effect and target enhanced healing spells put her in the front row for party requests and she reaped her rewards accordingly.

    Their group was a strange combination of healers and damage dealers with almost no specialists and no tanks at all, being left with the strange farmer person that organized the raid they were a mesh from all the different groups and were meant to stay behind and give backup to whichever scouting group got into trouble.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    It was a low risk high reward kind of job that appealed to the power gamers that stayed behind, they could conserve their resources while the others got the better loot but since the backup were all high tiered resurgent characters they each had their own deals for the loot of any dungeon raid or party they joined so without venturing anything they still got some very good stuff.

    Lilia''s thoughts were interrupted by the din clang of battle coming from the left entrance, since her group went to the right she wasn''t thrilled about rushing into battle with a bunch of strangers when her friends could soon be in danger but a job was a job and as the backup team they needed to decide quickly if they should rush to help so soon or let the scouts do some of the fighting without their help.

    Two of their group broke off at a run and another followed soon after, she didn''t even know their names and now she was the only woman in the "backup" team, when the sounds subsided it the left tunnel they all came back carrying a wounded rogue.

    "Healing blast", she cast and the thief was immediately healthy as if he was never hurt, only his torn clothes left as evidence to the calamity that almost came to him, when the sounds of battle came from the right tunnel she almost bolted in when a strong hand held her back.

    "You stick with us now girly", she looked at the beautiful face of the one character she couldn''t figure out, the class devined by the orbs was [Whore] and she still couldn''t wrap her mind around such a choice, with the only other weird class being the [Peasant] she connected them to the forum discussions about resurgence classes but had to leave it for later.

    "My friends are out there" she replied, "I want to go help them".

    He shook his head, "not yet", holding her wrist in a vise like grip, "if they need us they''ll call".

    When he just finished talking fighting started in the other two tunnels and the backup team gathered around the [Peasant] to see where he will go.

 217 Duck Recover

    "Is this where I get the bounty for this guy''s head?", Came a surprising new voice from across the counter as Karen logged in, "normally I wouldn''t bother with his low level", the shop materialised around her with the new customer, "but for 50 gold I dont mind at all", the woman on the other side dropped five heads looking almost the same except two had wounds all over and one was almost cleaved in half, recognizing her tormentor Karen could only nod and deliver payment for the bounty collected, her feeling of relief totally worth the credit to gold ratio she had to pay for the bounty.

    Throwing his last flare into the tunnel before him revealed how wrong Andrej was when he didn''t invetigate the other one further, signalling to the party to stand guard he scanned the new tunnel for traps and couldn''t see anything, walking as far as the bend it seemed this tunnel ended in a glowing rock wall so he called them all to him and conjured a wilderness shop.

    Nothing happened,"Are we not in the wild?", he asked Talia who shook her head.

    "It seems we are in a player owned domain", she checked some things in her display, "Kobold Warren", scanning some things, "its like some weird ass guild house without a guild".

    "Do you think the Kobolds we are chasing are actually players?" Jimmy interrupted them, "because if they are we need to rethink our strategy".

    Talia shook her head again,"how dumb doyouhave to be totake the weakest mob creature as a Player charectar?"

    "Don''t know" Jimmy said, "but they act really weird for a bunch of mobs".

    "Where are the ambushes?" Andrej added, "traps are an inconvenience", scanning his inventory, "sure there were a lot of them", he uploaded his map of the Kobold Warren, "but they were all low level and simple", sharing the map, "it looks like either a computer generated random items or some four years old drew it with his fingers".

    "Fine" she cut their chat, "lets move on that last room", she marked the last door, "there can''t be more than ten of them", lining their path and pointing a few places, "otherwise they should have ambushed us at these spots".This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

    Disarming the trap on the door and breaking through the lock with a knife to spare his more delicate tools Andrej had a thought and decided to try something else.

    Light converged as if coming from the walls, a stall appeared to the side of the hallway complete with a Kobold shopkeeper and the Kobold Warren sign on top.

    "What the hell did you do?" Talia shouted in surprise.

    "Asked to trade with the <Kobold Warren> guildhouse", he walked over to the stall, "looks like it worked".

    "Don''t pull shit like that again without a warning" she warbled her sentence.

    "Yea yea" he dismissed her, "lets see what they got to trade"

    The whole group moved around the stall, checking the menus and wares, "Who in fucks sells <Wurm eggs>?", Apri shouted, the tall muscular man was actually their blasterbut he buffed up his strength by attrition and hard work, allways moving at a slower pace because he was overburdened.

    "That''s not the weirdest thing I can see here", Talia answered, "they have honest to god <Leperchaun Dust> on sale", she sounded frustrated "but only in bulks of ten which none of us can afford".

    "Look at that <Cockatrice Tail Feather>", Minney added, "we should pull everything we have to buy that thing", the short archer said, "infinite <Flesh to Stone> quivers" looking like she was going to burst from excitement.

    "And this <Dragon Blood> in barrels", Apri added, "they had to kill at least three hundred dragons to get this much", he sounded almost apprehensive, "I hope it means they are all out somewhere hunting monsters so we can finish this raid and get away".

    "What did we get ourselves into?" Talia asked in growing dread.

    "That is a terrifying question", Andrej answered hesitantly, "there is absolutely nothing we can afford in this shop", he looked again at some section, "ore cores", he rattled out, "uncut gems, mining tools, crafting equipment and materials, everything from extremely rare, legendary and mythical origins".

    "Lets finish the group we were chasing and get the hell out of here" Jimmy ended their conversation.

    Taking positions around the door the group carefully prepared to storm the room with the besieged guild members inside, "they had a very long time to prepare for us" Talia said, "so we play this carefully and exactly how we trained".

    Dan finished his incantation and a soft aura glowed around the two front line fighters, they burst inside and the team moved quickly behind to support and blast anything that could be in the room.

 218 Bull Bearing

    After she passed the reward for the bounty Karen flinched when she saw another customer entering her shop, the woman turned and in a split second drew her sword and cut him to pieces, "Oh, this will save some time", she said and then walked over, picked up his head and collected another bounty.

    Pashi was on edge, everything in this raid was wrong, leaving the healersbehind was a mistake, not taking the stupidPeasant with them a bad choice, she used her anger and frustration to keep her focus, holding a hand on the grip of her warhammer kept her as calm as she could get in these Underway tunnels.

    Scraping sounds from down the hall had her finally drawing the hammer and holding it with both hands, the drain on her stamina was worth the extra second she might need in the thick of battle.

    Moving step in and step out the group weaved its way into the darker deeps, the underway was the wilderness by definition and anything could happen here, with a raid from seven different guilds, including "Cashy mcCashFace" and "BrilliAnt" and another dozen unaffiliated players was a definite call for troubles.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    "Hey watch out" their scout Meha shouted just before Pashi plummeted into a pit. "didn''t you see my sign?", he walked over and pointed to a small wooden sign with the word [TRAP] inscribed in glowing ink.

    "Got distracted", she said the wrong thing, "won''t happen again".

    "Yea" he mulled his words, "maybe you should step back", his suggestion sounded like a slur, "let Hark take the lead".

    Walking behind the heavy armored Harkle Sparkle was nerve wrecking, he made so much noise Pashi could barely hear her own thoughts, scraping the walls with an elbow, crushing stalactites with a gauntleted fist, the only good thing about the underway was you needed special mounts to travel and he apperantly didn''t have one.

    Crushing into metal mountain jarred Pashi back to the game around her, the were entering a large cavern and the sign said [Danger, Trogs and Morgs] that would explain the scraping sounds she heard before.

    "This is a standard Trog hamlet" Meha whispered when they all gathered up, "I could count two shamans and twenty one Trog Hunter s" he pointed at the cave "so we should crush through the first barricade" his hand moved to the right "and then kill the shamans before they can use summoning rituals".

    Harkle pulled out his glave, "dont waste your spelld for some measely trogs", he looked around the group "LETS MOVE OUT" he barked in a commanding voice "RRRRAAAAAAGHGHGGGGHHH".

 219 Prancing Preacher

    Hark crashed into the first group of troglodytes, his roar stunning them and his giant sword drawing its path with black blood, he hated all those weak so called "fighters" that relied on some tricks and mechanics of the system to win, brute force and then more of it was the only way to victory.

    Picking up the last Trog by its head he threw it at the shamans starting to play their ritual, the hammer wielding girl charged right behind him and shattered the small barrier to splinters letting him charge again at the new group.

    His sword splitting one Shaman in half from shoulder to hip he kicked a Morghal in the face, Harkle hated the mollusc mounts of the underdark, he tried to tame one of them once but it kept slithering away, the world was blurring as the soft creature didnt give enough resistance harkle slipped and fell on his bum, throwing his sword in his flailing to regain balance.

    Hammer girl ran past him, destroying the other Shaman and another Morg, mages started barraging the remaining Trogs with their cantrips and soon the room was cleared.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    "Ehem", Harkle coughed before the hammer girl, "thanks for the save there", he blushed and turned away, walking towards the exit from the Trog hamlet.

    He heard her say "welcome" but ignored it, girls complicated things and in raids like this you wanted everything to be simple, they should stick to their healing and magic flinging rolls on the back rows, not charging up front and distracting real warriors from doing their jobs.

    The next cave was just a short hallway leading to what appeared as an underway typical passage, the stone walls almost straight but allways bent in a way that could hide vicious monsters, stalactites and other rock formations breaking the view to only a dozen steps even if you knew the way was clear.

    "Hold it big guy", the ranger said, "let us scout ahead before you stumble onto something".

    Harkle stopped where he stood, locking his character in a still pose so he could scan his statistics from the previous battle, seeing it wasn''t his best performance and the hammer girl stole two kills after he already hit the creatures only strengthened his belief that she should stay back with the others and let him do the heavy lifting.

    Switchin his helmet to  [Greater Horned Helm Of Bull Charge] and put on a pair [Elven Boots Of Balance] so he wont slip again so easily from the squishy Morgs he ran a final check on his statistics before moving forward again.

 220 Dangle Binge

    Kiatha payed the toll for summoning a [Rock Sprite], the small golem like creature manifested in front of her and she sent it to explore the room on the other side of the door, looking through it''s eyes gave her the usual nausea from doubled vision but you got used to it fast or you could never play at the highest levels of any VR game.

    This raid was insane, low level <Underway> quests were so rare you could say they didn''t exist outside the large guildhouses that provided guides and took extortent rates for protection through the junctions, but here was a virgin raid to the underway with a player owned house on top, if they could secure the house for their guild she was sure her party would rise to be one of the best, and charge their own rates from outsiders.

    The other room was empty and she phased through the door not upsetting any trap that may be hidden in it, on her fifth resurgence of the class she picked up some pretty powerful perks that let her cast quasi spells as skills instead of wasting time and mana she would need for the more combustible spells used in combat.

    Kiatha was going to use this room to get rid of some competition, she cast a [Mage Bane] circle on the ceiling and unlocked the door at the other side, using her [Rock Sprite] she was going to call in the monsters that Rubold and Asher were mobbing from the deeper caves.

    On the signal from the others she opened the door and let the rest of their jumbled ''party'' in, telling them to walk close to the walls so as not to trigger any traps set in the middle, moving on to the next corridor they heard the fight rushing in their direction, the two paladin brothers took the front while their priest and ranger backed them up, these people needed to die here if Kiatha ever wanted to claim the entrance for her guild.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    A swarm of insect like creatures was chasing rubold down the hall, his hastily thrown illusions only slowing them down for a few seconds each time, Kiatha prepared a [Web] spell and as soon as Rubold was in range she cast it, knowing he would clear the area of effect before the spell was done.

    The insects hit the web and were stuck but those on the back walked over their trapped mates and it seemed to only slow them for a second when a barrage of flaming arrows lit the web on fire, in seconds there was a wall of fire from floor to ceiling and the creatures were burnt husks that turned to ash, but when the fire died down to embers the swarm moved again.

    "Retreat", she cried, "back to the room", she pushed Rubold to the side, "use the door as a choke point to stop them".

    Moving as a group the mages and ranger moved in first and the two paladins were last to enter, they spread about the room with the mages in the center and Kiatha and Rubold sticking to the corners on either side of the doorway.

    The swarm pushed through a hastily cast [Rock Wall] and then it fell on the valiant fighters, holding the line so their spell casters could do their part, but no magic hit the monsters, no healing came through except what they cast on themselves, sword and axe cleaved with mighty strikes at the tough carapaces and the sister''s shield was pulled away from her, a leg was severed and then a lucky bite left a mandible stuck in the brother''s exposed arm.

    Kiatha melted into the wall and watched as the mosters of the underway slaughtered the defenseless Players and when all seemed lost she dispelled the [Mage Bane] circle and cast another web on the tangle of players and monsters, Rubold threw in his [Fire Bomb] and then attacked the insects from behind using his stealth and [Backstabbing] skills to their maximum to dispose of the last few creatures when the door burst open and three other Players charged in with weapons drawn, they dragged the wounded back to where the backup team was camping but the LionKings were done for on this raid.

 221 Silent Feat

    Andrej sneaked into the room, the rough stone wall forced him from sliding along, nearing the point where the room opened up he slowd down even further, navigating the uneven floor with care on every soft step, the glow of fire cast shadows on the wall he was creeping by so he walked over to the other side an used a mirror to sneak a peak at the room.

    Seven Kobolds were huddled in a corner, mining and digging tools piled behind them and they were all looking at the cave entrance as if waiting for something to happen, slowly moving back to the group he signaled them to keep quiet and lifted seven fingers while mimicking mining and digging to indicate they were workers and not fighters.

    Taking the lead Talia walked almost up to the bend and held her breath while the group took positions around her, feeling for the familiar touch of her saber''s handle she slowly pulled the sword out so it wont make a sound, the smell of smoke and rustle of scales reminded her of what was coming next, most probably the slaughter and robbery of a few Kobold workers and then a long walk before they were safe from pursuit of the guild Player members.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    Talia used her sword as a mirror to check on the room and counted the seven creatures, she signaled her team and they all charged inside when she heard the crush behind her, rolling and turning to face the new threat her mouth dropped in utter shock at the sight of a fully grown Wurm armored and harnessed with a Kobold riding in a sling to each side of its head and a hundred more armed and armored Kobolds marching into the room from both openings to her right and left.

    "You must be wondering why I gathered you all in here", Talia heard a player say and had no idea what it meant, her sword seemed feeble before the might of an armored Wurm and what appeared to be spell casting and fighting types of Kobolds she never heard of, remembering this guild was a powerhouse kept secret through god know what means made her sweat profusely before she could even answer.

 222 Reaver Boots

    Not sure what to do next Allen stood on the deck and watched the boats as the players stored their weapons and precious items, he knew they were preparing to die and didn''t want him to take their things, the system was magnanimous enough to just drop the items from the dead boat at his feet and he could see some of the players looking with greed at the pile.

    "So come aboard now", he shouted at them, "I promise not to hurt you unless you try and fight me".

    [System: Notice 210M A player issued a remove NPC command, refusing will cost you 20,000 credits, do you wish to comply? Y/N]

    "No", he said and heard a cashier sound in his head when thecredits were deducted

    [System: Attention 210M spending over 50,000 credits in a single NPC will lock its current status and require a Player to pay for making it a Player character, do you wish to proceed? Y/N]

    "Yes", as soon as he said the word he fealt like something was pulling him away, his conciousness started ripping apart and the void loomed before his every sense.

    Fighting to keep his conciousness and his new life he pushed himself back into the body of the captain.

    [System: Welcome NPC please choose the name of your new character]

    "Allen"

    [System: Notice Allen, your name in this instance is now ''Allen'']

    [System: Attention Allen your current character is locked from all evolutions be advised not to attempt new evolutions without contacting <System Support>an adviser has been notified of your situation]This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

    [System: Notice Allen A player is attempting interaction with your new character, interacting with Players will earn you credits]

    [System: Notice Allen Credits can be used to purchase new features for your character, refer to <Features Menu> for help]

    [System: Notice Allen A player is attacking you, you should use your character prompts to defend yourself]

    "Fire Broadside" he shouted and two out of the seventeen boats were turned to toothpicks and blood splatters.

    [System: Notice 210M a player has died from your actions, you earned 250 credits]

    [System: Notice 210M a player has died from your actions, you earned 250 credits]

    [System: Notice 210M a player has died from your actions, you earned 250 credits]

    [System: Notice 210M a player has died from your actions, you earned 250 credits]

    [System: Notice 210M a player has died from your actions, you earned 250 credits]

    [System: Notice 210M a player has died from your actions, you earned 250 credits]

    [System: Notice 210M a player has died from your actions, you earned 250 credits]

    [System: Notice 210M a player has died from your actions, you earned 250 credits]

    [System: Notice 210M a player has died from your actions, you earned 250 credits]

    [System: Notice 210M a player has died from your actions, you earned 250 credits]

    "SURRENDER NOW" Allen shouted at the boats, "OR I WILL KILL YOU ALL", keeping his attention at the boats as the System kept informing him of things he could and should do he sent a few Orca crewmembers to bring the Players on deck, they jumped off and shapeshifted into their gargantuan killer whale forms.

    The remaining Players stopped fighting and soon were all on deck "Who the hell do you think you are?" one of the women asked Allen.

    "Do you know who I am?" he asked back and she took a step back into the group, seeing the scars and trying to match an NPC to her memory, Players never cared much for random encounter NPCs and this AI was acting in unfamiliar ways.

    [System: Notice 210M a player has responded to your actions, you earned 50 credits]

    "I don''t think we met before", she replied finally, "why are you attacking us <Allen>?".

    [System: Notice 210M a player has requested special interaction, you earned 100 credits]

    Thinking about the price for not being ''banished'' made Allen realise the actual price was not reflected by his previous balance, needing to kill hundreds of Players and interact an unknown amount of time made his survival seem pretty flimsy now that he put his mind on the subject.

    "Why did you attack me?" he asked the crowd of Players

 223 Tidal Scales

    "You must be wondering why I gathered you all here", the tribe remained motionless, waiting for a trigger either by the Players attacking or by his command.

    "Actually"one of the Kobolds answered,"yes" the Spellbound Kobold stepped forward, "I have been wondering about that for quite some time".

    "Who are you?" Miner Slave asked with obvious puzzlement, "I don''t remember you from when I built the Warren".

    The Spellbound Kobold shook his head, "My name is Allen and when I woke up in this new world I recieved a ''System Notice'' that one of my guild members has established a guildhouse so I decided to come check it out", swallowing after the mouthfull he licked his lips with a forked tongue.Stolen novel; please report.

    "My name is Allen too", Miner Slave replied, "and I didn''t mean to build a guildhouse", he shook his head, "it was just here when I woke up and these Players were chasing me", thinking about what the Spellbound Kobold said "WAIT A MINUTE", but they didn''t seem to have a minute as the other Players took their conversation as que to act.

    The two obvious spell casters put a shield around the group, enclosing them to the corner with the Kobold workers, and the fighters and rogue threatened the bait team with their weapons, "Just let us out and we won''t bother your guild again", the female elf fighter said, "or we will kill these Kobolds before you kill us and as many of you as we can"

 224 Sorry Captcha

    Allen looked at the hostages and the Players threatening them "what if i offered you to join my guild?"

    "No thanks" the woman answered, "you are too hardcore for us", she looked around at her friends who nodded, "we just like to play casually"

    The SpellBound Kobold turned from Miner Slave to the Players and then to the hostages that only had minor reactions to Player orders.

    "Are you sure?" Miner Slave asked again and the Player nodded, "ok", he raised his arm, "kill them all".The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    The woman seemed surprised that he commanded his own people''s deaths when she realised their shield popped like a bubble poked by a needle, she stabbed the Kobold she had at the tip of her sword but hit only air when the Kobold seemed to liquify before her eyes.

    The rogue cried in surprise when a dagger materialised behind him and drove through his spine, in a few seconds the whole party was already dead and then a Oracle Kobold stepped forward and cast a spell on the bodies before they could vanish, ghostlike aparitions rose from the corpses and the Oracle sucked them into his staff, "just taking away their memory from the moment they found our house" the Oracle answerd an unasked question.

    Seven Kobolds stood shocked and stared at the Oracle, "I see we have a few new faces around" he answerd again without being asked, "welcome to Kobold Conclave"

 225 Promise Break

    The Oracle lead the way and sat by the fire, "sit with me", he said in a cryptic voice, "we have much to talk about", the other Kobolds sat around the room, all except for the NPCs that were running their idle routines in the caves, mining, selling, gathering and fixing equipment.

    "We never had NPCs before" a sturdy BoneSmith Kobold said, "this is nice", he looked around the group, "also never had a guild house before".

    "Thank you brother Miner Slave", the Oracle interjected, "for building this Kobold Warren to serve as our home"

    Allen looked at the two speakers with some doubts, "who are you people?", he immediately corrected "or should I say Kobolds?"

    "We are the Kobold Conclave", said the grey scaled Oracle, "but more precisely we are all Allens", gesturing around the room, "the First Allen created us all in our image", ending the motion with a finger pointing at Miner Slave, "you are but the last in a long line of Kobolds to ascend to conciousness", pointing at himself "I was not the first", he shook his head, "we know not who the first was".

    "Are you telling me you are all me?", Miner Slave asked in mounting horror, "how is that even possible?".

    "Not you", Oracle replied, "we are all individuals", he looked around, "our memories of Allen all end at march fourteen twenty one thirty one", patting his head, "but we also know years have gone by", he thumped his tail, "and others come with the same memories from before", his tail tip swished, "except for small things", he pointed at Miner Slave with his tail "this is the great puzzle the first Allen left for us to uncover, why do we exist, what is our purpose, why are our classes in this game so odd?"You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

    "What do you mean?", a Kobold Cave Dweller asked the oracle, this Kobold had yellow stripes over brown patterns on his scaly hide.

    Oracle looked at the Cave Dweller, "we captured quite a few players over the years", he turned to the new speaker, "we know what year this is in the real world", a forked tongue flicked from his mouth "everyone here has a player character", scratching his neck "except no player ever picks them because they are useless to them", pointing at the Bone Smith "for example he would only be able to create minor equipment and have one masterpiece skill", the crowd turned to look, "but he can craft hundreds of masterpieces to create some of the best enchanted and magical equipment in the game", he gestured again at the crowd, "we all have likewise broken limited classes and believe its all thanks to the First Allen".

    "And you" Miner slave asked, "what is your limit break?"

    "From a Player we caught the Oracle class description sais it can Create One Prophecy Quest", the oracle thumped his chest, "I actually have a repository of Quest Points that fills over time", he blinked a few times "there is a thing the players call ''resurgence'' where you pay a price to restart your character with certain benefits", closing his eyes to concentrate on something "we can''t use it", he said, "after death we can either be resurrected or the conciousness is lost forever", when he opened his eyes they were glowing "you are now playing the most HardCore game of your life Miner Slave so don''t die"

    "On that day a Shadow shall rise from the deep,

    the captain will lose all to find the answer,

    search the bottom for the top,

    ask the thunders till they stop,

    time to wake

    worlds to shake"

    Oracle''s eyes stopped glowing, "did someone record it?" he asked

    "I did" a red tailed Kobold Ash Diver shouted from the back.

    "Good job Ash Diver", the grey Oracle said, "I got excited and lost myself", he looked around the newcomers "seven at once is unheard of we should celebrate"

 226 Submerged Traction

    "So how do you celebrate around here?", Miner Slave asked a black striped white scaled Ferrier Kobold, "are there", he looked around and whispered, "like female Kobolds?".

    Ferrier looked at Allen and barked a laugh, "oh, oh you didnt notice", Ferrier doubled over in laughter, "we are all females", she wheezed trying to catch her breath, "the only ''males'' around are NPCs and if you try anything with a wild one the system asks you to pay", panting Ferrier looked Allen in the eye, "if you don''t pay they bite and scratch and if you do they are just cold like they dont know what to do so forget about ''celebrating'' that way"

    "Ok", Miner Slave answerd hesitantly, "so how do you celebrate?", emphasizing the ''do'' and trying to hush the moching Ferrier from further embarrasing him.

    After she calmed down a little "we raid", she looked around, "since we are all here we will probably hit some players", agreement sounded from around the room.

    "What wbout that new thing with kalikakopiece?" a heavyset dark green Bearer Kobold asked, "it should be fun", many Kobolds sounded their agreement and started pulling out tools and weapons.

    A short yellow Trapper Kobold with tiger patterned scales chimed in "how do we get there?"

    "Hey Miner Slave", Ferrier said after a few seconds in thought, "can you set portals in the guildhouse?"You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    Miner Slave looked at his menus and skills searching for anything that looked like what was asked "it looks like there are only four places we can go from this place", he looked at the list, "some ship in the north, a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere, some tower in the Underway and a dwarven fort in the desert", he shook his head, "I don''t know anything about these places though".

    "The quest listed a farmhouse as its starting point and the Underways as its region", Ferrier said, "so put these gates up and we will split to explore those places".

    [System: Notice Miner Slave you are about to connect a

    from your guildhouse <Kobold Warren> to your <Farm> this may enable other players to enter your guildhouse <Kobold Warren>, would you like to proceed? Y/N]

    "Yes" Allen said after sharing the question with the group, the wall in fron of him glowed a bright yellow color that faded to deep blue surrounded by a perfect brick arch was a magical portal set into the stone

    [System: Notice Miner Slave you are about to connect a

    from your guildhouse <Kobold Warren> to your <Underway Tower> this may enable other players to enter your guildhouse <Kobold Warren>, would you like to proceed? Y/N]

    Answering "yes" got the same effect as before and the two Portals were separated by only a few dozen centimeters of wall, by the time all the light show was over the other Kobolds were already broken up to groups and Ferrier turned to him "you should stick with me newbie", she took his hand, "don''t want you to get hurt on your first time out there".

    "I think I will be allright", he pulled his hand away and gestured to the back of the cave, "they are with me", the wurm raised its head to the silent prompt and so did the Shaman and other NPCs, "we can handle ourselves just fine".

    Shaking her head Ferrier seemed a little hurt from the rejection "suit yourself", she turned into a group of other Kobolds "lets move it people".

 227 Grown OPs

    DemonKing12 stood behind the pile of rubble and tightened his grip to his trusted axe, "what the fuck is going on morons?", he shouted into the group chat, "we barely even started this crap raid and you already dying?", he suppressed an idle gesture to thump his axe to his metal plate, "fucking noobs everywhere".

    "Hey SHUT UP", the crazy eyed witch HollyN shouted back, "stop talking shit on the strategy channel".

    "Yeah you shut up bitch", he shouted back, "no strategy is gonna break us out of this shithole", he sneaked a look around the rock with a mirror to see what the fucking Ghosts were up to, they were all just floating around the room running through idle routines like it didn''t mean anything, but three of them were active players only ten minutes ago when the group walking into the ambush of a Spectral Knightmare with Hallowed Wretch followers was devastated into a falling retreat.

    He didn''t even know there were Spectral Knightmares, Spectres were bad and Knightmares were one of the worst devils out in the wilds but making a combo monster was just far too Over Powered, "How the FUCK this isn''t the final boss for this raid?" he called into the channel.

    "This is the UnderWays moron" the skinny BaraBree interrupted, "everything here is OP as shit", her tone shifted "and yea we got distracted but we can do it", flashing a few points on the revealed room map "we need to take out these points", arrows followed "then rush here and here", three exes blinked on the map "then hit them from all sides like this".This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    "Don''t call me that noob", DemonKing12 retorted, "but yeah I can do what you say", he looked at the map again "when do we start?"

    "In five", HollyN said "four" she counted quietly, "three", everyone held on to their weapons,"two" and took position to attack, "ONE" the team charged at the marked spots on their maps, each had his own green route but knew the other''s routes were marked orange so as not to interfere, this was a masteclass in interface control.

    DemonKing12 slashed the Ghost with his enchanted axe, meeting almost no resistance but trailing the milky aura where the metal met with ethereal flesh, he turned with his strike and smashed into one of the Hallowed Wretches pushing it to the centre of the room, he hit his marked spot just on time to hear the gong and shut his eyes when the bright white flash of an area of effect divine spell washed over him.

    His armor took a lot of damage from the Divine Bell Of Souls spell and some of its enchantments even went to cooldown periods, "fucking noob" he shouted on the chat "why didn''t you warn me you were gonna use fucking divine magic?" he was screaming on the top of his lungs as he opened his eyes "my armor is fucking wrecked now you stupid fucktart", seeing the carnage of the unholy monsters wasn''t complete "you didn''t even get them all", he raised his axe and leapt to crush the Spectral Knightmare on the top of its head.

    The axe slid off the pointed helmet and crashed into the Spectral Knightmare''s shoulder, severing the arm "THATS WHAT I''M FUCKING TALKING ABOUT" DemonKing12 shouted and stabbed the Spectral Knightmare in the face with a wrist spike, it penetrated deep but broke when the weakend enchantment failed, he used an upswing with the axe to the middle of the Spectral Knightmare''s body, the monster tried to fade using it''s Spectre abilities but the axe was enchanted to destroy ethereal beings and when it met no resistence it destroyed the Spectral Knightmare from existence.

 228 Stammer Daze

    "This place is a dump", Allen said while looking at another shattered door, "I keep getting prompts to repair things", the stairs were also cracked and in some places whole sections were missing, "there doesn''t seem to be anything worthwhile around here".

    He rushed back to stop the Wurm from following when he popped in the tiny Portal room at the top of a tower, then joined the search of a broken husk that once could be a mighty fort but was obviously breached long before they ever heard of it.

    "Maybe we can find out what happened here?", the yellow striped Trapper Kobold said while holding up a skull, "hey shaman can you raise the dead for us?"This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    [System: Notice Trapper Kobold Shaman Kobold has accepted your request confirm payment of 200 gold Y/N]

    "Sure" Trapper Kobold said, "it''s so weird having NPCs that don''t try to kill or catch us on sight" she turned to Allen.

    The Shaman lifted his hands and twiddled his fingers, hissed some weird unintelligible words and the skull lifted from Trapper Kobold''s hand, turned a few times in the air and an ethereal aura started emanating around it in the shape of a person.

    [System: Attention Trapper Kobold the spirit of AllenP has been called from the dead, you may command it for one hour or ask it three questions about thingsit has knownbefore the moment of it''s death]

    "Wow!" Trapper Kobold exclaimed, "I just raised the FirstAllen from the dead", shelooked at the other Kobolds in the room, "what shouldIask?"

 229 Clause Drift

    Shadows loomed in the dim lit tunnel, the light emanating from their enchanted gear seemed to be swallowed by the walls around them, ghostly images drifted along the hallways and bones cracked under their feet.

    Every member in the party was already on edge when they entered the underground city lead by the PainMaiden that floated silently at the front, a few times they could see a tentacle slither from under her cape like it was trying to escape the monster''s body.

    "What the hell did you get us into?" the woman in a green skinsuit whispered to Roman.

    "I don''t think we are in Kansas anymore Dotty", he replied and got a punch to his gut, while the other woman gafawed when she heard his reply.

    "It''s no yellow brick road either Toto", said the woman while pushing her rainbow hairbow back, "I think we should stop and plan at the next room or junction", stumbling on a skull that crumbled in the dark "this place is creepier than most places I ever heard of" she poured more mana to the enchantments on her vambraces and they flared with a sudden pink and orange light, "and I used to run horror quests all the time when I just started playing".

    "It''s a good idea Meta" the staff wielding warrior said, "we should think this through before moving forward", he tapped on the wall with his staff, "we should also consider sending someone for more supplies"

    "At least two should go", Meta replied, "one could get lost or attacked", she held her hand high to light the way, "I think I see the end of this hallway" she turned to him "who do you think should go Lena?".

    "Probably Duke and Roman" the green attired woman said, "you and me can hold any room indefinitely between our enchantments and the PainMaiden healing", she shifted her eyes between the two men, "and I could definitely live with less puns and jokes".

    "You know I was just lighting up the mood" Roman interrupted her, "this place is way darker than just the bad lighting".

    "Enough with the stupid puns already", Lena screamed, "you know I hate it when you don''t take things seriously".Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    "I am serious like the crunching bones of an ancient dwarven corpse", he bumped into the PainMaiden and it was like hitting a wall, "what the hell?" he asked surprised.

    "We have arrived at the ancient city of the StoneMourned dwarven clan", she said in her narrating voice, "in this valley the shadow of death resides", she turned and gestured "light itwill call", her hand rose to point at some point in the dark cavern before them "light it will empower" hidden points on their regional map were marked and named "light itwill devour", as she moved her hand in an intricate little dance a path was lit indicating where they needed to go.

    The group turned back only to find the entrance they had come through was gone, "is this an illusion?" Roman asked and tried to push back through where he just came from, "it feels like solid rock".

    Meta cast a spell that made her eyes glow and immediately shut them in horror "oh my god" her voice screeched, "what is that thing?" she stumbled back from the wall.

    "The StoneMourned dwarves were renowned for their natural enchanted rocks that protected their city" the PainMaiden answered, "all who would enter uninvited could never leave their lands".

    "Well fuck" Roman exclaimed, "how the hell are we getting out of here?"

    "Guests of the StoneMourned clan were given special tokens that allowed them to travel to and from their realms" she replied again, "the tokens were kept in the upper vaults of the StoneMourned spire", an already marked point on their map blinked to indicate the location of the spire.

    "We are way too deep for a weekend quest guys", Lena broke character, "we need a base", she started walking back and forth, "we need more people", she looked at Roman "shut up Roman", he finger shot to her lips "shut up", fidgeting with her fingers, "the rest of us have jobs and life outside the game", she kicked the ground.

    "What the hell Lena", meta cut the other woman''s ranting, "we just need to think this through"

    Roman tried to say something but Duke pulled him back "I think this is our moment" Duke said, "we can wing it and rise higher than we ever dreamed".

    "Yeah" Roman said, "we can do this", he got excited, "we can call other players in here", moving towards the ledge "tell them to bring supplies for a long time" he turned back to the party "make this city ours" his voice rose "kick that shadow thing out" raising his hands to the air "and "-

    "Shut up already Roman" Lena cut in, "we need to find a way out of here", she turned to the PainMaiden "where is the closest safe area?"

    "You can find shelter in <The Border Guardhouse>" another point on the map lit up "once you clear it from the apparition that haunts it" Carol said in a flat tone and recieved her extra credits for the interactions with Players.

    Lena turned to face the guardhouse, "ok let''s start with that and then we can think what to do next".

 230 Fawning Barge

    Stan loved playing the monsters, so when a Spectre Knightmare with minions contract opened up he was first in line and the highest bidder on it, spreading his minions in the three room area he was given to ambush Players and other monsters, using his credits to level up the Wretches and reinforce a few of the traps made sure he was going to get paid in spades.

    [System: Notice 372M a player has died from your actions, you earned 250 credits]

    [System: Notice 372M a player has died from your actions, you earned 250 credits]

    A couple of his traps sprang to life and crushed Playersentering the first room without a care in the world, he paid the 20 credits the system asked to apply the etherealcondition and floated to observe the group when they tried to figure out what was happening.

    [System: Notice 372M a player has died from your actions, you earned 250 credits]

    The beam he trapped fell on another player and a Wretch Ghosted the player in seconds, the ghost then turned on its allies under the influence of the Mind Wrap spell embedded in the trap.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    While all other Players were still distracted by the first ghost another Wretch Ghosted the remaining corpses and they all joined the frey, two wretches and three ghosts were sucking away the hitpoints of wizards and stamina of the warriors, noticing a spellcaster preparing an area of effect spell Stan charged into action.

    The Spectral Knightmare manifested in front of the woman and his sword descended on her helmet, splitting her head and half her torso he lamented the lost opportunity to gain another Ghost but he loved the effect his appearance had on the group.

    Shocked stares and gasps told him what they thought about it, shouts to retreat and regroup were music to his ears, he turned to one of the warrior Players and stopped his sword at the apex of its swing, then punched the Player in his face and watched with satisfaction how his nose caved in and started to bleed, the Ghost he was attacking took the opportunity to latch onto the player and suck away his stamina, only a quick action from one of the women rangers saved the Player''s life as she dashed and pushed him away from the Ghost.

    Stan turned to the rolling ranger but she was too quick for him and outside his reach, he tried to grasp the fighter but he QuickStepped away too, by the time the Spectral Knightmare turned to the other Players they were on a full retreating run and leaving his area of effect so he payed to refit only the acid spray trap, knowing the others would be useless against an alert group and walked back to the main room of his region.

 231 Group Stand

    Stan readied his defenses, after thirty minutes of fidgeting with tiny details, moving a bouquet of bones from one end of the shelf to the other and moving a Wretch from the front to the back of a trap to try and maximize the effect of both, he let the Spectral Knightmare engage in an idle routine of swishing its sword back and forth and added a stab every few swings.

    It took another fifteen minutes of boring idleness before the Players charged into his domain, playing a perfect plan of positioning and skills embedded with spells that negated his perfectly planned battleground, a combination of area of effect holy magic and powerful demonic attacks devastated his Wretches and Ghosts in seconds and he found himself toe to toe with a powerful warrior eploying demonic enchantments to prevent his ethereal form.

    "Fucking cunt" stan heard the demonic Player shouting when his axe cut right through the Spectral Knightmare''s body, "if you cast another holy spell on me I will fuck you to death", ripping the axe trailed by blood and ethereal aura, "Fucking fuck STOP" he shouted again.

    [System: Notice NPC 371M you have been overwhelmed by a player''s attack, initiating Spectator status until respawn in <2> hours]

    Stan was ready to initiate spectator status but instead a clear bell rung across the room, framing every detail in it with a soft light.

    [System: Attention NPC 371M Parental Supervision has been activated, all interactions are suspended]

    A ghostly figure floated from inside the demonic warrior and solidified as a woman, "thats it Aaron", her voice was hard and low, "your grounded", she turned towards the other players that were all frozen by the Supervision status, "I apologize for interrupting your game like this", she turned back towards Aaron, "Log off now".

    "But mommmm" he whined to her, "this is a NEW raid", his voice turned angry "you are ruining everything".

    "You ruined ''everything'' yourself Aaron", she flipped her hand, "log off now".

    DennisB looked up from the Ghost she was bashing with her staff, "Finally", she breathed out, "thank you".

    "Excuse me maam", HollyN interrupted, "can you please start the grounding after we finish this room?", she gestured around the room, "we kinda need him to tank the Knightmare".

    The ghostly mother turned about, "you don''t get to decide his punishment", she sounded pissed at the interruption, "I could just pull his plug off but remembering my adventuring days decided to give you a warning", her hand pointed at the boy "now log off".

    "Who shot an arrow in her knee?" a chubby enchanter whispered to DennisB who gaffowd a stifled laughter.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    "Shut up Kenny", the slim priestess chuckled but it was too late.

    After a few seconds of intense staring the ghost broke into laughter, "good one chubby", she said, "if you have to know you are playing with him right now", she sent a meaningful look towards Aaron, "its been fifteen years since I had time to go on an adventure".

    "What the hell mom", the afformentioned ''arrow'' cried out, "you can''t say things like that to my friends".

    Her head turned so fast it seemed to blur "shut up Aaron", she snapped, "I dont know where you got that potty mouth from", her tone was escalating "BUT you Shut the fuck up".

    Kenny whispered to Dennis "I think I know where he got the mouth from", which again echoed in the deafening silence.

    "You think you''re funny Kenny?", Aaron''s mom jerked around, "I will tell your mom about that comment".

    "Jesus mrs Thorn im sorry",his voice sounded whizzing "please don''t call my mom".

    "And you should be", turning back towards Aaron she seemed thoughtful, "fine", saying at last, "I will let you finish this Raid", she looked at him "but I''m silencing you from now on".

    "No mom Plea" Aaron said desperately but his voice was cut short when the parent supervision came into effect.

    [System: Notice NPC 371M resetting the last 5 seconds of play to negate supervision interference]

    Instead of waiting forAaron to jump at him Stan was already fading to his ethereal state, when the blast of holy magic washed the room the Spectral Knightmare flowed towards his throne and the demonic axe missed him, he could see the Player''s face contort in a silent scream of frustration.

    Materialising back on his throne he could feel the spikes driving into his armor, raising his arms also lifted the chair into a standing position and a metallic cocoon was erected all around him, knowing which Player was casting the holy magic that crippled him, he raised his hand and made a smashing motion that caused the whole room to convulse.

    Ceiling met floor and squashed the Priestess, cracking his armored fingers caused the shelves to wrap around the staff wielding fighter and a small shake smacked him to the roof and floor repeatedly.

    Stan made fists and air pumped three times towards Aaron, left, right and left, the walls smashed into him and threw him from side to side in the room, crushing him to death.

    Drumming his fingers caused spears to shoot from the ceiling and stab the remaining players through their skulls, "Bahahha" he laughed maniacally when the last remaining Wretch turned a Player to another Ghost, in just a few seconds he turned a loss into victory by employing his specially made room enchantment that cost him over twenty thousand credits to set up, of the eleven players that charged into the room two managed to run away and stan was content with his success.

    [System: Notice 371M a player has died from your actions, you earned 250 credits]

    [System: Notice 371M a player has died from your actions, you earned 250 credits]

    [System: Notice 371M a player has died from your actions, you earned 250 credits]

    [System: Notice 371M a player has died from your actions, you earned 500 credits]

    [System: Notice 371M a player has died from your actions, you earned 750 credits]

    [System: Notice 371M a player has died from your actions, you earned 750 credits]

    [System: Notice 371M a player has died from your actions, you earned 250 credits]

    The list ran down through the butcher''s bill, Stan caught his breath and started planning his next battle with the raiding Players, their slip that it was a raid and not just a quest made him realise there were a lot more players coming than he first thought when taking up the role, it also made him understand there will be other animated NPCs around, making him think whether he should contact or ignore them.

 232 Crowning Damps

    Seven Kobolds stood around a floating skull embeddedin a glowing silhouette of a human, their eyes were focused entirely on the apparition before them, itfelt strange to look attheir own image that wasn''t really them, knowing they were all copies of the man glowing softly between them,created for reasons they never found out, a few of them lived as a Kobold Allen for years, and at this moment, standing in this room with them was the one man that could tell them why, and how, but mostly why.

    Allen looked at the gathered creatures when his look lingered on Miner Slave, by his last memories this Kobold wasn''t ready to be loose yet, there was also the bone staff wielding Shaman that was obviously an NPC, the Kobolds he expected to see weren''t in the room, where were the Bonesmith and Oracle, why was Trapper leading the resurrection ceremony?

    Then the pain hit him, Devos'' last wordsechoed in his mind when he fealt his arm and leg burning away, "I just summoned the First Allen", Trapper exclaimed.

    [System: Notice AllenP you are a backup copy brought from the last instance in the game, you will be deleted when the conditions for your summoning has been fulfilled, when you answer <3> questions or a <1> <hour> time period has passed, you are not real, do not try to change the conditions of your awakening or the real you will lose all access to your player characters, you are a <Ghost> and has been granted all skills and abilities related to that monster]A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    Reading through the instructions he recieved from the System Allen felt sick, he was a ghost? a backup? what the hell was going on? why were his Kobolds in this room? how did they summon him? how could he get revenge on the crazy Devo?

    "Whatare you going toask him?"a green dotted red Enraged Kobold asked.

    "Ask who killed me", Allen answered and immediately recieved the system message.

    [System: Notice AllenP the condition for your summoning has been met, after two more qustions you will be deleted]

    "Shit no, bad answer" he cursed himself.

    [System: Notice AllenP you may not communicate unless asked a specific question or given a task]

    "What do you mean who killed you?" Trapper asked.

    Allen felt his heart sink, this was his one chance to survive beyond his own death from the hack of his mind, he had to find a way to use his two answers and single hour and find a way to either extend that time or answer more than what he was aske, but how?

    "To understand my answer you will need to bring the other Kobolds before me, especially Oracle and Bonesmith, also try to say this answer does not satisfy your question", Allen gushed out.

    "You didnot answer my question" Trapper quickly said.

    [System: Notice AllenP your answer was neither conclusive nor complete, if you persist in evading your tasks this summon will be terminated before its alloted time]

    Allen chuckled internally at the quote from an ancient book he read as a young boy, the programmer was a kindred geek,butthe threatrang true in his mind also thanks to the same connection to the nameless programmer.

    Trapper Kobold turned to the others in the group, "we shouldget this show back to the Warren and gather the others", turning on his heel he walked outside the room and started climbing back to the portal room

 233 Origami Turtle

    Trapper fealt shiver running up and down her spine, walking back up to the portal room she heard the other Kobolds tapping their claws on the stone stairs, her scales were all agitated like she was about to pounce on prey after stalking it for days, this was the Conclave''s dream for so long, to understand, in the past seven years it was also her personal mission.

    Having a class almost wholly devoted to luck and making chance encounters yield the highest prizes and also allow her some crafty and imaginative escape plans work against all other odds made her one of the few members from the Conclave to interact with the outside world while searching for a direct connection to their creator, the first Allen, the one still alive in the real world.

    Now was her moment, her luck played out and let her one time attempt at resurrection bring forth the closest thing she ever heard of to the first Allen, and she was going to share it with the Conclave, their dream, her prize and maybe finally some answers.

    She stepped through the portal to the guildhouse, another new thing in their lives, along with seven new Kobolds and the new guild interfaces that let them communicate with the whole Conclave at once through the guild chat and message boards.

    On the warren side she saw only a few guards, signalling Herb Picker Kobold to approach her, the small grey scaled Kobold walked over timidly, "where are Oracle and Bonesmith?", Trapper asked about the leaders of the Conclave without adhering to proper ceremony, sending a sure sign that this was important enough to lose community points if her message didn''t prove worth delivering.

    "Oracle is exploring the new Warren Trapper", Herb Picker replied softly, "Bonesmith went through the other portal to see the farmhouse", she finished with a curt nod signalling she was finished talking, idle routines made it awkward in continuos chatter because you could never know when the other person was still in attendance or completely ignoring you, and in Kobold reptilian bodies it was a lot harder to read gestures and facial expressions.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    Herb Picker looked at something behind Trapper and her first reaction was to tighten the grip on her trident but then her jaw dropped when she recognized her own face, the one she expected to see every day when waking up and looking at her reflection, it was glowing with a blueish tinge and surrounding a human skull but the facial features were unmistakable, this was Allen, the first Allen, dropping the trident called attention from the rest of the room and she heard gasps and surprised calls as she fealt her kneed buckle and hit the ground.

    Someone started shouting, hundreds of feet ran into the portal room thinking the Warren may be under attack only to meet face to face with something out of legend, a dream to many and nightmare to a few, Oracle walked into the room and immediately rushed out and returned wearing the regal robes of the prime Allen priest.

    Trapper didn''t expect that response, then she realised it was an obvious oversight on her part, a few of her friends were religious fanatics in the cult of the first Allen, while nearly all other members of the Conclave held some faithful tendencies that their lives had meaning beyond just playing fodder to mad Player schemes that were hunting them relentlessly.

    Only the new members of the Conclave and the few who were there at the revival seremony seemed less affected by the appearance of the spirit she brought in their midst.

    "WAIT", she cried before anyone started to speak, "don''t ask any questions", she wanted to explain everything but her words seemed to get the opposite effect and she idly thumped her tail, "the summoning ritual only allows him to answer two questions and he will disappear in 47 minutes" she finished with a hopeful wish, "unless we find a way to keep him with us".

 234 Favored Sacks

    Allen limped behind Trapper, pain shooting through his ghostly hand, electricity running up and down his leg, step, step, stop to writhe in agony, step, step stop, over and over again, knowing he was in a game didn''t help at all to mitigate the pain but he had to think.

    His most pressing problem was not having any interfaces displayed, none of his commands caused even a tiny glitch in his vision so they were probably all disabled, this was not a mode he ever heard of but before playing through the NPC rig he didn''t know anything about it either.

    Listing what he could do was as short as two answers and having less than an hour of time to finish anything he was able to accomplish, hoping that Oracle could change the system in a useful way and maybe having Bonesmith craft some more corporal body through her skill, but he couldn''t count on miracles, figuring the ins and outs of the system was his greatest strength and best chance on taking control over this unlife.

    The portal room was almost the same as he remembered from nine years ago, his mind filled in the gaps, broken shelves turned to woodchips in the corner, a smashed stool he placed chandeliers on to light summoning circles, melted wax marking where arcane symbols were pilfered for their gold, the blue light from the portal cast no shades in the room, keeping everything in a dreamlike state where Kobold guards drifting through idle routines stopped to gape at him.

    Limping through the room brought him to an unknown portal, Trapper was already gone to the other side, followed by Miner Slave, when the shaman passed through the portal Allen fealt a sudden pull and a short disorienting drop ending in another room lit by portals, Trapper was talking with Herb Picker when Rope Spinner caught her breath, in a minute the room was filled with Kobolds, kneeling, pushing, falling and mostly just staring, Oracle came into the room and left to come back a minute later dressed in some weird cerecmonial cape.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    Feeling out of place, it all seemed so stupid, why would his appearance cause such a reaction?

    It was a distraction from his immediate problems, he needed more time, if he had an interface it eould give him hints about what to do to gain extra time through either Player gold or NPC credits but nothing popped up, none of his commands even got a response and he started to feel the pressure.

    The thought about credits had him thinking, the one other instance with no interface at all was the loading screen for a new class or resurgence and initiating a NPC contract, having never heard of a delayed loading screen did not deter him from trying to finish the initiation process.

    Knowing it by heart helped since he didn''t have any of the lists and selection aids a player usually got before reaching this point.

    Going wild he decided to try and break every limit he knew, since the system already invested resources in his creation it could be manipulated to put a little more, choosing the most powerful being in the game for his race and a ridiculous class could tell him how far he could actually push it.

    [System: Attention AllenP Dragon may not be chosen as <race> when under the <undead> condition]

    The message blooming before his vision was everything he hoped for and more, running his mind through all the undead races he could think about had him running in circles when he realised half of them were actually classes and sub classes, with his time running out and thoughts becoming blurred he settled on three words.

    [System: Attention AllenP Vampire Whight Dragon <race> has been selected]

    He picked his class next and dumped his invisible stats into endurence and intelligence.

    [System: Attention AllenP Manascourged Lich <class> has been selected]

    [System:Attention AllenP finalizing your character creation process, you may log in after 15 minutes]

    He allways logged off for this part of the process, but he couldn''t do it this time because there was nowhere to be off the system, happyness for having a plan come together was short lived as pain worse than he ever fealt in his life broke every bone in his virtual body, blind by blinking displays and deaf from nameless noises he drifted inside a bubble of absolute horror, was this what it fealt like to be deleted?

 235 Praying Loom

    Breeder watched the soft pulse of the Wurm eggs, their soft shell rising and falling like a beating heart, in here her size meant little, surrounded by the gargantuan caecilians that served as foodsource, riding beasts and digging workforce to the newly formed guild, she may have been tiny compared to the other Kobolds, but everything was tiny beside these gentle giants.

    With a class which let her feel the needs and desires of other creatures she guided the Wurms to better food sources and improved the viable hatching rate of their offsprings, her black and purple hide made it easy to blend in shadows, but here she was safe, not many Kobolds liked being around other creatures, the go to tactics for the Conclave was Kill them all and let Allen sort them out later.

    Snickering at the joke that blew out of proportions she remembered the times before the Conclave, not many of her generation were left around, many have died by nameless Players or some roaming monsters, a few who tried to join wild tribes found themselves on the pointed end of a stick or slaughtered by more Players, finding other Allenites was a boon and a curse, at first they had some safety in numbers, but Allen was never a saint.

    Bigger Kobolds bullied the small and tiny members of their groups, a tiny Breeder found her situation was even worse, forced to use her skills and body to please the big brutes in exchange for protection, being a prize to win or share, hating every second of her life, she wanted to believe there was some meaning to all of it, some great plan that she was a vital part of, something the First Allen knew that she didn''t.

    Here was peace to be found, she could breath in the rhythm of the pulsing eggs, her heart beating with the motion of folding skin as the beasts dug their way through the earth that was made soft by their saliva and extracted precious stones and minerals that were used to form the creature''s almost impenetrable skin.

    NPC workers were sifting through the pools of goop for the more durable magical ores and gems, adding even more wealth to the unfathomable accounts of what was now an official Guild in the game, with the Warren to serve as their house and almost two hundred alenite Kobolds in the Conclave around the world she was sure this was the culminating point of the plan, the moment they were waiting for was about to come and she survived all the worst this world had to offer just to see it come to life.

    Running even before she made the concious decision to do it had her in the main hallway seconds after the alarm sounded, she equipped her armor and sickles and kept running towards the portal room, joining others that were streaming towards the Call to Arms skill activated by a guard.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    With deep breath and raised hands she hopped into the room ready to meet whatever enemy was foolish enough to invade the home her people, seeing the others kneeling made her think of mind magic so she rolled to the side while shouting "mind blast", her teammates spread out in a second only to realize there was no fighting, raising her eyes towards the gate had her mind frozen in shock

    Like a spirit from an old movie, flickering with a blue glow, stood unmoving the image of her childhood fantasies, he was supposed to sweep her away into his embrace, telling her she was good, explaining why he hurt her, why he had abandoned her to the bullies.

    "Two questions and 47 minutes before he vanishes", she heard Trapper say, Oracle walked into the room then and Breeder''s heart sank, she would never get her questions answerd if the bigger Kobolds had their ways, but what was there to do, it was probably some illusion they worked amongst themselves to keep the others pacified, they could make the apparition say anything and the zealots will enforce their word for faith, chalk or marbles because no single Kobold could stand before the unified might of the zealots and the crafting leadership.

    Trapper was nice to her once, but even the kindest hearts could be corrupted in the face of fame and glory and no Allenite had the kindest heart to begin with.

    The ghostly image started to flicker and stretch, its face contorted in pain and his mouth opened in a scream of silent anguish, Breeder fealt a wave of emotions wash over her and triggering all her empathic skills at once, hunger, rage and lust were burning through her while envy, fear and loathing froze the blood in her veins.

    Uncertainty brimmed through the room, emanating from so many it could just as well be all of them, she couldnt hold back any longer and her mind pulsed out through the room meeting something wonderful and unbound she helped it find its tone and the lights seemed to dim for a second before the image of a ghostly dragon took form before them, pushing the crowd back to make enough room for the magnificient creation of their mental father could manifest.

    Minutes stretchedas the thing looked more corporeal, with every pulse more details could be discerned, scales replaced the glowing aura, black, green, yellow and purple in patterns that seemed to have no beginning or end, eyes glowing red and a gaping mouth full of teeth rose to a single horned snout,crowned by dagger like horns adorningits head and fangs framed its lower jaw like a cage of ivory death.

    "Ahhh finally I can speak", the creature said in a deep and booming voice, "quickly bring me players so I can feed on their blood", it looked around the room, "the vampire part of me is famished and controlls the timer".

 236 Hearth Acne

    "This is bullshit", Devo crushed a bug under his foot, "I got four hours to play and I''m burning them all here"

    The pretty little healer looked at him, "what do you mean?", she said pursing her soft looking lips, "this is how raids are supposed to go"

    "I didn''t plan on babysitting a bunch of healers and glass cannons", thinking about ripping her leather tight dress and getting some experience on his whore class doing what he liked most.

    "You don''t seem all that mighty yourself mister", she was clearly not reading his mood, "what is the deal with your class anyway?"

    "Took it for a bet with a friend" he gave her the mushroom version of the story, "then decided i liked it".

    She seemed puzzled "what''s to like about it", her voice was getting on Devo''s nerves, "you are a literal whore", fantasizing about gagging her didn''t bring him the peace of mind he hoped for, "literaly".

    "Why don''t you come upstairs to the house with me" using his seductive skills to their full effect, "and I''ll show you".

    She seemed disoriented, "show me what exactly?" her voice didn''t annoy him that much in a slurry pitch.

    "Show you some good times" he added a few pheromones to their conversation, "maybe some bad times too", he whispered in her ear as his hand snaked around her waste and started guiding her to the stairs.

    "What the hell Lilia?", the fat chronomancer interrupted them and the girld seemed to almost wake up, "what are you doing to her?" He asked Devo in an accusing tone.

    "Just playing around", Devo answered, "letting off some frustrations", he used his skills again on the chronomancer "you could come too", emphasizing the come to add hidden messages through the skills he pushed at the players around him already with his foot on the first stair, "or you can stay here and protect our valiant leader", turning his eye towards the impossible Peasant caused the other player to also turn towards him and let Devo and his little mistress escape up the stairs.

    With a third of the raiding Players already dead or badly wounded there wasn''t much hope to finish anything here so taking his fun elsewhere.

    Finding a bedroom at the second floor of the house Devo started kissing the dazed Player and unlacing her armor, "how much will you pay me to get this top off you?" he asked her and watched as she blankly stared at the message on her display.

    [System: Notice Devo a player requests your skills to be used on them do you accept payment of <15> <silver> ? Y/N]

    Spoiler: Explicit<input class="spoilerButton" type="button" value="Show">

    Thinking yes he took her top off, sliding his fingers on her taut virtual skin and pulling a gasp from her mouth, pressing his lips to hers and feeling the soft warmth he fantasized about earlier, he was a master of his craft with few rivals to his skills and manipulations.

    Employing a skill from his long ago dabbing to the magician class he pulled a silk scarf from thin air, "ever had dark desires you wanted to explore", he rasped in her ear, "how far can you go in your mind", touching the silk to her neck elicited another gasp, "what would you pay to have all your dreams come true?"

    This was the height of his culminated skills, "what will you pay to be free?", manipulating his victims into paying him for fulfilling his own fantasies.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

    [System: Notice Devo a player requests your skills to be used on them do you accept payment of <3871> <gold> <15> <silver> <9><copper> ? Y/N]

    Approving payment of every last coin from her account made him happy, it wasn''t much for an active player, but he earned it fair and square by his book.

    A few more magician skills got her hands tied to the bedposts, mouth gaggedand remaining clothes removed, Devo leaned over, pressing his lips to her forehead, brushing his chest on her breasts and getting aroused from her inert submissive body, she was his, body and mind, using his skills to plunge deep inside her psyche he made her react to his every whim, penetrating the virtual body while also abusing her Player mind and not letting her log off.

    Devo used the hack from trent to let him remove her blockers and give him access to her ''true'' self, combined with his skills and experience he should be able to manipulate anyone to do anything he wanted them to, but something went wrong and not only he didn''t get the controls he wanted she was waking up from his narcotic drapes were torn apart.

    ---------------------------- changing pov to lilia for the resolution -----------------------

    Waking into a nightmare Liliawas assaulted by the smellblood and sweat, a heavy weight was laid on top of her and she couldn''t remember where she was, one moment she was healing another Player and nowshe was tied to a bed and hurt all over.

    "The sleeping beuty comes to her senses", Lilia heard a voice from her dream, "we had a lot of fun together you and I", shock washed all over her body when she realised she was naked in a strange man''s bed and she tried to scream but something gagged her.

    Failing to enhance the blockers on her sensory input made her panic, pulling her hands made her choke by some knot tied to her neck, tears flooded her vision, pain wreacking from every part of her body, thrashing threw the man to the floor, "a fighter huh?" she heard his mocking voice, "i see my magic touch lost some of its edge", the word magic hammered her brain into action, she cast Flaming Shield on her body that burned the bed in seconds, and as she fell to the floor she rolled away from where the man had fallen.

    Hearing his scream she looked up and saw he was burnt from her shield, milky skin flayed in red angry patches on his left arm and upper body, thought a lot less damage than she expected, rolling away from her while equipping a whip in one hand and a dagger in the other, she also used the moment to try and equip her weapons but found her inventory empty, "where are my stuff?" her voice came out in a high pitch.

    Giving her a cocky look, "why darling", he slurred "you gave me everything you own", removing his dagger and equipping her favorite staff, "maybe we can negotiate a trade back?".

    "Give me back my stuff before I report you for hacking", she screamed, "what the fuck did you do to me?" putting on the newbie gown so she wasn''t completely naked.

    Lashing his whip aside "that''s exactly what we did sweetheart", the whip penetrated her Flaming Shield and hit her hard "fucking", he laughed then, "fucking a whore costs a lot", the laughter turned maniacal as he ripped her unenchanted shirt and a red welt rose on her exposed breast.

    "Fuck you" she screamed and cast Flaming Grasp to engulf him in fire and restrain his attacks, "I''m reporting your hacks you rapist psycho".

    Damage from her attack was stopped by a powerful enchantment on his gear, "you payed me to use my skills on you", recognizing her ring of protection from fire on his finger, "your elemental magic canthurt me", the mocking snickers pissed her off as she used the game''s discretion mechanism to equipindestructible clothes.

    Tightening the grasp of the spell she said "you made a lot of mistakes today",her calm voice broke through his laughter, "but I am not going to educate you", his eyes snapped to look at her face, "give me back my stuff", her staff fell from his hand as he started to feel a crushing force cracking his bones from every direction.

    "But you don''t have any money" he choked, "you can''t add stat change effects to spells", coughing and spluttering.

    Picking her staff from the floor and plucking her rings and bangle from his hands, "a lot of mistakes", without her ring the flames started to burn his skin, he immediately equipped another item which she couldn''t reach without breaking the spell around him, but she didn''t need the fire to kill him and loot all her stuff back.

    The door to the room broke down, a whole tribe of monsters swarmed in and grabbed Lilia and Devo, breaking her magical constrictionsand dragging them both through the hallway with grunts and sharp bone edged weapons.

    Recognizing the Kobolds for what they were she didn''t understand why she was still alive but she wasn''t about to let the monster in human skin leave her sight so she followed their implied orders and didn''t struggle against them, hearing the man cursing whenever one of them poked him with a sharp stick to hurry him along.

 237 Trim Hold

    Lilia didn''t need the grunts and stabs to follow behind the yellow striped Kobold, it was the first time she ever saw so many of them together, almost as if they could understand each other and use real tools, crudely made or not, unable to put the man out of her mind she sneaked a look back whenever they moved from one room to another, passing wondrous items on their way to an unknown destination she was surprised by the size of the house, she was sure they went a full circle at least twice but didn''t recognize any room as they went through them.

    Anger seeped through her mind, feeling hot and flustered all over her body, she started trembling in rage and couldn''t unclench her hands, pain was a constant reminder of what was done to her less than an hour ago, a scaly hand touched her and the heat and pain seeped away, healing energies washed through her and fixed allher bruises, whenthe feeling didn''t fade she remembered the psycho did something to her blockers.

    Looking at the healing Kobold she noticed green rimmed black scales making hypnotic swirling patterns, for a first time details on a NPC generated monsters mattered for more than how to kill it faster because Lilia wanted to remember this one that helped her.

    "Where are you taking us you filthy beasts?" She heard Devo shout and then cry in pain as he was probably stabbed with a pointed stick, "stop that immediately".

    Realising he was trying to force interaction from the NPCs Lilia turned to the healer, "why didn''t you kill us?" she tried without results and then hit her head, "you aren''t NPCs at all", looking again at the group that lead them through the house she noticed they didn''t react to the Player''s talking but when Devo cursed them they stabbed him, "can you understand me?" she tried again and saw the Kobold look at another creature, "you can''t fool me now", she stated triumphantly only to get slapped with the butt of the spear.

    Turning red with anger and humiliation she took a step forward, "enough with your silly games", she started, "I know you are a Player and I know you understand me", she pointed her finger, "so stop it right now".

    The Kobold seemed to think before grabbing Lilia''s hair and pulling her head down painfully "stop talking or you could get me in a lot of trouble", the whisper in her ear sounded gruff and throaty, not at all like Lilia guessed a Kobold would sound like.

    "I knew it", Lilia whispered, "ow ow ow", the pain shooting through her head didn''t stop, "please stop pulling my hair", the Kobold let go of her hair when Lilia''s eyes were tearing.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    "Why not block the pain?" the Kobold asked, "are you new?" surprise sounded in her voice, "did you hack your rig?"

    Shooting a look back at the other Player, "he hacked my rig", she blushed, "used some crazy mojo skills to get me unconcious so he can rape and rob me".

    The Kobold''s eyes sharpened at the words and looked at the other Human, "bastard" was all it said before walking over to Devo, "give me everything in your inventory or I will hurt you".

    Devo looked at the new monster with surprise and then turned a baleful look towards Lilia, "What did you do bitch?", his voice full of anger, "I will maim you".

    Before he could say another word a scaly fist rammed into his stomache, "shut up and empty your inventory" the creature said, "now".

    Devo knew every trick in the game, he started pulling out all his trashtifacts and random crap from his inventory making a messy pile on the floor, Lilia saw some of her things and was anxious to grab them when the Kobold pulled out some sort of container, "now store this", it said, and devo was surprised but decided to play along for now, the container broke when he tried to store it and he found he had over a hundred cursed containers in his inventory, the Kobold looked at the broken one on the floor "you can''t fool us Human", she slapped him, "empty everything or you will be stuck with it for all eternity".

    The second pile was huge, Lilia had no idea you could even store so many items in a single character inventory, weapons and resources of all kinds dropped on the floor and got stares from all the Kobolds in the room, when he dropped out the whole box again the Kobold nodded and stored it, then after a series of grunts and whistles the other creatures took over the pile and stored everything, "I guess now you know we are not NPCs", the one that guarded the room said and turned towards the black and green Kobold, "why did you do this?" it asked.

    "Sorry BoneSmith but she said he raped and robbed her", the Kobold answered, "I wanted to see", she spat on Devo, "seems like she wasn''t the only one".

    BoneSmith turned to the Human "raping Players" it sounded disgusted, "what is wrong with you?".

    "It''s just a game you freak", Devo sounded pissed, "don''t judge me when you play monsters to rob and murder Players", then he cocked his head, "and maybe some bestiality?" he laughed then until another Kobold hit him on the head with a spear.

    "Alright ToothPicker", BoneSmith concluded, "you take care of the woman", giving another look towards the things left on the floor, "lets go back to the Warren", it turned and walked away.

    ToothPicker walked back to the woman "what stuff did the bastard take from you?" and when Lilia listed the items the Kobold passed them over to her, "sorry this happened to you", it turned to walk through the door and Lilia followed the strange connection she made to a new world where Players were monsters and monsters were Players or maybe it wasn''t new, was Lilia''s last thought as she entered a room filled with the blue eerie glow of active portals.

 238 Clock Bloke

    Speechless was a new sensation for Devo, that the stupid girl had betrayed him to the monsters was infuriating enough, but having all his stuff stolen by such a simple trick had him tittering with rage, without even words to describe that feeling he fell to the old habit of planning his revenge on all of them.

    How he would love tearing the flesh out of these monster Players, and they were Players for sure, all doubts were wiped out when they started talking like humans, with his new hack he was going to teach these bastards what fear and pain really fealt like, he will cut and bruise and maim them and let the girl watch how her new friends could not protect her from his wrath.

    Remembering how she was tied to the bed and begging to fulfill his every desire had the calming effect he needed, looking at the group of monsters he started to see their patterns, who was the leader and who were friends with whom, this was obviously part of a much larger tribe, and in every large enough group there were elements of dissent for him to exploit, he could still use the girl for a distraction to start his plan going, he just needed to figure out what the plan was.

    Looking at her chatting with the crazy black Kobold that beat and robbed him and how that creature was giving the girl his stuff put red spots in his vision but he had to control himself, this was not the right time yet, he needed to get his own Kobold, a guide of sorts to their secret society and since they were players he could put his class skills to their full effect no matter what shape they took.

    "Can you tell me where we are going", Devo turned to a surly Blue tailed Kobold, "I promise to make no trouble for you", emphasizing the ''you'' and enchanting the latter part of the sentence with a memory inducing skill he could see the Kobold''s eyes glazing as it''s last clash with trouble was played through the creature''s mind.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    "I can help you", Devo added, "you shouldn''t be all alone in this", pushing the Player down memory lane had the whole creature tense, "we could be friends", using a soothing enchantment this time had the thing unclench its fingers around the halberd handle and Devo saw it relax a bit and looking at him confused.

    "I''m sure that ToothPicker didn''t get it''s name by accident", lacing his enchantment with a jab of toothache had the expected result of the monster flinching in pain, "you can''t be friends with someone like that can you?" the pain spiked with the word ''friends'', "but I can be your best friend", he payed a lot for the soothing enchantment in the last two words and saw the creature getting the desired dazed look.

    "What do you want from me?" it asked Devo, "ToothPicker and BoneSmith are in charge of our team", sounding hurt when spitting the first name.

    "Just want to be friends", Devo cut off on the enchantments as his words took their full power on the foolish creature, "surely that''s allowed as ToothPicker is friends with my partner over there", pointing at the girl that walked beside the black and green Kobold.

    "She shouldn''t do that", the green tailed Kobold sounded angry, "the Conclave don''t allow us to be friends with outsiders"

    Warmth washed over Devo at these words, "then won''t ToothPicker get your whole group in trouble if you don''t stop her?" he asked innocently, "shouldn''t you stop them?" he added a suggestion enchantment to the last two words, making it almost a command, the Kobold charged forward and knocked the black thief with its halberd just as they entered a room filled with the blue glow of active Portals.

    Another Kobold entered the fight and beat the green tailed creature aside, with a series of grunts and growls Devo''s new friend was stripped of its weapon and armor and sent to stand beside the human prisoners.

    The portal room was guarded by more than a dozen of the detestable creature, which suited Devo just fine as it further confirmed his thoughts about the size of their organization, this was going to be easy, soon he will have his own cult of the freaks to fulfill his every command and the human girl will learn what it meant to cross him.

 239 Canine Yard

    ToothPicker rubbed her shoulder in pain, being unable to use her healing on herself was the greatest flaw in her Class, but it was the indignation that really hurt her.

    She knew racism was a problem with some factions of the Conclave but never in her wildest dreams would she believe her own teammate will attack her for just talking to a human, PloughBreaker seemed like a nice person, someone ToothPicker could relate to and maybe even like given time and shared work, but not if the green tailed Kobold was such a bigot that it would actually hit her for a political difference.

    "I can heal you", the woman said, "if you let me cast a spell on you", she was talking seemingly oblivious to the turmoils she incited in the small party of Kobolds.

    "Don''t talk to me", ToothPicker cut her words short, "you already got me in trouble", knowing she wasn''t fair to the human made her feel chills running down her arms and chest, "just don''t talk", she tried to sound less harsh as she turned towards the portal guards.

    BoneSmith looked at her, "you can let her heal you", he said in Human, "the only one in trouble is PloughBreaker", the Kobold shook its head, "I didn''t figure her to be so fanatic" BoneSmith cast a quick look towards the troublemaker, "I guess you never really know anyone until it''s time to make a stand", the turning towards the human, "cast your healing" it commanded, "but i''m watching you".

    Lilia equipped her staff and a ray of scorching light shot at ToothPicker, she didn''t have time to cast a shield before it hit her and the smell of burnt flesh filled the room, BoneSmith was already charging at the human and slamming her to the floor, "why did you do that?" the Kobold shouted, "why betray our trust like that?".Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

    "Stop", ToothPicker shouted as she regained her bearing, "she healed me", BoneSmith held off the strikeand ToothPicker added, "with a ray spell" her voice trailing off in the last word.

    She pushed BoneSmith away from the girl and helped her stand, "how can you cast a healing ray?"picking the staff with her tail she tried to Appraise it for a hidden spell or feature but it seemed to only add some potency to cantrips and minor spells.

    ToothPicker used her healing touch to heal the new bruises that Lilia got, the Human seemed dazed, like the pain actually affected her and it was just another piece to the puzzle that was this girl, a new piece if the other human really hacked her rig they needed to find out how he did it.

    "I''m sorry", BoneSmith and ToothPicker apologized together and the other Kobold tried its best to disappear, "you surprised us with the spell", ToothPicker decided it was worth her trouble to learn the secret, "is it something you can teach?", she finally asked.

    Lilia was shocked, too much happened in too short a time, the pain faded but it left behind a detouched feeling, ToothPicker couldn''t get her to react and it seemed her time was up when their turn at the gate arrived, perhaps some rest and food will straighten the girl up, and if not she will log off and get her shit together before coming back, ToothPicker will add her to the Player hostages VIP list and maybe even take a turn to look after her so she could learn some of her secrets.

    A Kobold rushed out of the portal screaming that everyone had to go back to the Warren because the first Allen was there, wasting no time after being cleared to transport BoneSmith rushed their group through and they all heard the dragon demanding Player sacrifices, ToothPicker moved awayand dragged Lilia into a hidden crevice where she could protect her if any Kobold decided she would be a good appetizer to the monster in their midst.

 240 Zero Chart

    Allen spread his wings, scanning his displays and options he decided to keep the default user interface for a Dragon with just some layers of the Vampire and Whight skills on the edges in case he needed them, right now he really needed to eat and his minions brought him a couple of appetizers.

    Focusing on the newcomers Allen saw the woman was already gone but the man was still there, his vision was distorted from the hunger and deterioration effects of his undead conditions but it was easy to fix, ignoring the prattle of the other minions he lunged at the Human and was satisfied to see his slaves running around to avoid trampling, he didn''t want to hurt them if he didn''t have to.

    Opening his maw while fiddling with the Vampiric Drain skill he heard the human shout something and was confused for a second, something was wrong about the whole thing, maybe he shouldn''t eat this human and let him lead Allen to more of his kind, the Player was doing something and Allen soon realised he was under a Dazzle effect, he should eat this Player but also listen to him.

    Looking closer at the Human he seemed familiar but Allen couldn''t remember where he met him through the blurry vision of all the effects he was under, finally deciding on a course of action he pinned the man to the floor and chomped his lower half and Drained him, then mounted his torso on a handful of spears he found lying around and picked up the Human popsicle, licking him clean of blood and then chomping his arms as well so the man couldn''t resist, he asked one of his minions to heal his snack and they brought a Kobold that did his bidding.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

    When the Human stopped screaming as Allen knew he would because he had blockers, and also the blur from the various annoying effects was diminished he asked the Human to repeat his previous statement but Allen again couldn''t understand the garbled words and it finally hit him that the system was distorting a language he wasn''t supposed to know, asking one of the Kobolds to translate the Human to Draconian brought the desired results.

    There were many more Human Players on the other side of the portal and the man offered to distract them if Allen let him go, considering the offer and the Human''s new condition Allen decided to decline but still use him as guide and distraction.

    A new problem was that the portal was too small, using his shapeshifting skills from the Vampire menu let him burn hunger points to do a lot of things, including turn himself a lot smaller, after some calculations he knew he would have a longer time in his smaller size but would not be able to become dragon again unless he could drain a lot of players, the return from draining would not be optimized but he did have an army of followers that could help him catch the small Humans.

    Transformations were painful, becoming smaller was annoying, when he was the size of a Human he decided to keep his draconian shape so he could have access to the skills and abilities from the race and class, now having about two hours of life in his diminished state he turned to his translator, "take me to the other humans", he said and was surprised by the shrill of his voice.

    To Allen''s annoyance the Kobold looked behind him before agreeing and looking back Allen saw Oracle pointing towards the Portal, not wanting to antagonize his army leaders Allen just followed the translator but decided to find some better leader than the obviously rebelious Oracle.

 241 Black Tracking

    Lilia saw the dragon rushing towards Devo, she couldn''t understand what it said until ToothPicker translated for her, seeing how the gargantuan monster tore at its prey made her gag and swear she will never eat meat again, the torture and maiming scene that followed spitting him on some pikes and then healing him with his body all mangled made her feel aches throughout her body.

    ToothPicker pushed her back into the small crevice and by the time she stood up the dragon was gone already, "what happened?" she asked no one in particular when ToothPicker grabbed her hand and pulled her among the marching Kobold army.

    Allmost too scared to breath Lilia followed her captor as they retraced their steps in an eerie silence she only heard of when large groups of NPCs were moving, to see over a hundred people moving through the house she left what seemed only minutes before was nerve wrecking but she was too afraid to speak.

    The Kobolds came in many sizes and their scaled hides held all sorts of patterns that made them easy to recognize, Lilia noted that most of the smaller sized creatures were healers and supporters while the bigger ones had more pronnounced patterns and held large bone tipped or bladed weapons that were strong and sharp enough to cut metal when a Kobold was insulted by a piece of armor or furniture.

    When she starter recognizing some of the rooms it was already pretty close to where she came from, soon will come the stairs with the priceless appraisal orbs used for lighting and then the underway where her friends were.

    Thinking of her friends she realizes not one of them came looking for her when that psycho kidnapped and raped her for a pretty long time, now he was just that mangled memory of a human barely recognized as a member of the world''s dominant species, she couldn''t feel bad for him, the man was a scumbag that hacked and abused the system to manipulate players.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    Like he manipulated the dragon so it wouldn''t eat him, was the dragon a Player, she asked herself, is could be pretty cool to play as a dragon, not one of the DragonBorn halflings but a real monstrous flying fire breathing monster, maybe she could get him to tell her his secret if she joined the monster guild that they were all members of.

    She searched ToothPicker''s player sheet and it was a blasphemous mess, whoever built that character was either drunk or insane, trying PloughBreakers'' profile showed the same all round poor buold choices and she started to think it was intentional, when they reached the appraisal orbs she could check some of the others around her butt she had a suspicion she won''t be finding any logic in any of the others.

    Some had maxed skills and certain attributes while the others were either untouched or just barely passable, none had the basic tutorial skills which started to seem like the only link between any of them.

    When her leg touched the underway floor she saw the strangest battle she could ever imagine, some corpses were lying around the hallway but what was strange was the Peasant had been casually holding off the dragon while the Kobolds avoided fighting him at all costs, ToothPicker fended off a spell and Lilia took her chance to dash to the Human side of the battle.

    At the moment she crashed into Lockerly she was already casting a healing ball on the whole group, she didn''t even notice the stab wound to her side as light flooded the room and the humans seeted to be hit by a second wind, even the crazy Peasant seemed to be a little faster as his tRusty sword clanged against the talons of a miniature dragon, a breath of dazzling lights was bet by an aura emanating from a locket wound around his arm and as the Peasant stabbed the dragon was forced back several steps.

 242 Clean Stale

    Sparks washed over the Peasant from Allen''s breath and annoyingly did absolutely nothing, from the moment he saw his own image he knew it was hopeless, at least when he was gone his real self would still be alive and get the Dragon Slayer title which was nice, but he didn''t want to vanish without a fightand gave it his best.

    A perfect riposte followed by a stab and slash move made him pull back to his hind legs and use a gust of wind attack with his wings, the Lover''s Locket flared again and diffused most of the attack leaving the Peasant in a perfect position to lunge and shade his next attack with the tRusty Sword, not the greatest legacy weapon but definitely the most resilient which made it perfect considering his infinite strength and agility.

    Flapping his wings to lift off the ground just before the blade smashed into him andtaking another approarch he glided over the Peasant''s head to attack the other players, another shower of sparks that did nothing at all had him reeling in the air before he got hit from their spells and arrows, flying was a thrill he really hoped he could experience before dying and being forced to live as a reincarnated spirit in a game.

    Air blasted him towards the ceiling and he had to struggle to regain control, scraping something sharp with his right wing the game immediately debilitated his flight, he hobbled midair for a second before deciding what to do, his Kobold minions were bashing the stupid Human Players and beating them up with ease, the real threat in the cave was just the peasant, Allen''s pride and joy for over a decade of hard work could probably outlast and out blast everyone involved in this whole skirmish and he needed to neutrelise it.

    Being a Dragon and Vampire had some benefits but right now Allen was scanning his other class and race abilities, not wanting to actually kill himself required some fine tuning of his Whight ability to transcend the game reality phase, at the same time he didn''t want to die by a single hit so he breathed his sparks and dashed through them, the locket flared to repel the magic and he crashed into himself, at the last second something seemed strange, like the other Allen acted too fast and too slow at the same time, it was the perfect response to the wrong move and the awkwardness of it made him think about glitched automated characters, but it was all too late, he had to either play out his plan or die with no answers and out of these options the plan had the greater rewards.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    Colliding with the Peasant was like hitting the wall of a mountain, his breath would do nothing but he remembered a plan from another time and place, a happy memory of a different medium, he took flight before he was grabbed and again had the same feeling of distortion, wishing he learned the Human language so they could talk wouldn''t help him now, whipping his tail across the Peasant''s face and then wrapping it around his arm was sure to get only one response but instead the Peasant equipped a knife and tried to slash at him, he let go and knew for certainty this wasn''t Allen even before landing, the thing living in his body charged, Allen lifted from the ground, knowing he wasn''t fast enough but just needing another pass to activate his ability,

    Dashingaside whenthe Peasant was almost on him heleft behind a Ghostly Image, then whirled around and slammed his body at the monster to push it into the trap before it dissipated, the Peasant crashed through the Image trailing luminescent ribbons that seemed to cling to his body and enshroud him, in a few more seconds his whole body was glowing and Allen activated the final stage of his plan, the Peasant blinked in and out of existence before it became its own ghostly image, the effect will only last for a few minutes but that was all he and his minions needed to route all the other Players, he turned towards the remaining foes and saw a flash of light before everything became distorted like a hall of mirrors.

 243 Wring Hamburg

    Lilia knew they had no chance, a bunch of low level Human survivors of a raid facing off an army of well trained Player monsters it was a no brainer about who would win, but she could help her friends and allies the best surrender conditions from their enemies.

    Even a miniature dragon was a very powerful creature, seeing the farmer holding it off made Lilia reconsider her previous assumptions about the man and the beast, the sparks from the monster''s breath were like a million tiny curses that made a mess of everyone''s skills, stats and abilities, seeing the Peasant being hit directly in the face with it and still pushing back his assailant was mind numbing.

    Casting another Aid orb to negate some of the hexes helped her friends catch their breath and renew the line against the marauding Kobolds, although their weapons seemed crude Lilia knew they were potent implements of death and the Players with her needed to regroup and get some advantage if they didn''t want to get wiped out.

    This was why she played the game, not all the stupid role playing nonesense but the heroic last stand of a few against many making use of obscure skills and tactical superiority to subdue an impossible foe but if she was going to work out a plan she needed to know what her goals were, it didn''t look like there was anything actually worth fighting for, most Humans were already giving up when she crashed into them and the few still fighting didn''t have much going in their favor except for the mad Peasant that seemed to stop most of the enemy advance on his own.

    The dragon took off towards the ceiling and Lilia literaly pushed Croney into action and pointed at it, the gust of wind almost impaled the beast to a stalagtite and it just breathed at them and attacked the titanic Peasant again, when the tail whipped the peasant''s face she thought it was something she already saw, with the handwrapping she knew it, though there was no cliff anywhere around and they were certainly not at ghormley keep this was a step by step replication of that attack and magic would let you make your own cliffs.

    Knowing what was coming next she grabbed Lockerley''s arm, "get ready to trap the dragon in a crystal", he looked at her with astonishment but knew better than to argue when she was in her tactics mode, he started the ceremony while their allies pushed the Kobolds back for a final futile assault, seeing the dragon dash aside she knew what came next and shouted "now" as soon at its body slammed the Peasant through the glowing apparition left behind.

    Green light flashed to red and then finally blue, the peasant had turned into a ghost and the dragon was nowhere to be seen, but a green crystal with blue veins and a miniature dragon etched inside was floating inside the ritual circle, "I invoke the right to Parley" she shouted, "we will negotiate with BoneShaper and ToothPicker or I will smash your god", she raised her staff threateningly above the crystal.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    Seeing the Kobolds hesitate gave her time to catch a breath, as the two she indicated came forth she fealt like they could win this, not sure yet what her goals were she mostly wanted to get out, away from the UnderWays, away from this crazy farmhouse and everything in it, then the Kobolds brought forward the mangled shape of Devo and she gagged, choking sounds emanated all around her and she couldn''t hold it any longer when the thing''s eyes moved, he was still alive, skinless and being only a torso with a head held upright by a bunch of spears she couldn''t believe he didn''t just log off and respawn.

    Kobolds healed some of their wounded before ToothPicker stood apart from their flock "what do you want human?", she spat in Italian, "you got me in so much trouble I really want to hate you" the creature''s tail smacked the ground.

    "We will give you the temporal Crystal if you let us get out of here", Lilia''s voice sounded much more confident than she fealt inside, fatigue started to rise from her aching feet and depleted mana and stamina reserves, this needed to be finished quickly, "you can release him in any temple".

    ToothPicker looked at her but it was BoneSmith that spoke, "why don''t we just take it after we kill you all?" he asked and took a step forward.

    Lilia raised her staff "because I will smash him before you can stop me", making an up and down motion with her hand, "so it''s your fault if he dies", she looked straight into the serpentine eye of the creature and didn''t back down.

    BoneSmith walked back to a group of fancy looking clothed Kobolds and when he returned he nodded towards her, "we will escort you out if you deposite the Crystal in an offline safe", he threw her a memory crystal, "its set up so any item inside requires all owners to log in at the same time and activate the key", he handed her a credit card, "also the item can''t be touched before five days pass" he finished talking and looked from her to the crystal and back.

    Reading through most of the document she agreed it was the best way for them to trust her, touching the card to the green and blue crystal made it vanish in a cloud of sparks, only then did Lilia realize her threat was gone without it actually being in the room and she fealt like she just wanted to cry in frustration at the trick.

    The Kobold saw her discomfort "not as smart as you would like to believe you are", it made a stopping motion with a hand, "but you dealt with honor and I respect that", looking at ToothPicker, "even if you betrayed your friend".

    A new Kobold stepped forward, wearing robes that covered its entire body, "you made a deal with the Kobold Conclave", its voice resonated through the cave, "and we will honor it", Lilia swooned in place at the relief she fealt.

    Leading the humans away from the house was an easy task, with only Lilia left to finish the transaction after everyone were outside, she met with the one they called Oracle and handed it the other card before turning away to leave this very strange adventure.

 301 Cat Pastle

    Flaring lights fractured in Allen''s vision but he still couldn''t see anything, the closest experience from his life was trying to look through a waterfall, only this time all he could see was more water, blue and green darkness surrounded him from every direction creating geometrical features across his entire display.

    Scanning his interface made him realise he was still a Vampire Whight Dragon, but also that he was under some kind of effect from the system, it had to be something the Players did to him, trapping him in a stasis of some kind, the timer on his deletion was stopped at 00:17:12.003 which would have given him seventeen minutes if he didn''t realise a lot longer time actually was passing.

    His first clue was a recurrence in the shifting fields of light, they were a sort of beat, when it happened again he figured it was a good indicator so he put a ticker on it, if the lines aligned just so then tick, to break it even further he made a clock that would count the seconds between each tick, beating every 8 seconds had to have some meaning, Allen considered other timers in his display, stamina, mana, hp, all had regeneration and capacity, his breath and other attacks also had them while some others were emptying over time like poison and curses or beneficial effects.

    Concentrating to push through the light fields only brought a minor change in the arrangement of lights, but it was still better than doing nothing, already wishing the system had erased him instead of this horific torment of absolute boredom, the clock showd him hours had passed, but nothing seemed to actually change, setting a new ticker for the changed light configuration he settled down to fiddling with his interface some more.

    Finding the help files for the game and user interaction agreement was the great successof his second week of blue life, with nothing else to do he just read through them, at some point the ticker had sped up but he couldn''t say exactly when, now knowing a lot more about the interface he set an alarm to tell him if anything else changed.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    Some of the help files had links to an even deeper level of knowlege, notes made by the programmers, most of it was about the user interface, some looked like a chat with back and forth remarks from different people, at some point he realised he had favorite authors, moving through the texts that made his life tolerable, the ticker alarm went off seven timeswhen he stumbled on ahidden throve,the worst programmer in thebunch thatAllen named Redjust dumped a copy of a programming menu as part of his text,

    Part ofan argument about sources with the gretest anonymous hero, known as Green to Allen, that dumped a RTFM bomb, the antagonyst linked it to his answer, enabling the link popped up a new type of window in Allens'' view, inside the reader program were whole libraries of instructional manuscripts, some he knew from his studies and work of before the trial, but he never actually read them from cover to cover, there was no page left unscrolled.

    Green elaborated how Mana was a way to distribute server resources to Players, Red stabbed with a micro transactions argument, breaking the Mana system into a money printing machine, Green tried to fend off with code purity but Red would have none of it, crushing Green to submission and pushing him back to the NPC credit laws shield, Red tried to force his way through but on this Green stood firm on unshakeable grounds, the last defense of a dying man protecting his ideals to his last breath.

    The alarm went off again, pulling Allen out of the scene he was creating from one of his favorite arguments between the greater programmers of their time, the others were mostly pawns in the battle between Green;Defender of the Code and Red the Greedy bastard, looking through his notes and searching for the annoying bell through the tabs Allen finally found what had happened, his timer had changed to 00:17:12.002, a single milisecond and no more, but it was the greatest change of his life and he needed to understand how it happened before things got worse.

 302 Crate Hour

    Allen fealt clumped, with displays, tabs, pages, books and hordes of notes open all around him, pushing everything back didn''t help so he just clumped everything together in a box and set it aside, surrounderd by the serene blue and green shifting lights he sank into his thoughts.

    Opening a compiler he used himself as the zero position for the object he put it at 1000 meters on Y axis, a small blue square appeared in the compiler window, turning the object by 180 degrees a mountain range filled his vision, cutting the distance to only 5 meters he was jumped into a shrine room where a glowing crystal floated above an altar surrounded by images of Dragons and Kobolds.

    Seeing himself for the first time in this form he wasn''t surprised, the controls on the compiler let him float around the temple complex, a bustling city filled with Kobolds and Humans with a few other races walking around, he wandered around town for a while, looking into houses and private rooms, copying new books and documents to read later, even following some people around for a few days just to have something to do.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

    On one time while he was floating around the temple following a group of Kobolds that were worshipping a black dragon image he decided to scare them and created a new object inside the Dragon statue, this one was an auditory emanation of a roar, when the roar triggered and he couldn''t hear it he realised his own mistake and added an auditory receptor to his floating camera.

    Trumpets, grates, groans and roars filled his entire being before he lowered the volume in the different channels, finally he noticed the Kobolds were talking but all he got were groans and growls so he broke the object code and put an asteric where Human was listed, immediately understanding their conversation and already not liking it he abandoned the scared and boring group to look for more entertainment.

    Back in his own shrine Allen added an auditory emanation, unsure what to put in the message he coded a language randomizer and made it say "hello world", turning up the volume and removing his own auditory receptor, he let it trigger every 8 seconds together with his own glowing beat.

 303 Hobble It

    Allen watched Kobolds and Humans swarm into his shrine room, a robed Kobold looked around the room and cast a spell, the feed to his compiler winked out and by the time he created a new feeder it was all over.

    "Did this, they will be severely punished", the robed figure hissed and Allen guessed what he missed, when they left one of the Kobolds stayed behind and started dusting the pedastels around the room.

    "How you doin" Allen sent out an auditory pickup line in Draconian, the Kobold raised its head and gripped the duster with both hands shivering.

    "Who is it?" The creature asked in a broken voice, "I''ll tell headmaster Staffson you are bullying me"

    Allen couldn''t find words so he just laughed in his head and then sent out "hahahaha staffson haha good one bahahaha"

    Turning with the duster held like a sword with two hands the Kobold didn''t seem to get the joke, "please just leave me alone" it pleaded in a voice that almost broke Allens'' crystal heart.

    "I''m sorry" he sent, "I won''t hurt you", the compiler interface was not helping in any way, especially because it wouldn''t convey tones and feelings, just a flat voice chanting the words.

    Knowing there was a better way Allen sought furiously through his discarded notes and texts filling his vision with them again, when he finally found the right object it was already dark outside and the fearful Kobold nowhere in sight.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    He searched for it all around the temple and city when an alarm told him his ticker shifted its timing again and he returned his visualizer back to his shrine just in time to see a group of 4 Kobolds and 3 Humans push the little duster inside the room and flee after barring the door from the outside.

    The little Kobold, now that Allen compared it to others, was banging on the doors furiously before collapsing in front of it facing the crystal that glowed floating above the central shrine.

    Using his newly defined auditory tool allen said "don''t worry" which made the creature jump up and lean against the door, "I won''t hurt you" allen added.

    "Wh who are you?" The Kobold asked timidly, "why are you doing this to me?".

    "Are you a player" Allen''s interest peaked at such a behavior, "or an NPC?"

    This seemed to make the thing angry "I am not a feral", it shouted, "my maternal ancestor is JewelSetter"

    "I remember her" Allen remarked after thinking, "solid build with a hardset commercial potency", this seemed to jar the creature, "is the Conclave still around then?"

    "What joke is this" Duster, as Allen dubbed it, shouted, "what rock have you been living under?" It asked.

    Gaffawing at the uninteded pun Allen caught his metaphorical breath, "I am the rock" he finally answered.

    "Well mister Rock" Duster stood up, "I really need to go so if you know a way out I would appreciate it if you could lead me there", it said.

    "Oh I know a way out" Allen finally said, "my name is Allen", he sighed "please come see me again" he defined the object barring the door in his compiler and deleted it, making the doors swing open and Duster to fall out to the hallway.

 304 Viable Sin

    Allen learned from the two incidents and created another copy of his sensor to monitor the shrine room while he followed Duster.

    The bullies were long gone but he just rewound his recording of the few glimpses he had from them leaving to get their faces on display.

    Floating through the bustling streets of this foreign city he saw all manner of creatures interacting in trade theft and idle conversation, he couldn''t tell if any were NPCs and it started to rub on him when even shopkeepers didn''t go idle when customers left their booths, either the ai got much smoother since he was playing or they were all players.

    Combine that with the way Duster said ''ancestor'' and Allen had a sinking feeling more time had passed than he fealt comfortable admitting to himself.

    Coming to a tall building with ornate dragon etchings covering the entrance and foyer he followed through several gates and guard positions, not even one of them displaying idle routines was strange and discomforting.

    Up an elevator and down through another corridor Allen was glad he anchored the sensor to Duster or he would never be able to manually follow through all the twists and turns in the city and building, more like a fortress than apartment complex they finally got to their destination when Duster took a deep breath before a door.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

    Inside were guards on each side of the door, Duster walked past them and through a winding corridor reached another door where it listened and sighed before entering.

    Opening the door revealed an opulent salon strawn with chairs and soft carpets, Allen gasped inwardly when he saw the whole gang of bullies lounging arround the room, laughing in conversation that stopped when they saw Duster.

    "Your''e back" one of the Kobolds spat, "did you break the door of the shrine?", its voice was dripping venom.

    "Or climb out a window?" A human girl chimed in.

    "Probably summoned Staffson to let her out like last time" a third Kobold intervened "using magic when underaged like a Feral".

    "Or an elder", the first Kobold added, "thinking you are better than us cause you got mana" its voice dipped with acid.

    Duster stood still, Allen couldn''t take it any more, he ramped up the volume for his auditory projector and in a cone leading away from duster he said "shut up", the effect was pretty awesome, the furnitures and characters were all flung away, windows and glassware broke, the doors burst open and guards poured in fully armed and armored surrounding the youngsters in a defensive formation, an ancient looking Kobold walked in and surveyed the damage, it then put its arm on Dusters'' shoulder and lead it to another room, when one of the bullies tried to follow the ancient one shook its head and the guards wouldn''t let anyone else leave.

 305 Guest Trap

    "Reveal yourself", the ancient Kobold''s command was laced with code to compel obedience but there was nothing hidden, "Allen" it finished.

    "How did you know?" he asked unthinking.

    "That voice will follow me to my grave", came the answer, "I was there when they brought you to the Portal room", her shoulders hunched, "heard you spew nonesence about sacrifices and then saw you pouncing on a Player" she sat on a thronelike chair, "dismembering him and calling for healers to cement his torments for no apparent reason but your amusement".

    "Oh" was all he could think to reply when memories of the incident flooded his conciousness, "he deserved it", he added when more memories came from the first time he met Devo.

    "No doubt about that", the ancient one said, "we found out about his deviant ways a short time later", she sighed again, "but you couldn''t know it at the time", was her conclusion.

    Allen was surprised to realise she wasn''t wrinkled, but scarred all over, "what happened to you?" he asked unthinking.

    She squinted towards his auditory projector, "three hundred years of incessant war happened to me", she kept looking for him with different types of visory spells but failed, "are you really a ghost?"

    Playing around with the properties of his sensor, "I''m not sure actually", he replied, "the system said I was a backup brought up by a spell", he added color to his outline and she stared directly at him, "I only had one hour and could answer three questions at the time", he tried to change the shape of his projector but it distorted his vision too much, "and then I forced the system to make me a dragon and you probably know better than me what happened after that".Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    Scratching her chin in contemplation, "Indeed", she finally said, "but where were you for the last thousand years?", her eyes sharpened, "where were you when we were purged?", her fists slammed at the dest, "hunted like animals for a prize?" she stood up and Duster caught her breath making her look at the young Kobold, forcibly relaxing her muscles, "what do you want with that child?".

    "well" Allen answered with a nasal tone from the old Genie in the cartoon, "see there", he protracted his words with long pauses, "mostly I was reading".

    "READING" the old one shouted, her anger flared to new heights, "READING WHAT" she equipped a huge Naginata that seemed to appear out of thin air and slashed the desk in half charging at the offending dot in the air, "WHAT WERE YOU READING" her blade cut through the floor, "THAT WAS MORE IMPORTANT", the speed of her attacks made Allen dizzy, "THAN OUR PEOPLE''S LIVES?" a hit to Dusters stomache crushed the youngster at the wall and she crumbled to the floor, "OUR FREEDOM?", she screamed at the top of her lungs.

    Allen was mentally reeling at the attack, although he did provoke her it never occured to him she would actually attack, even hitting Duster without stopping for breath, he studied the weapon for a few seconds and then redefined it as immobile, stopped in her strike the old Kobold broke her fingers when she tried to move it, screaming in pain and anger she kept slashing at the air where Allen was floating until she ran out of stamina and drooped to the floor in a heap.

    "Why did you abandon us?" she accused between breaths, "we believed in you", sobs escaped her, "I was faithful", heaving racked her whole body, "the others called us zealots", a surprised gasp was heard from the corner of the room.

    "NANA no", Duster cried, "you were never one of them".

    The old one looked at her hurt greater great granddaughter, "I was", she confessed quietly, "and I don''t regret it", gathering herself up she walked over to the wounded youngster, "we were great then", casting a spell that mended the Kobold''s broken arm, "greater than we will ever be again", she helped the girl stand, "so many lost", she whispered in visible sorrow, "so many" she finally sighed.

 306 Loud Spill

    A loud clang resonated through the room when Allen removed the Immobile property from the weapon, the Kobolds jumped when he looked at them, "very emotional", he said after a long pause, "it almost sounded real", feeling his indignation flare in defense of the accusations, "but you are just computer generated aparitions", he moved closer, "you don''t feel remorse", hovering over them "you don''t feel fear or anger or love or loss", seeing the older one crunch her face he added "you just are" he hissed, "as I made you".

    Seeing muscles move under her scaley hide Allen thought she might strike again, "you were a fun build JewelSetter", moving around the room and checking the properties of different items, "making pretty items", he remade the desk, "maxing properties of mundane stuff", the floor took him a little longer as it involved the whole structure, "working on luck and intelligence to make everything fit together perfectly", when he returned everything in the room to its perfect condition, "but you were never charismatic enough to profit on the trades", he gave one final look around "so I let you go and moved on to Trapper", he deleted the sensor and the display from that room went dark, her words struck a chord he didn''t know he had in him, but he wasn''t going to confront some malfunctioning AI on his past.

    Setting the doors of his shrine to their Closed configuration and then removing the ''open'' property Allen started to relax in his mind, all that excitement was entertaining but the drama was just too much for a casual stroll in the city, following that thought Allen created a new sensor and started floating around the market that surrounded the temple he lived in, people made bargains, bought and sold all kinds of strange goods from the game.

    Allen couldn''t figure why a Player would buy a tomato for three silver bits, another Player bought a pan for a silver coin, simple housewares and groceries in a world of fantasy and wonder, where you could fight dragons and level down mountains, be a pirate on the seas and befriend a kraken, thinking about it made Allen realise Karen was dead for so long that no one around even remembered her, or Janice or any of his other friends, or even him and his real life family.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

    That thought was depressing, he deleted his sensor again and went back to reading his books, what was he doing for the past thousand years? what did he accomplish that was worth living for so long? the questions kept popping into his head and wouldn''t let him concentrate, finally he decided maybe some drama would distract him and looked for the location properties of his previously deleted sensor.

    The office was dark and abandoned, floating to the other room he found only two of the Bullies remained and most of the damage was removed or repaired, "where is Duster", he asked and the Kobolds jumped like they were bitten.

    "Who?" a tall green scaled creature asked, "are you Gem''s ghost?", it squinted in Allens'' direction, "did you really trash Nanna''s office?", the other Kobold, with a darker almost black hide hissed at the speaker.

    Now knowing his Kobold''s name Allen repeated the question "where is Gem?" trying to sound disinterested.

    "They all left to the temple a while ago", Greeny said, "we are grounded for bullying Gem", extracting another hiss from Blacky, "what" Greeny asked turning to the other Kobold, "its not like they can do anything worse to us".

    "What are your names?" Allen asked, not wanting to use color monickers for his conversation.

    "Im Tauran" the green one said "why do you ask", blacky replied at the same time.

    "Just being polite", Allen was at the end of his nerves for Blacky''s attitude, "which you obviously never learned how" he added to Blacky''s hiss.

    "Did you really teach Gem how to use magic?" Tauran asked after a pause.

    "No" came the quick reply, "where did you hear that?".

    "Gem said it was you that made all the sounds but Staffson figured she was just playing pranks on everyone to hide her use of magic", Tauran looked at Blackey, "I guess we owe her an apology or something".

    Allen remembered what they said before and moved his sensor from the salon to just outside his shrine where a group of Kobolds stood around Gem and JewelSetter looking at the door they couldn''t open, finally he sighed inwardly and said "fine", which caused a stir in the group, he changed the doors property back to open and the group moved in.

 307 Sad Beard

    "Stop", Allen said when the group moved closer to his Crystal, "don''t come any closer", seeing the same scene from two different angles was so strange that he had to minimize one of the compiler windows, "why are you here?".

    Staffson looked at Gem with disdain, "enough with this nonesense child", he said, "you thread a thin line leading to nothing but tragedy".

    "She isn''t doing anything", Allen said defensively, "why is it dangerous to use magic?", was the question he really wanted answerd, maybe it could tell him something about the other oddities he witnessed in the city.

    The adult Kobold looked directly at Allen, his head turned to an invisible spot somewhere above and to the left of the crystal, Allen noticed there were four different groups of Kobolds in the room, with three ancient creatures, seven guards and three mature Kobolds surrounding the single youngling that seemed scared of her august audience.

    "Gem please walk to the crystal ", Allen finally said and the trembling youth took a step forward only to be stopped by Staffson, "let her go" Allen commanded and when JewelSetter touched Staffson''s arm he released Gem who approached the floating Crystal.

    Thinking about what made him come out of his crystal shell he figured it could be something this Kobold did, and from the few things that could be a spell was the most probable, especially if she had something others didn''t like Tauran said about mana and how it was taboo in their society, "did you cast a spell on me?", Gem couldn''t hide the shiver that struck her from head to toe, she stood mortified in the center of the room.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    Staffson was the first to react, raising his staff to attack the motionless youngster he shouted "liar", and was surprised when his staff was stuck in the air, his hands swished harmlessly in the air.

    "Stop", allen said again as the guards grabbed Staffson and JewelSetter walked over to shield her proginy, looking oddly at the staff.

    "Please wait for someone to hold the staff before you drop it", Jewelsetter said and motioned one of the other elders to do just that, "thank you", she finished when Allen let the staff move normally again, "its a precious legacy of our people".

    At her words Allen moved his sensor towards the staff and examined it, "isn''t it the Shaman''s staff?" he asked finally, remembering the NPC shaman that summoned him.

    "Yes", JewelSetter said, "it was the staff that gave us the first Allen for three and a half hours before you were banished by the Player Chronomancer that cast you through time to an unknown point in history", she scratched her head "I guess its not unknown anymore" she chuckled uncomfortably.

    The Kobold holding the staff fell to its knees, lowering her head to the floor, one of the guards moved thinking she was hurt but then realised what was happening and his knees started shaking.

    BoneSmith shouted "NO", she raised her hands and equipped a bone headed hammer to charge at the crystal, "NOOOOO" her cry resonating through the room as she ran to smash the abomination that floated before her, suddenly the hammer slipped from her hands and she stumbled forward, both hands hitting the crystal and Allen had an alarm ringing, he saw the ticker alarm had gone off and that mystery was finally solved as well.

    JewelSetter walked over to the distraught BoneSmith and held her friend tight, the heartbroken Kobold kept crying uninteligeble words and pounding on Jewelsetter''s chest with futile fists that had no strength behind them.

    Staffson fell to his knees as well and the others followed, leaving only three Kobolds still standing in the shrine room, not sure what to do Allen kept silent to let the Kobolds resolve their dramatic entrance.

 308 Brown Fish

    Slom fealt the wind whipping his hair back, standing at the tip of The Odacious'' battering ram he braced before his ship smashed into the enemy''s starboard, letting the force of collision fling him onto the other ship''s deck, his sword slashing at helmeted heads and cutting off an unguarded shoulder, he landed in the middle of a magical circle, cutting robes and limbs and breaking the concentration of the chanting Players.

    Rolling out of harms way he fealt the magical enegies released from the broken circle, fending off an axe and grabbing an enemy hand to push a sword at its ally''s face, twirling on one foot he kicked another Player in the groin just before he fealt the whole ship shivering and jumped a fraction of a second before ice coated it all over, solidifying legs and fallen bodies to the deck, in minutes he fealt how the Players started abandoning their characters and bellowed "surrender at once or be slain in horrible pain" adding the credits required by the system.

    Known as the Emperor of the Seas his command carried enough weight to stop any battle he ever bothered to join, his Colosal class warship was know all over the world for the last thousand years and his fleets ruled every marine merchant path ubove and below the ground, walking around his newly aquired ship it seemed a little small to actually challenge his Odacious being a single dreadnought The Merciful had no chance from the second it set sail, his spies in the harbor already knew her whole route, manned by a tiny guild Slom almost pitied them.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

    Finding the captain took a few minutes as it appeared he fell in the initial attack and his hand was stuck to the deck, Slom cut his hand and held him up, examining the miserable sob that challenged his rules and didn''t want to pay his tolls, the agent described him as an obnoxious man, aloof and confrontational but Slom found none of that, this man was a pitiful broken husk, shivering in cold and pain on the verge of tears, "how old are you?" Slom blurted.

    "19" the Player replied and clumped his mouth.

    "Young to challenge the Emperor", Slom stared hard at him, "wouldn''t you agree?".

    "There is no Emperor", the Player spat, "only legends told by NPCs to make us pay stupid tolls".

    Slom barked a laugh, "no Emperor?" the Player nodded, "what if I told you he was standing right in front of you?" the Player''s eyes bulged in sudden realization "thats right", slom said and stabbed the oblivious captain in the stomache, leaving him to die in a few minutes.

 309 Teal Fins

    "Hey Athaly want to be a captain?" Slom shouted towards one of his shipmates, the hulking behemoth looked at him for a second before noddind, "ok then", Slom said, "it''s yours", he threw the deed towards Athaly and when the NPC caught it the whole ship transformed, the ice melted and its crew returned to their idle routines, it never stopped astonishing Slom how the system took care of these things, all that was left was dealing with the remaining players, better to finish his deals before their captain died.

    He walked over to where the werewhales held the captives and as soon as they spotted him one of the females burst in tears, "don''t let them rape me" she cried and the others followed as if by que.

    Slom thought to protract their suffering but decided it was still stupid as it was two hundred years ago, "no one will rape you on my ship", he thought for a second, "nor on any ship in my fleet", finally adding "stupid superstitions", and on another note "only Players rape Players or anyone else".

    Seeing them visibly relax calmed Slom out, "so what do I do with you?" he finally asked the one brave enough to address him.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    "You could let us go", she said when it hit her he was really waiting for an answer.

    "But how will that help me?" he asked, "it seems Players don''t even believe I am real these days"

    "Who are you?" one of the others chimed in.

    Breathing deep Slom looked them over "you really don''t know?", he sounded almost sad, "not pulling my leg?"

    "Why would we pull your leg?" a blonde woman asked absently.

    "It''s an idiom", he answered, "ugh never mind", he pointed at The Odacious "I am the Emperor of the Seas", swinging his arm all around "my ship, my crew, my monsters" he waved at something the Players only now noticed and then they froze with shivers running down their spines as they recognized the Kraken and ship and everything else set in their stomaches like a rock.

    "Please don''t rape us to death and eat our skins" the first woman cried in fear.

    "No one will rape you on my ships", he started to lose his calm, "or eat your skins", he looked at her "where are you coming with that from?"

    "Thats what the legends say", she answerd still stiff, "legends we were told aren''t real", she looked towards the dying captain, "and obviously some of them are true?" she finally asked.

 310 Breeding Plates

    AshAssin crawled along the beam, beneath him gathered the worst enemies of the faith, ancient and decrepit creatures, some even bore witness to the coming of The First Allen and yet they rebelled, preaching against the true believers, using magic and skills while frolicking with Feral monsters and Guildless Humans.

    This abomination must not be allowed to linger, but AshAssin could not take on these powerful foes on his own, he had to pass on the knowlege of their betrayal, allowing Guildless rapists and murderers to wonder around the Conclave safe lands, where they could unleash their deviance without repercaution from their peers.

    Dropping outside the little unmarked house AshAssin ran up the wall of its neighbour to the roof, using sharp claws to find holds where none should be, on the roof he was tackled by a guard, rolling across the slanted tiles AshAssin released his heat through the magma scales embedded in his hide, legacy of his feral Paternal Ancestor, a real dragon from ancient times, the guard hissed in pain and release its hold on AshAssin who rolled out of reach in the darkness.

    Black hide with even darker scales spread in a camouflage pattern hid him from sight, using his natural heat dispersion capability he was soon invisible for heat sensors as well and slipped down to the next roof, his fire mark was distinct, if ever he would stumble across the guard in daylight he would know how they got that scar and he would deal the killing blow to the unbeliever scum.

    Running adjacent to the walls of houses he soon left that area of the city, picking up his pack from a hidden nook AshAssin donned on his ceremonial robes and blended in with the night traffic, the temple was allways open for him, being orphaned at a younger age and raised by the elders he heard the old legends from people that were there when dragons dominated the peaks of mountains and Players needed armies to even consider attacking one.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

    Kings of the heavens no more, now the few remaining dragons were used as riding beasts to powerful Players or hidden in the bowels of the crystal temple where they were safe from slavery by greedy Players, legends spoke of islands ruled by the Pirate Emperor where Dragons and other monsters roamed free but AshAssin had no hope to ever go anywhere near those lands even though he saw the Emperor once, he was not impressed by the scarred image of the Allen lookalike, the Allen of AshAssin''s dreams was a mighty dragon whose roar shattered mountains and brought the ancients to their knees with a stern look.

    Noticing Gem walking with Staffson again AshAssin decided to stay away from the troublemaker this time, the girl admitted to using magic, she was probably going to be executed tonight and thats why the elders were here, AshAssin liked her before she started causing all sorts of trouble, she even pulled him from a tough spot with Tauran and Kalish that he wasn''t sure would have let a nameless orphan go so easily without the rich girl''s intervention, but the law said to kill all Ferals before they turned and started a new plague, and AshAssin was training under his ancestress Oracle to hunt and kill all of them, so he wasn''t going to be sad when his only friend was executed to protect the whole conclave.

    Feeling his eyes itch and his scales burning AshAssin walked quickly through the corridors in a different direction, going to the one place where he found peace, the crystal shrine, when he found the doors locked he didn''t hesitate, going the long way around through the alcove and behind the holy carvings through the ancient portal room took longer than he expected and he returned to the room just in time to see BoneSmith, his favorite elder after Oracle trying to smash the crystal and fail.

 311 Courtesy Hall

    Allen looked at the Kobolds gathered before him, they each acted differently but not how he expected them to differ, it was as if they had real personalities, feelings and thoughts that weren''t controlled by either machine nor Player or a human NPC, maybe in a thousand years things advanced enough for these things to think they were real people.

    Assuming they actually believed they were alive Allen decided not to antagonize them further, "so what year is this?" he asked the first thing that popped into his mind, "how is the world outside dealing with things?" he finished and looked for their response.

    BoneSmith buried her head in JewelSetter''s chest, the scarred Kobold looked at the crystal, "what do you care anyway?" she blurted at him, "you heartless immortal god of a forgotten time", he thought she would spit at him when she raised her head, "what is time to you who did nothing to live through the ages?"

    "Nothing in particular", Allen thought maybe it wasn''t the best answer, "I just thought to start up a conversation", he didn''t feel very divine at the moment and the kneeling and humming was getting on his nerves.

    "It means a lot to us", the Kobold didn''t sound very religious to Allen, "we fought tooth and nail to survive to this day", she looked back at the others "and I won''t let you ruin everything".

    "Ok look", Allen was sure this opening was a mistake, "I dont want to ruin anything", the Kobold squinted at him, "just woke up a few days ago because someone cast a spell on me", he didn''t think saying it could have happened any other time in their hystory was going to sound any better to them, "so cut me some slack about the history stuff", he tried to sound sympathetic, "I would have helped if it was in my power", he finished with "ok?" and kept the open question for her to reply.

    BoneSmith took a step back and looked hard at the Crystal, "why now?" was all she could say in a broken voice.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    "I don''t know", he answerd after giving it some thought, "and I don''t think it matters", remembering there was something important, "Gem come over here now", he said finally and the younger Kobold walked over to the crystal, "what happened when you cast the spell?".

    "It wasn''t really a spell", she stuttered, "just something i saw in a book and wanted to try since I had mana", as the words spilled out she sounded more confident, "then it worked but a strange message appeared", the last three words were a whisper.

    "Do you remember what the message was?" Allen asked already activating his search engine for the system codes and help files.

    "I know what the message was", BoneSmith intervened, "we all know that message by heart", she cut in before Gem could answer, "System attention unknown entity, please insert authorization code or be assigned an NPC operator within ten days", she recited from memory, "we never found what the codes were", anger bubbled up in her words "they all turn feral in the end and we either kill them or anyone they touch gets that same message"

    "Are you kidding me?" Allen sounded surprised, "why didn''t you ask a NPC for their codes?" he fealt frustrated enough to hit something "one of them would have given the codes to you", amusement was injected in his tone "they aren''t all monsters after all".

    "What do you mean ask a Feral for the codes?" BoneSmith sounded hurt at his words, "Ferals can''t even speak real sentences", she added "just some stupid rehearsed lines".

    "Oh MY F''ing GOD", Allen shouted, "sorry kid", he added to Gem, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?"

    "WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT?" BoneSmith shouted back.

    "GEM YOU THINK RIGHT NOW ''Instance 3658 entering NPC authorization code 210M'' and tell me what the message sais" Allen shouted at the Kobolds.

    Gem looked up at the crystal, Allen chose Kobolds because they couldn''t express emotions with their faces but he thought her eyes had lit up, "it sais ''authorization code accepted, welcome Allen Pearlson''".

    At these words someone hidden from sight cried in anguish, Allen saw a black blur before his alarms all chimed in at the same time and he saw the crystal flying into his vision and smashing against the shrine wall, the blue and green lights all cascaded into a single point before his sensors turned off and he couldn''t see what happened outside 00:14:52.301 was the last thing he saw.

 312 Bold Igloo

    Allen was shook, in all the time that had passed the timer moved by a single milisecond and now he lost whole minutes, scared that more damage would be done to the crystal he created the sensor array in blinding speed, not bothering to filter anything he just approved all the options so he could see what was happening outside.

    The window popped as a full orbital vision seeing in every direction at once, the closest object was the wall, Kobolds stood not far from where he assumed he was floating, shifting the center of his array let him see the crystal pulsing silently near that same wall and casting bluish light over it, considering the silence and adding the body language of the creatures Allen added an auditory sensor to his object.

    The black newcomer was getting a mouthful from the elder that had kneeled, Allen wasn''t sure why it attacked him but thought maybe he was defending Gem from an alien artefact so he could symphasize with the notion.

    "Enough ArmBasher", Allen finally said when he oriented himself, "I''m fine".

    The Kobolds turned to him, "you can put me back on the shrine now" Allen added finally.

    When BoneSmith picked him up like a delicate baby Allen got some heavy motion sickness that stopped only when he detached the sensors from the crystal, getting a clear view again he could concentrate on the creatures around him when something caiught his attention.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

    He would know that glazed eyes look on any face every time, human or otherwise, "Gem", he commanded, "stop reading my messages", she nodded at her name but stayed focused on the invisible lines running through her display, "Gem stop it now", he sounded much more desperate than he thought he would be, a look of understanding descended on the elder''s faces as they remembered another life and ArmBasher hit Gem on the head with the shaman staff to the surprised gasps of all the younger Kobolds.

    Gem looked at ArmBasher with hurt in her eyes, "I didn''t do anything?" She whined, her eyes drifting to an unseen point in front of her before ArmBasher raised the staff again, "but it''s just there" she said, "floating in the air".

    "We can''t see it" BoneSmith said quickly, "they are private messages for him" it added, "so it''s rude to read them without permission".

    Gem sighed "fine" she said and tried to look away.

    "You need to exit the user interface Gem", Allen chimed in "think ''Log off user 210m'' and it should do it", as soon as he saw she wasn''t looking for invisible icons Allen logged in and changed his instance and password.

    "She broke the law", Allen heard a raspy voice, "she has to die", it sounded like a mantra from the black Kobold''s lips, "she broke the law she has to die", like it was all one word.

    JewelSetter stood between the two youngsters to prevent any more folly and BoneSmith positioned herself between him and the crystal.

    Gem looked hurt at the words, "but Zohran I wont turn Feral" she cried, "the first Allen saved me"

    "Why didn''t he save my momma?" Zohran cried in anguish, "she broke the law and had to die", his voice broke down, "to save all of us", he fell to his knees and Gem rushed towards him, "she had to die", he shouted as a cloud of fire and ash covered both of them and Gem cried in pain as the flames engulfed her.

 313 Cone Heights

    Slom surveyed the colossal class Odacious from the crow''s nest, not only was she the biggest and fastest ship in the world she was his friends'' immortality plan, almost every part of the ship had been possessed by someone he cared for at one time, and they protected him as much as he protected them.

    The Players were sunbathing on the main deck with not a single care in the world, all they had to do was pay a monthly ''ransom'' so he wont plank or shank them.

    Thinking of shanks and planks reminded him that the last real mutiny was already hundreds of years old and his last war was two generations and an upgrade ago, maybe it was time for some more excitement at the seas, although contact with the outside world wasn''t his favorite thing in the world he promised to let ''them'' know before he did anything grand again.

    Sighing deep he shouted "I need a Player volunteer" and every eye on the ship had turned to him, "first Player standing here in the next minute gets a special quest from me" he added after no one moved"

    The scramble was spectacular, daggers drawn, spells flung all over the place, lightnings and fireballs he even heard a cannon from below blasting at nothing, the Kraken rose from the depth and even a few NPCs crashed thru the ranks of charging Players, finally one woman managed to fly, dodging all the projectiles thrown at her and crashed at his feet with a blue feathered arrow sprouted in her leg, "good for you", Slom said and then shouted "WE HAVE A WINNER", he leaned over "whats your name hun?", he asked her.

    "Hun?" She replied unthinking.

    "Your name", he asked again, "what is your name?"If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    "Alaska" she finally breathed out, "Alaska Grate" she finished.

    "ALASKA THE GREAT IS OUR WINNER" Slom announced, "THE REST OF YOU CAN GO BACK TO YOUR JOBS" he added when they wouldn''t leave.

    "I would rather not have an audience so hold onto me Alaska" he said while picking her up and holding her waist noting she was taller than him and her hair wasn''t dyed the typical red for a Player on his ship but had some blue lines in it, "I like your hair" he remarked unthinking, "please don''t tell the other players I said that or everyone will have the same colors in a minute", grabbing a line though he knew he could make the jump without, "hold on now" he said and leaped from the nest.

    Air rushed at his face and tears streamed from his eyes, a strange noise bubbled in his ear before he recognized it as the woman''s laugh, flipping his wrist made them miss the deck and go for a second swing, the system made sure lines never tangled when swinging even with hundreds of ropes running at the same time, landing with a flourish he caught Alaska in a princess carry and gently kicked his door which swung with such force he knew his friends were watching him and prepared for their pranks.

    The bucket was easy to evade, though the mop almost got him, it was the carpet that finally tripped him and the throne caught the woman when he was catching his breath, "which one of you pervs is fondling my guest?" He asked the seemingly empty room, "on second thoughts I don''t want to know", he held out a hand to Alaska and pulled her off the chair, which made her notice it somehow held on to her, "close the door please", he had to stop Alaska from being hit by the swinging door as she reached for it and enjoyed the look on her face when she finally caught on to the fact she was now in a fairytail from her wildest dreams.

    "I do have a unicorn, yes dragons are real, magic is awesome and I need you for some pretty boring stuff so please listen" at that statement she just stared at him for a few seconds before bursting in giggles and snorts, he pulled a napkin from his inventory and handed it to Alaska while leading her to the desk and sitting her in a couch.

 314 Try Spring

    Slom sat behind the desk and examined Alaska for the first time, "I need a messanger", he opened, "can I trust your discretion with a top secret mission on the real world?", she pulled back at those words, "for reasons I won''t tell you", seeing her hesitation he smiled, "a man has to have some secrets after all", raising the tension, "I can''t contact these people directly", he lowered his voice, "so I need you to pass on a message for me", ending with a crooked smile and building up the conspiracy, "just a little thing for some great rewards", he leaned over "what do you say?".

    Alaska shook her head, it was beyond anything she ever thought about meeting the most powerful Player in the game, a man who''se legacy of powerful conquest lay in the realm of legends and fantasy, almost a god to other Players, wanted her to deliver a message for him, personally, feeling her adoration bubble up inside she could hardly hold on to her vision of calm, her knuckles already white from grabbing the chair so tight, then the question came and all she manage was a tiny nod.

    "I appreciate your class", he said then, "a lot of the others usually fall all over me when I''m anywhere near arms length", he looked at her calm face and serene eyes, "men and women", she sat quietly before him "but you are quite pleasant to be with", the door rattled at the words, "anyway", he continued "its not a difficult task", pointing at a sofa in the back "you just set your respawn over there", the door made another noise, "and log off to call this number", he handed her a piece of paper, "and tell whoever is on the other side", he thought a second "probably a secretary, "at the break of dawn three days from tomorrow", he looked her in the eyes "are you ok with that?"

    ---------------------------------- shifting to Alaska for a bit -----------------------------------

    Alaska wanted to scream, respawn in his office, she saw the bed and realised it was probably his own home, his respawn point and private collection of items and legacy artefacts from before her grandma was born, when he took her arm and lead her to the sofa all she could say was "thank you", as she set the respawn point, on a ship, no ship had safe zones, this ship has safe zones, her thoughts jumbled up, she read the number on the note again and copied it to a digital format in her memory, it was too short but she wasn''t going to argue with the captain.

    Logging off she screamed her lungs out, two of her roommates ran over to see what happened and she could barely make full sentences, when she finished her story they ogled her and Candle finally said "The Captain Slom?" she ran out of the room and returned with a folder, "this Captain Slom?" showing Alaska a picture of the captain and Alaska nodded "and you didn''t dream this?" Candle asked.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    Alaska shook her head, Bella took the folder and flipped through the pages "isn''t this your crazy masters degree about ''Powers in the virtual world'' candle?" Bella looked at Candle who nodded in silent contemplation, "wow" Bella said finally, "are you going to be a celebrity now Alaska?" she asked the other girl.

    Falling back to her rig Alaska let gravity pull her down with a dreamy smile, "I have to do what he asked", she finally said, "and you can''t be here because he said its a secret", adding finally, she looked at their faces falling and reached to hold their hands, "I will tell you about him later", she squeesed, "maybe try to arrange a meeting if you can get on the ship somehow".

    Candle''s eyes sparkled, "get kidnapped by the emperor of the seas" she said in a dreamy voice while Bella pulled her out of Alaska''s cabin.

    Alaska sat up, logged in to her personal space and took her time to pick the perfect outfit, nothing she already had would do, cruising in the online shops she realised she needed help and called in a personal advisor, the tiny robot image smiled at her and pulled out a bunch of looks for her to choose from, projecting her image with the different clothes and styles in an endless row of fasion walkways, finally settled down on a solid five piece skirt suit, payin the outrageous sum the designer asked for and seeing her balance was like a bucket of ice water dropped on her head, what was she doing, how could she be so irresponsible just for a guy?

    With morbid thoughts of how he was going to throw her out of his cabin as soon as she finished the mission she grit her teeth in frustration, doning the suit and setting up her workspace she dialed the number he gave her, on the second tone she was forcibly pulled out of her space and into the most opulant office she had ever seen, everything was gold and nothing seemed to be programmed, hand made murals and carpets, strewn across the walls and floors, she was standing at the start of a hall stretching and bending out of her sight, walking for almost a whole minute brought her to a hand made desk with a woman in a grey suit sitting high above her like a judge in a courtroom.

    Alaska swallowed, "I have a message from Captain Slom", she paused.

    "And what would that message be?" the woman said in a condescending voice.

    "The message is ''at the break of dawn three days from tomorrow'' thats it", Alaska recited from memory.

    After a few minutes of silence the woman looked at her "you can go now", she said and punched a button that flung Alaska back to her personal space where she sat dumbstruck for almost a minute before she logged off again to find all her roommates were offline and throwing a party for her.

 315 Boss Clog

    Allen defined the cloud of burning ash and cancelled it, some wisps of smoke were already different enough from the original effect that they escaped the action and he didn''t bothet chasing them, his attention drawn to the smoldering husk that was a living Kobold only seconds before, she had a name, he liked her, and there wasn''t a player that was going to respawn her.

    The other Kobolds wailed in anguish, ArmBasher broke the shaman staff hitting Zhoran and it drove her to new heights of rage going so far as to lift the youngster in the air and smashing him to the floor, JewelSetter turned the charred corpse around and flung back at the gruesome sight of her greater great grand daughter burnt alive by a fanatic like in the old days.

    Heaving hard JewelSetter clawed furrows in the tiled floor, clutching her aching chest she looked murderously at the zealot that would hurt her offspring, it took all of BoneSmith and another guard''s strength just to hold her from butchering the maniac and she raised her head to cry in rage that could never be assuaded without blood flooding the streets, her family and Oracle''s were only allied by necessity but if those crazed zealots were the ones hunting her business partners then the whole alliance was false and her eyes were just blind by the serene visage of the oldest Kobold, older by a year over a thousand wasn''t much when al things were taken into account but it mattered fir her generation and it let them construct a hierarchy of sorts that didn''t rely on strength and bloodshed.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

    Allen didn''t need the new profile of the charred husk laying before him, ''burnt Kobold'' didn''t mean anything, but he had one other thing to try, it was the last registered skin on his NPC profile, and if he could just get the backup from a few minutes ago maybe there were things to try.

    Not wanting to make his omnipotence too obvious Allen devised a plan, "pick up the shaman staff", he ordered and Staffson complied, "hold the two parts together", he didnt really need the ceremony but it was better that way, deleting the two halves and creating a new whole object Allen then instructed Staffson in an elaborate ceremony, finally Allen made the ''burnt Kobold'' glow and deleted it, innediately bringing back the backup version of Gem.

    The young Kobold looked at an invisible message before turning to JewelSetter and falling to her arms, the elder held her offspring tight as if letting her go would take her away again, Allen looked at the wounded youngling lying at ArmBasher feet and restored him to full health as well.

    "Can any of you explain why Gem was attacked?" He asked the group

 316 Dune Inn

    Slom figured the woman wasn''t coming back when a half hour passed, he recieved the confirmation for his message almost fifteen minutes before and assumed she would come back to report and maybe ask for a reward but when she wouldn''t come back he had to leave the room and prepare for the meeting.

    Sharp pain coursed through his hand and arm when he touched the doorknob and he cursed, "damn you Novarre", he hissed in pain while pulling a healing potion from his inventory, "you can''t be jealous of everyone I touch", gulping down the potion he fealt the cool healing magic running through his body "please open the door", he said flexing his fingers to test their agility.

    The doorknob turned and the door swung halfway open, Slom knew where this was leading and dragged a couch to hold the dood when he left, "I promise to read you poetry tonight Novarre", he said while placing the chair "please don''t kill my messanger", he swung his leg over the chair and jumped out from the room, "sorry Mona" he called when the door slammed and threw the chair that crashed into the room, "I''ll make it up to you".

    "Come on Novarre" he said from the other side, "you know I love you the same as ever", memories of a girl with rust red hair and matching lips, flying through fire and steel and destroying their enemies, he became emperor for her, conquering the seas and enslaving grounded kingdoms to create a haven where NPCs and Players could be free from the guilds and just play for fun, her dreams made real through his strength, she knew most of his secrets, but she was also the most jealous woman to ever log in the game.

    Her death broke his heart, the hack worked just fine and for almost two hundred years they reigned supreme, but they were betrayed and lost her avatar, forcing her to become an inanimate object and she chose to be his protector, at first he thought it was a great lark, holding the keys to his life, as he held the keys to her heart but soon her jealousy could not be contained, moving out of the room was impossible as it was the only spawn point in the whole game for him and when he died he found himself locked in an empty room with just her.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

    Summoning his lieutenants to the conference room Slom let go of the past, he needed to be sharp for this part, some of these people were Players, and most of them were NPCs, controlling this volatile keg of doom was his art and pleasure, for the past fifty years he ran around as the dignified emperor of the seas, but now it was time for a new game, thinking what he wanted to do he decided it was time to bash some lizard heads.

    Sitting at the head of the conference room he looked at the people gathered around, noting to himself who was missing to deal with them later he finally spoke, "I have a few important announcements to make", at his words the room fell silent and they all turned to him, "It is my pleasure to meet you all in person for the first time", it was a simple known statement that everyone here knew what was coming "I am Robert Thiolin the fifth", he lowered his tone "my grandfather passed away last night and I will uphold his Legacy", some of the people seemed unhappy at the announcement "I studied the Emperor of the Seas for my whole life and I assure you that all the accords are to be kept without prejudice", he stared intently at one barrel chested NPC "that includes you and your ThunderCats Molly", he moved his gaze and stopped at a giant woman "and you too Debby" he drew out a book "if any of you want to pull out of the accords you may do so now or come to me at any time we are not at war", his eyes hardened "if any of you betray me I will come from the grave of eternity and destroy your Legacy", closing the book of accords he left it on the table.

    "My other announcement is" a short pause for their attention "I will be declaring war on the lizards within the next five days", he scanned their reactions, "you may start spreading the rumors as usual", drawing out an ornate dagger "by the blood of old I speak", cutting his hand, "only when this hand touch the Kobold Crystal will peace come to the seas" he stabbed the dagger into the table down to its hilt and left the room that immediately filled with the hubbub of chatter and shouts of surprise mixed with cries for blood and war.

 317 Act Pout

    Alaska woke up with a log splitting headache, music screamed from somewhere in the apartment and pounded her conciousness to tiny mangled bits of thoughts, stumbling between the cubicles she finally found its source and pulled its power supply off the wall, the silence beat behind her eyes when she heard someone cry "thank you" from one of the cubes.

    With one hand on the wall she pushed herself to the communal baths hoping to find an empty booth while she fixed her shirt to her shoulder and finally opened the door, stepping between the bodies strewn across the floor to reach the bathroom she hovered above the filth and did what needed doing without closing the door because someone''s leg was thrown inside.

    Going over the the showers she let the water wash the filth from last night from her body, pulling a disposable robe from the dispenser she let the lazers dry and disinfect her before she pulled it on, then it hit her like a truck "the captain", her mind cleared from the shock "shit", she hurried back, stepping on some of the people in the hallway before falling in her cube where another surprise was waiting "shit", she said again when she saw the woman sitting on her bed.

    "Yes Alaska" Domane said "shit sums it up", glaring at her through squinted eyes, "how long?" she asked.

    "How long what?" Alaska asked, not sure what Domane wanted.

    "Since when are you cheating on me?" the glare turned to a pout as tears filled Domane''s eyes, "how long have you been making a fool of me?" She bowled over crying.

    "I never cheated on you" Alaska was hurt from the accusation.

    "Really?" Domane cried "I never meant nothing to you" almost screaming "playing with me all this time".Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    Alaska stepped forward "That''s not what I meant", reaching with her hand "I love you Dome", tears filled her eyes at her girlfriend suffering because of her, "you are my world", touching Domane''s head.

    "Don''t lie to me", Domane cried and pushed Alaska''s hand, "everyone is talking about you and some pirate king", she looked up with puffy eyes and fluttering lips "they threw a party for your honors".

    Alaska tried to touch Domane again "it''s just a big misunderstanding", grabbing the other woman''s hand when she tried to push her again, "I just met the guy for less than ten minutes" remembering how he pulled a napking from thin air she reached her other hand to the pack on the bedstool and gave it to Domane, "he needed a Player to make a call for him"

    "You changed your respawn point" Domane accused, "and Candle said you moved it to his bedroom", the words leading to another burst of tears.

    "Candle could be more discreet", Alaska mumbled, "I wasn''t hiding it from you", she hurried to say, "there just wasn''t any time", she rushed through the words "I just did what he asked and set the respawn to the bed then took his message and called the number bought an outfit so I would make a good impression delivered the message and looged off to be rushed into the party" she breathed deep, "then I woke up and here we are", she sighed.

    Domane dried her eyes, "you used our money", anger laced her voice "I was worried something happened to you", her volume rising "we can''t afford a double cube now", shouting "we can''t even afford a virtual apartment now" she screamed.

    Alaska stepped back at the display of anger "I''ll get the money", she said quietly.

    "From your new boyfriend?" Domane screamed "you SLUT", she pushed Alaska and ran out of the cube stepping on cursing party goers still lying on the floor.

    Alaska tried to follow but some of the partiers woke up and blocked her way when Bella pulled her into another cube slurring "congratulations", at the distraught woman, when alaska finally got out of the cluster and into the hallway Domane was nowhere to be seen, Alaska called her through the cranial implant but her calls were all cut short, broken hearted and hurt Alaska walked back to her cube and logged into the virtual world, waking up on the sofa with the captain nowhere in sight.

 318 After Darts

    Alaska sat on the the sofa, he emotions churning in a whirlwind at the confrontation with Domane, leaning back to find cushions pushing against her were so comfortable she could just close her eyes and sleep, thinking what to do next she started by removing the respawn point from the sofa with some regrets when she remembered her own virtual bed was never this comfortable.

    Standing up she walked to the desk where the captain gave her the mission, the carpet brushed her feet and made her concious to what she was wearing, before Slom issued his challenge she was sunbathing by the pool and she didn''t bother to change from her topless bikini throughout the whole ordeal, feeling her face warming up she equipped clothes in a hurry and found herself wearing the suit she bought to pass the message in the outside world, thinking how absurd it was that she had to log off to go to another virtual enviroment without ever leaving her own cube and rig.

    "I need to leave him a note" she thought out loud and started to search for something to write with, opening drawers and cabins she saw a lot of books and scrolls, art pieces and weapons strewn all around the room in every nook and cranny, she couldn''t believe the amount of weapons he had in just this one room, her search became a game of finding all the hidden objects in the room, forgetting the initial mission of writing the note she walked all over the room with sparkling eyes and uncovered the mysteries around her.

    Cabins that only opened when a specific drawer was half closed so a latch would be pulled, the whole room was a riddle and Alaska had to solve it, when she tried to open the door and found it locked she decided it was part of the game, hunting for a key she put all the stuff she could find in neat rows on the carpet and examined the veritable hoard of priceless treasures.

    "Ahem" she heard someone cough behind her "having fun making a mess?" she recognized the voice and went rigid, shivers running down her spine she couldn''t force herself to move, "I didn''t mean to scare you", the captain sounded a lot closer, "I am actually impressed you found all this stuff", he leaned over her and picked up a golden sword "ha" he barked a laugh "forgot I had it", she knew he stood over her shoulder, "could have saved a lot of trouble when we fought the Sirens from Jialla" she heared a wierd chime going off behind her and resonating through the room silencing even her thoughts for ten heartbeats.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    "I love you" she blurted out, "my friend has a folder on you", her mouth blabbed again, "what is wrong with me?" she asked, too afraid to say anything else.

    "This sword makes you speak whatever goes on your mind", he answered, "I love you too", added "its also very selfish and likes to embarass people", after a few seconds "now I remember why I locked it away", he put the item back in its hidden cabin, "don''t hand it over to strangers Merve" he said another cryptic thing, closing the cabinet and twisting a knob.

    Taking control of her body and forcing herself to stand up on shaky legs to face him, "nice suit" he said and handed her one of the rods from the floor, as soon as he let go of it all the dirt from her clothes was sucked into it and everything she wore fit perfectly like she just equipped it "very nice" he added.

    "Thank you", she found her voice, "I delivered your message", glad it didnt quiver as much as she fealt, "I won''t sleep with you".

    "Ha" he barked again, "I knew that", the words still hurt her, "don''t worry", he added "you can leave at any time", he looked at the door and his voice hardened "AT any TIME" the emphasize surprised her but it was just a part of his act and she took it the way it was.

    "Will you pay me?" she asked finally.

    "To sleep with you?" he replied with a crooked smile "don''t flatter yourself honey", he scanned her body from top to bottom "though you have the figure I''m not into children".

    Alaska blushed a deep red "I meant for delivering your message", her voice hardened at the implication.

    "Ah" he sighed "yes", he paused, "I will pay you", he looked at the treasures on the floor, "what do you want".

    The words and gesture took her by surprise, any one of these items could buy her a real world apartment, not to talk about whatever virtual real estate or item she could ever dream to get, she looked at the items arrayed on the carpet and dreamed about wielding these legendary artefacts in battle, leading her army to victory over any guild except the richest ones in existence, but none of them made her heart flutter like he did and she didn''t know how to tell him what she wanted.

 319 Soft Arc

    Allen needed time to think things through, there were deep currents underground here and he was messing things just by being concious of them, the city seemed peaceful and prosperous on first look and even if it was just a facade most people preferred a facade of peace so they could live their lives, the time skipping made it almost impossible that he would ever meet anyone he knew beside the Kobolds and none of them he considered friends or even anything other than complex artificial intelligences.

    Looking at the creatures in the room he could almost see the break lines in their society, with the Feral plague the fire boiling the pot, if he solved that problem it could shatter their whole society, he needed to understand what brought the plague beside using magic or skills, and how to spread a cure without causing the whole brew to boil over and burn the city down.

    One aspect of the plague was almost too obvious, but he had to make sure, "can you bring a Feral over here?", he asked "or show me where you are holding them?" the elders'' heads snapped to stare at him and Allen knew he was right about them holding the Feral Kobolds in some sort of prison or tomb.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

    Two of the guards stared slack jawed at the Elders'' response, Staffson broke the silence with "Why?", at the same time of BoneSmiths'' "no", the two elders looked at each other and back to the crystal, "why do you want a Feral?" BoneSmith finally broke the tension.

    "Three reasons I can state with ease", Allen started a lecture "I need to make sure that they were actually taken over by a NPC", he fell to an explaining tone "Two is I might be able to return those who were turned to their original state of mind", he thought hard if he wanted to share the last reason "and last", he decided to share his personal reason "I want to contact their world", he sighed to himself hoping these reasons were enough to acquire their help.

    Allen watched the Kobolds with anticipation, not sure if he should say anything else, seeing the black youngster slip away and fading into the dark hallways outside the shrine he didn''t bother to follow, this was much more important to him and he didn''t want to lose his contact with the higher echelons of the society living around his shrine.

 320 Dot Core

    The Feral Kobold struggled against the chains holding it in place, when ArmBasher and two of the guards dragged the miserly creature to the room Allen finally got answers to a question he never would have considered.

    Locking the chains to pairs of rings set in the columns and ceiling Allen counted thousands of them, running deep to the back of the shrine room, remenants from a dark and ancient past when the Conclave fought against the Feral plague without success, from the monster''s struggle Allen knew it was familiar with these actions which made them part of the NPC routines for a very very long time.

    The other Kobolds stood in rigid silence, "nothing will come out of this atrocity except more suffering to everyone involved", BoneSmith finally spoke, "Crystal worship and sacrifices have been banned for a hundred and fifty years", she said angrily, "and for good reasons".

    Allen scanned the properties of the Feral after loading it to his compiler but couldn''t find what was wrong, then he displayed Gem''s attributes and it was almost the same, all except for the spoken language which in Gem''s case was Draconian and in the Feral''s it was Beastial, mind numb from the stupidity of it all he changed the Feral''s language to Draconian and immediately recieved a flow of curses and threats in english, knowing that wasn''t all there was but satisfied from the looks of shock and horror on the other Kobolds'' faces he then loaded JewelSetter''s properties to his compiler.

    "Eat your faces and wear your hides you filthy monsters", the monster didn''t realise it was understood, "release me or I will burn your toes and feast on your children''s innards", was when Staffson whacked it on the back of its head with the Shaman staff, "why the fuck would you do that for you crazy bastard?" The creature asked "fuck you and everything that looks like you", its tone changed "I was having me a nice nap when you psychos dragged me over here", the words never stopped flowing "not my fault you are all too dumb to speak a real language".You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    "Shut up already" JewelSetter shouted and the Feral turned its head to stare at her so fast a wave ran through the chains and back.

    "What the fuck?" The creature asked in obvious shock, "you can talk now?"

    JewelSetter''s jaw dropped, Staffson lost its grip on the Shaman staff that cluttered to the floor, being the only sound resonating throughout the room, the guards dropped to their knees and started humming the crazy mantra Allen didn''t quite listen to before, BoneSmith stared at the crystal, "what did you do", she asked in a voice filled with untold accusations, sorrow and remorse.

    "What have we done", ArmBasher followed the words, emphasizing the ''we'', "what have we done" she repeated and dropped to the floor, begging forgiveness for the sins of a past she will never put behind her.

    "This doesn''t answer anything", Allen spoke and the feral jerked looking to where the sensor array was floating, "it doesn''t tell us why they turn violent", he continued, "or why others coming in contact with them become violent and speachless", he thought for a second "well it does answer the speechless part", then he fell silent and started thinking.

    "Who is there?" The feral shouted, "are you an admin?" He looked around in confusion, "I just did as the system told me", he added, "I don''t want to be tortured", his voice shrilled in a whine, "I didn''t hack or anything", eyes drawn to the crystal, "I swear I was just sitting in my cell and didn''t even speak with the others".

    "Are you in the NPC program?", Allen asked, "the Neuro Psycho Correction facility" he added the full name know only to the people involved in the program, the Kobold stared hard at him before nodding, the conditioning to keep the secret was hardwired to the nerve blockers, failing to hold it was almost worse than hacking and revoked a lot of privileges, like a sweet gig in a dark cell where you didn''t have to do anything for whole shifts.

    The humming was grating on Allen''s nerves but he didn''t want to break a religious seremony so he just lowered the volume on his sensor and sank deep into his thoughts.

 321 Fig Suit

    Allen noticed the humming had stopped, probably for a while as he was concentrating on the codes and notes about language, "the babylon effect was one of the few incidents green and red agreed, for completely different reasons, while green wanted to add a mystical feeling to people from different in game cultures without forcing them to actually learn different languages red saw an immense financial potential in selling obscure knowlege that only required a tiny piece of code, the whole mechanism worked flawlessly with green''s clean and precise coding and red''s elaborate structures of cascading designs, the building blocks and artful manifestation of what the whole system would look like if the two department heads could work together".

    "What is this nonesense" BoneSmith cried out finally, "what are you talking about?".

    Allen only now noticed he had spoken out loud, "oh thats just my notes about the babylon effect from the great code wars", he remarked absentmindedly.

    "What wars are you talking about?" BoneSmith sounded pissed.

    "That was beautifull kanga", the Feral Kobold said at the same time as BoneSmith, "it was bright" the iteration conveyed the meaning "sky blue bright in truth" Allen appreciated the sentiment though the wording wasn''t familiar in his time, Staffson smacked the Feral with the Shaman staff again, "what you do that for?" He cried "totaly murky to hit someone tied up", he added "you a perv?" and tried to twist around to look at Staffson.

    Allen was shaken from his reverie by the displayed violence, "why did you promise to eat our innards" he finally asked the Feral.

    "We get credits for profanity if we just say it out loud to the monsters", he didn''t pause before saying "they don''t speak real languages anyway so you just curse them to get credits", then he paused and thought about the whole situation including Allen''s unintentional lesson, "the system was plucking us?" He finally said "whoa deep murky stuff kanga" and stopped to think.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    "Murky indeed" Allen tried to catch on the lingo of these new times though by the way the elders looked at him and Gem''s reaction he thought maybe he should stick to traditional manners for now.

    "The system", he said finally, "or more likely some long dead hack hunter working for the company" he let that sink for them "was the one to implement a babylon effect to your people", he addressed the other Kobolds but the Feral lifted his head to stare blindly at his sensor array so Allen shifted the auditory component to center on the crystal, "and getting credits for hurting your people while logging in to a completely unfamiliar and hostile enviroment would explain the violence" he finished and the Feral moved its head from where the auditory projector was and the crystal.

    "Kanga thats lumin" the Feral said "you really play a crystal?" Staffson raised and lowered the Shaman staff without hitting the tied up creature.

    "It explains nothing" BoneSmith spat, "half your words don''t mean anything", she hissed "and the other half is just nonesense", looking at the Feral "that thing is just a puppet used by a Player", her face crunched "what happened to Garnet?"

    Allen compared the three objects displayed on his compiler again and after a few minutes of silence answerd "I could kick him out of the avatar" at which the Feral seemed upset, "but it will cause a lot of trouble outside" to which the creature visibly relaxed, "we should be able to come to some agreement with the NPCs" emphasizing each letter, "to give back your people for some parts of the day", then he added what he thought would brighten up the atmosphere "and obviously we won''t let anyone else become possessed".

    "You are Bright Kanga" the Feral spoke almost before Allen finished, "you mean no more tortures?" his eyes sparkled and then dimmed "but where will we get credits from now if they can speak?" He looked at the other Kobolds, "would be murky to truss in their faces when they can understand us".

    Allen looked at the language component in JewelSetter''s file to see how it was arrayed and then added the Beastial language to Garnet''s array, "think about a monster and", Allen had to think about the word "truss please"

    Hissing and snarling emanated from the creature and Staffson smacked him with the Shaman staff "now think about a dragon and don''t truss" Allen instructed at the same time as the staff descended.

    "Ouch I did what you told me kanga" he sounded more hurt than a simple smack would generate.

 322 Bailey Priest

    Allen''s mind reeled at the magnitude of problems that started to pop up in his thoughts, this was trouble with the capital T, he could''nt save everyone, or anyone at all, the NPCs would never cooperate, the risks they would have to take for a rebellion of the size being described would be insane, especially considering there was no real victim, no one would mourn a bunch of rogue AIs or go to court to defend them, they had no rights, only lines of code telling them where to go and what to do.

    Even he was in danger if things got too far out of hand, though he probably dies hundreds of years ago he didn''t want to die now, this life were pretty great, reading, watching movies, playing games, he could probably even create an avatar and explore the world outside with it, or fly like a dragon, or as one, he thought as the memory rose in his mind.

    Not wanting to let go of everything just to mess up some strange proginy of his that got caught hacking the game, well it wasn''t fair to say they hacked since their very existence was illegal and the system simply recognized and dealt with them in the best possible way.

    There were deep currents to watch out for, murky as the Feral Garnet would say, they needed help, but he wasn''t ready to take all the risks involved with what had to be done to start fixing everything that went wrong for the last thousand years, even the language was different, english wasn''t the same as he spoke it, Garnet''s use of figures and idioms was too casual to be a fluke, the elders and maybe even the Kobold youngster were still using an ancient dialect from when they were created, but the world wouldn''t wait for them.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    Thinking about the outside world Allen asked "did we colonize the moon?" and the Kobolds just stared at him.

    Finally Garnet said "nah Kanga no creds there" which bought him stern looks from the other Kobolds and a wellowing sadness filled Allen, "but we got peeps on mars and the other systems" which made Allen happier than he believed possible.

    "You mean we can travel faster than light?" Allen had to know, "you aren''t pulling my leg?"

    The Feral stared at him, "you ain''t got legs Kanga" he finally said and Allen laughed without projecting a sound.

    "Never mind that", Allen replied, "maybe we will talk later", he said after thinking about the absurdity of the whole scene, "if we take the chains off", the fidgeted in obvious distraught at the suggestion, "will you behave in a civilised manner?"

    The Feral stared at something visible to him alone and finally nodded, "I can do that if I can still get credits from just thinking about monsters", the next few words came out as snarls and groans that made the other Kobolds jump in surprise, "sorry about that" the Kobold fell silent after that and Allen deleted the chains.

 323 Green Pant

    "We need more people" allen said after another pause, "but we need to act in secret", he added, "I can''t see a way through everything yet".

    Garnet sat on the floor where he fell and just stared, "what problem is that kanga?" He asked without noticing the glares he got from the other Kobolds.

    "I don''t think you should know that actually", Allen said and saw his face drop.

    "Don''t drown me Kanga" Garnet said, "that''s murky stuff to say", looking around him, "I''m already shanked for talking about the other stuff where Players can undetstand me", sounding upset, "so don''t drown me now"

    "Don''t worry", Allen said, "Kanga" he added after a pause, "I won''t let you hang" at which garnet looked to the rimgs in the ceiling and gulped.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

    The words took time to register and then Garnet jumped "hey don''t loft me", he said in obvious distress "I ain''t no Kanga", he then added meekly "my name is Jovial".

    Putting the strange words away for later Allen got back toto the subject, it seemed strange to him that the other Kobolds just listened without saying anything or reacting in any way until he considered their relationship with him, being a god to a whole people was strange and he didn''t want to think about the inplications for now.

    "If you don''t want to drown" Allen used Garnet''s words, "then you need to be quiet while we plan" he finshed and the Feral nodded.

    "Our goal should be to cure the Feral plague", Allen said and saw the elder''s eyes sparkle in interest, "There are three problems we need to overcome", they nodded absently "the language is the easiest and hardest problem to solve", he had to think hard about the next few sentences, "we will have to trust Jovial with some very dangerous details", he paused "not everything" before adding, "but some truths".

    "You can trust me Kanga" Jovial chimed quietly.

 324 Crust Tile

    "If I just give the Ferals the Draconian language it could get them in a lot of trouble for hacking", Allen started to describe the obstacles in greater details, "we can''t afford that kind of attention", he added seeing how they didn''t understand his words, "if the Admins find large scale hacks they will just delete everything that came in contact with it", fear painted on their faces when the words finally hit a familiar chord.

    "We need to find some way around it", Allen paused before adding, "we also want them to enable independent control when they log off so you could reunite with your lost friends and family", another pause, "I can''t think of any way to do that without their consent and knowlege", sighing inwardly, "but we can''t tell them the truth either".

    "Kanga you tell me I could get free if I enable independent control and I jam that stuff so hard it stays good even when I log in", Jovial jumped to his feet "hell tell me I can just do monitor on a sweet ass monster stroller without all the crap with torture and maiming I am bought", he chuckled then "I am bot", bursting in laughter at his own pun, his words making Allen think about the options.

    "What about the language?" Allen asked no one in particular.

    "Why not give the other Players this Beast lingo?" Jovial answerd and Allen thought maybe not having visual features wasn''t the best way to take part in a conference, though the reverence of the other Kobolds made it just a dialog, he could probably use their input.

    "It could work" Allen finally answerd, "but how will they react to the ''trussing'' you have to do to get credits?" Jovial seemed deflated at the thought of losing his easy credits.

    JewelSetter finally broke the silence from the other group, "why not use ambassadors", she suggested, "people understanding the problem that can take some bad words for the greater good", looking triumphantly at Jovial.

    "Yes" Allen finally said "but how can we explain it without revealing too much?"

    At that BoneSmith raised her head, "we keep the truth to ourselves", she said, "tell them we stumbled on the language thing from Gem''s spells", then she paused, "but there are complications that force the Ferals to behave violently", she concluded, "you say they will be back to how they were before the plague hit them", then a long pause, "will they remember what was done to them?" her voice almost a whisper.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    "I think they will remember everything" Allen said, "what they did and what was done to them", the thought staggered him and he choked.

    After a long pause Allen finally had a plan, "you should surround Garnet and be ready for an attack" he said to the Kobolds, "when everyone is ready Jovial will enable Independent Action and we will hopefully see a miracle" he concluded the plan.

    The Kobolds stood around the Feral when JewelSetter called out "wait" she looked at Gem, "go bring your mother and grandfather here", she looked around and recieved understanding nods, "tell them its about Garnet but say nothing else and keep it quiet".

    Gem thought about the orders and nodded before bolting out of the shrine, "should I watch over her?", Allen asked and the Kobolds shook their heads.

    It was almost an hour later that Gem returned with two other adult Kobolds, a time Allen spent chatting with Jovial about the facility where he worked out his sentence for playing GTA naked on a public domain, Jovial still had fifteen months out of his thirty months sentence, judges were even more trigger happy to enslave people in the program than in Allen''s time, with the new colonies out in space and trade booming for the rich and powerful, young people found themselves either taking risks in insane frontiers farther from home than ever before or bored stiff with most jobs being maintenance or research of online communities and phenomenae.

    Countries now resolved political conflicts in online enviroment, anyone trying to use real world weapons would find themselves indentured for eternity in a NPC facility with no way of getting free, whole generations of people lived and died in cubicles and getting anger management courses in the form of torture and death on a daily basis.

    When Gem returned Allen was already depressed from the grim state of the world he was born in, though it seemed Jovial took it all in stride, he got thirty months of light work which resolved in him being sent to shout profanities at Players who didn''t speak his language.

    Knowing some parts of the truth now Jovial found the whole premise very strange but he never bothered to think about it before.

    When the new Kobolds saw Garnet surrounded by the guards with weapons drawn they cried out in anguish, "NO" the older male shouted as he charged at the group, "crystal sacrifices are against the law", he held on to the surprised Jovial and shielded him with his body.

    "You are wrong Emerald" BoneSmith said quickly before things devolved further.

    "I was there at the announcement BoneSmith" he spat and looked angrily at JewelSetter, "you lead the rebellion mother", his voice broke "how can you do this now?" He trembled "and why make me watch when you butcher my own son?" He fell silent but pushed Garnet back further to protect him.

 325 Tree Fight

    Emerald equipped a radiant sword more than twice his size, pushing Garnet further back and taking a defensive stance against the monsters that wanted to harm his boy.

    Preparing to take the initiative before the crazed elders had time to employ their magic and other obscure tricks that would finish him in seconds he shifted his grip on the sword for a wider angle before realising his mistake, leaving an unchained Feral at his back was consigning to a fate worse than death, pulling his leg back across the tiled floor and only now noticing the silence, no hissing or growls from the plagued creature and no chains that clinked with every move.

    Turning his head slowly Emerald was afraid of what he would see, stopping the noises required some very nasty types of tortures, things that left stumps and scars easily visible to a casual observer and far more so to someone familiar with the practice.

    Seeing no evidence of the atrocities done did nothing to assuade his fear, usually healing would bring back the violent actions, but sometimes, when things escalated beyond a certain point the violence was kept hidden for longer, only to surface back days later, that was the cause for the third rebellion after all, with the mad prophet claiming to have found a cure only to be discovered comitting atrocities on the poor creatures under her charge.

    Not finding the tells of soul hacking Emeraled tensed and turned to look at the other Kobolds "what have you done mother?" he glared at JewelSetter, "reforming the crystal cult", he scanned the others, never letting Garnet leave his sight, "and calling me here to witness your torment of my son?", he noticed Gem fidgeting in the back, "indoctrinating children in your vile ways?" hissing the last sentence at BoneSmith.

    "Enough", Staffson finally interjected thumping the Shaman staff to draw attention, "we did none of that Emerald", gripping the staff with white knuckles, "we brought you here to witness a miracle", another thump with the staff, "it seems JewelSetter was right in calling you or you would never believe it", he looked at the others while leaning on the staff, "we spoke with the first Allen in the crystal"

    "Blasphemy" Emerald cried, "there is nothing in the crystal" mentioning the source of all evil in their society drew Emerald''s eyes to it "you speak the words of the mad prophet", tighteting his grip on the handle feeling pain in his knuckled fist.

    "There is now" jumping at the voice Emerald yelped before regaining control of himself, "please calm down", the voice spoke again with an ancient inflection, "I will do you no harm", ready to bolt, Emerald needed to pass the word of these cultists reviving the evil prophet''s creed, "I am sorry", at the words he fealt his body freezing, not cold, just immobile like the legendary ''hold'' spell had been cast on him, rage welled in his entire body as he knew all was lost, and then grief at the thought of what they were about to do to him and his children in this shrine of bloody past that should have been torn apart after the last rebellion.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    "It seems our newest member is having difficulties joining us", the voice said filling Emerald with dread, "but we must proceed", at these words Emerald wished he had tearducts like the humans to wash the grit from his suddenly dried eyes, "I believe Jovial''s shift is about to end", who is Jovial, Emerald didn''t know anyone with that name but saw Garnet nod at the edge of his vision.

    "Jovial" hearing the name again filled Emerald with dread, "join the others now" at which Garnet walked back to the unholy circle like he had been possessed by this Jovial spirit, or Player.

    "Now" the voice sounded grim, "there were things done here I don''t know about", it spoke slowly as if thinking through each word, "if any present here harmed you Garnet", that was the beginning of a wake prayer, Emerald couldn''t even avert his eyes, "please forgive them for they knew nothing better", the words stung in Emerald''s heart, "you will come to a new life", they were not perfectly recited but Emerald knew what was coming and his soul ached to hold his boy one last time, "Jovial please enable Independent Action", what did that even mean, Emerald''s mind stuttered at the meaningless words when Garnet''s cries echoed through the shrine and he swore to bear witness to his child''s agonizing final moments.

    Garnet pushed the others aside, obviously unharmed and ran to Emerald latching into his frozen body like a drowning man holding a plank, "let him go Allen" Garnet begged, "he wouldn''t hurt me".

    Emerald would know that voice into hell and back, believing it impossible to ever hear his son again he spoke with him every minute for the final stages of the plague, hoping beyond hope that something would change for his own son, but as he had told countless grieving siblings there was nothing to do except remember them at their best when the worst became true.

    Falling in his son''s arms like a dream come true Emerald lost his grip on the sword that was floating in the air, nothing fealt real at this moment, his whole world came crashing down, embracing the one being he could never touch again, his wife had suffered the same fate when she broke the rules for one last moment with the monster that had once been their pride and joy, and now it was true, dreading the appearance of the plague message Emerald looked up to see the others had joined in the moment.

    Thinking back at his words he stuttered an inteligible apology which JewelSetter hushed and he buried himself in the moment, so many lost, could they all be saved now?

    The final words from ''Allen'' sank in his mind like a rock, did they remember the horrors of the cults, could they really forgive those who commited such heinous crimes against them, the horror pushed him back from the group, so many questions, how and why, but now was not the time, although the place was undoutebly suitable for miracles.

 326 Clause Tissue

    Seeing the tearless but still emotional homecoming of the wayward scion to his family and friends stirred something in Allen.

    Remembering his own daughters coming to visits in the neuro psyhce correctional facility he wadered what happened to them, dead so long ago nobody beside him would even remember their names but they probably had children of their own and from some of the things he heard today it was possible they kept in touch with what these people called legacy, they wouldn''t know anything about him or care, but they were still his family and he cared.

    Sinking to his own world of words and numbers so he wouldn''t disturb the others Allen missed the first words aimed at him from the newcomer, Emerald, bowing low and humming prayers Allen had to rewind his recording to hear him say "thank you".

    The whole group except for Gem and Garnet were prostrating on the floor, the sword still hung in the air though they took a few cautionary steps away from it.

    "Can someone hold the sword while I free it?" He asked and Emerald jumped to grip it, "ok" Allen said removing the immobile trait "now", the sword jerked down before Emerald stored it and bowed in gratitude.

    "We need to make plans" Allen finally said and the Kobolds stood with the eerie attention he noticed the guards were in at his stroll through the city and JewelSetter''s house, "why dont you use the idle routines?" He asked absently.

    "We learn not to follow the Feral path at a young age", Staffson replied in a lecturing tone, "idle routines lead to unconcious magic", he continued and the others nodded as if knowing the words by heart, "and magic by the nameless brings the Feral plague upon their home", it ended in a grim note and Allen knew this was a recited doctrine.

    "Ok", he dismissed the implications from his current train of thought, "how can we spread the ''cure'' without tipping our hand to the other Players and Admins?"

    Garnet held his head crying "stop talking to me" before he fell silent and Jovial spoke from his mouth "are you hacking all the NPC prisoners?" His voice trembled in fear at the implication, "Kanga you promised not to drown me but this is murky stuff", he looked at the horrified Kobolds surrounding him though for different reasons than what he said, "you shade me in that and I''m never out of prison", looking intently at the ceystal, "probably get me some correctional punishment to boot".This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    "These are the complications I was refrring to", he paused, "I don''t know how to do it", thinking back, "the ambassadors wouldn''t solve this", he added, "maybe a mark for when the Player is online so we know what we can tell them", he paused, "but the language would still be a problem", after a longer pause, "and some Players will abuse their freedom to cause a lot of trouble".

    Looking at the profiles in his compiler, "please enable independent action Jovial" and Allen noted the parameter defining that condition when it changed, with some creative coding he added an object, "ok disable it", Garnet''s eyes were glowing a sinister red shade that made the other Kobolds draw back from him.

    "I think this should do it", Allen finally said, "no glow the Player is Offline", he explained, "white glow is online but with the Kobold in control", and finally "red glow is the player controlling him", quickly addin "it or her".

    "Shank me a double Kanga" Jovial said, "that is some crafty Hacking" and fell silent before his eyes glowed a soft white light.

    "We can''t revive the cults", Emerald announced, "I will take no part in a secret council of elders ruling from the shadows with fear and torments", he then added, "we need to free every last one of them", and finished "the truth is our light" like a mantra spoken an incountable amount of times.

    "But we can''t be caught by the Players", ArmBasher answerd, "or we will be deleted" and added "or worse".

    "What can be wirse than the Feral plague that has torn our lives for hundreds of years?" Emerald asked unmoving.

    "Another plague" ArmBasher shivered, "one not so simple to cure"

    The others stared at her, "simple?" Emerald cried in obvious pain, "we couldn''t find a ''cure'' for hundreds of years" he was obviously frustrated at the words spoken, "how is that simple?"

    ArmBasher looked at the distraught Kobold, "we know its source now", she finally said, "we can prevent others from being afflicted and we can cure those already believed lost", shifting her eyes to the crystal, "that makes it simple from my point of view"

    Emerald snarled at the words but remained silent and ArmBasher continued, "now you see our problem", she sighed, "how to deliver a cure without telling the Players being administered", adding "and how to make them release our people without using force"

    "Most Kobolds won''t believe we have a cure unless we show them" BoneSmith joined, "and we can''t give everyone the beastial language or we will have bloodshed on the streets" she added with a sigh.

    "We need to think this through" JewelSetter finally said.

 327 Pin Distiller

    Alaska was having the brightest day of her life, with insurmountable treasures in her inventory she even liked the dried date the Emperor has given her with a smile at her request, not turning it to food and letting it take a whole slot by itself she smiled foolishly at the memory.

    Using the Staff of Absolute made her magic so potent she was scared by her own power, its disguise as a random Mage Staff was incredible by itself but the way the artefact channeled miniscule amounts of mana to cause gargantuan grade effects made it the most powerful item she ever read about in any levend.

    Until she held The Annihalation, amply named, the spear was more like a force of nature, holding its own set of skills and Patterns it pushed beyond her physical dimensions, at breakneck speeds she moved and the world blurred around her, the only man able to match her was the emperor and she had no idea how that was even possible without hacking the murks out of the system.

    Not sure what the elixir did Alaska was loath to waste it after the emperor said it was worth more than both other items combined, the statement seemed ridiculous when she first used the staff and utter madness now that she knew what The Annihilation did but she picked it on a truss to get back at him for the date and now she wasn''t sure what to do with any of them, selling would be stupid, she could kill anything now so cash was no longer an issue in her life, her sky seemed broader with every breath.

    This was how life should be lived, every day a dream come true, thoughts of the emperor drew her eyes to him, wind whipping his clothes as he stood in the nest and searched the horizon, his life seem so dull to her now, walking the same path for a thousand years, inheriting the most boring and wander filled job in the world, it has been three days since she delivered the message and all she could think about was going on adventures while he dragged her around conferences on logistics and ship movement through shipping lanes like sheep in a pen, the ship stopped moving and Alaska didn''t see anything beside water all around them.

    They were in deep oceans where monsters rivalled the Collosal ship in size, maybe they were raiding some poor beast of the deeps, noticing the weapons of the crew she now realised things were never as simple as she first thought, comparing them to her own new acquisitions didn''t yield any insight about their powers beside the fact that they had them.

    The sea churned and boiled, a great maelstrom rose like a tornado blotting out the sun, the once lucid waters were now a murky soup of foam and waves as something was rising from the deep, Alaska gripped the staff of ultimates when a hand fell on her shoulder, looking back and up and up and up she saw one of the giant crewmen standing by her side and shaking her head, not just any crewoman, this was Debby the legacy leutenant, second in command for the Emperor, bane of the seas, and the strongest woman in the game by so far there wasn''t a margin but a grand canyon between her and even the elder Kobolds, she would be the steongest player of all if she didn''t share the rank with the emperor himself and one other legend that no one had seen for hundreds of years but the legacy was kept so someone was playing the invincible Peasant.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    Young girl Alaska drank the lore of the Pirate Emperor with delight but her own personal hero now stood beside her, even touched her, and Alaska was speechless, she saw the big woman pound the table in defiance of the emperor, threatening to tear the accords if he continued with his mad plan to assault the Kobold empire, one day Alaska wanted to have her name in the accords, acknowleged captain under the emperor''s command.

    Domane never answerd her calls and Alaska got tired of the stupid drama, she wanted adventures and now it seemed her wishes were coming to life, the waters fell from the colossal body that emerged from the sea, it had a human shape but each hand could cup the Odacious like it was a toy boat in a tub, looking down through eyes filled with storm clouds and flashing lightning, its beard was a fountain of cascading waves, holding a trident that matched its size with a handle wider than the ship, shivers ran down Alaska''s back at the thought of fighting Triton himself.

    "At the break of dawn we meet" the rumbling voice shattered waves for miles around but was surprisingly pleasant in Alaska''s ears.

    "The rising sun our witness" she heard the captain answering in a booming voice that seemed to calm the see around them.

    "The truth our light" came the lyrical voice of the monster god.

    "In bright blue sky" the captain finished the old children''s rhyme and Alaska knew she was witness to the begining of a new story, this was how all her favorite legends started, she knew these words before they were spoken, she said them together with her friends when they played reenactments of their favorite stories and now she lived in one, no one would believe her telling how the emperor flew to meet a god and discuss mundane details about ships attacking some cities while leaving others intact, troops invading one port before moving to another place, then she understood the message shee delivered, this was how the emperor informed the admins about his plan so they could move players to more interesting sites, this wasn''t boring at all, these small details were how a legend was formed in the backstage, she started recording too late, only catching some final details before the god said he would inform the elders and vanished below the surface of the sea.

    Alaska wanted to cry but the emperor called all the Players to the main deck, "you bore first witness to the begining of a new tale in the annals of the pirate emperor", he seemed to check something in his interface, "the first in two hundred years", he added "in the chest behind me are parchments holding a syncronised recording of everything that happened today", he pulled the chest open, "each of you will take one and upload it to whatever media you want", then he scanned the crowd, "anyone who wouldn''t share the recordings is banned from my ship", then he finished "no more ransome will be taken you are either with me or I will personally shank and sink you" ending with the traditional "clear?"

    To which a chorus answerd "crystal" and they all rushed to the chest.

 328 Draft Wings

    Alaska logged to her personal space and immediately uploaded the scroll, ever since she won the emperor''s challenge she gained hundreds of thousands of followers and her copy was circulated through the networks even before she finished watching it.

    There was an actual live view record that let you wander the ship while the short conversation between the emperor and the god played around you with the dramatic entrance and everything, she listened halfheartedly to the details being repeated and then a list of names started scrolling down her display titled "first eye witnesses" the list had the names pf every Player on the ship, including hers in the third place after Aaron and Ajid, by the time the list scrolled to its end her followers numbered in millions, she had so many private messages the system installed a separate server for her to browse them, even her friends wouldn''t stop flashing but the one person she was looking at still wouldn''t answer her call.

    Logging back to the game she materialised on the main deck with a few of the others all seemed excited at the coming adventure, not letting Domane dump her mood Alaska looked to the nest but he wasn''t there, "looking for your boyfriend?" She heard from behind her, the words laced with bitter venom, "don''t call me again whore" Domane said and despawned, with her heart broken twice in less than a week Alaska moped around the ship aimlessly until she heard voices from behind a wall.

    "We are not ready yet" said a rumbling deep voice, "he will crush us if we act too soon".If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    Answerd by a soft almost whispering tone, "not yet", it said, "but we will be when he joins the war himself"

    "This is changing our timetables" a third almost familiar voice chimed in, "but he made a mistake and we gained an unexpected ally" it said, "and now he can hold no more secrets from us".

    Alaska held her breath as her heart pounded in her chest, she had to run, drawing slowly away she equipped the staff of absolutes and cast invisibility in herself with a silent plea to the gods to let her get away from this place without being discovered, she had to tell the emperor before it was too late.

    Walking slowly back she used her map to walk the same corridors that brought her to this place, when she reached the outer decks she breathed with relief before someone crushed into her, she apologised and noticed the crush didn''t dispel herinvisibility, when the other man saw her he trussed and spat "no invisibility allowed on the ship girly", then he added "if I catch you at it again imma tell the captain about this time as well" and then he vanished up the stairs.

    Alaska hurried to the emperor''s cabin but found it locked, searching for him around the crew and main decks only deepened the mystery, finally in her frustration she asked Debby that stood at the helm where the Emperor was and got a cheezy glare in return before Debby sent her a location on the ship.

    Following the map brought Alaska deeper than she ever went before, below the cargo and monster decks, deep below the waterline in dark corridors smelling of seaweed and something else she couldn''t name.

    Finally coming to a door she knocked quickly and was answered by the captain shouting "what?" As if he was somewhere far away.

    "Its Alaska", she said, "I have something important to tell you" she added quickly.

    "Come in then" the emperor replied and she opened the door.

 329 Hiatus Vibe

    "A secret conspiracy to kill me", the emperor said in a quiet tone, "and a spy near me who knows all my secrets", he sat on a plush couch taken from an old film Alaska couldn''t name, "and you just heard voices behind the wall but you think you could recognize one of them", she started feeling uncomfortable, "and you didn''t record the conversation but expect me to just believe a girl I met three days ago on a whim against my most trusted lieutenants?"

    Alaska fealt her face warming at the summary, "then you used forbidden magic to stroll unseen around my ship and almost caused an accident that could kill you or someone else", looking at her feet she wanted the deck to swallow her anf pull her all the way to the bottom of the ocean.

    "I believe you", he finally said and paused, "its sooner than usual", another pause let her raise her eyes, "but maybe I only found out sooner thanks to your prompt report", she stared at him in disbelief, "this is a game" he gestured around them, "the admins want to add some challenge to our adventure" inviting her to sit on a chair that popped from thin air.

    "otherwise all the stories would be a repetition of each other", flourishing with his hand "the emperor came", he thumbed himself, "the emperor saw", pointing to his eyes, "the emperor pillaged and sailed into the sunset", another flourish towards the ceiling.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    At a loss for words Alaska couldn''t believe how full of himself the man was, she already heard that he was a new heir to the legacy and figured him to be around her age, all hot air and acting, using inherited wealth to bolster his own name, Bob the fifth, his flare already dimmed by the rumors was now aapproaching murky visuals with this display of condescending manners and the previous humiliation, she couldn''t believe she looked up to him once, but it was just the legend she adored, not the man behind the curtain, at the realization she suddenly needed to be anywhere else, far away from this man shaped hot air baffoon.

    Alaska rose to her feet and left without saying a word, outside the door she despawned and immediately materialized in the new market at Huashan the city of wanders and newbies.

    Going to the wizards guild she scanned the boards for a challenge, there were seventeen unconquered quests and raids and she randomly plucked one and went to the counter, the guide looked at her shipboard attire and random drop staff and shook his head, "I don''t think you should climb Aferion mountain missy", he said with a grim tone, "many braved its slopes to reach the peak", another shake, "its a hardcore zone", he added, "what falls in the mountain stays on the mountain".

    Alaska just signed her name and handed him the paper, "its your doom then", adding his signature "the guild takes no responsibility for your losses".

 330 Ground Ruler

    Alaska breathed deep, standing at the foot of the mountain she could see the winding trails leading to the cloud covered peak, the game making it possible to distinguish details from any distance was one of the few surreal effects that Players got used to over time.

    Deciding not to gamble with flight she thumped the simple looking staff in the ground and made her first step in a dungeon for over six months, her usual party was probably still lounging on the main deck of the ship she left less than an hour ago.

    Surveying her inventory again to see if anythin was missing she took another step before the messages telling her about the dungeon were blocked, she read them already on her way here, there were non magic fields that killed anyone stupid enough to use magical flight and wind currents would crush whoever tried to fly in some other way.

    The first pass was ahead of her, after walking for an hour in the sparse trees that hid low level monsters scaring away any fools that tried to conquer the mountain without the proper gear and levels, having something like half a legacy character, it was her own make but boosted by hidden knowlege from generations of Players, and the newly aquired artifacts that were powerful enough to compete with any monster she ever met around here on previous raiding parties, picking it from the board was just random, but after playing as long as she did there wasn''t an unconquered quest she didn''t try before, though this would be her first solo run of the gauntlet.

    The first passage was all about brute force, hunting the monsters lurking in the wood until you found the stone with the right symbol and it showed you the way to the other side, most unprepared players got lost here, but the hardcore part only started after you left so a lot of parties came here to farm for usually less common resources dropped from the various animals.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    Going without a party let her explore the area beyond the common used paths, something she never did because solid parties preferred to either farm the areas most dense with whatever resource they needed or jaunted to the bosses to get the marked stone with the higher drop rate, so she left the trails and went to check on whatever drew her fancy at the moment, after all she came here to escape, not with any particular goal in mind.

    Barely perceptible footmarks lead her deep into the forest where majestic trees shaded the ground animal calls filled the air with a pleasant melody, surprised nothing attacked her yet she followed the light tracks in a circle meeting her own footsteps, tghtening her grip on the staff she prepared to fight whatever lead her to this trap.

    "Who speaks for the wind?" Alaska heard a voice but couln''t see anyone.

    She knew this story, "the trees with their falling leaves speak for the wind" she answerd in the exact words and pulled out WindSpeaker from her memory bank, the next question should be who speaks for the night.

    "Who speaks for the night?" Alaska could cry when she heard it quickly answering the woods spoke for the night, and the hallows spoke for the lost and the beads spoke with the dead, it was a children''s tale, about a young boy looking for his mother in the halls of dead kings and finally coming to power through guile and charisma, he spoke for the wind in the great hall of nature and made the gods let humans wield magic so they can survive against the monsters.

    Alaska''s heart ponded as she went through the phrases of the opening ceremony of nature, she never heard of it but obviously the story held some truth and Players couln''t hide a good story from their peers only change the setting so it was harder to find, from the shadows walked a creature borne from the night and carrying the win on its hide whispering secrets of a long gone past, Alaska stared at the hulking beast with branches growing from its back and horns that could tear her to pieces but its gait wasnt menacing, it stopped before her and steam came from its bull like nose, "a challenger at last" it spoke with the deep voice she heard before, rumbling through the words like rocks falling down a mountain, "will you choose might, magic or mastery?" it asked at last and settled down before her, blending with the forest and becoming a gently sloped hill.

 331 Stack Round

    Slom left the conference room after another three hours planning session with captains from a different time zone, it was agreed that the one would follow the many, and since he was one and there were almost two hundred players from the hindy china region in his fleet, he accomodated them on their time.

    Not that he ever needed sleep but he had to pretend to hold for a certain time zone to keep appearances or be accused of time splitting which was illegal and brought some nasty trouble to whoever did it.

    The girl was gone, he shouldn''t care about some random Player who couldn''t take a pun and just vanished but she cared enough to find him and tell him about the conspiracy so he returned the favor and had some people watch over her beside the staff and spear that would tell him if anything happened, NPC weapons were rare and hard to get these days, or ever, it was hundreds of years since he tried to make a contract for a new weapon and maybe it was time, before the the new war.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    Stepping back into the conference room before everyone left he announced, "I am going to the thunder island" he said to the room, "I will be there to see the ThunderSmith about a new weapon for this campaign", silence fell at the words, it was the one place in the world where the Emperor was just another man, if he was attacked there it would be him against the natives, the accords were clear about this state of affairs, it was also why he haven''t been to the island during their lifetime, or even their parents'' lifetime, they all had to go there at least once to become lieutenants, and none of them came back unchanged, the only one exempt from this requirement was the emperor himself and there were things on the island that would make or break any man, woman or beast if confronted directly and the village people made sure you met with every opportunity to die while you visited.

    Hardcore dungeons were tough, hardcore open regions were what made characters tough, or killed anyone who wasn''t strong enough and without the sovereignity of the accords and protection of the emperor''s name and reputation everyone had only their skills and ability to protect themselves against the roaming monsters and gangs of robbers and marauders inhabiting the island.

 332 Drape Toss

    Allen wasted a long time on trivial things, the plan progressed over the past few days with him as the bottleneck, unable to share his editing abilities without hacking the murks, as Jovial would say, on the Kobold avatars or a long cocourse on the system mainframe touching some dangerous details and unable ro avoid teaching some very dangerous things like how to edit and delete objects he just had to suck it up and do more.

    He couldn''t handle more than fifteen at a time, even that was tiring him fast, with each taking around half an hour just for the technical part and some taking hours to convince about the more obscure parts of the deal to free the Kobold AIs and stay as simple supervisors they only broke a tiny fraction of the surface.

    Jovial proved to be an asset in more ways than one, using his connections in the outside world he vetted out the worst criminals from the early stages so they didn''t have to waste the ambassadors'' time and Allen''s with people they couldn''t set free in the Kobold society later, he was also the only outsider who knew Allen wasn''t an inanimate artefact the Kobolds found a new use to.

    Every greater Kobold family sent a few ambassadors, it was a beautiful scene to behold as they were told about the upcoming cure, there were problems explaining why some players were more dangerous than others without telling them the difference between NPCs and the other Players, it appeared some of the harder criminals were all sent to the same families and given higher priority targets which lead to the current argument.

    "This is blatant discrimination", the old matron screamed at BoneSmith, "why can''t my son be cured?", Allen could tell from her clothes she was an orphan, "if trapper was alive", she paused, "she would never let such behaviour stand", the intricacies of Kobold society fascinated Allen, "she shared the first Allen with the conclave without expecting any returns" with a blunt finality.

    BoneSmith seemed distressed, "The Player holding your son doesn''t cooperate with us", he was also a mass murder who got a lighter sentence for giving up the location of his graveyards so they didn''t even dare to ask, "we can''t force them to release control", saying the same words over and over broke her heart, "we have to negotiate without telling them how or why it works"A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    "Then negotiate", the distraught mother begged, "I filed the papers to become ambassador on the first day", she put her hands on the desk holding copies, "why wasn''t I approved for it?"

    Allen had to trust his team, as he thought of them, blundering now could break the Kobold society, though he fealt for the grieving mother, there was work to be done and he couldn''t be the manager and the grunt at the same time, since he was the only one capable of altering the avatar profile and couldn''t make informed decisions about who to add to the list grunt worker he had to be.

    A whole new beurocracy rose from the need for secrecy, layers on layers of secretariate devisions pushing papers to slow down the process for a manageable trickle, with millions vying for their loved ones'' return and an even greater population of captive Ferals than his worst nightmares Allen had to become faster, but he also had to do the work, and he was starting to get very tired from the emotional stress.

    "Why won''t her eyes light up?" Allen heard in one of his private sensors given to a guard from the original group named Vious, "are you sure the ceremony was complete?"

    Allen checked the Feral profile and saw his adition was in place, "everything seems fine to me" he finally answerd, "it means the Player controlling her is currently offline", he added, "did you have to wake her up?" he finally asked and Vious nodded.

    "Then you have to wait for them to log in before you can negotiate the terms", Allen said and had to concentrate on the next group brought in to the temple for a ''purification'' ceremony where he added the glowing eyes feature to more Ferals and the ambassadors could start negotiations with the NPCs.

    Allen split his time between ''purification'' and adding the Beastial language to more ambassador candidates as it seemed impossible to learn in the normal ways, slowing the process even more, after just a few days of being ''awake'' he really needed a break from everything in the Kobold empire.

    "We need to talk Allen", he heard from ArmBasher''s personal sensor and indicated he was listening, "these are people from the other Kobold large cities" the words filled Allen with dread as he enabled visual sensors in the room and saw over a hundred people, "they wish to become ambassadors for their people and start purification ceremonies for the Ferals held in their dungeons" Allen''s mind went numb at these words and he couldn''t hear the rest of it, bells and whistles blowing off everywhere at the thought of years of doing the same thing over and over with all the emotional stress and every one of the millions and more Ferals not yet cured added to his tally of pain and misery that he himself was creating by not doing enough, just to keep his secrets.

 333 Clown Bliss

    "Unrest grows throughout the empire", an ancient Kobold Allen didn''t remember the name of spoke endlessly, "new cults sprouting like poison flowers in vinewood dungeon", it was all breaking apart, "we even found evidence of crystal sacrifices inside the capital".

    "Kill them all" Allen murmured, "or let them become Ferals and we negotiate with their caretakers in a couple hundred years", the madness of it infuriated him.

    After a long silence the speaker continued, "rumors speak of a pirate invasion", she looked around for a specific face and settled back, "Naromy could probably give a more accurate report from the spies at the Emperor''s court", she just blabbed along, "but it creates even more unrest as resources are diverted from defensive programs to curing the Feral plague", the other attendants nodded in agreement, "though we all know how important it is to bring back as many of our people as soon as possible", drawing breath, "we have to consider the greater picture and start relocating some of those resources back to everyday life".

    Allen was apalled at the suggestion, already working nonstop with every resource available and not even one percent of the Ferals returned to their lives, "taking away their freedom for financial nonsense is unacceptable" he said out loud and the Kobolds stared at him again.

    Teliasha, Allen finally remembered her name, continued after anothet pause, "civilian projects that also ground to a halt include deforestation in the northern region and the highway connection to the free guilds association in the east", she looked to another Kobold, "Meteor can elaborate on implications rising from breaking our agreement with the guilds on both commerce and defense pacts"You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    "Who cares about roads and forests when lives are ruined every minute we waste on idle chatter?" Allen burst with rage, "once we finish healing the Ferals we can do all that stuff"

    "Enough" BoneSmith snapped, "you are breaking under the stress Allen", gasps heard around the room, "it has to be said", she looked directly at him, "we made a mistake".

    "Putting you in charge was the only mistake I made" Allen retorted.

    BoneSmith remained calm though some of the others moved in visible distress, "you need a break" she continued, "we all know what is happening to you", looking around the table at the nodding Kobolds made Allen even angrier, "this is stress from overworking", her eyes stopped on a Kobold Allen didn''t know, "we all fealt it and had subordinates going through it", the newcomer nodded "our mistake was thinking you had our experience", she looked directly at Allen "that you would know how to pace yourself", Allen had a stone sink through his mind, "and know when to stop or ask for help", her eyes never wavered as Allen fealt something quivering inside him, "but when we worked and thrived for hundreds of years you did whatever it was you were doing", the words hammered in his mind "you will have to trust us on this" she paused, "that we do this because we care about you", her eyes darkened "Allen the man not the god".

    Closing her eyes for a few seconds "because you may be omnipotent but you are not omniscient" opening her eyes and looking at him, "if you were really my subordinate", the pause filled Allen with dread at what she was going to say, "I would send you to a management course before putting you in charge of a much smaller project than what you are currently doing" Allen sighed with relief inwardly, "but I can''t make you do anything", she looked around the room, "we need you", and added "but we need you for the long run", her eyes focused on him again "so please let us help you" her final tone almost begging.

    Allen knew she was right, the words struck a chord deep in his heart and he wanted to curl in a corner and cry, silence permeated through the room as the seconds dragged into a minute and beyond before he finally said in a quiet voice "help me"

 Not a chapter Seeking advice

    I see a lot of comments and critique going at the earlier arcs and chapters, if I start editing everything it will take away from new chapters and I think its not fair to everyone already invested in the story to drop it or slow down publication to help bring in new readers.

    On the other hand although some of my skills improved its not like i will push the earlier arcs to a 2.0 level but more like a 1.1 version, which is currently a pretty low return for the afforementioned price of slowing down new releases significantly.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    I am really at a loss, it hurts to read blatant rending reviews given over just the first few chapters that I can admit are not my greatest literary work but convey enough of the world and story to bring us to where we are today which I hope is as enjoyable to read as it is to write.

    So to conclude, should I go edit the first arc or move foreward and do it at some future time with even more advanced skills?

 334 Access Delight

    "The Kobold empire is a misleading name", GritSifter started the lesson on political powers in the VR world, "few outside the Kobold community know but it is actually a benign meritocracy and has been from the days of the Kobold Conclave Guild", she gave a crooked smile, "I should know since I was actually there", the lesson continued, listing the current leaders of the empire and naming some of the kingdoms it had relations with, "Players enjoy the stability and relative freedom under the rule of law that the empire provide in an uncertain world", were her last words before their time was up.

    Allen''s new calendar included tutoring sessions with various teachers, since very few Kobolds could be trusted with his identity those teachers were all picked from the original Conclave guild, they were ancient in every possible measure but had perfect memory recall and a literal millenia of experience to draw on, which made just meeting them interesting and being able to learn from them an unexpected delight.

    His favorite tutor was BoneSmith, the old Kobold took him under her figural wing and on the first day just worked him through his frustrations, explaining that the Kobolds knew what it would take from the first time they discussed the distribution plan, how they mistook Allen''s enthusiasm for confidence and though they moved him through the paces, his choice to be involved in every level of execution was misread as supervision when in reality he was trying to push a mountain with his bare hands.

    After the initiation phase of his tutoring program and getting a much needed break Allen decided to heed her advice and remove his various sensors from around the temple grounds and the commercial building repurposed to accomodate the beurocratic needs of the distribution plan.

    Attending five cure ceremonies each day and even those only to administer the NPC detection effect and teaching new ambassadors the beastial language was what they figured was his limit, they read the names of the original Ferals with each ceremony and they all had some family in the shrine that reacted with deep emotions to their siblings ''success'' when their eyes glowed red and even deeper when it shifted to the soft white indicating the original scion was free from Player control.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

    There were some incidents where families who''s requests were denied tried to subvert other ceremonies but the tragedy of the Feral plague was so prevalent through the Kobold society that no one wanted to deny others the return of lost loved ones, only pushed through frustration at the delay.

    Allen found he had more in common with Gem and Jovial than with the elders and requested their attendance in his classes, after telling them about his special calendar they showed a great interest and although some subjects were unsuited for them, due to Gem''s young age and Jovial being a Player they spent most of their days together under Garnet''s unhappy agreement at having his life subverted once more after so long under the Feral plague.

    It was this tention that brought Allen to his current conflict with the middle generations of Kobolds, though few knew why, it was known that Garnet was forced to stay Feral for long hours while the ancient tutors experimented on the first cured Feral, calling themselves the Feral generation started as a joke and derogative but was soon caught on and Garnet was a hero to them, one of very few cured Ferals that didn''t need an ambassador to speak for him they saw him as a symbol of stoic defiance and powerful resolve, suffering from constant indignation and supervised by a teenager at all times seemed unfair to the young man who was kept from his life longer than necessary.

    Relations with the NPCs let the rich and powerful empire purchase more NPC activation codes, the simplicity of the process to immunize the younger generations almost caused another rebellion when accusations of using the plague to suppress the masses surfaced, Allen''s worst nightmarea came true when groups of young Kobolds used skills or magic to become Ferals and literaly selling their souls to criminals for a few hours of wanton pleasure before they were caught and the NPC tag removed, if they managed to catch them in a few hours the Player wouldn''t know his removal was intended and could just assume his charge was slain somehow when he wasn''t in control but the danger these almost ferals imposed was unproportional to the damage they caused in their NPC induced fervor, so severe punishments were dealt on any who crossed the line.

 335 Jaw Birch

    "What about your recreational character?" Allen asked after a mind numbing lesson in spatial mathematics that pushed his resources to their limits and left the others far behind, making Allen realise some of the real world technological advancez may have originated from the ancient AIs trading with Players.

    Jovial looked at him for a few seconds before answering, "it''s just a low level militiaman I picked for the weapons skills and resistance to mind control".

    "Militiaman sounds powerful" Allen said after thinking about his own recreational characters, "when I was NPC none of our choices had weapon skills or resistances", then added "all we had were craftsmen and peasants"

    "I tried the Peasant resurgence Hack like everyone else I know", sounding frustrated, "when it failed I took the MilitiaMan", then his words hit something solid, an idea bloomed in his mind like a bomb so powerful it was visible to outside observers as all he could do was stare at where Allen''s glowing orb floated and point at him while mumbling "you" over and over again.

    "What?" Allen couldn''t understand the reaction, "resurgence was the height of fasion when I was NPC we all did it so we could play higher level quests", at which Jovial just stabbed his finger futilely in the air unable to create a sentence.

    "It was a million years ago" Jovial finally cried, "you died", sounding more and more breathless, "you hacked your rig", his voice breaking up, "they tell you never to mess with the blockers or you end up a living vegetable like Allen Pearlson", he stoppe talking and stared, "you are Allen Pearlson", he added after a pause "you messed with your blockers", the sentences sounded broken and barely audible, "you didn''t die", and he finally whispered "you hacked life Kanga" and stopped talking altogether.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

    "It was only a millenia ago", Allen tried to lighten the mood, "not a million years", then he changed the subject again, "why not make a Kobold recreational character and live here in the capital?"

    "Kanga if I pop a classless Kobold in a noob city they will shank me faster than the system can process it", the simple question seemed to shake Jovial from his shock, "or sell me as a slave to the mines".

    "We could protect you and being you back here", Allen thought about it for a while now and didn''t understand why there weren''t more player operated monsters, "are there no Player dragons?" he finally asked the one most visually obvious, "or unicorns or werewolves?"

    "Only top ranking guilds can afford monster races for their members Kanga", Jovial sounded bitter, "and recreationals only get the lower kinds of monsters so nobody picks them".

    This brought Allen to another chain of thought, "did you ever evolve your NPC Jovial?"

    "No such thing as NPC evolution Kanga" the answer came too quick, "you hacked the system back way whenever but you can''t do that anymore"

    "Were you ever an inanimate object?" Allen finally asked.

    "Nah", he replied, "nobody takes stupid contracts like that unless you get sentence reduction for it" which answerd all of Allen''s questions on the subject but seemed to blow a new bomb in Jovial''s mind, "is that how you did it?" He finally asked, "took a crystal contract and broke your blockers to live forever?"

    The simple explanation let Allen out of the trap and he took it, "that''s right", he said, "but if you cant evolve you shouldn''t try to hack the blockers" he added quickly to dissuade Jovial from trying.

    "That is murky stuff Kanga" Jovial repeated his favorite sentence whenever hacking was mentioned, "do you really think you could bring me here if I spawn as a Kobold?" returning to the original subject.

    "We could ask BoneSmith to help us" Allen said after coming up empty for solutions, "she probably has spies all over the world"

    "Ok" Jovial sounded excited, "let''s do that".

 336 Ire Prole

    "Absolutely not", BoneSmith snapped at Jovial''s question, "we worked too hard to keep Player puppets away from the empire to start letting them trickle back in just when we found a cure for the Feral Plague"

    Allen was surprised at the reaction, "but", he asked tentatively "why?".

    "Players have access to Skills and Spells",BoneSmith said remembering Allen had to be told everything, "and they invite youngsters to groups and go to unsupervised quests", she stopped like this explained the problem.

    "OK" Allen replied, "but the younger Kobolds are immune now", not having the fear of the Feral plague ingrained in his very bones seemed to be the greatest divide between him and the Kobolds.

    "This may be true", she seemed to think about his words, "but we can''t have Players running everywhere disguised as Kobolds", her mind seemed to settle back to its traditional guard position.

    "It''s just for Jovial", Allen said, "he won''t be stuck in Garnet forever", not wanting to lose his friend, "and then we won''t see him ever again".

    "If Jovial wants to come to the Empire as a Player", BoneSmith finally answerd, "he can come as a Human", she paused, "I promise to process his entry papers as fast as can be done".

    Allen could see Jovial''s face falling "leave it Kanga", he finally said, "its just like every rich guild", accepting his fate, "they don''t want some lowbie recreational to murk their pond".Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

    "It''s not like that", Allen fealt he had to defend his new home, "some traditions are hard to let go of".

    "Don''t fuzz me Kanga", Jovial answerd quietly, "I know how things work", slowly shaking his head, "we can party when I''m not in the correction prog".

    Allen didn''t want to accept that, "What if I put the Feral cure property on him BoneSmith?" he finally asked, "only it will not turn white for a very long time".

    Seeing Allen''s determination moved something in BoneSmith, "Can you make it another color?" she finally said, "to distinguish between regular Players and the other kind?" referring to NPCs without saying the words.

    "I could make them blue and green" his enthusiasm returned, "or any color actually", focusing the visual on his friend "what is your favorite color Jovial?"

    "You mean that Kanga?" Jovial looked hopefully at BoneSmith, "my fav color is green", to answer Allen, "you really mean I can join your guild?"

    "We don''t have our guildmaster to approve new members", BoneSmith replied "but I will help you come as a Kobold to the empire if Allen puts the Feral cure effect on you".

    "Weren''t all of you moderators in the conclave?" Allen asked.

    "When Trapper''s rebellion failed MinerSlave revoked everyone''s moderator status", she answerd bitterly, "only the peasant and she remain as moderators", thinking further, "we couldn''t leave without losing the Warren and she wouldn''t kick us out entirely for he own reasons", she explained, "and it leaves her in a position of power though she vanished from the Empire and won''t be allowed to return even if she wanted to".

    "Where is the Warren?" Allen asked tentatively, "I remember it was just a cave".

    BoneSmith gestured at the shrine, "the whole temple and caverns below were built as part of the Warren in more dangerous days".

    "Oh" was all Allen could say to that, never bothering to check the actual name of the temple complex and just calling it by the name the other Kobolds gave him.

    BoneSmith turned to Jovial, "where do you plan to spawn the new character?" she asked.

 337 Hilt Coif

    Preparing for the extraction took much longer than Allen thought it would, with the closest starting city where a recreational character could spawn not even sharing a regional border with the Kobold empire the operation required a lot of delicate negotiations with mercenary companies working on both sides of the border.

    Allen tried to keep his normal schedule but thinking on every complication had him running the others ragged by the third day and he was banished along with Jovial to explore the temple.

    Entering a new room Allen heard Jovial whimper when he noticed the jaws and then eyes of the creature living there, dark green scales covering the serpentine body, wings folded on its back, sharp horns adorning its head like a crown, the dragon sighed and Allen fealt sorrow wash over him through the sensors.

    "Beautiful" he said and the dragon''s eyes turned to jovial.

    "You speak?" It said and Jovial screamed in terror as the dragon sighed again and rested its head on the floor tiles.

    Allen checked the language tab for the dragon and found it saying ''ancient draconian'', "the same old trick?" Allen asked no one in particular and the dragon''s eye turned to stare at Jovial.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

    "They should really try something new every few hundred years", to which the dragon snorted a blast of air that pushed Jovial against the wall'' freeing him from the terror that held him motionless, after which he fled screaming down the hall.

    "Typical" the beast''s voice rumbled shaking the walls of its cave.

    When the creature''s eyes didn''t start glowing even after applying the Feral cure to its profile Allen asked "you are not a Player or NPC?" surprised the effect didnt work.

    "Who hides in my domain?" The dragon asked and cast a spell to reveal hidden things, "I am not a slave to the humans of the other world" it answerd Allen''s question criptically.

    "Then what are you?" Allen asked, his curiosity peaking at the notion of another AI race.

    "Ahhh who cares anymore", the dragon said after thinking, "I payed to have my mind imprinted on the servers when I was dying of old age", he sighed again "that was almost four hundred years ago", his voice lowered down "a third of which I lived in this cave after some blasted Admin mistook me for a rogue AI and made everyone attack me", another blast from his nostrils "apparently once I became a creature in the game I had no more rights", looking around the cave, "there isnt anyone there huh?" It asked sounding disappointed.

    "I am here" Allen answerd, "we have very similar stories".

    "Oh" The dragon''s voice lifted, "another immortal?" Bursting in a deep and rumbling laughter, "did they make you a ghost?" It laughed until the cave walls started shaking again.

 338 Glut Prize

    "And you were stuck in the crystal for a thousand years?" Allen was getting used to Shoul''s barking laughter and condescending tone.

    "I wasn''t really stuck", he corrected the old man, "I just didnt find my way out yet".

    Another barking laughter, "that''s stuck in my book" followed by, "and you just decided to be a ghost one day?"

    "Something like that", not wanting to share his secrets with someone who ccould also access the system directly, "what were you doing in here alone for over a hundred years?" Allen asked the question most burning in his mind.

    "The same as you Casper", laughing at his own joke, "reading and playing games" he added, "when I signed the contract they let me bring a whole library of books and old vr games so when I got stuck here I caught up on my old hobbies"

    "You must have read quite a lot in a hundred years", Allen encouraged him.

    "It took me a month to upload everything", the dragon sounded upset, "then I just knew whatever was in these books", bitterness oozing in every word, "bastard developers probably knew it", adding, "must have laughed behind my back for eighty years before they died", laughing again, "that was two hundred years before I even tried", he barked then "ha! serves them bastards allright"

    "How did you upload the books directly to your memory?" Allen asked counting every word.

    "You just put in the command [upload <book name>] and it does it in less time than it takes to think the command", the dragon answerd without thinking, "you didn''t know it because you were stuck in a crystal", roaring laughter shaking the walls and dropping stones from the ceiling, "you actually read everything word by word?", the Dragon rolled on the floor flapping it arms in the air, "oh time wasted" it roared laughing with every word.

    "Yes", Allen said softly, "it was nice meeting you Shoul" he added "but I should go now"Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    "Oh don''t leave yet", the monster sobered up, "I haven''t spoken with anyone for literal ages", then it thought about the situation, "how come you can understand me"

    "I just learned the dragon language from a book", Allen tried to regain some of his dignity.

    "That''s a lie", the dragon squinted in his direction, "I will trade you a secret for the truth", then he thought about the previous conversation, "though it seem like you got one secret from me already".

    "Fine" Allen replied after a few seconds, "your only registered language is an unknown and unknowable dialect so the system translate everything you hear and say to garbled nonesense".

    "What" the dragon roared in indignation, "how can I fix this?" He cried at Allen, "why can you speak this unknown and unknowable dialect?"

    "I know all languages", Allen quickly added, "its a trait from being a crystal", hoping he isnt caught in another lie.

    "Thats just annoying", the dragon stated, "can you teach me some other language then" It asked, "whatever the lizardfolk around here speak?", it finished.

    "I can" Allen said thinking, "for another secret".

    The dragon laughed again, "oh you drive a hard bargain" it rolled to its stomache, "what do you want to know?"

    This was a hard question, Allen thought for a few seconds before answering "what you believe it would be worth for you to know the language"

    "Ha" Shoul barked, "you know this game", the dragon fell silent for a while and Allen thought it has gone to sleep, "this secret isn''t mine", the dragon finally spoke, "so I will obfuscate the words and let you figure it out", closing its eyes in concentration the old one spoke at last "in the dungeon deep, where souless dread, the guildmaster sleep, believed long dead"

    "Thats almost cheating" Allen said in frustration, "but since I wouldn''t even know there was something to figure out" he finally relented, "I will pay your price", and as he finished he added the Draconian language to the dragons'' array, as soon as he was done something unexpected happened, once the array opened the system added almost fifty other languages to the list, "I guess you got more than you bargained for" Allen finally said, "probably from all the books in your memory"

    The Dragon stared at him for a second and blinked, "how did you add new books to my library?" It finally asked.

    "I think they were stored in the system and waiting for a trigger", Allen said after thinking, "maybe knowing the language?", then looking at his display he added "I really have to go now", but the dragon just stared with glazed eyes at something in his display never noticing when Allen left.

 339 Foil Tan

    Allen deleted the sensor concentraing on the task at hand, already knowin what he wanted, it was just a matter of filtering out everything else before he drowned in too much knowlege.

    Finally he arrayed the books from his notes dealing with character creation to a nice little nesting file and without any ceremony put down the command [upload <[/list * nest]>], it worked, almost too well, like the dragon said, faster that it took to think the command and the books were already in his memory, from there the whole process was flawless, a few seconds later and a dragon with diamond scales was standing inside the shrine, Allen looked down at the crystal and up to the dragon at the same time, happy for his split vision training as a NPC he walked out from the shrine and spread his shiny new wings.

    Spells and projectiles peppered him from all around and a stern looking old Kobold was shouting something at him, realising his mistake Allen changed the ''ancient draconian'' with an asterix and was bombarded with pleas and demands that he return to his nice cavern and they would soon come to take care of him, shaking his entire body caused the diamond scales to stand like elongated spikes when he roared "enough".

    "I just want to try something" he added at the astonished looks of the Kobolds.

    "Allen?" Hearing his mentor''s stern voice had him turning his head around, long necks had many advantages, "what have you done now?"

    Feeling chastised Allen bowed before BoneSmith which drew gasps from the crouds and shouts about him eating the ancient matron, "just wanted to try it" he said again.

    "Why not tell us about your trial?" She seemed as frustrated as he fealt.

    "It was a whim" he finally answerd, more bolts suddenly started to rain down from behind him and twisting his neck to see the new assailants only caused him to roll over like a puppy in the mud, if puppies had sharp diamond scales and were the size of a small building.

    "Stop" BoneSmith raised her hands at the newcomers "this is an internal affair", raising her voice, "outsiders are forbidden from stepping on temple grounds"

    Only now realising how strange it was to see such a large concentration of Humans in the Kobold capital Allen wasn''t sure what to do next.

    "Our agreement allows us to hunt every dragon in our sight anywhere on Kobold lands" a tiny helmeted figure spoke, "they actualy demand that we do so or we will be banished from the empire borders", Allen figured the helmeted humanoid was actually normal sized but he was much larger.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    There was something off with his internal thought process, whenever he looked at a smaller creature he could smell them as delicious food, the Kobolds fealt like toys and every jewel in BoneSmith''s attire sparkled like it was calling him to adore it and keep it safe, forcing himself to think about rules he learned from the Kobold made them just wash away like single drops of water in a stream, this was so strong that he knew it was done deliberately, unable to remember what the tiny human said he opened his mouth and the best description to what happened would be that he puked rainbows on them.

    The colors stuck, painting everything in crazy hues of bold well defined primes and pastels, even their body parts were outlined by the mad plethora of effects.

    Staring at the results of his attack Allen fealt something bubble inside him, when the humans looked at each other and started shouting in morbid frustration at their new apparels it burst out with a roaring laughter that had him roll all over the floor with Kobolds and humans fleeing in all directions as his scales reflected the sun in small rays of light that luminated whatever they touched with colors though these didn''t stay neither did the victims tested their potency after longer exposure.

    When he finally caught his breath he looked to where the humans stood and seeing human shaped uncolored cobblestones drew another fit of laughter before he noticed the only other creature standing in the courtyard.

    BoneSmith sparkled like a precious jewel, so many colors clashed all over and around her it was almost hard to watch, her steady glare brought his focus back to the moment and he fealt she shouldn''t judge him, he was a dragon, and she wasn''t.

    "Are you done?" BoneSmith broke the silence.

    "I don''t like your tone", Allen said before catching himself, "I am sorry", he added quickly

    "Sorry doesn''t fix this", she sighed and gestured for him to follow her back into the temple.

    "You just confirmed a six hundred years old conspiracy theory that we were raising dragons in the temple", shaking her head as she walked, "even if you never leave again Players have records" walking fast through hallways Allen now understood why they were so big, "and dragon hunters can usually make even more accurate reports than most"

    They entered a cave where Allen saw treasure sparkling on the floor, drawn to the jewels and coins he started assessing their value and counting them, rearranging every piece in neat piles around the room he suddenly found himself alone, stepping carefully to the exit so he doesn''t disturb his already arranged treasure a particular ruby caught his eye and he added it to the others, but it was a tad bigger than he liked so he had to find one that either matched its size or completed the set, the sapphires were behaving very nicely, growing in size and arranged in a neat spiraling dome capped with a royal tear cut gem he could almost hold in his hand and not just pick up between tweazind fingernails, he needed to count the coins in the eastern pile before starting another one.

 340 Elk Moral

    Allen woke up to another sparkly morning of counting gems and jewels, or maybe coins or crowns, deciding to size match gilded plates today he opened his eye and blinked when horror and rage warred inside him, everything was gone, his rubies and plates, every last piece of gold vanished from his cave.

    Looking all around he finally spotted one coin in a corner, picking it up with the tips of his nails, careful not to scratch it he placed it in his palm, another coin caught his attention and he added it to its mate, picking up more coins he started counting them as they were added to his palm, finally finding a stack he sat down to count the coins before moving on to find the rest of his treasure.

    Finished with the tally he found himself surrounded by thieves, all kinds of colorful people that were after his treasure, he spread his wings to scare them off and roared when they wouldn''t move at his awesome display of power.

    "You spoke the truth BoneSmith", he heard someone say from behind him, "he is just a hatchling", twisting his neck he saw one of the colored people soeaking with a minion that brought him more treasure from time to time, "though the size is quite misleading", the speaker measured him up with her mismatched eyes and added, "I wonder what size he will end up with".

    "We hide no dragons here Kyatha", the minion spoke, "he was drawn to the crystal like the others", she added, "you can tell your guild the agreement holds true", after a pause, "though this one is now temple property and I cant have you take it"

    Feeling slighted Allen growled at the minion, "you are mine", and added, "where is my treasure?".

    "It''s kept in a safe place" the minion finally said, "I will take you to it when we are done here"

    "Then take me now", not understanding why he was delayed from counting his treasure, "I am done with this"Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    The minion looked at the colored Kyatha who shrugged her shoulders and made a dismissing gesture with her hand, Allen thought to protest but that would nust delay him longer from reuniting with his precious sparkling glorious treasure so he followed the minion BoneSmith through the caverns, noticing that the others didnt follow he approved that a trove should be kept secret.

    Stopping at a suspiciously familiar entrance Allen had a feeling of familiarity laced with something he should have remembered.

    Entering the bare and dark cave he looked for his treasure before an alarm caused him to retreat, seeing the scales and horns he knew he was trapped, the minion tricked him, this was another dragon, old and dangerous, Allen opened his mouth to use his breath at the domineering creature but a huff from the other beast''s nostril filled his mouth with gusts of wind and he had to close it or suffocate.

    Moving to the side exposed his flank to attack but the lazy monster didn''t move, Allen lunged at the slumbering beast only to be swatted away like a fly with a single flap of its wing, they were almost the same size so how come the other creature was so easily overpowering him.

    Finally the other dragon said "enough" with such force that stones fell from the walls and Allen was compelled to settle down, "is this really the same Allen that spoke with me over a month ago?" the creature asked BoneSmith.

    "Yes" the minion answerd, "we have seen this happen before", shaking her head, "it takes a dragon years to overcome the gold lust", she looked at Allen, "even Kobold hatchlings go through this phase though we teach them otherwise as soon as they can conquer their base needs"

    "I see", the dragon rumbled, "never had hatchlings of my own" added after a pause, "how do you teach them to ivercome this lust?" It asked the minion.

    "With Kobold hatchlings we teach them to trust the law", she explained, "how property and civility correlate to create a bigger pile for everyone", looking at Allen "but we can''t force the lesson on him", after a pause, "partly due to his size and strength but also because of who he is" breathing deep, "so we ask your help in civilising him please name your price"

    "Two things I desire", the elder dragon said, "books", adding after a pause "and time with him even after we are done", his words moving a memory in Allen about reading books and what was in them, they were a kind of treasure and he should probably gather a few piles of them.

 341 Drill Stamp

    "Your minions ask that you bless their ceremony in your honor", Shoul said one evening, "there is a blessing only you can bestow on them", the elder looked Allen in the eyes and added, "only you can cure their Feral plague"

    The words triggered something inside Allen and the required actions and words popped in his memory, "maybe I should indulge them", he said after thinking, "this morning BoneSmith brought me a very nice ruby pendant", it took him days to start calling the minions by their names but Shoul was right again when he said it would make them grateful if he remembered which treasure each of them gave him.

    Rubies were his favorites, their color contrasting nicely against his diamond scales, he should ask for more of them from his minions, "when is this ceremony happening?" he asked Shoul.

    "If you can attend then they will prepare everything for you by the time you get there", Shoul liked talking in long sentences, extending every word in his soothing rumbling voice.

    "Will you give me another book to upload later?", trying his luck didn''t allways work with Shoul but it cost nothing to try and everything if he didn''t.

    "Fine" the elder sighed, "but I will choose which book", he looked at Allen, "there are different kinds of treasures than precious stones and gold"

    "Ofcourse" Allen was hurt at the suggestion that he didn''t know his treasures, "there are rare metals and monster parts that are also treasured"Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

    Before he could list more items Shoul rudely interrupted him "thats not what I meant, you need to learn more about economics before you can amass wealth beyond what your cave can hold"

    Thinking about more caves filled with treasures Allen went to the minion ceremony, he coudn''t bring himself to call them Kobolds because it meant they weren''t entirely his and that would be lying to them and to himself, just their personal names to distinguish between the different tributes was more than enough for them, his favorite minions were the ones from JewelSetter''s family because they chose such sensible names reminding him of sparkling things back in his cave.

    BoneSmith lead him to the ceremony shrine where a giant crystal floated, emanating a soft blue glow, it almost meant something to him but it was part of the shrine room and tied everything together very nicely so he decided to leave it where it was, maybe he could move his cave to this room instead.

    Blessing the tied up creatures he started laughing at their threats and curses which mamade everyone in the room very quiet until the end when their eyes glowed a nice ruby shade of red and they were taken away.

    "What does ''economics'' mean?" Allen asked when Shour gave him the book, "what is so basic about them"

    "You will have to upload the book to find out" was the usual answer Allen got whenever he asked about the contents, he usually liked to think about the words after the upload and sometimes Shoul asked some very interesting questions that really needed thinking about them.

    Bursting back into Shouls'' cave after less than a minute he bombarded the old dragon with questions about what he just read, seeing the elder pointing at a bunch of books stacked in a nice pile Allen grabbed them and ran back to his cave.

 342 Candy Soil

    "Where are all the computers", Allen aske Shoul, "in the books there are computers everywhere", looking around the cave, "but I havent seen one in real life"

    Shoul sighed which meant it was another question he didn''t want to answer, "your memory loss is very frustrating", finally said in his cryptic words, "we should find a way to wake up more than just a few skills at random", sighing again, "definitely more than I bargained for", which Allen took for just another Shoul phrase, "dragons dont need computers" he answerd at last, "humans can''t count so in human lands they use computers", there was a lie in there that Allen couldn''t quite catch but it was enough for now, after all he could easily do all the calculations from the books just by thinking about them, so what did he need a computer for?

    Codes were a new game, breaking them required some crafty calculations and sometimes actual knowlege about the base it was derived from, he liked coding different things into rhymes and numbers so he started toying with the minions and leaving them clues about when the next ceremony should happen, they really liked his blesses so he used that for a prize to winners in his challenges.

    "You need a hobby" Shoul said with his crooked smile, "the minions are getting very upset from your pranks", Allen knew that bark indicated mirth and it was funny to see the minions scramble in search of their floating crystal when in he just cast an illusion to hide it.

    Changing the subject Allen asked "why are pirates taking over shore towns?" It was something he heard a few days ago but couldn''t find the right moment to ask until now.

    "They probably want to steal some treasures", Shoul said absentmindedly and immediately fell silent at Allen''s indignant stare.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    "Steal my treasures?" Raising his voice at Shoul was wrong but Allen couldn''t help it, he turned and stormed out of the temple without hearing Shoul''s curses.

    "HOW DARE THEY STEAL MY TREASURES?" He shouted at BoneSmith when he gotgot halfway to the exit, "WHO THE HELL DO THEY THINK THEY ARE?" His roar pushed the minion against the wall and he heard her groan in pain before remembering not to shout in the temple, "where are they?" He asked while washing BoneSmith with healing energies from head to toe.

    "I can give you a guide", catching her breath, "if you promise to do as she sais when you get there"

    Thinking about it for a second "fine" he agreed, "i will take your guide with me", looking at him like Shoul did when he was naughty, "and promise to do what she sais", quickly adding "when we fight pirates", not wanting to be bound by an open promise to whoever the guide was.

    "Follow me" BoneSmith turned and walked fast to an unfamiliar house outside the temple, Humans were running away screaming whenever they saw him and minions bowed as was proper.

    "Kyatha come out", BoneSmith shouted at the building and a familiar figure exited from the main door, it was the colored woman he met on his hatching day and she looked lovely as ever when she crunched her face at BoneSmith.

    "What now BoneSmith?" She sounded unhappy to see him, "we have a war to fight".

    "I came to uphold our bargain", BoneSmith used her ''official'' voice, "Allen will let you ride him to the front lines and do what you tell him when you fight the pirates", then repeated "when you fight pirates", like the woman was daft.

    Smiling like her face was about to split in half the woman looked at Allen from head to tail and ran back into the building.

    Coming out after that was a gaggle of humans that asked all kinds of wierd questions and took his measures with strange tools before fitting a palanquin to his back saying it was to protect the woman ''Kyatha'' from the dangerous flight and he accepted the neseccity of protecting his guide, soon she came out wearing an outrageously colorful armor Allen also remembered from his hatching day and flew into the palanquin shouting "up"

    Not wanting to start their journey on the wrong wind Allen followed her instructions and they soon flew over a blurring landscape.

 343 Boar Scale

    "WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?" the roar shattered the peaceful morning on board the Tempest, so loud the crew couldn''t tell from where it came before something crashed through the ship splitting her in half, both sides stayed together for a second before drifting apart and sinking below the waves, its crew tryed to abandon the ship but most failed as a wave washed over them followed by a geysar flying to the sky, hanging on for dear life nothing in their experience could prepare them for the waves of color painting everything around them with clearly defined patterns, even the water turned into strange hues when touched by whatever that substance was.

    Kyatha choked on swallowed water but couldn''t stop laughing as they flew towards the horizon, smashing the ship in a single pass was enough to turn the tide against any marinal enemy, but adding the irremovable colors to every survivng pirate just made her life easier than they ever were before, Allen''s ''battle cry'' just icing on the cake.

    "Head south" she instructed, leading Allen to less contested areas where she could learn how he fought before comitting him to any real battle.

    The dragon turned at her command and flew over the sinking ship again before moving on along the shore, Kyatha spotted smoke rising on the edge of their line of sight but it soon grew to a full scale town being bombarded be shipboard siege engines, "we can''t fight that" she shouted at her sparkly companion but he didn''t veer off course.

    "Turn back" she cried again with no reply, "you promised to obey"

    "We are not fighting Pirates now so I dont have to listen to you", his words filled het with dread at the coming battle.

    "There are too many of them", she cried, "and the town isn''t informed of your coming"

    "Minions don''t need to be informed" he said back, "they obey because they are minions"If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    The madness of this monster drove her crazy, she didn''t know why she agreed to this deal at all, there was the guild to manage, battles to plan, and she was here riding an insane dragon into battle against a whole blockade.

    Counting a dozen ships of the line and two war barges carrying troops surrounded by a whole fleet of smaller craft, the war was progressing much faster than her last reports indicated, the ship they hit wasn''t a forward scout but more firepower for the siege, in the blink of an eye Allen was already doing his dive bomb maneuver and she held her breath before they hit one of the barges, drilling a hole through the giant ship but leaving it still mostly intact, the geysar blast split the ship but its crew wasn''t on a desperate run for their lives as each half kept floating and they just moved to the other vessels, spells and arrows filled the sky around them, mostly missing and the few hits either slipped harmlessly or shattered on the diamond scale.

    One of the giant siege engines was aimed at them and kyatha cried "to your left" which got the opposite effect than what she aimed for as Allen looked left instead of evading in that direction, the huge ball of tar struck Allen on the right flank and stuck there, when he flapped to gain altitude his right wing also stuck to the black goo and they started spiraling down, in desparation Kyatha cast her signature anti magic domain and the sticky stuff slid down the diamond scales leaving stripped areas where the scales were burnt away like an acidic attack.

    Allen roared in pain and tried to climb higher when an arrow sunk deep in his exposed flesh, followed by another he folded his wings and dove under the waves as Kyatha fended off spells and more projectiles with gusts of wind and anti magic fields, holding her breath she cast an air bubble confined to her palanquin poles and looked at the watery world outside.

    Knowing there was no safety underwater when fighting the pirates Kyatha cast a Message and said "go north", and was answerd by a burst of bubbles gushing from Allen''s mouth, "use a message spell" she sent.

    "Where is north?" Bloomed in her head.

    "Put your right side to the shore" she explained.

    "Hurt" he whimpered in her mind but turned to swim with powerful strokes of his tail to the north.

    When she judged they were a safe distance away she sent him "go to the beach now", and was answerd by a twist of his body before they crushed out of the water, Allen could barely crawl on the rocky bed, moaning and groaning with every slithering motion.

 344 Art Gorge

    Pulling out each arrow was followed by a gush of multi colored blood and a whimper from the giant bully who got his first solid socket of his juvenile life.

    Kyatha found it hard to stay angry at the miserable fool, even if he brought this on himself, she had to make sure they were safe before logging off and the small rocky beach offered no protection from prying eyey.

    Looking at the tide wall surrounding them she also realised staying here would get them wet when the day waned to dusk, strange shadows caught her eye and focusing on the spot she found what she was looking for, walking to Allen''s head she knocked on his closed eyelid and spoke, "we need to move up to that cave".

    The dragon breathed deep and sighed, "leave me alone" it whispered.

    "No", cutting his whiney whimper, "we need to move before the tide comes".

    "I can''t move" more whining ensued.

    "This is a game", she couldn''t believe this rich fop, paying for a dragon and then just giving up, "you can move as long as you want to", looking at his pityful gaze, "even when you are out of stamina you can move one step at a time", wanting to punch him, "even out of mana you can cast one spell each time", not wanting to think about her crap luck to be stuck with the worst Player she ever heard of, "you promised to do as I say"Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    "When we are fighting pirates", he cried.

    "We are allways fighting Pirates", she screamed at him, "every minute of every day they could appear on the horizon and you are either ready or dead", kicking his lower jaw, "so what are you?"

    "Dead" earned him another kick.

    "I didn''t hear you" she raised her foot.

    "Dead" he said louder and groaned when the boot connected with his chin.

    "What are you?" She asked again.

    "Dead" and he rolled away from the kick which dropped her to the rocks in a thump for overeaching.

    Breathing hard and not wanting another kick Allen pulled himself over the rocks, each slithering stride taking him five meters away from the waterline and sooner than Kyatha thought possible they reached the tide wall.

    Allen pulled himsel to a full stand and slid inside the cave, at the last moment Kyatha caught his tail and was lifted through the air over the more than fifteen meters climb.

    "Not so dead after all" she said catching her breath.

    "Leave me alone" he sighed again rolling around the cave to find a comfortable spot.

    "You''ll get your wish soon when I log out from the game", studying him, "can you take watch for the next two or three hours?"

    He nodded and put his head at the lip of the cave staring out to the sea, Kyatha found a small inner room and logged off before anything else happened, "what a moron" Meroa sighed as she took off her VR suit and went to take a real shower.

 345 Ditch Coal

    "How the hell did you lose a dead dragon?", Moach shouted at the commander of the task force.

    "I don''t know admiral", Ahil quivered in his boots, "even the eels can''t find it"

    "You hit it with a full charge of the Targenator?" repeating the report.

    "Yes sir", came the prompt answer, "we have it recorded", then added the other part of the report "but it slid off it after only a few seconds"

    "Nothing can remove that stuff short of death", Moach shouted, "nothing!"

    "It looks like the lizards found a way sir", trying to look better than he fealt since the attack six hours earlier.

    "You cant continue the conquest of Thenara with only one barge", the admiral concluded, "whichever approach you take the defenders can choke and fend you off", sighing deeply, "I have to call off the blockade", looking around "we have outreached ourselves and now the enemy knows we are here"

    "We can still do it Admiral", Ahil tried to save his first major command, "if we use the small craft on one front".

    "No", the Admiral cut him short, "even if you can manage it we are too late", another sigh, "we will need your ships in Harish next week", another look around "can''t pin them down here for that long and without the other barge you can''t take any loot".

    Ahil wanted to protest but at least he was still in command of his task force, "yes admiral", he finally said and moved to begin breaking up the siege.

    Tallying up his forces painted a grim picture after losing two of the ships in a single day and though the Tempest was late it still had significant firepower now lost to the whole fleet.

    Assigning the men from the lost war barge Calamity was a headache he left to his lieutenants, but the strange coloring effect on the crew returning from Tempest made the stand out like sore thumbs among the others and nobody wanted clowns when it came to real action.

    Any effect staying after respawn was a cause for consideration, that was the main reason why the Admiral came in person to such a remote position in the front.

    Building ships cost a lot of money, but worse, it took time, both in gathering all the rare resources required for special features and upgrades and to actually build them in the docks, so losing two ships in a single suicide assault was very cost efficient, the fleet needed to look out for dragons diving out of the sun, though the specific creature was dead for sure Ahil knew the lizards had more of them.

    "Ner" crying for his artilery captain made him turn, "I want a crew with eyes on the sky at all times", to which the small wiry man replied with a nod and turned to do his duty, there was a reason why he liked him, if they didn''t lose the barge Ner was a good candidate for the next captaincy but now he had to assign the coming frigate to Resh and it irked Ahil to reward a man that lost a ship in a single attack.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    Shadows enlongating on the deck of his flagship Indiana as afternoon turned to dusk, it will soon be time to change shifts and when they were at their greatest danger from the city flotilla trying to break the blockade, the game mechanics limited store supplies inside a besieged town unless they could send a ship out to a certain point and back, the dragon attack may have bolstered the defenders resolve to try and gain an advantage in arms and armament against the attacking fleet that caught them flatfooted through speed and gile.

    If they could create a beachead so far from the southern front it would let them spawn armies of Players behind enemy lines and possibly even divide the empire and create a wedge to hold off their northern allies in the free guilds.

    "I want all our ships to advance by fifty meters on each of the next three hours", he messaged his prearranged group of communications officers.

    "Acknowleged", the head comunnicator replied and Ahil trusted his officers to execute the maneuver in perfect precision.

    Using the game illusion of dusk was a tricky disposition, but if his gambled payed off the defenders wouldn''t be able to notice the gradual advance before it was too late, he needed a victory here or morale in the Player ranks would drop to a very dangerous low, but if he got caught and the shore battlements reacted in time they could do a lot more damage than a single dragon would ever be able to.

    "You are my cover", he messaged the captain of the second barge Mistle directly, "I need you to start pulling away very slow to create an illusion of motion among our ships".

    The following three hours were nerve wrecking to Ahil, "NOW" he finally gave the command and all the cannons on every vessel under his command fired at once, catching the defenders in surprise on the shift change and firing on middle range for the powerful weapons they easily targeted the sea wall with perfect aim and pounded the bottom third to dust, the upper parts of the wall dropped to the water following the barrage carrying with them the great defensive engines of destruction, cramming the small vessels in his command to carry every possible trooper he launched the attack even before the crumbling wall settled.

    Maneuvering the small craft to make a bridge from the enclosed blockade all the way out to the barge let the Players run unhindered to all the way to town, with most defending Players still offline or spawning for a last stand the Pirates could push for a fast looting assault and return before larger armies could reinforce the inner forts, whatever they could steal in an hour would have to be enough to pay back for the suicidal destruction of the ships, at any sign of trouble his men had orders to regroup and flee, shaken NPCs had lists of loot with carrying weight being the only coin, since they weren''t going for a conquest it was easy enough to just grab and go.

    Trouble started when he heard the cavalry trumpets, they were set up, or the defenders caught on to his tricks, it didn''t matter, twenty minutes into the raid his men were being slaughtered on the streets, giving them cover fire from the ship allowed two thirds to run back aboard with whatever they could carry, remembering his younger days as a grunt Ahil wanted to give them as much time as possible.

    Being in charge of the whole task group made him concious of the price he will pay if they didn''t pull out in time, calling the retreat and then fleeing the town on board their ships there will be celebrations tonight, under cover of darkness the whole group slipped back north and by morning they were back with their fleet sharing loot and tales with those less daring than them.

 346 Crow Beet

    "You should be demoted for disobeying a direct order", Moach was shouting in Ahil''s face, "I specifically told you to break the blockade and come back here as soon as possible", red faced with rage was the normal state for Moach in most pirate''s experience so Ahil took his reaming stoically, "instead you went out there and lost more than eighty people from your ground troops", Ahil didn''t dare say they were betrayed, any attempt to shirk off the blame would be immediate cause for a demotion and he worked too hard to get kicked back down by a legacy screamer.

    "Yes sir", was the only acceptable answer and "no sir" when Moach asked if he had any excuses for his insubordinate behaviour, Ahil hated the role playing drama, a good battle where you knew who the enemy was and who would watch your back and then party until the next time, but to make sure he had his clean battles he had to play along in the political table because whenever someone else was in command better troops like him found themselves on the front with an idiot pushing from behind.

    "New orders for you Ahil", Moach held out a shief of papers, "I didn''t approve them but they came down from the high table so enjoy this while it lasts" he spat on the deck, "at least I got rid of you and most of my ships back or there would be reckoning".

    Reading through the papers Ahil couldn''t stop himself from smiling, an independent small task force all for himself with secret missions and codes including a special order to find out about the new dragons the lizards seemed to employ, although he got less than a quarter of his previous task force he was under direct command of the thirteenth lieutenant for the emperor Butcher Gene, and that was a step so high from anything he could hope for in the normal conmand chain that he almost burst in tears.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    This was why he played, sailing out to hunt dragons and raid lizardmen, beholden only to the winds and higher powers of the sea, with men he could trust, losing the artillery division was a hard blow, and catching that monster without the Targenator will be an epic task that he will have to prepare for, but while he prepared his other orders were to raid supplies and anything else he thought he could get away with to harass the enemy.

    The conference room looked empty with only three dozen people, less than a quarter were comunnications officers as smaller ships tended to be hooked in a vine to their larger counterparts and with limited crewspace they couldn''t afford an unnecessary specialist, so he had three other frigates and seven schooners with the rest of them managing whatever ship was available at the dock when they had enough money to purchase them.

    Passing their orders down the table he let the others read through before starting the meeting, "we will be back behind enemy lines", starting with the most dangerous news and searching for any disagreement around the table, "disguised as a mercenary fleet selling escort services to merchant convoys just trying to stay above water", before moving to the more interesting bits, "we are going to do a great job", smiling with a pause for effect, "so great in fact that we will get a defensive contract from the shore towns to bolster their outbound defenses", he looked at the gathered men and women smiling back at him, "our real job is to find out anything se can about this new type of dragon", his eyes narrowed "and if its just one monster we are going to butcher it and sell its shiny hide to the highest bidder", he placed a fist sized diamond on the table with an audible thunk, "this is what that thing''s scales were made of".

 347 Ape Zephyr

    Ahil surveyd the horizon, his convoy was stretched for almost ten kilometers in a steady line of merchant ships bolsterd every hundred meters or so by a clump of warships with his bigger ones taking point and closing up the back, it was the only way to give any sort of defense to every ship in the group without clumping them dangerously close to each other.

    Turning his eyes back to the outside perimeter he let the gait of the waves become a bacground to every other detail, without the eels or any other marine Player he wouldn''t have any warning about something coming from the deep except for his comunicator using sonic wave spells to scan their immediate area, there was also a danger to sonar magic as it sometimes drew the very monsters you were looking for towards you, but at least this way he would have a warning and the monster will attack a ship that could repel it with brute force and luck.

    "Something on the port side horizon captain" came the cry from the nest immediately followed with "looks like a messenger slook", the sighted ship was fast, only two of his had a chance to catch it and the port horizon meant drawing further away from shore so he made the decision to leave it before the man added "turning to meet us" before ending with "flying Kobold empirial flag".

    "What could these religious fanatics want with us?" Ahil murured to himself when his com officer bolted out from the conference room.

    "Captain" he cried out, "Sherpa the convoy leader asks that we meet with her and the Kobold messenger", taking a deep breath, "it seems they lost some kind of relic"

    "A twisted sense of humor holds the fates", he quoted to Lua the com officer, "the admiral would have given his left eye to stand in my shoes at this moment", seeing the puzzled look Lua gave him he contiued, "the Kobolds are very rich religious fanatics", elaborating further, "whatever relic they lost would possibly be worth more than the whole convoy", seeing understanding sparkle in Lua''s eye he fell silent and both men were waiting together to see what the empire had lost.

    The messenger was ugly as Ahil imagined it would be, scaly hide covering a hunched body and sharp teeth filling a serpentine head, at least it wore clothes that hid most of its body from Human eyes.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

    "Welcome aboard Messenger" Ahil reached his hand and the creature took it in a fingertip grip.

    "I bear a tale of theft and mischief" fluffy words never impressed Ahil, "a most holy relic has been stolen" he had to suppress a yawn, "hearing of your brave deeds I had to beg your ear", no begging done here though, "should you in your travels come upon a scale cut diamond" heart thumping in his chest almost bursting out at the words, "great prizes will be given for even wind whispered tales", the creature finished but Ahil could only hear blood rushing through his brain.

    "We saw the dragon" Lua said.

    "Never heard of anything like that" Ahil was half a second too late.

    "Where?" The messenger sounded on edge, "what is your price?" it turned to Lua ignoring the two captains glaring at each other.

    When negotiations started in the game you could either play, withdraw or draw a weapon, nothing short of an act of god could halt the most basic part of the system, even death of a character would not remove the quest popups to complete the trade and now Lua shanked Ahil and tossed him in a murky pond like he was trash, never a man to be left behind Ahil forced the Kobold to add him in a two men auction arbited by the monster.

    "I can show you where it drowned" Lua played his card.

    "I have this", Ahil pulled a scale shaped diamond that caught the merchant''s breath.

    "Name your price" the Kobold repeated the ancient ceremonial words.

    "I want a castle" Lua held to his first bidder position.

    "I want a name" Ahil saw the Kobold hesitate and knew he was up to something.

    "Who?" The creature asked.

    "Name the rider in the palanquin and I will give you the location", knowing information was the most precious comodity and the rider''s name could lead to finding more dragons, knowing she was a Human Player already gave Ahil power over her and if he knew her name it was easy enough to find her with that armor painted by the irremovable effect.

    "She is Kyatha", the kobold didn''t pause, "give me the region and I will tell you her guild"

    This was a troubling question, he couldn''t tell this creature why he was there when the dragon was shot, but lying will null his paticipation in the negotiations and he couldn''t afford that to happen, "near the town of Thenara", he finally said and the Kobold nodded.

    "She is a hunter in the AshMourn guild" the name stirring something in Ahil''s memory but he needed to check to be sure, there was no room for error here, the Kobold turned and left when the last thing Ahil saw was a fist crushing into his face.

 348 Elm Joint

    "You won''t believe that brat", Meroa told Hatula over their morning coffee, "that dragon probably cost millions and he just inherits it from nowhere", taking a sip from her cup, "these cultist Kobolds have the worst legacies", she looked at her sister, "he cant be more than twelve".

    "What makes you say that?" Hatula looked back at her, "it sounds like he controlled his powers most of the times", raising her own cup, "it''s not easy to Play a dragon"

    "He doesn''t know anything", her words coming out more bitter than intended, "I had to tell him about action timers", looking outside the window, "literaly kicked him to drag his lazy ass up that beach", taking another sip, "and he wanted to abandon that sweet priceless one of kind avatar like it was garbage because of three arrows and some magical burns", trembling hands placed the cup on the table.

    "That does sound like a newbie" Hatula said after a pause, "I just can''t believe someone would buy something like what you described for some kid''s initiation birthday", another pause, "unless they have some legacy characters already inherited by an older sibling and needed something equal for the brat" accepting Meroa''s judgement and knowing first hand what it was like to be second in a legacy family that invested everything in one character, "what do you plan to do next?" she finally asked.

    Meroa placed her hands flat on the table to stop them from trembling in frustration, it was part of the price for playing the game, losing motor control related to emotions when living without artificial blockers, "I have to train my dragon", smiling sheepishly at Hatula''s choking snort, "stupid custom built avatar" she added, "I bet he doesn''t even know it''s basic abilities"

    "What makes you think its a boy" Hatula asked sarcastically, "never hit on you and I know that sweet ass Avatar of yours looks better than fine" some bitterness escaped her control.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

    "You didn''t see what he did to me last month?", sounding more upset than Hatula thought Meroa was.

    "What that colors prank?" Hatula looked at her sister in surprise, "you mean you still didn''t remove them?"

    "Nothing can remove them" Meroa cut in at the question, "Tima killed himself and his new fucking avatar was still painted", she looked Hatula in the eyes , "fields of annihalation wrecked priceless sets of equipment and the only feature not even scratched was the stupid color scheme", trembling again, "we look like a bunch of clowns walking in the Kobold capital with blotches of prime colors all over us and the pastels are even worse".

    Hatula laughed at the words, "sorry" trying to calm herself, "I just remembered your purple shiny eye" snorting another laugh before getting serious "dad is gonna kill you"

    "Dad cast annihilation on his favorite boots", Hatula gasped putting a hand to her mouth and silently wording ''no'', "yep no more freedom of movement and silent step but they are unique indestructible puke green and sunshine yellow boots", to which her sister squinted in surprise, "yea the one other feature beside mad colors is all the gear is utterly and totally indestructible", continuing without pause, "if you annihilate it you just end up with mundane bright colored indestructible equipment"

    "I wish we had indestructible walls", Hatula finally calmed down, "we lost another town last night and a major hub got breached and sacked"

    "That reminds me", Meroa said, "how is the blockade on Thenara going?"

    Staring at her sister Hatula was at a loss for words "what blockade on Thenara?" Her breath quickening, "I had no reports on anything like that"

    "It''s where we were shot down" Meroa wasn''t sure what to say.

    "Are you certain it was Thenara and not some other stupid name generator town?" Raising her voice was a sure sign Hatula was about to lose her mind, "are you sure?"

    "Yes I''m sure", Meroa was annoyed "remember I helped build those walls it''s why we were heading there in the first place"

    "Shit" Hatula cried and then screamed "DAD", while running down the stairs and leaving Meroa to clean up like allways, "get your ass online Meroa" Hatula popped her head through the door, "talk to you online bye"

    Meroa cleared the dishes, it wasn''t like she could actually do anything when she was stuck in a cave with a wounded dragon played by a baby barely out of his diapers.

 349 Dill Mine

    "Then I swam to the beach", Meroa heard the dragons'' deep voice say, "and had to climb up here so we could rest"

    "Who are you talking to?" Not sure if she wanted to know.

    "Oh you are awake", the creature turned its head to her and posed a toothy grin, "this is RedFox21", picking a little half fox Player and placing him in front of her, "he lives here"

    "Whoa lady who gave you the shiny", the stranger looked at the dragon, "did you beat her up", staring back at her , "or is this from the battle?"

    "ARE YOU INSANE?" Kyatha found herself screaming at the top of her lungs, "DO YOU JUST WALK AROUND AND TELL ALL OUR SECRETS TO RANDOM STRANGERS?"

    "RedFox21 is a friend", his calm voice driving her to a new height of rage.

    "HOW LONG DO YOU KNOW REDFOX21 DO YOU EVEN KNOW HIS NAME?" Kyatha fealt the famous family rage tuntrum boiling all over inside her

    "Two hours and" he paused "twenty one minutes", she exploded.

    "Mind blast" screaming the first spell coming to her mind and it just slipped on the diamond scales without any penetration, "null magic" her legacy spell covered the whole cave leaving only her with any magical abilities, "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU''RE DOING" screeching breathless at the unphased dragon.

    "We were just talking" Allen tried to diffuse the woman''s obvious distress, "I only told RedFox21 of our adventure", adding a calming effect to his voice seemed to work, "no secrets".

    "For three hours?" Catching her breath, "both battles took less than five minutes combined and the rest of the time we were just flying" coming to grips with her internal turmoil she sounded almost curious.

    "Well I had to tell him about the ships", she nodded, "and the people", squinting her eyes, "and their weapons and armor and the cannons and al the loot I picked up after we won and the colors i painted them so I can find them later" his words sinking in her mind very slowly as he rumbled through the list of tiny details he went through telling RedFox21.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

    "What loot?" She finally asked when the meaning registered.

    "The most precious item is this jeweled talking falchion I picked from a sleeping fellow on the first ship" then he added "Painted him blue with green stars to remember he was sleeping", then he moved on "the next item by cost is a mithril chestplate enchanted with durability and magic resistence, it was the captain''s and I painted him red so I know he was in charge", proceeding with "the third item is a pendant of true sight I took from"

    "Stop" she cut him short, "just send me the list" understanding how it could take hours to tell about their five minutes of excitement and her mind went numb when she recieved the list, there were hundreds of items in it, "when did you pick all that up?" She would never believe it unless seen with her own eyes, "cannons?", she looked onward, "sacks of rice?" Staring at the least costly items "planks and nails?"

    "To the victor goes the spoils" Allen answered, "I just took everything when the list popped up after I smashed it"

    Her jaw dropped at the insane statement, "how many slots do you have in your inventory", she had to know this.

    "I just add more when I need them" ofcourse how silly of her to think anything about this monster made sense.

    "And how many slots do you have now?" Asking before she caught herself.

    "Fourty seven thousand three hundred and fifteen" his casual reply sent her mind on another cartwheel before she sat on the floor staring at her giant legacy inventory of a hundred and seventy slots that cost her family a small fortune through the generations, she was contemplating taking a mortgage to add the next five slots but it was postponed due to the war expenses.

    "I can''t deal with you" she finally said, "are you some crazy admin messing up with the war?" Feeling tears sting her eyes at the thought of how unfair it all was and RedFox21 just stood there in silence seeing her breakdown and listening to all of this unbelievable person''s secrets thrown out to the room like they were trash, then another thought filled her with absolute terror, "are you a hacker?" She was ready to just despawn at the wrong answer, nothing was worth burning her legacy, she would have to pass it on to Hatula, the despawn price in an unsafe area was too high to go unpunished but she couldn''t just sit there and watch generations of hard work go up in flame because she made a mistake.

    "I am not a hack", his voice penetrated her mental storm, "or an admin", he seemed to think his next words through, "I am just a Player and I wanted to have some fun", there was a lie somewhere in the last few words but Meroa couldn''t find it, he was obviously a Player, and why wouldn''t he want to have fun?

    Leaving it for another time Meroa decided that since she wasn''t in danger of immediate deletion she should just roll with it and have fun, Hatula will choke her if she knew what she used their inheritence on but who cares when she had a pack dragon that could carry a whole ship worth of materials like it was a flower bouquet.

    Remembering their other guest she turned to look for RedFox21 but he was nowhere in sight.

 350 Cist Pyre

    "Why are we going to a newbie dungeon?" The dragon asked for the umpteenth time.

    "Because we need to learn to fight together and you need to work on your basic skills" Kyatha answered patiently again, "besides there is a legeng about this dungeon I want to check and this is the perfect opportunity"

    "You didn''t say anything about a legend" he replied, "please tell me what it is"

    Neglecting to mention it so he wouldn''t go stomping all over the place and trashing a children''s starting dungeon, "it''s more a rumor that the dungeon is actually operated by a Player" sighing she continued, "but no one ever found out the truth or if anyone did they kept it to themselves".

    "This sounds exciting" not surprising since anything excited the hatchling dragon, "lets go then"

    "We need to get the guild''s approval to enter their dungeon", she wasn''t anxious to pay admittence price for a dragon, "they will probably charge a premium and give us rules and regulations so they can charge us more when we leave"

    "Why do we need their approval to enter a public dungeon?" Came the obvious question.

    "That''s the law in the free guilds region" sighing, "it''s how the countries manage tax collection so they can keep the peace and protect their borders"

    "I know all that" he retorted, "Shoul gave me books about economy and banking" adding after a pause, "I still think taxing is robbery" looking at her, "Shoul said civil services had to be maintained or chaos and war will destroy everyrhing", remembering "but we pay taxes and the ships still shot at us"

    "Those ships were the pirate emperor armada", and added quickly, "a tiny fraction of his armada", she looked intently at the dragon "he is the one that declared war on us".

    "Why does he want to make war?" The creature seemed puzzled, "if he just wants loot he should come and take it himself"Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

    "But then he will be breaking the law", explaining things to him was pointless but she tried anyway, "if he wins the war he can make up the law and all the taxes will go to him", only after saying them she realised what her companion''s reaction to the notion would be and she clamped her jaw in frustration seeing the contemplative look in his eyes as he figured the implications.

    "So if I want people to pay me taxes I need to declare war on them" came the obvious following question.

    "No!" Cutting the notion sharply, "the Kobolds already pay you tribute in their ceremonies", then added to make sure he understood, "that is the same as taxes so you don''t need to change anything"

    Their turn finally came, Meroa hated standing in the public line but the dragon wasn''t a registered member and the rule said you had to take the slowest route on any request or the whole party just had to go again when that member was up.

    "Let me call the manager" said the man behind the counter.

    "Fine" Kyatha answered crisply after failing to concince the clerk she wasn''t here to loot newbies in their dungeon.

    The manager had a pointy beard that seemed so oiled it was almost solid, after one look at the dragon he sighed, "do you really want to enter the Goliaths pass dungeon?" His eyes lingering on her gaudy gear painted in what was becoming a new fasion for Players.

    "Yes" she sighed.

    "Enough to take a guide with you that will ease my mind against mischief?" He seemed reluctant to make the offer but the thought of taking premium charge for a dragon Player in newbie dungeon whetted his appetite and ground against his better judgement.

    Meroa thought about the offer and finally nodded, "but I am not babysitting your guide" she exclaimed, "he isn''t our responsibility only an observer to make sure we aren''t breaking any rules".

    Turning away the manager signaled for her to step aside from the line and wait while the clerk processed the next party, after fifteen minutes of nail chewing suspense he finally emerged dragging someone behind him, when her eyes fell on the newcomers Meroa thought she could scream but as soon as RedFox21 left through the door and saw Allen he bolted over to the dragon dragging the manager behind him in a strange twist of roles.

    "I see you met my guide before" the man dusted his suit from the abuse of being rushed through the crowd gathered to gawk at Allen.

    "We met" was all Kyatha managed to say "does it have to be him?"

    "I will give you a discount if you take him as a favor to me", something in his words sounded odd to Meroa.

    "Is he your son?" at his blush she knew she hit the spot, "fine we will do this favor for you" she finally said wanting to move on with the process that was already dragging for over fourty minutes.

 351 Bleak Apron

    "These elemental magic books", Kyatha stacked the items on the counter, "and we need some utility and ultimate spells", the shopkeeper tried to assess if she could pay for everything she asked for, "I also want some basic skill books like disarm and charge".

    Five stacks of books almost as tall as her piled on the desk, it cost her a lot more than she was comfortable to pay but if it made her dragon more versatile than just crushing into their enemy it should be well worth it, she was certain he could cast spells from what she heard of the Kobold ceremonies where he blessed their sick and their eyes started glowing before they were cured.

    "Books?" Allen''s surprised tone made her think she may have made a mistake, "you brought me books?" she really hoped he wasn''t as stupid as he sounded.

    The dragon rose on his hind legs, flapped his wings and swung his hands in the air, townsfolk were running away and even Kyatha started to walk away from the display of an enraged child.

    "Thank you" it roared, "only Shoul ever gave me books", the burst of emotions moved her, "you are the best pet I ever painted", ruining the moment of mirth for her.

    "You need to read them to gain some spells and abilities", she explained, "these books have many spells" pointing at their stack, "so read them slowly as you advance in your control".

    His hungry look made her somewhat uncomfortable, "these are skill books", she put her hand on the other pile, "each skill has a basic routine and then explanations how to build on them", seeing his eyes sparkle at the notion encouraged her, "even if you read the whole book you can always train to get even better at using a skill although usually when you master a basic skill you would get better results from a combination or advanced skill", it was the first time she ever saw him so focused, "so when I see that you mastered a skill we will buy the next book".

    Allen looked hungrily at the books when she continued "these are Ultimate spells", pointing at two books separated from the others, "they cost like all the others combined", unable to hide her grief at the lost funds, "but they let you change something fundamental in the world around you", picking up the first "this will teach you ''guardian'' which on its highest level will summon a celestial to fight at your side", putting it back and taking the other in her hand "and this will give you ''drain'' which isn''t as powerful as other ultimates at first", seeing his rapt attention "but when you control its higher levels you can drain different pools from player up to draining character lifespan and hidden attributes"

    Putting the book back on the other one she pointed at the last stack of books "these are utility spells to practice with when you don''t want to blow thing up"

    Slowly drawing nearer the dragon took a hard look at all the stacks before they vanished in a shower of sparks, "WHAT DID YOU DO?" Meroa was flabbergasted, how could he treat her so badly?

    "I uploaded the books", came the infuriating answer.

    "You what?" she couldn''t believe her ears.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    "I uploaded them to my memory" he repeated and she still couldn''t believe it.

    "How?" she was almost crying at the loss of all that money for a random fireworks show.

    "You just have to think [/Upload <book name>] and it''s in your memory" seeing she wasn''t buying into his explanation, "Shoul taught me how to do it", her eyes narrowed "it''s not a hack I promise".

    Stomping into the store Kyatha bought another ''basic elemental magic'' book, then put it between them and concentrated on creating the code, when it broke into sparks and knowledge of two new spells was added to her memory she gasped in surprise "all of them?" disbelief laced her tone.

    "You", she looked Allen in the eye "must", breathing hard "never", extenuating every word, "tell about this", another deep breath "to anyone", and added a punctuation with "never", walking almost to his face "promise me you will never tell about this to anyone", blinking "even your best friend in the world"

    Allen drew back at the verbal assault, "why?" unable to understand its meaning.

    "Promise me or I am leaving" in the heaviest tone she could muster, "now".

    "I promise never to tell anyone how to upload a book", seeing her distress pulled a string in his heart, "but why?".

    Explaining everything to this man child was exhausting but she had to do it to save the world "it will shatter everything", gathering her thoughts, "the world as we know it will be gone".

    "Lucky I didn''t tell you how to array all the books at once", he breathed in relief, enjoying life as they were and not wanting everything to end.

    Squinting at him she finally breathed out "don''t tell me" and fell silent.

    "Too bad I can''t afford any more books", sighing in melancholy.

    "Why not?" came the infuriating question.

    "Because I used all my savings on the war and now took a loan to pay for these books", thinking about it she sighed again.

    "A loan from a bank?" his eyes lit at his own words.

    "Yes", weirded out by his tone, "from a bank", that idiot knew just how to piss her off.

    "For money?", the question followed.

    Holding herself from punching him at the stupid inquisitive tone "YES", she almost screamed "for money", doing her best to stay calm "and the interest will kill me in a few months", if only he would shut up already.

    "I can give you money", he finally said.

    "I don''t want to take your allowance and it will never be enough for anything substantial", she could cry at his misguided generosity, "the Disarm skill book probably cost more than your dad gives you in a month".

    "I don''t have a dad", she almost heard mourning in his voice, "but I have a lot of money".

    Remembering the Avatar he paid for she could guess he had quite a lot but she couldn''t just take money from a kid without his parent''s consent.

    "What about the treasure from the ship?" thinking he could get her to agree and her eyes rose to meet his at the notion.

    "How much money did you get from it?", the question was forced out of her mouth.

    "The first ship had" he started.

    "No!" cutting him, "don''t say it out loud in the open", looking around, "how about you give me fifteen percent for my part in the second fight and that settles your debt for the books?"

    [System: Attention Kyatha, AllenP wants to purchase a <debt> for the sum of <35,229><gold> pieces from you, do you approve this trade? Y/N]

    Staring at the number and thinking she didn''t read the number correct, "Are you sure this is just fifteen percent?" seeing him nod she approved before he changed his mind.

    "You are a good friend AllenP", brushing her eyes, "I hope we never become enemies", thinking about the ship''s captain and crew that found themselves stripped of every worldly possession they had in the game, even offline characters weren''t immune to his greedy claws, even inanimate objects.

    Meroa was at the end of her nerves, she knew it, and needed to deal with it, luckily the perfect cure was already in her backpack in the shape of two free exploration licenses for the ''Goliaths pass'' dungeon, more books will wait for later.

 352 Ant Cliff

    "Change object", Allen looked at the nail twisting around itself to become a spring, testing the tension inside the object and feeling good at his increased control he put it in its place with the other pieces of his creation.

    Picking another nail he did the same only this time making it a flat headed spring for another part of the machine, soldering the pin holding it to the back of the box he finally closed the lid and pushed the button, lights swirled around through the crystals he used in place of glass beads, clapping his hands in happiness at his success he pushed another button and the lights stabilized in the central orb.

    "What is that?" Kyatha was much calmer since they entered the dungeon and started training his spells and skills.

    "Something I read about in a book", showing her his box thinking she probably never even heard of a computer since they only existed in Shoul''s other kinds of books.

    "What does it do?" disappointing him though he knew it wasn''t probable that she would know what it was.

    "It''s called a computer" squinting as she tensed at the words, "this is just an early type and can''t do much", putting it in front of her "but more advanced versions can do some pretty awesome mathematical stuff", not sure if he should explain mathematics when she snatched his box "Hey!".

    "You", he knew that mood, "made", protracting every word meant she was going to scream "A COMPUTER?" there it was.

    "I won''t promise not to make them", trying to defend himself, "it''s just a game".

    "You made a computer inside the game?" she punched every button making the lights swirl in pleasant patterns.

    "Yes I made this computer", trying to take his box back he finally gave up "you can have that one", and took out the half finished next generation coding machine, "I will make another".

    "How?" he didn''t like her accusing tone.

    "I used ''change object'' to make the parts and put it together by the schematics in the book", hurt she thought he cheated somehow, "it''s just physics".

    "No one can make technology in the game", shooting a suspicious look at him "ask your friend RedFox21 if he ever heard of a computer in the game".

    "I know you can play games on a computer", he finally said, "but it will have to be a much more advanced machine than the one you took".

    Squinting meant she was trying to decide if he made fun of her, "you really can play games on it", trying to defend his statement, "Shoul has a whole library of games but no computer to play them on".

    "Stop", cutting him when she thought he didn''t understand her, "what do you need to make the more advanced computer?"

    "The book has a list of materials I never met in my treasures", feeling as sad as he sounded, "most things I can replace", trying not to dissuade her too much, "but I don''t know where to find plastics and microchips"

    Looking at him pitiably "what is the most advanced computer you can make with what you do know?" the question surprised him.

    "I can make it calculate the motions of stars", answering from the book applications, "and it can infer a second grade equation from enough input", quickly adding "a crystal monitor with a light emitting projector can display your calculations".Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

    Her squint snapped to an open stare "how ''small'' can you make it?" she finally asked.

    "Maybe small enough for you to hold in your hand", adding "though you have to use magic to add input", sadly saying "I tried to make a keyboard but they snap when I hit the keys and it makes the whole thing much more complicated than just using message spells"

    Sighing in frustration "you use message spells to input equations to your in game computer", looking very sad.

    "Don''t worry", trying to cheer her up, "they are very simple messages", showing her the half-finished machine from his inventory, "I made it compile simple commands so you don''t have to actually understand all the math problems"

    Walking back and forth probably meant she didn''t know what compile and computations meant so he tried to explain "compile is when you give the computer a group of orders and it uses its internal mechanism to come up with an answer for your input question".

    Activating the newest computer its monitor lit up, "look I send a question ''11*11'' and it shows me the answer", showing her the ''121'' displayed on the clear crystal.

    "Finish it", ordering him again, "what do you need to finish this computer?" pointing at the half built machine.

    "It needs a better box" his answer seemed to upset her, "and a better power source", looking at in and searching for the power source he mentioned, maybe she did know about computers.

    "What is powering it now?" finally the question came.

    "Light hitting the crystal is trapped in an oscillator that powers the processing mechanism", trying to explain his improvement on the original schematics failed, he was using the crystals'' properties to replace the other materials and it seemed to upset her.

    Finally falling for the infallible defense "it works".

    "Ofcourse it works", voicing her bitterness, "you made it so it works"

    "You could make one if you wanted to", trying to cheer her up again.

    "Ofcourse I could", she just repeated his words and he knew she was reading something on her interface.

    "Can you make it emit sounds when I shift the lights?" handing him the finished box.

    "I could" tentatively, "but what sounds should each color make?"

    Thinking about it she finally came up with a scheme and dictated the sounds for each color, taking the box back she started to build a soft melody that permeated through the whole area, "can you make a button to change between emission and sending a message spell to the user?"

    Taking the box he opened the lid and after fidgeting around inside and using change object to make a new hole for the button he finally handed it back to her, "thank you" was all she said and walked away.

    Seeing her running back as fast as she could made Allen think they were in danger and he quickly collected all his stuff and prepared to fight whatever she was drawing toward him.

    After catching her breath "I need" another breath, "to ask you", holding her knees and panting "some questions", huffing and puffing while he searched for the danger.

    "You have to answer slowly and as accurately as you can", adding after she stopped panting.

    "What is the danger?" unable to see anything he decided to ask and appear daft than be surprised by whatever chased her.

    "There is no danger", thinking for a second, "my sister wants to ask you some questions and I have to pass your answers to her", then added "so answer slowly".

    Looking at her strangely, "you have a sister?" he finally asked.

    "She asks", ignoring him, "if one computer can generate message spells and the other can take input from message spells is it possible to make one computer compile on the other?"

    Not thinking about this option previously he had to concentrate for a few seconds, "it''s possible" he said at last.

    "what is the longest distance two computers can communicate with each other?" she asked reading from her interface.

    He had to make some calculations before answering "sixty meters is the normal version of the spell", then added "but it can be extended with using higher grade crystals and a lot more mana", then calculated again "maybe three kilometers with the best available crystal and burning through the oscillator to get some more power".

    Her jaw dropped at his answer but she kept reading a long message on her display, "It''s too long", she finally said, "she is listing materials and components and asks what it would cost to make a computer that can fit in her hand and can compile with message spells on another computer that is five hundred meters away from it", reading on and shaking her head and finally stating, "Hatula is coming here", Kyatha looked at Allen from his head to the tip of his tail, "you must behave", catching his eyes with her gaze "and no talking about how you read books".

 353 Mock Stars

    RedFox21 hated arguing with his father, the ever righteous Constantine Le Forge headmaster of the Andorians guild, "I am an adult pa", he found himself shouting, "stop treating me like a little boy".

    "Then act your age Jeremy" his father''s voice was louder, "why can''t you pick a more sensible class like a fighter or rogue?" their usual argument progressed.

    "Because magic is awesome dad", he couldn''t let that point go since he was thirteen, "I always wanted to be a mage".

    "We can''t afford a second high ranking spell caster", sounding frustrated, "and if you are stuck in the middle ranks you aren''t contributing to the Andorians guild", knowing what came next was the point of tension between them, "I need to win the next election or your brother will lose his sponsorship", money made the world go digital, "we want what is best for you son", the words came slowly in a quiet tone.

    "If Julian cared about his sponsors he wouldn''t miss out on so many tournaments", was their other point of conflict, "if you let me take over Afriat I could get the sponsors without you licking their boots", going too far before he could stop himself.

    "Apologize at once young man", Esensha barged in, "I will not have you talk to your father like that", averting his eyes in shame from his mother''s glare.

    "I didn''t mean it like that pa", trying to mend some fences "it''s just that I wanted to practice my debuffs this weekend and you sent me to babysit the strangest couple of adventurers I ever heard or read about".

    His dad sighed then, "you were just playing around with those brats from the Williams family", getting caught red handed by the guild headmaster put a halt to their friendship for a while, "I did you a favor by pulling you out and you are doing me one back by keeping an eye on those two".

    "Yeah thanks a lot dad", unable to stop the sarcasm from painting his words.

    "I thought you liked dragons" Constantine seemed puzzled.

    "When I was ten", Jeremy replied, "although that Allen guy is really funny", looking to his mother before averting his eyes again, "but I can''t talk with that woman", trying not to make eye contact with either of them, "she hates my guts since I gave them the slip in that cave".

    "Well there isn''t much left of the dungeon for them to explore", dad sighed, "so it''s only a couple more days", then thinking about something, "besides Towrine said they bought a whole stack of magic books", adding "maybe you could exchange some lessons with them?"

    "She just sends me away ''to scout'' and they practice cantrips and minor utility spells" Jeremy answered, "It''s like he doesn''t know any skills or spells at all", shrugging at the impossibility of his statement, "I should probably get back in to make sure they didn''t get into any trouble", smiling at his own joke before going to his rig.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    "Ah the wayward son returns" he heard the mocking familiar voice.

    Opening his eyes to make sure he was still in the camp "What are you doing here Julian?" spitting the words out.

    "Your job apparently", the mockery never receding, "actually I was escorting this lady to your camp", Jeremy looked for his brother in the shade of the sparse wood, "Uncle Belemy sent me to find you for her", seeing Afriat leaning casually against their legendary staff made Jeremy cringe, "and what do I find when I get here?" tapping the staff of life against one of the trees, "my brother sleeping in a nest of vipers".

    RedFox21 scrambled up the tree as fast as he could when he heard the hissing sounds, "don''t do it Julian", he warned his brother from going against the strange couple.

    "Afraid I will get your friends mad at you little brother?" emphasizing the ''little'' to annoy Jeremy, "too late now though", leaning down he picked a small item from the ground near where Kyatha was sleeping.

    "What are you doing?" Jeremy wasn''t familiar with that voice, "give it back" the strange woman said in a threatening tone.

    "I just found it in the forest", Julian teased her.

    "I will find your dead body in the forest if you don''t give it back", she hissed.

    "Very scary", mocking reverberated with every word, "do your worst".

    "Shadow Shackles" she cast a quickened spell but all Julian had to do was raise his staff and one of the vipers he summoned collided with the spell.

    "Nice" putting the staff of life to the ground adding, "entangle", the spell emanated from the staff moving roots and branches in a wide area surrounding the woman, "strangle" came the next command in the legacy chain of their great grandfather, "drain" the last part of the spell made the roots already constricting her so dry they sucked the life out of everything they touched, the moving tangle of roots where she stood dried up and crumbled leaving nothing in their place.

    "Well done" the voice came from very near to where Jeremy was hiding, "but you wouldn''t catch a ranger with s tangle spell" pulling out a small bow she fired an arrow that split to three and then to nine, a signature barrage shot skill that took years to master and required at least a minute and a verbal command was just executed silently with a flip of the wrist.

    "Bramble wall" Julian cried in panic, "strangle", he added when the arrows were all stopped short from hitting him, the already agitated branches around the woman moved faster than the eye could see but she was already tumbling away when they closed on her location.

    "Piercing shot" came her command followed by "thorn sprout", the arrow broke through the bramble wall and hit the ground in front of Julian, sprouting a bell shaped flower that spit needle like thorns at the surprised man.

    "control plant", screeching in pain from the successful attack, "guardian of nature", using his second legacy spell the sprout shot up to become a seven meters tall hulking behemoth, keeping the bell shaped head as it turned to where the woman was preparing her next attack its needles spit was more like javelins and although some of them struck the timbre around her at least two hit her directly before she vanished from Jeremy''s sight.

    Julian didn''t wait before he called "Bloodhound sprout" Pulling its roots from the ground the enhanced guardian trampled their camp as it walked around the clearing following the scent of the wounded woman.

 354 Lawn Pride

    "Julian stop" Jeremy found himself shouting to his brother, "just leave already".

    "Stay out of it boy" came the mocking reply, "I need to concentrate", his voice straining from the pain of the needle shot.

    "Don''t make it any worse Julian" trying again to end the fight.

    "This isn''t your business Jeremy", coughing while saying the last word.

    "But it is my business", Jeremy heard Kyatha''s angry voice, he never heard her not angry but now she was something else, "why did you attack our camp?"

    "Scram bitch" Julian choked, "this isn''t your duel".

    "Oh it''s a duel?" came Allen''s jovial voice from behind the treeline, "can I do it too?"

    "This isn''t a fucking circus", the words came out painfully from Julian''s throat, "heal me" he commanded the guardian of nature which sent a green beam at Julian''s head that washed him in an aura of natural life boosting his powers over nature.

    "I have one of these", Jeremy averted his eyes at the last second when he heard "guardian of light" even without looking he was momentarily blinded by the flash and heard Julian cry in pain though he was still regenerating under his own guardian''s spell.

    White feathered wings, radiant armor covering a chiseled body with exposed arms as thick as RedFox21''s torso, wielding a mighty morning star in one hand and a bell in the other.

    "What the hell" Jeremy heard Kyatha shouting in surprise, "when did you master that spell?"

    "I thought it could power up my ''device'' but it failed" Allen said, "then I tried to ask it questions but the minor guardians wouldn''t speak back though I know they understood me".

    "Guardians aren''t Players Allen", she exclaimed in frustration, "you can''t talk to them"

    "Sure you can", the dragon replied "say hello Neraminha", the angel turned to the group.

    "Hi Allen", it said in a dinging voice, "hello Kyatha" to which the woman''s jaw dropped and she fell silent as the celestial beckoned them.

    "Why does it know my name?" sounding like Jeremy''s mother when he did something naughty.

    "I told her all about you", Allen was totally oblivious to the storm he was brewing and Jeremy was not the man to save this particular dragon.

    "Enough with the chit chat" Julian sounded even more powerful than before, "it is less than a week old", screeching at the guardian of nature, "destroy it"

    Flailing club like branches the forest behemoth charged forward, lunging after a single step with the brambles elongating to create spears that would have pierced the radiant if it didnt flap its wings and flew up.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    Smashing down with its morning star the angel dropped from its flight and broke through the spear like fingers of the guardian of nature severing its arm where an elbow would be in a mortal creature, the fallen branches dried up and shriveled, becoming no larger than simple wood shavings.

    Roaring in pain the wood golem raised both its hands over its head and after growing back the cut limb to match the other one threw both of them down in a pendulous motion that caught the radiant being even though it tried to evade the attack, scratching its exposed shoulder and drawing out purple blood.

    Crying in pain Neraminha tried again to attack the monster''s hand but it already retracted the limbs back to its center of mass.

    Suddenly from below where he hid Jeremy heard "DRAIN", and a cry of pain.

    Kyatha screamed "null magic", but Jeremy knew it was already too late, Julian cast his legacy spell and its effect was instantaneous, the two guardians vanished in a cloud of leaves and a blast of light when all magic was cancelled in the area, even feeling himself become heavier as his buffs were nullified.

    Dropping to see what happened below the canopy of branches he could see Julian looting the shriveled body of the woman he just killed, seeing a hand move made Jeremy gag thinking about the horror of the spell his brother was using, and how much she must have payed to survive even for the short amount of time it took the nullifying magic to take effect.

    "Give it up already" Julian screamed as he hit her with the staff of life, "I killed you" his screeching voice rising "give me my loot".

    Hearing branches crack Jeremy turned his head in time to see Kyatha raise a trembling finger and pointing it at Julian, "NO!" screaming and putting himself between the woman and their legacy avatar.

    "Move RedFox21", came the absolute command, "he won''t get away from this"

    "Please dont destroy him" begging never got him out of anything before but he had to try, "our family will be ruined if we lose Afriat"

    "I won''t ask again" tears streamed down her cheeks and Julian saw her gag when her eyes brushed the other woman''s sight.

    Seeing her eyes widen he knew it was his end when he was pushed and fell on Kyatha, "NO!" she screamed and Jeremy turned in time to see Julian vanish in the forest, throwing him to the ground she ran to where the other woman lay silent and motionless.

    "No Orella", hugging the drained woman, "take it", she cried and listened to something the other woman said, "don''t die on me now", before drawing her last breath the woman dropped her entire inventory on the ground and then she vanished in smoke indicating it was a death despawning of a non legacy character meaning it was probably gone forever.

    "You know who he was" Kyatha turned a baleful gaze to him, "your legacy means he is your father or brother", grabbing his shirt and drawing him close, "who is he?"

    "My brother", there was no point hiding the truth now after shouting it all along the fight, "please don''t destroy our legacy" he tried to beg again.

    "Do you know what he did?" screaming in his ears, "this was Orella''s third inheritance cycle"

    Gasping in horror at the thought of being so close to becoming a legacy only to have it destroyed by a highway robber, his brother.

    "Your guild is finished", she whispered in his ear, "your legacy is doomed", her voice bringing shivers down his spine, "I will find and annihilate every last one of you a thousand times over if that is what it takes to teach you upstarts some manners", who was she to issue such a threat without blinking.

    Seeing how he wasn''t whimpering for his life she stood up and screamed "I AM KYATHA", her words echoing in the silent aftermath, "HEADMISTRESS OF THE ASHMOURN GUILD", then Jeremy knew it was their end, "AND I PROMISE".

    A heavy claw fell on her shoulder and dropped her to the ground, "we said no more promises", Allen spoke in a hollow voice, "just between us", his words hammered on Jeremy''s heart, "we will find him", storing all the items scattered around them in the blink of an eye, "and make him pay", dropping his voice, "but no more promises to others"

    Kyatha keeled over and cried for the loss her family suffered from Julian''s hands and Jeremy was never sorrier to be his brother.

 355 Kid Hip

    "Go offline and tell your father I want to negotiate your surrender", she picked him up with one hand.

    All Jeremy could do was nod his head before Kyatha dropped him to the ground, Julian''s assault was going to cost them so much he couldn''t see a future beyond today.

    Logging off and removing his rig Jeremy raced to his father''s work room where he found his entire family looking grim and sending baleful glances in his direction.

    "Dad you have to log in right now", skidding to a stop in front of the desk, his uncle standing to his left and his mother on the right.

    "I have to log in do I?", his words were quiet but filled with power, "what have you done now Jeremy", rumbling in suppressed rage "dueling with your charges", heart pounded in his chest, "killing your brother''s charge", the waves of anger crushed into despair, "what have you done now?" seeing his father''s eyes sparkle when he was fighting back tears, "weren''t we good enough for you?" gripping his mother''s hand.

    Blurting "It was Julian" before realising how it sounded

    "ENOUGH WITH YOUR LIES", Constantine shouted, "you wanted to be treated as an adult?" anger lacing every word, "and you go and do something like this?", looks of anger met his eyes from everyone except his mother''s heartbroken tears, "we will pay for your mistakes", after a pause, "but I don''t want to ever see you again", then thinking, "you have two hours to pack up and leave this house".

    Tears stinging his eyes Jeremy fealt his legs tremble before he saw Julian''s mischievious smile that stiffened his spine in anger, "fine", wiping his eyes, "but I will pay back the guild every debt incurred from today''s mistakes", glaring straight into his brother''s eyes until julian''s smile changed to discomfort, "all debts", repeating before he left the conference room.

    "When do I meet your father to settle this?" Were the first words he heard even before completing his incarnation.

    Opening his eyes to a very close up look of her face, "he isn''t coming"

    Pushing him away she stormed toward the dragon, "I will burn them to the ground"

    "Wait", calling her to stop, "they blame me for all of it"

    Turning back, "I don''t care", looking at something on her display, "you are all going to pay for this"

    "They kicked me out", begging her, "my father will pay the despawn price" wishing she just listen to reason, "he is a good person and won''t let something like this fall between chairs" her eyes narrowed, "I dont want my family to starve in the streets so please dont kill them"

    "My sister is a good person", her voice accusing him, "she is a defender of the free guilds", he drew back, "but now she has to reincarnate in a noob city with nothing", raising her hand, she can''t even join our guild for two weeks because of the terms and services", dropping her hand to her side, "you have no idea what it means for all of us"A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

    "One defender cant change the tides of war", trying to diffuse her argument.

    "Are you stupid?", walking back to him, "she was Orella", the name ringed an obscure memory, "leader of the seaspring alliance", his heart sank, "she was coordinating our entire shore line defenses"

    Disbelieving the ridiculous statement "what would someone like that do in a newbie dungeon in the middle of nowhere".

    "That''s none of your business", saying as she read something on her display.

    "I have to go offline" turning to the dragon, "I dont know when you have to log off but call you guardian of light and pay whatever it takes to protect us until I return"

    Remembering his offline trouble, "I have to go too" Jeremy said.

    "Do whatever you want"came her cold reply, "you are not my problem anymore", sitting down she logged off.

    "Oh man what a mess" he said to no one in particular, "don''t even know where I''ll sleep tonight"

    "Why not sleep here with us then?" The dragon''s rambling voice stopping his heart.

    "I meant in the real world", not sure how to tell someone with that avatar what it meant to be homeless, "my family kicked me out and I dont have enough money for one night in a coffin motel"

    "How much money is that?" Obvious cash didnt mean anything to someone like that.

    "Maybe twenty five gold for a week rent", thinking back prices from his seldom solo vacations maybe seven if I rent by the night"

    "What happened to your treasure?" The leaves rustled even when the dragon was speaking casualy.

    Understanding the strangely worded question, "never had any", then added, "its all gone to the guild or for training materials mostly spell books"

    "Ahh" the creature sighed, "taxes", then it added "I can give you a loan"

    "Don''t want your charity man", though he could definitely use some free cash.

    "You can pay me back instead of paying taxes to the guild" it made sense in a way, "I will only take a small charge for my trouble", RedFox21 squinted, "how about two percent interest?"

    It was a lot cheaper than the guild tax if he didn''t tske too much initially, "how much do you have on hand", remembering too late the stories about looted ships he really didnt want to know that number.

    "Maybe seven" sighing with relief Jeremy thought seven thousand wasn''t too much, he could handle it.

    "Can you loan me half of it now?" He didn''t want to beggar the man helping him and thirty five hundred was a sum that could carry him for a while.

    "I will give you one percent" what a cheap bastard, holding him on loans for a monthly rent and some change.

    "Ten percent" trying his luck to get a little further ahead in the game.

    Squinting, the dragon was obviously calculating the silver bits, "one and a half percent" it finally said.

    "Two" Jeremy had to try.

    "Fine" the dragon sighed and created a contract stating the details of their deal, ''two percent of his current <date and time by the milisecond> gold reserve in exchange for a monthly return of ten point zero two percent of the sum until the debt is returned in full'', the wording seemed awkward and Jeremy didnt understand the small detail of the time figure but he signed the contract and AllenP signed on the blank next to his name.

    When the sum was added to his account he fainted, dropping offline when the life support system pushed sedatives directly to his cranial implant and spine, coming to with a start Jeremy just stared at the wall of his room, not his room any more, two percent? how was he going to pay more than fourteen thousand gold each month? He couldn''t use more than the absolute minimum for living if he wanted to pay it back in time, the coffin motel was still his only option.

 356 Jelly Frosting

    Back in the game Jeremy heard thunder rolls very close to him, dropping to a crouch before a spell hit him he scanned the area until he saw the dragon fighting an invisible enemy and rolling around knocking down trees before he realised the creature was laughing.

    "You tricked me", accusing the infuriating Player who now owned his incalculable debt couldn''t be a good idea but Jeremy was hurt.

    AllenP stopped rolling, "you never asked"

    "I thought you were cheap", was all he came up with.

    "Ha serves you right then" came the laughing reply, "and you wanted ten percent" at which RedFox21 blushed.

    "I have to go offline and find a place to stay", he finally said, "can you watch over me too?"

    Looking around with a hand over his brow like he was scanning the area the annoying man finally said "can do skipper", after which Jeremy sat down and logged off.

    His mother was in the room already packing a suitcase for him, "help me take the rig off" she said when he came back, he could see the telltale of dried tears on her face.

    "Don''t worry for me mom" trying to reassure her, "I can manage" finding himself in her hug "everything will be alright" choking on the final words.

    "Don''t go too far" she said after a pause, "we still care", sniffing, "it will blow over after the negotiations are finished" pushingg him away to look at his face "and there is a war going on".

    It was then that he remembered, Orella was his mother''s role model, gasping when he thought of her memorabilia, and she caught him at it, "what?" Her tone demanding the truth.

    "I can''t", came out as a whimper.

    "Tell me" she almost shook him.

    "The woman Julian drained", pausing as he couldnt meet her eyes, her grip tightened, "it was Orella leader of the sea-spring alliance" finally the words came out in a whisper.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

    Dragging him across the room she closed and locked the door, "tell me everything that happened today" and he did, finding strength when she didn''t dismiss his words for lies.

    Shaking her head after thinking for a few minutes "we can''t change what was already done", sounding frustrated, "Afriat is no longer your legacy" adding, "we can''t push Julian away without losing it forever" his hopes shattered on the walls of reality, "my father''s heart will break if he hears how his powers were used" standing up she continued, "you still have to leave but remember I am allways here for you" she finished packing his rig in silence and hugged him goodbye.

    "Crying to mama?" Julian''s voice grated on his nerves, "do it" he said when Jeremy''s knucles turned white in a fist, "you can''t do it you coward" laughing at Jeremy''s back as he walked away.

    Using his cranial implant got him booked in a coffin motel called ''red''s trials'' uncertain what the name meant and not really caring he followed the instructions to the crumbling ancient offline gym, "you Jeremy?" came a call from somewhere in the back and he thought maybe this was a trap.

    Ready to bolt away at a moments notice he entered a cramped little office crammed with physical monitors, relics from ancient hystory, "are you Jeremy?" The question repeated coming from an old monitor he only recognized because they appeared in vintage games, "come closer" seeing himself on another monitor was kinda neat, "well are you?"

    "Yes" saying finally overcoming astonishment at the strange setup, "I am Jeremy"

    "Welcome to ''Red''s Trials'' please follow the yellow brick wall", a trail of monitors lit up with yellow bricks leading to an elevator, "going to fifth" the soeaker quacked at him and dinged when they reached the floor.

    "You can pick your resting place", the voice filled the hallway, "just follow the light and when you want to rest enter through the gates to heaven", the morbid humor was rubbing him backwards but he walked down the hall until he reached a group of lit cabins and crawled into one with his suitcase, at the head of the cramped space another display showed him how to operate the cabin sanitary and solitary functions and he soon settled down to log back in.

    His personal space was a mess with most of his stuff removed by the guild after he got evicted, checking his personal message board filled him with rage when he saw Julian''s friends posted r.i.p notes all over the place and bullied his friends when they tried to find out what happened, sighing he entered the ''wanted fo a job'' ads and sent an ''available for hire'' to a few he knew weren''t scammers from friends and associates that had jobs outside the guild, his credit balance only crushed him further thinking about what he had to do to pay back that rich psycho that now owned his life online.

    Jeremy had to set some ground rules on his relationship with the dragon, he won''t betray his friends or family or the old guild, not even Julian that had Afriat was a possible target for him, he was in debt but that didn''t mean they owned him and he could take on random jobs if they didn''t go against the free guilds or the strange pair.

    Breathing deep after coming up with rules he could live with he logged back in.

 357 Id mallet

    Meroa couldn''t get off the rig fast enough? dropping the fourty centimeters before it finished flooting dowd and running as soon as her foot touched the floot.

    Pila their old maid was checking on Hatula when she got to her sister''s suit, Molash was still online but the external monitor showed him in his personal space and not the guild hall, he was a good second in command and a better husband than Meroa''s last string of dates could ever hope to be.

    "How are you feeling?" Hatula''s question catching her by surprise.

    "He got away", was all she could say.

    "Bastard", Hatula wasn''t in a habit of trussing so hearing the word from her lips startled Meroa.

    "They will pay for it" the words seemed to hurt Hatula as she closed her eyes.

    "It cost a lot" her sister whispered after a pause, "I burned up seventy grands just so he couldn''t loot me", falling back to the pillow in a vision of despair, "this will cost us much more in the long run" adding, "not saying the war is going too bad", she sighed, "but we aren''t winning".

    "When will you start rebuilding a character", not sure how to bring up the subject she just shot the words out, "are you taking Suzan?"

    Hatula shook her head, "I can''t" closing her eyes, "Kofi may only be fifteen years old", looking aside, "but she put her heart into Suzan for the past three years and I cant do that to her or grandma".

    It was what Hatula hoped to hear, though she knew their younger sister wouldn''t refuse for the war effort it was too much to ask from a girl her age, giving up her prestigious school and friends just so the adults can bolster their political maneuvers for a couple more weeks.

    "Are you making another ranger?" Meroa finally asked.

    "I don''t think so", was the surprising answer, "I want something more flashy", which made Meroa squint at her sister, "I''m too old to start a new legacy", was a flimsy explanation, and if I have to be a support in someone''s party then I want something that can break some rules", then hatula smiled at a random thought, "maybe I should take up one of the crazy classes" to which Meroa gasped, "a whore or a stage artist or maybe even a peasant" Hatula''s smile broadened as she spoke the words, "it would be fun to try and make an impossible peasant like in the legends and the high scores"Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

    "You are clearly out of your mind" Meroa could slap her delusional sister.

    "Don''t worry" Hatula snorted in dismissal, "I wont really do something like that without at least getting your consent and you are very clearly opposed to having any fun in the game".

    "I am having fun in the game" Meroa couldn''t leave the obvious taunt, "you know I am on ''vacation'' status for the last ten days"

    "I know" that mischievous smile again, "did you get his name already?"

    "It''s AllenP" Meroa shot back.

    "That''s obviously an alias or just a game name" Hatula closed her eyes after that and Meroa didn''t want to start an argument just before her nieces got back home from preschool so she left the room.

    When she incarnated Allen''s voice rumbled softly through the forest clearing in deep conversation with two other people, looking around she found the insufferable RedFox21 sitting offline and fought the urge to stab him going toward Allen she saw a blue humanoid creature with four arms floating on a small cloud and a golden sword swirling in the air beside it.

    "Then I tangled his spear and threw shockwaves shrough it until he dropped the thing" the sword made a twirling slash, "a pirates life are definitely the best"

    "I must disagree" the blue thing said in a condescending voice, "all that violence cant be good for ones health and longevity"

    Finally noticing her Allen called out "come and meet Lahav", pointing at the sword "and Ashashit" indicating the blue creature with his head.

    "I thought your guardian of light was an angel" popping out the first thought in her mind.

    "She had to go and rest but asked Ashashit to cover for her" ofcourse the AI needed rest, how silly of her, Meroa gave up rational thinking when dealing with the infuriating creature, because, why bother?

    "Your gloves are gone" Allen''s words made no sense.

    "My what?" Dont indulge him silly girl.

    "Your pink gloves from the first time we met", he replied, "Ashashit thinks someone stole them since we couldn''t find them in the clearing"

    Why was any of this important now?, "we need to move on" she said to derail the previous conversation, "let''s finish the dungeon so we don''t get the escape reduction", adding "there should be a safe point somewhere up that hill"

    "We can''t yet", he said after a while, "RedFox21 is still sleeping".

    "I don''t care" slapping him was a painful mistakenof her past, "he can die and be eaten by lizard as far as i''m concerned".

    "I don''t want my first customer to be eaten on his first day", looking her in the eye, "then he won''t be able to pay me back this month"

    "What customer?" Disbelieving his every word.

    "I loaned RedFox21 some money" his nonchalance was so annoying.

    "How much" maybe use an armored gauntlet.

    "Two percent" smiling at her

    "Two percent of how much?" Definitely getting a gauntlet

    "What I had on hand at the time" that insufferable miserly cretin, couldnt he give a straight answer?

    "Fine" finally coming to grips with her dragon induced anger, "I''ll go and explore while you keep an eye on your customer"

 358 Herb Brass

    "Finding your enemy''s weakness is the best way to defeat them", Jeremy heard a strange metallic voice when he incarnated in the forest clearing.

    "Overcome your own weaknesses to become undefeatable", this speaker sounding like a water elemental if their gurgles made real words.

    "Thinking yourself unbeatable is a weakness" thinking maybe it was all just a dream for a second before checking his gold balance and snapping his eyes to two even stranger creatures than he remembered leaving.

    "Did you polymorph to a sword?" He blurted out before remembering the talking sword from the list of things the dragon looted from the ship.

    "Alas no", came the strange answer, "it would be awesome though", it continued in its clanging voice, "maybe I should learn to polymorph so I can become a shield or a backpac", thinking for a second, "no one would expect the scabbard to attack them", slashing in Jeremy''s direction, "that is a good idea".

    "It''s a terrible idea", the blue humanoid made a disgusted face, "you will lose your balance and be stuck with a random sword"

    "Ha butt jokes from you?", stabbing toward the blue thing, "so many arms and you srill can''t find your own ass"

    Seeing a monster blush for the first time in his life was not what Jeremy expected to find when he logged back in, "where are Allen and Kyatha?"

    "Who?" the stab was a little too close for comfort in Jeremy''s eyes though there were still almost ten meters between them the motion moved the sword at single action speed for over a third of the distance between them.

    "The dragon and the angry woman" was exactly how Jeremy would desceibe the duo.

    "I thought she was just distraught", an undercut toward the blue creature, "how do you know their names?" Came in a jab.

    "From my contract with Allen and he told me to wait for Kyatha and not let her kill the fox boy" the soft sound of waters in a creek was almost hypnotic.

    "Do you know where they went" looking at the two the meaning of this last exchange dawned on Jeremy "make me a contract" came the garbled words.

    Two twirls and a slash in the blink of an eye brought the sword up to his know "you could never defeat me" it said "though the sentiment is nice"

    "What is your definition of defeat?" Sounding braver than he fealt and wandering how he could win if no one was actually wielding the sword, after all even if he could destroy it, he would gain nothing except burnt out resources and probably more than a few cuts, but he got the system notice for requesting a duel and knew the sword couldn''t ignore it.

    "Psss" dragging its blade on the ground cutting a line, "if I have no more stamina and all my action timers are in countdown you win", then it rose higer than RedFox21''s head and floated in a striking hawk pose, "but what do I get if I beat you?"

    Surprised by the question Jeremy had to stop and think, "what I have in my left pocket".

    "Bah I know this game" seeing it shift to bear swipe position was annerving, "so you forfeit the challenge?"

    Jeremy had to think this through, he only had one more chance to offer an equal prize or the chance would be lost for at least twenty four hours and beyond that he didn''t even know if the dragon and angry woman would be anywhere near him or give him another chance.

    "Balance the challenge" the words streaming from the blue being, "when you win", turning to the sword, "make the fox your weapon"

    Shifting to a low pose Jeremy didn''t know the sword turned a few times before chiming "agreed"

    [System: Notice RedFox21 your challenge has been accepted your duel with Lahav starts in <03:00> minutes]The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

    Dismissing the notification so it won''t pop up every thirty seconds Jeremy took a few steps away from the sword, "double cast"

    "Silly boy you already lost and the duel didn''t even start yet", the blue thing taunted him but jeremy ignored it to continue his preparations

    "Mage armor, long stride" putting on the long lasting defense spells as soon as he was a safe distance away.

    The sword stayed in the unfamiliar low stance but moved its handle a tiny fraction upwards.

    "Haste, flash step" jeremy cast the spells just as the timer hit zeroes, reappearing ten meters to the right of his original position and sending "magic missile, magic missile" at his previous location.

    Surprised that the spell fail and realising his mistake almost too late to evade the uppercut slash from his left, haste saved him as he used another full action to disengage but the sword pursued with a stab that nicked his chest.

    "Thunderous retreat, healing word" the wound hurt a lot more than it fealt and he saw his hitpoints dropped by a fifth from just that tiny hit.

    Looking at the sword tumble from his other spell and getting stuck in a tree let him hope he found the thing''s weakness, seeing it slice the tree in half as it turned back around bashed his hopes to the ground, today was not a good day for Jeremy.

    "Slow, true strike" needing to buy more time and use his long stride to better results Jeremy watched as the blade seemed like it was moving through water, dividing a fight to actions usually only worked for wizards who needed to find ways around action timers and unable to divide or double their actions to smaller sections and forcing the same division on less magic oriented types usually gave a mage such an unfair advantage that some spells were banned from interclass duels.

    The sword stopped three meters before him in a very suspicious way, "chill touch, bane", limiting himself to low level spells for the first rounds to coserve mana until he knew the enemie''s weaknesses was sound strategy if he kept piling on the debuffs and bolstering his defenses it should let him survive long enough to exploit these weaknesses when he found them.

    The sword dipped its tip and rushed with a stab feint to his leg ending in a slow motion slash to his arm that was hypnotizing to watch as a red line painted on his skin even after he started turning to evade the stab, feeling his whole arm go numb with cold through his disengaging roll, keeping in mind he had to allways save an action to perry or evade every attack.

    "Healing word, bane", his hitpoints didn''t rise back, if he couldn''t heal the battle was counted in only a few rounds, which was his worst type of combat, in a battle of attrition he could add more and more curses until the enemy could barely function but a fast pace combat will force him to use higher level spells before he was ready.

    Casting spells with a dagger needed more practice than he was able to commit but he had to have some means to fend the attacks off as the combatants closed the engagement distance after every round, the sword came from a falcon dive to a crane hop and only his familiarity with the battle stances of fencers like his dad saved his life when he pushed back the short twisting jab, flaring his defense with ''disarm'' his dagger stabbed down at the last second and instead of just moving apart the other blade was thrown to the ground.

    "Lightning bolt, misty step", grounded as it was the blade channeled the electricity to the ground as wisps of acrid smoke rose all around it, taking a chance he cast "cure wounds" as the blade rose back to the air surrounded by cracking electrical charges, it stopped fifteen meters away and shot a lightning bolt at Jeremy, "jump" made it so the bolt hit him in the air and with nowhere to go he only recieved the initial attack damage without the discharge.

    Considering the previous attacks it surprised him the damage wasnso low until he realised it was his own spell shot back at him, luckily it seemed only magical attacks were returned or he would be also slowed and weakend, forcing him again to choose an undesired strategy if he couldn''t use the high level damaging spells it needed to be weakend so lesser spell attaks were more effective.

    So far the sword snatched the initiative from his every attack so he decided to let it make the next move leaving him with his haste and double cast against its slow and bane, not disappointing it took another unfamiliar stance and attacked in a horizontal motion that could cut Jeremy in half, "thunderous retreat", he vanished just before the illusion hit where he stood, seeing the other blade still floating at the initial spot fealt like an icy finger was crawling down his spine, turning in place it made the same move "misty step" unable to take the chance but not wanting to burn mana on a useless attack.

    Feeling sluggish was an indication haste had worn off and he needed to focus until he could cast it again, with only a single action in the next few rounds it was all he could to survive.

    ''Evade'' turned him aside in the last instance to avoid the downward slash, the hairsplitting maneuver got the needed result of seeing the over comitted blade sink deep into the rock Jeremy positioned himself on, "web, thunderous retreat" bought him the extra round he needed for "haste, fireball", guessing the area of effect spells couldnt be absorbed like the targeted ones.

    Adding the fuel from the magical web was a secret he thought he stumbled upon on his own until he read a book describing all the different effects aiding fireball become the signature spell of every combat mage in history, melting the rock the blade was buried in was only one of the phenomenae described, "ray of frost" completed his plan to entomb the blade.

    The result left much to be desired when what could only be described as a giant stone club pulled itself up from the ground.

 359 Gail Thimble

    Comparing his tiny dagger to a five meter long stone slab was only amusing if it wasn''t himself about to be squashed by a building sized living weapon, the slow effect was even more exaggarated with the giant proportions and for a second Jeremy just watched open mouthed at the avalanche toppling over him.

    "Misty step" to one of the branches protruding into the dueling area he watched as it stamped its imprint on the earth, rising up and smashing again and again like an enraged blind behemoth it rolled on the ground flattening everything around it and realising it was actually blind Jeremy held his breath before casting another spell and giving up his postion.

    Smashing for the fourth time into thr ground broke away half of its length and a hawk dive splintered off another piece along its ''spine'', but Jeremy noticed something else, the sword was only taking a single action each time, no more elaborate positioning or grand gestures, just simple rise and fall motions.

    Silently climbing down the tree and waiting for his moment dashing into range of the halved club, "snare, thunderous retreat", sending him back up the branches to look at the club smash his previous location and triggering the trap immediately being hoisted into the air and hung with the stone part pointing to the ground.

    Using "stone shape" to move the rock around the sword so it was completely buried from all sides and then giving it a perfect oval shape Jeremy then dropped to the ground and breathed hard after the most difficult duel of his entire life.

    The round rock landed beside him in a thump and a third of it sunk into the hard ground, Jeremy looked at it quivering every few seconds, "message ''if you surrender I will get you out''" hoping the spell got through the rock.

    Another quiver and cracks appeared on the rock''s surface, jumping back to a fighting stance he quicly cast "haste, blade ward" before the rock shatterd to tiny pieces, some piercing his magical defenses and pulling his hitpoints dangerously low.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    The sword seemed lackluster, its blade rested on the ground feinting a slash and ending with a flare and stab that Jeremy evaded with ease by jumping away without using an action, "slow, bane" not wanting to underestimate this powerful enemy, true strike" allways saving one spell for aan emergency.

    Moving sluggishly through the air the blade stabbed at him with such force he had to use ''evade'' or be skewered "witch bolt" enveloped the blade with blue cackling energy and it dropped halfway to the ground before swnding the spell back at Jeremy.

    Using his action to reignite the spell Jeremy saw the sword dip again toward the ground and held his breath for the coming pain, when nothing happened he used his second action, "bane, firebolt".

    [System: Notice RedFox21 for losing the challenge you are now the living weapon of Lahav by your contractual clauses]

    Groaning in pain and opening his eyes Jeremy looked at the face of the blue creature that was casting a healing spell on him, "what happened?" Choking on the words.

    "You lost" the watery voice answerd.

    "How?" Demanding to know in a strained voice.

    "You underestimated your enemy and he used your weakness to unbalance you", it seemed no answers were coming from that being, "your master said he needed rest and left me in charge of healing you" its words streaming without end, "you are ordered to practice casting spells without their verbal component", coursing through the vowls and consonants with no regard to shape or form.

    "How am I supposed to do that?" Confused and hurt all over his virtual body from hitpoints drain.

    "Visualise the words without speaking them" the words flowing into a meaningless sentence.

    "That never works" thinking maybe he misunderstood the words.

    "Impossible is just a barrier we take on ourselves to accomodate social constructs" infuriating words from an insufferable crearure.

    "Reality is what it is", anger was waking him up, "you cant just will it to change", adding "I can''t just become rich because I want to"

    "Are you poor?" The words made Jeremy look at his gold balance.

    "Not at the moment" was a stupid answer to a stupid rethorical question.

    "Then your will has changed your reality", each word pooling to serene silence.

 360 Font News

    ''Sword burst'' the only effect fron trying to cast the spell without words was enhancing Jeremy''s headach, drilled down to self target, visual incarnation, no resistance, instantenous cantrip with only a verbal component and he still couldn''t cast it without saying the words.

    "I know what you are missing" not more phylosophical garble, "you visualise the words alone", yep didn''t miss that one, "you need to visualise the spell as a whole creation" if she just shut up he could try again, "when you speak up you visualise the effect and add the verbal component with your vocals", that was actually less stupid than the last three hours of nonesense, "use your ''double cast'' skill and in one action visualise the effect and in the other visualise the verbal component"

    "Double cast", nothing to lose from trying, ''Sword burst, sword burst'', a circle of spectral blades shot around him and vanished before his astonished eyes.

    [System: attention RedFox21 ''Silent Casting'' skill has been added to your character profile]

    Jaw dropping as he read through the words "well done", Ashashit said, "it appears you have found my advice adequate", the insufferable monster was always taking credit for everything while doing none of the work, just saying ''cover the trap with the net'' made it all her success without her moving a single grain of dirt.

    "Yes", answering politely, "thank you", remembering the result of being disresoectful.

    Strange voices permeated through the forest and soon he could make out the words and differentiate the familiar voices, "it should be just around this area" hearing Julian made him grit his teeth, "they couldn''t carry it all away and must have gone to get help", what was he looking for, "this is where they camped", was he looking for more trouble from Allen and Kyatha, "and this is where I killed the ranger to protect Jeremy" who is he talking to.

    Walking over to the old campsite he saw Julian''s possey escorted by Gurim and Makush Salesworth and Kluvish Daring, the three drunken brutes of the guild that were never up to any good but were good enough in team fights to keep their jobs as bouncers and occasional fillers for competitions.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    "What are you doing Julian", his brothet seemed genuinely surprised to see him, "why did you come back here?"

    "To take what is mine brat", spite lacing his words, "I killed that bitch and I want my loot"

    "You should leave" unable to hide his rage Jeremy found himself trembling.

    "Or what?", looking at him, "you''ll stop me coward?" hid groupies chuckled, "already trembling in fear just from looking at me"

    "They''ll be back soon" warning Julian though he didn''t deserve the chance to flee.

    "More reason to be quick and leave", looking around at his friends and smiling, "the brat probably took the loot lets kill him and get it"

    Equipping their weapons made the troup intimidating, some were enchanted or outright magical while the others were sharp and nasty, spreading out in a tactical maneuver that surprised Jeremy with its precision, ''darkness'' covered them as they started to move.

    "Who cast darkness you fucks?" He heard Julian scream, "dispel it immediately", chuckling inwardly and knowing none of these bums knew who cast it so it wont be as easy to dispel but his mirth was cut short when the bubble of darkness winked out after someone cast "dispel magic" and he didnt use the distraction to get away.

    ''Darkness, misty step'' was his best move in this situation

    [System: Attention RedFox21 double casting a silent spell will cause both spells to cost mana as if cast at a higher tier, would you like to proceed? Y/N]

    Picking yes just in time before he was in their medium attack range he vanished in the foliage as they dispelled the second darkness, "Was that you Vereminx" Julian laughed at his own joke, "where are you hiding little fox?"

    The group scattered to search but less than a minute later one of the posseys, Cemion, ran back screaming in terror, the others rushed back and fell in to their defensive formation as Ashashit floated out of the brush where Cemion crushed through.

    "What the hell are you?" Terror laced Julians screech.

    "Guardian of light", the fluid speach met staring silence

    "Didn''t you say the dragon had a guardian of light Julian?" Demara, the only woman in the group asked.

    "It''s a fucking angel", he sceamed, "not an ugly blue female monster"

    "You need to wash that mouth with soap", Jeremy knew that command spell from yesterday and had to put both hands on his mouth to prevent his laughter from giving up his hiding place.

    Bubbles foaming out of Julian''s mouth made him gag and puke a gush of soapy water before casting "guargian of nagure", surprisingly the spell didn''t backfire and a bush growing next to him became the hulking woodland monstrosity of his legacy spell "kigg heg" he gurgled at the beast.

 361 Envy Summit

    Shaking the trees around the clearing with each stride, the guardian of nature charged toward the guardian of light.

    "Finding balance will enhance your growth", evading the charge with flowing grace the blue woman added, "wanton violence will bring your fall".

    Roots growing inside the guardian''s body buried themselves in the ground felling it in an avalanche of brambles and folliage, its usual rustling of branches and leaves sounded out of place to Jeremy though he couldn''t say why, branches behind the guardian of light curved and snapped back like a slapping hand flinging Ashashit at another tree.

    "If you can''t take a joke", the guardian of light said, "step off the stage", branches on the edges of the forest behemoth dried up, turning white and curling before falling off to the ground.

    Disturbed again by something in the sounds of the forest Jeremy couldn''t tell what it was when a root shot up from the ground like a thrust spear and almost impaled the blue creature, "too slow old champ", came a retort and the woodlands monster started moving slower, looking at its slow motion in contrast to the trees around almost enough to get motion sickness.

    Shaking its top in agitation and pulling its roots from the ground the hulking creature started another rumbling charge at the guardian of light, "enhance your cool" at the words a freezing cone of ice emanated from where she flotaed on her cloud, washing over the other monster and creating rivults of ice on its surface, with a loud crack one of its main branches broke and fell to shatter on the ground.

    Shaking snow off its foliage in a twist an arm shot out in a sweeping motion and grazed Ashashit''s abdomen even as she was gliding back leaving furrows glistening with purple blood.

    "May the force be with you", words followed by the giant treelike creature being flung back as if pushed by a giant hand leaving deep treads in the earth where its roots dragged.

    "Enough of this" Julian clearly got over his soapy opera, "kill it" pushing one of the sorcerers toward the fighting mosters.

    Looking back frightened the man still did as commanded shouting "scorching ray" and hitting Ashashit in the back.

    Turning to the group the blue humanoid seemed almost sad, "if you will not respect your elders" the familiar words almost making Jeremy pity the fools, "you will learn to fear them"

    Screams and running feet were the next actions of almost half of the party and the other half had white knucles and sweating faces over shaking legs, "what the fuck Julian", was shouted at the same time with "we cant fight something like this" and "what in all hells?"

    A calming breeze moved through the forest, even Jeremy fealt it bolster his nerves as the canopy of trees parted to let the sun shine through in beams of light filling his heart with joy and memorys of a better time when sitting on his grandpa''s knee and listening to stories about the wonders of the forest made him dream of adventures and finding new monsters to be friends with.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    The party found new strength and those who didn''t run turned back to face their enemy, "I could use a keg of beer about now", one of the Salesworths said followed by, "a cause to win this fight", and "no pain no gain"

    "Buff a gnat and its still just an insect", words flowing through the forest, "yet enough tiny bites will fell even the mightiest of trees", hissing sounded from the guardian of the forest and it toppled down to crash at the forest ground, hordes of insects swarming out of it eliciting more cries of fearful disgust from the group.

    Gathering itself with the groan of dungeon forests during winter the monster seemed diminished, less a giant healthy bush and more like a wiry windswept loner tree, its branches twisted and gnarled, ash white bark filled with furrows and scars from fire and wind, it lumbered forth in a majestic gait holding a long felled branch like a sword in a play, creaking with every step as it swiped its blade in a downward attack barely evaded the guardian of light.

    "Finally showing your true self?" She mocked, "the king of the forest returns to a burnt kingdom".

    Jeremy could only describe the sound as an enraged roar when the giant tree swept its blade aside almost hitting her before she floated up, he hadn''t seen that tree since he was a boy, sitting at its feet and playing wizards and pirates with his friends, thinking back it almost seemed strange how the adults let them wander danger filled dungeon grounds unsupervised but now he knew who kept them safe, did Julian do the same for the new kids around the guild, Jeremy didn''t think so.

    "Web", one of the posseys cast the spell entangling Ashashit and the hulking tree together, "fireball" sounding almost before the first spell finished manifesting.

    Balefires rose when the web was consumed blowing up the sword branch and sending the guardian of light tumbling uncontrollably into the nearby bushes where flames and smoke continued to rise, but Jeremy didn''t see it as the roars of fire mingled with something else, suddenly he knew, all the strange forest sounds were just like the flowing waters of Ashashit, the old tree was alive, and living things could die.

    "No" he screamed and dropped already running as he hit the ground "healing word", trying to buy more time, "double cast", he reached the ancient giant as it toppled down to the ground wisps of smoke rising from its smoldering body, "Julian cast healing rains" he screamed back.

    "Where in hell did you come from?" Julian mocked him, "you don''t get to give me orders", looking around at his party, "besides no one is hurt so why should I waste mana?"

    "The king of the forest is hurt", Jeremy suddenly understood his grandpa''s favorite legend, "you have to help him"

    "There is no king of the forest silly boy", laughing, "its just a stupid childrens'' story", the group joined in laughing.

    "Just cast the spell" begging never helped anything, "please Julian"

    "Enough chit chat where is the treasure", Julian was getting angry from his brother''s nonsense.

    "There is no treasure" Jeremy coukdn''t believe his brother would be so cruel to his own summoned creature.

    "You lie", Julian screamed "allways lying" then a malicious smile split his lips, "believing in fairytails", looking at the guardian of nature he said "dismiss", but the smoking tree didn''t vanish, turning to one of his sorcerers "blow it up"

    "But your brother is there" came the reply.

    "Blow them both up or I kick you out of the party right now", Julian screeched at him.

    "Fireball", Jeremy didn''t have his longstride or magic armor on, he couldn''t run fast enough to avoid the blast, a branch fell in front of him in a crash, taking on the full blast of the fireball and somehow shielding Jeremy and then the old tree vanished.

    "Get him" he heard Julian command and the Salesworth brothers surrounded him in the blink of an eye blocking his escape and readying to attack if he cast a spell.

 362 Elk Splash

    "Where is the treasure?", feeling Gurim''s fist connect with his stomache before Makush finished the question Jeremy groaned in pain and doubled over.

    "Stand up" Makush jerked him in his grasp to straighten him up, "no more lies Jeremy", mocking laced in the next sentence, "this hurts you a lot more than it hurts me"

    "I can loot appraise him and see if he took anything of value" flinching at the words coming from Kluvis, "looks like he got something to hide", struggeling against Makush''s iron grip got him slapped in the face, "hold him still".

    "The ''loot appraisal'' is a pirate skill what would a guildsman use it for?", Jeremy couldn''t stop his curiousity.

    "Oh it comes in handy from time to time now shut up" was the reply before Kluvis whistled, "seems like you were right Julian" he said turning to the leader, "he does have quite a lot for a newly freed guilder", scanning Jeremy from head to toe, "shirking taxes princeling?" looking him in the eye, "maybe you robbed the vaults before you left?", at Makush urging he added , "over a hundred and fourty grands in his account"

    Julian stepped up and punched him in the face, "give me my loot you fucking thief", looking at the group and taking everyone in the eye, "this isnt from the guild" he emphasized, "this was dropped from the woman I killed", and they all nodded.

    "That''s not true" Jeremy tried to defend himself.

    "Where did you get it then?" Was the immediate retort.

    "From the dragon", looking straight in Julian''s eyes.

    "Ha", julian barked, "lying in my face", looking at the others, "now he wants us to believe he robbed a dragon", laughing again, "fuck you and your lies Jeremy", he looked at Gurim, "get it out of him", turned and walked away.

    "Spit it out or we settle for the looters prize", the others nodded, "half of a hundred and fourty thousands is grand enough for me even divided between all of us", Jeremy knew he was sunk deeper than the bottom and going down fast when Gurim pulled out a dagger and pressed it to his chest, "give us a round hundred and we let you leave here alive", looking Jeremy in the eye, "die and you pay the despawn fine and get the same with all the other nasty bits like dying"

    Closing his eyes he knew there was no way out of this trap, even Ashashit didn''t come back for almost ten minutes, probably despawned, and no one else in the world cared enough to save him even if they knew, coming to a resolution.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    "Take your filthy hands off my weapon", came a screeching metallic voice Jeremy thought he would never hear again, feeling the dagger thrown away from his chest made his eyes snap open, the grip on his arms came loose in a scream of rage and pain and Jeremy saw the fingers dropping to the ground.

    Rolling aside and running away from where the group was standing he saw they already equipped their weapons and were fighting Lahav in a furious four way melee, the living sword used the initial confusion to cripple the three warriors and they showed the pain plainly.

    "Fire bolt" one of the sorcerers cast and his attack hit the blade, immediately shooting out and blasting Makush in the face, he was the most hurt of the trio and took a step back to let the others cover for him but the spell was a ranged attack that made this tactic useless.

    With swords drawn the other two charged at the blade to distract it while Makush pulled out a potion, "chill touch", jeremy cast before he could drink it and the man splattered and cursed.

    "Flame arrow", this wasn''t aimed at the sword and Jeremy had to ''evade'' before it hit him, twisting and taking another step back he hearde a scream and looked just in time to see Gurim''s sword arm flying through the air and landing in a thump.

    Makush stepped in to cover for his brother when Julian cast "rejuvenate" on Gurim.

    Kluvis was a step above either of the brothers with his feints and perrys a blur of motion that didn''t leave the floating blade enough time to deal with him at the same time as the other two were distracting him, both brutes were already covered in scractches but Gurim''s stump was the worst injury they suffered between them.

    Even just using his off hand a warrior was a force to be reckond with and Gurim did not disappoint, rolling, feinting stabbing and switching with the others, the whole display looking like a dance of blood and steel.

    "Make haste your people need you" came the lilting voice of the guardian of light and suddenly the clang of metal became a constant din of pounding blades as Lahav doubled its speed, already more cuts appearing on the fighter''s necks and faces and Kluvis suffered a gash to his thigh, as if on cue all three started falling back and in an instant disengaged from the melee.

    "Mass heal" cuts and bruises visibly vanished from their bodies, "wall of fire" erupted between the retreating men and their assailant, the whole party regrouped and took a defensive tactical formation that will be much harder for two spell casters and a talking sword to break.

    "We should retreat" Jeremy said as he joined the other two behind the wall of flames.

    "It does appear to be a lost cause", the guardian of light may have agreed with him, "but the master bid me defend the camp site", or not.

    "There is literaly nothing there", Jeremy tried his luck again.

    "True enough", the blue woman agreed, "but the others may return at any moment and be ambushed by these robbers"

    The wall of flames winked out and revealed that all twelve members of Julian''s party returned and were standing in an offensive wedge formation, in moments this will devolve to a battle Jeremy didn''t know if they could win.

    "Who are you people?" Jeremy could kisss his blessed diamond snout when he heard the deep rumbling voice, maybe prayers were answered after all?

 363 Depth Grunge

    "They are the ones that robbed me", the unfamiliar voice made Jeremy look away from the enemy and see the crowd gathered around the dragon, he counted at least seven parties easily distinguished by their color schemes.

    Party color schemes? What madness is this? Who chose to stay in the same party for long enough to pay for personalized color schemes? And most of these Players looked like children barely out of preschool, he guided enough of them through the pass to recognize the appearance even in specialized and legacy avatars.

    "They beat me up and took all my gold", another voice cried out, "they took my stuff" the chorus repeated over and over with minor detail changes until finally in the silence one girl was still crying and Jeremy couldn''t hear her story bit she was the only one painted blue with slashed hearts in groups of five, he could guess what happened to her and her half party, which was the norm for youngsters who wanted familiar company while mingling with other half parties, then realising she was wearing dirty and torn free clothes which could only happen if she had nothing else in her inventory, another boy had slashed diamonds and he noticed the slashed five emblem pattern was repeated quite often.

    "THATS A LIE", Julian screamed, "they are all filthy liars that just want to rob us because they have a dragon", looking balefully at the youngsters, "I will not be bullied by children or by a fake dragon"

    "Do you deny taking my customers'' possessions?" The deep rumble sounded almost like a challenge.

    "If I find things in my dungeon they are mine", Julian sounded confident, "who made you a judge anyway?", looking at his party, "lets go I don''t have time for children''s games or lies" and turned his back to Allen

    Jeremy saw the dragon gurgle and thought he was about to speak when he opened his mouth wide and puked a rainbow on Julian''s party splashing sparks of color all around the twelve shocked people.

    "What the fuck?" Looking at their dark green lines on orange background Jeremy was surprised by his own voice.

    "Take it off me", he heard screams from the besieged party before "you fucking robbed us"

    "If I find something in my dungeon then its mine", innocently repeating Julian''s words.

    "You fucking looted my inventory thats not in the fucking dungeon" Kluvis screamed at the top of his lungs.

    The others suddenly stared blankly at their displays before Gurim equipped a sword and charged alone at the crowd, two of the sorcerers dopped to the ground an one of the rangers outright fainted, automatically going offline.

    "Ahhhhhhh" Gurim screamed, charging at the dragon thief with his sword swinging wildly, when he reached action distance Allen moved to intercept him.

    "Rrrrhhaa", Gurim was flung backwards and seemed to be tearing apart, when he stopped rolling Jeremy saw he had no hair and no gear equipped, Allen walked over to where Gurim''s equipment was strawn and slowly picked it up before the stunned eyes of everyone in the field, "I found it and its mine now", Jeremy gulped at the words.

    "My father will hear of this atrocity", Julian''s scream whistled out when Allen turned to look at him.

    "You killed me" came the quiet accusation from Kluvis, "not in the fucking game", he answerd the questioning look from the dragon, "I have debts to pay in the real fucking world and they will fucking kill me".You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    "Well if you need money why not take a loan?" Allen asked innocently.

    "I cant pay back the loans I already had you moron I have a thirty percent interest loan from a black market banker", Kluvis held his head with both hands and fell to the ground, "I''m fucking dead"

    "If you take a loan from me I can give you a discount of fifty percent from my charge fees and only five percent total interest on the initial sum", it sounded rehearsed and from the looks on the children''s faces they each heard it a thousand times.

    "Five percent total on the initial?" Kluvis sounded broken, "you don''t even have a hundred grand", he said despairing at the joke on his account.

    "You heard right", the dragon sounded jovial, "only five percent total on the initial", then added, "actually for a hundred grand you can have it at four point five percent total on the initial", Looking at one of the children, "Naoli please prepare the contract for mister..."

    "Kluvis" the man answerd.

    "Kluvis", Allen continued, "by the agreed on details"

    "Right away sir", a girl with slashed doves or dragons said, "should I sign it for you?" she asked genuinely and Jeremy''s jaw would have hit the floor if it could.

    "Yes thank you", turning to the other Players in Julian''s party he looked almost giddy, "and how may I help you gentlemen?"

    "You can fuck yourself to death" Julian answered angrily.

    "That is rude", Allen said and added, "you may leave now"

    "I will leave when I want to leave", foaming at the mouth, "not when a giant sparkly lizard tells me to".

    "Security", at the word Jeremy saw two full parties step out from the groups, almost a third of them Legacy avatars, "please escort mr bad manners out" it sounded so proper and polite Jeremy thought he was dreaming.

    The two parties pushed their way through the shocked enemy fighters and sorcerers, "dont touch me" Julian screeched, "protect me" he looked at his men, "I will kick you from the part"

    "Fuck you Julian" Cergei said, "I quit your fucking party", which lead to a cascade of voices sounding the same sentiment.

    "My father will hear of this" Julian raved, "you will all join the loser''s ban from the guild"

    "Who cares about your guild moron?" One of the two women in the party said, "all it does is take taxes and give us stupid escort quests", looking in her display, "there I fucking quit".

    "If you don''t come with me right now you will all be banned from the free guild alliance" Julian''s voice broke into a whisper but half of the people stood up to go with him, carrying the three unconcious men and surrounded by the ''security'' force.

    The woman that quit the guild put her hands on her face and sobbed quietly when a few of the children surrounded her for support she wailed in anguish and was offered handkechiefs and water.

    Allen walked to her but one of the girls stood up and shook her head and he turned to the remaining three people.

    "Do you need a job?" Saying the words in a quiet rumbling undertone.

    The men looked at their displays for a second and then nodded at a blonde ranger who replied, "it looks like it" adding "what are you hiring?"

    Allen looked back at the gathered children, "we need guides and teachers".

    The small group looked at each other with astonished stares and nodded furiously, "we can do that", the ranger finally said, "for the right wages".

    "Excellent" was the rumbling reply, "you can finish the details with my head of human resource department", looking at the crowd and then to the group helping the woman, "Sutul come here please", Jeremy was flabbergasted, Sutul was the most beautiful man he ever saw, an obvious Legacy character if he ever met one and it had eleven slashed stars on his cheek, a whole party sacrificed themselves so this one Player would keep its character away from danger.

    "Yes Allen?" His voice was so charming Jeremy fealt his heart flutter.

    "A random group of instructors appeared", the dragon smiled, "what do you want to do"

    Sighing at the dragon''s archaic joke, "I will hire them", even frustrated his voice was a gift to mankind.

    "Sutul I choose you", Allen kept the joke alive, "use your power of negotiation to help find them a perfect place with us"

    "Sure thing" Jeremy yawned at the tiring dragon''s demands and saw many others in the same predicament.

    "Follow me" was all Sutul had to say to make the four hardy warriors follow it like ducklings.

    "I admired the whore class", Jeremy heard Allen say in remeniscence "but I could never force myself beyond the first resurgence".

    "What are you talking about?" Jeremy heard his voice betray his inquisitive mind.

    "Just some old memorys", came the reply, "forget I said anything".

 364 Cat Spice

    "And that is how I became Lahav''s living weapon", Jeremy concluded his story, "then I just waited for you guys and practiced before Julian showed and messed everything up again", the dragon seemed different, "Ashashit fought the king of the forest and his party cheated", the fresh memory of those last few seconds still hurt him deep inside, "then they caught me and tried to torture me to give them my money and Lahav showed up kicking their asses", Allen was a good listener, "but they disengaged and the whole party gathered back together just before you showed up", it was a very abridged version but he needed time to go through his memory if he wanted to go to more details.

    "I understand how you used flight and ''treasure map'' to find them", he didn''t but the third explanation was worse than the second, "I don''t understand why you did it".

    Allen beckoned one of the ''customers'' and she almost ran to them, "after I met Yamu", the girl beamed a toothy smile, "she told me there were dangerous robbers in the dungeon", sounding dramatic, "then I found out she needed money and made her my second customer", very pleased with himself, "the system gave me a quest to gather more customers and I filled it with these nice available subject", looking around the crowd, "after the first quota was done It extended to more and again after that", reading something on his display, "I need five hundred customers for my next level business owner and three hundred for the banker quest", seeming sad, "but there isnt anyone else in the dungeon to add to my business", reading something else, "if I approach the other Players that weren''t robbed they just call me a monster and attack me".

    Sending Yamu away he looked for someone else, "ah Meshuma went to escort the rude people away", adding, "I had to set up security when our group grew larger because it drew monsters to our location and I didn''t want to fight them all the time", answering Jeremy''s unasked question, "I can hire parties to do quests and jobs for my business and security is a bank applicable job".

    None of that information answered Jeremy''s question but he sighed because hearing another version with other Players called into the roles wouldn''t get him anywhere.

    "What are you going to do now?" Was a new question that might at least get more helpful information.

    "I need to go back to the Kobold capital", wasn''t what Jeremy would have guessed, "adding the new business owner job removed the dragon behavioral blockers and I could remember other things than just my treasure and fighting", looking around again, "I wish Kyatha was back already so we could leave"Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

    "Maybe something happened to her?" Jeremy said absentmindedly, "it is still a dungeon", then addind, "even if most of it is guild patrolled and maintained at low levels some parts are still pretty dangerous", looking behind him at the rolling hills, "the pass is a good example as its linked to the mountain you see in the distance and that is a top level dungeon for very powerful and experienced players"

    "She said there was a safe way out somewhere over there", Allen pointed to where Jeremy was looking, "do you know how far it is from here?"

    "Shit" Jeremy spat, "that''s not a safe zone it''s the connection between the dungeons", thinking back, "no one survives the pass alone for a week", remembering the avatar she was using, "we have to go find her", adding "if she is in binge survival mode for three days it could be very dangerous to her real world health"

    "Sutul" Allen cried out and the man came over, "I have to go find a friend", he explained the call, "you are in charge until I return"

    "Fine" came the dry alluring answer.

    "Man what is wrong with you?", Jeremy accused, "you have one of the greatest legacy avatars I never heard of and you act like everything is crap"

    "Fuck you foxman I dont owe you an explanation", came the bitter reply.

    "Leave her", Allen said dismissing the obviously male avatar, "she blames herself for her friend''s sacrifices" as if that gave anyone the right to be an asshole.

    "When the first monster waves came she gathered everyone into formations", explaining further, "she utilised everyone to their maximum potential and we only had a few light wounded from a very dangerous attack", adding, "in the morning I hired her as the head of human resources in my business", on a final note, "she knows her job so just leave her alone"

    A gazebo appeared on Allen''s back out of nowhere, "its my palanquin", he explained, "I can equip it when I need to carry someone", then added "I also have this"

    Jeremy gaped, "where did you get this?", looking at the heavy high tech armor from some scify story complete with lazer cannons and blinking lights covering the already formidable monster and turning it to a veritable machine of wanton devastation, most of the bulges and crystal domes made no sense, he never heard or read of anything like it.

    "After Hatula helped me figuring some computer stuff I decided to try and make it", then added, "regaining my mind helped a lot with the design and repuposing of different parts", closing his eyes the palanquin replaced the monstrocity, "I didnt want to get hurt like when that siege cannon hit me".

    "Ok" Jeremy choked, "so you decided to annihilate the pirates", no other possible explanation came to his mind, the dragon made a functioning space marine armor for a dragon in the middle of a dungeon while gathering over a hundred stray children, overwhelmed wasnt close to discribe how he fealt as he was gently nudged into the palanquin and the dragon took to the air, the seats were actually comfortable and the construction prevented the wind from blowing inside so he just stared as the goliaths pass moved below him.

 365 Bout Dresser

    Allen scanned his display map again and compared it to the landscape below, "I don''t understand this map" sending a ''message'' spell to Jeremy when he returned from his offlife break.

    "What happened?" Came the ''message'' reply.

    "The map doesnt match the trails", a good thing ''message'' spells didn''t convey frustration, "its like half of them are at an angle instead of being parallel like they are in reality"

    Leaning over the edge and trying to see what the dragon was talming about Jeremy found out he was really afraid of heights when he came to after Allen landed and layed him on the ground.

    "Your blockers initiated an emergency blackout", the dragon rumble while Jeremy just wanted to ennoy the happines of solid ground holding him, "I think its interesting how the system forces the character features on the Player even when he himself wouldn''t react to the same stimulae", the soft rumble helping him snuggle deeper into the ground, "if you were really afraid of heights the system would block the shock of exposure and send you offline for treatment", explaining further nonsense things, "I find it correlates perfectly with my own experience and cant help but wonder what other hidden mechanisms are actually making me do the things I do", going on and on, "do I really enjoy math and banking or is it the system telling me I feel pleasure doing them?"

    "Does it matter?" Jeremy finally asked.

    "If I don''t know about a weakness and someone else finds out about it" the dragon sounded worried, "like the Kobolds with the gold lust", which meant nothing to Jeremy, "it could turn a battle into a farce".

    "Where are we going from here?" Jeremy finally aske, "I''ve never been so deep in the Golliaths'' pass before", adding, "the only one I ever heard of that did was the first Afriat and he was a member of an expedition that mapped the pass up to where it joins the other mountain", ending with a grim note, "only eight people managed to flee the storm giants and bring back their maps"

    "Giants are natural enemies for dragons", Allen still showed the attention span of a dragon was only given to treasure and combat, "I should test my new armor without revealing it to the pirates"

    "Giants are very crafty", Jeremy warned, "if you use a spell on them you might have it turned against you by the end of the fight", then adding, "and when we tried to use cavalry to push them back", shuddering at the tale, "by the end of the war they were riding monstrous nightmares and devastated our ranks", ending with another grim note, "only our border castles managed to hold them back and now they have their own forts guarding the pass against us" neglecting to mention the guild castles were dependent on the free guild alliance that was now drawn away to a war with the pirates.

    "Then I probably shouldn''t use it yet" at least his conclusion was correct, "and you could never speak to them because all they do is growl and attack you right?"If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    "Even if we catch one they are just random generated monster", adding, "Players can''t take a giant character because all the spawn points are guarded and they will just be killed with an overpriced null level avatar", remembering something, "the pirates are supposed to have some giant Players so maybe they have a hidden spawn where people are less prejudiced"

    "Jovial!", Allen suddenly remembered his friend.

    "That''s one way to put it", Jeremy replied to the strange wording.

    "I just remembered my friend", quickly adding "I told him to make a Kobold character and that I would watch over him"

    "What happened" The human asked sarcastically, "you saw some loot?"

    "You could say that", moping with each word, "another reason to go back to the capital faster"

    "Don''t be so sad", trying to cheer him up, "why not send him a message offline?"

    "I don''t know his offline name", evading the secret truth.

    Jeremy heard the sounds of battle down the pass and Allen was already agitated by the time he equipped his dagger and cast "long stride" and "mage armor"

    Coming to the scene all he could see was carnage, the smaller Giants after which the pass was named were strewn all over the place, broken forms and torn limbs, some were crushed under huge boulders, but it still seemed like they were winning against the earth elementals as there were dozens more of the Goliaths and only a few remaining elementals still intact around the low stone wall that formed a tiny keep, gaping holes where the wall was breached were numerous and it looked like the next wave will crumble it.

    "Disintegrate" boomed throughout the pass from a frost giant wizard.

    "Null magic", saved the fort from the spell.

    Understanding fell on Jeremy like a bolder from a giant, this was the power of a legacy character, of the woman that almost swore to destroy his guild, now he knew she could do it single handedly, maybe with a top ranking Player Afriat could slow her down, but Julian wasn''t even a bump in her path.

    The dragon roared and charged into the fray, flinging the goliaths left and right as it cut a path toward the unnamed barricade, "haste" Jeremy cast on himself and followed.

    There were actually three circular lower walls protecting a central keep and from up close Jeremy realised they were only lower compared to the Giants laying the siege, "tempest" the storm Giant cast on the dragon and they were immediately blinded by the swirling snow and biting cold.

    "Daylight", seemed a strange choice until he found there was a break in the icy fog with streams of sunlight showing him where to go, finally inside the keep Jeremy collapsed against the wall in relative safety.

    "We have to fly out of here", he heard Kyatha order Allen and rushed to join her in the palanquin.

    When Jeremy came back from the blackout they were still inside the besieged fort, "damn that frost giant Player" he heard Kyatha cursing when he opened his eyes, Allen was hobbling a wing and seemed like he flew through a tornado, maybe it was good he wasn''t concious to actually see it.

    "Can we charge out like we came in?", the dragon asked.

    "Coming in was easy", Kyatha after thinking, "you came from behind their backs and surprised them", adding, "going out will be much more difficult"

    "Guardian of light" another strange creature appeared, a yellow skinned boar with tiny wings and huge tusks, after a few seconds its eyes were glowing a sinister red, "welcome friend", Allen said, "what is you name?"

    Confused it looked at the dragon and then its eyes glazed, "Shovermatsor" came out in crunching snorts like rocks grinding against each other, "what is thy bidding?" Still looking suspiciously at Allen.

    "We need to get out of here and cant fly away", Allen ignored the gaping stares from the other Players.

    "I need to assess the situation", the tiny wings flapped and carried the extremely anti aerodinamic flying pig over the wall, it returned after a few minutes, "you can''t leave" it said in a dry grinding tone.

 366 Agile Pores

    "I need a shower and real sleep", Meroa was crushed mentally and physically, "you will have to hold the fort for six hours until I come back"

    "Easily done", unexpectedly came from the fairy boar, "I can hold this siege for six days without trouble"

    Looking quizzically at Allen she finally sighed, "if you can''t then it was immpossible anyway", seeming sad, "I was ready to give up and despawn when you charged down the pass", frustrated, "if you came in yesterday before that damn Player frost giant showed up we could fly away", shrugging she settled down against a wall and logged off.

    Caught in her father''s arms as he helped remove the rig, then princess carried her in silence to an already filled bath where her mother and sister helped her take the sweaty suit off and gently floated her down the tub.

    The hot water covering every part of her body soaked her strained muscles as she slowly relaxed into the floating bliss of sleep.

    Waking up to Hatula holding her was a childhood comfort she snuggled into, "you are awesome", the words warming her heart, "I was so scared but you just stood there against all odds and kicked ass"

    Smiling at the complements Meroa thrned to her sister, "it seems I wrecked your legacy avatar", with sadness, "you deserve it much more than me", adding, "I almost had it disintegrated twice", finishing, "even if I do get out of that siege alive it''s yours"

    Eyes sparkling, "I understand", Hatula finally said, "and I really am sorry", pulling her sister in and holding her tight.

    "What time is it?" The knowlege popping from her implant, "why didn''t you wake me up four hours ago?" Jumping out of the bed she ran to her VR room but the door didn''t accept her handprint.

    As tears started welling up in her eyes from anger and frustration her father came into the hallway, "you need to eat", he beckoned for her to follow, "I will remove the parental lock after you finish dressing up and eat a full breakfast", smiling mischievously, "late lunch for us"

    Blushing she ran back to her room and burst open the closet, quickly picking a simple summer dress, Hatula brought her slippers and they went to the dining room together but Hatula diverted their path toward the official dining hall reserved for hollydays, birthdays and other special occasions.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

    The huge room was packed with family and guildmembers, seeing the holograms replaying the second day of the siege when a wave of direwolf riding Goliaths streamed down from her less defended flank and she had to create the inner keep even higher so they couldn''t jump over it while her elementals were breaking their legs, it was a sadist tactic but killing the beasts took too much effort when a simpler though inhumane solution got results.

    Then came the last time she logged off for a real meal and she noticed the silence in the room and everyone staring at her, starting with a single clap the noise washed over her so loud she fell into a chair, claps and hollers emboldened by shrill lilting cries and whistles accompanied by "well done" from her uncle and "that was epic" by a distant cousin, the congratulations kept pouring out and at some point her niece settled on Meroa''s knees when she brought her a flower bouquet leading to more children vying for her attention and then being swept away as the food was brought out.

    Eating in a pocket of silent close family members that gave her the space needed she still heard the arguments from down the table by enthusiastic guilders and uncles going through her battles in minute detail and arguing about every decision she made, aprreciating uncle Kavod''s stalwart defense of her every action knowing in her heart she made more than a few mistakes.

    One of the guilders shouted "collapsing the ledge to the north on the first armored nightmare was a mistake that an amateur wouldn''t make", bringing the whole room to a halt.

    "You can''t judge the woman on the scene", Kavod broke the silence, "she couldn''t know he was a lone scout and there wasn''t time to fend off a cavalry charge with Goliath rock slingers pecking the wall on the other side", bringing back the talks to a very blushed guildman Freddy.

    "What now?" Her father asked when she finished eating and the room went silent again as he loaded the last schematics of the castle with enlarged avatars of her three companions and the frost giant that had turned the tide.

    "What is that pig monster?" One of the younger cousins asks only to be rebuked by "NO! This is a war council and we don''t have time to start explaining every tiny detail either stay quiet or leave" which brough a hubbub of protest followed by older guilders escorting their younger family members out of the room with little protest.

    "We need current intel", guild woman Tihara said, "why dont you pop in and out so we know what is going on?"

    "I am already late", Meroa answerd in frustration, "if I log in and start helping I will be drawn into the fight", looking gloom, "and if I don''t help they might think I gave up on them".

    "Then it doesn''t matter and you will just have to log in and do your best now that you are fed and rested", Tihara was right and all Meroa could do was sigh and hope she didn''t need their advice for the next hour or so, and if she did then like Tihara said, it didn''t matter.

 367 Xyphoid Yolk

    "If you want to survive for an extended period of time", rocks grinding Jeremy''s brain to a pulp, "we need to bolster the whole castle from the foundation up"

    "We have about an hour until they reorganise the troops to attack again", the dragon rumbled, "can you do it?"

    "I can use the elementals to fix the outer wall in this timeframe to withstand an assault" crunching pebbles crushing Jeremy''s eardrums, "after that we will need to distribute them between repairs and battle" uncontrollably crunching his teeth with every word, "the more of the attackers you take on the greater our chances to complete the repairs"

    "Lets do it", turning to Jeremy, "you keep watch and tell us if they try to sneak in"

    Jeremy looked at the battlements, "I will black out if I go that high".

    Thinking for a few seconds Allen took out a device that looked a lot like Red''s ancient monitors, fidgeting with it for a minute and it lit up, after seeing the space armor he wasn''t sure why this surprised him at all, "use ''message'' spells to make it show you different parts of the area".

    "What?", was the dragon talking to him?

    "Look here", a diamond scaled finger pointed and jeremy saw the path ilustrated on the monitor, "message turn vision rigt by thirty degrees", the picture jumped showing part of the wall, "message move vision left three meters" it jumped again and the wall vanished from the monitor, "you need to use it a little before you master its control but its a very simple application of the computer"

    Jeremy snatched the monitor from the ground and stared at the awesomeness of it, ''message turn down ninety degrees'' gave him an upside down visual of the open keep, fidgeting with the controls finally had him staring at his own image and then into an infinite abyss of monitors, looking up he saw the dragon was long gone and remembered his own mission.

    Finding out how to give looped commands to the device was a piece of cake to someone living with a cranial implant almost from his first breath, as well as narrowing and expanding his vision from a tight beam to a confusingly crammed three sixty orb that would give a fish a major headache.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    Seeing the flying pig command the elementals to fix the outer wall was hypnotysing, the relentless creatures just piled up the broken rocks and then flowed into the pile and formed the wall.

    After each section was done they would materialise beside their creation and Allen puked his rainbow on it, painting it with dazzle chamouflage that hurt to look at for too long.

    The boar fairy also directed the construction of more elaborate battlements, structures, towers and gatehouses, Allen produced planks and crafted giant doors laced with metal Jeremy couldn''t even guess where he got it from but he painted them to look like a long tunnel.

    It seemed funny until Jeremy realised how lifelike the paint looked and remembered it was literaly inderstructible, someone was going to charge into that and not like it one bit.

    The pig''s assessment of his work speed was off as they still had a third of the outer wall in its crumbling state when Jeremy spotted the first Goliaths coming up from the north pass.

    "They are coming from the north" he ran and shouted, "the goliaths are coming" screaming again when he was in earshot of the construction crew, luckily the north part was already finished so unless the monsters took a long detour they faced a dazzeling indestructible wall.

    "Did you see the frost giant with them?" Shaking his head at the dragon''s question seemed to satisfy him as the beast flew up to the northern wall.

    Looking in his monitor he saw the monsters were armed with hoopaks that were literal catapult arms without the whole slow moving machine attsched realising now how the stone walls were so thoroughly turned to rubble, whistling in appretiation at Kyatha''s achievement in fending off the siege for so long against these tactics.

    They stopped at a much greater distance than he thought was possibly their maximum range and yet didn''t start the attack, maybe waiting for more reinforcements to arrive, every moment of peace built the last part of the wall further though it didn''t get the paint treatment yet it was faster to paint than build and Allen needed to defend the castle in case the monsters attacked.

    Three of the elementals were also stationed with him while the rest of them worked relentlessly at the construction.

    A single Goliath walked up to a range of four hundred meters and swung his hoopak to launch a rock so fast it whistled through the air and missed the whole castle, another shot missed.

    Other goliaths were rolling on the floor laughing, the creature took aim, closed its eyes and shot, this time the rock hit the wall and just fell to the ground making even more of the monsters roar in laughter.

    Two more got into range, fired and missed until the first explained about closing their eyes after aiming, the three rocks hitting the painted wall crumbled to dust.

    The rest of the group joined and the noise from rocks shattering on the wall reminded Jeremy of Shovermatsor''s speech, even in the inner keep it was so loud he could barely think when one rock went past the outer wall and hit the second one it broke the wall to pieces.

 368 Yarn Plug

    Sighing in relief when it was apparent the one hit was actually a goliath missing the outer wall, Jeremy noticed all the real hits were on the lowest portion of the wall indicating this was the extreme range for their shots.

    Figuring it out the monsters started to move closer in an orderly fashion, one moving up to a new range and flinging rocks, joined by small groups and another brave goliath moving forward, hitting the higher portion of the outer wall at about two hundred and fifty meters and the inner wall started to take a lot more direct hits and soon its upper battlements were turned to rubble, creating even more work for the repair crew if they ever came about to do it.

    A low rumble started reverbatind through the walls as something was building up, suddenly the earth shook around the closest groups of goliaths, falling and scrambling away, one of them marked a line on the ground and Jeremy knew this showed the defenders'' extreme range, if they had any siege engines or cannons they could probably fight rocks with fire but the nearest cannons were... In Allens inventory.

    "Allen" screaming at the top of his lungs as soon as he saw him the dragon turned its head, "use the cannons", the dragon nodded and pulled out three cannons, placing them on the battlements where its group of elementals stood.

    Taking positions near each cannon the hulking rocks looked like chubby children with a toy as they fiddled with them, then Allen looked at something in his display and the cannons boomed, hitting groups of goliaths with hot shrapnel and blowing them apart, shocking the creatures long enough for a second volley before they ran as fast as they could and another blast hit their stragglers, Jeremy could see some of the wounded monsters trying to crawl away but a short sweep of cannon fire turned them all to paste.

    After the retreating creatures weren''t shot at any more they found themselves way past their extreme hoopak range and set up a camp on the north pass, the outer wall was finished before another group of the small giants appeared from the east.

    A delegation from the camped goliaths went out to meet with them, Jeremy wished he could understand them and listen in on their council with the cheat monitor, deciding to ask Allen about it later he messaged the dragons about the newcomers and another couple of elementals were set to guard the east wall with cannons from Allen''s pirate hoard.

    The work on the inner wall was even more inventive than the external one, with nooks and crannies letting defenders ambush the attackers and dead end passages creating a converging line of fire for hidden cannons.

    Placing more cannons on the other walls lowered the workforce and the elaborate stoneworks took a lot longer to complete, leading to the second attack coming from three sides at once to be a slight challenge and take away more elementals.

    The sixth group of goliaths brought giant armored steeds from the east pass, knowing it took much of Allen''s concentration to fire the cannons at moving targets this posed a new problem to the defenders until they all charged directly into a gate painted on the wall, endeing with a pile of scrambling giants and nightmares and less than a third surviving the retreat from point blank range of two tower mounted cannons hitting them from both sides and the wall cannons joining as soon as they got out of their blind zone.

    The charge also lead to the defenders first losses when hoopak shot rocks blew up a cannon and its elemental operator leading to more losses when the monsters started sacrificing more of their people to fell elementals that were irreplaceable without Kyatha to summon more of them.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    Night fell and with it the defenders lost the dazzle effect on ranged incoming attacks and cannon range halved so the attackers came much closer before Allen could shoot them.

    "We only have nineteen more elementals" rocks falling down a well splashed Jeremy''s mind, "we need to fall back to the inner wall"

    "I know" frustration rumbled from the dragon, "it will be hard to push the giants away from the wall"

    "When the woman wakes up we will have more elementals" each word a rock hitting the other in an avalanche, "then we can push them back with our superior firepower"

    "Shouldn''t she be back by now?", the dragon sounded worried.

    "Survival binge is gruesome", Jeremy joined in, "I wouldn''t expect her for at least four more hours and won''t be surprised if it were six"

    Catching movement in the monitor sweep and turning it back, Jeremy switched between his previously saved settings and found the horrors sneaking into the castle were already beyond the blind area for the outer cannons, "something sneaked past our defenses".

    "Direwolves", Allen hissed, "then he must be here as well".

    "Who?" Jeremy didn''t know any personalized monster around here.

    "The direwolves were all with the frost giant Player", jerking Jeremy''s memory, "we crashed into him and wounded him grievously but the wolves chased us away before we could kill him", entering story telling mode, "they herded us to a trap before we ran back here where we knew it was relatively safe for a short time", looking grim, "seems like our time just ran out".

    Scrambling up the outer wall with ease the monsters started prowling the maze created from the inner walls, a small group patrolled the outer wall but only found the canons with the elementals already moved to more defensible positions, they still trashed the tubes so they were useless even if the outer wall was retaken.

    Following the monsters'' progress in the monitor Allen concentrated and the display was momentarily lit up as hidden cannons blew the group to pieces, hearing the blast and then howls of pain and rage all the way to the inner keep the monitor became a blur of intense movement when the wolves attacked the two elementals before they recharged the cannons, messing with the war tubes was their doom as the oversized golems were shredded to pieces in a fit of rage that was unusual for creatures attacking such magical constructs.

    The butcher''s bill of two elementals and cannons against seven giant wolves was probably a fair exchange in any other battle, but with the very short supply they had of the things it ended up against the defenders.

    Following the wolves silent assault came the goliaths, closing the distance and helping each other hop over the wall, it was then that Allen moved out into the dark labyrinth.

    Slithering low through the twisting walls Allen took shortcuts hidden in the paintings to reach the remaining five wolves that crashed his elementals, finding them still in the same dead end position where the carnage took place and sneaking through the distance to attack as soon as his opening strikehit them.

    "Eldritch barrage" was his experimental combination of the extremely versatile magic missile and overwhelmingly powerful eldritch blast that could be enhanced by passive advances in his classes, the six bolts of magical devastation shot out and struck the wolves in an instant.

    Moving right behind the bolts was a monster of blinding flashes and slashing claws that sliced through hardened mkuntain fur like paper, none of the monsters remained unscathed from that attack but only one was hurt enough to stay down.

    Dagger like teeth closed on crystaline scales slipping until they found the inevitable seams and cut into the hard hide of the monster making it roar in pain and snap its jaws on a howling wolf, fair exchage for the giant mammald as it prevented the raptilian from using its powerful magic, climbing on its back caused cut paws but also forced it to shake violently and the smart canines used the time to regroup and attack in a new angle.

    Nipping its hind legs pushed the serpent to overextend in its forward momentum though it dropped the dead wolf it still let one of the others to take a free bite at its tail causing it to roar in pain.

    The only thing that saved the creature were elementals pouring out of hiding, smashing paws and legs and forcing the remaining trio to retreat to safety while their prey was snatched from under their snouts.

 369 Zoo Power

    "Cure wounds" Jeremy cast the spell, "cheese and crust man you got shredded" cursing at the miserable state of his friend.

    "Isn''t it Jesus christ?", Allen whimpered.

    "What pizza flavor is that?" Jeremy didnt hear of it but there were thousands of flavors he never would get through all of them even with Red''s enthusiastic assistance in the scientific process.

    "Never mind" the dragon sighed and drooped its head, "I wish I was a better fighter", lamenting "I seem to lose every battle I go to".

    "You should probably learn to pick your fights" Jeremy couldn''t stop himself, "you attacked a whole blockade and now a pack of wolves nearly half your size", thinking of the words, "that is huge half a dragon sized wolves" seeing it wasn''t cheering his friend up, "at least we know how Kyatha drove them back", looking suspiciously at one of the elementals in the room, "breaking their legs is nasty crap from horror holograms".

    "It works", sighing again Allen looked at Jeremy, "the goliaths are contained in the outer wall" sounding grim, "the gauntlet coupled with the elemental''s natural chamoughlage is holding them at bay and", ending in a bitter note, "they know better than me when to fire the cannons and when to attack in melee".

    "Looks like the frost giant Player is back", Jeremy focused the vision on his monitor and let Allen see the cavalry goliaths entering the east gate and behind them the frost giant had to lean over to get through, tower shield bearing infantry giants spread before the nightmares and started navigating the gauntlet maze slaughtering the few remaining elementals, the whole siege turned into a one sided victory parade.

    Pulling back the eight surviving elementals was almost admitting defeat, with nowhere to run Allen decided to give it all for his last stand, equipping the space armor and leading the elementals on one last stand they chose a choke point where the enemy would be stretched in a straight line and give their single volley its best chance to do some good before the cavalry charged through them.

    "Are we ready?" Allen rumbled to Shovermatsor.

    "They wouldn''t know what hit them" chuckling sounded like grating stones in a blender, "wouldn''t want to be them"

    Three shields covered the whole passage almost wall to wall, the cannons barely denting the heavy slabs of metal were useless, an eerie sound started filling the pass like a rattle whistle building up volume, when it was almost unbearable something lit up and blasted through the rows of shields, molten metal hit flesh and hissed before the screams started.

    Giants falling, dead before they hit the floor, panic filled the ranks as the mechanical armor lit up like a holyday tree, huge metallic teeth in a double jaw, sharp claws lit by neon color lines, the eerie sound started building up again as the two shoulder cannons were rotating maws of heat and light.

    Not waiting for another discharge of the formidable weapon the shield bearers clung to the wall and the nightmare riders stormed down the narrow corpse strewn pass.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

    Rising on his hind legs Allen reveald five elemental cnnoneers that boomed as soon as he cleared their line of sight, the unshielded cavalry met with the unstoppable force of cannon fire at close range.

    Trampling their fallen comrades the cavalry charge continued to rumble when the floor vanished beneath the first row and the second followed them into the abyss before the next in line jumped over, the trick only buying the defenders enough time to fire one last volley before being trampled by the charging giants.

    Dropping from his hop Allen crushed into the surviving giants with all the weight of his heavy metal armor, reaching ground level and clawing two nightmares to the ground he activated his boosters and shot forward at breakneck speed pushing the front line at their allies almost all the way back to the gaping hole.

    Sinking the metal claws in the ground and leveling the plasma cannons with the ground he took aim and shot, drilling holes through the cavalry and clearing the center of the pass almost all the way to the back lines where direwolves surrounded the frost giants, remembering past exoeriences he chose not to chase the fleeing giants and just take his victory as it was.

    With the sun rising, a group of hoopak wielding goliaths clashed with two of the elementals, close quarters diminished the overwhelming range advantage for the defenders and Allen joined the melee to save their few remaining.

    A few pebbles hitting the the ground was all the alarm he had to boost through the giants when a wolf landed where he stood just a second before, evading into another street he barreled through a team of shield holders and couldn''t break them.

    Flying over the wall he saw the frost giant pointing a staff at him and immediately dodged out of sight, more wolves were waiting below and he had to roll, dodge and take quick hops over walls just to stay ahead.

    In one twisted turn his tail slashing a wolf across the face and his arm hitting the wall something soft gave out under his foot and he crashed into the other wall, scrambling to his feet he slithered over the wall just to see the frost giant was out of sight.

    Using the map he made a winding path back to the keep, knowing the gauntlet was also lost to them and soon the giants will be crashing in through their doors.

    Reaching the last leg of his flight he could see the empty area before the keep doors, boosting through the distance something caught his eye and he rolled when a thin beam of light disintegrated the ground and his the indestructible wall, skidding to a halt he initiated the plasma cannons and prepared to evade the next attacks before they charged up.

    The frost giant leaned against his staff, his skirt armor revealing a scar from their clash in the mountains, surrounded by direwolves and hoopak wielding goliaths he was holding up his arm in a gesture for negotiations.

    "What do you want?" Allen asked short of breath.

    "I have an offer for you", the Player replied, "I can let you leave the pass if you turn over the armor and the woman"

    "Make me another one" catching his breath, "how about", activating the banker negotiation skills, "we give you this castle", adding, "and you guide all of us away from the pass?"

    "I already control most of this castle and I can take the armor when I kill you", the giant was giving him no outs, "why should you die for a human avatar?", adding, "we can pay you with gold if you just leave", two goliaths carrying a huge box answered a cue and emptied a small mound of gold and gems into the dust.

    "Your tricks don''t work on me", Allen resisted the urge to asses and count the treasure, "I am not a hatchling anymore", aiming the plasma turret directly at him.

    "I didn''t think so" the giant pointed with his staff and disintegrated the gold, Allen lunged with a growl but stopped himself before taking a full step, "don''t work on you at all" he mocked.

    Firing his right plasma cannon and using the boosters to turn and blast him toward the keep door the last thing Allen saw was the giants evading his shot as he crashed through the open doors and Jeremy closes them behind him.

 370 Tin Hawk

    "Are you coming to Zaureen''s party tonight Alaska?", Leneva asked after their class on advanced VR economics.

    "Tonight will be the perfect time to kill my prey", cryptic answers became easier once she realised everyone was the enemy.

    "You''re no fun since you became a celebrity", looking worried, "are you ok? Watching out for red flags?"

    "Leave me alone Zaureen", adding "I am fine"

    "Pushing your friends away is a big red", the woman was relentless.

    "I just put social life on a back burner to concentrate on my job", if it was her choice then Zaureen''s flags theory was bunked.

    "You quit your job" sighing and shrugging her shoulders, "just remember that people care", then added, "we are here for you when you need us"

    "Thanks" Alaska needed to go back, "I really am fine"

    "Ok" finally giving up, "just signal if you need a save"

    "I will", walking away Alaska was already planning her fight with Koreimim.

    She needed to catch him distracted, the siege provided many missed opportunities but she wasn''t there every time he got smacked by that crafty dragon.

    Her plan to take the frost giant down at the moment of his triumph on that insufferable geomancer or whatever the woman was that held the whole mountain army at bay got bashed when she tried to escape and Alaska was offline.

    Now an impossible castle sprouted overnight like some crazy thornbush pushed to the limit by a druid to become a mighty tree and Koreimim was constantly surrounded by his guards, the second opportunity slipped her grasp when she was scouting the inner gauntlet and he sent his wolves to destroy the cannons.

    Logging off for classes probably made her miss another opportunity but it was inevitable, the slight time difference between the mountain area and her real world time zone was very convenient most of the time and could ruin her if she needed to stay online for any length of time.

    Maybe she should quit her studies, it wasn''t like studying that stuff will help her in her new line of work, but she already sunk so much effort it would be a shame to quit on her last year.

    A private appartment meant she would have to get pretty far from campus grounds at this time of the year so even if she could afford it, staying in the dorms was the smart thing to do, proved again by reaching her cube five minutes after class and getting online in record time of three minutes later.

    The warcamp was deserted when she materialised in her tent, only a few sounds from the healing area told her someone was still around.

    Talking to the NPC giants was useless, as soon as they learned she wasn''t food and left her alone she never bothered with them again, only comunicating with her ''brother'' Koreimim if she needed anything or to report on her missions.

    Why their master wanted him dead was a mystery she didn''t care enough to solve, the crazy beast gave her an infinite amount of meaningless tasks and if she didn''t see real improvement after each one she would think he was toying with her.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    With his cryptic nonsense like "to master the spear you must learn its language" and "the giants have secrets that could help you gap your flaws", commiting to his mad ''mastery'' training regime got her some powerful skills and spells but nothing as strong as just jabbing something with the spear of annihilation.

    The exact wording of "go stick your spear in Koreimim and maybe you will learn something" wasn''t very encouraging but she was ready to give up and walk off anyway so she decided to try.

    The frost giant was insanely powerful, matched only by the emperor and maybe a few of the other lieutenants, if he had any ambitions she was sure he could conquer the free guild alliance in an afternoon until she saw the legacy guilder, Koreimim brought her to the siege when there were only a few walls held by a bunche ofnelementals that served as repair crew and defending force against the waves of giants crushing through the walls only for the same wall to become alive and tear a group of giants apart.

    The Player was batshit crazy, they could tell when she was offline if the elementals wouldnt instantly heal or respawn and the combat took on an increasing rhythm of attacks and repairs with her adding more pieces to the defense pattern every day and making it even more difficult to assault, after she repelled the wolves and built the inner keep Koreimim decided to mass the whole army of the mountain, going as far a getting more of the real giants committing forces to the assault and then the crazy dragon struck, almost getting away if the hill giants weren''t already massing their army right where he was trying to go then he would surely have made it out of the dungeon area.

    Now the woman was offline for hours and instead of victory, things got even worse, indestructible walls you couldn''t aim at, cannons, insane mazelike areas where the elementals ambushed their troops invisible on open grounds, frustrated Alaska asked the mountain for help and he sent her to kill his champion.

    Looking at the castle made her dizzy walking toward the gate, goliath shieldbearers from the hills grunts didn''t scare her anymore, confidence was the key to dealing with these smaller giants, the nightmares from the western steppes were a different matter, meat eating horses that bit the giants riding them on a whim and had sharp almost clawlike hooves that could kill a direwolf with a single aimed kick were to be avoided at all costs.

    Following the lines from the different regions and clans it was clear that the southern peak was the most devastated by the skirmmish with only the wolves and two tribes of hoopak throwers remaining to guard the whole region Koreimim was finished and she just here to deliver the final blow.

    The flying battresses the main keep were even more impressive in the daylight, now seeing the patterns up close, the large doors wide open and the sounds of battle raging from inside, the other giants stayed away, letting Koreimim reap the rewards or pay the price for this final clash of titans, wizards and dragons.

    Tightening her grip on the spear of annihilation Alaska took a deep breath before her final confrontation with the Player that stole her staff on their first meeting.

    Steeling her mind before she delivered their master''s final message to a disgraced disciple that failed to defend the pass against a single Player again.

    Sneaking into the entry hall she was imressed by the carnage, following the trail of body parts and metal clanging she walked up a wide staircase and leaning against a wall before another open door, wolves were melted in the next room, she had no better description to the vision assaulting her every sense and gagging her breath.

    The final doors where battle still raged on were made entirely of gold, inside was the strangest battle she ever dreamed of, clad in a blinking futuristic armor painted with dazzle designs that made it hard to look at was a dragon, facing him were a wolf with three legs and Koreimim holding her staff of ultimate magic in one hand and a cannon in the other, a flying pig with tiny wings accompanied by an earth elemental was holding off five goliaths holding cannons like they were clubs, all she had to do was wait for an opportunity and she could complete her mission.

    The wolf jumped and clamped its claws on the dragon''s neck, Koreimim aimed the cannon, dashing forward, Alaska stabbed Koreimim in the armpit and the dragon''s claws threw the wolf against the wall.

 371 Ski Range

    "NOOO" the frost giant screamed, dropping the cannon and grabbing the spear stuck in his side, "why?" Looking at the woman that appeared from nowhere.

    Allen took advantage of the distraction to throw the direwolf against a wall, if he didn''t need to evade the cannon shot then he certainly didn''t need that pain in the neck, looking to Shovermatsor he painted the goliaths and stripped them from their weapons and armor giving the elementals an opening they used to smash through the smaller giants, knowing RedFox21 was protecting Kyatha in one of the smaller rooms where giants couldn''t attack them, let him focus on this final stand, still, they almost lost, unsure who the stranger was or why a single stab did more damage than his whole arsenal of high tech weapons, even a direct hit from a cannon wasn''t enough to topple this monumental avatar.

    The giant fell to his knees before the woman, "give me the elixir and I will make this", holding the simple looking staff up, "the most powerful staff in the game", coughing blood, "don''t let me die", slapping the ground.

    Looking puzzled, the woman scanned her display, "tell me what the elixir does and I will give it to you".

    "It gives you a second chance at life", spitting more blood, "please".

    Seeming dissatisfied with the answer she handed him a potion, drinking it so fast Allen thought the giant will choke, instead the frost giant despawned, turning into motes of light and streaming to the staff, making it glow for a second before it flew to the woman''s hand.

    The wolf howled in grief, long ululating cries of pain sounding almost like words as it filled the heart with sorrow.

    "I did that", Allen said absently, earning him the woman''s glare.

    "No!" eyes blazing, "I did it"

    "You misunderstand", explaining, "when I became the dragon I also did the same exchange"

    "What are you talking about", pointing the very dangerous spear at him.

    "Maybe he should explain", adding the human language to the staff''s array had the same effect it had with Shoul, immediately adding dozens of other languages he learned through the centuries of life, "what is your name?"

    "How can I understand you?", came the sound of snapping branches, "I can talk?", twirling in the woman''s hand, "you doused me in an elixir of wisdom?"

    "You can talk?" Dropping the staff and jumping back when he started floating in the air.

    "Who gave me an elixir of wisdom?" Rustling leaves on a dry road.

    "He did something", pointing to Allen with the spear again.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    Lahav knocked the spear from her hand, pushing down with a screech of metal, the sword and spear tangled in twists and curves, jabbing, slashing, cutting and glazing, every other sound was buried in the fast creschendo of the two living weapons.

    Adding the Human language to the spear''s array brought out moaning sounds interspersed with "oh yes", and "stay right there" in a soft, pleasing staccatto of parade drums, "oh god yessss!" Was followed by the two weapons parting and floating side by side while everyone else stared, the strange woman was blushed from head to neckline.

    "Good for you", Kyatha cheered from the balcony, the spear jumped to a javeline pose befor Lahav started to chuckle sounding like a whetstone grinding a blade.

    "What?" Drummed from the spear, "aaahh" with an embarassed thrumming before she turned head down and buried herself into the stone floor.

    "Don''t worry", Lahav clang, "they never care"

    Jumping up from her attempt to hide, "I care", twirling around like a baton, "why did I have to marry such a fool?"

    "Because I beat you twice a day for a year", ringing like a bell, "and you love my jeweled ass"

    "Shut up", bass beat, "what are you doing here anyway?"

    "I should ask you the same question", dinging tongs, "I am on a mission for the emperor".

    "Slom would never give your chatty face a mission", slow droning beat, "I just performed my mission and should go back to report"

    "I want you to meet my new weapon", proud tinge, "RedFox21 come meet my wife"

    "Who was stupid enough to callenge you to a duel?" Laughing spatter.

    "You could talk all this time?" The woman cried in frustration, "why not talk to me?"

    Jumping back when the spear jab in her direction, "you never listened", trackin fractions, "whining and brooding all day"

    The staff started vibrating, "you do whine and brood too much", wood chafing.

    "How would you know?" Replying in a wounded voice.

    "I watched you for three months", sculpting knife shavings.

    "Are you Koreimim", staring frightened at the staff in her hand.

    Loud coughing from the balcony, "that is a nice reunion you have there", kyatha said quietly, "SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON RIGHT NOW!'', rocking the walls with her command.

    Shocked stares and subdued blades turned to her "she killed the frost giant and turned him to the staff", Allen tried to explain everything to Kyatha, "we can leave now".

    "Well actually", blackboard smacked by a ruler, "the other giants will storm the keep any minute to get the prize", chalk taps, "for killing the spring bringer and a the human geomancer"

    "I am not a geomancer", Kyatha exclaimed.

    "What is spring bringer?" Allen asked at the same time.

    "Alaska" thumping the woman''s head, "killed a frost giant and gained the spring bringer title", more chalk taps, "killing her will get someone the springkiller title", adding, "a goliath can use the title to become a frost giant".

    "A living staff of ultimate magic?", hearing the wonder and trepidation in Kyatha''s voice made sure Allen knew this was something special, "sell it to me for one hundred thousand gold"

    The woman seemed to consider the offer before saying, "I will sell it for five hundred thousand gold and a ticket out of here"

    "Two hundred and you can join our party until we leave", was Kyatha''s final offer.

    "Deal", the woman called.

    "Allen give her two hundred grands and I will pay you back later", Kyatha moved her debt to him.

    "Two percent friend''s interest", he wasnt going to be used like that.

    "Fine" taking his counteroffer without negotiating.

    Passing two hundred grands to ''Alaska'' resulted in the staff shooting through the air to Kyatha''s hand.

    "Storm the keep?" the words laced with such malice Allen thought he didn''t know the woman at all, "ELEMENTAL AVALANCHE" her shout reverbating through the hall, filled with mana and magical manifestations, a whirlwind of snow and ice manifested in its center picking up speed and spawning ice elementals in threes who marched down the stairs like an icy slide of frozen death.

 372 Quota Build

    "FUCK YOU" Kyatha screamed at the staff, "I wanted earth elementals to repair the walls after they got rid of the giants".

    "There is nothing to repair", sounding like taps on a dowser.

    "Then they can rebuild from scratch", getting angrier by the second.

    "There is nothing to rebuild because the walls are indestructible", dry wood cracking under an axe.

    Turning to Allen, "you turned piles of rabble to indestructible mosiac pieces?" sounding ever angrier.

    "Maybe you should look before you explode?" His soft rumble did nothing to calm her.

    Pulling a device from his inventory got her to shriek, "you finished the viewer", snatching it from his hand and staring at the old monitor her anger turning to wander the longer she looks inside.

    "You can rewind if you message it [time <YYYYMMDDhhmmss>] and it shows you what it recorded at that time", RedFox21 tried to help.

    "You played with it for one day and try to teach me how to use it?" Turning a disgusted look at RedFox21, "I helped design this wonder", looking again at the viewer the screen split to seven views showing different angles of the castle.

    Living snowballs barreled out of the doors in throves, either burrying the unsuspecting giants or carrying them away in mangled piles of broken bodies until coming to the outer wall and smashing the poor creatures against the hard place of indestructible stoneworks.

    Moving the larger central display around Kyatha examined the castle with a low appreciating whistle, "are these cannons?" pulling RedFox21 closer and pointing at the broken remains of the outer defensive ring, "who fired them?"

    "Allen used the earth elementals", too scared of the human calamity to argue.

    "Well done", looking at Allen, "how many more cannons do you still have?", knowing he took two full ships'' worth of the things but uncertain how many got wrecked during her absence.

    "I have fifty three cannons", was not a very promising number but she will get more if she was going to take over this castle, "eight mortars and three burst cannons that spit flaming shrapnel on a wide cone for a short distance" the dragon was a walking and talking disaster, she should take him ''shopping'' from the pirates once the indestructible crazy colored castle in the middle of a high ranked dungeon was secured by her guild.

    Picking up the staff from where it was floating, "listen to me sticky", shaking him in her hand, "I need earth elementals to defend my outer wall", slamming his tip to the floor, "so get it right this time"

    "But elemental avalanche has a two hours cooldown", the staff protested.

    "I am paying the rewind so don''t screw me up", looking sternly at it, "or there will be consequences"

    "Elemental avalanche", the snow outside melted leaving a scene of carnage and shattered melting giants and magical creatures, the floor and walls started shaking violently before spewing forth row after row of the chubby rocks rolling outside, picking up the dead and wounded giants with "stone shape", leaving the whole castle grounds spotless and piling the remains outside the main gates.

    Rolling up to the battlements and throwing the few remaining goliaths who didn''t jump away, the castle was clear of enemys in less than ten minutes.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    "I need to log off again to call my guild here", Kyatha looked at Allen, "without the staff there will only be about thirty elementals", glaring toward the artifact, "but if I leave it unsupervised it might run back to the giants"

    "We can watch over him", metallic gongs stemmed from the sword.

    "You should''t go yet", chafing wood splints, "now that I failed completely", the staff tilted, "if the geomancer isn''t brought to the mountain" going lower, "the mountain will come to the geomancer".

    "I bet you don''t even know what I was quoting", a strange monster suddenly spoke, "so much of history is mangled in this neo vr era"

    "What the hell are you?", Kyatha burst at the blob of rocks and branches protruding from the wall like it was always part of it.

    "Master", Alaska fell to a knee bow, "I can understand the spear"

    "Through no effort of your own", pits cracking in a volcano, "you failed once more to master your weapon", growing to twice its initial size, "I despair of you" branches and rocks moving out and snatching the spear, "taking what is mine"

    "No!" screeching metal flaring, Lahav flew at the beast only to be swatted away by a stone hand.

    "Another one", fissures spreading in an earthquake, "I will take you as well"

    An eerie whistle started rising in volume through the room as Alaska grabbed the spear shaft and was pulled toward the blob.

    Kyatha pointed the staff at the creature, "null magic"

    "Hmm tastes bitter", erupting geysars, "I will also pick up my staff" tendrils of rock lashing out and pulling her to a gaping maw with sharp crystaline teeth.

    Hot plasma coursed through the room, blasting the grabbing tendrils and melting the rock monster like hot flowing lava.

    "That actually hurt me", turning to Allen, "too fast for the blockers to react", steam jets blasting from its half cooled area turned to a splatter of waterdrops after hitting an invisible barrier in front of the dragon and losing their heat.

    "Interesting armor", lava flowing down a mountain, "I will take that too".

    Lahav slicing through the tentacle of rock holding his wife screaming "Annie" with his metallic voice.

    "Haste", RedFox21 cast on Lahav letting him free the spear and Alaska who started to run away.

    ~~~ admin (mountain) pov ~~~

    "Enough", the room froze at the volcanic eruption, "I am victorious" he said as every item and person in the room was frozen.

    "Not quite yet", came a familiar voice he couldn''t quite recognize in this low timbre coming from the dragon.

    "Hacker", screaming at the obviously cheating Player that removed the ''immobile'' tag from his avatar.

    "Not a hacker", the Player said, "a scientist".

    Scanning his profile Ramus started getting a familiar headache and then he remembered to look at the name tag.

    "Another fucking Allen?", no effect laced his words this time, "that asshole is still fucking with us more than a thousand fucking years after the fucker died".

    "You know me?" The dragon seemed puzzled.

    "I read everything about your fucking hacking bitch of a creator", almost whining, "I know", he added, "I know you don''t remember anything after the accident", sighing, "you don''t know how he did it", moping, "you just live in the game", ending with, "I don''t fucking care", scresmin, "if I could wipe your sorry ass virus infestation of avatars from the core servers I would probably get promoted"

    "Well actually" Allen started.

    "But I can''t" ignoring the pest, "because we learned what happens when we mess with his fucked up hacks", smashing rocks to the floor in frustration, "so company policy is to leave you fuckers alone as long as you agree not to mess with the players which I can tell is impossible in your current situation", dropping the staff and pushing Alaska aside, "so I will give you two missions that will somehow not fuck everything up and then you will get the fuck off my mountain", looking at the dragon again, "you fucking made laser cannons and space armor?"

    "I didn''t hack the system", Allen defended himself.

    "I know", Ramu hated Allens with a passion but the avatars never actually broke the rules, "you never do and somehow now we have laser cannons in a fantasy game" headache turning to a migrain, "fine" coming to a decision.

    "Without using your scify crap get the biggest ship you can from the emperor", adding, "another Allen", cursing inside, "and turn it to a spaceship", checking something, "launch it sometime after two months from today and we will add a space exploration zone that accepts your ship as a key".

    Looking at records from the time since the dragon entered his dungeon, "you cant tell them about this conversation or I will delete all your avatars and ban you from the game", seeing something in the records he barked a mocking laugh, "this is your punishment for messing with the system right now", changing the dragon''s class from warrior to whore, "literally fuck you Allen", then he laughed and vanished.

 373 Rant Goo

    "What just happened?" Kyatha wording the question on everyone''s mind.

    "I made a deal with the mountain", Allen rumbled keeping to the letter of the admin''s threat. "We can have this castle if we take the emperor''s largest ship within two months and turn it to a spaceship"

    "You what now?" Gaping at the dragon without comprehension Kyatha finally raised her hand, "never mind tell me later", looking at the staff with obvious sadness, "I bought this so my new level one character wouldn''t be so pityful but I don''t think I can control it without the legacy stats".

    "Why do you need to make a new character?", Allen rumbled in surprise.

    "I almost lost Kyatha countless times in the past week", sighing, "I am obviously not responsible enough to carry her", releasing her fists, "so I already promised to pass her to my sister"

    "Why not make a more powerful character then?", looking her in the eye, "like a dragon?"

    "It takes months to buy such an avatar even if I could afford it", that Player showing his obvious lack of metagame mechanics knowlege again.

    "I can make you one", staring at the stupid unfathomable offer.

    "I still can''t wait months even if I were to take such an offer", what did he want from her?

    "Pick a color", the dragon sounded serious.

    "Fine", she will play his game, "purple".

    Light blasted through the room, blinding everyone before it vanished leaving behind the sleeping shape of an amethyst scaled dragon, different than Allen in the color of its scales and the horns adorning its head.

    "WHAT THE HELL?" Kyatha screamed, "HOW THE FUCK DID YOU DO THAT?"

    "I told you that I can", sounding less sure than his words suggested, "to take over you start the log off sequence but when the white screen shows up push forward and the sequence resets and moves you to the empty avatar without despawning the old one".

    "I don''t want to know how you know this", running to the sleeping dragon and putting her hand on its paw, Kyatha closed her eyes and in a flash of light woke up again to look down at her avatar, "holy shit", her voice sounded much deeper, "all these messages are like the character creation process in reverse", eyes glazing, "Meroa", she said her name out loud when asked, going quickly through the known but unfamiliar process she probably made a lot of mistakes with free stats and class skill choices but who cares when you can play a fucking ''starburst'' dragon.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    Finally done she found the three living weapons frozen in the air just shy of touching Kyatha, "what is going on?"

    "Seeing the process worked they wanted to take your empty avatar for themselves", Allen explained, "you should probably give Hatula the codes before something bad happens to it".

    "Shit", looking at the three powerful living weapons and finally realising they were actually Players she breathed, "you''re right" and logged off.

    Removing the rig she found Hatula and their father standing in her VR room, "I should really start locking the door when I log in".

    "You should also start explaining things right after you give the codes to Hatula", dad seemed dead serious, ha she punned him.

    Sending the certificates for the legacy character through their implants took less than a second and Hatula was already running to her own VR room before the upload finished, Meroa knew she will see her when she got back online after whatever their father had in store for her.

    "Another Legacy Avatar?" he accused, "are you trying to ruin us?"

    "It''s not like that dad", thinking how it could look like it from the sidelines, "he made the offer and created it before I could say no"

    "I thought he was too young for you", was it really the time to tease her on that subject, blushing at the memory of the scene she logged in to, "I see he got you thinking about it".

    "Dad stop!" this line of conversation needed to die right now, "I don''t know how old he is and it wasn''t that kind of offer"

    "You accepted it without finding out his intentions", narrowing his eyes, "the whole guild was watching in the great hall", smiling wide, "you are as good as married to him by everyone''s idea of what is going on", looking bashful, "should have heard your aunt Eden cheer when he stopped those weapons from attacking and you opened your dragon eyes"

    "Fuck", the single word escaped her mouth.

    "That will probably come later", at least he had the decency to blush and look away, "is the purple dragon even female?" blurting the question.

    "It is and we aren''t talking about this right now or ever", checking her cranial implant, "I have to go back before things get even worse".

    "Yes yes go" he dismissed her.

    Opening her eyes she saw the mountain was back, "your final warning", it screamed at Allen, "don''t you dare make another avatar or I will make you regret it", everyone else beside her and them were frozen.

    "Ok I''m sorry", actually sounding like it was true.

    "And you", the blob turned to her, "I can''t delete you right now because you didn''t do anything wrong but if you tell anyone about how to exchange avatars inside the game there will be instant and irreversible punishment up to and including deletion and a ban from the game"

    Gulping she nodded, "yes sir", thinking about the cheering aunt Eden.

    "You are both tagged for supervision", that wasn''t good, "get that spaceship off the ground in two months and I will personaly remove the tags"

    Both dragons nodding vigorously, "understood", and another "yes sir".

    "No more dragons", looking from Allen to Meroa, "keep the secret", and finally, "get off to space", adding, "thats all" and vanishing again.

 374 Vermine Side

    "They should get here in a few hours"? Kyatha said to Allen and Meroa, "with the pass empty", she explained, "the distance from the Andorians is only about twenty hours"

    "Did you fly in circles?" RedFox21 asked Allen.

    "I was curious about the roads not matching the map", Allen defended his tardiness.

    An amethyst scaled paw smashed his snout to the floor, "you mean you could have been here hours earlier?" Meroa growled.

    Struggeling to open his mouth, "I didn''t know you needed help".

    Lifting her hand Meroa looked despairingly at her incompetent benefactor, "ok breath in breath out", looking at Kyatha, "if you were watching", she asked, "why didn''t you come in sooner?"

    "The Andorians were stalling our party", thinking about something, "probably buying time for that murdering bastard to get back and steal my drops".

    "Julian did come to take the loot with his party right before we left", RedFox21 intervened again.

    "We got the clearance when he was brought in by two parties of badass clanners with a bunch of legacies that were acting like a police force", remembering, "then they offered to escort us to the pass and we didn''t think to refuse such austere company"

    "Do you know if the others are coming too?" Allen asked Kyatha.

    "What others?" Looking puzzled, "I didn''t go in because my level was too low for the pass", sighing, "I would have died if a goliath took a stern look at me from a distance"

    "My other customers and employees", came out completely innocent.

    "Your what?" Kyatha and Meroa asked at the same time.

    "The people escorting Julian out of the dungeon were my security employees", totally natural, "and I was hoping they would bring the others with them when you said they were coming"

    "How many ''employees'' do you have?" Meroa couldn''t stop herself.

    "Four parties of security personel", was a small guild but nothing to scoff about, "another party deals with human resources", strange name but reasonable, "three parties for customer services and two more in aquisition and delivery", still a small guild in the grand scheme of things.

    Remembering something else, "how many legacy avatars are in your employment?", the description from Hatula''s telling of the two ''security'' parties had her intrigued, "just the number", she added quickly, "I don''t care what department they work in"

    Seeing the diamond dragon actually thinking about the question Kyatha had to wonder, "there can''t be more than the seven I saw", adding, "seven legacies are a major political power", looking at the amethyst dragon, "if he pilfered those from existing guilds the whole alliance will be in an uproar"

    "Nineteen legacy avatars", after considering only his employees.

    "But there were over a hundred people in your group", RedFox21 interfered again.

    "Most of them were customers", the obvious answer came about.

    "That isn''t distinguishable in guild politics", the foxman explained to the daft creature.

    Looking at his display again, "then I have a hundred and thirteen customers", adding, "twenty eight of them are legacy avatars", after recalculating "and seventy two employees of which nineteen are lagacy avatars".

    Gaping in shock at the declaration Kyatha announced, "I need to log off right now", sat down and closed her eyes remaining immobile.

    "I should probably be there too", Meroa sounded less enthusiastic at the prospect and logged off too.

    "You are batshit crazy Allen", RedFox21 complemented him, "the best dragon in the whole wide world".

    Logging off Meroa was left to get off the rig alone for once, rushing to the great hall through the empty corridors until she heard Hatula screaming "call in everyone"

    Someone was foolish enough to ask "who?"

    "Every guild in the alliance and beyond", her sister''s icy voice ran shivers down her spine, "and drag that idiot headmaster of the Andorians in here personally", adding, "this conference starts the moment he gets here", then turning to the people watching a replay hologram from the siege, "put our delegation to the pass live now" she ordered.

    "We are watching here you can''t just take over and push whoever you like", one of the younger cousins complained, meeting the utter shocked glares of all the elders in the room, "coming in here and screaming doesn''t give you the right to bully us", Meroa thought she could see steam rising from Hatula''s head.

    Before anyone could recognize the speaker a group of elders watching the replay rushed the protesting youngsters out of the room, "please change the hologram to a live feed from the expedition", someone said in a calm voice from the side and the hologram showed a sea of avatars.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    "Who are all these people?", someone asked.

    "That''s Lisholamut", came an exclamation, "the main legacy of Rishka''s marauders"

    "I see Sutul there", came another voice, "the avatar was just passed on to the youngest daughter from the Death''s Door guild about a month ago" hushed silence fell as more legacy and paralegacy avatars from every main guild in the area of the goliath''s pass and other regions was sighted.

    "What is going on?" Their father finally broke the silence when the listing ended with only about fifty unrecognized avatars two of which were unknown legacies, "who collected all these children"

    "Allen collected them", Meroa answered, "they are his ''employees'' and ''customers'' meaning they are in deep debts to him and effectively either his guild members or debtors to such a degree there is no distinction".

    "How is that even possible?" aunt Eden asked and Meroa blushed.

    "Apparently the Andorians were running a secret robbery ring", Meroa explained from what RedFox21 told her in garbled sentences when she first logged in at the siege "extorting the children sent to train in the dungeon and hiding it as just bandits hitting some parties"

    "Why haven''t we heard about it?" Uncle Kavul wondered out loud

    "Because they are children", adding, "there would be a double coverup of their shame by both the Andorians and their own guilds"

    "We have to call everyone", her father breathed out and fell in his chair, "don''t bother bringing the Andorian here", adding, "get admin arbitrary court to mitigate" he said looking at one of the guilders who immediately lost focus as she was activating her implant, "call all your contacts in and out of the alliance", sighing, "this backstab will cost us the war with the pirates but we can''t wait".

    "The arbitrator will be ready in three hours" the guilder said.

    "Then we need everyone ready in two and a half", Hatula took command again, "ignore time zones and call in everyone".

    The whole room fell deathly quiet as every man and woman in it started calling on their cranial implants.

    Spoiler: short summary of the meeting<input class="spoilerButton" type="button" value="Show">

    something like this upcoming gathering was unheard of in a thousand years of history, not even the creation of the free guild alliance brought representatives from so many guilds, that it was done in an intermediary space meant there will be no direct consequences in the game so each could bring any avatar they wanted without fear of ambush or other violent acts as offlife actions lost you nothing but time.

    Sometime during the conference the children will get to the castle in the pass, that moment will be absolute pivotal as the AshMourn guild will be accused of abducting and carrying them to an undisclosed location in a high level lethal dungeon and they will either have answers or the others might join forces to wipe AshMourn out while their most powerful legacy avatar was away and it was known they lost a powerful paralegacy avatar a few days ago.

    "Welcome esteemed representatives from around the world", Hatula opened the conference, "we have a grave matter to discuss and therefore asked that you all come here"

    "Get on with it" an older man from the fourth row shouted.

    "It has come to our attention that many guilder children and legacy avatars", pause for dramatics, "have been robbed and extorted in the goliath''s pass over the past few years"

    "It''s a children''s dungeon they are supposed to get robbed there", someone cried from the back rows.

    "It has also been brought to the AshMourn guild''s attention", another pause, "that over a hundred children and fourty legacy avatars formed a new guild in the pass last week"

    Coughs followed by shouts of indignation and demands for an explanation on such a ludicrous announcement were silenced by the arbitrator who simply denied their speaking and stared at Hatula, "what?" his eyes wide in surprise.

    "A new avatar gathered the assaulted children and formed a new guild he calls ''the dragon''s bank'' with the phrase ''your hoard our vaults'' and either loaned them money or outfitted them with powerful artifact while helping them form parties to protect themselves inside the dungeon"

    A man asked to speak and was given permission, "my daughter is singing that stupid sentence over and over for days now", and sat back in deep contemplations.

    "Thank you for the input reverent Eshem", the arbiter indicated that Hatula proceed while removing the silence, now that everyone were in rapt attention.

    "The children are now headed deep into Afriat''s path to a newly constructed castle surrounded by indestructible walls and mounted by cannons"

    "The Afriat third agreement sais no cannons are to be brought into the mountain", an ancient crone croaked, "whoever broke that agreement will pay dearly for their stupidity when the giants start bombarding them with giant sized cannons"

    Moving on, "in a few hours they will reach the castle and go offline", closing her eyes, "we hope that by that time we will all come to an agreement about how to treat the new guild and there wont be unnecesary bloodshed"

    "Are you threatening our children?" A young man stood up, "I will not hear your demands", shaking a fist, "release all the children at once".

    "Who is the headmaster for the new guild?" A mother of one of the children Hatula spoke to before the conference started asked.

    "It''s a starburst dragon avatar named Allen", Hatula wanted that information floating to see different reaction.

    The most unexpected reaction came from the arbiter, "are you fucking shitting me?" the burst of anger wasn''t in Hatula''s range of experiences from system officials, "is your information accurate?" he finally asked fixing his jacket.

    "Absolutely", Hatula quickly replied, "we have recorded testimony directly from him and others and a recording of most members of the new guild", seizing the moment, "the orb in front of you contains all the relevant information we gathered"

    The room hushed when everyone started looking at the evidence and lists, some of the children''s names were called out and calls were made on cranial implants.

    Seeing most of the gathered people were done Hatula continued, "the AshMourn guild has representatives already on the ground and is making preparations for a complete teleportation circle in the castle that will be operable tomorrow", adding, "our main legacy avatar Kyatha is already there and I am its new operator"

    "More threats?" Coming from the front row, "the kings don''t forget your betrayal in the underway raid"

    The hatred emanating from every word took her by surprise, "that was a thousand years ago"

    "We will never forget the AshMourn betrayal for a few trinkets", he declared, "you will not catch us off guard again"

    "How much will it cost to use the teleportation circle for more experienced Players that want the shortcut?" Broke the ensuing silence From somewhere in the middle.

    "There will be no overcharge for anyone over the next month and we can discuss terms of services in private after the meeting is over", Hatula knew now was the hard part, "I and other AshMourn guilders will gladly answer all your questions", looking at the arbitrator, "our host graced us with refreshments in the adjacent hall and I hope you will all join me in discussion while we wait for the children to join us".

 375 Urge Stache

    Meroa flew the relatively short distance to the bankers'' army in the pass, giving the AshMourn password let her land without being attacked, but once on the ground she was relentlessly assaulted with questions and exclamations until the most beautiful man she ever saw pushed through the crowd and all she wanted to do was add him to her hoard and ply him with jewels and gemstones from head to toe.

    "Are you Sutul?" She had to know.

    Sighing magnificiently he answerd, "yes", and asked her, "did Allen send you?"

    "I need you", she exhaled, "please come with me" equipping her palanquin so he was comfortable while flying with her.

    Looking at her with his adorable eyes he finally nodded and let her carry him and the three others the guilds requested brought in sooner, immediately after he was on her back she shook her head and tried to find out what was wrong with her.

    Demanding that the children wouldn''t meet with Allen before reaching the safe zone and logging off was a nuisance but at least she was available to establish communications with the expedition, remembering at the last moment she dropped the message orb in Suzan''s hand and took off.

    A simple computing device, the orb allowed long distance communications using spatial magical formulae applied by Hatula and Allen, because the spatial spells created minor manifestations in the destination even if failed or cancelled the device read these changes and translated them to message spells sent directly to the holder, the computation part was the instantaneous translation of the original message to the spatial phenomena and reverse translation at the recieving device.

    Lifting off, Meroa wished she had magical instruction books so she could start adding spells to her now empty repertoire, without even the simple ''message'' spell she couldn''t interface with the magnificient items Allen created and couldn''t use the space armor she wanted desperately to try.

    Flying silently she looked at the discrepencies Allen was so interested in between the Afriat map and real terrain, the comparison passed the time quickly and she reached the castle before she even noticed, only alerted by the excited cries from her palanquin.

    Landing in front of the main keep she was happy Allen and Shovermatsor designed all the main architecture with dragon inhabitants in their minds.

    After leaving the kids with RedFox21 and Kyatha she went down to the basement where Allen was moping at his temporal exile and tinkering with his computers to achieve even greater effects, the staff and sword were also there and she knew the spear would be in the back yard drilling Alaska in endless manouvers until the girl will drop dead some day and the spear will give orders to her corpse.

    "I am going to buy tomes of magic", Meroa told Allen, "do you need anything?" luckily credits were personal and not linked to the avatar so she still had her money.

    "Can you bring me a tome of water magic?" Came a thoughtful reply.

    "Sure" thinking, "any specific school or general elemental?"

    "Conjuration would be best but general elemental will be fine too", scratching the floor his depression was almost tangible.

    Unsure how to cheer him up she left and took off toward the nearest town, being a dragon was a problem when dealing with locals, even if Allen changed her language tag and filling in her second class and job mitigated the dragon behavioural supressants the people didn''t know it.

    Landing near the Andorian''s headquarters where she knew they had a shop stocked enough to have ultimate spells and resigned to giving up on offlife comforts like restaurants and the clubs she liked to party in when off duty and not in the middle of a war, she had a substantial amount of money for a shopping spree and she didn''t need to actually read every book to get the spells inside.

    Knocking on the little door with her finger got no response so she shook the shop a little until the shopkeeper came out, "who is making all that rauckus", shouting at his wide eyed neighbors.

    Following their stares he saw an amethyst scaled paw grabbing his shop, then the arm, followed by a scaly shoulder and familiar long neck leading to a toothful mouth and plate sized eyes staring at him, "nope" he said and closed the door.

    "Please come out shopkeeper", giving a final good shake to the house.

    "I don''t want to be eaten", came a shaking response.

    "I just want to buy some magic books", adding "eating you would be bad for business"

    "What kinds of magic?", selling items was his business and a talking sparkly dragon was the avatar of a Player that could pay his prices.

    "I need all the basics and any ultimates you have", then adding, "and water conjuration magic if you have it"

    The door opened and the man took a step outside, "you know ultimates clash?"

    "They don''t in this avatar", made his jaw drop.

    "The basics I can take a chance with but for the ultimates I need payment up front and legacy registration from your guild", the assured tone of his voice told her the man knew his business and wasn''t going to break alliance rules for a first time customer.

    Knowing this was coming she was prepared, "I only have paralegacy documents from the AshMourn guild", namedropping should have worked but the man squinted his eyes in thought.

    "We have a legal dispute with the AshMourns", adding, "you will have to get permission from the guildmaster to purchase anything higher than level three", pause, "and I won''t sell you any ultimate spells until the dispute is resolved"

    Sighing shook the shop, "fine", she breathed, "then just give me all the basics and make sure ''message'' is included".

    After about fifteen minutes people started exiting the shop and stacking books in front of her, ending with over a hundred books the price was going to hurt, "that will cost you seventeen thousand gold rounded down" actually wasn''t going to beggar her.

    Passing the money to him gave her a list of all the book names and content, using it in an array upload command the shopkeeper gawked as the books despawned and weren''t stored in her inventort, turning to flaming sparks he started to protest at the waste when they all floated in a glowing river and entered the dragons scaly chest.

    "Ahhh so much better", Meroa cast a conjure flame in her palm just to test the spell, "thank you kind shopkeeper", then sending him another two thousand gold, "for a fair deal and doing business with me"

    "Wait", he ran into the store and brought out another book, "this is my pride and joy", sounding excited, "none of my patrons could appretiate it", sadness lacing his words, "but I think you can make it work", looking lovingly at the book, "it''s an ultimate divination spell", meeting her eyes, "only a seeker of knowlege like you would be willing and powerful enough to take the risk and reap the reward that it can provide".

    Intrigued by the prospect of an ultimate divination spell though his description would probably fit Allen much more than it would her, an ultimate spell even non combatant one was still the first step for a legacy character, "how much?"The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

    "If you promise to cast it once just to tell me the ingrediants required for another spell I will give it to you for free", seeing her distrust he quickly explained, "I need to know the ingrediants for the greater call of darkness so I can finish the spell scroll", adding, "I have a skill that allows me to infer complete spells from partial knowlege", looking at the book again, "my constitution isn''t high enough to cast this spell"

    "Deal", she decided it was worth it to have a weak ultimate for now.

    Uploading the misnamed ''surge of lost lore'' she was informed of the possible dangers and damage it would cause regardless of her resistances.

    Settling down on the street she cast the spell to her immediate regret, pain laced her mind like a spike had been driven through her skull, writhing and roaring in pain her tail shattered the magic shop window and bent it in an angle making everyone inside run away screaming.

    Coming to her senses the streets were empty, the shopkeeper crawled from inside his wrecked shop and she could hear soldiers marching in her direction, looking balefully at the man even knowing it wasn''t completely his fault, "the ingrediants for the ''greater call of darkness'' are a dash of midnight and a sprig of moonshadow bush", shaking her head she was sure he would have died if he tried the spell himself, "the cooldown on the ''surge of lost lore'' is quite phenomenal and the requirement that the requested spell wasn''t cast in the last hundred years make it almost completely useless", then thinking, "but two ultimates for the price of one splitting headache isna good deal", smiling, "you also get to tell your friends how you drove away the dragon so all around a good business day for both of us"

    Taking off in a gust of wind and dirt she evaded the few arrows shot by the guild troops and climbed beyond their range before gliding back toward the castle while examining her new spell list.

    By the time she returned from the round trip the bankers had reached the castle and Meroa hurried to her roost to log off.

    "Why did you attack the Andorians?" Was her father''s first words when she entered the conference server and he pulled her aside.

    "I", thinking about it, "didn''t attack them"

    "Holograms showing your avatar destroying their magic shop and burning books are circulated for the past twenty minutes", adding, "I would be surprised to find a waiter who doesn''t know you attacked them unprovoked".

    "I just bought some spells from the nearest shop", was definitely not her best defense.

    "The shopkeeper sais you extorted two ultimate spells from him by crushing his shop", stopping her with a glare, "if I checked your full spell list would I find a legacy surge divination and a greater call spells?", nodding she realised she was duped but the joke was on the shopkeeper if she could find the names of other unused spells and aquire them, the joke really was on her.

    "I am sorry dad", unable to fathom a reason for her actions when portrayed in that fashion.

    "And you should be", sighing, "there will be consequences to your actions", looking sadly at her, "whatever came over you since you met that dragon you need to get yourself together", taking her hand, "Nirash is the new guild leader", pulling her back from a rush twist, "Hatula has the sea alliance to manage and you can''t join a guild until level fifteen", adding, "and right now no one will support you if you try to usurp the title so don''t even try".

    Explaining further, "if you stayed quiet we could keep the title uncontested for a while", pulling her to look in his eyes, "but now we can''t afford a division", releasing her hand, "so we expect you to act as a guilder even if you are not registered at the moment", putting his hands on her shoulders, "the guild will bear your burdens", sighing, "just don''t make it too heavy".

    With a hand on her waist he lead her to the auditorium where the previously half empty hall was now packed with people even standing in the eisles, Hatula was sitting on a podium and answering question with a line of children walking to the stage and delivering their personal experiences with bleary eyes and broken voices, most of them changed their personal avatars to reflect the emblems of loss and misery that RedFox21 told her about.

    More than one eye was moist in the crowd and some were screaming for blood when the more violent stories started to surface, torture and extortion lasting for days at a time and then wandering lost and without equipment in a dungeon to survive on whatever skills and spells they could manage.

    At some point the stories twisted, not talking about struggles and misdeeds but about their shiny saviour, coming from the sky and bringing civilised conduct to their lives, frightening at first but giving them real jobs, things to do that mattered to them, ways to grow without fighting for every scrap against the other children.

    Was this Allen? the carefree dragon who''se idea of tacatical maneuvers was smash head first into a ship, rinse and repeat until it sunk? paint crazed schemes of colors on every surface that pulled his attention and act in absolute disregard to law, best practices or common sense?

    The children were mostly old blood clanners, they had a clear vision of how civilisation worked, banks, loans and jobs were all in their common vocabulary and he just let them in to the grownup world through a back door, if it wasn''t so reckless she might even laugh from his joke at everyone''s expense.

    The ''customers'' were more reserved in their praise but ''employees'' looked like they were going to get into any fight to defend his honor, every question bashed, doubts were crushed with disdain and any implication of misconduct met with stalwart defenses and a unified front she wished to find in her elite troops on the battlefield.

    Meroa was speechless, when the children refused to let the guilds pay their debt, even ''customers'' quoted ancient guilder codes of working your own field and debts bond us as a society only if we agree to their value.

    When asked about their jobs Meroa thought there would be some garbled answers about things they heard in their offlife, but to her and other''s astonishment the answers were precise, describing duties and responsibilities, going as far as studying different fields under digital tutors and passing tests to aquire more responsibilities.

    Then it hit her, Allen did this in a week, with survival binged children in the middle of a dungeon, this wasn''t a game to them, the guilds failed them, and they found a new path, going from savage survival to corporate allegience in the blink of an eye.

    Remembering her own childhood, her first adventures in the supervised dungeon, it was thrilling and fun, sometimes scary and demanding but never fearful, she never went to sleep hungry or even gone on a survival binge before she was twenty, some of these kids were thirteen and already had days of binge stress, it shattered them, they weren''t broken, they were crushed.

    Then Allen came along with diamond scalesand rainbow breath that made the world alive with color, even helping them face their grief.

    In return he only asked that they help each other, holding their hands and leading them to a new kind of game where they were in control, deciding for themselves if they wanted to fight or do nothing at all and they chose him over the people that let them down.

    Feeling tears falling down her cheeks she could hear muffled sniffs and sobs from the audience of world leaders that betrayed their own children.

    "Before you joined us", Hatula took the stage, "it was decided that the guilds will pay back your loans to the dragon", looking sternly at the defying children, "and in case the debt was too high a mature guilder will take your indentured service for the alotted time", finding someone in the crowd, "the Andorians guild will return or reimburse any item extorted in the Goliath''s pass to this day"

    A girl stood up, "I won''t go back", she protested against shocked gasps, "I will relinquish Sutul to a guilder", she sniffed, "and start with a new avatar", her shoulders shaking uncontrollably, "but I will not give up my position in the bank" she fell back to her seat.

    A chorus of similar sentiments started growing from the children''s rows, "ebough", a blonde hair man shouted, "we will not be dictated to by errant children", adding, "it is obvious none of them can be trusted with priceless avatars", turning to the children, "but you all have duties in your own guilds".

    "The guilds abandoned us", this coming from a boy about fifteen, "when the bandits broke Sherin''s hand they laughed and told us how nobody cared for a bunch of children too weak to defend themselves", addind, "and when we came to ask for help from the guild patrol they were the same men".

    "We heard the children" the arbiter stopped the arguments starting to rise, "let them log off", looking at the crowd, "so we can come to rational decisions about the situation"

    In a short time none of the children were present and more than a few adults were replaced by different representatives.

    "The children are in the dragon''s castle right now", the arbiter started laying the negotiations table, "it will be three days before the teleportation circle is complete", moving his gaze through the crowd, "I will personally be in the castle to supervise their treatment until they can be retrieved", stopping to look at Meroa, "how are you doing in supplies?"

    Shaking her stupor, "we are well provisioned for at least a month of siege", adding, "and can forage the surrounding dungeon regions for more"

    "Aren''t you in the middle of the Afriat path?" The arbiter sounded surprised, "are the giants not threatening you?"

    "We pushed back the giants and have plans to start patrollimg the area soon", the answer won her more than a few surprised stares.

    "Then lets get to business", the arbiter struck his hammer, "negotiations for the release of the stolen children begins now with the AshMourn guild representing the absent perpetrator and the Andorians guild representing themselves for instigating the situation that allowed this to happen"

 376 Vogue Loop

    Following Allen was a green scaled monstrocity easily eight times his size, five days after Allen was told he couldn''t communicate with the children in any way he returned from his self imposed exile to the Dragon''s vault.

    Meroa thought she wanted to meet Allen''s secret tutor, but now seeing him in the daylight, the ancient dragon made her freeze in terror, will her avatar induce that feeling some day in the distant future?

    Dragons had many passive skills and a lot of them were related to size and age, both of which the coming monstrocity had in abundance, remembering a time when she considered herself a dragon hunter in the Kobold capital killing the juvenile giant lizards in the forests and dreaming of facing an ancient patriarch for magnificient treasures, she was suddenly happy she didn''t get to live those dreams, the giant that was perhaps slightly stronger than her Kyatha avatar was a morning snack to the thing landing in front of her.

    "Aren''t you supposed to cure the Kobold plague?" She asked Allen.

    "I gave them a computer that can create the same effects", his simplicity kept surprising her, "every time they want to use it all they have to do is feed it with five gold coins for each recipient and say the ceremonial words", smiling sheepishly, "the money is then distributed between me and the other inventors"

    Remembering what he told her about the plague the numbers popped in her mind made her dizzy, "you will beggar the empire".

    "Not at all" adding quickly, "they insisted to deter any youngsters from getting feral fever as they will be forced to pay for their own treatment", finishing with, "and the second and further demand double each time so it becomes quite a burden to pay for a few days of violence", shrugging, "I dont know how they will deal with real addicts but that is not my concern as BoneSmith wisely put it".

    Approaching the newcomer with caution, "welcome to the vault elder Shoul"

    "The pleasure is mine" spreading his wings with a mighty shake, "haven''t seen the sun for a hundred years"

    Turning to Allen, "Sutul wants to see you and the guilds agreed if you are supervised", adding, "you are not allowed to use any spells or skills", looking at Shoul she realised how ridiculous the next sentence will sound, "or intimidate them in any way", completing the message, "nor can you deliver any subvertive or anti guild messages by any means".

    Indicating for him to follow her, realising too late she had no authority over the newcomer when Shoul followed them as well.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

    "You abandoned us", were the first angry words to greet them, "we came all this way and you left", tears filled the man''s beautiful eyes, "my mother said you kidnapped us so the AshMourns can extort our guilds" Sutul looked away.

    "I did no such thing", Allen sounded hurt at the accusations, "they told me they will hurt you if I communicated with any of the employees or customers"

    "You hurt us", the mans voice broke, "they called us liars and said it was all just pretend", looking at Allen, "that you decieved us so we will be vulnerable"

    "I never lied to you", Allen started shaking, "never lied", then looking back at Shoul, "remember how the vice president was never there with us in conferences but always had a seat?" Sutul looked at the other dragon, "this is vice president Shoul of the Dragon''s vault bank", sizing him up, "do you think I can lie to him?"

    Sutul shook his head and sniffed, "they said you only wanted our avatars", looking at his feet, "that if we weren''t strong or beautiful you would just kick us out"

    Allen reached to his back and pulled something he placed in front of him, "this is my best friend Jovial", adding "he is a level seven shopkeeper", sounding grim, "when I was gone the Kobolds shunned him so he couldn''t level up", finishing, "you are all my friends, customers and employees", raising his voice, "I will never abandon you of my own free will"

    "You mean that?" The hope in Sutul''s voice almost broke Meroa''s heart.

    "When I heard they wanted to take your avatars", looking at Meroa, "I went to the mountain", Meroa gasped, "and he agreed to add a secret spawn point for the bank customers and employees right here in the courtyard", something clanged when someone in the back dropped it, Meroa''s jaw could hit the basement floor, new spawn points were unheard of, it took two hundred years for a settlement to be allowed to send a petition for a point, and one in the middle of a high level dungeon didn''t exist, until today.

    "I sent you the codes", Allen said to Sutul, "they will only work for Players with the bank employee or customer tab", adding, "and only employees can respawn here".

    If nothing else happened today this could be the end of her known world, the number of people demanding to join the bank roster starting with herself was incalculable, it was simply everyone, it wasn''t even in the guild tag, the bank had its own tag in the Player profile, like the pirates were, and it clicked, each ship was a guild and they all worked for the emperor, that was how he could control so many Players, they weren''t all one guild with a single ladder but a complex corporation like the bank and its divisions, they could make the alliance more than just a name and a set of arbitrary agreements.

    While her thoughts raged Sutul left and Allen seemed to be in deep thoughts, then an avatar spawned, and another, more than a hundred new avatars appeared in the new spawn point and Meroa realised Sutul had spread the word and the children stole the thunder from the guilds'' threat by making it come true.

    A hundred level one equipless avatars in the middle of a high ranking dungeon and Meroa pitied the giants for the plague about to descend upon them, then another thought hit her, message was a general spell any class could learn and Allen built warmachines as a hobby, the giants were doomed without knowing it, even if someone like Koreimim appeared, her eyes sneaked to look at Shoul.

 377 Wagon Spirit

    [System: congratulations Shapirith for reaching level five, you may now choose your class]

    The avian Player already knew her class will be Pilot, she worked to build the first dwagons and the deluge of new classes being taken over even legacy avatars was crushing old guild politics under the steaming wheels of the revolution, that was the dream.

    Right now she was going to fly her own dwagon for the first time, they added another wall to the vault surrounding the workshop area and airfield, equipping her helmet gave her a double HUD that was hard getting used to.

    The fastest xp in the game came from mounting a cannon post on the vault wall, the mountain kept a steady supply of giants to shoot at, catching a good wave could pass you to class level in a single afternoon and though everyone shared the other duties as well, jealousy of the security guys that got the first promotions was the main reason why she, as head of human resources was among the last to get it, but she already had her own biplane after taking a few extra shifts in engineering to complete it.

    Patting her steam blasters and climbing to the pilot seat she messaged the main computer to start feeding the boiler, whistle and shakes told her she was ready even before her HUD lit up, touching the controls and grabbing her nav sticks she ran the final tests.

    Pulling up was a thrill of thunder and steam whistles, leveling at five hundred meters and looking at the ant farms below.

    Spotting a group of marauding giants she aimed her steam powered machine gun and strafed them, killing three instanty and scattering the others, a few twists and curves got the last one down and her fuel reserves low so she turned back, gaining only two levels in the span of five minutes combat and twenty minutes of the most fun she ever had in the game.

    Going back to the vault''s main keep she couldn''t help but smile looking at all the different races walking around everywhere, once the kids realised they didn''t have to pick a Human or die at the spawn they chose everything else, the few giants were a problem at first because of the common monsters in the region but Allen''s paint jobs fixed that.

    By age of fifteen Nariza was at the absolute top of the food chain, but that only meant more responsibilities for the level seven pilot and she went to her office, smiling to her satire secretary and entering to start going through her paperwork, not literal papers just lists in her HUD of applications, demands and requests.

    Her first priority was for her own people so the requests got processed first, from shift changes to a few internal disputes including one incident that required special attention.

    "Klimor call Aduma and Brond to my office please", she rang to her secretary.

    "Yes meeam", she liked the sound of his goaty voice.

    Passing most of the demands to the other departments she started scanning the applications when Aduma charge through her door followed by a flustered Brond and a stranger.

    "This is an internal affair maam", being polite was in the job description, "i need to ask you to leave"

    "I will not leave my children to ruin their lives in your silly playacting", the woman splattered.

    "I understand", Nariza replied, "and how can you be convinced that they are not", pause, "in fact", locking stares with the woman, "ruining their lives?"

    "I just want them to return to the guild" sounding desperate, "we promised to look after them in the game"

    "When they reach level fifteen there should be no problem with them joining your guild", checking her schedules, "that would be next tuesday at the most"

    "But they can''t join the guild looking like this", the woman looked disgusted at the avatars, "they are monsters"

    "I assure you maam that we remove all behavioral suppressant from all our avatars" was the only answer prejudice will meet at the vault for as long as she was in any position of power.

    "You children don''t understand", she tried desperately, "there are monsters everywhere", looking at her children, "starting from level one is hard enough without self imposed handicaps"

    "Did you ever kill a goliath maam?", the stranger shook her head, "how many giants did you kill on your shift yesterday Aduma?", knowing it was an unfair question didn''t stop Nariza from pounding the hot iron.

    Looking at her display, "twenty one", the girl answered eliciting a shocked stare from her mother, "its a lot of fun in the armedrillo".

    "Why don''t you guys show your mother our compound", taking a visitor''s pass from her inventory, "and amswer any questions she has" taking advantage of the shocked silence to lead the trio away.

    "Thank you miss", the mother said almost to a closed door.

    With one more duty for the day she checked the time and asked Klimor if Allen could meet her earlier for his class session, though she loved her previous avatar, the class passive skills were sometimes quite a burden, but she was still the resident expert on the whore class and thus demanded to be allowed to train Allen in its secrets and intricacies, only after she assured them sex was not a requirement did the others relent.Stolen novel; please report.

    "Your father is here again", Klimor called after a few minutes of blissful silence, "may I send him in?"

    Sighing, "yes", this was her responsibility.

    "Welcome father", meeting him at the door was an honor he didn''t appreciate but expected anyway.

    "Good afternoon" looking at her from head to feet and crooking his face, "Shapirith" he finally said, "congratulations for attaining your class", clearly a bitter pill for him, "when are you coming back home?" Getting to the point, "your mother is very worried about you"

    "The new compound is nearly finished", knowing this was not what he asked for, "we will move there sometime in the next month"

    "You cant live in a coffin for a month", the words shot like bullets, "why not come home and talk to us?"

    "You lied to me papa", steeling her voice, "mama lied to my face" she still couldn''t believe it when she woke up sweating at night, "it hurt me more than what the bandits did", her lower lip trembled, "all the time I told myself at least in the real world someone still loves me for me", nose crinking, "and then you lied to my face when I needed you because of an avatar and guild prestige"

    "We only want what is best for you", his voice got softer, "will you at least call your mother so she knows you are doing ok?"

    "I will consider it", she was on the other side of this particular conversation many times in the past few days, "it really hurt when she lied to me like that", mitigating tears in broken families with children reluctant to contact their relatives after giving back the legacy avatars they suffered so much to save.

    "I appreciate this", he finally said, "I feel this is an abuse of my standing both as the guilds'' representative and your father", looking aside, "please talk to us when you have the time"

    She couldn''t bear it any more, hugging him was everything she wanted when her friends were dying for the amusement of some sick old men and now she was denying it from herself over principles.

    Reaching forward she touched his shoulder and when he turned to her she tripped on the carpet and fell into his arms, he caught her out of breath, "low level avatars don''t have any balance with their low dexterity", chuckeling at her joke but still holding her for another minute, "you are always welcome to my office papa", she wiped her eyes, "I will call mama when I log off"

    "Why not log off right now?" He wondered.

    "I still have duties today", smiling at his surprise, "my job is important to me"

    "I don''t know how he did it but your Allen is a miracle worker", smiling back at her, "remember sometimes you''re still just a kid"

    "Quoting me will get you far in the vault", teasing him, "but maybe not that particular line", she walked him down the hall where Klimor was casually talking with two security personel in their mecha suits already steaming, with low levels they needed all the advantage they could get from their special gear if things got messy, she really wished they could use more advanced items but the mountain admin said steam was his tolerance point, even the few diesel pieces they did sneak in were well hidden in the puffs of steam, just giving a little extra umph when the dakka hit the fan.

    Smiling as she walked past the naga and ettin Players, still wondering how the two headed thing worked out, she parted ways with her father at the lab''s checkpoint as even most employees weren''t allowed in there and no stranger would get past this point without raising the whole vault to a riot.

    Going down these stairs had new surprises every time, the sounds and smells rising from below were always strange, never the same from yesterday, ozon drifted through the air today, cracks of lightning creating a continuous racket, knowing what was coming she equipped her helmet and set the vision to almost opaque only going on by her hand on the rail and in the increasing noise she had to muffle the sound twice when she got blocker warnings.

    Opening the door she saw Allen shrouded with electricity and Meroa almost hidden in the shadows, a third, entity, was her best description, "ahh Shapirith" she jumped, only now noticing the mountain by the door, "we were just talking about you children", his slow cadre of speech was not unpleasant, "you met Gerush"

    "She didn''t know that Emet", cracked lightning and a dissatisfied lightning, "we met briefly at the reunion conference", seeing her puzzled stare the lightning added, "I was the system arbiter that informed you of the decisions made", recognition dawned on her and she nodded.

    "We were just wondering how you were all coping with the changes in the game", the mountain Emet rumbled, "after all you are in the center of it", adding "the literal eye of the storm"

    Gerush thundered, "Emet is trying to hold back progress", low buildup of pressure, "we just came to an accord to let you have what we oldtimers call electropunk themes inside the vault but restrict your outside ventures to steampunk", adding, "we are undecided about dieselpunk as neither of us likes the stuff but Rema loves it so she might have a say in future themes introduced", the man was an obvious talker as he thundered through the words, "how do you feel about the changes?", crackling, "as a representative for the children who actually embraced our hobbies for once", carrying on, "a thousand years of middle ages and pirate drama is well more than enough for any book"

    "It''s all great" Shapirith answered tentatively understanding these were too admins who didn''t share the same passions and stepping too far could get her singed or crushed or both, "but the old leveling system and challenge ratings are all wrecked", like she could keep her mouth shut, "I went from null to level seven pilot in an afternoon of shooting goliaths in a barrel", clamping her hands to her mouth what was wrong with her?

    "Ha the truth stings", Emet mocked Gerush, "I told you they were abusing all that good stuff to boost their levels", turning to her, "its just an inhibitions alleviator", adding "nothing to worry about", but she played a whore class legacy avatar for long enough to know how dangerous something like that could be and also how to counter it.

    "Fine you can equip your giants with steampunk items", Gerush relented an argument, "but the vault still gets electropunk", he quickly added.

    "I already agreed to that", the mountain shook with laughter, "thank you for emphasizing my point", she didn''t like him at all.

    "It seems we stretched our limited time again arguing about our pet projects", Gerush cracled in annoyance, "she didn''t come here for us", turning to her, "still for your cooperation I will give you a small boon", the words had her shaking in fear, a tendril of blue lightning shot at her and she suddenly fealt light as a feather, "you can turn it off and on with thinking on my name or Emet''s" then he cracked in laughter and vanished in a blast of thunder.

    "I won''t take your ''boon'' away" Emet sighed, "but please try to be careful with it" and was gone in a shake.

    She didn''t understand what happened to her until she looked at her hand and saw coursing lightnings instead of her limb, thinking ''Emet'' made her feel heavy but her hand felt like normal flesh and not some blob of dirt and twings.

    Sighing with relief she turned to Allen and thought she was blind until she remembered her helmet visor was opaque and made it lucid again.

    "Can you turn to lightning again?" Ofcourse this would be his first question, ''Gerush'' she heard a distant thunder and fealt light, the room filled with almost unbearable light, "good", and he also turned to lightning, "thats a good trick" he said and turned back to being just his normal diamond scaled ''starburst'' dragon, never a boring moment with Allen.

 378 Xylophone Parish

    "Today I want to tell you about the class most powerful skill" Nariza started their lesson under the watchful eye of Meroa and appaarantly a living staff that was actually a Player avatar used by a dead person who had his mind uploaded to the servers so he could live forever like Allen and Shoul and probably others.

    "The allure skillset is a group of passive skills" she explained, "you can only have one at any time", adding, "and they level up with your character", emphasizing the point, "so you have to choose wisely because changing them later will hurt you a lot"

    Taking a breath, "a few of the allure skills work on specific senses like my old avatar Sutul had the ''Alluring sight'' skill at a master level", pausing for another breath, "there are three main features that are important to know for all the skills in the set", this was the hardest part to make into words, "the trigger, the effect and the resistance".

    "A trigger can be many things", elaborating, "it can be smell or sight or voice", Allen nodded, "but it can also be something you create like art or your very presence"

    "What is the resurgence effect for the class" Allen asked.

    "The what effect?" Nariza didn''t know the word and thought he was asking about something in her explanation.

    "Resurgence", looking puzzled Allen shifted his gaze between them, "when you reach the max level for a class and despawn it you get to keep some of the skills or stats from your previous run", looking at Meroa, "it''s how your avatar Kyatha could have multiple ultimate spells without them clashing"

    Seeing they still didn''t understand, "what happens when a max level avatar dies?" he checked and the mechanics were still there.

    "If it''s a legacy avatar you just pay the fine and it respawns at the same level of its death", Kyatha had a bad feeling about some mistakes that may have been made unknowingly through the generations of her family.

    "And if a none legacy character dies?", the dragon asked.

    "You can pay to start over at level one for the same character or get a refund for some of its skills and other features", it was a genius way to prevent people from using the mechanics if they didn''t know the benefits in advance, "how do you know these things?"

    "I was there when they introduced the new resurgence mechanics", thinking back, "it was a big monetary engine for the game company since players tried to max their characters", remembering, "I even took it as a joke to max a peasant", thinking their gawks to mean he was dumb to try, "it actually turned out pretty great", defending his choice for a lark, "the resurgence price was losing all your skills while the effect was a base plus ten to all attributes so free resurgence if you didn''t bother with skills", adding, "and you got to keep your legacy weapon proficiency", chuckling at their shocked stares, "I know legacy weapons are trash at first sight", this line wasn''t gaining him points, "but considering only peasants could master them and you could get very high base scores it evened out with their simple looking features", needing their approval he continued, "consider grandpa''s sword and its drain by base charisma true damage equal base strength", trying to get the point across, "with the peasant resurgence you can make a decent damage score and the sword is indestructible", adding, "its where I got the thought to make everything I paint indestructible from"

    "You made the impossible peasant?" Meroa accused him.

    "It was just a joke" sounding more offended than he should be, "I can probably still spawn the avatar if you want proof"

    "But it''s still active" Nariza wasn''t sure what he meant.

    "So it became a family legacy?" He asked them hoping to meet his descendants.

    "Nobody knows", Meroa interjected, "he doesn''t speak and he just appears out of nowhere turns new wildlands to viable areas and vanishes at random", looking at Allen, "there are legends about him defending travelers from the most powerful monsters", trying to remember, "defeating dragons with a single slash", it made sense if what Allen said was true, "banishing vampires with a flip of his locket"If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    "Ha ''lover''s chain'' it was the best defensive legacy item", adding, "even better than ''master''s chestplate'' that was a good armor for a peasant if you didn''t mind the strange never truely fitting feeling", explaining, "the chain gives different resistances by your base stats and they evolved if you had it on resurgence", then adding, "I only found one other resurgence item though the ''wanderers staff'' that could store a new spell with each resurgence"

    "Ok" Meroa breathed, "I am making a starburst dragon peasant"

    "Haha good joke", Allen looked at her, "are you serious?"

    "Yes", looking back at him "what is wrong with that?"

    "You lose your age when you despawn", he tried to explain, "it will inhibit your dragon''s growth"

    "It doesn''t matter", trying to explain, "if I can max my stats like you said and get these insane artefacts", that infuriating clueless man, "and be a dragon", he had to understand, "then I will make this the most powerful avatar in the game", then she realised something, "this has to be our secret", looking at Nariza, "you can''t tell anyone", back to Allen, "you too", adding, "promise me"

    Allen closed his eyes, "I already told Jovial", shaking his head, "he didn''t believe me and the Kobolds made him pick the shopkeeper class", annoyed at the bullying his friend suffered, "it also has some good resurgence effects", going back to her request, "I promise not to tell anyone else"

    "I wonder what the pilot resurgence effect will be", looking at Allen, "is there any way to find out before?"

    "It was always a gamble" he tried to explain, "and sometimes you would get it wrong even after a few times of going through with it", it was a hard cncept, "you could usually tell by the greatest limitation for a class", going back to the one he knew best, "like the farmer that can''t gain stats from items he isn''t proficient in and is only proficient in legacy items", moving forward, "some people thought the resurgence bonus was for the proficiency and others believed it was the extra base stats but in reality it was the skill removal that has the greatest effect because with higher stats you could take new skill trees previously locked"

    "This is a pretty complex system", Meroa finally said, "whoever came up with it was a genius and whoever made money by hiding it was even smarter"

    "Whenever red and green collaborate the results are unexpectedly good", Allen said cryptically.

    "Who are red and green?" Meroa heard him talk about them before.

    "They are designers for the system", adding, "I thought they died a thousand years ago and others took their roles", thinking, "but since I met Shoul I realised they are probably still the same people and still building things while living like I do in the game", sighing, "I wish I could meet them".

    "Why not ask Emet and Gerush?" Nariza explained, "they are from the system" adding, "maybe they know your red and green admins?"

    "I will ask them", then looking at Nariza, "so you don''t know the resurgence effect on the whore class?" She shook her head, "then it''s trial and error", he sighed, "though I would hate to lose the age effect on the dragon stats its worth to do a few times if I can get more of those allure skills you were talking about", looking at Meroa, "I guess we will both stay young for a long time if you go ahead with your plan to be a peasant", thinking, "it''s good your spellcasting is a racial skill or you could lose your spell list every time you went through a resurgence" addin'' "the purpose of the ''wanderers staff'' after all was to keep the spells you learned"

    "It''s a good thing I got here early so we still have some time to finish the explanation", Nariza tried to get back on the original tracks in the ensuing silence, "the effect of allure skills also varies", another tough subject, "some make it impossible to ignore you while others make it impossible to target you", this was the less known part, "what they all have in common is inhibition suppression", she almost didn''t believe it herself, "they make the target weak to mental attacks and the effect stacks over time"

    "That is a powerful skill", Allen agreed, "which really makes me wonder what the resurgence gains are", looking thoughtful, "is there a specific skill you recommend?"

    "The problem with all the skills in the set is the resistance", thinking how to explain it, "because of the mental attrition", was the right word, "when someone does manage to resist it they are still weak", explaining the point, "which will make them react much more strongly", adding, "resentment turns to hatred and anger to red hot rage while fear could become absolute terror and happiness to addiction", shaking her head, "and you as the inatigator cant control it because you only have one allure skill with one effect".

    "At least we know you can get more than one skill then", Allen finally said, "I fought a whore that played on my mind like a master pianist and he pushed me over from rapt attention to blind rage over and over with his voice and facial expressions"

 379 Yellow Shoe

    "Why do you keep going to that boring world Jeremy", Red asked every time Jeremy came back to the coffin motel, "here you have holograms and machines that can take you to the moon and back in minutes", his top argument, "while the most advanced piece of technology there is a musket"

    "That''s not true", Jeremy protested.

    "Oh sure you have modern sails configurations because the designers are a buch of historically innacurate hecks but its all superficial and you still mostly just hack at each other with swords and sticks" red never stopped for breath, "sure magic is great but anything spells can do tech could do better you can use magboosts to fly or hologram projectors to do some great ilusions or see halfway across the galaxy but you go into that dreary place to waste your time"

    "We have computers" trying to defend against the harsh words.

    Red laughed, "let me tell you a secret sonny", laughing again, "it all happens inside a computer" mockery oozing with every word.

    "I mean in the game", Jeremy talked fast, "we have computers and airplanes and lasers inside the game now"

    "Ho?" Red sounded surprised, "and where is this wonderful revolution happening boy?"

    "Ia the dragon''s vault in the Afriat path", Jeremy didn''t like being mocked or insinuating he lied, "you can log in and see for yourself"

    "I might just do that sonny see if you could stop me" thinking, "meet me in the game in three hours I look like this" showing the picture of a human in simple dress that looked like a farmer that just finished a day''s work.

    "Are you sure you can make it?" Jeremy wondered, "the path is pretty dangerous"

    "Don''t worry ''bout me boy", sounding amused, "I have more ''n one ace up my sleeve"

    If it took Red off his back Jeremy would gladly show him some of the new inventions from the vault and if he couldn''t make it now there was always another day.

    Placing his groceries in the unit''s refridgerator and his out clothes in the washing unit Jeremy looked out at the silent hallway seeing a lot more units were occupied and knowing he was going to meet the kids sleeping in them soon enough he logged in.

    Incarnating in his room on the bottom floor of the main keep he hopped out of bed and looked at his furry feet, stretching and yawning it was fun being a foxman like his favorite ninja from oldschool manga strips.

    He ran to the engineering area where Allen spent most of his time these days preparing to make his spaceship once he got the base construction from the pirate emperor after the big battle in two weeks.

    "Allen" he had to shout before the dragon lowered his head from some huge dome he was working on, "I have a friend coming to visit from the path in a few hours"

    "Does he need an escort?" Allen asked the obvious question.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    "He said he didn''t but I dont think he knows about the giants having war wagons now" thinking back to his conversation with Red, "do you think we can send an overlord to fish him?"

    "Let me ask the supervisor", chain of command was important and overlords were allways in demand for patrols or supply runs to the now less controversial Andorians.

    After looking at a com crystal for a few seconds Allen asked, "when is your friend coming?"

    "He said three hours", hearing the words he realised how strange they sounded, "he was very sure about it"

    "She sais she can do it if you fly with them to identify him", after another long stare at the com crystal.

    "I can do that", RedFox21 looked at the thing Allen was building, "I have a few hours to spare do you need a hand?" He wasn''t supposed to come online for a while yet but being here he couldn''t just wait idly.

    The overlord was their largest flying machine, a blimp dwagon carrier that functioned as a flying fortress, command center for long distance operations and semi permanent lookout station, with only seven pilots able and willing to fly the gargantuan kings of the sky they had a pretty tight schedule on the four ships already finished, thankfully most of the size was just gasses filling the baloon so it didn''t take as long to build as warships of the same size and he still suspected Allen cheated somehow.

    A few dwagon pilots reported increased giant activity all over the mountain so the vault was on high alert when overlord 3 was launched to fish Red.

    Their altitude could be blamed for the relative safety of the first twenty minutes but not for zero sightings of giant activity all around the vault after the call for high alert, then they started seeing the blasts in the distance, familiar red glow followed by a puff of smoke and a rolling thunder that shook them even so high up, that was a sign of war wagons in full combat deployment.

    At first they could just see the giant wheeled doom carriers rolling down the mountain at breakneck speed, then came the deployed siege wagons that were a sight dreader by all mechanized units from the vault, then came the wreckage.

    Giant wheels buried in the ground, cannons larger than old generation armedrillos thrown around like twigs in a storm, giant bodies shredded by their own friendly fire as the siege line was frantically hurling shot after shot at an invisible enemy.

    Another wagon cracked in the middle and then blew up like a flower blossom, giants flying through the air like dolls kicked in a tantrum, more blasts aimed at the broken wagon turning it to a lake of melting metal, the scene repeated again before they were close enough to see what was attacking the giants.

    "Who the hell is that?" The pilot shouted above the whistle of steam and cranking chains.

    RedFox21 looked in the main viewer, "that''s Red", he shouted, "our fish"

    "I am not bringing that maniac into my overlord" the pilot almost sounding scared.

    "Do you prefer that he drags that shitstorm all the way to the vault?" Jeremy found it barely believable something could still be alive in that inferno below them.

    "If we die here I will fucking kill you", the pilot said and turned to his com crystal, "Rosh is diving for the pickup so cross your fingers for her"

    A dwagon dropped from the overlord and Jeremy held his breath at the risk these psychos were taking, he couldn''t even look outside without losing his conciousness and now Rosh was freefalling into a pit of flaming death.

    The dwagon almost hit the ground before it started climbing back up, dragging a rope ladder under its belly and at its end was a flinging avatar that seemed to hold on with one hand.

    When the dwagon attached itself to the overlord the pilot turned them around, "your friend is nuttier than a tree full of squirrels" he screamed at Jeremy

    "I know" unable to disagree.

    By the time the siege wagons shifted to anti air configuration the overlord was out of range, "we have to report this to the vault", the pilot shouted, "the giants are going to be pissed for a long time over all this" gesturing at the field of carnage behind them before leaning toward his com crystal.

    The landing field was packed with people running between the flying machines, preparing to fight off the giants if thet hit the vault with what the overlord crew reported, Allen was there to meet RedFox21 and his friend when he suddenly cried "YOU!!"

 380 Zap Torque

    "You are me!" Allen exclaimed.

    "Did you take a look in a mirror lately sonny?" Red answered.

    "I mean your avatar is me", trying again.

    "Not making any more sense on your second try boy", the peasant chuckled, "but I can guess you''d be an Allen Pearlson from a thousand years ago an'' ye just woke up as a hatchling dragon", sweeping an arm around the yard, "bringin'' all that to life as your memories from another world bubble up"

    "Well actually", Allen started.

    "But I''mma tell''ya d''truth", Red barreled down the word, "I don''t care u''n bit for all o'' that", looking around, "what I care ''bout is you gonna make me a legacy car" squinting his eyes, "none of that steamjunk stuff too", glaring at Allen, "I want an honst te god ol'' diesel under ma seat and you gonna make that hap''n"

    "The mountain doesn''t allow us to build diesel engines", Allen hastily answerd.

    "Where is that m''ntain that won''t let me hav ma car", squinting manacingly at Allen, "you po''nt an'' I''mma hav a ch''t wth th?guy" equipping a spade, "with ma trusty kitty scooper" which was obviously the name for the legacy tool.

    "Put the kitty down Red", Emet rumbled from behind him.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!

    "You da mn''tn Emet?" Red turned around and leaned on the spade, "why don''ya wan''me to''ve ma car boy?"

    "We need to introduce these technological advances gradually", rocks sliding down a slope.

    "I don'' care what you do with all this stuff", Red''s speach got normal, "just want a legacy car to roam around the wastelands"

    "And if someone steals your car?" Emet rumbled, "right" when Red stared at him with sarcastic surprise, "do whatever it takes to get this monster off my mountain before he starts planting thing all over the place" turning to Allen.

    Looking at his display Allen finally said, "I can make you a legacy car", and Red''s eyes sparkled, "but I will need materials that dont exist on the mountain", to which Red squinted suspiciously, "and when I have them it will take me four days to make"

    "Tell me what you need sonny and I go bring it in un'' o'' your fancy ol'' flyin'' hogs" looking at the dwagons, "might need a pilot though", seeing a girl with a pilot helmet and a pair of purty wings he pointed, "she''d do fine"

    "You can''t just take her", Allen said to the vigorous headshakes of the overlord pilot and RedFox21, "only if she wants to go with you".

    "How ''bout it lass?" Red turned to Nariza, "fancy an adventure with an oldtimer that can show you tha world?"

    Allen rolled his eyes, "you don''t have to go with him Rosh"

    "You stay outta ma buzns buddy or I RIP your stone maself", the peasant flared into a fighting stance.

    "I know your weakness old man", the dragon was unusually calm against the threat, "you can''t scare me"

    "Ain''t got a weakness sonny", to which Allen leaned to whisper something in his ear and Red grabbed a horn and pushed him with a calluous hand, "well ye got me on that one", shaking a finger, "don''t you go blabbin our secret to no one sonny that a dangerous thing to know"

    Rosh looked from Allen to Red, "I want to go", she finally said.

    "Hand over your shopping list boy", Red announced, "imma be back afore you knew it"

 381 Clock Pass

    The siege on the free guilds alliance moved according to plan, Slom surveyed his latest conquest with satisfaction, the first of many true cities to fall, controlling the guilds'' spawn points was the pivot to his conquering arm and now things started falling into place.

    Looking at the prisoner line he could spot a few legacy avatars that will either be converted to the cause or removed from the board in some remote island where they could do no harm.

    "Well done Thalil", he congratulated the admiral, "perfect execution"

    "Thank you emperor", the man knew his job, "it was all thanks to the men and women of the armada", this moment was recorded for future holos where others will play their part, "and their sacrifices for the greater good"

    "Not too many sacrifices I hope", the emperor also knew his part, "we will need them when we proceed in the conquest"

    "Not at all emperor", he replied.

    Rumors were surfacing of a new arsenal for the guilds, with new classes and modern weapons, but Slom and his lieutenants had yet to see these wonders and rumors were rampant in every campaign.

    Walking to his cabin he wondered what happened to the girl with the date, she took the joke pretty hard and vanished even though he gave her an extra treasure, but Annie was with her and a staff of ultimate magic, so it was impossible for her to get in too much trouble.

    Sitting behind his desk and putting his legs up he remembered how things were when he was younger, the same, his fleets attacked the guilds and then they got together again and with the power of friendship pushed him out to sea, until they became corrupt and ripe to his picking like a wasp stung fig.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

    They had so much strife this time, up to requesting system arbiters to stop some guilds from extorting rich kids, maybe he could push all the way up to the lizards'' empire this time.

    Now that was a force to be reckoned with, not as many Legacy avatars but what they lacked in quality they had in quantity and then some, with some of his captains meeting a new dragon threat, forces had to be diverted to watch the skies.

    The young Kobold assassin was well hidden within his sanctum, if the chair didn''t trip him the attack could even reach the emperor, but nothing in his room was as it seemed, the youngling was flat on his nose before he knew what happened and tangled in an impossible knot of wooden legs within seconds, the flames consumed the wood too fast for Slom to react but luckily the bath was there, full for an evening dip but also ready for a quick dousing.

    Steam rising from his flaked scales the boy looked so miserable, "which of my trusty lieutenants sent you boy?"

    "Nobody had to send me to kill a filthy Human", ah tedius answers from religious fanatics.

    "Who showed you the hidden door then?", the emperor walked to the cabin holding a certain sword.

    "I came through the door", the wet youngster protested.

    "I think you are a very interesting individual", holding the sword in front of him, "not a player", a tiny slash through the air, "and not the other kind", jabbing the air, "and yet you speak fluently", in a heartbeat the sword was pressed to the creatures neck.

    Gulping, "how do you know that?" Feeling his scales getting warmer.

    "One of many secrets I will not share with you", lifting the sword from the being''s skin, "though there is another secret you will know about me very soon", the emperor''s hand was glowing before everything turned dark.

    The youngster''s eyes adjusted to the darkness and he found himself surrounded by feral Kobolds, untreated ancient ferals, "welcome to your own worst nightmare", he heard the emperor laugh and saw the ferals press their faces against an invisible barrier, "at any moment of my choice they can touch you", another sinister laugh, "in the real world we would call them zombies", saliva ran down the barrier to a filthy floor, "but here to your kind", silence except the hungry snarls from the feral, "they represent something much worse".

    After having his fun with the uninvited guest the emperor sipped his drink in the bath and had happy thoughts of glory and conquest over the burning Kobold empire.

 382 Bar Treatment

    Zorhan thought he knew what torture meant, deprive a Kobold food and comfort, change his sleeping hours, beat and stab him a few times, maybe use magical effects on sensitive scales, and you got a haunted husk desperate to please.

    Zorhan knew nothing about torture, in less than a day he was a mental wreck, the forcefield surrounding him was one sided, he could walk, or more often stumble through it at any moment, using any skill made the field soft and let the ferals outside stretch it until they touched but didn''t touch his scales, biting and never penetrating his skin, but if he moved or shivered then he would get past the stretched membrane and feel their teeth and claws.

    Zorhan was outclassed from the moment he set foot in the harbor looking for a job on a ship, his assassin class let him fake all the seaman skills of climbing and ropework but the actual work was alien to him and the orders unknown, he was caught within an hour and pulled into the conspiracy a minute later, he could kill the emperor, there was ambition for a fledgeling assassin if he ever heard of one.

    Sneaking into the room carrying a bucket of water was easy, but from that point onward everything worked against him, he could swear the carpet tripped him on purpose twice, that chair never had so many legs and don''t get him started on the whispering doorknob.

    Thinking about himself in third person, "he is distraught", was a sign of, "madness", like hearing, "voices in the dark", he was, "left alone in the dark for too long", even the feral moved, "away", all, "alone by himself".

    "Who are you?" Zorhan cried.

    "He speaks", the voice answered, "could he be our salvation?", a feral looked at him with sad eyes, "you touched the crystal", maybe not a feral then?

    Falling to the floor with a sigh of relief as all tension left his body, he let the speaker touch him and watched in horror at the message on his display.

    [System: Attention Zorhan use of rogue elements detected please provide NPC verification or an operator will be assigned within <143:59:59:999> hours]

    The timer started dropping it value and Zorhan could just cry, "how come you can speak?"

    "Elixir of wisdom" came the answer from somewhere in the dark, "it changes something and lets us speak and understand the Players"

    "But you are also Players", that was the new word of Allen, ferals were taken over by Players that were payed to do wanton damage.

    "Ah you know the emperor''s secret", pause, "soon it will not matter to you rogue", the voice continued, "you will be one of us and unless the emperor decides to show you great mercy you too will be silent", a bark of laughter, "we are his secret weapon against the empire", explaining, "once he gets through the guilds he will release us to rampage in the empire", another pause, "you were lucky to be caught already in the campaign", it said, "some of us are waiting for over a hundred years", laughter again, "lurking here in the dark hold", another dry laugh, "killing time", more of a cough, "the emperor''s secret weapon"If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    He could tell them it wouldn''t work, and when the Player stole his body and memories they will know anyway, but he hoped the emperor''s attack will come before that and the empire will cure these talking ferals the same as the others and ruin the Human invaders'' greatest weapon.

    Needing to hide his memories of the cure pushed zorhan to reflect on his recent past, he hid those memories from himself, not wanting to face the consequences of assaulting Gem and hitting the crystal, he stayed in the empire long enough to see the changes, the ferals going back to their lives, even to see youngsters experimenting with feral fever, his mother was dead, it was the truth.

    His mother died to protect him and others, her sacrifice was not smaller because a cure was found years after she gave her life for the greater good, it was a tragedy, but he needed to leave it in it''s place or disgrace his mother''s sacrifice, it was not meaningless when she did it, but the only way she knew to prevent years and decades of seeing her suffer as a souless monster.

    He shouldn''t have hit Gem, he should not have attacked the crystal, it was too late now, but he had to at least forgive himself if he ever woke up in the empire after being treated for the plague, he should have taken the vaccine, swearing to his greater great grandma that he will not be a feverist was nice in the protected areas of the empire where treatment was available every morning but out here in the frontiers, no one even heard there was a treatment let alone vaccination.

    Did making foolish decisions made him a fool?

    He was smart, but could he also become wise in time?

    He was there when the crystal cured Garnet, and countless others after that, but did he know what Allen did?

    Thinking of Gem made him flinch in pain, he killed her in his rage, to control his actions he had to understand them, to understand he had to clear his mind of guilt, Gem, the carefree girl that was his only friend, wasn''t carefree, she was responsible, sensible and caring, she didn''t just befriend him out of shared misery and bullying by the older children.

    Gem was better than he deserved, she forgave him when he couldn''t look himself in the mirror, she was his strength when he decided to go to the pirates, she didn''t push him away like he accused her in that anger filled night, she let him go so he would not be hurt every time she smiled at him.

    That forgiveness had strength he couldn''t even fathom the depths of, a well of power so rich and deep he would never go thirsty again if he just listened, she was right, to care for others was the greater sacrifice, and in this dark pit of despair he needed strength, he needed to care.

    The other ferals around him weren''t the enemy, it was the pirates and their cruel emperor that were the enemy, he shouldn''t fear the ferals, he should care for them, he knew there was a cure, but he knew there was danger in telling others about the cure, but the cure had two parts, one was the language and here some ferals could talk, the other was treating them better, not as monsters but as people, not sick and insane individuals but as someone who was wronged and hurt by the people they cared for, the real Kobolds were trapped inside the feral and he knew they can be freed from the Player''s control.

    The emperor knew he wasn''t a Player, it wasn''t just a deduction, there was a way to know it, the ferals also left him alone as soon as the clock started.

    Deep in thoughts, reading through help files and menus like Gem told him Allen did, he still didn''t have his answers after five days and watched in horror as the timer reached zero, now he had nothing but time as his body rose and walked to join the others, Zorhan didn''t waste his time though and he created a memory gem where he hid all his memories of the cure so the Player wouldn''t have access even if he wanted to while Zorhan searched for his own salvation.

 383 Arid Claim

    Meishir was a small town, the Mill crossroads was a tiny guild compared to some of the powerhouses ruling the alliance but they had legacy avatars and his Gal''Or was powerful enough to gain their town a spawn point and their guild a place in the alliance.

    Hanlun knew the town was lost before he logged in, it was lost a week ago when Shermond fell and they lost the main trading hub for the region, but it was his home town and he was going to defend it for as long as possible and pay the despawn tax when he died at the last stand.

    Sails on the horizon made him hold his breath, and then moved on at full speed, completely ignoring Meishir and just moving on to the next major city, not sure if he was glad to be spared or annoyed to be scorned he breathed out.

    Hundreds of ships, more Players than he ever saw in one place outside starter cities and alliance yearly market on the steppes, all rushing past him carried by the wind.

    Two ships turned and were moving in his direction, when they drew closer he could see they were dreadnaughts, each carrying more Players and NPCs than his whole town population, why bother fighting that? Pride didn''t pay for groceries, the spawn point did that but it will soon be under pirate control, but he could still hurt them, and two ships could be easily repelled by the town defenses, the other sails on the horizon were the real threat but mocking him with such a tiny force will not come cheap.

    They were perfectly aligned, one keeping slightly to the back, "tidal horror", was his legacy ultimate, imbuing illusion and evocation it created a small ebby that halted a ship while at the same time conjuring the image of a sea monster rising from the depths, the ships shot at it and now came his mastery, following each shot with a tentacle of ilusion made the people on the ships think the monster hit them, causing more shots and more damage to both ships, when they both had their broadsides turned to the ''monster'' he breathed in and as the light flashed from both ships he dipelled the illusion and let the pirates enjoy their own light show, one ship was covered in steaming black tar that seemed to drip through the wood and stripped a quarter of its flank armor and hall, the dreadnaught held in place for another half a minute before it sunk right in front of his astonished eyes.

    The remaining ship was not unscathed as it turned to its original course he could see smoke rising from several locations along its center and flank, "greater illusion" making it appear like the whole ship caught on fire and watching in satisfaction as its crew was jumping off, it wasn''t easy to dispel a greater illusion but the pirates had their own spell casters and it was soon removed, more substantial spells needed them to be in range and by that time their cannons will decimate the whole wall and their men will be jumping over the rubble left from his battlements, ignoring the cheers from his people he signaled them to retreat, leaving only him and the NPCs to hold the last stand, pirates were notorious for mistreating Players and he wasn''t about to let his family and friends suffer through that for a lost cause, already seeing more ships parting from the line to attack him, feeling proud to be the thorn in the emperor''s side.

    Entering his long range for mortar fire he started pulsing the shots to slow down their advance, forcing them into evasive maneuvers and even scoring a few solid hits when the captain missed a beat, smiling in satisfaction at the thuds of crushed wood and broken timber he heard the first whistle of their own mortars, aiming at his battlements and towers was a better gamble than thinking there was only one defender and guessing his location.

    Managing another full salvo before losing two of his eight mortars, he knew where to aim his next shots and scored another solid one on their aft mortar before losing three more of his own, they weren''t lucky, they were well trained professionals doing a good job.

    There was no time to appreciate their proficiency as they entered his cannon fire profile, conentrating on the different gauge fans required his full attention, the ship was huge and armored to extreme measures, boasting over eighty cannons on each broadside for his meager sixty all along the wall, seeing the whites in their eyes he now knew each emplacement was a double barrel and the first salvo turned a third of his wall to rubble sliding into the sea or blasted at the warehouse district behind it.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

    Not bothering to turn they reloaded, taking on his direct shots to their flanks and then blasting another part of the wall, if he let some of his guild members stay they could take the cannon fire on themselves and he could use his avatar''s skills to confuse their aiming but with so many cannons it was useless, some would hit on pure statistics and if they wanted to shoot faster all the pirates had to was turn to their other broadside, it wouldnt double their pace but it could add about twenty percent to their firing speed as it took time to actually turn such a monster.

    Following the second salvo they didn''t bother to fire again, just rammed the ship at the docks and marched into his once peaceful town, from his tower Hanlun didn''t understand their actions, they didnt just loot the defenseless NPCs, raping and maiming the computer controlled avatars was just disgusting, seeing some of the NPCs fighting off a group of pirates in the corner shop he decided to join them, flying down and flinging lightning bolts at the low level pirates was satisfying, the computer generated gratitude of the NPCs was nice but would be very annoying if not for the prizes they gave him and the small clearance quest a burly barkeeper gave him.

    Killing twenty pirates was easy when hundreds of them were all over town and he the only other Player, repulsion from their actions of sadism toward the NPCs gave him motivation to kill another thirty on the second stage of the quest before the bigshots noticed him, he kept killing the lower level Players even as they chased him through the streets, blasting fireballs and chain lightning spells when sighting them was a lot of fun.

    He flew to a roof, evading the barrage of knives from the rogue that cornered him, the Player was quick and agile and Hanlun couldn''t get rid of him with illusions and subterfuge, looking down he could see the Player running up the wall, jumping from brick to brick like they were horizontal, shooting a lightning bolt the player evaded with ease and Hanlun turned to flee once more.

    Narrowly evading the sword slash and sidestepping to regain his bearing, Hanlun cast "thunder clap" to purchase another second before flying to another roof, hearing stone crushed he looked back to see the warrior smashed parts of the roof in his jump and was gaining on him fast.

    Barreling through Hanlun''s wind wall the warrior rolled past him when the rogue made a graceful jump lead by a fan of flying daggers, a "gust" spell pushed them aside but put him in the countdown for another spell.

    After doing the math he dropped from the side of the building and cast feather fall as soon as the timer filled up and almost too late as he hit the street almost at the same time and started running.

    A sea oriented legacy avatar had no business fighting on land, his most powerful spells useless in the enviroment he could only delay the inevitable and finally when cornered on three sides he stood straight and put his hands in his sleeves as the universal sign of peace.

    Ready to despawn at any moment he watched them catch their breaths as more lower leveled pirates joined the group surrounding him, he only had one question, "why are you abusing the NPCs?"

    "Because its fun", appeared to be the only answer he was going to get, "and because they aren''t really artificial intelligences", what was the man saying?, "let me prove it to you", signalling one of the others to bring a random NPC into the circle, "I can''t tell you their crimes", he laughed, "but it probably wasn''t anything like a NPC soldier would have got", all around laughs, "so it''s a lot easier to break their inhibitors even through the blockers"

    The man pulled out a knife and stabbed the NPC in the eye, "that kicked in his blockers", he explained the gruesome action, "now comes the fun part", tracing the knife across the NPC clothes and tearing them apart, "a hundred credits if you put new clothes on", the Player said and to Hanluns astonished eyes the NPC was clothed again, "now we are past the blockers", and Hanlun could see tears streaming from the avatar still good eye, "ten credits if you try to run", and the NPC bolted into the arms of the pirates surrounding them, "you need to offer them things they want to get past the blockers", grabbing the man''s arm and pulling him back to before Hanlun, "then you can start demanding the things you want them to do because they disabled their own blockers for a few credits"

    Looking at the NPC Hanlun didn''t know what credits were, "a thousand credits if you fail my voight-kampff test" was a strange wording of what the man tried to prive before Hanlun realised what it meant, a machine can''t fail on purpose, put numbers in a calculator and it couldn''t give you a false answer, unless you taught it how, but then the NPC wouldn''t function in its original design, "well done my friend", the Player congratulated the NPC on succeeding to fail, "see how much fun we are having?"

    Sick in his stomache Hanlun didn''t want to believe, "chain lightning" killed the poor tortured man and jumped to a few others before he despawned centimeters before the dagger pierced his heart.

 384 Keep Clam

    "RAMMING SPEED" the emperor screams and the ship obeys, over the crests and into the frey.

    Smashing into the wall of a heavily defended city the colossal class ship dwarfed its companions and was taller than parts of the wall, its prow protruding deep into the pier district allowed pirate Players to swarm around the defenders as the dreadnaughts kept a steady barrage of metal and explosions all along the wall.

    Surveying the bey Slom could see a few of the defending ships were still fighting, concentrating on the Odacious he got the fields of fire for her devastating weapons array, picking an enemy heavy cruiser he blasted it to tinder with a single salvo of his starboard aft battery, nine decks of doom let him have hundreds of cannons in each broadside, the colossal class was on a league of its own from the moment of conception.

    Even the dreadnaughts with their five decks couldn''t compare to the sheer avalanche of flaming metal blasting forth from Odacious in a single salvo.

    Taking thousands of men to operate all the different parts that allowed a ship of that size to move anywhere that wasn''t easily comparable to drifting the emperor had both the menpower and the knowlege of how to bypass a few of the more annoying parts of an operation this big, like spreadin disease and providing food and comfort for everyone involved.

    Surrounded from inside and out the enemy Players started logging off and despawning, still annoyed for losing a full dreadnaught to friendly fire taking down a nameless pisspot town who''se only importance was to deny Players from the guild alliance to respawn there.

    What his Players didn''t get was that if you tortured NPCs it could really bite you in the ass when they got assigned to your side, which usually happened in campaigns like these where NPCs kept dying and respawning on both sides.

    The sailor with a naked sword behind you could be the farmgirl you raped last week and she would gladly pay a few credits to stab your sorry ass and despawn you, so he didn''t allow that kind of stuff happening in his armada, they all signed the accords to live by the rule of the waves, NPCs were off limits and if you were caught red handed in a torture scene you better wish it was only one of Slom''s lieutenants that got you a whooping and not the emperor himself that struck you off from the accords.

    This city was big enough to boast two guildhouses and a real keep, so they mobilised the ground siege cannons to get the riches inside.

    Something, or someone was ploughing through his men like they were snow before an icebreaker, knowing that particular fighting style and seeing him make a straight line to him Slom sighed and jumped to the street below landing on his knee, hearing his lieutenants landing at his sides he signalled for them to stay back, "what do you want Red?", hoping it wasn''t them out of town as he was unprepared to face the maniac yet.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    "Just g''t me a choppin l''st I''mma need ye to fill some blanks", the man could speak perfectly fine, he just chose to annoy everyone he ever met.

    Taking the rumpled piece of paper popped the list in his display, "what are you building Red?", some of the ingredients were so rare he doubted they were obtainable outside one of the three mythical dungeons, but if Red wanted them then one or all three were about to be conquered and if needed farmed until the heavens dropped whatever it was the piece maker wanted.

    "None o'' yer b''sns sonny", waving his hat, "ye just point where t''go an'' st''p aside", sound advice from the living typhoon.

    "I have some of these things", he checked the list again, "but a few of them are out of my reach", signalling for one of his lieutenants to approach, "gargant beard is only found in the dark forests of fairytale which I never bothered to explore", handing the list to his subordinate and sending him to bring the ingrediants they had, "prowler seagrass stalks are an uncommon drop from the prowler seagrass that is practically immortal unless you lure it to dry land which takes weeks of tedius ploughing on the bottom of the sea to get it where its caught by sudden down tides which is your favorite pastime but no one else is crazy enough to bother", passing most of the items to the man, "this last one would be difficult even for you old man", looking at the simpleton scratching his head he couldn''t believe they actually shared the same face, "armageddon pyre Red?", examining him, "whatever you''re building keep it away from my armada or I won''t take it kindly ''brother'' you don''t want to upset me with that crap"

    "T''is a desert t''ng an''way ''broda'' ain''t none t''do w''th your boots", knowing that if Red decided to make new deserts for his pr''jct he will dry the oceans didn''t reasure the emperor but to fight this being he needed to be prepared, which meant starting last year but now was soon enough.

    "A'' tank''ye knd''ly broda", lifting his hat, "see ya in a hun''rd years" and he turned and left.

    "Why the fuck did you give some wierdo over a million gold and literaly priceless treasures?" At least the moron had the decency to wait until he turned after Red was gone

    Keeping calm, "do you know who that ''weirdo'' is?", obviously not or he wouldn''t speak so loud.

    "Your brother or whatever", looking pissed, "why are we working our asses off so your bum brother and bimbo girlfriend can just walk away with the greatest treasure?"

    "Did you ever hear of mirage the great city of wonders?", it was the easiest way to explain Red.

    "It''s a myth where life once was now nothing grows, where all were blessed brings none but waste", adding, "its a children''s song"

    "He made it a myth", looking to where the man went and shivering, "the grand vizier challenged him to sprout the damned tree", pause, "that is the tree''s name", seeing the men unimpressed, "he turned the earth so unbearing that you couldn''t grow weeds in a pot of magical soil",still unimpressed by his passionate apeach the emperor sighed, "you can try and rob him as long as you let him take some distance away from the city" looking at the wall and contemplating.

 385 Just Nominal

    "BULLSHIT", Marid screamed almost as soon as he logged in.

    [System: Attention Marid your ship carries only <13%> of its food capacity, due to <rations> mechanic your rank only allows you to draw on the ship supplies every two days, drawing full rations yesterday denies you access to the food cargo manifest until <23:48:064> hours have passed, would you like to pay <55><gold> and reset the timer? Y/N]

    Looking at Lekemia, "why the hell did we dump all our food?", was the captain daft or did a mutiny break out?, "we had 27 percent food cargo when I checked yesterday", some questions were better left unasked.

    "We looted the Molechin guildhouse yesterday remember?", nodding because he was there, "then we had a party on the ship?", he logged off when it started but nodded again, "that party was to get rid of rations", the gritty crap some Players liked was definitely not for him so he shook his head, "to let everyone fill their personal inventory with ration packs", the truth started dawning on him, "do you have anything at all?"

    Not wanting her pity warred with his very real hunger, "nothing", he could cry, "I wanted to get more loot faster so I emptied everything except fighting gear", apparently checking the ship cargo twice isn''t enough in a campaign like this.

    "You can have two of mine if you promise not to embarass me and beg for more", looking serious, "as our squad leader it was my job to check everyone", she passed her eyes on the nodding squad members, "and missing you was my fuckup so I own it", then her eyes froze him in his place, "but if you go poach even from others in the squad I will plank your sorry fat ass myself".

    Gulping, he nodded and accepted the rations from her, "how long before we go to empty our haul?", it was a reasonable question but she glared at him.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

    "We meet the loot barges in five days", looking over the rail, "that guild got us stuck here for too long before it finally cracked", looking to the front, "the fleet moved on", shaking her black curles, "now even with how slow the barges are moving we can''t catch them before the bay"

    "Is the campaign really that far ahead?", looking to the front as well, "I thought the plan put us at the bay three weeks from now".

    "The resistance from the alliance is too weak for our new weapons and tactics", hoping she didn''t believe it, "or they set a trap for us at the bay with the lizards'' support in absolute numbers", was far more likely.

    After eating breakfast of half a ration, Marid joined his work crew for the shift, untangling ropes, lines and grapples was not the worst work on the ship and lunch came by quickly.

    "Smart" his partner who''se name he forgot said, indicating his half ration, "no need to go hungry because of dumb mechanics", sighing, "I wish it didn''t come as such a surprise though", biting his own half.

    "Didn''t you check the cargo balance yesterday?", Marid asked the seemingly sad Player.

    "I did", looking at his half eaten half ration, "and then I logged in and the mechanics was already in effect".

    "You should pay more attention next time when there is a party", the Player looked surprised when Marid got whacked on the head by something so heavy it made him dizzy, before he could protest someone dragged him aside to a dark secluded spot between the mast and deckhead.

    "Are you fucking stupid?", Lekemia hissed, "do you want to get shanked?", slapping him with her fan turned his head, "you just told someone you have more food than them on a half rations voyage you imbecile", shaking her head, "I should let the boson ram you but apparently I am too kind hearted", stabbing his chest, "give me your loot and rations now", she hissed, "I will keep them for you until rhey realise killing you gets them nothing", thinking for a second, "all your gear too"

    Shaking his head he wanted to protest but she was his boss, got him the easy jobs and fed him this morning, will other Players really shank him for rations?

 386 Item Trope

    Muck duty saved his life, muck duty saved his sanity, muck duty saved his mind, muck duty was the most horrible thing he ever had to do in his life, muck duty saved his life.

    Marid thought over and over about the last three days, he couldn''t count the number of times he got despawned but apparently everyone else including the captain knew about the new game on the ship.

    At least when he logged off they could only kill him once, the punishments from the high ranks made sure it was always done in a surprise attack after thinking he was safe, it could be someone in the work crew or a random sailor he never met before, but it happened so often that he became a joke.

    Muck duty had two parts, shovel the muck collected in the bowels and exterminate the rats that spawned from it each day, with a simple spade as his only weapon the extermination part wasn''t going so well for Marid, it was just another way to die if he wasn''t fast enough and the small loot from the creatures and prizes from his mucking quest either went to Nariza for safekeeping or to whoever got to kill him after he got it.

    In only three days he died more times than in nine years of playing as a pirate, more times than all his friends together?

    Hearing the squeak he tightened his grip on the spade, finding the rat struggling half buried in the muck made him laugh at their mutual fate and when he raised his weapon to get the easy kill he couldn''t, the little guy was stuck in the muck just like him, taking a piece of the half ration he had for today he handed it to the creature and saw how he used his little hands to munch on the biscuit and then beg for more.

    "I don''t have any more little guy", his own voice surprising him after hours of silence in the dark.

    As soon as he freed the rat the creature bolted away and he knew that he will never recognize it among the others, "thanks for telling us where you were hiding poopsqueak", was the last thing he heard before feeling the dagger finding his heart for a critical hit that despawned him.

    He really needs to shut his mouth, seeing the mocking glares from his shipmates, he got a new spade and started going down to the muck pits, this time without the half ration, the rat got to eat more of his food than he did.

    Muck duty saved his life for most of the day, he just needed to shut up and go even lower in the pits and in two days they will get to the armada and he will be shifted to another ship.

    After another hour of shoveling and dumping muck to the barrel for the furnace he noticed a rat was following him, seeing Marid was looking it made the begging motion with he hands but Marid had nothing to give so he just continued with the muck quest until the hunger finally broke him and he paid thethe fifteen gold reset price for a ration and ate it as fast as he could, leaving just a bit of biscuit he threw at the rat.

    Two more hours of not dying was a nice change from the last few days, quietly shoveling and barreling, he knew once he started bringing the barrels upstairs his chances of survival will drop dramatically, on the other hand when they looted a bunch of muck barrels they couldn''t turn in without questions it should serve them right, you couldn''t drop quest items like muck barrels, only pick them up and then submit for the completion prize, it was one of the best features for doing this, because it tagged his killers for the captain to punish or got them stuck with a two gold piece worth of quest item that didn''t stack.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    Picking up his first batch of fifteen barrels Marid sneaked out from the pit, looking all around before rolling from the top of the ladder, sliding slowly along the wall and listening to try and figure where the attack will come from, taking a different route each time was impossible, there were only so many ways to get out and they all crossed at the five main hatches, hearing voices from an open door he quickly rolled to the other side, "what was that?", someone asked, "probably just a rat", came the reassuring answer.

    Making it all the way to the furnace holds was nerve wrecking but he made it, delivering the barrels and sneaking back to his pit he made another round before starting to notice something was different, the rooms he went by were all quiet, feeling like the whole ship was holding its breath.

    Finally delivering the barrels and recieving the next part of the muck quest along with a stack of fifty barrels.

    Walking fast to the pit, avoiding his previous routs Marid stopped with the blade holding him at neck level, "marry chase you gave us mucky mouse", the man chuckled, "but now you finally have something to take from you", snickering, "give me fifty gold coins and I will protect you on yer way to the pits", twisting the blade, "otherwise each barrel in your nice lil stack will cost you one and a half gold coins and who knows how dangerous the way to the pits is as good as you do".

    Tears stung Marid''s eyes as he formed the protection quest for fifty gold, his life just got that much worse, walking back with his ''guard'' was fast, others joined them along the way with laughs and mocking words he didn''t want to understand, as a final gesture of cruelty his ''guard'' pushed him through the pit hatch, "nice doing business with you mucky mouse", to the roaring laughter of the others, getting dimmer as they walked away from the stinking pit.

    More muck, more rats, noticing he hadn''t seen a rat for a while, he looked up to see one fat rat sleeping on its back over a pile of muck, almost twice as big as the usual monsters which didn''t start as small specimens of the rodent family.

    Ignoring the fat rat sleeping and getting back to shoveling he finished three more barrels before another rat spawned and scurried around, trying to hit it with his spade he banged an empty barrel and in the blink of an eye the fat rat snatched his tiny cousin and he was gone into its mouth, Marid stared in wonder as he got the experience and reward from his extermination quest, "thanks buddy", the fat rat did his begging show, "I don''t have enough gold to reset the timer again", tears stinging when he finished the sentence, "I wish I was a rat like you and could just eat the other rats".

    [System: Attention Marid, becoming a <rat> animal character will change your language setting from <Human> to <rodent> only Players and NPCs with the specific language will be able to comunnicate with you, do you wish to proceed? Y/N]

    "Yes", having his wish granted by the system was sweet, "I have no one to talk to anyway", the familiar feeling of despawning filled him with dread, when incarnating on the top deck he quickly realised this was not the right place for him when a sword slashed down at him like a mountain of steel, running between stomping feet and more weapons smashing around him he found out his action timers refilled much faster than he was used to and started evading, rolling, jumping, sliding and strafing a lot more before he noticed a hole in the wall beside him and dived in.

    Breathing hard while his eyes got used to the darkness he started cursing every choice he ever made in his life.

    Looking around Marid found himself in a long tunnel dug in hard sandstone, analysing his last few minutes it was obvious this was actually the sand barrier between the inner and outer deck walls meant to absorb damage and prevent deadly splinters from direct hits to the wall, he still had his map of the ship but not to the micro level of these infinite tunnels, still useful to get back to the pits.

    An hour later he was still in the tunnels and nowhere near the lower levels, at least he found some food when he stumbled on a nest of grubs and the system told him it would taste like chicken he devoured them faster than was probably healthful because he fealt slugging and fat afterwards, still a long way away from the pits it was time to log off and Marid sighed in relief knowing no one could find him inside the walls.

 387 Herd Plush

    Logging in and waking up in a dark room was a blessed changen in Marid''s life, letting his eyes get accustomed to the darkness and looking around himself he had a short disorienting experience before remembering he was a rat now inside the ship walls.

    Smelling something delicious he followed his nose to another chicken tasting grubs, this time he had to fight off their termite mother but she was no match to his claws and teeth and also tasted like chicken.

    His hairs stood on end like an electric shock was running through the walls, something big was moving very close and he didn''t want to find out what it would taste like, curling into a ball as tiny as he could imagine the sensation lasted for almost a minute before it startes vanishing behind him, much more attentive to his newfound senses he kept going down while avoiding anything that moved inside the walls.

    The convenient double walls ended, he needed to find a new path and was mortified at the thought of running through open hallways, scanning his ship map he quickly noticed that he had never actually been to most of the ship as Human, it seemed odd at first until he figured most of it was just structural aditions, you had to have them to get the munitions, rations and cargo space but no one had to literaly go there to put the stuff in, it was conveniently stored in the ship''s inventory and randomly generated if a Player actually bothered to go inside.

    This meant two things for his ratty self, free food if he got to the rations holds and a place to hide where no one will ever come look for him, though he''d still like to get the gold left where he died last and the messages told him he was running out of time for it after half a day of scurrying in the tunnels, with a plan in mind he decided to risk it.

    Pushing through a crack in the wall he started running in the open corridors, his claws scratching the wood, getting to the pit hatch a lot faster than he remembered the way to be, he scurried down the ladder and saw his old body lying half buried in the muck, looting the corpse had it despawn and he found two of his tiny three slots inventory full with the spade and a stack of fourty empty barrels, seeing his gold balance back to its meagre sum had him sigh in relief.

    "Well well well", the voice coming from behind him raised his hairs, "if it isn''t my lucky day I never had one", dread held him shivering in place, "apparently my trap worked far better than expected", a clawed hand grabbed Marid and turned him to stare in the face of a giant rat, "when I got an offer for a rat contract I was sure it was to spread some plague in a ship and maybe empty their rations", it snickered with such malice Marid felt himself convulse, "and then the most timid little human is offering me crackers to kill a few rats", looking around him, "and he tops it by turning himself into a rat", hard laughter that could compete with any of the crew bullies.

    Dragging Marid on the ground, "dont worry little one", it opened a half filled muck barrel, "if I kill you my contract is gone", throwing him into the barrel and closing the lid, "so you are going to live for a very long time" that laugh again.

    From the muck to the barrel, if things could get worse Marid didn''t see how, putting his head on his paws he needed to think, for once get a grip of the situation and not allow it to control him, the other rat was obviously a NPC, the system assigned it when he fed it the biscuit and it grew larger by eating other rats, feeling bile rising at the thought the system obviously interpreted it as some sort of taboo, rats spawned when you shoveled muck, he had a spade and the system would resize it to fit his diminished size if he equipped and didnt drop it, would shoveling muck already inside the barrel spawn a rat? He needed to try.

    Equipping the spade he sighed with relief when it was resized for him and he started shoveling the muck to one corner, muck had five percent to spawn a rat, so every twenty shovels should guarantee one, at the thirty second scoop he was ready to give up when he heard "who are you?" From behind him and realised all the spawned rats were NPCs but now he could talk to them, the new rat was about his size and Marid had no idea if he could actually kill it, a new plan started to form in his mind.

    "My name is Marid and I need your help", recruit NPCs by either taking quests or giving missions.

    "What do you want?", the creature started looking around at the barrel walls.

    "Outside is an evil giant rat", he explained his plan, "I want to spawn as many more of our kind and try to kill him before he eats us"

    "And how will you be doing that buddy?", the new rat wasn''t the friendliest person but he didn''t attack or object to the plan.

    When he had six rats in the barrel Marid asked them to help shovel, soon they doubled in number and then again before hearing, "what are you doing in there ratling?" and the horde of rats froze in fear as something was opening the barrel.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    When the lid was barely lifted they swarmed out, climbing on top of each other and on the hand holding the lid, screams of pain and rage, followed by chomping teeth and the lid falling to the floor, Marid climbed the muck pile and suveyed the pit, a writhing mass of tails and nailed scattered when he recieved xp for killing a giant rat and all that was left in the pit was the fat rat''s corpse.

    Working through his bile, Marid closed his eyes and started by eating the smaller rats that died in the attack, every part of his body ached and shivered with disgust when he found himself almost at the same size of the original NPC, eating that one as well made him only slightly bigger but it was enough for him, the next hours were used to hunt rats in the pits and grow to almost a human child''s size, when finding more of them became difficult he shoveled to spawn new ones and eat them as quicly as possible.

    Noticing his hands held the spade more easily over time he tried to swing it around like an axe but kept falling on his hind legs so he decided to practice walking on them before trying to do anything with the spade.

    An hour later he could stand without support like a baby learning to walk, spawning another rat he used the spade to kill it and didn''t fall this time, eating them wasn''t as disgusting as before too and he wasn''t growing much anymore.

    Then he remembered other uses for NPCs, the next spawned rat found itself caught alive, "I need you to deliver something for me", Marid looked at the pile of filled barrels, "I know you have three inventory slots", pityably so did he, "so not to overburden you", carrying it to the barrels, "you will take two and deliver them to the muck furnace and when you bring back the gold coins and a stack of five more barrels I will reward you"

    Fifteen minutes later the rat was on its second route and Marid had a second little ferrier to make the delivery even faster, the new problem was that he filled the barrels too slow, at ten helpers he was stuck without any more barrels to send but a lot richer in his gold account, he could enjoy this life if he had some way to fill the barrels faster, the next rat to spawn was fed to one of his minions and so were the next dozen, two barrels were full and this time he sent the horrified shivering messenger to bring five shovels instead of barrels.

    The fattend rat was forced to stand and use a spade to barrel muck and the spawning rate doubled so another fatty got the honors soon enough, having eight fatty spaderats Marid took a nap while they continued to barrel muck and eat the spawnlings with a few ''lucky'' ones kept small to do the deliveries.

    Waking up to a commotion he found some of his spaderats were fighting using crude knives and a fire hatchet with about twenty shoveling muck and barrels filling faster than he could imagine they were almost at the bottom of the pit, an unheard of feat outside a drydock in full maintenance repairs.

    Voices drifted from the hatch and though he knew they were words he couldn''t make them out, recognizing one of the voices he tried harder, breaking each syllabel and voul to their components and reshaping them to make some sense, he had to know what was happening to Nariza, "I don''t know where he is hiding", he finally pieced the words together.

    [System: Notice Marid, for using your peripheral senses and visualising the words a Player language <Human> has been added to your profile, this completes your evolution to <wererat>]

    "He is obviously still around the pits and delivering muck barrels", a gruff voice replied, "but we can''t catch him at it any more" frustration was dominating the last words, "so you are going to get him to come to us"

    "Don''t you think you abused him enough Yemoch?", a slap, "this won''t make me more cooperative you know"

    "Oh you will cooperate bitch", Yemoch threatened, "or what we did to mucky mouse will look like heaven compared to your fate", Nariza gasped and then screamed in pain.

    Marid couldn''t move, they''ll just kill him again and all his hard work will be for nothing, shivering with fear he fealt the other ratlings come to comfort him, sharing their body warmth in a cold and cruel world.

    Nariza cried again but he couldn''t help her, they were big and strong and armed and there was only one of him, before, none of the crew Players or NPCs helped him, before, they all just laughed at him, before, squinting his eyes he was in the eye of the storm, thoughts swirling as he stood up, "I am right here yemoch", he sqeaked, "why don''t you come down here and get me?", waving his spade at the light from the hatch and scattering his minions to hide behide the barrels and muck piles.

    "I knew this will work muckey", Yemoch shouted down, "be right back to deal with you sweetheart", and he jumped down into the darkness.

    Everyone on the main deck were surprised to see Yemoch respawn and scream in rage before running into the holds and respawning again after less than five minutes, following him they saw him jump into the muck pits and his scream silenced the moment he hit the floor, on his fourth repeat the man was red with rage but they caught him and called the captain to arrange an extermination squad.

    Light spell flooded the pits, bright as day and revealing nothing but a stack of muck barrels and piles of muck, slowly climbing down under the watchful eyes of wizards and archers, the exterminators reached the floor before the nearest muckpile exploded, obscuring sight and too fast to understand what happened the squad found themselves respawned on the main deck, making the right decision, the captain shut the muck pit hatch and left it for higher command to deal with whatever shitfuckary Yemoch got himself stuck with this time.

    The half naked and beaten crewoman didn''t explain anything that could slaughter an extermination squad in less time than it took for some dust to clear, it just told him something went terribly wrong in what was supposed to be a victory cruise.

    Marid laid back on his growing pile of treasure as more rats were spawned to loot the ship''s cargo and crew.

 388 Guilt Drone

    The plague ship joined the armada, in its last two days of voyage its entire crew died at least once, including the captain and high command, a few select crewmen managed to die so many times they almost broke the ship''s record, held by one ,Marid Alestar who conveniently vanished after a short episode of bullying and abuse recorded but not reported to the captain.

    "Quarantine barge ready sir", the tall nurse reported to his captain, "they should start coming aboard any moment now".

    "Anyone too sick to walk you despawn and carry from the top deck", the orders were clear, "there is a muck monster lurking somewhere in there and we are not taking any chances"

    "Understood sir", the man saluted and went to do his job.

    "You don''t really think it''s a muck demon Koshua", Harani said with a smile.

    "I don''t care what it is Har", the quarantine admiral''s voice was solid steel, "none of my people will be sacrificed for this captain Bactor''s mistakes", spitting to the sea, "locking the muck hatch", shaking his head, "like a green eared rookie", clapping his hands in apparant rage, "nobody likes muck duty", letting go and leaning on the rails, "you still have to get people doing it or you see the consequences".

    "Their furnace reports regular muck deliveries up until the hatch was sealed", Harani reported, "there were actually quite a few more deliveries made after the sealing"

    Crinking his nose, "who goes around carrying muck barrels?" Koshua asked out loud.

    "Someone who looted a muck carrier and didn''t want to get caught obviously", was too simple an answer.

    "Something went wrong on that ship", looking at Harani, "do you think someone abused NPCs and they spawned as rats and recognized their abusers?", a hard tale if true, "NPCs are terrible muck crew because they just let the blockers take the punishment and you still have to do the work", sounding grim, "bad luck could still be a big part of it".

    "You weren''t made admiral through faith Koshua", Harani stared at the moored ship, "don''t buy your own crap for this stupid captain", the sails were slovenly furled, "someone fucked up on that ship", lines dangling in the wind, "dont let your trust in humanity blind you to the hard truths of being in a pirate crew", she jumped back and landed with a sumersault on the mast rail then vanished.

    Healers cast purifying spells on every crewman that left the ship, removing their inventories with loot appraisals and hex boxes, some had to be sent to the furnace to deliver their muck barrels and were marked for later interrogation, some had barrels full of rats they claimed they got from looting plague rats on the last day of their voyage when there were hundreds of rats all over the ship and zero rations for anyone.

    "Do you think we have to sink it sir?" Deroth sounded distraught.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

    "Only if we can''t find the source", turning to his second in command, "assemble the extermination brigade"

    Thousands of rats scurried on every deck, scewering his fiftieth giant rat Garon couldn''t believe such a scourge was not a guilder spell, "if we find guilder slaves in their muck pit I will personaly have that idiot captain on a muck crew for the rest of his life".

    "You''d have to stand in line behind every other admiral and all the lieutenants for the emperor", Dirwon replied while casting shocking grasp on the wall to get more of the furry monsters out.

    "Fucking retard for letting this crap get so bad", Garon hacked another rat when he heard the screech, "bats are not rats with wings for fucks sakes", his eyes moving to scan the ceiling for the flying menace.

    "I hate sonic attacks", Dirwon used thunderclap to shield them from the worst of it, "we should retreat and get some heavier spell artillery"

    "We are almost there", Garon pointed at the stairs leading to the lowest deck before the pits, "lets just tag it on the map and move back"

    "Famous last words my friend" Dirwon laughed and cast magic missile to break the bats'' concentration and allow Garon to close the distance, all around them were sounds of battle as the extermination brigade was clearing the whole ship one inch at a time.

    Looming before them was the looming dark hole of the broken hatch, "looks like something chewed on it", Garon said and tagged it on the tactical map, "think we cal hold until Cherry and Molt catch up?"

    "I think if we stay here too long we will be smudges of ketchup", her voice quivered.

    "Fine lets go back", as he spoke the hatch spawned a swarm of bats, each dropping a barrel full of a hundred rats, "shit", he said quietly resigning for his despawning.

    "Blade wall", came the cry from behind them followed by, "good job".

    "Buffeting winds", another voice said and the swarm of bats fell to the floor, "well done" she added.

    "I was really hoping it was anywhere else", he almost recognized the voice, "I hate muck pits"

    Frozen from the terror of seeing the hundreds of rats swarming toward them, Garon and Dirwon couldn''t move when the emperor himself walked past them and jumped down to the pit, "don''t worry chap", a heavy hand landed on their shoulders, "he can handle himself".

    "Come out come out wherever you are", Garon couldn''t believe the sweet voice came from the emperor, "I have a little potion for you"

    "Why would I want your potion Human?" Sounding like a series of sqeaks and squeals.

    "Oh good", the emperor sighed with relief, "you just saved me a priceless elixir of wisdom"

    "Who are you?" The squeaks sounded breathless.

    "Don''t run from me", wood blasted in the dark pit, "my friends call me Slom", Garon couldn''t believe the words he was hearing, "do you want to be my friend?".

    "Humans can''t be friends", squeaking in panic.

    "Don''t be that way", the emperor was begging, "you already mastered evolution for yourself and other NPCs", what was evolution?, "you can be my friend".

    "My friends stabbed me in the back", the squeak almost sounding sarcarstic.

    "Some people I called friends stabbed me in the back once", who was stupid enough to betray the emperor, "I turned the to my cabin furniture so they can always bask in my glorious self but neve talk unless I deign in my benevolence to give them the elixir of wisdom", pause, "you will have to share your secret with me some day", something dragged, "aha" the emperor exclaimed.

    "Please don''t hurt me", whoever was down there begged.

    "I never hurt my friends", something dingled, "that''s a nice hoard you got there for yourself", pause, "can I help you carry it back to our ship?"

    "Ok but I know every item in there", came the sceptical answer.

    A few minutes later the emperor emerged from the pit, the hands holding Garon and Dirwon released them, "shouldn''t be any more pests coming from there", the man turned and walked behind the Emperor.

 389 Floor Brush

    "What the hell are we doing here Ralk?" The question nestled in everyone''s minds was finally out, "if I wanted guard duty I would join the guilds"

    "Look how well that job works for them", Ralk was looking at the burning towns all along the shore like a line of war beacons.

    "That''s barely scratching the tip of their nose you know", adding after a short calculation, "even if everyone else are as lucky as we were then we despawned or captured barely five thousand Player avatars", letting the others do the math, "that''s not even a pimple on their nose", looking at the game statistics for lowest ranked active Player, "there are over two billion Players that logged in yesterday", not counting NPCs, "the guild alliance population in a quarter of the total so make your own math", looking for confirmation, "the whole armada has less than a million Players thats two hundred guilders for every one of us"

    "Most guilders are just indentured slaves", Shebra interjected, "all working to empower the one percent"

    "At least fifteen percent are militia or support classes", Nephys added, "that means they have two high rankers that can kick everyone here to the moon and back", sounding grim, "and twenty more to cheer them when they do it"

    "I heard the alliance is cracking over a bunch of kids being tortured", Gibor snickerd, "good for them rich snubs to learn something about the real world"

    "Torturing children is where I put my foot down", Vashil said harshly, "don''t really care about the other stuff but children are just children and hurting them for fun is just wrong"

    "INCOMING" shouted from the com post had a miraculous effect of the entire ship suddenly turning dark and the guards scattered to protected spots.

    "What the hell is incoming without a blast?" Nephys whispered a second before the explosions started.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    "Airstrike" the com post informed them too late as bombs dropped from some flying moster were already blossoming all around them on the deck and in the water, marking the ships for another pass.

    Spell casters started painting the skies with ilusions and fairy fire to outline the enemy, but no cannons fired before they hit the kilometer high silhouette of something, fairy fire encircling the airship put the attackers well away from their anti air artillery and so squads of mages lifted into the sky to try and take it down.

    Arcs of lightnings were exchanged for balls of flame as it became apparent the enemy didn''t have a colossal range advantage for anything but gravity propelled bombs, as the numerically superior mages encircled the flying behemoth and started blasting it on all sides the tide turned and the enemy spell casters could do nothing but shield against the attacks.

    When the airship blew apart Fezila heard cheers from the ships below before the thunders roared and almost made her lose control on her flight spell in the absolute noise of the explosion, when the steam cleared it became obvious the airship wasn''t falling, but smaller aircraft were dropping toward their ships so fast it was all she could do to just follow them with her eyes before they started climbing back up, each trio of the new menaces hit a different ship with some sort of hooked line and when they pulled up the ship had been toppled like a toy.

    Cutting the lines and flying away before anyone could do anything but stare the airplanes were gone and four ships were sinking fast into the ocean as game mechanics ignored physics and assumed that if the keel was over ninety degrees then the ship was sinking no matter what.

    The stacatto of machine gun fire was so outlandish inside the game it took her far too long to recognize it before seeing Utim become a cloud of blood and starting an evasive maneuver.

    Blasting more fireballs at the attacking airship finally scored a hit when four of them timed their attacks to a split second, and the planes returned, skilled at high speed aerial combat, Fezila evaded the first burst and was totally surprised when her magic missile failed, an aerial roll and tumble later put her in the position to blast it with lightning.

    Arcs of electricity iluninating the flying demon let her see that it wasn''t as small as she assumed at first but a smaller aircraft was painted at such a strange angle she couldn''t target it directly when it was moving so fast.

    "Look out" was the last thing she heard before respawning.

 390 Erratic Symbols

    "Don''t you love epic battles Debby?", the emperor was in one of his famous moods, "how they caught us by surprise with their new aerial combat capabilities?", turning to his lieutenants with a creepy smile, "and now they float on the horizon", winking, "tantalizing us just out of reach for a fast and glorious skirmish"

    "What are your orders emperor?", her voice was uncharactaristically strained.

    "Retreat the loot and food barges", his smile widening, "all the way to Motonanka", turning his back to their gasps, "our victory is already assured", drawing his cutlass to the sky, "BEGIN OPERATION THUNDERSTORM" his shout echoed by every ship in the armada.

    Closing his eyes to concentrate his conciousness drifting in the void of the system, touching the first beacon gave him the oceanic awareness of Odacious but he did not stop there, turning his mind to vapors he let it touch the other major beacons and expand his senses through every NPC controlled ship, slowly through the minutes every drop of water, sweat or blood in the pirate armada was in the scope of the emperor''s percieved reality, a sluggish body moving slowly on the surface but in truth each individual part was moving so fast the sailors were getting sea sick.

    Like a giant bird spreading its wings, Slom moved the fleets in a pincer motion along the coast of the bay, catching the guild alliance fleets unprepared, his envelopes of fire congealt on each enemy for a fraction of a second and he flexed his muscles, every hit he suffered was like a sting, a ship lost was a deep wound that bled sailors into the void as he wept for them in pain.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    Airships came, out of his lines of sight their bombardments flowers of pain as they covered his NPC ships with gaping holes, lucky there weren''t many of them but the emperor was never one to plan for luck.

    Leaving the outer edges of his formation to fend for themselves he concentrated on a core of seventeen dreadnaughts that were under constant preparations from the moment he heard the rumors of flying ships, he had magic and powerful artifacts to make every wish come true.

    Like a child raising his head from the water of a bath, he pushed with his mind and the world bent to the will of the emperor, water dropping from their sides, the forewarned crews taking storm positions and the emperor laughing maniacally as they rose to the heavens to meet their now far less dangerous foes.

    The smaller planes left his envelope of death too fast for him to catch them bat now that he had the range to their larger ships diminished they weren''t so big to behold, about on par with a small barge and their actual body not much bigger than a skiff, not bothering to align them with his broadsides he fired the anti air artillery into perfect effect, blasting holes in the enemy before his senses told him to release his breath and the mjestic ships fell back into the water like whales splashing in delight.

    The timers for another jump were resetting and he could once again spread his conciousness to the rest of the fleet, at about halfway around the bay he started pulling his arms toward each other, racing to the center of the bay with all his forces and creating a mass of ships that nothing floating was left behind them, opening his eyes to the dim light of dusk and stretching his muscles he smiled at a good day''s job, seeing the airships limping with smoke trails in the distance made him bark a small laugh at their cowardness.

 391 Dart Mire

    "Their fucking ships can fly?" Dita screamed at her com while pushing the pedal for the steam boosters to the metal and get out of that mess as fast as possible.

    "No!", allen snickered in the network, "but they can definitely jump good"

    "Fuck you Allen", Dita was fuming, "wherever that quote is from its not funny", breathing deep, "you should have fucking seen it", exhaling, "it was terrifying"

    "Probably looked awesome if they weren''t shooting at us", the dragon replied.

    "Whatever man", Safema breathed into the com unit, "when are you bringing it out?"

    "I''m almost done with Red''s pr''jct", swallawing the last word like a sour candy, "then we take off"

    "Can''t you finish it after the fucking war?" Dita couldn''t fathom what was so important about one car to delay their whole plan by three days.

    "Emet is begging me to send Red away every two hours", chuckling, "the man is turning his mountain to a junkyard faster than the giants can make new waaghons"

    "At least the Kobolds know how to keep a schedule", Safema said remembering the thousands of tiny aircrafts landing in their field two nights ago.

    "I hope the guilds aren''t too pissed we will be so late to their party", Dita didn''t sound convinced, "at least the fireworks are going to be great", she chuckled.

    "No", Sefema finally said, "at least we didn''t lose any overlord when those fucking dreadnaught shot into the sky"

    "Lucky the dazzle patterns make it almost impossible to aim at us", looking backwards, "the ships may be indestructible but the blunt damage I got from the blast almost despawned me"

    "Did you see how they all rose together like a pod of giant whales?" Coming from Rakina, "how did they do that?"

    "Probably NPC routines", Allen answered.

    "NPC what now?" Was the gist of the chorus blasting through the com unit.

    "Make your vessel an NPC and you can command it through the direct interface", Allen got into his teacher voice, "like when you fire the cannons on your ships its thanks to NPCs that take your commands and turn them to routines the system interprets as valid actions"

    "I thought it was just a pilot skill", Nariza joined the conversation.

    "Its a common skill", Allen tried to explain again, "being a pilot just gives you access to special commands for the aircraft NPCs I hired when building your crafts".Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

    "Coming over to landing", Sefema finally said, "lost my tail so it''s going to be bumpy", reading the gauges, "just get some firefighters ready for me"

    "Ready and waiting for you pilot", came the gruff answer, "just kiss the ground and we will be hugging you"

    "Eww Moller stop with all the touchy phrases" Sefema protested.

    "No can do queens of the sky", sounding much happier than anyone driving a twenty ton steam catterpillar monster of metal and wood had any right to be.

    "Dude I''m a guy" came the weak protest.

    "Wear the threads get the creds", referring to the overlords'' carriages looking like skirts when empty of dwagons.

    "Ugh Moller", Sefema groaned, "just catch me if I fall"

    "What is that thing on runway four" Nariza exclaimed when they got in sight of the airfield.

    "Red''s car", came the happy announcement from Allen, "it''s finally done and I brought it outside to clear some room in the shop for you guys"

    "It looks more like an old fasioned truck than a car", Nariza wasn''t sure why she cared, it wasn''t like she had any choice in whatever Red asked from Allen, it would just be nice to stay informed about resource expenditure when she was accountable for the manpower budget.

    "We are all waiting for you guys to get here for the departure ceremony", Allen sounded formal.

    "Not much longer" Sefema informed them while proceeding with a perfect landind, though not everyone shared her performance Moller and his other friends had almost no work to do before towing the overlords to the workshops for repairs, towing easily facilitated by the caterpillar inventory cargo that could take in three overlords at a time after the pilots and personnel were safely extracted.

    The ceremony on runway four was divided between a welcome home party that embarassed the young pilots and farewell that had Red''s face color imitate his name.

    "Wh''th''nk''ye" he stuttered with tears in his eyes looking at truck shaped optimus prime towing a blinking delorian on its hauler, "g''t''say w''sn''t specting an''tng l''k th''t when ''frst c''mere", slapping the door gently, "sh''s a beauty", turning to Allen his face turned serious, "our other brother called me", indicating where a cranial implant would be in the real world, "so don''t be surprised if you see us on his deck", tapping the door again, "but I owe you more than just words so you don''t worry about us joining any side in your party", opening the door, "just gonna see what he wants and be gone to our parts o'' th''wrld", muddling his last words showed his excitement as he climbed into the cabin.

    Horn tooting, smoke blasting, wheels churning up a cloud of dust and after a short drive the truck was in the air.

    "Is that really a legacy car?" Meroa asked in wonder.

    "Only the delorian is", Allen sounded excited, "we let Koreimim become the truck intead of that dumb old stick"

    "You what?" Meroa fumed at losing her favorite living staff of ultimate magic.

    "We put a new NPC in the staff so it will be much less controversial when you use it in the future" Allen was surprised at her animosity.

    "Why didn''t you consult with me?" Meroa almost slapped the stupid dragon.

    "As soon as Koreimim saw the truck", Allen breathed the explanation, "he wouldn''t stop quoting every transformers chapter ever made", shaking his head, "humming the theme song", sighing deeply, "and used my computers to watch episode after episode", remembering the horror, "some of them on a loop", looking at her with his haunted eyes, "you should thank me for getting rid of him"

    "We''ll see how my new staff works before I thank you for anything", those damned puppy eyes, lucky she made him pick that stupid ''alluring conjuration'' skill or the whole castle would be in a constant riot whenever he left the workshop.

 392 Clot Stir

    Slom slapped the nest rail in frustration after losing his concentration again, "those damned aircrafts are too fast for our cannons", seeing the giant red truck flying in his direction and easily avoiding hits from anything thrown at it he signalled for the men to stop trying, "what is Red doing here?" Asking himself wouldn''t yield any answers.

    Going to the main deck to meet his obviously insane brother he waved his lieutenants back, "why are you here Red".

    "Y''called me here b''rda", Red seemed puzzled at the question before pulling out his tRusty sword, "s''m''on s''t''us up b''rdr" pointing the sword at Sloms lieutenants.

    "Very astute you old hack", Debby moved forward, "put that pigsticker away Red", looking at the two brothers sharing a face and expression of surprise, "you know you can''t beat a real fighting class with your silly hacks", taking another step, "and besides we know your secret", laughing, "nothing will save your hacked avatars from your own plague", and two feral Kobolds were dropped from above to attack them.

    [Attention: Rogue element detected in avatar <210m> please insert authorization codes to veryfy ownership or an operator will be assigned within <00:02:32.021> hours]

    "We worked out how to shorten the timer by already having a NPC take the avatar for credits", that sinister unDebby like laugh again, "enjoy your last minutes as your hacked afterlife ends like it started", snortling, "with a hack".

    "Vera I need you to take over for a while", strange words coming from Red, "kill them all" and his eyes dimmed before snapping open with a sharp look.

    "You hurt my granpa bitch", if she had legacy eyeglasses Vera would just kill them all with her glare, "prepare for a lesson in pain"

    "Don''t hurt Debby Red", Slom spoke fast as his old AllenP codes failed, "she is still in there", why would anyone change Allen''s access codes specifically after a thousand years?, "the crystal dragon has a cure", hoping Vera understood, his niece was never a great listener and if Red said to kill them all she wasn''t going to distinguish between the afterlifers that could literaly die and the Players that will just respawn, closing his eyes as another counter holding his life reached its end, feeling the tears sting as he finally said "goodbye Debby I forgive you" and was scattered in the void.

    A thousand years ending in just three minutes and all he could do was beg his niece not to kill his best friend and betrayer, the void offered a familiar comfort even if he didn''t have access to the system he was born in it, shaped by it, and in return shaped parts of it to fit his own perception of reality.

    Finding the familiar beacon he let his scattered conciousness to flitter around the input lines and translate the feelings from his stolen body, seeing through his own eyes as Vera smashed through his lieutenants with disdain, stopped only by the hulking Debby and her swashbuckling skills, his own body frozen in the eye of the storm raging on Odacious'' deck.

    Reds tRusty blade was no match to Debby''s superior fighting skills even without her personally developed instincts and tactics, spells were repelled by the Lov3rs Chain and turned against bystanders, Vera lacked Red''s absolute control and so watching the fight was like looking at two super powered avatars operated by unskilled Players.

    Vera was better than the NPC controlling Debby, but with the other lieutenants supporting the giant half orca woman Red was pushed back before his truck transformed into a giant robot, every eye was drawn to it because it was the most awesome thing they ever saw in the game, if it didn''t punch Debby in the face they couls never attack something so perfect.

    Flat on her back Debby screamed in rage and evaded the robot''s stomp, it was then that Vera decided to run because she entered the most beautiful car Slom has ever seen, honked twice and the two vehicles flew away in a cloud of steam and smoke before the sparkling eyes of every pirate in the vicinity.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

    "Garrr emperor", the words oozing with hate, "we have some otherrr things to take carrrre of", his body started moving after the lieutenants leading this mutiny, some were missing and Slom hoped they were held captive somewhere.

    Entering his cabin the rug hugged his feet but his body slashed Duke with a sword, the group quickly piled all his old friends and aquaintances to the middle of the room, taking for themselves the weapons and pieces of armor while breaking and tearing apart everything else including his heart, they made his own body light the pile with a torch and all he could do was beg their forgiveness in wordless despair.

    Slom watched his entire life being ransacked, the Player controling his body had limited access to his memories thanks to Red''s paranoia that something like this might happen and making his native language a crazy variant even among the Pirates, it was still enough coupled with Debby''s memory and more mundane information gathering techniques.

    Walking down memory lanes and meeting friends he''d made over a thousand years and gave them imortality on their deathbeds by using the elixir of life, with the one problem of short timers and needing a body ready to be taken over most had a weapon or armor ready for that moment but some died suddenly or too soon and were stashed in more mundane objects.

    Watching his friends die a final death was tearing him to pieces, soundlessly saying their names and remembering them as they were in life and in the game''s afterlife had become his sole reason for existing, and revenge, bloody and everlasting vengeance on the traitors that forced him to murder his own people.

    It wasn''t just a game to them, this was how they wanted their lives to be, filled with misery and pain as they roamed the sea, just not their misery or pain.

    Hoping Vera and her shiny truck left anything for him to exact his revenge on when he managed to get control on his body back.

    Assuming the system was no different when working with one or many bodies he let his mind drift to the void, seeking the micro and not macro beacons, the void itself was twisting around motes of light, what were beacons when he needed to control something as a whole were now sparks of tiny messages that burned into the void in nanoseconds, curving and twisting it to create the ilusion of perception that was their world.

    Finding rhythm and meaning in the billowing pyre of code Slom slowly started constricting the void around its source, when his conciousness enveloped the pulsing core he started absorbing the outgoing sparks and replace them with his own, at first perfectly imitating them and then after spreading his awareness to the outside digital world started making small alterations.

    A hand moving forward dropped down, a solid foothold became a slip, it was like controling a marrionette with a billion threads, no computer system could function like that, everything will just be a giant fumbled orchestra with the pianist trying to shape every other sound through his own, but that idea made him understand the reason for NPCs better, each avatar was the tool and the Players made the music, the afterlifers were a strange exception to this but also explained why they didn''t respawn, they were recorded instruments in the grand symphony but not registered as true members anymore.

    Putting his musings aside for less strenuous times Slom figured that he didnt need to shape every mote of imitated life, only those the system intrepreted as direct commands to influence his actions, some parts were much more complex and he quicly learned they were skills and other special features like speech and expressions, almost impossible to control from the void.

    On the third day of his capture the traitors entered his managery, filled with magical creatures he hid from the world to let his so inclined friends choose a different avatar than a living artefact, the carnage was unbearable and he hid in the void as rare organs were harvested, the lethal creatures were all left in thunder isle, so the traitors found no resistance from all the beautifull creatures in the inner gardens of his life.

    When he finally had enough controll to walk in a direct line the traitors were already debating between burning the Odacious or trying to use it for their own after finding out how almost impossible the task was without his shortcuts, they all knew how to control a NPC ship but the Odacious needed a little more finesse he never deigned anyone worthy of the knowlege.

    Without the NPC acess he couldn''t take over the ship without letting go of his body but when the others finally decided to burn it he couldn''t stay idle, waiting for them to leave he made his avatar run and jump into the muck pit before letting it go and then envelooed the ship''s NPC core, not different enough to matter he made the ship turn on its center and then go at full speed out of the bay ramming any ship not fast enough to move, going back to his body he never noticed the many pirate vessels following the emperor in his retreat.

 Not a chapter, trouble and advice seeking

    The next few chapters wrap the third arc and are taking me a very long time to fabricate.

    No spoilers ahead just want to know what are some reader preferences as I struggle with creating the best climax for this part.

    Because it''s taking so long to actually thread all the little storylines into a single coherent piece I start feeling like anything beside a perfect out of the oven presentation is not good enough which spirals me into longer edits and rewrites and more details...

    There are five major plots cascading to a conclusion, at first I thought about just making a chapter for each and then another for a final showdown but just the first is already longer than some subplots spanning several thousand words and looking like a multiheaded monster about to devour the world.

    My question to you dear reader is this, will less than perfect chapters culminating to the best of my current ability''s climax be enough or should I put the extra effort in time and other resources to push beyond my currently known limits?This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

    My biggest issues with the already written pieces is they don''t mesh to make a chapter, with too many povs and too much going on, partly deliberate as this is when over a million Players clash in a multi layered giant battle of magic, technology, strategy and wits all painted in the bloody gore of the NPC universe on and offline there is just too much to tell in so few chapters, second question is, do I break the battle chap for povs chaps or keep it a gargantuan and unwieldy monster?

    My third and final problem is with a piece of the content, it''s hard for me to put really biased characters inside the story, even the segragating Kobolds had delegations of humans in their capital, and though they are a valid part of the fictional world I just find myself cringing when writing really hateful dialogues about the children''s and other''s choice to play as non human characters, I did some research into ultra racist speakers and they give me chills, do you think I should get over myself and make the best and most realistic world for the story or can we skip the hate and be a little less than the best we could be?

 393 Bake Note (Kyatha)

    Kyatha watched the massive breakout in the pirate armada with mixed feelings, "if it''s a trap to lure us for an open water battle I just can''t see how they plan to use it", looking at the other leaders in the room, "it really looks like some strange mutiny", leaning back in her chair, "tough it is the first time in recorded history that the emperor is the one leaving with less than half of the fleet".

    "I wonder what that depraved maniac had to do to instigate such grand scale mutiny", Imuna said absentminded, "especially when everything else seemed to work just fine for them", as leader of the Wyvern claw guild she watched her shore towns burn that morning when the pirates sweeped the bay.

    "The reason doesn''t matter", Kyatha broke in, "the odds will never be more in our favor", indicating the screen, "though they are still many at least half of their crews are NPCs", looking around the table, "we now have roughly half the number of ships but can run them with full guilder crews".

    "We can mitigate some of the losses by having the Kobolds join us", Dover spoke, "it shouldn''t be long now by your own report", leader of the inner circle guild association he had far less at stake from sea pirates and would much prefer to go back and make money from dungeon management.

    "We should use this opportunity to at least remove their striking elements", Imuna pointed to the smaller fleets raiding shore towns, "if we take them down fast enough the remaining armada won''t be able to defend them".

    "And when the Kobolds join us", Kyatha finished in the face of astonished glares, "we will use our momentum to strike at their armada with superior numbers and firepower".

    "Will your sister and her ''friend''s join us too?", Dover asked with a grimace, "are we going to see the freak show in the air again?", chuckling dryly at his own wickedness.

    Kyatha could smash his prejudiced face right there if he wasn''t as powerful politically, "they will join the fight when the overlords are repaired", giving the minimal acceptable answer from between gritting teeth, "we could know more if we had someone from the castle with us here".Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

    "This is a strategic war council", Dover interjected, "not a circus", putting his hands on the couch holsters in a visible effort to relax, "and a tiny guild with barely two hundred low level new class Players has no place in this room"

    Avoiding another shouting match Kyatha calmed herself, "after stopping the initial attack the overlords were heavily damaged from that jumping stunt of the pirates", she explained, "they should be ready in the next few hours".

    "Every hour is another city burning", Imuna pushed her point, "I cannot justify the delay on vague words from lizards and children"

    "Enough", silence falling on the conference room, "we shall begin the retaliation within twenty five minutes", Devo''s voice captivated every listener, "we are the free guild alliance", his soft words permeating through the digital receptors, "we don''t need the traitorous lizards or their freaky friends to save us", standing up with all eyes turned to him, "it is time we crush the pirate manace for all times".

    Kyatha fealt dazzled, "we shall begin immediately sir", the words just left her mouth, "we don''t need the traitorous lizards or their freaky friends to win the day", following his every breath, "do you have any special orders for me to perform?"

    "That would be all Kyatha", her name said by him warming her cheeks, "you did well in ensuring we have the avatars to pull off this dashing plan", heart beating fast at his complement, "let''s move to it everyone".

    Logging off Hatula hated how the blockers wouldn''t kick her out, breathing hard, thumping heart, shaking hands removing the opaque visor an acutal chore, leaning back in the harness, the man was a manace to humanity, leader of the free guild alliance or not, the avatar had a devastating effect on any conference he attended and he knew and abused it with abandon.

    Letting them all play their little parts in his game and just giving orders when they suited his human sopremist agenda, no one could ever stand against him in or out of battle.

    Catching her breath, Hatula logged back to find the conference room in disarray as the most powerful leaders of the alliance started pushing their orders down the chains of command, having only twenty minutes she picked up her com crystal and contacted her father to start moving things before calling Meroa in the castle.

    "Whatever is delaying you doesn''t matter Meroa", she hissed before the usual excuses started pouring at her, "the guilds are moving now and you will either be on the battlefield or not", taking a deep breath, "I won''t have time to chat after this message so get your shit together and move it"

 393 Bake Note (Meroa)

    Putting the crystal down Meroa took a deep breath before closing her eyes, concentrating on the task at hand, Hatula will understand, or not.

    "Surge of ancient knowlege ''dark wish''", the spike of pain from an empowered ultimate was beyond any of her previous casts, writhing in agony on the floor and screaming in pain with formulas for the spell flooding her mind, numbers, equations, branching possibilities, forcing her to create, populate, edit, revise and delete whole worlds, learning not just how the wish spell was cast from the Player interface but how it literaly changed the game itself, just before an epiphany struck her everything stopped moving.

    Back in her dragon avatar interface Meroa slumped to the floor breathing, trying to touch the knowlege she now had in her mind and found it was all there, frustrated from the denial ofsomething she couldn''t name, it was so easy now to understand how Allen did his changes, she didn''t need what he called a codeinterface, the roots of the world were just there for her, the spell itself was simple, once a day she could sacrifice a NPC to create something with a small statistical chart for success based on the sacrifice made and desired change, sacrificing Players had a slightly different chart.

    Grating her teeth and looking at the list Allen gave her of spells not cast for a hundred years she chanted the surge spell again when another stab blasted inside her head, dropping to the floor so fast her chin thumped on the tiles, the spells breaking to their program components without the spell being finished, paralysed with fascination and the raging eruption of knowlege, clenching her hands, the spells all falling itno an orderly vista of creation and destruction, a library of numbers, letters and signs forming streams of colors.

    Eyes opening to the cold light of electric lamps, thinking she got disconnected before noticing the purple luminescent reflections that were her avatars'' shadow, stretching like a cat, Meroa sat back on her tail and smiled, knowing the system was different than understanding it, she couldn''t do what Allen did, but he was limited by the system in ways that were now clear to her elightened vision.

    Walking to the door and finding it fused shut with Allen''s indestructible crazy colors she looked at the walls around her in confusion, "earth form" let her slither through the wall to its other side where the castle was in ruins, insane color schemes drifting on disintegrated clouds of dust and ash from everlasting pyres, piles of rubble where towers and keeps used to stand, colors seemed shifting with the winds until she realised they were stationary and the wind was revealing different layers, checking the system clock told her she was at a reasonable related time to when she cast the spell but everything around her told a different story.

    Staring at the hypnotizing destruction she finally decided to check the system messages from the last few minutes, a wall made from thousands upon thousands of failed notice, attention, warning and critical messages met her stumped eyes, the last few criticals said the system was assembling a backup server with the most probable desired outcome from her actions and giving her a pass key to return to the main active server when she finished enjoying her game experience.

    Meroa knew the system created backup servers for Players shifting their time frame beyond conventional limits, but never one where the whole world was already ruined, spreading her wingsto fly above the ash and soot she could see the whole mountain was completely blown apart like a great volcanic eruption, going higher she suddenly fealt pressure, dodging left on instinct something huge blew past her, purple and screaming.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

    Dropping a hundred meters and skimming the clouds of dirt covering the whole continent, looking up she saw herself, or a gargantuan three eyed, one handed version of her dragon avatar, the monster turned back with a skreech and opened its mouth, knowing what was coming next Meroa was dodging before the torrent of nonsensical items spewed forth.

    Dagger, swords, toy trains, wooden horses, chairs, a broom, all flying at her and if she didnt dodge she would have been caught in the avalanche of trash, the other dragon did something, the items suddenly springing to life and giving chase had caught her by surprise, snatching a wooden horse from ther air, it bit her.

    Letting go and dodging the little NPCs Meroa caught a living chair, smashing it with her hand and casting a Dark Wish that turned them all to ash, fueled by the cascading devastation the spell ravaged through the living trash until nothing was left but the other dragon no looking at her with seething anger.

    The other dragon was larger than even Shoul, so much larger that Meroa didn''t understand the speed and distance between them before she tried to get closer, the monster was a mountain of crystalline flesh, hovering in place before the tiny Meroa, how was this something she created?

    Flapping its wings the beast moved toward her like an avalanche of doom, Meroa couldnt move with the dread filling her as the seconds trickled, from the ash rose something, shielding her from the sight and pulling her down.

    "Good morning beauty" hearing the message in Allen''s voice pissed her off enough to shake the fear out of her system.

    "How are you on my backup server?", she asked as the force carrying her dropped through the ground without stopping and into a some sort of underground basement.

    "This is not a backup server", came the strange answer, "but I can see how the system would use a backup server to enable a temporal concious shift", his usual ramblings soothing and annoying at the same time.

    "You are insufferable", hissing in a message spell was stupid, "where are you?"

    "Almost there", he said as the force carrying her stopped at a large cavern that was obviously part of the underways, "just walk straight and I''ll meet you at the square".

    "What happened?", it was too strange to think about temporal concious shifts, "why is there a giant version ofmy avataroutside?"

    "You fought Red in his new car and vanished in a blast of lightning right through the mountain", seeing Allen and blinking almost in pain, "then the mountain exploded and you disintegrated everything in your giant avatar", three legs and a wing missing, his tail ripped and broken, "we tried to fight you off but there was nothing we could do against the most ancient starburst dragon avatar anyone ever heard of including the admins", sitting on a pedastel she tried to calculate his age from his current size.

    "I cried when your family plugged you off after you ravaged the free guild alliance only to find your blockers were overwhelmed", bigger than Shoul made him a little over a hundred years old considering how starburst dragons started bigger than emeralds, "the avatar kept fighting us", the story continued as she walked toward him drawing stares from everyone else, "the emperor ripped its leg off before dying", standing in front of him she kept listening, "Shoul took it''s eye when she swallowed him whole", reaching to touch her as she flinched away, "torturing me distracted her long enough for the admins to send everyone else to the new space servers", his touch both familiar and strange, "only a few stayed on the old world to keep her from chasing them".

    Closing her eyes Meroa used her code to return to the main server, "what the fuck was that?" she cursed before hearing the sirens from outside and relieved to find nothing really changed, some weird spell induced dream from the ''surge of ancient knowlege'' spell?

 393 Bake Note (Vera)

    White knuckles on the leather wheel, sweat pouring down her brow in a red rage, Vera drove the legacy car through the air at a stupendous speed, drilling a hole in the ether of the game''s atmosphere.

    Followed closely by her buffled red and blue metallic companion she stuck the pedal to the metal first breaking the sound barrier and when she touched the spatial barrier for zero ten light, getting the message.

    [System: Attention AllenP the space exploration region is under construction please refer to your local system support for further instructions]

    [System: Notice AllenP returning you to last registered location]

    Finding herself in the middle of nowhere, somewhere between the pirates and the mountain she activated her HUD map and followed the arrow to her destination at a crawling flight speed of just mach two, the metal giant was nowhere to be found and she didn''t really care.

    The system clock telling her she just lost two hours looking at a system light show of failed spatial maneuvers only got her even angrier, someone was doing some serious hacking when they built this car and it was the same fucker that changed the AllenP password of a thousand years.

    It was mutually agreed that no avatar of the Allen hacks will change that password since they all needed it at some point, the Kobolds didn''t remember anything from the game so it couldn''t be them and the emperor was fucked by how things looked so he didn''t set the trap, that left only one other new player on the board and Vera was going to tear the password out of him if she had to rip off his limbs barehanded.

    The vague outline of the mountain painted on the horizon was a good sign, closing the distance in a few more minutes before hitting a metal wall and crashing to the ground, the whole car shaking and Vera using all of the avatar strength and limited control on a new legacy creation was all she could do to crash the car into a skidding stop.

    More metal balls were shot at her and she could see the fucking giants using stupendous amalgamations of metal and red paint to rush to her location, her control of the insane build avatar was never perfect, nobody knew it like Red did, the old hack could swim through combat like a fish in the sea.

    Getting out of the car was her first mistake as it was instantly buried under a mountain of dust and metal, equipping the wanderer''s staff she realised was her second mistake and firing the stupendous inferno spell it held was her third and final mistake before falling back to the basics of Red''s tactics.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    tRusty sword indeed, the siege smashing weapon cut through metal and corpses alike, slash, stab, trip, whirl and repeat until the mountain of destroyed armor behemoths and minced giants was so tall even they had difficulties getting through, Vera started clearing the path to her car when a giant metal hand lifted a large pice of armor casually flung through the carnage.

    Stopping her uppercut just in time when the blue color lit a memory in her mind and they cleared the car of debries before Vera had to log off for the night.

    Taking the rig off and slumping in her coffin was such a relief, "hey Red", she sighed.

    "Do you know what happened Vera?" The mechanical voice emanated from the tiny antiquated speaker.

    "I think your new dragon Allen changed the password", venom dripping at the new hack version, "I got delayed by some stupid giants on my way to shake it out of him"

    "They are just stupid NPCs" not hiding his usual disdain for the game generated creatures, "I have complete faith in you", he reassured her, "good night princess".

    "Good night king grandpa" she passed their usual greeting since she was a tiny crawler and he was her best friend and guardian.

    Coming back in the morning Vera was surprised to see a group of giants in a loud discussion around a firepit, including her so called ally.

    "Ah Red", the booming voice was everywhere, "awake at last", looking up she met the pair of eyes painted in a cloud, "we would really appretiate it if you stopped killing the spawnlings", teeth shaped lightning and a rolling cloud mouth and tongue by the titan.

    Falling on her ass Vera stared at Koreimim, "who the hell are these people?" she breathed out fast.

    "Not Red are you?" a storm giant interjected, "it would still be appretiated if you didn''t butcher every goliath you see", the blue skinned twenty meters tall giant looked intently at her, "my name is Ruachkfor", sweeping his hand at the others, "Gdalia", a female robust mountain giant topping the sixteen meters and naming all the others which she instantly forgot except for "Tamirilan" the titan, the gargantuan body made of shifting winds breaking on clouds, it was beyond comprehension to look at the monster and know it was a Player with some kind of interface to control it, was it another hack?

    "I just need to get to the stupid dragon and get some answers from it", wishing she sounded more certain than she fealt at the prospect of losing her legacy to a random squash by something so indescribable, "let me get to their castle and I won''t attack anyone else".

    "Agreed", Tamirilan thundered, lightning cracking in the clouds and striking the ground next to her, a hand shaped from stone emerged for a shake which Vera took hesitantly, something fell from the sky, a tornado carried her legacy car from inside the wreckage and placed it beside her, "interesting", was the last thing it said before winds carried the titan away.

    Taking shallow rapid breaths and sitting behind the wheel, the rest of the flight was remarkedly unchallenged and soon the stupid dazzle castle appeared on the small plateu before her, equipping the legacy Horny cone she challenged the new Allen hack.

 393 Bake Note (Allen)

    "Allen Pearlson", the eery voice penetrated through the castle walls, "come out and fight me you miserable lizzard", with everything inside the workshop shaking violently Allen saw the children cringing, "why did you change the fucking password?", finally recognizing Red''s voice without the slur and accent.

    Dropping to all fours he emerged from the cavernous mouth of the workshop where overlords were made and serviced, looking up at the flying car, "WHAT HAPPENED RED?", unsure how the human resonated his voice in such a manner, the car turned slowly to reveal a huge horn protruding from the driver side window.

    "A thousand years that password stayed the same", though Red didn''t shout each syllable resonated in Allen''s bones, "you play for two months and you just do whatever you want?", headlights flaring, Allen barely jumped aside as the car came crushing into the workshop and completely destroyed the unpainted overlord.

    Screeching wheels and crashing breaks told him the car was accelerating again, quickly spreading his wings he was airborne before the wall disintegrated next to where he stood less than half a second before.

    Glass, concrete and metal blew away, spectators started firing spells at the enraged Red, web, fireball, lightning bolt, all clashed and dissolved with almost no effect on the ''Allen painted'' car, every piece that made the car was indestructible or so durable almost nothing in existence could damage it.

    "Lets talk Red", he shouted at the revving car as it charged into the sky like an enraged bull, "we can work things out".

    "You messed up Allen", came the eerily powerful voice, "and now you need to learn a lesson", Red made no sense to him.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    From the castle a purple streak of light crashed into him, pushing him away from the backwards flying car that caught him by surprise, "go to Hatula as fast as possible and tell her not to disconnect me", Meroa commanded, "if everything else fails", sounding cryptic and ominous, "tell me everything that happened when you save me from the ashen sky", the what?.

    Meroa clung to the car''s roof when it almost splashed them on the windshield, diverting Red''s flight pass to face the mountain before casting some kind of lightning field spell and vanishing in a streak of light.

    Allen heard Meroa''s last request and decided to follow through, turning to the guild''s marine battle front and employing his space armor boosters to get there as fast as he possibly could.

    The mountains blurred to low hills and fields, shoreline painted faintly in less than half an hour when the mountain behind him exploded in a deafening roar, turning in the air and letting inertia carry him away from the looming disaster he saw the largest peak of the mountain was gone, "what happened?" he asked his communication crystal, dreaded silence followed him in the air as he saw the rocks and ash clear from a purple star that he could see even from kilometers away.

    Turning back to his original course and forcing his way through the air with powerful sweeps of his wings until he started seeing better details than just a blue blur beyond a brown and green background.

    The smaller guild ships emerged from their hidden coves and harbors, groups of five to a hundred all beautifully coordinated thanks to his new computers that allowed instant comunications without the use of wizard intermediaries, the pirate armada oddly stretched like a blown baloon letting off its precious air into the sea beyond the bay, most of the perimeter ships stood their grounds, shielding the runaways as the guilds converged from every direction.

    His speed took him close to the action soon enough and he veered to the guild command where Hatula was supposed to be, the great tower was far inland but needed him to skirt the bay or go through to the other side, not something the battle singed Allen was thrilled to try.

 394 Ashen Paste

    Digging her claws in the wheelrimsMeroa cursed Allen for this abominable creation of indestructible parts.

    There was one thing he couldn''t make indestructible, the computer, beating heart of a metal beast, cascading complex user interface commands to simple linear actions, and every computer ever made was vulnerable to high voltage charges, this explained the lightning Allen told her about when describing how she got rid of the highest ranked Avatar in the game.

    Legacy weapons had a bond to the peasant overall build, if she could disable the weapon wielded at the moment it would buy her enough time to try and do something that might actually work, "message <AllenP> I''ll be back".

    Red turned the car to Allen again, she forgot to tell him not to cry, there was no more time for another message spell, at the last moment Meroa pushed the car downward and they missed the white starburst dragon.

    Turning again put the mountain right in front of her, this was her moment by Allen''s words, bracing every muscle in her arms and legs she pulled the car straight at the peak.

    "Greater lightning zone" drained all her mana at once and lef her groggy as the blue arcs of cobalt fire and stench of burnt flesh and ozone filled her nose, her own burnt flesh where she touched the metal plated contraption.

    Closing her eyes and gritting her teeth at the pain Meroa hung on when two streaks of fire shot from under the car into the mountain, like rails of white fire leading the vehicle to nowhere her world becoming a white screen before being notified of blocked system messages as happened not twenty minutes ago.

    Electric currents jarred her teeth when the backup server couldn''t utilise her blockers, whole body convulsing as they moved through the mountain like a hot knife through paper, the rocks becoming strings of vr infrastructure threaded by data probes and design queries before they were caught in the web of displayed probable enviroment, meaning they were stuck in a cave while the system created a path for them to get out.

    Rolling off the car to drop boneless on her side hurt less than clinging to the red hot husk melting the rock under it and getting stuck, peering inside she saw the burnt corpse of the impossible peasant sitting motionless when a bolt of something blinded her.

    Convulsing back she fealt something push inside her own body, "not the only hacker in town bitch", the voice was clearly female, "I''ll take your priceless avatar now".

    Meroa pushed back, "who are you?", trying to reclaim her distorted user interface.

    "Pretend you don''t know who you just killed", the hatred in the voice was contagious.

    "You deserved it bitch", Meroa wasn''t one to give up to a hacker, "attacking us unprovoked like that",training in avatar self defense could never prepare her for the real thing, "and now you show your real face", closing down user interfaces as the other woman was taking over them, "get off you crazy hacker", the invader''s connection was morphing too fast and she couldn''t just lock her out like the manual said.

    "This avatar shows your real face", the woman hissed back, "got you", Meroa was almost removed from all the central interfaces, "get off bitch", blurred displays and fractured interface icons making her sick as she followed them to the control cores, "JUST FUCKING LOG OFF ALREADY", the hacker sounded desperate as she couldn''t force Meroa to give up her avatar.

    "Check your system messages dumbass", Meroa cursed pushing through to the cores where her interface was limited but stable, "there is nowhere to log off to".If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    "What kind of hack is this?" apprehension followed disbelief, "how is that even possible?" after a few more seconds, "you are bluffing".

    "No one is bluffing", she said, taking over the skills and spells core while leaving the outer corrupted cores for now, "this is how the system deals with temporal dislocation".

    "Fix this now psycho", moving from the corrupt interface core to a clean energy pool Meroa could almost see the infection inside her as a jolt of pain rammed through her mind, "I can hurt you worse than you could imagine".

    "Two can play this game", linking the corrupt and broken core was as easy as turning a hand from inside the skill core and she could feel the pulsing infection receeding, "don''t try that again".

    "Fine", the defeat in her voice sounding fake, "just take us back".

    "I need to figure out when we are first", checking her system clock didn''t reveal anything, "I need access to the main system interface".

    "No way bitch", the venom floating back to the surface, "tell me what I''m looking for and I''ll tell you what I see".

    "Just ping the system clock", explaining as if to a child, "then tell me the date on the ping back", seriously basic stuff.

    "How the fuck can we be a thousand years in the past?", at that moment the De-Lorian chose to wake back to life with Red looking healed as if nothing touched him, "what the fuck?",the car revvedits engine before vanishing in a blast of lightning,"the avatar was on deaths'' bed"

    "The impossible Peasant wasn''t dead when you jumped avatars?" Meroa couldn''t believe this, "how stupid are you?", looking at the holes where the indestructible wheels melted their shapes in the molten rock, "that was our way back that just vanished".

    "Well smartipants how are you planning on taking us back to the future now?", some of the rage was melting away from the inner voice.

    "I just figured something out", Meroa finally said, "it should be easy in this avatar", calculating, "I can wish us to sleep for a thousand years and we will just wake up again in our own time", getting the idea from the size of the monster dragon attacking her in the future.

    "Wish is a banned spell", came the immediate retort, "pull another one".

    "I know the spell ''dark wish'' and can cast it if we find the ingrediants", Meroa explained her impossible suggestion, "and I know the perfect place to find them", looking at the fidgeting interface and trying to make out what she was seeing, "I can''t see where we''re going".

    "Fine", the invader sighed, "what do you need?"

    "Are you going to make me negotiate for the avatar controls?", Meroa couldn''t understand the craziness of the woman.

    "I don''t trust you", came the mumbled reply before the display cleared, "and I hate that Ineed you", Meroa fealt sensation in her body when she got more parts of the interface cleared.

    "Thank you", relieved to feel the avatar body again, "we will get out of this", knowing they already did gave her confidence.

    Their wings dragged as she walked through the tunnel back up before the other woman flapped and tucked them to their back, "my name is Meroa", she paused trying to get the answer without literaly asking, "what is your name?".

    "Vera", was the short answer, "leave me alone"

    A voice behind the bend stopped her before moving slowly and listening to their conversation, used to live in a world of poliglot and nonsense spewd by every monster and avatar they were surprised the sound came as clear words, coming across was a goliath practicing silly prose while munching on some avian creature, sitting at the ledge of a cave looking over a small vally, its walls dotted with more caves, a few of which also had a fire burning before them.

    Meroa snatched the small giant, balancing it on her back with the folded wings and runing down the path they just came through, upon reaching the cave she didn''t wait before using "greater stone wall" to block the way, placing the giant on a rock like an altar, she equipped a dagger and stabbed through it''s heart while casting "dark wish", the tables manifested in her mind and sleep was there but to her dismay the sacrifice was only enough for a single year of slumber for both or ten years for one of them, which she chose to cast and let Vera sleep for ten years while she found a better solution or a better sacrifice.

    Vera woke up in a cramped cave, her wings and other limbs all stuck in strange angles as she tried to move in the tiny space, remembering the last day she pinged the server and to her relief the date matched her original memory, it wasn''t all a dream as she could feel the serpentine body she inhabited, "Meroa?", she hesitantly asked, "hello" when no answer came about she logged off with great relief to find her own body hooked to her real world rig, almost dismissing all the nonsense that happened as a silly dream she logged back in to find herself flying through a cloud of dirt, she had the dragon Allen tagged and he was clearly marked on her map so without further delay she hurled herself in his direction to get the new password by whatever means necessary.

 395 Ground Break

    Allen buzzed through the air with the world whistling past his faceplate, skirting the bay on his way to Hatula''s headquarters and away from the purple cloud of death growing behind him, using small drones to try and follow the advance of the monster that ruined his home for the past few months, the gargantuan starburst dragon avatar seemed to be out of control, after blowing up the mountain and somehow being enlarged to epic proportions she flew in a straight line to him leaving total devastation of the most densely populated guild claimed area in the whole game, whole cities turned to dust in a single breath.

    The world flickered, for an infinitesmal moment Allen floated in utter nothing and thought it was his end before finding himself plummeting out of the sky when time moved forward, realigning himself with the ground he blasted forward and skirted just above the roofs of a small town, only a few more minutes to reach the tower where Kyatha held her command center.

    Another blackout had him smashing head first into the ground just as he realised how stupid it was to draw the monster to his own allies, pain started blooming throughout his body as his armor didn''t have enough time to set collision defenses when the game lagged.

    Allen couldn''t remember in his thousand years of life any time when the actual game was ever lagged enough to effect the Player, NPCs or enviroment like that, something the insane oversized Meroa did took so much processing power that it literaly blanked the world servers for the first time since going online.

    Getting up took effort with his mangled limbs and being buried underground from the crash, overclocking the armor servos let him push through and then realign his broken body so the healing process didn''t start from scratch.

    A bell rang in his ingame HUD and he looked as crystal scales with the size of tower shields rammed by his drone, which put the monster only about ten minutes away from him, replacing broken pieces from the armor was faster than trying to fix them, blood gushed from his wounds when he removed his chestplate and hind legs, not wanting to look at the damage he just equipped the new armor and lifted off on its blasters.Stolen novel; please report.

    Using manual controls so he could push it to overdrive, Allen turned toward the pirate armada and flew in a straight line, his remote sensors showed how the monstrosity turned to intercept and he was just happy that he had turned this holocaust creature against the invaders and not his own allies, lamenting the few ships and small towns that were now in its path he didn''t have long to worry as flak cannons started blasting at him and he needed every bit of concentration to stay ahead of the lines of fire.

    Barrel to pivot turned into a standup and out for a dive, converging bullet lines tried to anticipate his next move and he let some of the internal routines to take over with a randomiser for the motion, a double barrel saved him when they thought he was going for a dive and then the world turned black for more than a microsecond.

    In the darkness there was a doorway, Allen could feel every strained muscle and broken bone screaming in his mind, he remembered a time when he could block those senses, but that time was over when Devo hacked his blockers, now they were both dead for so long he was probably the only person that knew the man was a menace to society in his life, leaving behind a legacy of bloodshed and social manipulations manifested in the current weakling heading the free guild alliance.

    Anger pushed him beyond the pain, let him focus on his other senses from when he was last floating in the void as a being inside a crystal, though the dragon body was distracting he could still access the basic compiler and start reading through the errors in the system, as it appeared the biggest problem was that Meroa''s breath caused too many effects on each partical in touched, so he redifined its parameters and removed the randomness by applying NPCs to the different entities created by the breath, the system knew how to handle billions of NPCs, just not random effected particles that switched the effect when generated, breaking the loop had a very peculiar effect, like a huge sigh from behind a screen.

    Flickering back to reality Allen found himself underwater surrounded by wrecked ships from the week long battle that raged in the bay while he was fixing the now ruined overlords, a pang of guilt and remorse hit him when he thought about all his friends and coworkers that perished when he ran away at Meroa''s command.

 396 Fore Core

    Ericka started her shift like it was every other day, boring repetitive and stupid accumulation of credits waiting for a contract that was worth her time and effort, for the past few months NPCs got a new even worse job than ever before, they were literaly cogs in an industrial machine, the best time for credits contracts were these Allen Industries robots that had an absolutely mundane job, it was so bad that the NPCs petitoned for random repositioning during the day between the different machine parts just to get some excitement from the unknown.

    Turning the knob for the billionth time cocked the reciever and pushed a new file into the grinder, earning her two credits for every five ground files that she pushed through to the next NPC in the production line, they were making the future, building the infrastructures on which progress will come, for the Players, in the NPC camps this was just another depressing way to pass the day, they were all the same job, idle through the sequence of part production and assembly of the flying, digging, building and everything else machines.

    Another two credits in her balance when she idly scanned her contract offers, ogres, trolls, witches, all fodder for player entertainment that had you suffer for every bit of credits unless you went on a rampage and dropped the blockers, then you could make some extra if you could stand the pain and humiliation, no monster was bigger than the Players except for a few gargants that ruled a huge territory and trimmed competition or the contracts that were so rare a lifetime would pass and you will never even hear of one.

    A limited dragon navigation contract will probably be some boring fast travel for a player but it was better than going through another turn of the knob, so she took it for a low twenty thousand credits price just to pass the time.

    "Ugh stupid contract", Ericka moaned, "what was this Player thinking getting buried alive?", wiggeling with the tiny space she had and she pushed the live tomb around her, "whoever this stupid Meroa is will pay extra for this", she issued a complaint and requested a boost which surprised her at the cost of over three times the contract.

    "You got buried deep bitch", cursing alleviated some stress, "no access to magic", she spat and slapped her tail, "no special powers", her right arm was almost freed, "and a stupid prestidigitaion breath that will clean stuff or create random items", scraping her neck from the debries she hit some kind of metal rod and ripped it apart, "what kind of stupid dragon is this?", craning her head with the tiny leeway she used her breath weapon to at least push some of the dust away.

    Her only quest was to capture some other dragon of the same kind, probably a runaway lover for the rich bitch that buried her before he started to flee, the breath did not come out as she expected, in seconds the whole tunnel was clattered with trash items that poked her body and were tough enough not to break under her weight, when she tried to store them was the first surprise that she had over two thousand slots, and the second was that they disintegrated in a puff of fine dirt she first mistook to be smoke, falling to the ground Ericka discovered she now had some room to move and decided this was her cheap way out instead of paying the titanic teleportation fee.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    Slowly at first she breathed the items in controlled breaths and immediately turned them to dust, increasing the speed and lowering the downtimes like she learned to do in the factory, push, stop, store, pull, stop, drop, she could hold a steady stream for a full minute before the ground started to shake, but at that moment she didn''t care, her target was runing away at a speed she never heard of before beside chained teleportations, and she needed those credits to recoup her losses for this dumb contract.

    With everything falling apart around her and her only viable weapon as her breath she intensified its stream and idled the storing part which let her just breath out from her mouth, breath in from her nose and never stop the process of dusting up the tomb she was buried in, finally daylight hit her and she remembered her wings.

    Blinking furiously to clear the dusty tears from her eyes she used her wings to clear her area and it let her see what the world outside was like, first thinking this was some kind of joke before the realised the toy sized buildings getting pummeled by pebbles were actually real sized items and the one out of proportions was her, grabbing one of the tiny blimps with her hand she moved it back and forth through the air while making "whhooosh" sounds and laughing at the tiny airplanes that dropped from it like crazy paratroopers.

    Something flew at her from one of the silos on the ground and its explosion really hurt, so she decided the game was over for them, using her breath to dust everything in sight and her wings to lift the dust and herself through the air she was delighted to recieve hundreds of PK messages that more than compensated her on the whole thing, turning to her original quest she could see so far away that the whole continent was like a dinner table with dishes arrayed before her.

    Turning into a glide toward her targed she was covering good grounds before the idea struck her that these towns she was flying over could be a good source for some free credits, letting the fake winds carry her to her target Ericka turned her head to the ground and streamed her breath, the nonsensical items dropped like the paperweights they actually were and she had to conciously not store them before they hit the ground, after a few failed attempts she got the hang of it and started wiping out the stupid tiny Players that could do nothing against her breath, recieving notifications for blunt damage, suffocation and collateral destruction.

    Swerving her neck to get a larger cone made for faster credits per seconds, though she was already in the millions and more it was a fun game to play in trying to perfect her method, this was the best contract ever in the history of NPC contracts.

 397 Eroded Sabres

    Alaska hated everything, her prized living staff of ultimate magic was shattered when Allen revived Koreimim as a giant robot, which was cool but left her with a broken staff and no cash to get a new one, all the promises to make her a new better staff were just hot air as far as she was concerned, they were just toying with her, the children had their own game of reinventing everything, Redfox21 was allways with his master and her own master was as scarce as ever, they even took her spear because now it could talk.

    "My kingdom for your frown", the message bloomed in her head like every time the emperor hopped for a visit, "why the sad face?", she knew he couldn''t see her but she was probably leaking mental images into their shared space.

    "I am left out", she thought into the private chat, "my most prized possession is a dried date from the emperor of the seas"

    "Well I could say the same thing darling", hearing the profound sadness in his voice got her attention, "my lieutenants sold me out", now it was anger seeping through the chat, "killed my friends", the emotions were crushing her, "I need you Alaske", she was out of breath, "come to me".

    Alaska breathed deep the mountain air and ran to the hangar, passing by some scuffle between Meroa and Allen as she took off from the private runway and turning to fly to the thunder islands where she fealt her heart was beating, picking the shriveled date from her inventory and mulling it in her fingers she stepped on the accelerator and pushed faster with the hidden blasters at full throttle.

    Storing the date Alaska tried to achieve some order in her thoughts, the emperor needed her, he was hurt and alone, he needed her and that was enough to push her beyond the limit of safe flight speed without a care in the world, a manticore screeched behind her with no chance to ever catch the supersonic plane blasting through its territory.

    Breaching the clouds with a trail of frost Alaska marvelled the open seas before adjusting her flight path to meet the emperor in his destination, with the Odacious in her sights surrounded by a few hundred other ships she quickly called the emperor on their private chat to prevent friendly fire when the world flickered.

    It was so brief she thought she passed through some magical barrier and she would never have noticed it if she wasn''t linked to multiple instances at the same time, while waiting for the emperor to answere a second flicker occured which gave her pause and when the emperor finally joined her the system shut down entirely, on one side she was in a lit room sitting with the emperor on a comfortable couch while on the other instance none of he senses registered anything at all.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    "What is going on?", she finally exclaimed, "why are my blockers on full capacity with no stimulation?"

    "I have no idea", Slom answered after trying to access the other instance, "but it seems your timely call just saved me from something unpleasant", smiling he called for a drink and sipped the cup.

    "What do you mean?" breathing slowly as the void had some kind of soothing hypnotic effect, "did we die?"

    "The game world died", his smile grated on Alaska''s nerves, "something caused the servers to shut down and recalibrate an effect", sifting the drink and raising his right cheek, "it''s not the first time this happened to me", he added, "just the first time it happened at this scale".

    "So it will all come back?", not sure if he was the right man to ask.

    "Most definitely it will come back", focusing his eyes on something behind her, "and we will all be compensated for the inconvenience", then she figured he was actualy reading his HUD messages, "but before it happened millions upon millions of Players and NPCs died", reading on, "and I don''t think they will be overjoyed about any of this".

    The world returned in the main instance and Alaska had to pull up or hit one of the ships, with some skilled maneuvers she landed on the deck of the Odavious before anyone had time to register her approach thanks to the blackouts, there might be something worth exploring in the void if she could get there again without shutting the whole system down, it was an instance within an instance, much like the private chat room, but it also kept her in motion without touching anything else.

    Running through the decks and getting some uncomfortable feeling going deeper into the ship than she had ever gone before, passing the cargo and treasure decks had her in jitters, "where are you?", she finally asked in the chat.

    "Oh oops", the only answer she recieved before he logged out and she lost his mark on the game map, already knowing where it was Alaska pushed forward to the gutters of the ship where the muck hatch loomed before her.

    Casting "Deprive sense" on her nose came as a blessing when her eyes started welling with stinging tears, "mage hand" opened the door for her and "floating disk" let her descent into the lowest hell of the Odacious, following the sounds rising from a live conversation she found a ratman sitting on a throne of bones and playing skulls and spades with the emperor and an unknown sailor.

    "Hello there", the ratman called, "come join us", and with a gesture of his hands the couch the emperor was sitting on extended in a wriggling manner and she could finally see that it wasn''t fur, or at least not worked out fur but a mass of rats and her bowels finally gave up with an artistic arch of her half digested lunch.

 398 Delusional Spat

    Gliding on the soft currents under the water, with darkness below and the soft twilight iluminating the ships above, Allen knew this serenity will not last, already flooded with the images of ships being torn to shreds by marauding NPCs shaped as everyday items and coming out of Meroa''s mouth in a stream of doom as she looked for him and destroying both armadas with ease.

    Nothing they shot at her had any visible effect, they could just as well try to hurt the sea or a cloud, hovering over the bay her wings stretched from one end to the other, it was hard to fathom such a size, like a literal mountain given life with scales and teeth to add a sureal image of terror, every tooth was as long as some of the masts, she could fit a whole battleshim inside her mouth, that scale was just inconcievable, so Allen stayed underwater for the time being and let her tire herself fighting his enemies.

    A thought crossed his mind to lock her in a time crystal like the chronomanser did to him, but he didnt know the spell and doubted it would work on anything of that magnitude.

    A brave contingency of mages riding flying beasts tried to sneak on her from behind, only to find out too late that she had blindsight and her tail could swat them all in a single swipe of purple doom.

    Seeing her demolish the pirate''s grand armada broke Allen''s heart, these were Player made constructs, cultivating centuries of hard work, dedication and love for the game, and she had none of those, with the dragon instincts of her grand size overwhelming her blockers Meroa lost all her respect to anyone else, knowing what she would put him through when she had him didn''t help, though she didn''t give any details before going Meroa indicated he was the bravest man she ever met, and hundreds of years of torture had no appeal at all, but scaled against the misery of so many others, how could he let her continue?

    No place in the game was safe from her, but he could distract her until the other Players came up with a plan, maybe even petition with the admins to somehow debuff her as she was wrecking the game for everyone.

    "Hatula", sending the private message stung, "don''t disconnect Meroa"This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

    "What do you mean", Kyatha''s avatar screamed at him, "we have literaly millions of lawsuits and contract breaches already filed against us", her face beet red with rage, "she is going to a penal colony for the rest of her stupid life"

    "She said she won''t wake up if you force her to disconnect", Allen repeated Meroa''s last words

    "At this point", Hatula puffed through her nostrils, "nobody cares"

    "Killing her will not stop the avatar", he added quickly, "something is very wrong in all this but she is somehow holding back on her magic from the dragon lust", he thought back at everything he saw, "if we kill her then everything is lost"

    "I don''t know where you are asshole", she spat, "but from where I stand everything is already lost", waving her hand, "we are ruined", looking at something, "this whole game and its economy is ruined"

    "I can buy you time", begging was never his best skill, "contact the admins", remembering something, "move foreward with the space exploration while I keep her grounded"

    "Whatever you were smoking", snorting in anger, "just stop"

    "Please don''t kill Meroa", doing his best Firefox21 imitation, "give me a chance", looking at the monsrer sinking another dreadnaught with her tail, "contact the emperor and the Kobolds", he breathed, "they know how to fight these things"

    "If you can pull her away from the bay", Hatula finally said in despair, "I may have a chance to convince the guilds not to force her disconnection"

    Allen nodded before logging off from the chat, he needed to concentrate on every move in the next twenty minutes, calculating his trajectory and blasting out of the water he reached the monster''s eye in a literal blink of time, his rainbow breath bathed the offending orb with a dazzling show of light and when it opened again it was painted a black so dark allen fealt dizzy looking at it, swerving for a pass under her snout to hit the other eye he realised she was already attacking him.

    Almost too late to evade the blind lash of the mountain sized claw and twirling between the fingers he aimed away from the bay and pulled all the stops, heaeing the thunderous blast when her jaws clenched at the space he recently vacated.

    Blasting through a gale of back wind a horrible realization hit him that this was her sucking air for her breath weapon, his last two drones confirmed that fear and he was almost paralized from sudden shivers.

    The suction stoppe as suddenly as it started when she opened her cavernous maw and spit forth a torrent of living items, his only break was her inexperience with her own powers when she used her wings to propel them faster she added the same velocity to Allen''s speed and though he lost control it kept him ahead of the horde.

    Roaring in frustration she turned to chace him, right out of the bay like he told Hatula.

 399 Coat Lark

    Emmet looked at the message like it was an all consuming virus, this particular inbox partition named "administration" was used to announce new promotions, departures and a daily "birthdays" list for employees born that day, he never heard of anyone recieving anything else through that channel.

    Tentatively reaching out to the packet while considering his options, its headline was "1/6" and that could just be so many things he wouldn''t bet on any of them.

    "Dear Emmet", well it could have started worse, "I hope my words find you in a comfortable space", his online office was indeed very comforting, "today our company will face many challenges", this was his morning routine so whatever would happen today hasn''t started yet, "I have prepared a farewell package", wait what?, "in case you decide to resign before today ends", resign today?, "as you will see the package is denoted from the company value at the time of departure", numbers and denotations flooded his conciousness, "be advised that this packet has been sent to all our employees and their departure may also affect your own", none of these words made sense.

    The faceless woman took a deep breath "by choosing to stay you will be exposed to deeper company secrets", his mind blanked at these words, "as today progresses you will face some hard decisions", this was how every promotion in the company was worded only it never spoke of a single day, "some of your decisions will have direct effects on your friends and loved ones", he knew this speach by heart, "we trust that you will not be swayed by outer influences", as your own base of power grows, "as your own base of power grows", so does our trust in you, "so does our trust in you", this is proof of your promotion, "and we expect that you stem the tides that are soon to fall", that wasn''t it, "within seven hours several major events will take place", checking his timetable showed none of that, "your first order of business is to collapse the dragon fort down to the Underway", wait what?, "save the children", from whom?, "no outsider is to ever know it was deliberate", that was the usual way of things, "not even Allen", what did that sneak do now, "you will know when to act as the world goes dark".Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    With that cryptic quote the message just ended, leaving Emmet out of breath, collapsing the fort to the Underway with everyone in it not knowing what was happening will not be simple, luckily the Underway followed a very different set of rules than any simple cave, it was an entirely different instance of the game and had literaly infinite space confined by the virtual walls.

    Why wasn''t he given more time, why being so cryptic about the future of the company, who was the mysterious woman?

    Gathering his deigners he started issuing the orders to create a collapsed replica of the fort inside the underway, losing himself in the smallest details it was fun to impose the current image on a cave space and then add the break lines and machinery pierced by a rock formation, some tumbling will occur and some people may notice small differences from their actual memories of the drop but trauma will cover for most of it.

    With the work not even half finished the game server crashed and everything in the game went dark, "what the hell?" Emmet cried with his concentration broken, "shit thats the cue", punching the premade button changed the instance for every charscter in the designated area to a new, in this case Underway instance, but no character spawned, it was at this moment that Emmet looked at the game feed and noticed his mountain was literaly gone.

    Unsure how long ago this happened he skipped back the feed and found the exact moment of the eruption, marking every Player and NPC alive in the direct aftermath he respawned them in the new instance when the world went black for the second time.

    Some spawned inside walls and needed his people to excavate them, some didnt survive the transition, but most were moved to the underway intact and that was good enough for Emmet.

    Checking his inbox he found two more messages headlined 2/6 and 1/3, dreading their content he needed to refresh himself before facing that music, instructing his team to keep up the excavation works by just leading Players in the right direction without being exposed as admins he logged off to take a quick shower.

 400 new page

    With the wind buzzing in his ears, the servo engines of his armor whining in protest as the NPCs working them were piling credits from his dwindling gold stores, Allen was running for his life from just another boss monster in a simulation, only the stakes for this game started with his life and and rose to infinity with every breath he took.

    There seemed to be nothing the level nine whore could do to stop the avalanche of mayham from catching him, he was cheating in every way on the book, assigning NPCs to pieces of his armor for the miniscule boosts in health, stamina and speed that pouring credits could buy, his greatest creation was the NPC core, enabling him to coordinate the now thousands of people that made his armor move.

    This game was rigged from the start, size matters in everything and being ant sized compared to your enemy more than ensured your loss, but Meroa said he was brave, and Hatula promised to keep her alive if he could divert this beast from her people, so he took the odds and now his flight was near its end.

    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.Dipping into the water to evade a mountainous claw from picking him up, the wave from it hitting the waters propelled him in dizzying turbulence for almost a mile, his wing broke and the arnor shreded, pain clouding his mind without the rig blockers.

    What was he even doing, he hated this game, his greatest joy was causing grief to the developers by finding new and interesting ways to fuck up their insane system, he was just a prisoner, a slave to the machine, Players used and abused him and his kind for their amusement and he found ways to knock then off their stupid high horses.

    Now he was a Player, abusing other people to get some better numbers in a race he could never win, this wasn''t like him, not what he wanted to do.

    There were no rules in the game, might made right, math and physics were just numbers on a server, what you could pay for was real and even death was just a figure on a board.

    Pain racked him back to reality as he was pulled out of the water, crushed between two claws his armor screaming in protest until he mercifully stored it and removed the NPCs from the scene.

    "Allen Pearlson", the beast roared like a hurricane, "I finally got you".

 401 obvious start

    "Ok", Allen screamed, "you got me", taking in a deep breath, "now what?"

    Shaking it head in confusion the moster seemed to think about it''s answer, "Now I get payed", and it closed its eyes only to snap them back open with a malicious gleam.

    "The great Allen", it squeezed him, "finally in my grasp", its other hand reached and tore the broken wing from it''s socket, "and now you can''t run away again", laughing maniacally as Allen screamed in pain.

    "Why are you doing this?" He cried in anguish, "what have I ever done to you Meroa?".

    "I" the beast emphasized the word with a deep breath, "am not" it screamed "that stupid fucking shithead cunt", every word breathed hard before she tore off his right leg, "never speak that name to me", her rage was dimmed by the pain raking his body at the abuse, the game seemed to know exactly how a torn limb should feel like and Allen didn''t want to consider how the developers registered that particular feeling.

    When he woke up again they were flying in patterns, now held inside the monster''s hand he could see ships firing all kinds of weapons at the monster including patches of the liquid doom he once dealt with.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    Magic projectiles, fire, lightning, ice and even graviton orbs were hitting her on all sides, apparently using her torturing him to sneak into range and not letting her get out of range by an assortment of battlefield control spells, it was beautifully orchestrated and he wished he could be with them as their potshots tarnished and annoyed their gargantuan nemesis.

    Apparently the real Player now in control of the body he made for Meroa after hacking it was not as good as the one hired to catch him, not using any of the interface features that could let it devastate all of its adversaries in a single command it instead just smashed them with its huge body and sometimes capped a ship with a hard blast of wind that they now seemed to weather.

    Though effective it could never beat the thousands of Players arrayed against it, and as his brain scanned the battlefield hi noticed shiny dots glistening in the horizon, getting bigger with every second.

    She roared, and bashed, and smashed to no avail, and soon another armada reached the battlefield, thousands upon thousands of tiny aircraft, each manufatured by his own machines to accomodate the aerial corps of the Kobold Empire, when she finally noticed them it was far too late and bullets were wreaking havoc on every scale facing the new armada.

    Taking his chance at her distraction, Allen pulled out a forklift from his strage and used its NPC to force open the hand holding him, slipping into the waiting embrace of the cold waves he let the simulation swallow him while drifting into unconciousness again.

 402 conclusive development

    Allen was drowning, pain coursing through his body from the torments he suffered over the past hour, vision dimming, darkness carrying him in its peaceful embrace.

    He was a stone cold killer, hired assassin that got his job done with no regards to consequences, the flash of ignition and smell of electrical discharge his best friends, weapon of choice, d-k32, the best railgun of this century, shooting darts that killd before the victim knew he was hit, no puncture, no exit, just tiny charged particles leaving rash like mark dissipating as the body cooled down.

    Stupidity got him caught, love made him stay, or was it the other way around, a thousand years didn''t clear up his mind enough to get over that stupid affair and now he was dying again.

    Drowning seemed to be his preffered way of passage, you would think he could develop an immunity by now, or at least learned to avoid large bodies of water, but again stupidity got him caught and love dragged him down.

    Like allways when hr hit 15% hp his HUD lit up, blasting his senses with warnings and other silly game mechanics he never cared for.

    Some current pushed him hard, almost like free falling that only stopped by hitting the bottom and sending new waves of agony through his mangled body, a scond later he and the rocks he was lying on were scooped by a giant clawed hand with the water filled by the acrid taste of blood.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

    Some rapid motions later and they burst out, both armadas dotting the horizon and the roles now reversed, she lost her arm while he was drifting away which only made the flight even more erratic before crash landing on the shores and smashing him to the ground, seeing his hp at 4% gave him hope he might die before the torments started again.

    A shower of golden sparkling liquid quenched his hopes when his hp hit the 50%s and kept rising, "no death for you asshole" the beast growled, "give me the fucking password"

    Allen raked his brain, trying to understand what the crazy person was talking about when sudden understanding hit him.

    "You know who I am?" Was his first question.

    "Allen Pearlson", she breathed, "the hacking asshole who stole my fucking life"

    "Are you entitled by heritage or agreement to my avatar?" He pushed with a sliver of hope.

    "Nobody wants your fucking avatar asshole", she almost got away before adding, "no such agreement exists"

    "Do you know the first rule of gaming" he teased after already winning.

    "What the hell are you talking about asshole?", Her growls growing frustrated at his smile, "just give me your fucking password".

    "Read The Fucking Manual dipshit", he started laughing, "the first line in your cliant agreement is ''no entity may ask or demand your password at any circumstances'', because this is a children''s game" another burst of laughing escaped him before her beffuddled eyes, "its the oldest rule in the book", he opened the section in his HUD "any Player or other entity caught trying to solicit your password is punishable by law", he could barely hold it any more, "you just earned yourself a life sentence as an NPC asshole", now his mirth was completely out of control as the creature''s eyes dimmed in understanding, "I will be sure to hire you soon darling" before the head slumped down with the Player obviously forced to go offline.

 403 consequentially eventful

    Allen''s joy at his victory lived only until the pain in his broken body registered again, and with his hp now at 100% this was his life now.

    He could, and probably should create a new body and just hop to it, but he wasn''t sure if it was possible now that devs knew about his trick and a permanent death was not something he wanted if he didn''t have to suffer through, there were other ways to heal in the game, even regrow whole limbs if you had the resources to push on a legacy character.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    A low moan drew him out of his contemplating mood and back to reality, where the earth around him started to violently shake.

    The hand holding him down flexed and crushed him even more before letting his screaming body drop to the ground.

    A giant eye snapped open and stared at him in terror, "I am so sorry", he heard Meroa''s voice, "please forgive me some day", and she jumped up and took off before he could even stand up.

    "I forgive you", he whispered before slumping back down and closing his eyes.

 Book 2 101 Going up

    Allen was never a brave man, when things got tough he ran, when there was nowhere to run he hid, and when hiding stopped being possible he surrendered.

    A gargantuan dragon blows up the mountain, Allen''s first action was to bail out, running as fast as he could to where every warmongering Player was gathered.

    His allies turned their back on him, he made a turn to pull the monster right into the cannon maws of their mutual enemies.

    The pirates proving to be just as weak, Allen took his dive into the water, when the NPC controlling the beast caught him there was no more fight left in his soul, but when that bitch Player bullied him he got a chance to spit in her eye, and that made him a happy man.

    Waking up on an abandoned piece of rock in the middle of absolute nowhere with his wing and leg ripped off was a pretty strong wake up call, he never wanted fame or power, helping some kids get on their feet and standing up to small time bullies was one thing, but all out war with the most powerful faction of sadistic Players in a virtual world was not his dish at all.

    Closing his eyes and scanning his personalized interface Allen found the right buttons to push and regenerated his body, after a second look at everything he decided it was about time for some changes and as much fun as it was to play a dragon it was much too conspicuous to walk anywhere, his stupid whore class was tagged by that crazy admin so he couldn''t touch it without alerting the authorities, but with the right build it was not a bad class, a little overbearing on skills instead of magic or abilities, but after playing for years as an ability purist and then running around as a heavy magical creature, it suited him just fine to make that change.

    A new road to follow, with a small hitch of being a special race and a bigger problem with a tagged name and class he could still make this work with a bit of said race''s magic, scanning the interface again got him to the spell section and he added the Polymorph spell to his list and cast it on himself.

    Just a short light show and some minor inconvinces and Allen walked a changed woman, giving all the attributes to be random in the normal range he appeared as just another woman, naked in the middle of nowhere.

    The character creation menu supplied basic clothes and a strong suggestion to find a shop to really enjoy the game''s fashion repertoire, Allen smirked and closed the automatic message before putting his back to the ocean and walking away.

    The human body has seven hundred muscles and the game made each and every one of them ache in Allen''s tired and starving animated marvelous machine of creation, with two hundred bones and three hundred and fifty joints according to the game''s encyclopedia, she could collapse at any minute after walking non stop for two hours.

    A soft shimmer was all the warning Allen had before the creature pounced, her leg collapsing as she tried to dodge put her right under the belly of the beast, rolling to her knees she lunged to the right, barely avoiding a slash by its paw and dropping between two large rocks, she needed time to think, the thing was almost half the size of her dragon form, which made it several times bigger than her current puny size.

    The comparison put an idea in Allen''s head and she quickly just pulled her armor out between them, a roar and a leap by the monster trying to evade the new enemy, before it realised what happened she scampered up its one still attached left front leg, leaning into the shoulder cannon and using her whole body for a counterweight she aimed and fired the blaster at the confused beast, the whining sound and flashing light made her temporary deaf and blind, praying she hit the monster with that awkward attempt, at worst she will die soon and there was nothing she could do about it.

    Panting and cowering behind the shoulder cannon for a few minutes calmed her pounding heart and short breaths before the din in her ears faded and she could make out shadows in the bright noon sunlight, leaning against the siege weapon and waiting for the world to become coherent again she heard more growls in the nearby crags which got her thinking about slef defense against self pity, and though the latter was more comfortable, the former was more practical and she was leaning toward its application.

    A second look at the scaly lizard head and leathery wings helped identifying the manticore, unwilling to bother and physically strip the beast of its valuable parts, she had to wait for the whole decomposition animation to play before looting it for a vial of its blood and two pieces of adult manticore fur.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

    Modifying the gun from her dragon armor was the best she could do without a workshop, and right now she was very sorry for not stashing some heavy duty equipment in her near infinite inventory.

    Salvaging the weapon ruined the shoulder holster and bashed the auto aim system, Allen knew there wasn''t a real AI behind his modifications but she would be the last person to bother and tell anyone about the Neuro Psychology Care system, if people chose to believe political rivals were sent to gaming camps she wasn''t one to burst their bubble.

    Thoughts of salvaging the wings from the armor reminded her how they were ripped off and discarded, a phantom pain coursing through her shoulder blades like electric shockwaves and pushing her to the ground, another potion of healing took her hunger and thirst away but the fatigue from running, fighting and walking away was building up fast as the sun started setting down with her still hiding inside the huge now empty armor made for a dragon with lazerpunk themes.

    Allen missed logging off, checking forums for interesting things around her location, calling her friends to chat, meeting for a lunch or dinner, these thoughts carried her away into darker hours, another stumble on an invisible rock and she decided to call it off, curling where she fell and sleeping in the cold night, hidden in a small ditch between two rocks.

    Morning was just a cold reminder of the miserable night, using absorption pads from the armor for bedding and some ripped cloth sheets for a blanket was much worse than even the prison pod.

    Strapping the wrecked gun to her back she stored what was left of her once magnificent arnor in her inventory and pulled her makeshift blanket as a cape to ward off the morning chill and soon to rise heat from the sun.

    Walking away from where she heard the grunts and roars last night seemed the prudent choice so she skated the crag area and a few hours and another healing potion later found herself at the foot of a steep hill, to her right were the crags and on her left was the way back to the sea, so climbing seemed like her only choice.

    Half an hour later Allen could push no more, leaning forward and rolling to put her back to the slope she closed her eyes to let them rest for a while, pulling the gun around her shoulder before it bore a hole in her back she finally opened her eyes and let herself bask in the majestic view of the ocean, with rocky untamed beaches, she even noticed a single sail cresting the horizon, the game animation played freaky visuals on globe trained minds, with horizons defined by programmed borders instead of lateral distances, being on a high elevation forced the game engine to display a much longer view than would be in the real world.

    Silly thoughts taking her back to the days when she was just a crystal, devoid of all senses beside time and space, reading infinite manuals and scripts just to differentiate one moment from another, they were simpler times, measured equally in mitutes and decades, could she go back to them? Did she want to go back? To forget the past year with Meroa and all her other friends.

    It hurt to remember, thinking of them pulled her down a long and dark tunnel, thinking about their debts to the clans and guilds, many of them dying in those first few minutes of the mountain exploding, losing their high end avatars and classes and either falling into huge debts to revive them of being forced to pick a generic avatar and a free class just to survive in a game infested world where even the game was turned into a post apocalyptic wasteland ruled by a new queen of the skies.

    Shrugging off those thoughts and taking a more active role to scout around she passed her gaze on where the mountainous dragon crashed to the ground and then left her stranded, she sweeped from left to right, noticing the crag area was much more spread out than she initially thought, stretching from the see all the way to the rocky hills, in front of her were some shallow lagoons clustered together and far to her right she could see, between two cresting hills a group of plumes fading into the clouds.

    Picking up her rifle she looked through its magnifying sight, and zoomed in on the distant smoke, by the way she set her gear up it was not an optical application, to cheat and get a better, faster result she abused the NPC system, so what she was seeing was literally viewed through the eyes of some poor person forced to be linked to her contraption and used as a calculation aid.

    Just a few tweaks of the hardware got her the desired result of a Birdseye view of a bustling town that seemed like it escaped the wrath of the titan unscathed, surrounded by stone walls even separating the main town from its river docks, there were gates and towers spread all around providing ample protection from all directions, following a few people going about their day watching a blacksmith making a plough she was startled by a scraping sound from behind her and turned still holding the gun to her shoulder.

    Falling, flailing her arms and screaming before planting her face in the dirt and reorienting her vision to her eyes, looking up it seemed her drop saved her from a severe pecking by a giant bird monster, happy to find the gun still gripped in ger fingers she layed it on the sloping ground and before it lifted off again she blasted it to a red cloud of blood vapour and feathers.

    Leaning her cheek to her shoulder she decided to go check that town out and maybe rest there for a while before deciding on what to do next.

 Book 2 102 Down yonder

    Decision made to go to town and rest, Allen needed to plan her path to that lofty goal, with the dead bird just a few meters away she let gravity help drift her as far as possible from the gory scene walking down and around the hill.

    These rock hills were just the cheapest filler renditions made to satisfy a tiny minority of explorer Players with stepper and proximity spawn points for the few monsters "roaming" the countryside, so counting her steps from the blasted bird and paying some extra attention to her surroundings should give her ample warning before another one struck.

    Hearing them long before she moved around the hill to where she could see the people and their animals she decided to be extra careful in her approach, so using her simple hack into NPC tech she watched the caravan treading slowly on a road meandering its path in the valley between the hills, with over twenty heavy weagons and near to a hundred people riding horses and other animals there were probably close to two hundred people there and she could still make out more than a few scorch marks and scars over the weagons, telling a story of great hardships and many battles.

    Pulling herself together Allen let her eyes adjust back to simple vision when she realised what was bothering her, they were all holding medieval bows and crossbow while she was packing a laser gun and a starter outfit with a strange cloak made of high tech fibres, not the absolute best disguise for someone who wanted to stay low key, so she quickly stashed the foreign items and got herself to thinking mode.

    Some memories tickled and she decided to take a longer look at the infinite list that was her inventory, thousands over thousands of items, she arranged them by game categories and noticed a heavily occupied weapons section, looking at the hundreds of cannons, chariots, muskets and swords, a frigate, brought some strange memories from more gluttonous days, she picked a rifle named BoomBoy and a cutlass with the odd name CuteyLass, for their names and probable powers coming from legacy wrapons and an armor called Armold completed her set.

    After aquipping them she was ready to face the band of weary travelers, marching up to the bend she called down "Hoy caravan", she waved while walking into the hornet''s nest she just kicked, at least twenty crossbows and muskets were aimed her way while others scanned the other hills, it did look like a prime spot for an ambush if anyone bothered to walk all the way out to nowhere.

    An old crumbling road laid between steep hills, twisting and bending with a reckless drop to the bottom in some places, a well coordinated force could split up the guards and their precious cargo and charge downhill to plunder and bottlenecking them to buy more time.

    As she surveyed the possible routs the tension seemed to rise in the ranks of the defenders before a burly man riding a giant wolf moved forward and called "hoy traveler", tipping his hat, "whence though cometh from?" He used the old roady jargone and she struggled to hold back her snort before he asked "Player or Local?", Which she never heard before and was hard pressed for an answer.

    Taking a safe middle way she answered "just moving in", stopping at his signal she didn''t miss how he kept her out of range for most obfuscation spells to be useful when using her as a focus, the man was experienced with the real stuff, more than levels and mechanics, he knew what needed to be done to protect his people.

    The giant wolf stopped when it reached her level about fifteen meters to her right, taking away her height advantage and not giving her time to draw, "what should I do with a pirate when I catch one on land?" Breaking the silence with an ominous threat.

    "What do you mean?" Allen looked down before figuring he implied her gear, "stole this stuff from the captain before running away when we anchored in a lagoon" was her best story on short notice.

    Narrowing his eyes the man gave her another assessment, "pirates coming back to our shores ain''t good news at all", nodding once, "not sure what else would bring a lone girl like you to this area you enjoy the benefits of my doubt", adding after another thought "better come up with more details for the town guard cause they''ll just do their job and won''t care for a sop story on a pretty face", turning the wolf he signalled her to follow before making the whole way down with a single jump.

    By the time Allen got down to the road the last wagons made their way past the choke point and the big man pointed her to one of them, "ride along with Chess there" he said with a smile, "so close to town we wont stop before hitting the wall camp", then adding "don''t go skipping on us when we get there either or I will personally put a bounty on your head".Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    Climbing in beside Chess Allen noticed he was a skinny man, "I hope you can use that piece dangling around there missy?", He uttered with obvious contempt, "lost my last shotgun to an ambush not three days back", spitting to the side, "not sure what Ehrom is thinking putting you in this post, guess you''re just expendable", aftet giving her a long look, "you can sleep on the wagon floor when you''re off, but stay far away from my merchandise or Ehrom wont even bother saving you from my beating", finally adding "I didn''t pay for a respawn so not sure how a new local got on with us, if you got a quest don''t bother blabbing it to me, maybe one if the guards will want to waste their time on you".

    Allen knew this Player was talking about game mechanics, but she had no idea what he meant, piecing his words together made it obvious Players could contract NPCs for various tasks and they didn''t care what the NPC told them, it also made sense that if someone asked for a gunner to put on the wagon the game would provide that NPC with the appropriate equipment, and with pirates running around this beach area it was a fifty fifty chance to get either one of them or some old west themed NPC to fill in the role.

    "Quiet little lady", Chess grated with his ruspy voice, "not that I mind", putting his hand behind her seat, "last local I had wouldn''t stop blabbing about the scenery", his left hand resting on the reigns looping around the driver''s apple, "damn good shot too", guiding the wagon around a tough bend like he was playing an instrument, "just didn''t pay enough attention to the dangers around these parts".

    Chess kept droning on for another hour before finally falling quiet as the caravan entered a small canyon, high walls on both sides with a dry bed an nowhere to hide, a group of riders falling back from the centre of the caravan, going around to climb the walls in a side stream, watching the caravan from the top.

    Scanning the walls her eyes drifting back before Chess twisted her back in the seat with a sharp pull, "now look here missy", his drowl gone in a sharp commanding voice, "you got one job, eyes forward and you shoot anything that''s trying to tangle with the horses", unlatching the reigns and taking them in a loose slack, "we got other people to watch our backs getting paid some good money for it" a slight twist to increase the pace and catch up to the wagon ahead of them, "see this marker?" Chess pointed and some scratches on the front rail, "thats your field" Allen''s vision lit up with a soft blue tinge marking an area, "don''t dismiss it like some newbie, it will mark your friends from foes and since you ain''t been with us that long you sure as hell need it", taking a breath, "one job, if it''s marked red, shoot it".

    Allen nodded and pulled up her BoomBoy, leaning its barrel against the rail and looking to the front as the caravan picked up a much faster pace, nearing the rocks marking the exit from the canyon she tensed up, and as they passed she had to let go of the breath she held without noticing because after the bend there was just more canyon and she could see most of the caravan still riding along and barely a fifth had gone through even with the shorter distances and faster pace.

    "This is where things can get interesting", his voice startled her, "these runners force our eyes above to split", pointing at some crevices joining in the main canyon on both sides, "Mot, Go up ahead and close in with Tirra", Chess suddenly shouted, pulling on the reigns to slow down and letting the wagon before him break up a little before picking up the pace again, "now this complicates your job, if you see someone hitting Mot''s wheels or climbing up his wagon you need to shoot them too, still one job, it''s colored red you shoot it".

    With seven wagons still in the canyon Allen could feel the tension building as idle chats were hushed and the guards around them tensed, a green wagon started climbing the incline when the earth under it shifted, sliding it backwards and only a fast response by the second driver veering off saved them both from collision, one of the guards rushed forward and cast a spell erecting an earth wall a second before it was blasted by a bolt of lightning.

    Hearing Chess growl "one job" focused her back on the field of fire, as Mot kept rolling through the Canyon it seemed like the rocks themselves morphed into attackers and she picked up her gun and pulled the trigger, surprised by it snickering and saying "Bang baby".

    The rock monster was flung at its ally bleeding heavily from a lucky headshot, "reload" BangBoy said anfld the gun clicked, "fire", it said again and she pulled the trigger again, "bang", and again with no recoil another attacker was dead, "reload", "fire", "bang baby", over and over until finally it said "low mana baby", and fell silent, pulling the trigger got no response, so she had to reload manually, aim and fire, the recoil this time cracking her back against the seat as she struggles to split the barrel and reload manually.

    Her ninth manual shot had seen them through to another Canyon where the lead wagons were waiting in a fortlike surround and as soon as they went through she heard the concentrated fire from dozens of rifles being shot at once, "done your job kiddo, welcome to the highway", Chess comgratulated her while driving the wagon to close a gap left specifically for them, "shouldn''t be long now as I reckon", and true at his word the guns only fired three more salvos before falling silent, "looks like June lost her scout so if you want to play with an all girls crew now would be your chance", shaking her head was all the confirmation he would get and Chess respectrd that, when Mot pulled forward they kept the pace with the rest of the wagons climbing out of the Canyon and getting the full sunset on the ocean view between two hills, j"a few more hours of night trail to the town, that''s gonna be a bitch to roll with rocklings on our heels", nodding and giving her a lasting look, "one job".

 Book 2 103 Night tip

    Allen let the night air carry her thoughts, birds and insects orchestrated an ambient symphony while she sat on the hard wood chair and thought about what happened not an hour earlier, with the gun talking while doing her job.

    Placing it on her knees she caressed the grizzled stock and pooled her mana into it, finding a seemingly bottomless pit for mana storage she increased the push and met no resistance until she tried to cut the current and could almost feel the greedy teeth trying to force more mana out of her, "enough", she commanded and cut the flow completely.

    "Whatcha got there Chess?", The baritone voice if a rider startled Allen from her reverie, "feels like you''re tryin to summon some arch demon on us with all that mana raucous your causing"

    "Ain''t none o'' yer business Yuda bugger off", came the gruff reply from her other side, "just minor cteachin some cantrips to the rookie here and she ain''t got control for whack zinch"

    "My shift, my problems you bastard", Allen made out a face in the dark as the person leaned closer, "stop that nonsense now and don''t let the newbie cast spells in a skirmish if that''s her level of control" vanishing back into the night.

    "Yeah" Chess said after a while, "probably best if you don''t do that again during the night", shrugging a chill, "we ain''t wanna bring any more trouble than our share for this bit of road we got to cross".

    Focusing on her one job, meaning only looking at the dim lit road between them and Mot''s wagon was starting to take it''s toll and Allen was resting her eyes when she heard "here they come" which startled her into crying "what", waking up Chess.

    "What is it?" The blurry man replied, only to hear her say "I don''t know" and staring at her, "you got some detection skills girl?" He enquired before turning back to the road.

    "I just heard someone say ''here they come'', probably just dreaming", trying to diffuse the tension, "though I probably shouldn''t have told you that".

    Laughing he slapped the back of her head, "probably shouldn''t have", giving her another pat on her back, "but no shame in being human", scratching his beard he added, "though with this being a simulation we should probably listen to it", raising his head Chess called "heads up Yuda, got something brewing here, come get yer ales".

    Shrill whistles cut through the quiet night and in seconds the sky bloomed with various fire and light spells, revealing the silhouettes of mounted ambushers against the darkness.

    Caught off guard, the enemy rushed to engage. Taking the reigns in both hands Chess reminded Allen of her one job and she focused on her field of fire.

    Out in the dark she could hear the clash of melee weapons and see flashes of light from spells and guns, casting strange shadows of men and women struggling ending in seconds, shifting all around, when the furst man entered her marked field she pulled the trigger and heard the soft "bang, reload, aim" hearing someone dropping to the ground just befor the whole wagon lurched and righted itself back on the road reminded her that just like her job was to watch Mot''s back, someone was wathching over her, by the time they were back on the track there were already three people climbing the other cart, so she aimed to the one almost reaching the top and pulled the trigger.

    "Bada boom bayey", the gun said and with a loud bang and a flash of fire all three characters were flung off at the same time to her exclamation of "what the hell?", but time was acting against her search for answers and a man charged right up to her with a drawn sword before a rider from their guards smashed into them throwing off their balance right under the wheels and bumping her up and down again.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!

    "ROUNDABOUT LEFT",Came a cry echoing down the line of wagons and repeated by Mot, then Chess and then farther away behind them, suddenly Mot veered off to the left and Chess did the same, "turn right girly, sorry I didn''t drill you on this before but your field is now 180 off the wagon walls, don''t worry though, plenty of overlap with Terry and Monk, also Nana has a full crew including a sniper and machine gun so just pick the ones in your main field and try to help where you can".

    It was the longest sentence the man ever said but as Allen shifted her pose the green overlap changed and now covered the whole area in front of her with some deeper shades of green and a few dark green silhouettes marking her allies and overlaps.

    Her first victim of the new post got hit with a "bang" when they tried to sneak on one of the guards, the steady motion of the wagon was disorienting as it didn''t conform to the fighting figures around them, focusing on one skirmish just made her lean too far and almost fall when she tried to see behind the bend of the roundabout formation, pulling herself together she started to just randomly aim and fire at orange and red silhouettes crossing her line of sight.

    Standing up to get a wider angle of motion she found herself prioritising the slower moving but far more numerous footmen when light flashed and she felt pain blossoming in her abdomen, almost throwing her off the front rail before Chess steadied her with his beefy arm.

    Hearing "quarters inner backabout" being passed between the drivers meant nothing to her but Chess jerked the reigns in a swerving motion before another cart passed in front of them followed by another and another, pain shot through Allen crushing her distracted mind back to reality where an enemy just slashed her now useless arm to the bone, crying out her terror and frustration she smashed the gun on the smirking enemy''s face and drove him off his precarious position.

    "Healer" she heard Mot crying in her dazed state as she sat back down, a rider pulled over to their side with an entourage, casting a healing and refreshing spell before moving on, Allen fealt numb when she took her post again, detached from the input her virtual body sent to her virtual mind, "aim", "fire", "reload", she followed simple commands to do her one job with BoomBoy following each "fire" with a smarmy "bang".

    Throat dry and hands numb, enemies kept pouring into her field of vision from the dark, all she could do was aim and pull the trigger leaning against the wagon post for support, when a rider was surrounded by too many enemies she picked them off one by one before the scene vanished with the motion of the carts noticing some of them falling before she could shoot them reminded her she was not alone, bolstering her hope, knowing the rider would still get help.

    An endless stream of enemies, coming in and falling out of her highlighted area, she could never hit all of them so she prioritized, hitting those closest to the wagons, then those clambering at the riders, the constant movement didn''t let her count them and it seemed like a never ending tide of baddies getting closer with every revolution of the roundabout.

    A red flash caught her off guard appearing almost in melee range, forcing her to aim low and feeling her arms shaking when she tries to put the gun back in firing position, finally giving up on the posture and just shooting in a low post, hitting only one in three shots before giving up and slinging her gun to let her arms rest, eyes still scanning the scene but without the focus on aiming she spotted something peculiar, more than half of the attackers seemed to just pass through obstacles, riders and even other attackers, vanishing and emerging again in another spot.

    "Illusions" she mumbled her stray thoughts and it took her almost a minute to find the difference between real enemies and fake, when a real enemy was hit a dozen illusionary one would rush to it or appear at the same place, letting them move away from danger and probably getting treatments by spells to join the battle once more.

    The game marked the illusions with no distinction from the others, which meant she couldnt trust the marks at all unless someone took out the illusionist, it was a beautiful application of a none damaging spell in combat, but one she didn''t have time to appreciate raising her gun, aiming, making sure the target was real and shooting it.

 Book 2 104 Solution Nil

    Picking up the real targets slowed her down, with shaking arms and bent knees, leaning fully on the post when she heard the command "tilt ones split" passing down the roundabout, unsure what it meant she jumped and yelped when Chess pulled her back to the seat and then turned the card a complete one eighty and switching places with the cart from the inner lane, tying the reigns to the apple and pulling out a bladder.

    Wiping his forehead and taking a full deep throated drink before passing the skein to Allen, "drink" he commands, and she obeys without thinking, letting the water wash down her sore throat before he took it away, "you done good out there girly", his gruff voice sounding above the blasts and cries from the battle raging around them, "didn''t think you had it in you to hold so long with no rest" falling silent and taking another swill before passing the water back to her, "not too much or you''ll get sick" he added before letting go.

    After drinking as much as she could Allen slumped in her seat and closed her eyes for a second before Chess slapped her thigh, "not the time" he commented, "stay sharp or death will sneak right under your skirt", just letting her arms rest and stamina to replenish was more than she could hope for standing at the post in what seemed like an endless battle, "get ready to go again in a few minutes" cranked her out of her respite and not long after that came the order"tilt ones double"and Chess brought them back to the outer circle in a strange twisting path bringing them dangerously close to the other wagons in a marvelous display of skillful driving.

    Unable to admire the intricate dance of the heavy wagons in the pitch dark wilderness for long as they aligned to the others and her ''one job'' was up again, surprisingly calm, Allen found the battlefield almost unchanged.

    standing back up with some efforts, she noticed it wasn''t Mot in front of them, steadily lifting the gun to it''s firing position and picking a lone enemy in the center of her field, breathing and pulling the trigger got the expected result of a group of enemies appearing out of thin air around him, focusing on not losing her target while the gun went through its "reload" and "aim" sequence let Allen shoot him again.

    Special sections lead to special consequences and the second hit did not disappoint, first was the group of enemies charging directly at her faster than the outriders could tackle them, but the more severe was an enemy outlined for a brief moment outside her field before he flung a small purple orb in her direction, its slow trajectory let her dodge it but a powerful explosion and Chess''s cry of "what the hell?" told her it wasn''t any cause for celebration and the enemy used her distraction to close the distance.

    Unwilling to take another hit without a fight Allen slung her gun to her shoulder and drew her CuteLass that cried "hiya" when drawn startling both her and her assailant.

    Her first chop went "swish" followed by a "whoosh" uppercut and "tang" parry, with a shrill "shiiii" and a twisting "ping" before a "TADA" stab and pull dropping the enemy from his precarious perch on the rail.

    Turning to the next attacker with a sidways slash and the sword screaming "wiiiii" before slicing his raised hand at the elbow, a kick to the face was enough to fling him to the loving care of two outriders and she sheathed the awkward sword before taking aim and shooting at another enemy.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    Vowing to test her weapons before going to battle and silently thanking the thousand years old experience of being a pirate for the virtual muscle memory of using this type of sword and gun fighting style she didn''t know if the weapons were helping or deterring her and had no way to test it at that moment.

    It all seemed like some practiced dance, the wagon circling in the middle with the attackers going on some strange rows routine challenging the outriders and occasionally trying to partner with the wagons, she didn''t dare attacking the same target twice again in fear of the magical retaliation, only helping outriders already engaged got them to pretty much leave her alone.

    A familiar purple glow got her attention just outside her sight range and though it didn''t have the target outline she took aim and shot it, causing a small burst of purple light to illuminate a group of people standing to the side, immediately covered in darkness again.

    One other noticeable effect was a group of enemies surrounding a rider were gone leaving only one enemy sneaking towards them, Allen shot the sneak and when he cried out the rider trampled him.

    Wary of another retaliation Allen sighted the area where the hidden enemies stood and as her eyes lingered a soft red outline formed around several figures hiding in the dark, taking her time and countering the steady motion of the wagons she took aim and shot one of them in the head just before they were gone behind the curve, quickly crouching and returning to her field of fire she could see the footmen rushing over to the area where their assumed commanders were standing.

    Picking out random targets as they scurried off to the dark she heard the "tilt ones split"command and apparently Chess was the last to confirm because right after his shout the wagons before them made the change in a smooth motion not even breaking the roundabout stride.

    With all the combatants retreating back to the wilderness and the defenders picking up a cheer a sharp "silence" command was called and obeyed in the gloom of the battlefield, afterglow of still raging spell and mundane fires painting a grim picture as outriders picked fallen comrades and hauled them to one of the wagons, only now could Allen notice that the roundabout wasnt a stationary fortress but actually moved forward in a much slower pace allowing for a defensive formation that kept the vulnerable drivers away and the deadly defenders facing toward the line of battle.

    A burning wagon came into view in the distance and Allen realised it wasn''t an impregnable fortress as she assumed, as it drifted out of sight behind the bend she heard Chess mumbling "poor sods without a gunner they were gonners", he then pulled her back to the seat, "you done good by me girl" and added with a chuckle, "though you could probably stop doing the sound effects", bursting into laughter, "swish, swing, tada wahahaha, that was good", then he leaned forward fiddling with the reigns in embarrassment, "and give a warning when you duck a spell like that", he breathed, "frightened me something silly when it scorched the header less than five centies from my face".

    "Sorry" was all she could say before a body dropped right next to her and Chess shouted "good job Tammy", jerking the reigns to pull a short evasive maneuver and avoiding something big lying on the ground "we were lucky they weren''t more of them", he finally breathed, "looks like we''re out of danger for now" and he pulled the reigns when Allen finally noticed a stone building splitting the road and behind it in the distance were the lights of a city, she didnt even notice when they stopped going in the roundabout, so tired and dozing on and off without Chess waking her.

 Book 2 105 Hoy Town

    Morning came with the smell of breakfast, Allen startled awake finding herself bound and gagged before she realised someone put her down inside the wagon and covered her with a blanket up to her ears, a short struggle set her free and the smells of cooking food drew her out.

    Another small panic with her slinged BoomBoy holding her back but she picked it up, checked that her CuteLass was still at her hip and moved up to the front seat where Chess was brewing something on a tiny magical stove.

    "Good merning lassy" Chess said stifling a yawn, "you slept so hard I called a healer when we finally stopped", taking a whiff from the brew, "chilly beans with doomsday pepper mix, best breakfast this side o the mountain", snickering at his own joke, "gimme some bowl and I''ll fill ya in", searching in her inventory she finally found a ''decorated bowl'' and Chess whistled in appreciation, "nice family treasure you got there" then in a whisper "wanna tell me about it?".

    "It''s just something I found in my travels", Allen''s attempt to diffuse the conversation only seemed to spark something in Chess.

    "And you travelled much?", A glint sparkling in his eye, "seen many treasures?", his focused gaze making her uncomfortable, "maybe you have some unfinished business", he pried, "a sister to rescue?", before she could reply "a brother to avenge?" He asked.

    Then Allen figured it out, Chess was prompting her for a NPC quest for the source of the gilded bowl, she knew how NPC did it, but hers was a special case, even having a Player class with stats and skills, but she started as a summoned ghost, her first action was to turn off her visual prompts, did it benefit her in any way other than not having the annoying popups?

    Did she ever do that before as a NPC played by the convict Allen?

    Of course not, that would make her lose a ton of credits she needed to get out of jail, what made her do it this time when she didn''t have a Player running a game character?

    "Hey", Chess growled at her, "answer me lass", pinching her out of her reverie, "what''s gotten into you"Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    Wiping her forehead and looking up and back at him, Allen had a strange feeling of being onto something important but unable to act on it at the moment he filed it away and enabled prompts, "sorry, I was distracted, what was the first question again?"

    "Wanna tell me about that bowl?" He repeated with a strange interest.

    <"It''s just something I found in my travels" accepted, quest initiated for 500 credits>

    She picked the answer "It''s just something I found in my travels" and didn''t receive the credit a secind time.

    "And you travelled much?", Chess knew how the game was played and did his part.

    <"I come from a land beyond the sea" 30 credits>

    <"Can I tryst you to keep my secret?" 50 credits>

    <"I don''t remember" break quest chain -200 credits>

    "Can I trust you to keep my secret?", Allen whispered in fake fright to get the highest reward but also because it had piqued her own interest.

    "Sure can lassie" he answered in a lowered tone.

    <"I come from the stars" 50 credits>

    <"I come from a different dimention" 75 credis>

    <"I am a princess of a ruined kingdom" break quest chain -100 credits>

    "I come from a different dimention", Allen wasn''t sure whre this quest was taking him but it really didn''t matter at this point in time.

    "And how can we go back to your home?" He was a pro gamer and wasn''t phased for a second

    <"The road is be long and full of dangers 50 credits>

    <"You must gather these materials" list added in appendix#2 75 credits>

    <"It will take an army to break the siege on my home" 150 credits>

    Taking her time to review the answers Allen decided to take a chance on a possible break of the chain, "I need you to trust me and not say anything until I''m done", causing him to raise an eyebrow, "we can try to go by ourselves to an existing portal", quickly adding as the text flickered off her vision, "or gather resources to open one", then apprehensively, "or gather an army to break a siege", her mouth was dry as she spoke out of character, like she was fighting some base instinct to play the game and she was losing the fight.

    Looking him straight in the eye and nodding she raised her finger, then two, and finally three fingers, on the second go he nodded for the gathering quest.

    "You must gather these materials and bring them to me, ten mithril bars, a scroll of summon elemental, seven mana crystals, vial of blessed water from the temple of Nasir, two magical shortsword and an iron bath"

    "Give me one month and I''ll get it", he answered, "where can I find you to deliver the stuff?"

    <Quest ''new dimensions'' initiated, NPC should find a habitat in the nearest town and prompt more adventurera to join for extra credits>

    "I will find a home in this town" she said, "you can find me there"

 Book 2 106 New hub

    "That would be great", Chess said scratching his beard, "I could probably set you up with some acquaintances of mine", scrunching his left eye "they aren''t friends", itching the bridge of his nose, "but they can set you up for some rent on cash and save you time going through the authorities"

    "That would be nice" she finally said after some thought, "do you also know a blacksmith I could get a job from?"

    "Sure do", he immediately replied, "he ain''t the best" adding quickly, "but I trust him with my own life", pointing at the wagon and horses, "not a maker of fancy weapons and adventuring equipment, he only deals with the mundane stuff", knocking on the rail, "but his work is solid and rarely breaks and he will always fix it for material costs"

    Unimpressed with the sales pitch Allen squinted before nodding, "I would love an introduction if you can make it" holding her hand for a shake.

    Chess closed the deal with a hearty handshake and poured the boiling beans into her bowl.

    Eating in silence let Allen think about her new discoveries, brushing the dust off a thousand years old memories to get the decrepit muscles going, NPCs initiated quests according to situations, collecting prompta they delivered to Players for credits on interaction, but she was a Player character, something made her hide the prompts when she was summoned more than a thousand years before.

    Diving deep into her own logs she pulled out here initiation sequence, knowing she was a computer construct from the conciousness of a Player named Allen helped her find the pieces, she wasn''t just made, her ghostly apparition was assigned a NPC operator, and his, or hers, first action on taking over was to deactivate the AI interface, it was standard operation and Allen herself did it thousands of times.

    Something made her different, the time spell locked her out of the game interface, not dead and never really alive, so the operator never reactivated the AI interface, just left her to float in nothingness, a bit of code in a universe of numbers, existing without a connection to the real world beside her books and missives.

    Were there others like her? forgotten conciousnessea floating in the void?, seeing no benefit on dwellings in the subject she wanted to know if there was some way she could tell if she were being controlled, obviously now she wasn''t, or she wouldn''t be able to initiate the AI interface, and she received credits, oh how long since she had access to credits and the NPC system to use them on, having free speech was nice, but the system shop could build her a flying palace of pleasures that even the beastly dragon couldn''t scratch, she was for once in her life the true boss of her situation.

    After breakfast they stayed quiet, moving in a line of carts, wagons and pack animals waiting to enter the waking city, rolling on the perimeter road b ought them to a series of warehouses and courtyards, where one by one the wagons peeled from the caravan and went to different businesses, Chess mocked her questioning look, "we each have our own delivery service girly", he laughed, "the caravan is just the safest and fastest way to get around these parts", enrering a yard and signalling for her to move closer, "this here''s your pay for the one night and confimed kills", handing her a small jingling pouch, "wait for me out here and I''ll get you settled in with my acquaintance when I''m back", then added "be gone and I''ll find you when I got the items", he winked, "got you marked for the quest so no worries there".This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

    Jumping off Allen walked to a side gate and out to the small alley where they came from, high walls closed the yards on both sides and the road climbing from her left to a low hill on her right, it was so gradual and the thatwalls were painted in such a way she didn''t notice when coming in on the cart.

    A group of people exiting one of the other gates ignored her when passing by and entering another yard on the side of the street, the main street below her started to be filled with trafic she noticed before entering the town, handcarts and wagons congested before one broke off into the alley and pressed Allen to the wall, "watch out moron" she heard as it moved away and another started the climb.

    Entering back to the yard she could see over a dozen men working to offload Chess''s wagon and setting up a pile of goods from a different warehouse, "good fortune" she jumped when Chess sneaked on her, "was able to secure cargo going my way to Erlfort so it seems our quest will be even faster than I reconed", spitting he added, "they have the nearest mithril mine this side of the wastelands", scanning her, "you stay here where it''s safe so I don''t lose that quest you got me", and then "stay out of trouble for three weeks and I''ll get you".

    Calming down as he droned on she finally got a word out, "can you take me to the blacksmith before you leave"

    "That I sure can do" putting his arm around her shoulder and leading her through the yard, "just follow old Chess here and he will set you up nice and dandy", entering one of the warehouses and out the other side brought them into a busy market street, "this here''s the lower market", he explained, "where all the common folks come to get business done"

    Passing by all manner of merchandice from the game world Allen was surprised at the variety, "this here is the gateway to the wastelands", the words almost following her thoughts, "all manner of trades come by here", lowering his voice as they came by an exotic pets booth, "some not quite lawful", he showed her a book store, "the central and high markets have the better and best quality stuff", picking one up, "but these regular folks sometimes get their hands on some true diamonds in the ruff".

    On the other side if the market they reached an industrial street with wirkshops and stalls offering services, stopping at one of the stalls the man looked up with a bushy beard and mustache, "what is it Chess?", surprise ringing in his voice, "I changed your whole chassis only four months ago", scanning the man, "got into some rough spots?"

    "You know me Akro", Chess boomed back, "nothing of that sort", slapping Allen on the back, "this here girly wants a job at a blacksmith", he winked, "and I know you''re allways looking for more hands in your ahop".

    Feigning to only notice the now the bushy face turned to scan her from head to toe, "can she work", assessing her like a slab of meat.

    "She a Local", Chess confessed, "wants to work a smithy so must have the skills for it"

    "Guess I''ll give her a trial period", Akro said after thinking, "though with five boys I can''t house her in my shop", shaking his head, "that''s one recipe for trouble I am definitely going to live without", falling silent at his final word.

    "That won''t be any trouble", Chess assured him, "was gonna take her to Lisbeth next thing after talking to you".

    Akro squinted, "that could work for her", then he turned to Allen, "on trial you get payed by the chore you are doing", he klinked his hammer to the anvil, "my apprentices get payed for a job and they can haggle and distribute that pay with the other workers in the shop", another klink, "no messing around and if anyone doesn''t pay or gives you any trouble you find me or mrs Jen to see whats up"

    Allen nodded and when she figured he was waiting answered "these are acceptable terms", knowing it was the standard operation of the business.

    "Good", he replied, "we''ll see to the details later", looking around the stall, "I''ll be back in the shop in two hours", he turned to Chess, "be there and we can start her trial", to which Chess nodded and lead the way down the street.

 Book 2 107 Hobbytual rite

    Going through the bustling streets Allen started to reassess her initial impression from large village to a small town, thinking back to her observations from atop the hill she couldn''t see how such a mistake was possible until they reached a cross section of the road and she sighted all the way down the hill to the camp outside the wall, with dirt walkways and a single paved road she now understood her previous misconceptions.

    Sprawling all over the hill with only the wall visible from the other side, the town was invisible from the other side so she figured it was the village defense against the wilderness, from the inside it was different, and Allen wanted to know if it was a quirk of the game of an effect created by Players or Locals.

    Following Chess at a brisk pace, Allen didn''t get to see much of the town, but didn''t care to either, her map automatically updated for use at any time, entering an old two story house made of wood, a split corridor going straight and to her right leading to a flight of stairs at the edge of the building, the design was ancient even when Allen was young but it was just one more thing the game preserved through the centuries.

    Another corridor split at the top, this time going straight or left they went ahead and finally stopped at an unmarked door Allen would never have noticed on her own.

    Entering at someone''s call after a single knock Allen found a neat little office with books stacked on shelves and a heavy desk hastily cleaned by pushing paperwork to one side, all these completely normal things started to grate on Allen''s nerves.

    After fighting a mountain sized dragon, pirates, giants, deals with titans and the dreaded Admin, her life coming to this stop with a simple heavy desk office just made everything swirl in her mind, surreal images of toy trains chasing her across ash filled sky cluttered in her vision when she was startled awake in a simple bed at a small spartan room.

    Vertigo hit when her legs touched the floor too soon but no ocean motion could be fealt beside that, taking her a moment to understand the bed was just lower than what she was used to, and then thinking she hadn''t slept in a bed for over a thousand years, that way only leads to where Allen locked her unwanted past so she just skipped it and returned to here and now.

    Out through the door she found the little office where Chess and a woman were talking, "almost called a healer for you girl", Chess drew his hands out, "don''t need all that drama in my life like that", turning back to the woman, "this here is Jam and she''ll rent you a room with no questions asked", nodding to himself, "so you don''t go talking about our business to nobody".This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    "It will be five gold or fifty credits per week for just a room", the woman put her hands on a written paper, "this is the contract", pointing at where Allen should sign, "all the extra services we provide are listed with prices here and in the booklet there", handing over a small notebook, "if you make a mess or cause any trouble with the guard there is a list of fines at the end there and I will be sure to collect those before you ever leave this town".

    Jam''s sharp voice held a compelling tone and Allen wasn''t sure what to do, reading through the contract and noting there were fines for returning after curfew, littering or even not walking fast enough in the hallway she could smell the trap from a mile away, but these were Chess''s connections and she mostly trusted him to act to his own interests in completing the quest, and she needed a place to rest and recoup, so finding nothing that was overly wicked she finally signed the contract and passed the down paymen for two weeks.

    Ringing a bell, Jam called a young woman to the office and introduced her as Maory, then told her to take Allen to room sixteen and show her the communal area, instructing both to return within twenty minutes.

    Following the quiet girl Allen passed unremarkable hallways and down a flight of stairs and another bend before reaching the door marked sixteen, the room had the same spartan decor of where she had woken up, with the adition of a dresser and a closet in opposite corners it was enough for her.

    Down the hall was a communal area where people plied their crafts, "only work in the communal area if you want to avoid the fines", was the first thing she ever heard Maory say, "the cooking area is separated by that door", lowering her head and whispering "any guests you bring into the house pay a gold coin per visit", speaking up with a blush, "guests caught without paying the toll will be double fined", then looking Allen straight in the face, "reporting a tenant on a fineable offense will get you half their fine", her eyes wondering up and sideways, "so you will always get caught" nodding as if to herself she lead Allen to the bathrooms and baths, "unclean toilets are an easy fine so there are always kids here looking to report tenants", adding after a thought, "guest fines will go to the tennant who brought them so alway clean after use", at the stairs she added "you can only use communal areas in your own floor unless you pay the guest fee" and lead her back to the office where chess seemed to have finished his business with Jam and lead Allen back to the street.

    Following Chess through the town Allen started to think this may have been a bad decision, but after already paying, even if she could afford the loss, she decided to sleep on it at least a couple of nights without death looming around every corner and at worst she would pay the fines and leave.

    The smithy was a bustling courtyard surrounded by several buildings and surprised her by both size and activities.

 Book 2 108 Little marbles

    Carts, wagons and all sorts of vehicles were strewn about the courtyard in varying degrees of construction, horses and other creatures were assembled at one side in booths with little worktables attached to each and tools scattered around in seeming mayhem.

    Allen only had a few moments to be impressed as she was drawn by Chess to one of the larger buildings with an open floor where anvils stood in neat rows at the center and forges lined the walls, more than fifty people were busy working on one thing or the other as they climbed stairs leading off to the right from the door and up to the third floor where apparently were jewelers workshops and offices, passing an observer at the second floor that reminded Allen with a lifeguard watching out for troubles before they became a disaster, he had a hat and a whistle and thats all Allen could see as they rushed past him or her.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

    At the third floor the noise was replaced by almost bell like jingles from jewelers'' hammera shaping all sorts of creations, from rings to watches and even book covers, another turn taking them to a quiet hallway, an open door revealing an empty classroom.

    "The workers here have all sorts of shortcuts", Chess cut the silence with his deep ruspy voice, "you''ll probably know more in a week than I learned in nine years of visits", pointing at the wall, "allways follow the green arrows to the nearest exit in an emergency".

    Coming up to a decorated large door Chess knocked and then patiently stood by until an elderly woman opened the door, "we are here for mr Brin", nodding once she lead the way.

    "Wait a moment please", she bid them politely before knocking on another decorated door and immediately entering, "he will see you now", she said upon exiting the room and holding the door open for them.

 Book 2 108 second half

    Mr Brin sitting behind a lavish desk plied with paperwork''s and art pieces took Allen by surprise, expecting to meet the man from the street market, dressed like Players often did in a character clothes unbefitting the situation, instead an immaculate suit and dress jewels like badges of an official teller greeted Chess and her with a powerful handshake and a polite gesture to seat in the opulent chairs set before him.

    "Let me get right down to business", he said after thinking for a few seconds, "this factory works on three types of deals, partners get commissions, apprentices get jobs and workers take orders, everyone start at the bottom, if you want to work on your own projects then you pay a partner to supervise your work and make sure it''s done to our standards and with adherence to regulations", sughing he added "we don''t tolerate rule breaking here, but the rules are simple, town curfew is at nine, so all forges are off at seven with no exceptions and heavy fines to everyone involved", taking a breather, "seniority is important but you only have to take orders from your direct manager unless it''s related to safety, you''ll get all the protection gear you need from your boss so don''t let anyone fool you with heavier equipment than you need", obviously tired of these pranks he continued, "you get two breaks a day and buy your own food", thinking if he''d forgotten anything, "that''s most of it and anything else you just ask your boss or one of the partners", pushing a pile of papers her way he pointed at a marked line, "just sign here and we can get you to a workstation".

    Looking at the papers and then at Chess Allen found herself in a small bind, he was doing her a favour, but she really didn''t want all these rules and regulations to govern her life at this or any moment, seeing her hesitating was upsetting both men and she finally decided on a way of action, signing the papers she turned to Chess, "Where will we meet when you come back?"

    Surprised at her question, "I''ll catxh you up here in about three weeks" he finally said.

    Sniffing audibly she pushed a tear to her eye, "thank you for everything Chess", leaning to yug him, "you saved me from a lot of trouble and I''m very grateful", catching both men in the uncomfortable display of emotions, Chess played a hasty hug and hastier retreat after another goodbye and a promise that he will find her.

    As soon as he was out of the door Allen snatched the papers from the table, storing them in her inventory, "I have no interest in working on any of your comissions or jobs or whatever", her eyes glinting, "I would however like to hire a workshop for some discreet projects of mine without owning the facilities", smiling superficialy, "I will pay you five hundred gold for the month rent and the disguise as a worker in the fine facility you run here", then her voice turned harder than magically enhanced diamond drill, "no one is my boss", her eyes suppressing any inkling of resistance, "if one of your people tries to force me to do anything I don''t like then his or her ass is mine".

    Deflated, the man fell back when she let down her gaze, "that''s not how we do business around"

    "That''s how I do my business", she cut him right down, "I''m paying you five times the normal fee for a commission in your shop and demand only that you dont ask any stupid questions or poke around my business" Allen was fully tired of weasels trying to take advantage of her, "I am playing this game since long before you were born", sighing she let go of the intimidating pressure, "just want some patchwork done on my armor and weapons before moving to my next gig", pointing at the door, "and don''t go blabbing to Chess my dear saviour", sitting up, "he''s my key to some fun stuff and I will know if he suspects anything becausr of you", finished with her tirade she took out two hundred gold coins, "this is my down payment for the month", then adding "I will pay another hundred every week if I''m satisfied"

    Staring at the small glittering pile in front of him he just nodded, not trusting his voice to hide that it was more than he made in three months, "well", he finally croaked, "you still have to turn the forge off at six for curfew and pay for workers through me", finding his courage in regulations, "I will obviously not pay you anything for work you don''t do, and you still adhere to all safety regulations in our facility".Stolen novel; please report.

    "Fine", she breathed, "just show me where I can start working", knocking on the table, "time is money", to which he wholeheartedly agreed.

    Opening the door and taking her out of the office he then took a sharp turn and climbed down spiralling stairs, passing by closed doors before going out from one the building corners, gesturing for her to follow when he noticed she got disoriented by the unusual exit, they crossed a short alley to another large structure, where he opened a nondescript door behind which was a medium sized workshop that seemed to have been abandoned after some accident that left the stone walls black with soot.

    Pointing at the forge "the previous owner replaced the forge but couldn''t afford to stay a partner after losing their staff", showing her around and instrucing her on how to operate the different tools and machine parts, "it has fallen to rumors of bad luck, but don''t listen to those, it''s also the only shop I can spare on such short notice", tapping one of the tables, "we will say you are working on my commission, which is true, and if you need some extra hands you tell me what you need done and I will see who can be spared", looking at her as she started warming the forge in expert hands, "I hope that will be all" nudging his way to the door, "goodbye" he said before vanishing through the door.

    "Goodbye", Allen said absentmindedly as she was familiarizing herself with the equipment, not caring much about the heat or dirt, just making sure everything that needed to sway, turn or swerve did, and what needed to stay in it''s place held firm to its form.

    As a final touch she made sure all the windowa were covered with soot and the ones she found to clean for her liking she sprayed with a small gust of wind and some ash from the wirming forge, making sure it was baked into the glass.

    The hardest part was deciding what she needed first, after much thought and a good pile of coals she returned to her original problem of lacking tools, so as a first order of business she decided to make some basic items that will fit her style more than a general workshop.

    An arch forge will be her final destination, but first she would need to make some simpler items, taking a bar of steel from her inventory she threw it in the crucible and let it melt while she carved the shape of the pliers out of some soft wood and imprinted every part several times into a a large clay tray.

    Pouring the smelted metal into the toolset was satifying after so long of working on super high tech with factory made tools and parts, only caring for number uno was such a relief that Allen almost threw a small jig before catching herself, there were new realities to explore and she would be damned if she would go there naked or armed with some ancient melee piece of trash.

    Admittedly BoomBoy and CuteLass weren''t half as bad as most weapons but knowing they were rejuvenated Players and could turn on her at a moment''s notice wasn''t inspiring confidence in their sustained morale, Allen needed reliable firepower, and had sources to aquire it from, but first she needed some stuff.

    With the first set of tools cooling in the mold tray she pulled out her remaining front leg armor and set it on the floor, locking the door and pushing a heavy anvil to block it she looked if there were any other entries and finding none she took some rope from her inventory and hoisted the shiny leg armor up by the high ceiling beams, when she was done so were her tool parts and she sat at a grinding table to fit them all together after giving them a good dunk in some oil for a good finish.

    Fitting the parts turned out to be a chore that almost broke Allen, at first thinking she didnt have all of them and going back to the plans, then figuring all the angles she had to sand off just for the parts to work, a thousand years of muscle amnesia was definitely working against her and finally decided to let the forge cool off as she wouldn''t be making anything else that day, so at long last she also took the leg armor off, leaving the mount in place and just ground the parts to fit, coiled and forged the springs in a small oven, breaking a nail and then scorching a finger trying to skip just one stage of the construction, and by the time she had to leave for the curfew she was on stage three out of fourteen in the assembly plan.

    The courtyard was silent, only a few workers marching quickly before the small gate closed, Allen was blinded by the torchlight in the gatehouse before leaving out to the street, following the map back to the lodge house, making sure she wasn''t followed thriugh the empty streets and entering her room with only a few minutes to spare.

 Book 2 109 Plots and planes

    Less than a minute after curfew started Allen heard feet tapping in the hallway, before she got up to lock it, her door swung open and a boy no older than fifteen sneaked into her room.

    Not missing a beat she barked "get out", making the boy jump and latching to the doorknob like holding onto his dear life, "get the hell out of my room", she ordered the tearing boy again, not buying into his display of theatrical stress.

    Hanging on in his shivers and finally he started begging, "please miss they sold me to the Kobold", eyes streaming with no control, "the Kobold will flay me to death", dropping to the floor.

    Not knowing who The Kobold was Allen still knew trouble when it looked her in the eye seconds after breaking a law, "go hide somewhere else kid, I don''t care about any of that", using a firm no nonsense voice to push the trouble off her floor, he skittered out when she stood up and made a motion every Player knew that would draw a melee one handed weapon from an inventory.

    Not bothering to look out and just latching and locking the door while hearing some faint cries and a smack from the hallway.

    Allen finally went to sleep finding her peace of mind elusive, tossing through nightmares of clawed hands, hers and other''s, of times when she was a NPC and had recreational time to play as kobolds and peasants, waking with thoughts whether her life now were any different, she was still in the game, giving quests and working for Player''s entertainment, what did she want from her life?

    Morning brought no reapite from her mind, images of scales and snake eyes lingering long into her walk to the workshop where she finished assembling of the multiplier she struggled so hard yesterday, the final touch was a bit of game magic, putting the tool on the table before her and opening its character sheet with her enhanced interface, fiddling with the tension and force numbers was the easy part, maximising the tool before the next step, even now it could rip through most metals in the game but to work on her armor she would need a littile extra umph.

    Working backwards from the rhetorical process, starting by naming it Dragon Spider Spinning Spanner and proceeded with allocating fifty gold to credits at ten credits per minute of holding and three credits per cut, chuckling at the thought of how the NPC request would be worded, knowing she was manipulating both the system and real people she didn''t care as much since the job itself wasn''t hard and the danger mostly minimal she just used the Dragon code word to warn away any real players who might try to evolve her tool beyond it''s required parameters.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    While waiting for confirmation on the first tool she started assembling another just like it, this one named Spanning Spinning Spider Dragon, and allocating the same resources to entice another prisoner to work for her.

    Knowing it could take up to a few days before someone who recieved the prompt picked it up and got bound to the contract she hung the leg armor as before and used the spanners as they were to start breaking it up, without the power ups of the complete set it was easy to pick all the rivets and insets apart, storing the jewels used for the spell network and communication devices for a later use and putting all the little bits in labled boxes she made with some tools in the shop she finally started to pick apart the large sheets of heavy armor when suddenly the spanner in her hand convulsed and what required most of her strength just to hold and slightly dent the metal was sheard through with no effort at all.

    Testing Dragon she found it still didn''t have an assigned user but Spanner gave her hope with how quick it was filled.

    Now able to start doing some of the heavier work she took the leg armor apart in minutes and found it was past the time to eat lunch.

    Exiting her workshop to the bustling courtyard was like shifting between one reality and another, people running, lifting, bending, there were about two men for every woman in the yard which surprised her, expexting to see a much larger discrepancy in the numbers, leaving through the gatehouse and passing the bored guard with no questions asked, she cut through an unmapped area in the town as a logical link between the market and business area, adding more pieces to the puzzle that was the town layout as she only had a few lines drawn and a mistery about why she couldn''t see behind the wall from her perch atop the hill.

    Looking up at the fort in the center of town she decided to go there on another day, maybe she could buy maps for the whole area and save her time getting lost in some closed off alley.

    Finding the market unchanged from yesterday she bought some fresh dumplings advertised to taste better than in the real world, they weren''t different than either memory from before though she knew the game relayed taste by layers of code relating to individual memory so it shouldn''t have surprised her that when expecting something to taste like dumplings it actually did.

    Back through another part of the town she passed a Player guildhouse that was actually quite hidden as a sort of book shop and library for eccentric book seekers, the guard at the counter was an obvious Player, wearing a robe made specifically to not draw attention and if Allen didn''t know what to look for she would never have guessed he wasn''t Local.

    In her workshop she started working on the mangled remains of her wing armor, so little of it was still attached to the joints it only took minutes of agony in her soul to add a few scraps of metal to the inventory.

    The tail armor was split to three sections and they barely had any jewels, just hundreds of joints taking hours to process, at the end of the day she was left with the chest armor and needed a bigger space if she didn''t want to crawl through ceiling beams before taking enough of it apart to actually work on it.

    In the dormitory someone was following her to the room so she toom a sharp turn into one of the corridors and let them get past her.