《My guild was transported to another world, but I'm just the Illusionist Enchanter》


 Two Ladies and a Guild in Skyforge

    Say whatever you wish but it takes a very large, powerful guild to raise a divine level enchanter in Skyforge 3. The character can''t have any wasted levels, which means all skill points have to be used to strengthen dexterity, mind and intelligence - similar to the old skyrim one has to do certain actions to earn such skill points at level up after sleeping, too - and said enchanter has to be pulled along dungeons for the necessary exp, so the only second skill tree that makes any sense is the illusion skill tree.


    In other words, if you''re an enchanter, be invisible, stay out of the way and make your guild mates collect treasures for you to destroy and fill soul gems that can only be found as rare drops in master level dungeons at the very least with powerful boss monster essence. Only to fail time and time again.


    But my guild was patient. They were amazingly strong, too. And finally my character could make permanent enchantments without mana cost or interruption restrictions with 90% probabilty. We ruled.


    Ironically I''m supposedly the strongest character in the guild according to my stats and skill trees, even though my character is mostly useless in a 1 on 1 battle. As in, one hit kill instant death on first attack useless. A divine Enchanter Illusionist with the physical values of an Almeri lady NPC. Occasionaly called the world''s top ten dud. The funny glowing halo my character''s body got when my skill broke into divinity got me the nickname squishy firefly.


    Honestly, I never cared because, well, I was just playing a game as I wished.


    When the sun rose above our palace walls we cheered, Paladinum waved our flag and I projected the highlights of our last battle into the sky. It was the upside down bird''s eye view we had recorded with the crystals Massa Lady had grown. One side showed our army sneaking up on the enemy with the help of my wide area Invisibilty and Muffle items, recorded by me while I floated in the sky, invisible of course. The other showed Lady''s view of the enemy army sleeping in their tents, only a few sentries standing guard. She was also flying and invisible during the battle. That was how things usually went.


    Then, the birds I controlled with my illusions flew above the enemy camp, dumping Lady''s explosives on them. There were lots of pretty explosions in many colors, just like fireworks, which sent our viewers into a frenzy, laughing and cheering. The enemy was disorderly, running away from the sudden attack to regroup outside the camp, only to be slaughtered at the edge of the camp by our waiting land troops.


    Next, I sent close ups of our assassins killing the commanders that were insufficiently protected in the chaotic environment, their invisible forms stepping behind said commanders and killing them in one blow. The looks on the faces of those leaders'' guards when the attacker did not become visible after the attack were hilarious! After all, supposedly only the invisibilty cap the world champion of the thief class got could guarantee absolute, unbroken invisibility since it was an enternal enchantment. Recording crystals like ours were supposedly only available as cash items, too. Noobs.


    The enemy made a brave attempt at breaking through next, but this time it wasLady''s creation that stole the enemy''s show again. Our aerial forces threw balls down around the enemy, balls that were deflected with shields this time. Those shields had no effect - thick fog spread around them, making the nightsight items everybody above level 50 had utterly useless. They could no longer see beyond their shields, so our Destruction Mages and Barbarians with their clear sight potions broke those shields one by one, slaughtering the blind enemy starting with the weakest links.


    while all of this was going on our riders trempled the less organised parts of the camp going by the time proven rule - whatever breaks was not sturdy enough and thus not worth looting. At our level at least that one was always right.


    It was a slaughter and our guild, with the few fallen warriors already revived, celebrated it with lots of alcohol. Leaving the rougher guys and girls to their fun after our performance ended Lady and I snuck back into the palace and up into the tower. We were not really into partying. Inside my tower and away from the ruckus, I set a music crystal into the speaker system while half drunk bards played their war drums outside.


    With a sigh and a smile I let myself flop into the comfortable armchair while Lady got some iced tea from the fridge. It was really an enchanted wardrobe, but a fridge was a fridge as far as I was concerned. Her dark braid was still shiny, unlike my windswept hair. The windswept hair was new, they had only introduced it with the last update as a cosmetic realistic effect, but it was annoying enough that wearing a braid or cutting it off had crossed my mind. Unlike me, who played a high elf due to the ideal affinity for enchanting, Lady had chosen a dark elf because those had the best basics for alchemy, so instead of my golden glow she was glowing silver. In a straight fight she was as useless as me since as her thief skills were only developed in the sneaking and speech skill trees aside from her Alchemy. Her nickname was squishy glowbug.


    She placed a cup in the table next to me and I thanked her with a wry smile. Our teamwork might be great, but we were not very talkative most of the time. We had never really spoken much with most of our guildmates.


    The sweet sound of a female voice and gentle flutes filled the silence as we relaxed and drank our cool tea. After the hectic preparations in game coupled with my full real life schedule as a working adult such breaks were very welcome.


    After a little while I giggled. "Lime green explosions? Baby blue?"


    "They were pretty. I did think about making shapes, too, but there was not enough time. Confusion bombs are not part of my usual repertoire." Lady commented dryly. Her cup clicked audibly when she set it down.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    Now this I was willing to belive. "Next time we will use my Mayhem spell." I grumbled. But we both knew that this little bit of magic was probably going to stay a guild secret forever. Just like some of the things Lady could do with her highlevel speech skill tree.


    About my Illusionist skills...some may wonder why nobody chose the skill tree as a main tree except, well, me, for example.


    There are almost no high level Illusionists since the repertoire and power did not really increase until the top levels, leaving level 170 characters with spells that only worked on enemies with both mind and intelligence below 30 points. At level 170 only ordinary Skeletons and nonmagical beasts had such stats and those were really hard to find. Frost wolves? Intelligence too high. Skeleton archer? Mind stat too high. It was not a fighter class. Only Invisibility and muffle worked on higher levels if the skill level was high enough. For that one needed loads of mana and practice though.


    So Illusionists could only muffle their steps, turn invisible and avoid opening anything, touching any magical objects, taking anything at all and casting any other spell to keep their invisibility going. Since I was keeping my health absurdly low by putting everything in mind, intelligence and dexterity being invisible the whole time was the only way to avoid getting in the way, so I got the really powerful high level illusion spells in the end by mooching off my guildmates.


    Lady did the same with her stealth, but at least she sold the loot for really good prices for the whole guild, too. Her stats in mind, dexterity and speed are just as unsuitable for survival as my skills though.


    Anyway, we were two special, squishy snowflakes that always disappeared anyway.


    The celebrating warriors just had to give us a good pat on the shoulder and we would end up with broken bones, which was ouchie even with reduced pain feedback.


    Anyway, at my grumbling Lady just crooked her eyebrows the way only elves in this game seemed to be able to. "If we hadn''t decided on going full crafting with a big guild back then we would probably have lost contact ages ago."


    "Not to mention we never would have gotten to a level high enough to get the stats for all the stuff we can play with in our free time now." I added. "Real life as an adult is not exciting at all. Who knows, maybe we would have started taking those rec drugs from Happy Life."


    "Don''t remind me..." Lady sighed.


    Neither of us was the excited, curious 14 year old kid from 10 years ago when we started playing, choosing crafting and sneaking/invisibility because we wanted to be like those mysterious hidden craftsmen from xianxia novels. Pillmaking and smithing from the ki path had been our first choice, but Lady came to the conclusion that digging out metal and then beating it with a hammer was too boring for her and I decided that I did not want to make consumable stuff with little variation over and over again. So we deleted our first chars after 2 days and tried our current occupations. We never expected to play for years or for our chars to become in game celebrities back then.


    By the way, Blacksmiths were not rare among high level players because they needed endurance, strength and dexterity, the same as barbarians or axe fighters for example. They had no trouble getting by. Our crafting classes were totally unbalanced, but when we complained we were told that it was supposed to be that way. Taylors only needed dexterity and mind stats, which left plenty of good jobs, too. Pretty much anything was easier to play solo than our squishy occupations. Totally not fair.


    In the silence I took one of the crystals from the little bowl on the table, our guild newspapers. They collected these and put in new content occasionally, deleting the oldest news. Of course our guild library held copies of all of the important blogs, articles, info collections, all wikipedia pages, in game books and so on. First thing in this crystal was an aticle about our victory. I skipped that one. Next...fanart.


    I giggled.


    "Look at this!"


    Lady glanced at it and groaned.


    It was her face in the night sky, looking down at the colorful explosions in the enemy camp with a wicked grin.


    "Next page!" Lady demanded and I obeyed.


    I wished I hadn''t a second later. This time it was me giving a necklace to our guild leader, with him kneeling in front of me, on my face an angelic smile. I was also floating. Rattle looked like a hero receiving a holy treasure from his golden goddess. Now Lady was giggling.


    The next picture was no better but at least both of us were equally annoyed. It was a circle, half pale gold and half black, with female shapes back to back outlined in the other color. Each female shape held out one hand and above each floated a rainbow jewel. Below those two shapes was a shilouette of the palace. Above the picture it said ''Proposal for new guild flag''.


    Now if you are wondering why our guild was so obsessed with us...we were girls, we were delicate girls who did not act like warriors but ladies, and they had sacrificed a lot of items and time to help us build our skills over 10 years. Our skills were a big point of pride and a huge advantage now, allowing us to take over a lot of territories within the last six months after they had persevered for years. Six months ago Lady and me became divines, our skills becoming good enough to create things that equal the most expensive cash items and best championship rewards. We became broken enough to make battles like the one the day before child''s play. So obviously our guild started getting a bit weird and did all sorts of strange things to make sure we didn''t leave or quit.


    Not that we would do that. These guys had pulled us along for ten years, after all, with rewards that barely justified the efforts and all the weird and seemingly unreasonable things we had them do. Like when Lady demanded that the whole guild scour a low level forest for a certain rare mushroom type for a whole week until they found it. Or the time when I wanted a sample for a specific enchantment that only one chimera boss monster had as an ultra rare drop and had them kill that boss over and over again until the weapon with the right enchantment dropped. Only to extract said enchantment and destroy the hard won weapon in the process.


    Where else would we find such great lack - er, guildmates again? They said they did not mind and that we made guildlife more interesting with our demands and accidents that occasionally were not really accidents. Like blowing up our first guildhouse. Or serving tea that made people''s hair green for a week in our second. Or giving an enchanted weapon to the vice leader that screamed ''help, fire'' every time the fire blade was activated. Or the tornado jewel that did not exclude the player from the spell effect...


    "I really don''t understand these guys. I would have kicked us out ages ago." I concluded as my self reflection came to an end. Lady looked like she had just thought about something similar, scrunching her face in a way that was half embarrassed and half amused.


    Yes, our guilmates were idiots. Rough, loud, lovable and naive Skyforge addicted idiots. And neither of us had thought about quitting this game in a long time. Not since the great graduation test period disturbance when they thought we would never come back.


    On the next page there was our guild leader''s plan for the new territory, which got us into a far more worthwile discussion about how we might be able to help. Rattle might occasionally act like an idiot but he was pretty smart and could use his real world management skills even in game effectively.


    And then the world changed.

 Two Ladies and a Guild somewhere else?

    Something changed, though what that something was supposed to be...well, for one, my mentality seemed to shift somehow. Lady had that puzzled expression I hadn''t seen in a while, too. Or maybe that was just the sudden burst of a wild fiddle solo?


    Maybe an update? Server problems?


    I turned my head towards the music player that had started from the first track recorded in the crystal. The shift from calming bard music to irish folk was surprising enough for me to wonder if that might really have been all that happened. Unlike before I now saw runes glowing beneath the surface of both player and crystal. It felt familiar, as if it were something I had been able to do for quite a while. Despite the fact that it was clearly new. I could easily discern the function of those runes, too. They were so familiar I did not immediately realize that it was not just common english.


    "What the..." Lady whispered. Her voice had become a clearly inhuman, but not unpleasant smoky voice. And it spoke a language that my brain told me was commonly referred to as night tongue. A language I had apparently learned by essentialy growing up with lady. There was also Merchant Common, the variation known as high tongue that nobles spoke, ancient runic and the sun tongue. All languages for which I had fulfilled the requirements or so my brain told me.


    "What kind of update is this?" I wondered out loud, my voice an equally smoky but higher one than Lady''s.


    Lady did not listen however, she was busy staring at the space above my head. Turning around only gave me a glimpse of faintly glowing palace walls and the glass door to the terrace, all filled with enchantments but otherwise normal. The sky outside was blue as usual.


    "Your ID is gone. And the status window does not work either." Lady informed me, already busy pulling out her herb bag. Her relieved expression showed that she could access her items at least.


    Logout did not work though.


    This game had no message function, but we had solved that problem ages ago. I activated the enchanted crystal hanging off the tip of my left ear, which worked easily on instinct, calling Cassandra. Our resident vampire lord, a player who had been playing just as long as us. She didn''t pick up. Asleep?


    "Donny!" Lady sat up straighter at about the same time, so I linked my earring to her conversation. I wished I didn''t a moment later.


    "...whore started moving on her own! Yeah baby..."


    Both of us shut down the conversation. Using the virtual whores was pretty common and judging by the fragment we had heard it was obvious that the command based NPC had very recently become more than she had been before.


    Taking a deep breath I leaned back in my armchair, picked up my cup again and took a sip. It tasted a lot better than any iced tea I had ever had before. Lady raised her eyebrows at my expression, took her own cup and tried it.


    "Being an Alchemist seems to have certain perks." She concluded.


    By now we were probably both sufficiently convinced that this was reality. Honestly...well. I was a project manager and programmer, with my bachelor in computer sciences and an MBA in the real world. Lady was a PhD Candidate in a Biochemical Science lab, with bachelors in medical science and chemistry. In other words...neither of us had much of a life aside from work and this game. Our parents and siblings...well, my father had been her godfather so after her parents died in a car crash we became like siblings. But with my parents split up, each with a new family and new children...maybe that had been one reason why we had clung to each other and this game so much.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    As long as there were both of us it was going to be fine. Were weren''t kids anymore.


    Just then there was a knock outside the door.


    "Your breakfast, Lady Vivienne, Lady Aurelie." It was a young girl''s voice. My mind returned to Donny''s whore. If the whores had life then the servants apparently did as well. And those names...they were not our game names. They were our real names. Well, being called Massa Lady and Sunflower in real life would be silly, but...how exactly did this change work?


    "Come in!" Lady, no Aurelie responded quicker than I did.


    A moment after her call a young girl, apparently a high elf like me with the golden skin, sharp eyes and pointy chin, long sleek ears pointing straight up and general sharp edges everywhere in her features entered the room. She wore the green livery all the servants had. Of course hers had an ankle length skirt since she was female instead of the pants the males got.


    She carried a tray with rice pudding, honey and two bowls along with silver spoons. The food we often plundered but never used, sorted by type in the storage pouches in the kitchen''s storage rooms, had finally been used. How many tons were stored in the palace? Every time we stole everything from the enemy''s supply trains it all ended up there, while our thief players liked stealing rare foodstuff, among other things, from lords...so at least if we actually had to eat now we probably had enough for the near future. The siloes were also full of grain and there were a lot of fields around the palace, though that had been done to make the palace seem realistic...same as the servants.


    "Thank you." I nodded at the girl with a smile, to which she smiled back and bowed before she set herself up beside the door, apparently waiting for us to finish.


    "How many people do you think came with us? And how much of the territory?" I wondered out loud. Aurelie did not bother with speculation, she directly called Guardian.


    Guardian picked up, too.


    "Ladies! Fear not! I will guard you to the end!!" Er...yes. Guardian was into roleplay. Apparently not even being transported to a different world could heal that side of him. So we did what we always had. We played along.


    "Thank you Guardian, we appreciate it." I responded as usual.


    "Would you do us a favor Guardian?" Aurelie hurried to get to the point before Guardian could start going into a long winded speech about protecting us being an honor. "Please check whether our territory is still there and if so in which way it has changed."


    "Ah, I already looked. It''s all there apparently, at least according to the main territory crystal. The air guard is about to take off to take a look in person, too." Guardian had not been panicking then. And he was not unaware either.


    Then again, most of the guild consisted of game addicts who would love to live in the game. Not that Aurelie or me had any right to say a thing.


    I decided to add my piece of mind, as well. "There are wild animals and creatures in the wild...they might go to the villages now that the rules have changed. Please look out for signs of such things, not just external enemies or the unknown. If there are signs as I fear there might be we would need to station fighters in the villages for a while. I''m sure I will be able to create some protection if Aurelie helps and your men can supply enough essence."


    "Uh...never thought of that, mylady! I''ll tell the boys." Guardian agreed thoughtfully. NPCs had apparently turned into our people now so we would have to care for them. Since this was a game with rudimentary NPC programming there would surely be things where problems would pop up left and right in reality.


    "Thank you Guardian." Aurelie said, then cut off the connection.


    Thoughtfully, she looked at the girl while I filled two bowls with rice pudding and a bit of honey. It tasted rather good. But where did they get the...ah! I had almost forgotten about the large animal farm Donny had been obsessed with years ago.


    "Little one, tell me. Can you read? Do you have any skills?" Aurelia''s smoky voice was truly something I would have to get used to.


    "Lady, no, Lady. This servant has no skills. This servant has started learning how to clean and is being taught manners." The girl responded, her chest swelling slightly at that. Did that count as a skill? Well, manners was part of the ruler skill tree, but I doubted this servant girl would be studying the rest of that particular skill tree.


    "I see." Aurelie seemed intent on dropping this topic for the moment, but I doubted that I had heard the last of this particular problem. As a PhD Candidate my adopted sister regarded education highly. Maybe this would be her passion in this new world?


    We ate our breakfast in silence and had the girl take it back to the kitchen in the end. Then we did what we had to after a night full of celebration and excitement. We went to sleep in our rooms.

 Two Ladies and a Guild have a necessary filler episode

    By the time I woke up it was already early afternoon. I felt refreshed, but also slightly sticky. In game that never happened though characters did start looking dirty after a while. I also wished I owned an actual nightshirt because my dress had not been the most comfortable thing to sleep in. Fortunately most of the leadership of our guild had rooms with a bathroom attached. The warrior barracks and simple town houses did not have them. They would have to go to the public bath. Speaking of...there were no public toilets. Mine worked just fine, but in game there were no toilets anywhere except as decoration in guild built or private buildings. That was not good...what exactly would the servants in the palace do if nature called?


    Anyway, first things first so...new clothing. Maybe Aurelie and I should take up tailoring again? Since our stats did fit we had had a phase during vacation when we were still at university together. When we played around with the skill tree it had grown to the upper mid stages quickly thanks to the high stats, but we had lost interest again soon. Now it looked like we might need to try our hand at it.


    No NPC shop had sold nightgowns so far. Or nice underwear.


    Either way, I took a shower in my new but familiar body and dressed myself in a light green robe. As for underwear, well, I wrapped my rather small chest with a long band of silk and put on a pair of very short silk shorts. I did have a nice collection of cloth and outer wear at least. The silk hotpants and chest wrap had been a joke, Aurelie and me had worn those on an in game halloween party when we were sixteen I think. I could not remember what we told people back then though...maybe we were supposed to be scantily dressed mummies?


    Now it was okay underwear. For the day.


    I actually decided to braid my golden hair since I had never thought of making a blow dryer. It would not be hard at all, any item and a weak soul...why not try it?


    I grabbed one of the many decorative brushes, took out a minor soul stone, transferred the soul, shaped the power into a very weak lasting enchantment that could be switched on and off...and I had a blow dryer...brush...


    So my hair was dry within a few minutes, but I still braided it. Why I wanted hair to my ankles as a game character was kind of a mystery by now, but I had set it to this length ten years ago and never gotten around to changing it. So I braided it and made a kind of crown around my head with it by wrapping it around and around several times, finally hiding the end somewhere in that crown. I looked like a high elven noble in the end. But I guess that was what I was supposed to be now?


    During gameplay Aurelia, me and several others had collected a bunch of titles and territories in special quests though we gave management rights for everything to Guardian. It was all still my territory and the attached titles I had never bothered to read through were all there in my head. For how long have I been Queen of a bunch of nomads though? And duchess of some minor kingdom my guild took over completely later on...independent ruler for life in a trading city somewhere to the south too. There were quite a few. Most had been gifted to us girls in the guild leadership by others after Guardian got into roleplaying hardcore and complained about footsoldiers having kingdoms in our guild.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    By the way, they had been given to us girls only because Donny shouted ''Haughty Queens are the best!'' and ''Who wants to take orders from a muscle guy!''. Yes, they are a bunch of fun Idiots.


    Before those had all been quest rewards I never really cared about and I, like most high level players, had deactivated social titles after they started getting too long. A few people collected them and ran around with dozens of them floating above their heads as a joke for a while, but since people never bothered to pick out their actual name from the titles they gave up on it within a few weeks.


    As I was supposed to be a Queen now I took out a tiara with a strong charisma enchantment and fastened it in front of the braids wrapped around my head.


    Finally ready, I left my bath, firmly keeping the urgent toilet reform situation in mind. Maybe Aurelia would have an Idea.


    Opening the Message system I sent a quick info request to Rattle, who asked me to go downstairs to the great hall. Which I did, passing quite a few servants hurrying from place to place with baskets and mops and linen. Apparently our palace needed some reorganisation aside from the need for toilets.


    "Wait a moment!" I called out to one of servants passing by, an older northern human woman whose height was like mine while her shoulders were three times as wide. Outside a game her build suddenly became kind of intimidating. Even the servants around here could kill me easily if they got a good punch in! Maybe I should have invested in endurance, constitution or strength after all...


    "How may this servant be of help?" Contrary to her looks she seemed like a...well, a meek maid. She kind of was one, after all. I really needed somebody to play guard for me soon though. At least to warn me so I could turn invisible in time!


    I leaned forward slightly to ask because saying it out loud was kind of embarrassing. "What do the servants and soldiers do, if... if nature calls?"


    "The head Butler designated certain rooms where chamberpots with cleaner slimes were positioned for this occasion earlier this morning. Please do not worry about such matters, my lady." Then she smiled at me like a matron would at an overly sensitive girl.


    Both relieved and slightly disturbed I continued going downstairs, until I reached the great hall where most of the guild leaders were already gathered. Aurelia and Cassandra were still missing, but they would surely come soon. In the meantime I went to my seat at the quarter moon shaped table on the platform. Unlike in the game I did not jump on the tables that stood in semi circles around the platform though. I obediently took the passage over the midnight blue carpet, went halfway around the platform, took the four steps up and then sat down. From this platform I had an excellent view of the stage where the speakers were supposed to stand during a gathering.


    So far we had not really used the stage, but...somehow I got the feeling that this would be the first time that we would. This afternoon nobody jumped over and tables. Well, except Donny who got told off soon after.


    When I sat and had taken a cup of tea for myself I smiled at Rattle and Formless first, then at the others. Some smiled back, others nodded, but none of us spoke yet. We would wait until everyone was present.


    On the stage Guardian stood waiting, a round table with video crystals next to him. At the side several others were sitting on the bench. Apparently we had gathered quite a bit of info already.

 Two Ladies and a Guild solve a problem they never saw coming

    That day there were wo gatherings.


    In the great hall there were the highest leaders seated around the quarter moon table on the platform.


    Then there was the first circle, the ones seated at the tables closest to the leadership. They were either the strongest, vice leaders or heads of certain important groups within the guild.


    The second circle consisted of higher ranking officers with important duties entrusted to them.


    Finally the third circle held experts on certain topics, tacticians, merchants and other advisors.


    With them the great hall was full. Roughly half of those in the hall had reached divinity, while most of the others were not far from that point. Exceptions were among the advisors with special knowledge, like three real world military commanders and a general who, though they lacked time to play and level up, were regarded highly within the guild.


    The guild itself had thousands of members, with roughly one quarter having spent most of their in game time in the guild and having a truly high level, while half were between the middle tier of the high levels and the high tier of the middle level, those who joined after the guild had already become fairly strong a several years before.


    Those groups were fairly stable.


    However... the last quarter were somewhere between level one and level 500, the low and middle levels. Roughly three quarters of these lower level players had joined within the last four months when it had become obvious that the guild was taking the top spot but wouldn''t allow any players above level 200 into the guild to prevent any sabotage by spies. Most adults interested in Skyforge had started playing long ago and did not wish to erase their character for a guild membership so most of those players were fairly young, teens between twelve and eighteen.


    With nearly twenty thousand members that meant that they had about 4000 teenagers who neither had a place in the guard barracks as active fighters for the guild yet due to their low level nor had they been affluent enough to buy houses like the remaining 1000 people in that lower leveled group. In game being homeless was not a problem.


    But now?


    Guardian switched the video crystal off.


    "This is our most urgent problem." He declared. "And before the discussion begins please let me remind you that saying we shouldn''t have accepted these kids now is a moot point."


    Our guild leader stood fully behind that statement, as well. "Anyone saying anything like that will be kicked out of the hall and cannot be part of the discussion any longer. We need solutions find a place for these kids. Also, in case you have not noticed yet...Guardian, show a couple pictures." Rattle waved towards the video crystal.


    The first picture floated above the stage. It looked like a wood elf, but either they had tuned the face to make it as childlike as possible or...


    The second picture showed an orc. The orc looked weirdly adorable, without any protruding teeth.


    The next was a pimply human face, very obviously a teenager.


    More of them came, but it was very obvious that somehow this weird transition had turned back time for the game characters played by teenagers. We literally had thousands of newly orphaned, homeless children on our hands. Children who were no stronger or at least not much stronger than NPCs in some cases.


    Leveling up was the last thing on their mind right now I would bet.


    "We have to find foster families for those who wish for it first." I said to break the thoughtful silence in the room. "We have a lot of territories that came with us, right? There have to be NPCs there who would be willing to help."


    "You can''t call them NPCs. Those are real people!" Somebody interjected from the back. A look told me that it was our psych advisor. He was Aurelie''s friend from University, a psychology assistant professor. "Using the term NPC will cause us to hold certain prejudices and subco sciously prevent us from seeing them as real people. We have to eradicate the use of this word right now, otherwise we will end up with a lot of problems later on."Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    All of us became quiet for a moment. Calling somebody an NPC...I had not thought about what kind of idea I had in mind whenever I said it, but he was right.


    Rattle nodded decisively. "Then our first rule will be this. How should it be spelled out to avoid giving a faulty image?"


    Our law expert got up this time. "I suggest the following: Each individual capable of independent thought shall be a full citizen of the country if he or she so wishes and fulfills the requirements of citizenship. Each citizen is equal with guaranteed human rights. Requirements for citizenship at this point should be that the person came from Skyforge and is either from the guild or our country. Further rules regarding new citizens would have to be discussed later. They are not the priority right now."


    "All in agreement?" Guardian called out. A lot of voices agreed.


    "Anyone against it? We''ll go over the exact words when we discuss our laws again so please, no arguing over details right now!"


    Fortunately nobody said anything stupid like ''they are only NPCs'' or ''we should be the only ones with human rights!''. Then again, we had been together for years and any assholes had long been kicked out in this inner circle. Idiots there were plenty, but no sociopathic or downright evil people.


    "Uhm...about the kids..." I tried to get back on topic. "So...there should be people in our country who would like to forster them. At least the youngest, those younger than 16, can''t become part of our military or anything like that. That would be inhuman."


    "We can''t send those low level kids to random people in the kingdom just because they want them. We''re not even from the same world." Part of my proposal was shot down, but...they were kind of right, too. Separating the children from the only connection to the past they had was just as bad as military service.


    "We could make an apprentice system. In light novels people always say that a master for a day is a father for life, so people should take them as apprentices and become their parent substitute without outright replacing their real family!" That was Donny. There was a reason why Donny was Knightleader, after all. He was not always an idiot. Though I kind of wished he hadn''t used such an otaku way to give his argument credibility.


    Thinking about it properly...if we sent them off and they didn''t learn any proper knowledge for real life in our world they would be in trouble no matter where they were. They needed to go to a proper school. We had plenty of smart people who could teach the kids both game and real world things. "I think Donny is right. But it should be the children''s choice who they want as their master."


    "What if we don''t want to be somebody''s master? I''m only 19 myself, you guys can''t expect me to take care of a teenager." A dark skinned young human from the third circle called out, but he did not lookmlike an ass who did not want to help, more like, well, an insecure 19 year old.


    "Young adults are not mature enough to look after teens. Somebody taking an apprentice like that should be at least around 30. If a kid wants to be adopted for real we''ll need volunteers for that, as well."


    "Okay, so, kids younger than 16 have to get a master or apply for adoption. If nobody wants to adopt them they have to get a master either way. Said master has to provide all necessities and raise the kid. If someone was asked by a kid and wants to refuse... then our psych advisor will have to take care of the problem." Rattle summarised our decision.


    "So, what about the kids over 16 and all other homeless guild members?" Somebody called out.


    Cassandra to my left got up to get people''s attention, flaring her leathery wings. I did wonder why she had come in her Vamp Lord form. "The low levelled ones are almost always noobs. We need some kind of training facility. They should also be allowed to ask people to become their mentor, but it should not be mandatory for the mentor to accept in this case!"


    Ah, she said mentor, not master. That was smart, I thought as I nodded to show my support. "I am the headmistress of an academy not far from here. We could build a couple more buildings and integrate the low levelled ones into the general population while also teaching the...uh...the Skyforge natives more about science or whatever else we can think of! If some people would agree to teach there that is."


    "With a mixed Academy we could help prevent future discrimination. Student exchanges are an important element to strengthen friendships between nations, so it should work for our case, too." Aurelie helped me push my idea forward, which was nice.


    In the end everybody agreed, though for some reason the master-apprentice pairs were going to move to my academy, too. At least that way the teacher problem could be solved at the same time without further trouble.


    After that there were lots of boring discussions about investments and trading agreements, but that stuff had nothing to do with me. Well, maybe it had since sometimes the names of my territories came out, but I had already forced myself to get an MBA in the real world and come to the conclusion that I rather disliked the business world. So why would I involve myself when the merchants were happily making plans on their own?


    The only things I did get were that though our country needed a bunch of new regulations it was going to be fine as well as that the info about the outside world was going to be discussed next. Finally!

 Two Ladies and a Guild learn about the world

    The one who stepped onto the stage was Formless.


    As a tropical elf with her chameleon skin and the webs for swimming between her fingers and those strange milky eyes she looked less human than most orc characters. Her build had optimised the thief build for the race, but when it came to guild battles her fraction mostly acted as spies, unlike Cassandra who led the Assassins. The skills were not that different really, it was just that the play style was so different that it made sense to make two separate groups.


    Anyway, Formless took a crystal from Guardian and a video of the countryside showed up, with some of our air corps showing up around the edges occasionally. There was the ex Holy city Cassandra turned into her headquarters, the golden plains where large farms and huge fields were prevalent, the mountain ranges where we went dragon and gryphon hunting.


    "As you can see our territory is here, including all the...uhm...population. Wild animals and other creatures, including ruins full of undead and cave systems as well as other dungeon areas we checked are still where they used to be. Respawning has apparently ceased for wild animals, even the magical types, while undead reassemble themselves after a while. We have only tested this in three low level dungeons so far, but our plan is to watch these three caves for future development." Formless started her speech before the backdrop of scenes from the raids.


    "Several low level members we took with us have experienced level up when they went to sleep after these three experiments. One person died due to carelessness, but revival with a spell worked as usual, no loss of experience. So aside from respawning enemies and the lack of a status window game mechanics seem to remain largely intact."


    There was a general sigh of relief at that bit of info. After all, nobody would want to go adventuring if there could be death rates all of a sudden.


    "We are in contact with several leaders among the population who requested meetings with their rulers, but as far as we could see they have begun solving problems independently as well. I would suggest we keep these Skyforge natives unter surveillance and ensure friendly relations since, as independent personalities, their power is not inconsiderable in some cases."


    Voices exploded everywhere around us at the realization of what that meant. The NPCs of Skyforge were a pretty mixed bag. The mountain hunter villages could have average levels above 300, some elite units in kingdoms we never paid much attention to had levels around 600 while a few special NPCs had been divines or real high level characters. There were no raid bosses in Skyforge, but my academy had several Professors at level 900. Compared to me and quite a few others in this roo that was not that strong, but...the rest of the guild? And if one took our whole territory into consideration...we had kind of been collecting territories. There had to be hundreds of thousands in the lower high level range! My brain supplied details regarding my personal territories and the powerful ones that belonged there...um.


    Setting aside the fact that I suddenly far too much about things I had not had any clue about until a short time ago...could I abdicate and shove the responsibility to somebody else?


    I looked at Aurelia. Aurelia looked at me. Then we glanced at Guardian.


    Victoria, Witchchild, Aurelia and me held about 90% of our territories. By the way, to make the roleplaying factor more interesting every territory had to have an owner, the guild itself could not own them. That was make betrayals and such a thing, spice up the political aspect. Never happened to us after most territories had been transferred to us girls from the guild leadership, which was why we kept doing it until long after Guardian and Donny had calmed down, but...what were we supposed to do about them now?


    Taxes had always gone to the guild with Guardian as Administrator, yet just sitting there and waiting for taxes to come in wouldn''t be enough in a world full of real people. I had 31%, Aurelia 26%, Victoria 28% and Witchchild had 5% according to the statistic shown on the stage. The last 10% were mostly special territories such as really pretty Mountains, my Academy, Castles, small City States and other places that served as a private base or home for people in our guild when we were still playing a game.


    I had the most because just after we started Cassandra gave me almost all of hers, which was not all that much compared to what we got later. She kept the Holy City that became the ex Holy City later.


    Maybe I could give them back with interest?


    I glanced at Cassandra and...er...no, she was glaring at Victoria already. I had apparently been slower than some others.


    The buzz in the background calmed down when Formless whistled like a shepherd''s boy.


    All eyes were on her, with only a few whispered discussions in the background.


    "As I was saying, the local leaders would like their heads of state to get in contact. The current ownership structure is a mess so we will need to swap some of them around and restructure to make things more convenient."


    Formless pointed towards the map projected into the air on the stage. It was a map of our territories.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    There were blue patches, green ones as well as red ones and a few black pieces. White points were spread around everywhere, especially along beaches, in the mountains and in secluded valleys as well as along rivers and several spots in the desert.


    "Territories with less than 25.000 inhabitants, which means all the white parts, can stay with the owners who have them now we believe as those are mostly home bases. Now...Witchchild, nothing against you but...do you want to keep your counries?"


    The bronze skinned human mage, specialised in conjuring, shook her head quickly.


    Formless nodded at her, then turned to the three remaining girls among the guild leaders with lots of territories...I kind of wished this did not include me.


    "In that case I would suggest we use the geographical layout to split our lands into three parts, with all individual territories in a sector going to one of our queens. At the moment have one very large island and one that''s slightly smaller. The small one should go to Aurelia...uh...why are you called Aurelia suddenly?"


    Formless stood on the stage with a puzzled expression for a second before he blinked, shrugged and continued. Nobody else really reacted. It was just a name. Weirder things had happened.


    "As I was saying, the smaller Island should go to Aurelia since the majority of the population consists of dark elves."


    The smaller Island lit up silver. Small was relative though. Considering the size...it was about as big as Russia. Skyforge had billions of players and nobody wanted dungeons full of other players and pretty landscapes with thousands of people running around looking for the last remaining fox before they respawned. So the game was massive, with lots of uninhabited or sparsely settled landscapes. There was only one server for the whole world so of course it had to be big.


    "The second Island is about three times as large. Its inhabitants are of many different races and the political landscape is a wild mix of nomadic clans, medieval style kingdoms, merchant oriented city states and more. My suggestion would be to give the steppes, sparsely settled coastlines, mountains and deserts..." The parts that were the closest to the other island, as well as the desert in the middle of the huge island and quite a bit of the land in the east and north lit up. About two thirds of the land. That should be mine then? If so that would be great. There weren''t that many people there. "...to Victoria since her beast tamer class and her dragon rider units would be ideal to get around in the terrain."


    Damn.


    "The heavily populated but far more civilised environment of the remaining lands has a lot of high elves in higher social positions since the race tends to be at the center of culture, with architects, artists, mages and other similar occupations being prevalent. A high elven queen who is a divine enchanter would therefore be easier to accept as a ruler for the local population, I believe."


    Yeah, well, that was well thought out for something they had thrown together within a day, but...really?


    "The designated queens will just be representatives for the guild there, so don''t look at me like I just killed your puppy."


    Thank god!


    "I would have sicced my bees on you if you told me to play ruler for the rest of my life around here." The sweet voice was melodious and pleasant enough that people nearly missed what she said. Victoria''s voice had apparently changed as much as several others, but hers seemed to be influenced by her skill.


    The following votes had most in favor of the new structure, so the three of us had to give in. It was just showing our faces on occasion, after all. There were lots of people among our advisors and other guild members who were mostly civ game addicts and played Skyforge only on occasion so throwing that problem on them seemed a prety good idea.


    "I will put up descriptions of the kingdoms somewhere around here and let people who want to help develop the places sign up for the management teams tomorrow!" I did not waste time to get rid of the responsibility, of course. I really didn''t want to end up as an eternal project manager. I would rather enchant items and take a look around this new world. "That should be okay, right Guardian?"


    "Good idea. The country management teams can work with the overall economic and social development team to ensure efficient government in out territory in the future." Guardian seemed pretty happy with it, so another vote was called and the new structure accepted.


    And then, finally, the new world!


    Formless took a new crystal and projected the view of a tropical island with indistinct shapes in what appeared to be hollow trees used as boats, pusged ahead with long sticks around the coast. The dragon flew closer to reveal human like people. They looked different from those in Skyforge however. Softer and rounder in their features.


    Next there was a larger piece of land. Whether it was a large Island or...well our Islands were essentially as big or bigger than continents in the real world. Anyway, the larger piece of land seemed uninhabited at first glance. Wild animals were abundant in a thick rainforest, but if there were settlements or dungeons then this quick survey would not reveal them yet.


    "This is what we found to the southeast. Our air forces had to turn around soon after to return to our territory in time."


    Next, a vast field of ice filled the video. They had found a settlement of people living in tents made of some kind of leather or something similar there. They, too, were fishing. The picture moved further along the icy coast. It suddenly ran into a part where land continued in an L shape. Flying south again a needle forest became visible after vast, nearly lifeless planes with nothing but animals resembling bears, wolves, elks and smaller things that were not discernible from the distance. A little further south, where forest, coast and mountains met, there was a small fortress made of stone and wood, with something resembling vegetable gardens and what might be small, crooked fields in a different season.


    "These are giants. One of our thieves got close enough to take a better look."


    Indeed, the perspective changed. Judging by the way things looked like a normal human would only go to their knee. The little fortress itself as well as the trees in the forest, prey the had caught and some winter apples the giant ate made the size of the giant seem like a normal standard in this part of the world.


    That had been the north and northwest. Next...


    The east contained more giants. It might even be the same continent. We got to see giant farming communities, cities and something that looked like a wizard''s tower. Over there we were the small ones, it seemed.


    "This was all we have found so far. The rainforest earlier was of a size that would suggest everything in this world is far larger than we are."


    So here we were the little folk. That was...a strange thing to realise.

 Two Ladies and a Guild get a clue

    A discussion about what being tiny might mean followed however... without actual details there was no way to come to any conclusions so the matter was set aside for the moment. Formless and her spies would conduct an in depth investigation first.


    After we had been released Aurelie and me attempted to sneak out and disappear, but Guardian must have guessed our intentions. Barely on our feet we were confronted by a wide, sinister grin showing undaunted will...okay, that was a lie. But Guardian did stand in front of us with a smile.


    "My Ladies, please follow me. The reorganization of our territories is an urgent matter." Well, he was right.


    Thus, with a slightly stiff, lopsided smile on my face and a patient expression on Aurelie''s we followed him, with Witchchild and Victoria coming as well.


    Maybe we just hadn''t noticed before, but Victoria''s steps sounded different. Our own did, as well. Watching Guardian walk from behind was a bit like watching a dancer. Apparently our stats had more effects in daily life than I had expected. By all rights Guardian, Formless, Rattle and most others should have been dead tired after celebrating all night, but Guardian looked pretty fresh and lively up close. That might be their endurance...


    Once again we did not jump over any tables to leave the room. Instead we jumped onto the stage and left through the hidden door. It looked like nothing but a wooden wall, but it was really a spinning secret entrance. We had originally planned this hall as a theatre, after all, so a side entrance for actors had been important. Behind the door we found ourselves in the waiting room, a simple room with a bench along one wall and another door, this time a visible one. That door led to the ground floor terrace, bordering on the inner garden area.


    We did not bother following the winding paths through the artful artificial garden but activated our flight amulets to fly towards the center, where a rainbow crystal floated in the air above a white stone bowl.


    We landed lightly around this crystal.


    "If you would, please." Guardian bowed, his open hand pointing towards the crystal.


    Well, we were familiar with this artifact. But my new eyes looked at the central territory crystal and read the information. There was too much of it for me to analyse it all at once, but I got the most important points. With the right crystal, a suitable essence and a lot of time I should be able to replicate this, I thought.


    A light tug on my sleeve reminded me of the matter at hand, so I postponed any experiments and study. Instead of spacing out I placed my hand on the crystal, next to the other girls'' hands. We initiated the transfer.


    Fortunately Guardian knew exactly where each territory needed to be. From the list he read the countries in alphabetical order, then told us who it should belong to. That process took quite a while, but in the end the mess we had collected was split between us.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.


    Once we finished we had to write down the things only the rulers knew since I had suggested putting up introductions to the countries.


    That part took even longer...we relocated to the library, too.


    We included population, specialty products, remarkable occupation facts, economic and cultural overviews as well as political structure information in the introductions.


    Witchchild was allowed to leave after handing over her territories, but she helped despite that. Though the info about the territories we took over had been added to our memory we did not lose the info on those we had given up.


    "By the way..." Victoria looked up from the introduction she was writing just then. "Why are all of us Queens female, divines and elves? We could have chosen other people..."


    "That is obviously because we are the little folk now. The little folk is always ruled by tiny, glowy women. Didn''t you know that?" This sentence, said in a deadpan voice, made us giggle.


    But...honestly, why had things been split up that way? It had been over so quickly, with not alternatives presented or suggested by anybody, as if this was what was supposed to happen in everybody''s opinion except ours. It had gone way too smooth. Shouldn''t at least the civ addicts have tried to get their hands on their own countries?


    "Please, don''t joke around. The restructuring plan went through so quickly I hardly had the leisure to think about it, but...aside from the fact that the three of us wouldn''t try to go independent with this power, or care about it at all, why were we chosen?"


    Even Victoria seemed to agree as she set her brush aside to join the discussion. "Why didn''t you take it all? You''ve effectively been playing emperor for years, after all."


    "I kind of felt there was a need to make the three of you our Queens, at least in name, you know." Witchchild interjected. "Like it was the only proper course of action. And you did not really protest either..."


    There was a thoughful silence for a moment. I, as well, had kind of felt like things ought to be that way. Like this was part of why I was in this place. Things had been too hectic earlier, but thinking it through now...my first reaction should have been to protest. I was not someone who kept her mouth shut if I disliked something, unlike Aurelie who tended to endure quietly. But there had not even been a real discussion, just acceptance. Like this was a transition phase during which things just had a little more to go to fall into place properly.


    Guardian looked at us, his eyes wide, mouth slightly open as though he had been about to say something only to find that he did not know how to express what he was thinking. It took a few moments before he took a deep breath and his face returned to normal, if puzzled. "I didn''t even think of that..."


    Maybe it was because he had been playing at being our servant for years? But then why was Witchchild excluded? She did not use our guild palace as her headquarter so she had less territories, but why exclude her from the Queen position completely?


    Somehow...somehow I got the feeling that Witchchild was not supposed to be a Fairy Queen. She should be more like a wild fairy showing up wherever she wished. She had been doing that for ages anyway. Her skill trees Conjuring and Destruction fit pretty well for that kind of lifestyle.


    "It''s kind of weird if you think about it." Aurelie sighed. "But...we''re PCs from a game in a different world now. What about this whole situation is normal?"


    Well, it was a moot point now. "Let us just finish these overviews for now." Guardian suggested. Thus we went back to work.

 Sassas Questline derailed

    On a beatiful patch of fertile soil, with her goats eating the wild herbs of the mountain all around her, there was a little girl. The girl''s name was Sassa and she was a needlessly beautiful little thing. In fact, she had the same looks as the third and supposedly youngest daughter of the baron ruling five villages and a copper mine on the mountain.


    If this was still a game then people would have called this a radomly generated estate questline, one that usually started with the lost noble child''s death. After Sassa''s death the player would have taken up the duty of taking revenge and eventually ended up taking over the mountain with the next higher noble''s consent.


    With freedom of thought and a personality of her own as well as a basic outline of the quest content things...changed. Sassa changed.


    Here she was, a level 1 character, 8 years old with nobody to care for her but an old woman who took her in as a baby. By this point said old woman had already been killed and Sassa was standing there, waiting for the player chasing the killer to succeed, find the order to kill her and start asking questions regarding her whereabouts. Then a servant of the baron would come to finish the job just when the player was close enough to see her die. Sassa knew this because she was a quest character, but the questline for the estate would only be triggered after her death. So far only the quest ''catch the old woman''s murderer'' had become active. Estate quests were always chain quests, but Sassa knew hers only until the point where she died.


    Thus there she was, on the little patch of green grass far away from anyone or anything that might save her. The player and the killer were still in the village. The player had to catch the killer first before the Baron''s men would come for her.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    She had a small knife, a silver necklace that was proof of her identity as the Baron''s daughter, a water container, three copper, an apple and the rags she was wearing. And her goats.


    And now she had a head to think things through.


    Sassa, level 1, eight years old, got up and started leading her goats to a village she had visited before. Granny''s nephew lived in that village.


    She arrived two hours later under the curious gazes of a few villagers. Visitors who were not warriors or mages or something similar were highly unusual. Determined, she led her goats through the village that consisted of only a dozen houses until she arrived at the clay hut where Granny''s nephew lived. After knocking she opened the reed door and looked inside. The man she had been looking for, a bow maker and general purpose wood worker, looked up.


    "Granny died. They''re looking for me...I can''t take the goats." Sassa said, to which her Granny''s nephew grunted.


    "You know how to shoot." He offered her a finished bow, three dozen arrows in a shoulder bag and two silver. Though slightly disappointed, Sassa knew he would not be able to protect her. Twins were seen as bad luck in this part of the mountain range due to some trouble twin sons had caused because they were so similar nobody could tell who the real older brother was.


    She doubted they would bother chasing her once she left this mountain. The Baron only had about 150 peasants under him, after all. And she was the fourth daughter that might have married a craftsman or village head''s son if she hadn''t been a twin and her sister the Count''s daughter''s playmate.


    So Sassa took the bow, arrows and money and left, heading deeper into the mountain range, away from her father. First of all she would start hunting rabbits and foxes. And later, well, at least she would survive longer than intended.


    It was a shame neither the Baron nor Sassa had ever bothered to ask what the people in the Count''s territory or the rest of the world thought about twins.

 Sassas Questline: Intermission snippet 1 - Donny

    It was not forbidden. Maybe that was an oversight, but nobody said that only the spies were allowed to go to the new world outside their territory. The only rule about the outside was that one had towear a permanent invisibility tool and avoid being seen because...world full of giants.


    But nobody said that he was not allowed to go. So if he didn''t tell anyone nobody would find out!


    Thus after the conference ended he put on his invisibility earring, jumped over the first circle to land on the second circle table, gave the bowl of apples a good kick and raced towards the stables.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    He thought he heard somebody shout something involving Donny, catch and spanking, but that was probably an auditory hallucination. Due to long experience he was fairly familiar with those imaginary shouts. If said imaginary shouts got a hold of him he would certainly be in trouble, so Donny ran even faster.


    Rpg endurance was amazing, Donny decided, more than happy to have chosen a class with lots of it, though some more speed would have been helpful. Fortunately some kind Soul had left his giant eagle at the takeoff range next to the stables. Bless Cassandra for her foresight. Donny did not have to wonder who it was because Cassandra was always happy to help when it came to mischief, though sometimes she seemed to know what was going to happen before the maker of mischief even got the idea for said mischief.


    Thus certain idiot took off to explore the new world without permission.

 Sassas Questline leads to the fox forest

    If the archer had had more strength the arrow might have made a whistling sound and pierced through the tree, but as it was...there was a thump and then the arrow got stuck in the tree next to the one with the circle carved into its bark.


    Sassa stood about 20 feet from the tree and took the next arrow from her shoulder bag. Feet apart, one step forward, arm straight, pull with your whole body...the instructions she was familiar with played again inside her head as she tried again. Her right arm and shoulder burned after being abused in excessive training, but Sassa was all too aware that a hunter who couldn''t even shoot well was a disgrace. This time she managed to pull the large bow about a quarter of the way back before her bleeding fingers gave out and the arrow flew off in the general direction of the tree she was trying to aim at.


    A real hunter''s bow was not like those little things she had been playing at shooting with at all. This was an adult''s bow, as large as Sassa herself and with enough power to take down deer or wolves. If one had the strength to pull it. And Sassa did not have that strength just yet.


    Blood dripped off her fingertips, but Sassa did not give up. With determination she rubbed a paste of herbs on them, waited for a few minutes while she attempted to loosen her muscles, then washed it off. Her fingertips were a little rougher, had a thicker layer of calluses and haad healed perfectly. This level of Alchemy was something any child in the mountains could do, though it only worked on shallow wounds and merely accelerated the process. But expensive remedies would not have given her the additional calluses or scars she needed to pull her bow, so there was nothing better for this kind of injury.


    Once she was ready she took the large bow once again and attemted to pull it using her whole body. Again, she barely made it a quarter of the way, but to get enough optional points upon level up she needed this kind of patience.


    All she knew of the world were the first few instances of her Questline, a few happy memories with Granny and basic knowledge regarding skill trees and level ups. Granny was gone, but Sassa had never actually met her, not as a person with self awareness, so the memories seemed distant and artificial. No personality settings had been given to her, who was never supposed to live long either, not even one of the fifteen standard child personalities since, unlike other NPC children, the players could neither buy, kidnap, hire nor adopt her.


    Since she had fled from her Questline there were only the wish to survive and the basics of character growth in her head. Since the player was supposed to find her Grannys nephew to ask about her there was also a setting that he had taught her a bit of trap making and archery. It was all Sassa knew.


    So she pulled her bow over and over again until all the arrows were either stuck in the trees or somewhere in the bushes. Losing those arrows would be terrible, so Sassa pulled the arrows from the trees first, carefully counting them, before she searched the bushes bit by bit, getting scratches on her bare arms and face, but aside from all the arrows she also found a few berries and two edible roots in addition to a wild onion. That was good because it meant that there was no village close to her. Around villages such good things were found quickly. But here she found several edible things so close to each other no villager would have overlooked it.


    Humming happily for once Sassa pulled out her knife and cut flexible twigs from the bushes, all of them longer than her arm. She might not know much about woodworking or traps, but a fish trap was easy enough even for a child.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    When she had two arms full of material she went towards the big tree she had found, munching on the roots and onion and berries raw as she went. They were dirty, but since Sassa had never known of hygiene or cooking and never actually eaten anything except an apple before coming to the forest she saw nothing wrong with this.


    Once she arrived at the tree that was wider and older than those around it she placed her twigs down on the ground and climbed up with her bow and arrows on her back. Halfway up there was a little hollow in the tree, just large enough for Sassa. She had cut a twig nearby off so she could hang her bow and shoulder bag there before she climbed back down to get the twigs bit by bit, like a squirrel going up and down repeatedly.


    Once she had everything she needed she chose the longest and strongest twigs and started working on the outer part. It was a simple cone, bound together at one end, strengthened by weaving several thin twigs around between the thicker ones, ending in a circle she kept open for the moment.


    Next, she did the inner part. It was merely another cone, but open on bot sides, which took her several tries. The narrow end wouldn''t hold until she took all the thinnest twigs and made a mess of things, but it held well enough after it had been wrapped into a weird triangular shape. The last part was easy. Sassa placed the small cone into the larger one, wove a long twig around and around and then...made another mess of interwoven twigs until it looked very clumsy but held without shifting.


    Maybe fish traps were not as easy as expected without good twine, a wheel and proper tools.


    But she made it.


    Happy about the result, Sassa climbed down and ran to the lively stream not far away. She wedged her trap between two large stones and put several more stones behind it to make sure it didn''t drift away. She even pulled and rattled it a bit to make sure a caught fish wouldn''t just push it out from between the rocks.


    But it should hold. Rather, Sassa hoped that it would.


    It had been her second day as an independent being and Sassa looked at her work proudly. Her stomach was full, a fish trap finished and her archery would surely improve soon, as well. Now she just needed to get her hands on a blanket somehow. The last night had been cold and this night looked no better. It was going to be her project for the next day to find a way to keep warm somehow.


    But just then Sassa could feel her aching fingers and feet and muscles from shooting and climbing and making the trap. Determined as she was, she was still only Sassa, an 8 year old girl, level 1.


    That was the last day of being that.


    When she closed her eyes she could choose to level up. It was her first time seeing the options and Sassa had no idea what a hunter needed. Strength, agility and dexterity offered 5 points should she choose to improve them. Speed would give 3, just like mind and vitality. Assuming that more status points would be better, since she could only choose to improve three stats, Sassa selected strength, agility and dexterity.


    She also found out about her own status values. An NPC child at the age of 8 had only 4 points in each stat, but she had gained 2 bonus points in mind, 3 in strength, 5 in vitality, 1 in speed, 3 in dexterity and 4 in agility. Sassa had no idea how.


    There was no history to check and she had nothing but the most basic information, nobody to ask or any book to read up on how statusmpoints worked. But she did understand that somehow she managed to take the right path.


    When she woke again her little body had changed. Sassa felt a rush of power, of excitement, as though she could take on the whole world. It faded quickly, but that first taste was enough for an emotionally inexperienced blank slate to form the feverent wish to feel it again.


    Sassa wanted that high, that feeling that made her truly believe that if she just wished for it she could have flown up, high into the sky.


    She wanted it, needed it, that rush that made her feel so alive.

 Two Ladies and a Guild take a different path

    My eyes were stuck on the thing I had created. It was a crown. A crown made of lesser landstones, green jade in this case. These landstones did not count as crystals because they were subject to another stone. Still, I had taken the free landstones of a lake with several small islands and made a crown. There was a cumulative knowledge enchantment on it. And it was bound to the lake.


    Just sitting here with my newest creation in my hands I could feel a weak, gentle pull towards that lake.


    In game something like this never happened. There were no cumulative knowledge enchantments. And nobody could actually do anything with a landstone. You could just live there, allow others in and use the resources. Making an artifact bound to the land was not possible.


    The little lake was not that special aside from the fact that it was really pretty, so I had no desire to live there. I got a feeling like I ought to, but then Aurelie had had a feeling like she should go and live on the other island, the dark elven one. Honestly, leaving my cushy quarters and my crafting equipment? This traveling to another world might have made me a bit restless, but I had never been a country side kind of girl.


    Aurelie had never been one to enjoy being among uneducated, arrogant brutes like those dark elven tribes either. Plus we''d have to separate if we did do those things and...no. Just no.


    What to do with this crown though? I felt like making one before, but now it seemed kind of silly.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    I had a lot of silly inventions and creations, of course. Though it felt somewhat wrong, probably because I made it using landstones, I threw it into my assorted goods drawer. It was not really a drawer, of course, it was a space pocket, but since it was one of many such cupboards in my workshop and contained nonsensical but not entirely useless stuff I called it my assorted goods drawer.


    As soon as the crown had disappeared in the space pocket the tugging stopped.


    Good.


    Satisfied with myself I pulled the crown I had put on my head for whatever reason out of my hair. It kept stinging in my scalp because I wasn''t used to the needles that were supposed to keep it from falling off. It wouldn''t budge at first, probably becausecI had wedged it in like the noob I was, but when I loosened the Braid around my head I managed to untangle it.


    Crowns were kind of uncomfortable, really.


    Once I had gotten rid of the thing I grabbed my sewing kit that had not been used for years, several bolts of soft satin cloth and silk thread, a pillow and my favorite music crystal. Thus armed for a battle called sewing I invaded the enemy''s stronghold.


    Aka I went to Aurelie''s chamber to force her into an evening of sewing nightgowns and underwear.


    Traipsing down the stone stairs I saw a lot of servants hurrying here and there. My arms were getting kind of heavy from carrying the cloth, too. I could have used a space bag, but that wouldn''t reduce the weight at all. So when I saw a familiar face I jumped at the opportunity. This was surely a strong little girl!


    "Wait! Help me with these, please?" I called out to her without hesitation, since helping two queens was probably a more cushy job than whatever else she might have to do.


    The girl, the one from the first night, stopped immediately to do this strange not quite kneeling thing the servants serving food at the conference had done. I was pretty sure that Guardian was behind that one. As long as nobody wore maids clothing with mini skirts and revealing necklines it should be fine to let him play around a bit.