Date: 2022-03-31T18:00:00+00:00

Eternal Dominion book 5

Interference

Bern Dean

Bern's Books LLC

Copyright © 2022 Bern’s Books LLC

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

Cover design by: ebooklaunch.com

Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Morning, October 15, 2266.

ED year 1, day 272.

Evening, October 15, 2266.

ED year 1, days 273-274.

Morning, October 16, 2266.

ED year 1, days 274-275

Evening, October 16, 2266.

Morning October 17 to Morning October 18, 2266, and ED year 1, days 276-280.

ED year 1, day 281.

Evening, October 18, 2266.

ED year 1, days 282-283.

Morning October 19 to Evening October 21, 2266, & ED year 1, days 284-290

ED year 1, days 291-292.

Morning October 22, 2266.

ED year 1, day 293.

Evening October 22, 2266.

ED year 1, days 294-295.

Morning October 23 to Evening October 24, 2266, and ED year 1, days 296-299.

ED year 1, days 300-301

Morning October 25 to Evening October 27, 2266, and ED year 1, days 302-308.

ED year 1, days 309-310

Morning October 28, 2266.

ED year 1, day 311.

Evening October 28, 2266.

ED year 1, days 312-313.

Morning October 29, 2266

ED year 1, day 314.

Evening October 29, 2266

ED year 1, days 315-316.

Morning October 30 to Evening October 30, 2266, and ED year 1, day 317.

ED year 1, days 318-319.

Morning October 31, 2266.

Thanks!

Preview

Afterword

Morning, October 15, 2266.

Alex was driving to the morning run as he would on any other normal day, only one detail was different. Instead of three people in the car, he had five. A pair of redheads sitting and smiling at Alex in his rear-view mirror were the new additions. Ava and Mia Quinn had come with Nantan as part of an official visit from the workshop Abysses End. They were two of the four young members that had come along for the visit. Only they were supposed to all be on a plane right now headed back to the Abysses End office in Dallas where they were based out of to play Eternal Dominion (ED) for the workshop. Instead, they were waiting at the car when Alex, Nicole and Sam went to leave that morning. After getting part of their story and learning that they would be renting an apartment in the same building as Alex, they had insisted that they join them for the morning run each day. Alex knew that Abysses End had sent the twins to seduce him into joining their workshop, thereby securing the first guild bonus they coveted due to the 1.5 multiplier to the member cap it provided. His guild was the only one with the bonus and every major workshop wanted it. However, Alex was not going to let any of them have it. He would sooner remove it from ED all together than allow another guild to secure it. The only issue was that he knew the major workshops were never going to give up and so his guild needed to grow stronger faster than any other guild if he wanted to have any hope to survive.

Sam and Nicole had already put a plan into place to use the twins that Abysses End wish to seduce him with to keep any more girls away. The only issue that Alex had with it was that it required it to appear to those not in the know that he was dating them along with Sam and Nicole. He already felt overwhelmed with just the two girls, even if he had fallen in love with them in this life. He could still remember how he had ended up alone after several failed relationships in his last life before awaking 20 years younger on the day ED launched. With his new lease on life, Alex had wasted no time in correcting the mistakes he made the first time around. He had ensured that his friends stuck together to help each other grow and thrive in game. As things stood, they were all over level 60 in game while most guilds didn’t even have any level 50 players yet. Still, Alex had many more things to do before his guild was safe and he needed to make sure they were ready for when tier 5 players were commonplace. He knew that was when all hell would break loose at that point, as travel between continents would be easy so long as you had the coin to pay for the teleportation gate use. Workshops that were currently spread thin would consolidate and remove their competition from their selected strongholds. Even major workshops would be destroyed during this phase of ED as they each vied for dominance with each other.

With these thoughts all rushing through his head, Alex pulled up to his parents’ house where everyone still met for the morning runs. Taking a deep breath, he stepped out of the car ready for the onslaught he knew was coming. When the twins came into view his sister Anna’s reaction didn’t disappoint as her mouth was open wide, while he could see his mom glaring at him. His father was massaging his temples as Dan looked confused and Jessica looked downcast. Lauran just shook her head as Fred and Amanda seemed not to care or be surprised.

“I thought they were leaving yesterday?” questioned Dan

“So did I, but here they are,” sighed Alex.

“What, were they just waiting for you when you woke up?” Dan asked in confusion.

“Pretty much,” Alex responded.

“Really, that’s all you have to say?! You know that they have been all over you this last week and you just want to act like nothing is wrong! Alex you are disgusting. I don’t understand how I can be related to such a philanderer!” cried Anna while pointing her finger in Alex’s face.

“I can see you have been expanding your vocabulary sis. As for me saying more, what would you like me to say? Hey, everyone, Ava and Mia didn’t want to leave so they decided to move to the area and will be hanging around with us moving forward,” retorted Alex sarcastically.

“You forgot to add how they are intending to work their way into your relationship with Sam and Nicole. Really, it’s the details Alex. We all know that you can’t seem to keep the women away in or out of ED. Amser is going to love this,” quipped Amanda.

“Yah, that’s another call I have to make this morning. Life is great. Now, can we just get this run over with before things escalate further?” sighed Alex.

“Alex, we need to talk. I think you should join me inside with your father as everyone else goes on the run today,” Mrs. Bell stated sternly.

Alex could tell that his mom was about to lose it from the look she was giving him. Not wanting to make things worse he decided that it would be for the best to do as she said.

“Okay. Dan, take charge and lead the run. I’ll see you all when you get back,” Alex said, accepting his fate.

Alex went inside with his parents and his mom wasted no time in laying into him.

“Alex what the hell are you doing?! You know those two are just after your wealth and you’re acting like them being here is no big deal! Tell me, are they going to be joining Sam and Nicole at your apartment?!”

“Mom, please calm down.”

“Don’t tell me to calm down! I need some answers.”

“Mom, the short answer is I have no idea anymore. Yes, I am aware that they care about credits far more than anything else and that isn’t a big deal to me, and finally no, they will have their own place. Can you please calm down?”

“Alex, explain what is going on now or so help me I will force you back into your old room and never let you out.”

“Mom, you and I both know that isn’t possible anymore, but don’t worry, I will give you the rundown.”

Alex spent the next 20 minutes going over the plan Sam and Nicole made as well as how the twins would be acting like they were dating Alex when in reality he was paying them to keep other women away. His mom was unconvinced that the twins wouldn’t try to double cross him or go from pretend to real if an opportunity presented itself. Alex agreed with her and said he said a similar thing to the girls before he agreed to their plan. When everything was said Mrs. Bell was still pissed but it was at least partially directed at the twins, Sam, and Nicole as they were the architect of this plan.

“Alex, I don’t like it. I think you are all being irresponsible and setting yourselves up for a disaster,” Mrs. Bell said while looking at Alex sternly.

“Your mother is right son. You are really getting a bit too deep in this. Sam and Nicole were one thing but, then Jessica happened and I’m still wrapping my head around that mess. Now you’re going to let two more girls act like they are your girlfriends to avoid adding any more while they use the situation to profit. It doesn’t make any sense to me,” agreed Mr. Bell.

“Mom, dad, I understand, and you are likely right and in a few months I will be regretting letting Nicole and Sam talk me into this plan. I was ready to call the whole thing off and just deal with the fallout from Abysses End but they insisted we stay the course.”

“Why?” questioned Mr. Bell with true befuddlement.

“As bad as the twins are at least they came from the front and didn’t try and take me from Sam and Nicole. The next group of women may not be so nice and they worry about when that strike will come and just what kind of woman they will have to defend against. So, they decided to try and make an uneasy alliance to hopefully avoid that,” explained Alex.

“I see, the devil you know and all. Okay, I can accept that and this plan under the condition that you don’t do anything beyond kissing with the twins,” hesitantly said Mr. Bell.

“You can’t be serious!” all but yelled Mrs. Bell.

“Honey,” Mr. Bell calmly said.

“Don’t you honey me!” yelled Mrs. Bell

“Look, even if we don’t like it, what are we to do? Cut him out of our life? Not likely so as long as he is straight with us. We need to accept that Alex is an adult. Besides, even if he falls into this trap, what will happen? More grandbabies and a few more daughters-in-law?” stated Mr. Bell while looking helpless about the situation.

“Alex, you better be ready when this all comes crashing down on you. You have others who are relying on you now, don’t let them down,” huffed Mrs. Bell.

“Thank you, mom, dad, and don’t worry, I will make sure that everyone is taken care of.”

“Good, and make sure you talk with Jessica about this as well. I’m sure she is really confused right now and I don’t want her doing something she will regret again,” counseled Mrs. Bell.

“Will do,” agreed Alex.

The three of them went out front just as the group was returning from the run and Alex pulled Jessica to the side to talk. The conversation went well for the most part as she accepted that the twins were just another part of life for now. She brightened up when she learned that they didn’t know about Alex’s planned move at the end of the year. He also told her to feel free to talk about the situation in therapy if she wanted to. With a quick hug she let him go and he left with Sam, Nicole, Ava and Mia to go get them a hotel room. Once they were in the car, Ava and Mia started asking Alex about Jessica and what his relationship was with her. To which he responded that it was complicated and he wasn’t’ exactly sure himself, much like how he viewed them. The twins exchanged looks before smiling and dropping the subject. Getting Ava and Mia a hotel room at 5:30 in the morning was easier than Alex had expected and he was happy when he was back in the apartment by 6:00. He couldn’t wait to jump into ED and forget reality for a while.

ED year 1, day 272.

Xeal awoke in ED ready for a busy day. Even if it was midnight in game right now, he still had a lot to do this day. He needed to take Dyllis on a date as part of their courtship and send Casmir to train under Earl Smythe, on top of his regular tasks. He had decided that he would focus on reaching tier 5 and traveling to other continents and establishing partnerships across all of ED. Xeal was almost at level 64 and needed to reach level 79 before he could attempt his next tier up challenge. While he knew that the challenge would be simple for him, he also knew tier 5 was the last challenge before players started to have real difficulty raising their tier. It also was usually a full quest that took days or weeks in ED time to complete. Meanwhile Xeal was on the clock as he only had 118 ED days to be done with it and meet up with Geitir’s workshop leader if he wanted to keep the trade deal. The kicker was he needed other players to be able to make the trip to exchange resources if he didn’t want to continuously act as an errand boy for the foreseeable future. With these things and many more on Xeal’s mind, he went about getting things done, first by sending a message to Casmir to meet him at his mansion.

As Xeal made his way to his dining room he noticed Midnight following behind him. The catlike matagot had essentially come with the mansion and was cared for mainly by his head butler Maxwell who had served Prince Victor before semi-retiring in Xeal’s service. After giving Midnight the first bit of his midnight snack, Xeal went about looking over the reports from his guild. The fort town was coming along nicely and the guild had already started work on the battle arena that would serve as the foundation of the town. It was going to be next to the simple guild hall that was also mid-construction. When finished it would have one main arena that could seat 10,000 and ten minor arenas that could seat around 100 each. Additionally, there would be 80 training rooms designed for small groups to train together, or an individual to use one of the mirror shards to fight a shadow doppelganger. Once they were able to get everything up and running, his guild would have its first true training ground that would help hone the skills of its members with the potential to reach tier 7 and beyond. Unfortunately, with only 4,000 of the shards available, only a small part of his guild would be able to use them each day. Xeal knew that if he wanted to increase the number of top tier players further, he would need to secure more training opportunities for his guild. Xeal was going over the various options he knew of when Casmir was brought in by Maxwell.

“Casmir, thank you for coming.”

“No problem. So, what do you want me for?”

“I have an opportunity for you and your team if you want to take it. Now understand that if you take it, you will be spending most of your time in one area of the map.”

“Okay, that sounds restrictive. What is the opportunity?”

“Earl Smythe is looking for an officer candidate to train up. You would be reporting to him much like I do with the prince. The difference will be that while the prince sends me out all over the kingdom, most of your duties will be within the earl’s lands, at least before you reach tier 7 and your team is sent into the wild lands that border the earl’s domain.”

“So, I would become the subordinate to an earl. I’m not going to end up with a bunch of NPC noble ladies after me, am I?”

“I wouldn’t expect so. Depending on how prominent you become you may find yourself with a few suitors though.”

“Will this put me on the fast track to nobility?”

“It should, though you will still have to work for it.”

“Alright, why me and not Takeshi, Ignis, Amet, or any other vice guild leader for that matter?”

“Takeshi would be hindered more than helped if he took this opportunity and the rest either would be a bad fit, or don’t have the raw talent to succeed in this role. I won’t lie to you, our guild has an expert problem right now. Other than Amser, Takeshi and I, we are lacking in true top tier talent. We are making up for that with our elevated levels for now but, once we reach a bottle neck at one of the tiers, we will be in trouble. Of the players who have the talent and potential to join us, you are the only one who is in guild leadership. Taya and my friends are great, but they will never be a top player unless they have a few heaven defying opportunities. Their roles will become more administrative as time goes on as you and Takeshi will remain on the front lines.”

“So why haven’t you picked up any more vice guild leaders?”

“Times have changed. I can’t just bring players in and install them as leaders like I did with you three. Now it has to be justified, either from us absorbing another guild and keeping some of its leaders, or one of our members who have gained the recognition needed to be accepted by their peers. Believe me, I have a few in mind, but they haven’t checked off all the boxes yet.”

“Okay, so if I take this opportunity, how will it affect my role in the guild?”

“You would be the vice guild leader responsible for that portion of the kingdom. As we expand, others will be put in similar roles where applicable. Not every city or town will have a vice guild leader, let alone a guild hall. Most that do get a guild hall will only have a guild manager assigned to it. Earldoms will be the smallest that will have any vice guild leaders assigned to them. In all likelihood you will probably be in charge of the whole march that Earl Smythe’s lands fall in.”

“March?”

“It is the technical term for a marquess’s lands. Even though Earl Smythe city is the closest to the border from where he is, the land on that border is owned by one of the marquess families and his lands are a part of theirs as well. When you have met the earl’s standards, he will likely introduce you to the marquess as one of his new commanders.”

“All this nobility stuff goes way over my head. Are you sure I should step onto that path?”

“You will be fine as long as you don’t rise above an honorary viscount. At that rank very few nobles will bother with you as you have no inheritance to pass on and will hold little in the way of sway.”

“Okay, so is there anything else I should know before I leave?”

“Yes. Make sure your team learns not just how to fight, but how to be your assistants in running your region. I expect them to be able to aid you in managing the guild in the area.”

“So, what, are you going to divide the kingdom up into eights and have each of your vice guild leaders manage one of the areas with a team they build?”

“Exactly, with myself taking charge here in the capital and I will have five new vice guild leaders handle the other areas my friends would have taken as they will run our headquarters here.”

“So, as we spread into other countries, we will need more vice guild leaders?”

“No, we will only have a minor presence in any country other than Nium. At most we will need a guild manager and an outpost or two.”

“Xeal, why are you so focused on just this kingdom?”

“If I were to split our force in any significant way it will leave us vulnerable. I don’t know how much you have looked into the other 12 continents in ED and 100 countries, of which only three are on this continent. That means the average for the rest is more than eight right now, and in reality, they range from four to 12. My goal is to unite our continent and have our guild be the top player power here when it happens. Once that goal has been achieved, we can look at the other continents as something more than a market to sell and acquire goods.”

“What if the rest of us want nothing to do with a war between NPC nations?”

“Then you are playing the wrong game. Adventuring and dungeon diving are 85% of this game, but the other 15% have the potential to ruin the 85% if ignored.”

“What do you mean?”

“Let’s say war breaks out and the kingdom your guild is based in loses. What do you think will happen?”

“The NPC rulers would change.”

“Is that all?”

“What else would happen?”

“Let’s see, they would want to reward any guilds that helped them, so they would give those guilds rights to resource areas they wanted. Now your guild just lost its main source of income and your guild hall and headquarters might be seized as well. It’s the same if you have holdings in two countries when they go to war. If you don’t pick a side, you risk having both your holdings being seized, and when you do, the other side will seize your holdings. Unless you are an independent player, a country that you are based in falling is catastrophic.”

“How can you be so sure that is what will happen?”

“Casmir, sometimes you have to just accept that I do. If I am wrong and war never comes, no guilds are ruined due to the fall of a nation and everything is fine and dandy, then good. Unfortunately, I highly doubt that.”

Xeal in fact knew how wars played out, and while he was overly dramatizing the fall out slightly as most nations feared the major guilds, only minor guilds, or guilds that tied themselves closely to a losing nation like Xeal had with FAE, would be truly gutted. Still, there had been exceptions made in the past, particularly when one guild would join a nation in return for them dismantling a competitor. These wars usually turned into drawn out meat grinders as heavy losses were suffered on both sides and it was common for a third power to swoop into take advantage of the weakened nations. This had been why so many players had fled to Nium in Xeal’s last life as it was the only unified continent and it held a stance of neutrality on other continents. Xeal didn’t know what would happen once there was only one NPC nation on each continent. Would peace finally be known, or would they try and conquer other continents until all of ED only had a single ruler? Either way, he didn’t see it happening in this life any more than it did in his last life.

“I see. Sometimes I think you worry too much, but I can see what you are worried about here so I will trust you. I’ll set out this morning to meet up with Earl Smythe and start my training.”

“Thank you. I wish you the best and I expect you to become our main wild lands expedition leader when you reach tier 7.”

“I’ll do what I can.”

With that taken care of, Casmir left and Xeal finished his snack and going over the reports before leaving to spend time training with the shadow warriors from the mirror shards he kept. After he had spent several hours honing his skills, he washed off and slept for six hours before getting ready for his first official courtship date with Dyllis. Dyllis arrived just after 10:00 in the morning wearing a modest baby blue skirt and white blouse, her hair done up in a bun with a boater hat accented with a ribbon to match her skirt. Xeal was already awaiting her arrival in front of his home dressed in black dress trousers and a button up white shirt with the top button undone. Their first date was designed to be a simple but enjoyable walk in the capital that included lunch. Xeal smiled at the pair of guards dressed in street clothes that would be following them, both for the safety of Dyllis and propriety. When she was at an appropriate distance Xeal gave Dyllis a slight bow as she curtsied to him.

“My lady, you look wonderful.”

“Thank you, Sir Xeal. I must say, you look nice yourself.”

With that Xeal took Dyllis’s arm into his own and began their date. The pair talked about the little things as they explored the noble district of the capital. Unlike the other districts, the noble district had several areas designed for walks like the one the couple was on. Xeal was taking advantage of one that was close to his home for their date. After they had been walking and chatting idly for almost an hour, they came upon Maxwell who was standing next to a picnic blanket and holding a basket for the pair. Dyllis smiled when she saw the setup that had been prepared. They would be seated atop a hill that overlooked a small pond in the park where ducks were swimming. The scene was peaceful as the pair of guards took up a position on a bench off to the side while Xeal helped Dyllis sit down on the blanket.

“This looks wonderful Xeal.”

“I’m glad you approve. I thought it would be nice to do something simple as to not overwhelm you right away.”

“Oh, and what other ideas did you have that may have overwhelmed me?”

“Well, I was thinking of having a bit of a group date one of these days where you, Aalin, and Gale all accompany me on a hunt.”

“A hunt like, killing monsters? Xeal, I am much too weak for something like that.”

“Relax, we would be hunting, not battling, which for me means our focus would be on monsters that had value as food and were more around your level. Honestly, it is more of an excuse to hear you sing more. Besides, I think having you experience using your talents in fights would be a good experience for you to have just in case.”

“I see, that could be nice, though you will need to convince my father and Princess Enye to allow me to go, as both would be up in arms if something were to happen to me. My father because he loves me, and Enye because it would ruin any chance she had to court you.”

“Ah, in that case I do have one item that will give them assurances. I can guarantee that you will return so long as I still have it.”

“You’re speaking of a single use revival item as if it is no big deal. Would you really waste it on me when such things are usually reserved for the king or his top generals in battle?”

“Lady Dyllis, while I would lament the loss of the item, I would sooner part with it than you. It may be difficult, but I can find another one, while you are not replaceable.”

“I appreciate that you feel that way. Now let’s get off this topic and enjoy our picnic.”

“As you wish, my lady.”

The picnic was simple, consisting of deli sandwiches cut into small squares and lemonade that had been prepared by Xeal’s staff for them. The pair ate and chatted for a good hour before it was time to return, Dyllis to her duties at Princess Enye’s side and Xeal to his pursuit of tier 5. The walk back was pleasant and Xeal bid Dyllis farewell around 12:30 in the afternoon with a short kiss on the lips. When she drew back, she was smiling brightly at him and walked almost with a skip in her step.

Xeal quickly changed into his armor and made his way to the teleportation gate in the garrison as he prepared to take on the second task Prince Victor had given him. This task was another one that would secure border forts. This time it was for the fort on the border with the kingdom of Paidhia. The main issue that Xeal was worried about with this quest was the proximity of the fort to wild lands. He knew that it would be entirely possible for the fort to be overrun with level 200 plus monsters. The only reason that he didn’t think it would be, was due to the description of the problem he was working off. Where the fort on the border with the Habia had a shadow warrior attacking anything that came in range, this fort had a mist bank. The story that he had gotten was that the mist just appeared one day and nothing ever came out after that. The teleportation gate in the fort had just stopped working and every attempt to figure out what had happened ended in failure. Xeal remembered this mist from his last life and the fact that it had been a player from Paidhia that had cleared it in his last life. Details of just how it was done were never known, but the player in question had only been a level 75 knight at the time. Even if Xeal was over ten levels below this, he felt that with a few levels gained along the way he would be able to accomplish it as well. After all, the player who had cleared it faded into obscurity due to their inability to reach tier 7, telling Xeal that they weren’t overly skilled. What Xeal was worried about was the luck aspect that could have been in play.

The nearest city to the fort Xeal had access to was one of the starting cities, Eaglehorn. From there it would be another weeklong journey to the fort as Xeal balanced his trip with the need to level along the way. The map surrounding the fort was only a level 70 map and Xeal planned to work on reaching level 65 before he reached the fort. He knew that the first few days would be spent getting through low level areas that were worthless to him right now. The worst would be the level 50 to 62 maps that would take him time to cross, but wouldn’t provide even decent experience due to the level penalties. These penalties played a large role in forcing players to change their grinding locations constantly. It was for this reason that having access to the kingdom’s garrison portals was extremely useful as most level 70 and up maps took over a day to even reach, and once there, players could go weeks before they returned to a city. However, there were many garrisons that were near level 60 to 100 maps located on the peripheral of the kingdom. Only, FAE still didn’t have access to them yet as the prince had just given FAE permission to teleport to the border fort Xeal cleared and was building a town at. Once there, his members could transport to any city in Nium that his guild had unlocked to them, while paying a discounted fee when compared to what one of the teleportation halls would charge. It also allowed players to reach the capital and other towns before level 40, giving his guild’s lifestyle players a huge advantage as many of the best teachers were spread out across the kingdom. Xeal’s hope was that after he opened this fort up to the kingdom, he would be able to add the other forts to his guild’s portal access, thereby improving his guild’s leveling capabilities further.

Xeal went over his supplies, ensuring that he had everything he would need for his journey, and once he was sure, he stepped through the teleportation portal and arrived in Eaglehorn. Eaglehorn was a minor city alongside a river that specialized in fishing and trapping of aquatic monsters. It was also a great place for marine players to get their first taste of what it would take to live life on a ship at sea. Xeal had already set up a small guild hall in the city that was focused on these players as they would be an invaluable asset to his guild once the open seas came into play. Between harvesting the rare resources only available in the ocean and claiming the hundreds of thousands of islands that were ruled by monsters, naval players were essential. Unlike normal wild lands, building a private kingdom on an island was rarely contested by a NPC country. They were also some of the few areas that had level 100 to 200 maps that were not dungeons. Xeal smiled as he left the city and made his way into the surrounding maps at a quick pace. He kept up his pace, only slowing to deal with the occasional unavoidable fight. By the time midnight came, Xeal had reached a level 50 map and had to slow his pace as he had to be careful not to attract too many of the monsters here, as while he had a good bit of level suppression on them, they could still overwhelm him if enough of them attacked at once. With the change in environment, Xeal decided that it was a good place to find a safe zone and use an advanced return scroll to return to Eaglehorn, then teleport back to Nium and spend the night in his mansion as he still couldn’t perform a safe log out due to his elder dragon mark and the restrictions it placed on him. Still, the benefits it provided were immense, in comparison. It gave him a 10% boost to all stats and 2 extra points into his MP stat each level. In addition, all of his senses were heightened and he could tell that each level he gained, his senses were honed further. The major issues were that if he died even once, he would lose the mark, and with the log out restriction, it forced him to find not just a safe zone, but a secure location as well. Unlike other players whose avatar would disappear once they logged out, Xeal’s would remain and be completely helpless. He knew that many guilds would take that opportunity to kill him, even if it would result in the one who did it having to restart their character. Just the loss of prestige FAE would suffer from the situation would deal a major blow to them and Xeal’s aspirations. Once Xeal was safe inside his bed in his mansion, he went to sleep with the system set to log him out once his ten hours session ended.

Evening, October 15, 2266.

Alex awoke next to Nicole as she came out of her session just after him. After a quick wake up kiss, the pair made their way to the living room where Sam waited and Alex greeted her with a kiss of her own. As much as the three of them would have liked to stay in and just eat some food while talking about their time in ED, they knew they had things to do. At the top of that list was to get the twins a rental car for the week as it would be impractical to act as their chauffeur until they moved into an apartment near them. Once they took care of that, Alex planned to take everyone out to eat food and talk about more of the details of just how Ava and Mia ended up staying, and where they stood in Abysses End’s eyes. Depending on those details, several aspects of the plan would have to shift to accommodate possible actions from Abysses End’s side. Once the three of them were dressed, Sam sent the twins a message letting them know that they were on their way and they piled into their car as Alex drove to the hotel.

When they arrived, Ava and Mia were already standing out front waiting and looking annoyed as a group of four guys harassed them. The guys were wearing baggy clothes and were blocking the girls’ path to the car, so Alex got out to give them an assist. The first thing he noticed was how the men were telling them how much fun they could have and how sweet their lips were, along with several more words that were better left forgotten as they tried to get the girls to go with them. Ava and Mia both gave the men cold looks while saying they weren’t interested and that their boyfriend was on his way. This just riled up the men further with them saying they would take care of their boyfriend if he had any issues with sharing. It was then that Alex made his presence know.

“Oh, and just how do you plan on going about that?”

“Fool, get lost unless you wanna get hurt,” one of the guys threatened.

“How about you just leave the ladies alone and stop wasting my time. Then none of us have to have a bad day.”

“Dude, this guy wants to be a hero,” interjected a second of the guys.

“How cute. Too bad we don’t like heroes,” quipped the first guy.

“Yah, he better get stepping,” the third guy added.

For a moment time seemed to stand still as the guys gave Alex a second to leave while Ava and Mia looked at him in confusion. Sam and Nicole watched from the car with fear in their eyes and everyone but Alex thought he was in trouble. Then the first guy let loose a sucker punch, but Alex simply slid past it as he threw out a quick punch right to his assailant’s throat, dropping him instantly with a crushed larynx. Next, all three of his friends came at him, with guy two pulling a knife halfway out before Alex slapped his wrist, sending the knife skidding off as he stepped by to guy three, who was mid-punch when Alex grabbed his arm, sending him into guy two. While the first guy was clutching his throat and the second and third guys were untangling themselves, the fourth guy who had been quiet was mid-draw on a pistol. As the barrel came level with where Alex had been, he had ducked down and brought himself into fourth guy’s guard. Turning so his back was against the man’s chest, Alex put both his hands around the man’s wrist and hand, holding the gun out while jamming one of his fingers behind the trigger. With a full body pull, he flipped the fourth guy over his shoulder and into the second and third guys, sending them to the ground in a heap. Alex managed to come away with the pistol and now had it pointed at the three men on the ground, just as a security guard from the hotel arrived.

“Son, put down the gun.”

“Please call the police. These four men were harassing the two ladies behind me and when I went to stop them, they assaulted me and pulled this pistol on me.”

“That may be, but you need to put the gun away before you do something you will regret.”

Alex took a second to calm down. He had gone into the same headspace he did in ED when fighting. In his past life, feats like he just pulled off were normal for players who had spent several years playing ED. The quickened reaction speeds gained from playing ED had led to an explosion of skills in the world of sports. For the top players it was like the world would just slow whenever they let their adrenaline take over. As Alex calmed himself, he could see the looks on all four girls. Sam and Nicole looked scared and confused, while Ava and Mia had a look somewhere between astonishment and hunger. Taking a deep breath Alex calmed himself before stepping back and lowering the gun. A few seconds later a squad car pulled up as a pair of officers exited the car with guns out. Alex slowly placed the gun on the sidewalk and took another step back, keeping his hands where the officers could see them. One of the officers stepped forward and confiscated the pistol as Sam and Nicole came forward to stand next to Alex and the twins. The security guard told the officers that he witnessed Alex taking down the four men, including that the pistol had been drawn by one of them and Alex had disarmed him while tossing the man. Both officers looked at Alex with raised eyes as more squad cars pulled up. Over the next half hour officers took statements from each of the girls and Alex, as well as obtaining a copy of the security feed from the hotel. When asked if they wished to press charges, Ava, Mia and Alex all said they would and the officers let them know that they would be in contact. Finally, it was just Alex and the girls when Sam and Nicole both pulled Alex into a hug before both of them slapped him.

“How dare you?” raged Sam.

“What were you thinking?!” pressed Nicole.

“Sam, Nicole, calm down,” Alex responded.

“You want us to calm down? You could have been hurt, or worse, killed!” Sam all but yelled.

“Yah, that was not okay, and since when are you some sort of street fighter?” questioned Nicole.

“Look, I get it, you two were worried when I stepped in to help Ava and Mia. I’m sorry, but I would have done the same for anyone, and I didn’t think I was dealing with four braindead idiots. However, with what happened it may have actually been for the best I did as I don’t know if they would have let Ava and Mia walk away.”

“Alex-” started Sam

“Hold on,” interrupted Ava

“Alex, thank you for helping us,” cooed Mia.

Both Ava and Mia gave Alex kisses on his cheeks before stepping back and Ava spoke.

“Alright, now you two can lay into him for being dumb.”

“Yeah, we would have been fine. They knew we were on camera and it wasn’t until you showed up that they lost all thought processes,“ added Mia.

“Still, it was sweet of you to care enough to step in to defend us.”

“Stupid, but sweet,” finished Mia.

“See, even they agree that you were stupid to put yourself in that situation,” responded Sam.

“Look, I know it was dumb and it could have turned out very bad as I look back on it, I just kind of acted without thinking, okay? The next thing I knew the four guys were on the ground and everything that happened was running through my mind after the fact,” Alex defended himself.

“Alex, is this another one of those ED side effects that you keep mentioning?” asked Nicole.

“Possibly. Look, can we drop it and get Ava and Mia a car for the week and grab some food?” Alex asked as he tried to avoid the conversation.

“We can talk in the car but, no, we are not dropping this,” said Nicole with a look that said it was not open for debate.

Alex sighed as he got in the car with the four girls and drove over to the car rental store. The whole drive was full of a mix of him being told off and praised for his actions as he tried repeatedly to end the subject as he didn’t want to have to try and explain why he could do something that he shouldn’t be able to for at least a few more years. In the end they had to accept that he just reacted when the first punch was thrown and the rest was just an adrenaline rush. Once they had gotten Ava and Mia set up in a rental, Alex drove Sam and Nicole to a burger joint as Ava and Mia followed them. Once there they sat and talked some more as all four girls waged a silent footsy war under the table. Once they were full, they left and both Mia and Ava pulled Alex into a deep kiss before thanking him once again for being their knight in shining armor. Sam and Nicole wore complicated expressions on their faces as the twins kissed Alex, but both let it slide in light of recent events. On the car drive back to the apartment, both girls were silent as they thought over everything that happened. Once they were back, Alex gave each a long kiss before logging back in for the night.

ED year 1, days 273-274.

Xeal had just returned to ED and was prepping to return to his journey to complete his next quest when he received a message from Taya. She had been left in charge of organizing the lower leveled members of FAE’s grinding locations to ensure optimal resources were harvested and no area was too crowded with FAE parties. At level 33 the guild had room for almost 190,000 players. Of those players, around 40,000 were crafting focused players, approximately 50,000 were combat focused players near or above level 40, and about 100,000 were players who passed the skills test but had started playing late so they were behind on levels. Taya’s job of organizing the lower leveled players was extremely important to the long-term prosperity of FAE as most of the guild’s future mid-level leaders would come from this group once they caught up to main stream players. Her message made Xeal furious as it was about level 40 and up players targeting FAE’s lower leveled members. There had already been over 12,000 killed already and the first of the dead had just reported the attack through offline means. This was a devastating blow to his guild’s foundations as each of those players had just lost a level and gear, along with a full three days in ED time. If this continued at this rate it could cripple his guild’s base in a matter of days. From the details that had been shared, the players who had attacked were all independent players in groups of four to six. All of them easily took care of parties of over 20 tier 3 players with their tier 4 strength.

Xeal smiled bitterly as he had a good idea of who these players were and why they were taking these actions. When Eternal Dominion launched, all workshops of decent size had players stationed at every starting point to gather intel. These players were typically promising younger members who were being evaluated for leadership roles. The fact that they were still newer to the VR world meant that they could go unnoticed if needed and could be cut off without much hassle. Very few of these players actually formed guilds as to do so they had to get approval from their workshops, who would only do so if they intended to develop the area that the player was based out of. The other purpose these players often served was to hamper emerging powers discreetly and Xeal wanted to kick himself for forgetting about their existence. This was likely a coordinated effort from several workshops to keep FAE from becoming an unshakable existence before they could remove it after level 80. To make matters worse, Xeal would estimate that there were around 3,000 of these players in Nium and all of their skills should be on par or better than Casmir. Even if he had evenly leveled teams confront them it would only delay the issue and it would likely result in more losses in the long run. No, Xeal had to do something he hated and order all players to retreat. Once he had all players inside safe zones, he could have Taya put out his plan to deal with the issue. Luckily the 15,000 or so players using Darefret’s mine as their grinding and harvesting location would be unaffected. With a plan forming in his mind, Xeal postponed his quest to deal with the border fort and made his way to the palace.

When he arrived at the palace Xeal was led to a waiting room as Prince Victor was currently unavailable, but could make time for Xeal shortly. As he waited Xeal went over the various counters he would need to put in place to avoid his guild’s complete stagnation. When an hour had passed and Xeal had completed his plan and gone over it multiple times, Prince Victor joined him, followed by a maid pushing a cart of food. Xeal bowed to Prince Victor the moment he entered.

“My prince, thank you for meeting with me on such short notice.”

“Xeal, it’s fine as I was due for a late lunch anyways. Please excuse my rudeness as I eat while you explain what the urgent matter is.”

“Thank you, my prince.”

The maid set up the table in the room before bowing and leaving Xeal and Prince Victor alone.

“Now that it is just us, please drop all the formality and talk plainly.”

“As you wish. I need to get a guild fort town approved for a location near Dragon’s Heart city.”

“Oh, and just why is this so important?”

Xeal spent the next hour as Prince Victor ate explaining the situation and the importance of the area for his guild’s crafting operations. He also explained how he had been planning to build a fort there for a while but was working on the justification as he knew he needed approval from the kingdom for any projects on that scale. When the prince learned of how rogue adventurers were targeting FAE’s members he was incensed as he took it as a slap to his honor. It took Xeal a few minutes to calm Prince Victor down at that point and explain how these adventures could be seen as insurgence organized by foreign organizations outside the kingdom’s influence. When it went from an act of rebellion to a foreign insurgency the prince calmed down but gained a cold glint in his eyes. Xeal could tell this was the cold look of a conqueror who would gladly see his enemies destroyed and made an example of. The prince quickly tried to insert kingdom soldiers into the conflict to capture the perpetrators. Xeal was able to dissuade him by convincing him that doing so would send the wrong message to other guilds and adventurers. If the prince fought all of FAE’s battles it would make it too easy to manipulate events and cause the kingdom harm. Finally, the prince relented on the condition that Xeal accept some help from the kingdom in the form of some items and that his guild try and capture as many of the insurgents as possible. The prince also gave Xeal the go ahead on establishing a fort so long as the kingdom was allowed to garrison it and the expenses were covered by FAE. The prince left after that as he had to return to his daily schedule, but he assured Xeal that the fort town would be approved before the day was over and that he would ensure the paperwork made its way into his guild’s hands.

Xeal left the palace grimacing at the figure that would be needed to support the garrison and how it would affect his guild’s bottom line. If it wasn’t for the fact that Xeal knew every shortcut to gaining gold that other guilds were only beginning to scratch the surface of, there would have been no way his guild could have afforded it. Where a normal guild would only have a daily operation budget around 100 gold, Xeal was helping to prop FAE up around 500 gold a day. A large part of that came from the amount of gold Xeal earned from quests, such as defeating the shadow warrior, which he turned into raw materials from the kingdom’s market for his crafting players to turn into gear. As things stood, the crafting departments were running at a 1% profit margin currently. And those profits were being continually recycled on a daily basis into the crafters and the guild. Each crafter currently had an average of around two gold and 50 silver worth of materials invested in them each day. Of course, this meant that very few of them were making weapons and armor as all that would do is cause the guild to lose gold each day. Instead, they were making basic support items like whetstones and acid flasks. This efficiently utilized a total of around 100,000 gold a day from the guild to allow for a 1,000 gold a day as profit for the guild. The guild reinvested half to keep the cycle going and used the rest to run the rest of the guild operations. It was only thanks to the resources that were being traded for guild coins that this process could be sustained as it was. If Xeal hadn’t dumped all the gold he could into it after the sale of the first map and defeating the shadow warrior, this budget wouldn’t be possible as it was the result of over 160 ED days of snowballing the funds. Now Xeal would need to find a way to afford the extra 200 gold a day the garrisoned forces would cost, as well as the 10,000 gold it was going to take to build the fort. For the guild to be able to afford that while keeping the crafting budget increasing by half a percent each day, Xeal needed to add another 40,000 gold to the fund.

Most guilds would simply elect to lower the daily increases to accommodate the increased expenses. Xeal on the other hand knew that doing so would have a ripple effect that slowed his guild’s ability to produce crafters at an accelerated rate. This was especially true once the crafters needed to break through to the next level as a gold level crafter would need to create one unique gold item before they could advance to platinum rank. This requirement alone caused crafters to stagnate at gold rank and above as they would need to create a new item of the appropriate level to move forward. This required not just the skills of their craft, but a deep understanding of the materials they worked with. Only one in ten players who took up a craft would advance to platinum. The drop off after that was even more intense as platinum crafters was the pinnacle for normal players who didn’t have the skills needed to reach tier six in their non-crafting class. The skills needed to make unique items almost required the boosts a player received from advancing in tiers. There were always a few who managed to overcome this hurdle and reach a single rank above what was normally possible for their tier, but they were always less effective than a player who had reached the next tier as well. Still, of the few thousand players who managed to reach the top and become adamantium level crafters, less than a dozen reached tier 8. Xeal’s hope was that by forcing his guild’s crafting players to learn combat techniques and sending them into battles he could foster at least a few tier 7 adamantium level crafters. If he was lucky enough to foster a tier 8 adamantium level crafter, his guild would be set so long as they could hold onto them.

With the financial issues still on Xeal’s mind, he made his way to his guild headquarters that was nearing completion. If it kept its current pace, it would be done in a few weeks. However, he was about to reassign half of its work force to Darefret’s mine to build the fort. Unlike a guild headquarters, the fort would be quick to build the first layer as it would simply be a few towers that flanked the cave entrance to the mine and a stone wall with a steel gate. Once that first layer was in place, a second ring would be built to act as a small garrison, and after that was complete, the third layer would be walls to contain the small town that would develop around the forges in the mine. Once complete there would be room for around four or five thousand residents in the town, with plans to allow up to 20,000 residents in the area. This was to accommodate the forges once they reached full capacity and 10,000 smiths worked in them. Between that and the players who dedicate their time to pulling resources out of the kobold infested mine, there wouldn’t be much room to work with. The biggest issue that the site would face would be once the players working there passed level 150 and needed to level elsewhere to improve their skills and efficiently level. This would require a teleportation gate, which was a hard feature for any player town to obtain. Fortunately, Xeal knew where and how his guild could obtain a dozen or so of them once he reached tier 6. However, those plans would come later. For now, making the area defensible was what Xeal’s plan required.

Once Xeal arrived at FAE’s guild headquarters he found all his vice guild leaders already waiting, along with around a thousand members above level 55. It was then that Xeal gave out orders and delegated responsibilities to the players present while handing out the items needed to carry out his plan. He divided the players up into five forces to handle the five starting cities that the lower-level players were focused in. Once every player knew the plan and had left, he turned to Amser and her team who were the only ones who he had not given directives to.

“Amser are you good to help out this time? If you do, you will likely stagnate in levels for a few days.”

“Xeal are you sure this is major workshops hindering us?”

“90% sure. It could also be players who are disgruntled at our actions, establishing ourselves as this kingdom’s top guild.”

“Fine, I will give you a few logins.”

“Thanks. Now I need you all to…”

Xeal laid out what Amser and her team’s role would be in the operation and with everything set in motion, Xeal took the crafting players needed to construct the fort and left to head for Darefret’s mine.

Xeal arrived at the entrance to Darefret’s mine for the first time since the build up to the attack by Abysses End. He took a moment to reminisce about the early days he had spent here and smiled as he made his way into the cavern that was now partially developed. Almost 1,000 forging players who had apprenticed to Darefret were hard at work honing their craft. These were the members of FAE who showed the most promise of becoming true masters of smithing. All around the sounds of metal being shaped rang out and the heat from the forges could be felt radiating from everywhere. Like the first time Xeal had met the dwarven smith, Darefret was entranced in his work as he created a master piece. As a mithril level smith he was considered a master of his craft. Less than a dozen NPCs could claim to be his better on this continent. Like always, Xeal waited until Darefret finished his task and acknowledged him to start their conversation. Finally, after waiting for around five minutes, Darefret stopped and looked at Xeal.

“Xeal, it’s been a long time since ye been around. What brings ye to my forge today?”

“Darefret, I’ve come to fulfill my promise to fortify this area for you.”

“Ah, so that be why I haven’t seen ye around for so long. Ye were worried I’d be upset at ye. Ye’re good, though ye been slacking of your craft I can see. Ye need to spend some time with yer hammer and fire or yer going to lose your touch.”

Xeal could only smile at Darefret’s words as he had only taken the smithing crafting job to allow him to maintain his own gear in the field. He planned to advance it to at least gold rank eventually, but he never saw himself as becoming a true master of the craft.

“I haven’t been avoiding you per say, I have just been busy with other tasks. As for the forging, you are right, I have been letting my skills dull. I still have not grown past a simple iron ranked smith. I have no excuse for such a failure.”

“Good, at least ye’re not filling my ears with rubbish. So why else are ye here?”

Xeal went into how his guild had recently been targeted and how his plan required several extra players to be in the area to deal with the issue. Darefret laughed and joked about how it was a good thing that Xeal was building the fort. Otherwise, he would have told Xeal to pray that the fools don’t show up. He also made it clear that if Xeal kept ignoring his smithing that there would be a price to pay. Xeal knew this was his way of warning him that he would lose favorability if he didn’t raise his smithing skills. Once Xeal finished with his preparations at the mine, he placed an item the prince had given him down on the ground in a secluded spot. With that done he made his way back to his quest by using the advanced return scroll he had used to leave it the day prior. The rest of that login was uneventful and Xeal made some good progress before returning to his mansion and entering sleep mode. Xeal had expected the rogue players to be quiet for a while after all the movements his guild made. If things went how he expected, they would observe and make a plan before striking again and it would be sometime during his next login, or the one after that, when they made their next move.

Morning, October 16, 2266.

Alex, Sam and Nicole arrived for the morning run after having logged out an hour early so they could jump back into ED early in case the rogue players knew their schedule. Alex had also made sure that during his logout his guild players were in securer areas like towns, or dungeons, that had easily guarded entrances where several level 55 plus players would be on standby. Alex knew he needed to solve this issue quickly as the longer it dragged on the worse it would be for his guild as they were only operating at 85% efficiency for the players under tier 4, and less than 50% for tier 4 players. At the current rate things were going, guilds like Red Crushers would be able to close the gap that Alex had developed for his guild. To make matters worse he needed to complete his current quest to secure the other border fort to fund his own smithing progress, which would be a huge money sink. Xeal didn’t have the time to spend slowly, growing like a regular smith would to be cost effective, so he would waste gold as he crafted Items that would sell for a loss at his skill level. While it would hurt to lose the gold, it was a worthwhile trade to ensure Darefret’s favorability stayed high. If his last quest was anything to go by, he would be richly rewarded for completing any of the prince’s tasks for him.

During the run both Ava and Mia thanked Alex again for his help with everything yesterday. They left exactly what happened vague so the others thought it was just about getting them set up with a room and a car while they waited to move in. Which turned out to be on the 26th as the apartment needed to run a quick background check on Ava and Mia before they were good to move into their studio apartment. Anna kept shooting dirty looks at Alex every chance she got. Alex just shook his head at her. Lauren and Jessica passed along that the Jingong guild had started to consolidate power in the Muthia empire, laying claim to all the best resource maps and declaring that all independent players in the kingdom obey the rules they put forth. As for other guilds, they must receive recognition from them or they will be considered the same as independent players. Alex took in this information knowing full well that such actions were about to become common place. Once players started to reach level 40 en masse, the major players of each kingdom would try and assert their dominance. Red Crushers had done the same thing in Nium in Alex’s last life and they were only a major workshop. Jingong was backed by one of the largest super workshops in the world and was based out of China. They were used to ruling VR games with absolute authority by overpowering those around them. In Alex’s last life they had been one of the first super guilds to fall, as unlike other VR games, Eternal Dominion was not a place where guilds could just declare themselves the rulers of a kingdom. No, if history repeated itself, the Muthia empire would crush Jingong due to them seeing them as a rebellion. This was due to Jingong demanding independent players follow rules the empire did not enact and stating that only guilds they recognized as guilds were true guilds. As Jingong had invested 80% of their man power into the Muthia empire, they never recovered.

Jingong would serve as a cautionary tale for other major workshops as the fallout from their implosion would send ripples throughout the entire industry. Workshops would be franticly trying to secure their top players as they tried and failed to pick up the pieces and reform. Alex knew he wouldn’t be in position to participate in the feeding frenzy caused by Jingong’s complete collapse as the super workshop left a void for other powers to fill. Before the launch of Eternal Dominion only five workshops could be considered to be super tier and Jingong was the only one to fall after 20 years. Abysses End was the only one to transcend that level and start calling themselves a celestial workshop. That move had pissed many workshops off, but none could even challenge them as if they did so, their other enemies would take advantage of it. In the end, Abysses End became the dominant force in all of ED and the other three remaining super workshops maintained the status quo as chaos over took the lower ranks. Many major workshops would rise and fall each year as different opportunities presented themselves in Eternal Dominion.

After the run Alex bid everyone farewell and as they drove off, they received the message that the rogue players had made a move. Five minutes later they were back in the apartment at 4:55 and had five minutes before they could log back in, so the each grabbed some granola bars before laying down to login.

ED year 1, days 274-275

Xeal opened his eyes after returning to ED and quickly pulled up the chat to find that the rogue players were still in the middle of targeting his members. His scouts put their numbers at 500, split between 25 locations in groups of 20, just like last time. This time he had level 55 players spread out to delay these players. Unfortunately, however, due to timing, only three quarters of them were currently online. And they were spread across 50 areas. To put it simply, his teams were outnumbered and losing badly. However, they were pulling off his plan perfectly. Thanks to the fact that they were higher level than the rogue players, only a few had died as they fought a retreating battle. Looking at the reports, one of the teams had just reached the designated location where the item the prince had given Xeal was placed. Pulling out a round object that looked like an old school combination lock, Xeal spun the dial and pressed a button on its side when the desired number was selected. The next thing he knew he was standing in the middle of a battle between his members and cloaked players. Smiling, Xeal pulled out a binding item and as he did so, he leapt at the nearest enemy. It was only after the chains wound around his target that the rogue players noticed his arrival, and in their momentary hesitation, five more were caught by binding items wielded by FAE players. The fight had turned in to a hunt in the next moment as the rogue players scattered. In the end eight players were caught and Xeal had lower-level players retrieve them. Each had orders on where to take the captured players, each of which had a murderous look in their eyes when they looked at Xeal. However, they all kept quiet as they had obviously learned from Abysses End’s mistake and it was likely that if any of these players implicated their guilds it would spell the end of their gaming careers.

After the captured players were safely on their way, Xeal pulled up the operation chat and found that another group was ready for him to arrive. Xeal pulled out the dial once more before selecting the correct number for the desired location and pressing the button. Xeal had been ecstatic when the prince passed this item to him to use for this issue. While he would have to return it and compensate the prince for each transport beacon used, it was well worth it for the chaos it would cause. It belonged to a very rare class of item that allowed for teleportation without established gates that were connected. Instead, you could synchronize transport beacons, which took the form of small beads, to the central device. Once synced to one of the 50 available slots it would allow you to instantly arrive at the bead’s location, destroying the bead in the process. It was a device that you would only find royals of extremely high standing with as it was usually their escape method in case of mortal danger. If major workshops knew that the prince had lent Xeal his and he was using it to ambush rogue players they would cry blood. Xeal hopped to one battle after the next until after the fifth group that he caught, the rest of the rogue players disengaged from his guild members and fled before he could catch them. This meant that he had only captured less than ten percent of the known players. With 43 players in custody it was a decent start, though the prince would want more before he would be satisfied. Not to mention it was far from enough to do anything but delay the next raid as the rogue players formulated new plans. Luckily for Xeal he already had his next move in motion. Xeal pulled out his advanced return scroll and returned to traveling for his quest. In the meantime, 43 players sat in holding cells wondering what came next.

As Xeal continued to move closer to the border fort for his quest, other members of FAE were taking action. While the rogue players had been in conflict with FAE’s members, a total of over 1,000 lower leveled FAE players had been killed. To counter this Xeal had purchased over 2,000 single use revival items and distributed them amongst the players in the area. These were the same items that Xeal had for the expeditionary force when they were traveling to unlock Autumndale, and each cost a full gold piece, which for anyone other than Xeal was a ridiculous amount to waste on low level players. However, the perception was what mattered to Xeal right now as if he continued to let his members be killed without helping them it would make promising new players hesitate to join FAE. So Xeal bit the bullet and cleaned out half of his personal reserves to buy the revival items. Additionally, Xeal had equipped each of the level 55 members with a cheap but effective tracking item that was only available to nobles without going through a black market to obtain it. Every single player who had been engaged now had a marker on them that any players with the right equipment could track. His vice guild leaders currently had the equipment needed and were located in each of the cities that the rogue players just fled to. With a copy of Prince Victor’s authorization for detainment in hand, they were ready to round them up en masse now that they had been marked and fled back to the cities and towns that they were operating out of. Player after player found themselves bound in chains suddenly when FAE players struck. The city guards quickly investigated each instance but quickly left as they noticed the guild mark of FAE and that no players had been killed. Quickly over 200 more players were captured as the rest logged out to avoid being apprehended. When Xeal received this report, he couldn’t help but smile as his plan came together. Now with around half their numbers captured Xeal could move on to the interactions. Before that he ordered everyone to stay on high alert in case their foes became desperate, as he let the captured players stew for a while longer.

Finally, after he had been traveling for over 14 hours in game, Xeal returned to the capital and made his way to the holding area inside the basement of his guild headquarters. In front of him was just over 300 players. This login had been productive and now it was time to sweat these players. He could tell from the looks of the players that they were pissed over being unable to logout unless they hit the safety limit. Xeal smiled as not a single one seemed to have done so yet. His assumption was right and every last one of them had logged on at his normal logoff time. This meant that they had done their homework on him and his habits. Unluckily for them this was part of why he kept so close to his schedule as it would make his foes think they knew when to strike, only for him to shift things as he had done today. Now the question was how to get one of these players to give Xeal the information he needed.

“Welcome to FAE’s guild headquarters. As I am sure you all know you are not here by choice. In fact, I dare say that you would all be more than happy to kill me right now. Just as I’m sure you are all independent players who just happen to work together thinking it would be fun to attack my guild. Just as I’m sure no stakes were in play if you failed your mission as it was just for a bit of fun. I am sure you are all not really players from various workshops that were told to start in the kingdom of Nium to test out the waters here. No, I’m sure they didn’t pass down orders to work together to ensure my guild’s growth would be hampered. Finally, I’m sure none of you plan to do anything other than delete your account and start over after today. Just as I’m sure that you all know that your account is currently locked in until the prince passes judgment and you serve your sentence, or two weeks pass in reality without a judgment being given, whichever comes first.”

At Xeal’s words a complete change took over the room as each player now seemed to be giving Xeal their full attention. Smiling, Xeal looked over the list of players they had captured for any that he knew from his last life. As he did so he found several that he knew from his last life but couldn’t place which workshops they had started in as most had moved around a few times as contracts came up for negotiation and other guilds snatched them away. Finally, he had a player who was perfect, especially with the information Xeal had. Making a quick plan Xeal wrote out a list of players for him to interrogate in order as he put his target as the fifth on his list to let him sweat a bit before Xeal went for the kill. The rest of the players on Xeal’s list were players he knew from his last life and knew would become tier 7 experts. If Xeal had his way he would walk out of this situation bolstering his ranks using his enemies’ forces.

Xeal sat in a room that consisted of four gray walls and a door with lanterns hanging from the side walls. In the center was a small table with a chair on each side. Xeal currently occupied the one facing the door as he waited for his first prisoner. Furno Cerulis was an elementalist that Xeal knew in his last life had bounced from guild to guild as he kept climbing the ladder. All Xeal could remember of where he started was it was a small workshop that was barely able to even qualify to be recognized by the other workshops. Still, that was more than could be said for FAE right now as Xeal had yet to even open up an office in reality. That would change in the new year as they announced themselves to the world in January. Still, Furno Cerulis had been able to continually climb to better guilds every time his contract had expired and he was a known mercenary in Xeal’s last life. This had led to Xeal fighting with, and against, him on multiple occasions. That said, the man could be trusted to honor a contract and always was upfront about things. Now Xeal was going to work to get him to flip, a task which he didn’t have high hopes for success with.

Furno was brought in still bound by the chain trap that was used to capture him. He had blue hair that was close to a gas flame and soft blue eyes that made one think of a cool breeze on a summer day. As Xeal took in his mood he could tell that he was just ready to get this over with.

“Furno Cerulis, an elemental spell caster who seems to be part of a small workshop as I couldn’t find anything to tie you to the major players. I take it that your workshop is being pressured by a larger one to support this operation. It’s sad, really. From what I have on you it seems that you are just doing as you were told, and honoring your contract. Now I’m here asking you to do just the opposite. So tell me, am I wasting my breath on you or is there a deal that can be made?”

“You’re wasting your breath.”

“Pity. I think you would have done well in FAE. I suppose I will just have to hope you consider us when your contract ends.”

Xeal messaged the guard waiting outside to collect Furno and when the door opened Furno looked confused.

“Is that it?”

“Yes, it is. I already know what is going on and you just confirmed it to me when you shut me down.”

“I didn’t.”

“Oh, but you did. See, if you weren’t part of a workshop, you would have at least entertained my offer. Instead, you shut me down.”

“That doesn’t mean anything.”

“Furno, I believe I am a very good judge of character. I can tell that you are the type who follows the money. However, you honor all agreements you make as you believe your word is sacred. Your actions were nothing personal towards my guild, it was just business. Still, your workshop just threw you away and now your account might become crippled. It’s like they know what they have and are willing to stunt your growth to keep it in the long run. It really is a shame as I could always use a player of your talents. Though it wouldn’t be a short-term contract and it certainly wouldn’t allow another guild to poach you without giving me a chance to match their offer when it did end.”

“Who are you?”

“I’m just a player who took some chances at the launch of Eternal Dominion and came out on top.”

With that Furno was pulled out of the room as Xeal prepared for his next interrogation. Lily Iglis was a witch that specialized in frost hexes in Xeal’s last life. She had been a member of the Ice Heart workshop in Xeal’s last life but that workshop was founded five years after ED was out. It was also one of the few to survive the turbulent times that every workshop would face in their early days. From what Xeal could remember, Lily had been a founding member and was one of the few players to reach adamantium level in alchemy. Even as a tier 7 player she was at the top of the list of players you didn’t want after you as even tier 8 players would want to earn a favor from her. As she was carried in with a cold expression on her face that matched her ice blue hair and eyes, Xeal smiled.

“I apologize for the treatment. It is a necessary tactic for us to use.”

“Hmph, just say what you are going to say. I have nothing to tell you.”

“That’s fine, I don’t really need information from you. In fact, I am actually intending to try and recruit several of you.”

“Ha, you’re funny. Why would anyone want to join your shoe string organization?”

“So, you do have a major backer. Good to know.”

“Shut up. No one said anything about backing.”

“Now as for my operation being run on a shoe string well, that is a joke, right? I think while I may be a bit behind when it comes to my facilities in reality, no other guild in ED has even a fifth of my budget. Not to mention I see here that you have a talent for alchemy, add in your elevated combat standard, and you are a top tier prospect. So here is my offer. I double your pay and pay any termination fees for you if you tell me what you know about the operation you took part in and sign a contract to join FAE permanently.”

“Ha, what’s the double of nothing?”

“Really, you’re still on a trial contract? Hmm, this operation must have been your ticket in. In that case how does 200,000 credits a year sound, with a 15% increase each time you reach a new tier, starting at tier 6 and each crafting rank in your primary craft you reach starting at gold?”

“What would that max out at?”

“Just over 600,000 credits.”

“You would really pay that?”

“If you reach tier 8 and become an adamantium level alchemist I would even double that to keep you.”

“What happens if you can’t afford my services?”

“Then I violate the contract and you are free to leave the guild.”

“Alright, you have a deal, though I don’t know much as you are right, I am just a prospective recruit, so no contract here to get out of. Though there is a NDA that keeps me from talking about anything confidential, but I can still say what workshop I was a part of. If that is good enough let me see that contract to sign it boss man.”

Xeal had to keep his emotions in check as he internally jumped for joy at securing a future powerhouse permanently for his guild. If Lily knew that she could easily make over 5,000,000 credits a year with her talents she would never have been willing to sign up for a tenth of that. Still, Xeal knew that almost any player would take hold of the opportunity in front of them rather than hope for a better one. Especially when the one in front of them all but guaranteed them a stable lifestyle that was a better deal than what any other workshop would offer them. Xeal handed her a contract that had been prepared by Taya earlier in the day, after adjusting the compensation fields, for her to look over. Once Lily was satisfied, she signed it and gave Xeal the name of the workshop she had been trying out for. Xeal did some quick research and found that the workshop was a feeder for Jingong, confirming to him that the super guild was involved. This led to the question of, was the entire operation run by Jingong completely, or were other powers involved?

Once Lily had shared all she knew, she and Xeal talked about what would be expected of her in the near future as she would need to leave her workshop’s perspective member lodging. It was then that Xeal learned she was essentially penniless and in need of every basic necessity. To complicate things further, Lily was actually a 17-year-old who was living in Indonesia. Xeal could only chuckle as he told her to send her information over and he would get the paperwork started to get her a work visa. In the meantime, she would need to get a VR helmet and find a hotel to stay at for a few months. With Lily taken care of, Xeal moved on to the next two players. Both of them had been tier 7 players in Xeal’s last life, but neither of them took the bait to jump ship and join FAE like Lily did. Finally, it was time to get to the player he needed to manipulate the most, Bold Soul. Xeal could only chuckle at the obvious Wuxia inspired name that was so common among Chinese players, very few of which were present on this continent at this point of the game. From Xeal’s memories Bold Soul had been active in Nium after the fall of Jingong as a member of Red Crushers until it merged into their parent workshop’s main guild. After that he had risen to be one of the top shield warriors in all of ED and was one of the few tier 7 players that had hopes of eventually joining the tier 8 elites. Xeal had only ever had a few interactions with Bold Soul and was going in blind as Bold Soul was placed in the chair across from him. Xeal looked into Bold Soul’s jade green eyes that were slightly obscured by his black hair. As the pair stared at one another, Xeal broke the silence.

“Bold Soul, before we start, I think I should allow you to check the forums as you may be interested in Jingong’s current situation.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Just take a look for yourself. Just know that I will be ready to subdue you if you do anything other than check the forums.”

With that Xeal stood behind Bold Soul with a sword pressed to his neck as he removed the chains from him. Bold Soul didn’t take any rash actions and held his composure as he checked the forums for news about Jingong. As he did so Xeal could feel the change come over him as he started to shake at what he was reading. Once he was done Xeal walked around the table and sat back down across from him. The confidence in Bold Soul’s eyes was gone and Xeal could see the young man behind the façade. Xeal knew just what he had read. The Muthia empire had already swiftly acted to deal with Jingong’s actions. They had been labeled as rebels and subdued completely as 90% of their members would be working in the empire’s mine for at least the next 180 ED days when they could restart their accounts. Every asset the workshop had in the empire was seized, completing the decimation of the workshop. Jingong had already declared that due to the issues, all pay for its members was frozen while they reorganized in one of the other countries that they had a minor presence in. The workshop hadn’t realized it was already too late to recover. None of the other guilds they were operating could save them when almost all of their foundational experts that they had heavily invested in were out of commission for two months in reality. Eternal Dominion was swift and fierce and most players and guilds who ran afoul would only know so after it was too late. Even if Xeal had warned Jingong and they had listened and corrected their actions, it would have done no good. They had marked themselves as a danger to the Muthia empire and no country would allow a hostile power to grow within their own borders.

“Now, let’s talk. I know you were a prospective member of Jingong and that you were acting on their orders. You are just a soldier following orders and doing your duty. I can respect that and I can also see the talent you have and I think letting you suffer the same fate as your workshop would be a waste. So, you have two options. Tell me everything you know and join my guild as a paid member, or restart after the system lets you do so.”

“Why did this happen?”

“Jingong failed to understand their situation and thought they could establish themselves as overlords.”

“How is what they did any different from what you did?”

“That is not important now. What is, is your choice.”

“Ha, you think my honor is cheap?”

“No, I am not asking you to sell your honor. I am asking you to save yourself from the foolishness of your workshop. If I am not mistaken a pay freeze allows all members to opt out and get released from their contract completely. As we speak, I suspect many of the experts who are part of Jingong have already started to flee the workshop. Even if the workshop manages to survive it will be a shell of itself and every workshop it has wronged in the past will be more than happy to return the favor.”

Bold Soul looked utterly defeated at Xeal’s words as he just sat in shock while his whole world came crashing down on his head. He had worked so hard since he was a child to get accepted into Jingong’s youth talent program. Day after day of martial arts training, physical conditioning and gaming competitions since he was eight years old. Now at 19 years old he had been in the program for a few years and was on the cusp of becoming a full-fledged member. Just to have it all fall apart at the last minute and for him to find himself adrift.

“Why would I join a nothing like your guild? You don’t even have a real-world workshop.”

Xeal simply smiled at Bold Soul as he had him just where he wanted him.

“You would be correct, FAE is just an infant in the grand scope of things. However, this infant already has every major workshop’s attention. Even if we fall, those of our ranks who stand out will be fought over by other workshops. Jingong is dead, they just don’t know it yet. The only move that will save them anything is to dissolve completely and integrate into another workshop. Still, even that will only allow them to exist. The crippling of their entire main force’s accounts and loss of all assets they invested in while they were establishing themselves in the Muthia empire is too much to overcome. When those players finally are able to restart, they will need the assistance of new workshops to play. A promising prospect like yourself will be lost in the shuffle at that time. Right now, your two options are FAE or restart the same time the rest of Jingong does. At least one of these give you a chance to shine.”

Bold Soul sat in quiet contemplation for several moments as he recomposed himself before addressing Xeal once more.

“How can anyone trust me if I simply accept your offer? I would be selling my loyalty. As a shield warrior my role is to protect those who stand behind me. For me to be effective I must have the trust of my party and I must trust them. If I were to join FAE, how am I going to earn the trust of my guild when it is known that I was bought, and how will I be able to trust your members to not want revenge for PKing (Player killing) their friends?”

“Are those your only concerns?”

“Yes.”

“So, if I solve them, you will join?”

“As long as you are able to provide enough compensation to allow me to live a comfortable life, yes.”

“The compensation will be based off performance and it will not start of at a level that I would say is comfortable, but you will be able to survive. As for your concerns about trust, it is simple really. I’ll vouch for you. You’re not joining for a monetary gain greater than your current situation but out of practicality. The workshop you were part of is falling apart and can offer you no assistance. Your hostility wasn’t due to a hatred of FAE but out of duty to your workshop. There will still be some apprehension but, I believe your actions will take care of those over time. So, what do you say?”

“I need a week to watch how things play out with Jingong and I need you to bring on 30 or so players who I’m close with if Jingong truly does collapse.”

“Ah, you have others who you are close with. If they are willing to join and are able to pull their own weight, I can arrange something. However, I can’t simply attach dead weight that will only hinder my guild and hold you back. Also, where are these players currently?”

“They are the same as me. Each of us were sent to various countries across ED to keep tabs on the situations in each.”

“Enough said. If they are willing to continue on as they currently are until they reach level 80 and join FAE, I believe something can be worked out. After all, it would be nice to acquire an established information network.”

“Can you afford all of us?”

“Easily. Still, they will all need to sign a contract in game once I reach level 80 and can reach them. Now let’s work out the details.”

Xeal and Bold Soul went over the details of what FAE could offer and what he and his fellow scouts needed to join up with FAE. Xeal learned that there was a total of 10,000 members of Jingong housed in the branch that Bold Soul was based out of. Most members there were gold farmers who worked for just housing and food, however, if they failed to meet their quotas, they would miss meals. Only around 500 of the players that were based out of the branch made any credits to use outside the game. Bold Soul and his friends were at the bottom of this group and they were also the only players there outside the Muthia empire. This information made Xeal smile as gold farmers never joined a main guild in ED as it would be a wasted slot. No, they would simply log in each day and collect as much in game currency any way they could and hand it over to their handlers in the guild. Those that failed to meet the required amount regularly would be kicked out onto the street without a second thought. Xeal knew that due to none of them being members of Jingong’s guild in game, that the money farmers would still be active in game, and thanks to Jessica and Lauren both being based out of the Muthia empire, he could use them if he acted fast enough. With a plan made, Xeal sent Bold Soul to another holding cell as he watched the Jingong workshop fall.

After Bold Soul there were only two more players that Xeal knew from his last life that he wanted to try and recruit personally. Most of the players who had been captured would be offered a chance to join FAE, but only the seven Xeal had selected to interrogate were sure bets to reach the peak of tier 7. He was sitting at two for five on his targets and he hoped he could secure at least one of the next two players. The first was Hazel Elmriver, who had played as a trickster in Xeal’s last life and had cause more than one guild a major headache, as she had been an independent player after the workshop she had been a member of folded. At that point she had already been a tier 7 player and could easily earn enough credits without joining another workshop. Add the fact that she loved pulling pranks on other guilds, and not many guilds had both caught her eye and were interested in having her join them. Now she sat in front of him with pixie cut brown hair with green highlights across from Xeal, looking at him with her hazel eyes, looking like a kid who got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. As Xeal looked at her he was having an internal debate on whether she was worth the trouble she would bring with her.

“So Hazel, as I’m sure you already know, you’re in a rather tough spot.”

“You don’t really want to make life that hard on us, do you?”

“Do I want my guild to be able to level up and not have to worry about random attacks from players who have no reason to be there except to kill them? You see, if you had been going after players of the same level I would simply say fair play, but you went after players a tier below you. That is just unacceptable, especially when it is being carried out by proxy. I really must say though, all the workshops that collaborated on this really are vicious. Not only are they going after players who can’t put up a proper fight, they were willing to destroy some of their own members accounts in doing so.”

“What do you mean? Sure I might lose a level and some equipment if I’m killed, but eventually I will be able to recover.”

“You do realize that I can easily have you confined for the 180 ED days before the system will allow you to restart your character? That is enough to set you way behind the average player and tank your value to your workshop. In other words, your workshop hung you out to dry without a second thought.”

“You’re bluffing.”

“You’re welcome to believe that. Still, are you that loyal to Green Tide that you would rather cripple your future to protect them?”

“Protect them from what? It’s not like you can take action against us. We aren’t even a minor player in this kingdom. You should be more worried at just how many workshops are cooperating right now to make sure you fail. If you ask me, you should be begging me to convince my guild to leave you alone.”

“Ah, no, I don’t know the exact number, but I do now have proof of several that need to be made an example of.”

“What are you going to do, post on the forums about how unfair they all are being?”

“Oh, no, there is nothing I can do today. This is more about what my guild will do once we start hitting level 80 a week or so before they do. I mean, just think what a group of 20 to 40 tier 5 players could do to parties of tier 4 players who are prepping to take on their tier advancement quests.”

“Ha, your guild would be ripped apart if you did that. After all, before level 80 almost every workshop has an alliance in place.”

“Yes, I am aware that they all have agreed that they will work together to ensure that they don’t have to deal with new powers like myself emerging. In fact, most of them want nothing more than to watch my guild fail and be relegated to history. However, do you really think that they will honor that alliance when they could seize an opportunity to gain an advantage on one another? Besides, to them my actions will be the same as digging my own grave.”

“Why are you telling me this? I’m just going to send a recording of this to my workshop after this is over.”

“Yes, and they will gladly take it then hand you your termination letter. After all, for them you are simply a lost cause. By the time you will be useful again they will have already filled your role and it will be years before you catch up in levels to the average professional player. Instead of espionage, you will be stuck leading under-leveled teams in grinding for years. Is that what you want, or do you want to get back at them for setting you up like this?”

“Fine, I get it. What is your offer?”

Xeal ran through his offer which included the basic guild benefits and a pay scale based on tiers and levels. He also made sure to emphasize the rules of engagement when it came to all situations with a special emphasis on not pissing off the kingdom. Last, but not least, he offered her the role of being an infiltrator once she reached level 80. This was the type of role she preferred and Xeal promised that he would never assign her to a mission intending to throw her away if she was caught. After Xeal finished with her and she signed up, the last player he was interested in came in and declined his offer, even after Xeal gave him the same warning. In the end. Of the roughly 300 captured players, only 91 joined FAE. The rest were handed over to Prince Victor’s interrogation team for further questioning and punishment. The 91 players who Xeal recruited were assigned to Darefret’s mine to fight kobolds for the next few months while they pretended to be in the kingdom’s mines. This was a ruse for them to do the prep work to leave their workshops and join FAE in Colorado or get set up in their local area to play independently. Everything was going great as Xeal prepped for his next vicious move to capitalize on the misfortune of others. With that, Xeal returned to his mansion to rest before logging out.

Evening, October 16, 2266.

The first thing Alex did after waking up and giving both Sam and Nicole kisses, was to get in touch with his interface in Background Inc. to have them look at acquiring the Jingong branch that Bold Soul was based out of. He also listed off several other assets that Jingong had in the real world that would be good to acquire if the price was right, giving special instructions to emphasize that Alex did not want to be publicly connected to the acquisitions. He wished them to believe that they were dealing with someone who wished to help them reduce overhead quickly while increasing their ability to hold onto their core members. Alex authorized Background Inc. to sell up to 100,000,000 credits in stocks to make the acquisitions. Alex knew that number would only be enough to secure the branch Bold soul was based out of and two or three more large locations. The key here for Alex was that each location was on foreign soil and would allow him to gain a certain amount of legitimacy to other workshops. It would put him just below the level Eternal Valhalla was at in the hierarchy of things. Still, he would have to find administrative staff to manage any location he obtained. Bold Soul and his friends could handle their branch in the short term, but any other location would need a quick turnaround or acquiring them could be a major misstep.

After he had finished talking with Background Inc., Alex called his parents to see if Jessica and Lauren were over at his parents’ house. He was happy to hear that they were and both had been surprised that he was looking for them, although they both started to tell him about the chaos in the Muthia empire after the empire’s actions against Jingong workshop. Alex smiled at this as he started giving both girls detailed instructions on how to proceed now that there was a power vacuum. Alex knew that while Jingong had just been destroyed by the empire, in doing so the empire had crippled itself. While the effects of this wouldn’t be felt until players started to reach tier 7 and wars broke out between nations, the empire had just lost those struggles. This was due to them cutting off the top players who would have fought on their side once players could be effective in battle. Without Jingong’s elite players to aid them, the other seven nations that shared the continent quickly overran them and divided up their territory. To add insult to injury, the lands would play host to the struggles of war for decades in ED as the once lush land was transformed into a hellscape. Even in Xeal’s last life the conflict had never ended on that continent and five countries continually fought to take control of that continent. Alex wanted to make sure Jessica and Lauren could prepare for the future while there was still time.

Alex ended the call after a good while. Between the pair of calls, two hours had passed and he was done just in time to enjoy the meal that Nicole and Sam had worked together to prepare. Alex enjoyed the meal of brown curry over white rice with chicken and vegetables, complimenting Sam and Nicole on the meal. The three had taken advantage of the extra hour thanks to the shift in login time from the morning to prepare the more intensive meal. Originally Alex was supposed to assist, but both Sam and Nicole accepted that he needed to take care of business and were just happy that he was done when dinner was ready. The three enjoyed relaxing after dinner while watching another episode of the web series that they had been enjoying together before returning to ED.

Morning October 17 to Morning October 18, 2266, and ED year 1, days 276-280.

Xeal spent his next three logins in ED simply continuing to make his way to the next border fort, lamenting the whole trip that he couldn’t make use of any of the towns and cities he knew were in the areas along the way. The fact that only five cities and their surrounding towns were available without unlocking them made traversing the country side far more cumbersome than it needed to be. Once all settlements were available, it would cut down on travel time significantly as no map within a country’s borders would be more than an eight-hour journey from a teleportation gate at that point. While the cost of using the teleportation gates was not cheap for an average player, most would still pay it to save on time as you could earn more than it cost you 90% of the time. However, the earliest players could even start to take on these quests was level 50 and the first player to do so needed to be invited, as Xeal was to Autumndale. This was the task Xeal had assigned the rest of his guild’s leadership as the one who received the invitation needed to be part of the expedition to unlock it. Currently they had a few minor cities that Ignis and Clara had received invitation quests for. Each only required about a week of work and both had put together teams to take care of the quests.

Taya was keeping a close eye on any movement from the rogue players for Xeal and so far they had stayed quiet after the imprisonment of the players FAE captured. The forums were full of players calling what happened out of line and asking why was FAE able to act as the law in Nium while Jingong was destroyed for the same actions. The arguments over the details and differences of each situation were all over the place, obscuring those who had the right ideas in all the noise. It was extremely simple and the fact that it seemed others hadn’t figured it out yet made Xeal shake his head. FAE worked under the crown, whereas Jingong appointed themselves to rule over the players. Still, Xeal was more than happy to let confusion continue as it would make other guilds hesitate before acting. Still, Xeal knew that the major workshops would still find a way to harass FAE and try to slow down its growth after all, over 50 had come together to try and suppress them with the rogue players plot. He knew that even if it was just those 50, they still had over 1,000 professional players that they could mobilize in the kingdom to hinder FAE. Not to mention if they incited local guilds to target FAE in fear of being suppressed in the future by them. Xeal could think of about five different actions that would be the most likely for the workshops that were trying to hinder FAE to use from his last life. All of them would normally cause any guild in ED a major headache and at the very least cause short periods of stagnation for any guild on the receiving end. Unfortunately for the major workshops, Xeal had already made plans for each scenario and passed the orders to Taya. Xeal would be happy if none of his plans had to be used as most of them would only work once, but each would ensure that FAE kept damage to itself to a minimum.

Finally, Xeal reached his resting point about eight hours away from the border fort that had the blanket of mist covering it that he needed to investigate. However, that would have to wait for his next login, as now at level 65 Xeal was ready to challenge the quest and move on to the next quest in the line. If what Xeal suspected was true, he needed to complete two more after this one to become a viscount and officially begin courting Princess Enye. Once he had secured that, he could slow down as, if he was right, he would need to be at least a tier seven player before he could complete the last of the quests. Which, if Xeal’s intuition was correct, would set the war to unify the continent into motion, leading to all-out war. Still, that should be years in the future and right now Xeal needed to ensure he and his guild would be around to take part in the struggles to come.

In reality, Alex spent both mornings with everyone as they exercised to start the day. He noticed that Ava and Mia were making an effort to interact with everyone after they gave him hugs each morning. They were met with mixed results as Anna wanted nothing to do with them, Dan seemed to not know what to do and escaped as soon as he could, while the rest were cordial, but guarded. The main exception was Mrs. Bell as she pulled both girls to the side after both runs to talk to. No one would let Alex know about what, but it didn’t seem to be malicious on his mom’s part. If anything, Alex’s mom’s hostility seemed to diminish after each talk and Ava and Mia were smiling more each time. The whole situation, mixed with the way the twins had started to look at him after he dealt with the idiots the other day, made Alex worry that everything was just getting complicated once more. Still, neither of the twins were making any major moves on him, and if anything, had started to give him a bit more space. Sam and Nicole had noticed as well and smiled, though both had voiced concerns about the change in attitude the twins had shown and what it could mean for the plan.

On the 17th, Alex and Nicole logged out early from ED to enjoy a date night for just the two of them as Sam stayed in. Alex drove Nicole to a dance studio where ballroom dancing was taught during the day. Alex had booked a couples lesson for him and Nicole that started at 3:30 and went until 5:00. When they arrived, Nicole was confused for a moment, but once she realized Alex’s plan, she was all smiles. Inside they rented dance shoes as they went through all the basic steps for the waltz, tango, and cha-cha, with assistance from an instructor. Nicole was surprised at how well Alex was able to dance as she had never heard of him taking and interest in it. He had never even attended a school dance, professing that they were just excuses for guys to rub on girls without getting in trouble. Nicole had agreed, though she still attended a few with Sam and Amanda. Still, Nicole had been taught the basics of ballroom dance as a kid, due to her parents insisting that it would help her become well rounded. It had been one of the few things her parents had forced on her that she hadn’t minded. Still, she hadn’t practiced since she was twelve. Her parents had decided that she needed to apply herself fully at school and the benefits from dance had been achieved. So, for Alex to bring her to a dance studio for a date was wonderful, especially since she could tell he had put in the effort needed to be able to lead her. Alex on the other hand simply smiled as he could see Nicole enjoying herself as he made use of the skills he learned in his last life and had to use during the nobles banquet in ED.

By the time the lesson was over, Nicole was tired but had a beautiful smile on her face as Alex drove them to dinner at a nicer casual diner he knew of. Nicole chatted happily about how much fun she had dancing, saying how she hoped that next time Alex would take her out to a club where they could dance while dressed up a bit. Alex smiled as he said that was the whole point of the lesson and he planned to book more for them to attend, only Sam would be coming along as well moving forward. At first Nicole was pouting about it, but when Alex explained that it was going to be a bit like a double date night that was extra and eventually he hoped for it to become something the whole group joined in for, she smiled. Nicole knew that it would be great if everyone joined in and from the way Alex was talking this would be after they moved to Colorado. She might have to share Alex on the dance floor, but it would still mean she would get to dance regularly with him, and from the way he was talking, it wouldn’t just be once in a while, but at least once a week. To make things even better, Alex was talking about everyone learning several different dance types for variety. After dinner the pair of them returned to the apartment just after 6:00, finding that Sam had already logged in to ED for the night, and they had some privacy. This led to them enjoying some time together as a couple before they prepared to login for the night.

“Alex?”

“Yes, Nicole.”

“Would you really be fine if Sam and I are pregnant?”

Alex took his time as he looked deep into Nicole’s beautiful brown eyes smiling as he responded.

“Yes. While it might be a difficult adjustment at first as one of us will need to be offline at all times, I just feel happy when I think of it.”

“Really?”

“Yes, Nicole. I love you and Sam. While I will admit it is a bit soon for us to become parents, I believe the three of us will make it work.”

“I love you. I kind of hope we are. I just think it would be nice if we each have one close enough together for them to grow up like twins. Maybe not finish each other’s sentences like Ava and Mia twins, but best friends who always have each other’s back type twins.”

“That would be nice.”

With one last snuggle and kiss Nicole and Alex returned to ED for the night.

ED year 1, day 281.

Xeal covered the last eight hours of travel to the fort on the border between Nium and Paidhia, avoiding all fights as the area was designed for players between level 70 and 79. It would be a great area to hone his skills in the near future as he prepared for his tier 5 test, but for now it would only serve to weaken him before his quest. As the hours went by, Xeal drew closer and closer to his goal until before him stood a wall of fog. As he looked at it, he could not see more than two inches into it and he could see it swirling clockwise at an alarming rate. Xeal couldn’t help but think of his trial in the dark as he thought about what he would have to deal with inside that mess. He was looking at having to move without sight and he was unsure just how much his other senses would be affected once he entered the mist. Still, he took a deep breath as he took a step forward. Just before he entered the mist, a system notification popped up.

(Quest: Remove the source of the mist engulfing the area. Do you wish to accept this quest? Rewards, Prince Victor’s favor and unknown. Warning, failing the quest will have negative repercussions on your account. Yes or No)

Xeal selected yes and moved forward into the mist. The moment Xeal passed into the mist, he felt like a bucket of cold water had been dumped on him. He could feel the wind pushing him, almost making him fall over as he struggled against its forces. He could see absolutely nothing and the wind was so loud in his ears that he thought he might go deaf by the time he left the area. The only sense that Xeal felt like he could trust was the pressure he felt under his feet. Slowly he took tentative steps forward, going heel to toe as he did so, ensuring that he kept upright. It was after his second step that his hand found something to grab onto. He could not see what it was, but to him it felt like a metal handrail, only it was too thin at only the width of his thumb. Making his mind up, Xeal decided to see where this rail took him as he started walking while holding fast to his guide. Time was lost to Xeal as he wandered forward one step at a time. It wasn’t until the fog thinned slightly that Xeal faced his first threat. All around him were wolves made up of the mist. Each one was the same level as himself and were crouching like they would attack at any second. Xeal went to ready himself to defend against their attack and was just about to draw his second sword when he stopped. He wasn’t sure what would happen if he was separated from the rail he was following. For all he knew, the moment he let go of it he would be lost in the mist for good. Still, if he maintained his grip on it fighting would become extremely difficult, if not impossible. As these thoughts went through his head, all of the mist wolves that surrounded him leapt at him. The only thought that kept Xeal from releasing his grip from the rail was that even if he did, the results wouldn’t change, so it was time to gamble. As they reached within striking distance, instead of attacking them, Xeal simply closed his eyes and stepped forward. When the impacts that one would normally expect from being attacked by over 15 monsters never came, Xeal opened his eyes to find the mist as thick as ever. His gamble had been right, the mist was playing tricks on him. Still, the question remained as to the actual nature of the mist.

As Xeal pressed forward he kept finding himself in various situations that encouraged him to release his grip on the rail. Not all of these were illusions either. Some were likely real as if his analysis was right, the mist could only manipulate itself to create illusions. So, the gold or premium items that he ignored were likely real, only the cost to obtain them was likely death as Xeal had already verified return scrolls did not function inside the mist. More than ever Xeal was sure that if he lost his hold on the rail, he would fail this quest and lose his fruit of life to avoid a death penalty. The path that the rail was leading him on was not in a straight line either, as it curved and moved in an unpredictable pattern. At times he would have to walk straight into the wind, while other times he would be pushed along by the wind. By the time a few hours had passed, Xeal was unsure if the wind was changing direction constantly, or if it was just how the path of the rail was leading him. Finally, Xeal stepped out into an open area that made him think of the eye of a storm. The rail that had been his guide this whole time simply ended, while in front of him was a black tower that reached into the sky, surrounded by a village comprising several huts built from mounds in the ground. Xeal was petrified at what was before him as dark elves roamed the area. From a quick count over 50 could be seen. This situation screamed danger to Xeal as he wondered how the hell a level 75 player had cleared this quest in the past. Dark elves were some of the most dangerous foes in all of Eternal Dominion as they were a humanoid that had the same capacity to grow as players. The only advantage surface dwelling humanoids had over them was the severe sunlight weakness they possessed. However, while the clearing was free of mist, it still hovered high in the sky, blocking almost all light from reaching this area. If Xeal didn’t possess enhanced senses from his elder dragon mark he would not be able to see even a quarter of the details he could right now. It was then that he received another system notification.

(Warning, quest contains a risk of capture and torture, to include rape if continued. System escape is authorized. Warning, if utilized, you will never be able to attempt this quest again. Escape? Yes or No)

Xeal wanted to scream bloody murder at this quest as he selected no. He knew exactly what would happen to himself if he was captured. He would spend the next 180 days as a toy for the matriarchs of this tribe to breed half dark elves with. The advantages of such half breeds was their ability to operate in the sun and act as forward scouts and guards when full blooded dark elves could not be present due to the sun. The history of ED told of past wars where hundreds of thousands of such cross breeds were used to fight a war. It had been one of the greatest calamities to face the surface world of ED as human men were captured into slavery by the thousands. It was only after the sun god Lugh’s champion ventured deep within the dark elves’ vast underground kingdom and freed thousands of slaves, before channeling pure sunlight while doing so, that the surface turned the tide of the war. By the time the war had ended, the dark elves had been driven deeper in the ground than ever before and no known half breeds remained. Now for the last 15 years this mist had been here and the hundreds of soldiers who had been here had been missing. Xeal really didn’t like where this event was going as dark elf raids had been extremely deadly in Xeal’s last life, and as he thought about it, they had started around three years from now in ED time, when the first batch of half breeds from this occupation would be maturing.

Xeal didn’t think he could do much when it came to dealing damage to these dark elves as many of them were higher leveled than himself. Still, he needed to find a way to dissipate the mist if he was going to complete his task, and from what he could see, the top of the tower was the most likely point of control. Still, the tower was around 50 feet across and towered around 250 feet in the air. Xeal wished he had some explosives as knocking the tower over was likely the easiest way to destroy whatever was generating the mist. Still, the system would likely prevent a player from executing such a hack even if they had the needed supplies. No, Xeal would need to ascend that tower while remaining undetected. He could only hope it was unoccupied. Xeal spent the next hour on the edge of the mist, taking note of just how the dark elves moved about the area. From what Xeal could tell, there were five matriarchs keeping around 75 males in line. His foes ranged from level 50 to level 150, which gave Xeal some hope as he could easily deal with the half who were under level 70 if he planned right. Still, these weren’t mindless mobs that would just let half their numbers be culled, so Xeal couldn’t just go around killing them. No, he was simply happy because if one of the weaker ones was successful in spotting him, he would have a good chance to kill them before they called for help, buying him a little time.

Once Xeal had a good idea of the dark elves’ movements, he started to make his way towards the tower to investigate. During his approach, Xeal pulled out a potion of concealment that once poured onto something, would make it blend into its surroundings for an hour. While any quick movements would still be easily spotted, slow and methodical ones would be easily missed. Slowly Xeal started to crawl while keeping his figure as low to the ground as he could without leaving drag marks. Over the next hour Xeal moved the mile that was between him and the tower, pausing anytime he felt a dark elf was about to spot him. With a few minutes to spare before the potion effects would end, Xeal was next to the tower, only now he needed to get in without causing a scene. The front door was no good as it had two level 150 guards posted to it, but 20 feet up there was a window just big enough for an archer to fire out of. This was Xeal’s entrance, sort of. Xeal wasted no time and took a risk by climbing the side of the tower at an accelerated pace such that if any dark elf looked closely, they would notice him, but he didn’t have time to go slow. Finally, with about 30 seconds left, Xeal reached the window and slipped a beacon bead inside of it. He could hear as the bead rolled in before falling down what sounded like stairs. After the third drop Xeal activated the teleportation device and found himself on the inside of the tower.

Looking around he could see the whole thing was empty except for the spiral staircase he currently stood on and a dark pillar that looked like it was made of dark glass with mist inside of it. At the base of this pillar was something that startled Xeal greatly. Shackled to a table, weakly writhing, was a dark elf woman who looked like she was a hair’s breadth away from death. The pillar ended a few feet above her and it appeared spell work was inlaid into chains that went from the end of the pillar to the wrists, ankles and neck of the woman. Xeal could tell that she was being used like a magic battery to fuel the mechanism that maintained the fog barrier. From what Xeal saw it was clear that she had been trapped like this for a long time. When Xeal looked at the setup around her that could handle everything from forced feeding to waste management he shivered. Her stats scared Xeal as she was a level 200 fallen dark elf clan matriarch with the drained and feeble status ailments. As Xeal observed her his concealment wore off and even in her weakened state the dark elf noticed him instantly. Her eyes locked on to Xeal’s as he could tell she wanted to say something, but the gag in her mouth was preventing her from doing so. Xeal stood there for a long moment as he debated what to do. If he were to play things smartly, he would simply climb to the top and see if there was a way to disable the magical construct from up there. However, if he took a chance and talked to the fallen matriarch, he could receive a greater reward, or fail the quest all together. In the end Xeal decided to trust that the fallen matriarch would hate her captors more than she would hate him. So, he quietly made his way to her and gave her a quick whisper letting her know that he was going to remove the gag, but if she made any loud noise, he would have no issue with leaving her to her fate. After a quick nod of understanding from her, Xeal removed the gag and watched as she worked to remember how to use the atrophied muscles. Sighing, as he knew she would have difficulties otherwise, Xeal pulled out an advanced recovery potion and brought it to her lips. He watched as five gold went down her throat and her emaciated form recovered slightly, though she still had the weakened and frail status ailments. However, she was now able to weakly form words.

“Thank you, male. Ha, ‘cough’ the great Ceclie Ugnezu has fallen so low that I am willing to thank a surface male. ‘cough’”

“Life has a way of humbling all who live long enough.”

“Too true, ‘cough’. Now please end me and free me from this fate.”

“So, the great Ceclie Ugnezu has given up and forsaken revenge. I would have expected more from a former clan matriarch.”

“What would you know of our world, surface dweller. Even if you free me and I can escape and recover, where will I find the forces needed to take my revenge? ‘cough’ Were it not for my use in powering the mist tower I would have long since been killed with the rest of my clan. Kill me and free this land from the mist. ‘cough’ In doing so, at least I can spite them. If you free me, they will simply capture me once they have dealt with you and I will simply return here. ‘Cough, cough’”

“What if I had a way to take you far from here in an instant?”

“What price do you seek? ‘cough’ I doubt I could even fend off one as weak as you, right now.”

“A soul contract binding you to me.”

“How does a surface dweller like you know of such things? ‘cough’”

A soul contract was a dark spell that dark elves had perfected over the millennia. It required a tier 7 dark elf priestess of Circe, which most powerful clan matriarchs were, and judging by how much power it would take to maintain the mist, Xeal was sure Ceclie was one.

“I read.”

“Your lying ‘cough,’ but that is irrelevant. Why would I disgrace myself further by becoming your whore? ‘cough’”

“I never said anything about sex, or your body being used in such a way. No, even if you threw yourself at me begging, I would turn you down.”

The fallen matriarch raised her eye at Xeal’s statement as she evaluated him for a moment.

“No contract then. ‘cough’ If I bind myself to you, I would expect to be given half breed heirs to reclaim my clan’s glory with.”

“Not happening. Sorry, but my bed is already crowded enough. Besides, the only reason I need you to make the soul contract is I know better than to trust a dark elf. No offence, but your kind is known to be absolutely brutal and vindictive. Considering that simply helping you could end with my head on a pike, I need to ensure you won’t betray me.”

“Ha, ‘cough’ you really have no designs to humiliate me once I am helpless?”

“Not in the slightest. My intentions are to have you hold up and recover for the most part. Even if I pumped you full of recovery potions, I don’t think it would do you much good.”

“’cough’ It wouldn’t. I will need months, if not years, before my body is the same again. ‘cough’ All I am good for right now would be a few magic blasts ‘cough’ but, even those would be sloppy.”

Xeal thought things over as he looked over everything once, thinking of what it would take to free Ceclie from her restraints. He could tell that doing so would weaken the mist generator when each restraint was removed. The question was how quickly the other dark elves would notice the change and rush in.

“Ceclie, if you’re willing to make the soul contract I need to know now as I don’t want to sit here and wait for the other dark elves to arrive.”

Ceclie gave Xeal a hard look as she thought over her options. Had this offer been made 15 years ago when she had been imprisoned here, she would have never considered it. However, 15 years was an eternity when all one knew was pain.

“Promise me one thing, ‘cough.’ I will be able to pursue my vengeance against my enemies once I recover. ’cough’”

“I’ll do you one better. If you wait for my skills to match yours, I’ll join you on your revenge tour, even if it brings us to the queen of the dark elves doorsteps.”

“You have a deal.”

With that Ceclie opened her mouth as a dark light exited it and wound itself around Xeal’s right pointer finger. This was the mark he obtained by Ceclie willingly passing part of her soul to Xeal for him to use as a means for control. All he would have to do was will it and Ceclie would die now, and by the same power, even if her body died, her soul would retreat to itself, granting her a limited form of immortality. Once her body was recovered, a ritual could be performed to return her body to a complete state and revive her. This was an expensive process and most dark elves would simply consume the soul of their fallen slave to empower themselves, but this was not possible for Xeal as he currently was, so Ceclie was not worried about it. The only issue was if Xeal’s character suffered a true death she would die as well, while a normal death penalty would only have her severely weakened for a few days until Xeal revived.

Xeal couldn’t believe he had just succeeded in binding a tier 7 NPC to himself. Even if she was extremely weakened right now, she would become an ace up his sleeve once she recovered. The only drawback was she was only of use at night in most situations. Still, he knew of a vampire that he would love to have removed. Unfortunately, Xeal couldn’t use her to grind levels as the system would allocate 99.99999% of all experience to her if they were fighting the same foe due to the difference in tiers and levels. At best she could act as a guard for him, stepping in if he got into a situation he couldn’t handle, but the moment she did anything more than stand still while hiding, the system would drop Xeal’s experience gain to nothing, leaving him with only the mastery levels gained for his weapon types as his rewards.

Xeal gave Ceclie her orders as he went about removing the bindings in a methodical way that would allow for the shortest gap between when he removed the first shackle and the last. Still, it would take Xeal over a minute to free Ceclie after the first was removed and he expected the door to be opened in the first 30 seconds. Slowly he took a calming breath, and removed the first shackle on her right arm that was nearest to the door, before moving to her right foot. Just as Xeal removed the shackle from the right foot and moved to the left foot, the door burst open and the two guards Xeal spotted there earlier came bursting in, only to be swallowed up by a dark light that blasted forth from Ceclie’s hand as she cackled and laughed while smiling madly. By the time Xeal was moving to the last shackle that was around Ceclie’s neck, a swarm of activity came bursting through the door as the level 150 female dark elves came bursting in while holding up a shield made of dark light. Ceclie’s attacks were pushing back against the shields, but she was losing ground. If it wasn’t for the fatal funnel that the other dark elves needed to pass through, Ceclie would have been completely unable to even slow these two down. Finally, the last shackle was off and a pulse of power could be felt as the tower lost all power and the mist began to dissipate, filling the clearing like an avalanche of snow. Quickly Xeal had Ceclie in his arms and was sprinting up the stairs as she launched more attacks at the other dark elves, before laying some traps along the stairs in the form of floating barriers that would trip up their pursuers. By the time Xeal was about 20 feet up the tower, the base had filled with the mist obscuring those below. When they were 35 feet up, they were encased in the mist as well. This forced Xeal to slow down as he carried Ceclie to the top. The pair needed to make it up there and hold out until the sky could be seen above. Only then would teleportation items work to leave the area.

As they climbed Xeal could hear a commotion from time to time below them as one of Ceclie’s trip traps tripped up another dark elf. Still, Xeal felt absolute panic as he kept climbing higher and higher, until he finally reached the top of the tower and found that the mist had already fallen to the point that the top of the tower was in the open air under a blue afternoon sky. Ceclie started to shriek as the sun’s rays hit her and Xeal quickly covered her in a cloak, allowing her to hide from the sun as she fought to get her coughing under control. All around the tower the swirling mist looked like an ocean as far as the eye could see. As Xeal took in the sight all around him, his eyes focused on the center of the tower where the pillar from below came out and rose to a point. A point that from what Xeal could tell was made of an unusual gem the size of a soft ball that was a mix of light olive green, dark greenish blue, and light to dark violet. Xeal had never seen a gem quite like it and he was sure it was a key component to the mist tower. Quickly he pulled on it as he struggled to remove it from its fasteners. Finally, with a strong full body pull, it came loose as Xeal fell on his butt, gem in hand. Pocketing it quickly, he started to hack away at the pillar where it came in contact with the tower’s structure, until with a massive crashing and shattering noise, it came loose and shattered on the base of the tower just as the first of their pursuers reached the top, hissing as the sun came in contact with them, forcing them back down. As they spat curses at Xeal and Ceclie in attempts to goad them back into the tower, Xeal knew it was only a matter of time before the dark elves retrieved cloaks and risked the sun exposure to attack them, so when he heard the system notification that followed the crashing pillar, he was ecstatic.

(Quest, Remove the source of the mist engulfing the area: Complete, calculating completion rate… 98% completion rank S. Reward: 10,000 gold, 8,000,000 XP, 30,000 renown, personal guard royal dark elf Ceclie Ugnezu, increase in favor with Prince Victor and his faction.)

With the quest complete, communication and teleportation opened up once more. Xeal handed Ceclie the teleportation device and gave her instructions and a letter. He then messaged Aalin and Gale, letting them know to head to a specific location and to let him know when they are good. Unfortunately, Xeal didn’t have any teleportation beacons set up near his residence, or any major city for that matter. They were all still deployed in case more rogue players showed up. Still, this meant that he had guild members nearby each of them and Aalin and Gale were headed to the one closest to them as the pair were acting as guards for the lower leveled members still. Luckily, none of the dark elves had been able to get their hands on a cloak yet, but Xeal knew he had a few minutes at best before they arrived, ready to fight. If it wasn’t for the still dispersing mist, he doubted he would even have a few seconds left. Finally, after five minutes of listening to the dark elves cursing at him, Xeal received a message from Aalin saying they were in place. Xeal told them he was going to have a refugee arrive there in a moment and for the girls to find a cave nearby to shelter in until he messaged them again. Just as he was ready to give Ceclie the order to teleport, the first cloaked dark elf jumped onto the top of the tower. Ceclie immediately teleported as was the plan and Xeal dove off the side of the tower while he brandished his swords, using elemental blades empowered with wind to push himself further from the tower as he fell into the mist once more, using his empowered blades to cushion his landing as well. Once he was inside the mist, he found that teleportation was once again disabled, and even with the cushioned landing he had taken significant damage. Annoyed, Xeal took a recovery potion and wasted no time in starting to run. He had to believe he could escape as the mist impaired the dark elves vision as much as his own. His only concern was the tier 6 dark elves whose senses might be able to make up for their lack of sight. Still, all Xeal needed to do was last until the mist was gone completely. Time stretched on as he could hear the occasional dark elf call out as they searched for him. Sometimes it was them cursing at him, trying to provoke him in to giving away his position. Other times it was them coordinating with one another as they closed in on him. Xeal could tell that they were getting closer and soon they would be right on top of him. Still, he pressed forward in his desperate run for freedom. Finally, with the sounds of his pursuers close at hand, the mist thinned and the sun shone through once more, only Xeal wasn’t in the open area he had come from when he entered the mist. No, he was in a strange place that made no sense to him. Then he received a system notification and he was at a loss for words.

(Location found, lost court. Warning, area recommended level is far beyond your current level. Proceed with caution.)

Xeal felt like the system was playing a cruel joke as the lost court was one of the most fabled locations in all of Eternal Dominion. It was where the primordial council resided before the age of gods. This council was made up of the creatures that even gods feared. True dragons, phoenixes and many other intelligent races that had the power to destroy continents if they felt like it. Most of the monsters that plagued ED were distant descendants of these creatures that lacked the power, as well as the intelligence, of their forebearers. They were mere shadows compared to the might of the primordials that they hailed from. The lost court was known as the last resting place of the primordials as even though the gods defeated them, they could never truly die. Even once their bodies were destroyed, they persisted as spirits possessing normal animals and humans, twisting their very beings into new forms of life. These new forms of life spread their genes far and wide as the gods hunted the sources of this new plague on life. Eventually they succeeded in capturing and imprisoning the primordials in their own court, sealing them away in their own dimension they had created. Still, this came at a great cost as the gods sacrificed their ability to walk upon Eternal Dominion’s worlds, as each time they did so it would weaken the cage they had created. Inside that cage raged not only the vessels that housed the primordials, which over time grew closer to their original forms, but monsters that were their offspring. Each of these monsters, once matured, have the potential to be on the same level as world bosses. Only tier 8 players were equipped to deal with this dimension, yet here Xeal stood. Before he had time to think about how he had ended up here, he felt the mark on his chest pulse. Pain wracked his body as mist poured out of his chest at an alarming rate. This mist looked like the mist he had escaped from before arriving here, only it was forming into a swirling ball in front of him, instead of dispersing. As the stream of mist slowed, the ball began to shift into the shape of a creature until Xeal was staring face to face with a dragon the size of a cargo ship made entirely of mist. All Xeal could think of was how he was going to die as the level of this dragon just read as question marks.

“Ah, it feels good to take form once more, even if it is a weak and fleeting one. Now, before my time is up and I send you back to the realm you know Xeal, we need to have a chat.”

Xeal was overwhelmed by the pressure the dragon before him was putting off. It took him a while to even register that it was communicating with him, much less that it was doing so directly in his mind. As he thought about just why a dragon would want to speak with him and not simply eat him, the mist dragon started to chuckle.

“Xeal, you really do tend to let your mind wander while keeping your exterior calm. It is one of your best traits. Still, simply look at your chest and you will have your answer.”

It was then that Xeal’s mind put all the pieces together, though the realization that this dragon could hear his thoughts made him freeze. Did it know…

“Yes, I know. You are quite the interesting fellow. Being forced to stay quiet at the risk of destroying you has been hard. It’s why I took advantage of the mist to generate enough power to pull you here for a short while as only a fraction of myself is able to exist outside this cage. Here, however, I can manifest myself like so and speak briefly with you. Now, before our time is up, you need to fix a few mistakes you have been making.”

Xeal was taken back as he couldn’t think of any mistakes he had made. Still, this was coming from an entity that was supposed to be one of the oldest existences in ED from the way the conversation was going.

“Good, you realize my worth. Now, you have been doing a good job of keeping my mark a secret. However, if your mate Gale worshiped a goddess other than Freya, things could have gone poorly for us. Luckily, Freya is one of the few deities sympathetic to our plight. The only reason she does not openly assist us is the fear of the other gods banding together to remover her from their realm, and banish her here where she would be no good to anyone. No, it is thanks to her that a few of us can slip pieces of our power into your realm. Still, your new companion worships Circe and there is a deity who would sooner see us harvested and turned into experiments than any other. Magic and its furthering is one of the only thing she cares for. Keep a close eye on her and ensure she never learns of the mark, as if she does, you may find her other devotees after you. Now as for the main mistake you have made, you keep focusing on speed and strength while ignoring stats like charisma. I know you are focused on growing stronger but, you are a leader, and as my host, you will naturally stand at the top one day. To do that you must survive, and for you to do so charisma is a must. You have already watched one of your plans fail due to your inability to persuade Vanessa to act in her own best interest. What do you believe will happen when you need to convince someone of something that is not in their best interest? Now I know we could continue like this for hours if possible, however you should not be here as you are now and I can only maintain you here for a short while as I am. So, I will leave you with one last piece of information. The answer to the question you stress over the most can be found only beyond tier 8.”

Before Xeal could even think to ask for clarification, he felt himself being pulled backwards and before he knew it, he was laying on his back outside the same cave Aldway had taken him to for his test of knighthood where he had received the elder dragon mark. Xeal just lay there thinking over the implications of what he just learned and what the true nature of the mark on his chest was. Was he making a mistake by keeping it? Was he possessed by a primordial being? What kind of changes would it bring about within him? For the first time since he had returned to his younger self Xeal was at a loss on how he should move forward. Finally, with a sigh, he decided to just move forward as he knew indecision would lead to failure. Checking his messages, he could see he had several from Aalin and Gale asking him where he was. They had even logged out to check that he was still logged in. Quickly he replied that he just barely escaped and would be taking care of the next part shortly as he retrieved a return scroll and teleported to the capital.

Once he was in the capital, Xeal wasted no time in reporting to Prince Victor, who received him almost immediately. Victor was overjoyed with Xeal’s news as it meant that his kingdom now held an absolute advantage against both of the neighboring kingdoms if war were to break out. When Xeal relayed the details, including Ceclie’s situation, Victor became pensive as he weighed the merits and demerits of each possible response. It was then that Xeal suggested that the prince have a female information officer interview Ceclie to determine her worth to the kingdom and whether or not to allow her to recover in a secluded underground area of FAE’s headquarters that was nearing completion. Knowing that Ceclie was in a greatly weakened state, Victor agreed to allow more information to be gathered, but Ceclie would need to be in the kingdom’s hands for the time being. Xeal agreed on the condition that the prince keep him informed, as due to the nature of the soul contract, it would be inconvenient for her full soul to reside with Xeal. Especially as he would have no way to be rid of her for a long time. Xeal thought to himself about how having one entity along for the ride was already more than enough for him. Over the next few hours everything was completed and Xeal had informed Ceclie that she was to cooperate with the kingdom if she wished to have her revenge one day. The weak and exhausted dark elf just looked at Xeal before nodding weakly. Xeal could tell it would be a long time before Ceclie was in any shape to assist in battle. With that taken care of, Xeal returned to his mansion to rest before logging out of ED.

Evening, October 18, 2266.

Xeal awoke from his session in ED before either Sam or Nicole as he was going to cook something special tonight as they would be hosting Ava and Mia. Tonight, Alex was going to try and get them to spill exactly what the situation with them and Abysses End was currently. In the kitchen, Alex went about prepping for dinner as he made beef stroganoff. He always loved how simple, yet delicious, the way his family had always prepared it was. All he needed to do was cut the top sirloin into thin strips and brown it in a pan with a few cans of mushrooms, juice included. Then it was just salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste until it was almost time to serve, at which point you just needed to add enough sour cream to create a sauce. In another pot rice was cooking for the beef stroganoff to be served over. Lastly, steamed broccoli finished the plate. By the time Alex had everything on the stove, Sam and Nicole had joined him and received their kisses from him as they chatted idly. Around 4:45 everything was just about done when Mia and Ava arrived, bringing some cold bottles of sparkling apple cider with them at Alex’s request. With that all the prep was complete and Alex added the sour cream to finish off the stroganoff as everyone found room to sit and enjoy the dinner Alex had prepared for them.

Both Ava and Mia were pleasantly surprised as it was the first time they had had a sour cream sauce beef stroganoff. They also commented on how lucky Sam and Nicole were for snagging a man who could cook for them once in a while. The conversation over dinner stayed relaxed as it stuck to topics like what web series everyone liked, and how everyone was doing in ED. Finally, when dinner was done and Sam and Nicole were washing the dishes, Alex broached the topic.

“Ava, Mia, I know the two of you have been avoiding talking about it, but I need to know exactly what the situation is with you two and Abysses End.”

“Ah, we were hoping you would forget about that subject,” pouted Ava.

“Yes, it’s not a fun topic. Wouldn’t you rather ask us what our favorite party game is?” diverted Mia.

“I need to know.”

“We know,” Ava sighed.

“It’s just we don’t want to talk about it,” pouted Mia.

“However, we think you have earned our trust,” conceded Ava.

“At least a little bit,” added Mia with a wink.

“Thank you.”

The twins went on to explain how Abysses End had told them to back off, as when Alex called them out, they decided to call off the plan for the twins to seduce Alex. When Ava and Mia had refused to just give up and insisted that they could rope him in, Ava and Mia had been told to just do as they were told. This had pissed them off because the whole push for them to go after Alex had been stirred up by them, and now that they had met Alex, they didn’t want to just give up on him. He was an ideal catch to them as he checked every box they have in a potential partner. They quickly made sure that they knew Sam and Nicole currently had priority, but they made it clear they would be happy to join the relationship to test the waters any time. Still, it had devolved into an argument and the twins had backed off until the final night when they said screw it, and decided that they were going to force the girls’ plan. They figured that if Abysses End was going to give up on the frontal assault, that a covert assault that was designed to completely take Alex by surprise was coming. Ava and Mia really didn’t want to see Alex ruined like that, so they left the hotel and sent Abysses End a message saying that they were staying in the area, whether or not they agreed. Ava and Mia were not going to let Alex slip out of their grasp without at least making a good attempt first. Right now, they were constantly being pestered by their higher ups to return to Dallas, or Abysses End would terminate their contracts. Ava and Mia just laughed and called their bluff. Sadly, Abysses End had not freed them from their contract and both girls were locked in until July of 2267. At which point they were hoping to join FAE if things were still going well for the workshop. They hoped by then that Alex, Sam and Nicole would have accepted them as part of their life.

Alex took in all of the information the twins gave him as he thought over what the implications were, if it was accurate. He also asked himself if he was ready to trust Ava’s and Mia’s word as while both seemed genuine, he felt like they weren’t matching the image he had of them from his last life. While he had never met them, he knew enough about them that he knew they always had acted in a self-serving manner. However, he didn’t know if that had come about after an incident in their life that made them become that way after the launch of ED. Knowing what he knew about Abysses End and how quickly they pushed them to seduce Alex, he thought that they might have pulled the same move the last time around. Only the target wasn’t a gentleman about it and it had changed them forever. In the end, Alex decided to trust them, but still prepare in case they were just acting for his benefit, though he hoped that was not the case. While he had no intention of pursuing a romantic relationship with them, he did feel like if he could get them to calm down, they would fit in just fine in FAE and he knew exactly how to take their skills to the next level, if he was given a chance.

Once they had finished their conversation, it was almost time for everyone to return to ED, so Alex bid the twins farewell. Both Ava and Mia hugged him at the same time, sandwiching him between them as they placed a kiss on each of his cheeks before releasing him. Sam and Nicole just rolled their eyes at the twins as Alex just gave them a complicated smile. Once they had left, Alex, Sam and Nicole held their own discussion before returning to ED. Once they were all on the same page, the conversation once more turned to how both girls had yet to have their periods. Sam was still saying that they weren’t pregnant, though with less conviction than she had a few days ago. After the girls had wound themselves up over the possibility once more, Alex worked to calm them and reassure them until they had worked it out of their system. Alex then joined Nicole as it was her turn to have Alex at night until Sam’s next date night on the 20th. The pair enjoyed some cuddling before logging back into ED for the night.

ED year 1, days 282-283.

Xeal opened his eyes around 1:30 in the afternoon after logging into ED, knowing that he needed to get ready for tea with Dyllis and Enye in a half hour in his garden. Quickly he switched out his adventurer’s gear for a simple but elegant tunic and pants. As he made his way downstairs, Xeal found Maxwell with Midnight waiting for him. He could see the preparations that were ongoing for the tea time past Maxwell as he supervised and directed the other servants. Xeal felt like there was a bit more activity than necessary for a simple tea time with Lady Dyllis and Princess Enye. So, he approached Maxwell to ascertain why things were so busy.

“Maxwell, things seem a bit overdone for a simple tea time with Lady Dyllis and Princess Enye.”

Upon seeing Xeal Maxwell gave him a quick bow before responding.

“Sir Xeal, yes, well we have been informed that Prince Victor will be making an appearance as well.”

“Oh, did he say about what?”

“No, he simply said that if time permitted he would be joining you for the first part of the tea time.”

“Very well, carry on. I will await our guests in the garden.”

“Very well, my lord.”

Xeal made his way to his garden where he found Aalin and Gale in dresses walking around enjoying themselves. Xeal made his way over and joined them for a walk while they waited the last 20 minutes or so before Xeal’s guests would arrive. While they walked, they shared recent events and Xeal finally had the time to explain exactly what had gone down during his quest. Both Sam and Nicole also shared their progress on the quest lines Princess Enye had them on, and how they had both finished up the latest one and were told that they would receive their next one today at tea. Xeal thought that might be why Victor may have been joining them, but was unsure. Finally, just before 2:00, a servant entered the garden announcing Prince Victor’s and Princess Enye’s arrival. After Xeal, Aalin and Gale had paid them their proper respect, they all took seats at the table, along with Dyllis who had arrived with Victor and Enye. Conversation began with casual pleasantries before Victor stated that he would honor the spirit of the equality while at the table as was normal for the group. Once they had been served and only Maxwell remained of the servants along with Midnight, who was lazily eating a small sandwich Xeal had given him, looking like a normal cat to those who didn’t know any better. Xeal pushed the conversation to more important matters.

“Thank you, Victor. Now, if I may ask, to what do I owe the honor of your presence today?”

Victor chuckled as he responded.

“Ah, can’t I simply wish to spend some time with my future brother in-law and sister?”

“Victor, you and I know that is simply a weak cover that only a fool would believe,” rolling her eyes, Enye cut in.

Victor smiled at his sister before continuing.

“Enye, now it is important that we at least try to keep up appearances. Who knows how some of the court would take me openly holding council with Xeal. His current standing doesn’t come close to reflecting his actual value to us.”

“Nor does Aalin’s and Gale’s status do them justice as his support,” added Enye with a smile.

“I dare say sister, you are correct, though I believe I have an answer to this issue,” Victor played along.

Xeal shook his head as he interrupted the pair.

“Okay, enough with the script. I can tell you two are already in on whatever you have planned. Well, please let the rest of us in on it.”

“You’re no fun. I was enjoying them building whatever it is up,” joked Gale with a smile.

“Yah, now we will never know just how embellished they could have made it,” Aalin commented while holding in a chuckle.

Xeal just looked at Aalin and Gale as they tried not to laugh while Dyllis smiled and Enye and Victor were laughing quietly.

“I must say, I was surprised you allowed us to carry on as long as you did. I had thought you would have cut me off at value to us,” Victor said, while smiling.

“Yes, but now let’s just get it out,” Enye added while giving everyone a contented look.

“Lady Aalin and Lady Gale, you have both been approved to rise to baroness, and after a short ceremony, you will officially be nobles of the kingdom,” announced Victor.

“Sweet. Now we will be able to publicly court you, like Dyllis, “joyfully responded Gale.

“Yes, it will be nice to be able to date you openly here once more,” Aalin said while looking relieved.

Xeal just smiled as neither girl had ever stopped dating him, they had just been careful as to where and how they were seen. In reality, his relations with both were an open secret in the royal court at this point. Still, it felt nice to know that he had one fewer issue to deal with.

Prince Victor wasn’t done as he turned to Xeal with a smile.

“Yes, yes, it is very nice. Now, onto you, Sir Xeal, or should I say Viscount Xeal.”

Xeal was caught off guard as he responded.

“Wait, what? I thought I had at least a few more quests before I would become a viscount.”

“You did, but you just love to go above and beyond. That dark elf you brought us has already told us more information than we could have dreamed of. I don’t know what or how you did it, but between her and the dark elves we captured when we stormed their settlement at that tower’s base, we learned enough that we now should be able to easily defend against their kind in the future. Still, to think that after all this time the dark elves have returned. We live in troubling times. I sure hope your guild can mature in time to help push back against the darkness that is coming,” Victor said, concern evident in his tone.

“Even so, that doesn’t add up. I feel as if I am being promoted too easily. Won’t there be many noble houses who take issue with this move, especially once my courtship with Enye is made public?” Xeal questioned.

“Indeed, my dear, which is why it won’t be public right away. Victor and I talked and if you courted me at your current strength many houses, to include the Mercer house, would likely take actions to destroy you. While you are stronger than any of the other adventurers in our lands, you are still far from strong enough to deal with those that a house like the Mercers would employ,” Enye commented with concern evident in her voice.

“I see. Then what is the plan?”

“You need to strengthen yourself and continue to perform deeds that benefit the Kingdom. Once you have completed the sixth task, you should have enough strength to survive whatever the Mercer house will throw at you. Oh, and just because it is not public doesn’t mean it isn’t official. As far as the king and queen are concerned, you and Enye are paired. Just don’t cause any scandals before you can handle the consequences. I really don’t want to see mother on a warpath,” Victor said, looking hopeless at the thought.

“Oh, dear that would be terrible,” agreed Enye.

“Only for the unfortunate one who earns her ire. Honestly, I never knew just how terrifying Queen Eleanor was. I just feel bad for poor Vanessa. She could have been happy but now, ‘shudder’, let’s just say she wishes she could have another chance,” Dyllis said with pity in her eyes.

“Is that the girl Xeal was considering accepting due to the political situation?” Asked Gale.

“Yes, though she didn’t know what was good for her,” commented Dyllis.

“Mother can be a bit forceful when it comes to me and the Mercer house. She is beyond frustrated at them over their actions toward me,” Enye added.

“I must say though, she loves you Xeal. You would think you were her first born son with how she talks about you whenever she can force me to share the reports of your actions with her,” sighed Victor.

“Wait, what?”

Victor smiled as he went into the details.

“Oh, yes, she is quite taken by you. Ever since you asked her to help when you determined that courting Vanessa would not work out. It was like her birthday had come. You gave her something she has wanted for years. She already liked you when she learned you didn’t run upon learning that courting Enye would cause you to become a target. Then you give her an excuse to take out a good bit of her frustrations on the Mercer house. The best part is she was able to tell them that it was due to them trying to implant her as a spy on myself.”

“They must have loved that,” joked Gale.

“Oh, they did. They have been at it nonstop ever since she was shipped off to my mother’s household. They have been claiming that Xeal must have lied and that they would never dream of spying on the prince. Really, though, they will cause trouble even if Xeal and I are not publicly a couple yet. They will see Xeal’s rise to viscount as a precursor to our courtship and move to ensure Xeal does not become an earl,” sighed Enye.

“Yes, I expect them to start pushing for our marriage in the next month or so,” commented Dyllis.

“What would that accomplish?” questioned Gale.

“Gale, if Xeal marries Dyllis right now, she would become his first, and therefore, head wife. Instantly it would become extremely troublesome for any noble lady of higher standing to marry him, as demoting a head wife is considered a shame to her even, if the new wife has a higher social standing,” supplied Aalin before Dyllis or Enye could do so.

“Yes, and the royal court would be disgraced if Enye was under a viscount’s daughter in a marriage,” supplemented Dyllis.

“Any way we look at it, I need to marry Enye before I can marry anyone else,” sighed Xeal.

“So how do we push back on the Mercer house when they push for you two to marry?” inquired Gale.

For the next half hour, the table enjoyed tea and snacks that Maxwell served them while going over various ways to ensure Xeal stayed unwed until he could stand firm against the noble houses with his own strength. Everything kept returning to Xeal needing to increase his strength, and fast. Even his deadline to reach level 80 by day 390 was quickly approaching. Before he had broken the seal on the elder dragon mark, he was on pace to easily reach that goal. However, after he did so, his experience required per level increased by 50%, and he was in danger of falling behind if he didn’t invest some serious time into leveling up in the near future. He needed to average a level every seven days in ED. That would be easy if Xeal did nothing but grind as he had along the way to the border for his last quest. Still, he had been close to level 64 at the start of that and had just reached level 65 when he reached his destination. Each level was taking longer than the one before it as it slowly creeped to where pro players would go weeks without leveling up when they reached tier 6. Xeal decided, while seated there that day, that he needed to put everything he could into reaching tier 5 and opening up the rest of ED’s world to him before he did anything else. As he thought, a plan formed that would ensure not only that he reached his goal, but FAE’s strength would reach new heights as well.

Finally, the tea time came to a close and it was time to bid Victor, Enye and Dyllis farewell. First Victor approached, grabbing Xeal’s forearm instead of his offered hand and gave him a pat on the back, congratulating him on unofficially becoming a viscount. He then once again congratulated Gale and Aalin on their approaching rise to nobility. Reminding them that he would set up an official ceremony for them, coinciding with their guild headquarters completion. Next, Dyllis approached and enjoyed a brief hug and a chaste kiss on Xeal’s lips, reminding him that she was looking forward to their next date. Dyllis gave both Aalin and Gale hugs, welcoming them to nobility and saying they needed to get together before it was official to go over a few things. Finally, Enye pulled Xeal into a tight hug as she worked to keep her excitement contained with mixed results. The kiss Xeal gave her on the cheek just made her hold him tighter as he felt her emotions war within her. Finally, after Victor coughed, she realized she needed to end the hug and made Xeal promise he would become strong enough to marry her as soon as he could. He of course promised that he would ensure he didn’t slack off when the time came for him to stand next to her for the world to see. Radiating contentment, Enye left with Victor and Dyllis, and Xeal turned to Gale and Aalin to share his plan to power level.

A few hours later, Xeal had gathered the team he would be spending the next 60 or so days in ED with. He had decided the most efficient set up would be a group of six, consisting of three front line fighters, an attack mage, a support mage and a cleric. To fill the other two front line roles, Xeal had brought in Amser and Takeshi. His cleric was Gale, with Aalin providing the support mage role, leaving just an attack mage needed. For that he had decided on Vento Tempestas, who had been leading teams in the kobold mines for a while now and was showing some promise as a storm mage. The green haired mage still had the habit of trying to role play a bit too much, but his skills were above average and this would be a good chance to see if he could take the next step. Xeal’s plan was simple. He would be spending every moment he could gaining XP in the most efficient way possible. He knew exactly where he was going to grind at. It was the level 70 to 79 plains map just to the side of the forest where they had taken down the spider queen. The main issue was, he knew that a solo player could not handle the area as it was a herd and pack monster area. Without support, even the best player would need to be way over-leveled to casually grind there. The last part of Xeal’s plan was going to cause him to burn through gold at a rate that other guilds would faint at. He had arranged to reserve a royal forging room in the capital for him to work on his smithing. The royal crafting rooms were the top of the line, as far as a player could rent. Only players with noble titles were allowed to rent these rooms, and when compared to a deluxe room in an outpost, these rooms were three times as effective for ten times the price. Whenever the team needed to rest to recover their MP, SP or stamina, he would be using an advanced return scroll to return to the capital and spend the time smithing. By his estimates he would be losing around 500 gold a day at the start. He just hoped it paid off by the end of it. If everything went well, he would be a tier 5 player and a silver smith by ED day 380, well ahead of what was normal in Xeal’s last life by over 100 days.

“Guild leader, it is an honor to be invited by your esteemed self. The winds of fortune have smiled upon me. My skills are at your disposal to blow any foe away,” greeted Vento.

“Alright, nope, the nonstop wind puns and turn of phrases are not going to fly,” interjected Gale.

“Gale, you do realize you just made one yourself?” sighed Aalin.

“Not helping,” Gale shot back.

Xeal simply smiled before he responded.

“Everyone calm down. Vento, I know you enjoy getting into character, and when you’re with your team that’s great. However, right now you need to show me what you can really do. I won’t replace you over a few lines here or there but, you need to keep it to a minimum. Prove that you can represent FAE to others without making us look bad.”

Nodding Vento replied, “I understand. It’s just how I deal with stress, so please forgive me if I slip into it mid battle.”

“That’s fine. We can work on that while we grind as well.”

“Great. Now that we have that out of the way, what is the plan, besides 60 days of killing things,” Amser added, redirecting the conversation.

“Amser-san, I am sure Xeal-san has much planned for us.” responded Takeshi.

“Nope, Takeshi-san, I don’t. The plan is really to just kill things as quick and efficiently as we can. This is not about a secret quest or improving our reputation, it is about you, me and Amser reaching Tier 5 ASAP,” Xeal quickly answered.

“What about the rest of us?” questioned Gale.

“You three are nowhere near ready to attempt to reach tier 5. Trying to do so would just be a mistake at this point. Each of you will spend a fair bit of time at level 79 while you perfect the skills that you need to focus on. Don’t worry, you all will still be among the first to reach tier 5, but if you do so without the proper foundations, it will just make reaching tier 6 and 7 that much harder,” Xeal said while looking at all three of them seriously.

“What about tier 8?” inquired Aalin.

“Tier 8 is a wild card. Still, if my estimations are correct, the total number of players who will have the skills needed to reach there will be around 1,000. In FAE I am only confident in Takeshi-san’s chances of reaching that level. Amser and I have a chance while the rest of the guild would require an extremely fortuitous encounter to reach that level. Not saying that is the truth, but I highly expect it to be the case,” explained Xeal.

“I would have to agree with Xeal-san. From what I have found, tier seven seems to be the height of an NPC’s power. If players could just casually reach tier 8, the world would fall into chaos as players would be able to completely overwhelm the few tier 8 NPCs that do exist,” contributed Takeshi.

“Whatever, it’s pointless to worry about it now. All any of us can do is hone our skills until we reach the peak, and then climb higher. Now, let’s go kill some monsters,” Amser said, with a note of impatience.

With that Xeal led the group to the teleportation hall and teleported to Autumndale. Once there, it was an hour’s march to the designated area that Xeal planned to pioneer. He could see the untouched map spotted with the bison type monsters, fury bulls and sharp cows, that roamed in herds of five to ten that were their first target. His group would need to be on guard against the crazed wolf packs that hunted these herds. Xeal led the group to a herd that consisted of one fury bull and four sharp cows to test the waters. He took point to engage with the fury bull as it charged at them the moment his party was in range. As he did that, he directed Takeshi and Amser to fan out to keep the sharp cows from encircling the group. While they did this, Aalin was casting a party buff spells as Vento waited to launch his attack spell until Xeal had secured the aggro of the fury bull. Gale’s job was made easy by the fact that the three frontliners were all adept at avoiding unnecessary damage. She was able to pull out her crossbow and contribute slightly to the damage between the occasional heal. After a few minutes of battle, Xeal had taken care of the fury bull and moved on to attacking the sharp cows. The six of them continued like this, slowly improving their team cohesion, until the group as a whole was running low on SP and MP. It was then that they moved into one of the area’s safe zones and Xeal used an advanced return scroll. Once he was in Autumndale, he used the teleportation hall to return to the capital. Quickly Xeal left the capital’s teleportation hall and hurried over to the royal forging room and rented it.

As Xeal entered the royal forging room for the first time, he had to admit it was an excellent setup. It provided masterwork tools and a level 5 spirit flame. The flame alone was something no player could hope to see before level 130 and would improve all of Xeal’s work immensely. Add to it that the room constantly refreshed his stamina completely, plus an hour outside was two in the forging room, and a further increase to the time dilation during the forging process, and he could easily put out four times as much equipment as he could while in a normal forge. Wasting no time, Xeal pulled out four level 50 forging designs he had acquired from the nobles market. Unlike the lower-level molds that were meant to hold a player’s hand until they reached iron rank, forging designs required far more effort to create the item. However, the items created were also of far better quality. If Xeal wanted to reach beyond gold, he had to master using the designs as molded gear was always inferior and never allowed for innovation. Many smiths found themselves stuck at gold due to their inability to innovate and create unique items, and Xeal knew that he had to make the jump sooner rather than later if he was going to succeed and not cause his relationship with Darefret to falter. With these thoughts, Xeal laid out the materials needed for the four designs. One was a simple one-handed steel sword. Another was for throwing daggers. The third was for a steel-domed round shield, and the last one was for a steel lance. Xeal took a few seconds to clear his mind and get into the right head space, and started to learn each of the designs by making a few of each before moving onto the next. An hour later he received a message that the rest of the group had recovered and were ready to continue grinding. Xeal took out the advanced return scroll and returned to the party. He would continue to switch between both locations for the remainder of his login, only taking a break to get six hours of sleep in the middle.

Towards the end of his login, when Xeal was getting ready to return to his mansion to rest again, he received a message from Segur Woodlight, the guild leader of Hope of Rejects. He was asking to meet with Xeal urgently and was in the capital, ready to go wherever Xeal thought best for discretion. Xeal told Segur to come to the royal forging room as it was the securest location that Xeal could think of as almost no players even knew that there was a royal crafters building. A few minutes later Segur was inside the room with Xeal. Segur looked shocked at the contents of the royal forging room. After he recovered, he turned to Xeal and started franticly talking.

“Something big is about to happen!”

“Calm down. What is going on?”

“Okay, you know how my guild basically picks up the players other guilds toss out for not meeting the standard, right?”

“Yes.”

“Well, over the last week we received a major influx of players that Templar Fall and Red Crushers kicked out. All of them said that the guild leaders decided that all their members needed to take a skills test, and the bottom 20% would be kicked out to make room for new players.”

“Okay, and what does that have to do with something big happening?”

“They haven’t recruited openly at all. It’s like they already had the new members picked out. To make matters worse, they are all either at tier 4, or about to hit tier 4. I know that isn’t a big deal to a guild like yours, but to most other non-workshop guilds that is a nightmare. My guild only has half a dozen tier 4 players right now and even the top independent guild other than you, Rising Oblivion, only has five or six hundred. We just don’t have the ability to develop talents like the major guilds do.”

“I see, and what are you hoping I can do?”

“Can’t you keep them in check? You have the prince’s ear. I’m sure you could ensure they don’t suppress every other guild, right?”

“It’s not that simple. I can’t just use the kingdom’s forces as I wish. No, I have to have good justification to make a move, and even then it would come at a great price.”

“So, you’re saying that we’re doomed. Red Crushers and Templar Fall can just roll right over us and destroy any chances of new guilds being anything more than doormats for the major workshops.”

“No, the kingdom will act even without me if things get too bad. Suppressing every player not in your guild is a big deal to the prince. However, if they just go after the few that pose the biggest threat to their power in the right way there will be nothing I can do.”

“You’re saying that he will go after Night Oath and Rising Oblivion, but leave my guild alone?”

“No, I am saying that if they are smart about it, none of the other guilds will even realize that they are their underlings until they are. They will likely start by contracting guilds to be their suppliers of basic loot like ores, pelts, herbs and the like. Once they have figured out who will and won’t work with them, they will start to squeeze the uncooperative ones in various ways.”

“So, what should my guild do?”

“That is something your guild must decide. Just don’t do anything that could be seen as justification for them to retaliate against you. If they have proof, they can use it to keep the kingdom from interfering with their assault, even if they destroy your guild in the process.”

“I understand. Wait, what if I signed a supply contract with your guild?”

“That would give me justification to put pressure on them if they put pressure on you. However, it would also mean that if you provoked them, it would implicate my guild. I’m not sure that is a risk I am ready to take. No offence, but your guild members aren’t known for their restraint.”

“Yes, I know, but I can get them on board with this one. I will simply kick out any member who stirs the pot with Red Crushers or Templar Fall.”

“And that will just cause Red Crushers and Templar Fall to try and get a rise out of your members.”

“Are you willing to make a deal or not?”

“What do you have in mind?”

“Simple. We sell all of our goods at half the market price and you allow us to buy gear at three quarters the market price.”

“That deal shows how little you know about how crafting works. Your members would be providing mainly basic components and would try to buy gear that requires rare materials. Even if we sold you the gear at 90% its normal price, we would be taking a loss.”

Xeal and Segur went back and forth several times as they tried to make a deal that would work. In the end, they made a deal where Segur’s guild could exchange resources for gear according to how much and what materials his guild provided. The gear would be placed in the Hope of Rejects’ guild coin exchange system where his members could purchase it, or he could offload it to NPC merchants who exported to other continents as Xeal didn’t want to arm the other countries on this continent just yet. Finally, with a deal in place, Segur left to get the rest of his guild’s leadership to agree to it so it would come into effect. Once Segur was gone, Xeal made his way to his mansion to rest before he logged out.

Morning October 19 to Evening October 21, 2266, & ED year 1, days 284-290

The following three days in reality were uneventful for Alex and his friends as they continued their daily routine of exercising and talking about things that were happening in ED. The Angels had also advanced to the World Series to play against the Dodgers in an all-west coast showdown that was set to start on the 25th. Anna had started to look at Alex like he knew something when that happened, as he had said they would win it all with confidence well before he should have known they would even play in the series. As things stood, if things played out the same as last time, the Angels would win in six on November 1st. In other news, ED was gaining popularity faster than it did in Alex’s last life as the news reported that the game was taking the world by storm as the player base had already reached 3 billion, making it the most popular VR game ever released. This news worried Alex as he wondered just how much his actions had influenced the world and why it had done so. What he didn’t know was how the sleeping trick he shared with his friends and family ended up being posted all over the forums, as it was shared over and over again. That alone had caused many who had dismissed the game due to the players complaining about exhaustion to instead check it out. Those people recommended it to others, and the domino effect started and the rush for better ground infrastructure began around the world. The good news was that thanks to ED running on quantum entangled servers whose pairs were housed in the same building as the main quantum server, the infrastructure only needed to reach to the nearest server. Still, it would take years to get that done. Meanwhile, those who only had access to the internet through LEO satellites would have to wait for this to be done, or move to a city. Alex was hoping that he could take advantage of this to lure players he knew from these areas to his guild city when it was built, as it would be ten years before the infrastructure caught up to accommodate players around the world. Still, with ED’s increased popularity, Alex worried that it would accelerate that time table, causing him to miss out on some potential top-quality players that would join only after the infrastructure caught up.

The only other things of note that occurred during his next three days in the real world were that Alex took Sam out on another date, and she had actually started to worry openly to Alex at how late her time of the month was. They still hadn’t shared with anyone that Nicole and Sam were late, and both girls were now leaning towards them being pregnant. Alex could see that while they hadn’t shared with anyone, a few had noticed that the girls were a bit off from their normal selves. Alex was almost sure that Amanda had figured it out as she knew both Sam and Nicole the best. He just hoped his mom didn’t find out before they knew for sure. Lastly, Alex, Sam, Nicole, Ava and Mia had all been called in for more questioning regarding the incident in front of the twins’ hotel. This time it was a group working in the district attorney’s office who was doing a prescreening to determine if, and what, the idiots who were harassing Ava and Mia would be charged with. They all answered their questions and walked through the events as best as they could remember them. Afterwards, Alex took all four girls out to eat before returning to ED.

Unlike the real world, things inside ED had been busy in the kingdom of Nium. Segur had gotten his guild to agree to the deal Xeal and he had worked out, and on day 285, Red Crushers and Templar Fall had made their move. The two guilds had publicly announced an alliance and started to put pressure on any guilds that weren’t affiliated with a recognized gaming workshop. They did this by occupying any good grinding locations of guilds who refused to sign a resource contract with them. The reason why the kingdom ignored this was due to the fact that both guilds took no actions within safe zones, to include intimidation. They simply would offer a guild a deal, and when they refused, a large group of players would flood the areas that that guild relied on to grind. No attacking other players, just simply denying them the ability to efficiently level and farm materials. This action was met with mixed results, thanks to Segur spreading the deal that Xeal had given them, around. At first this led to many minor guilds who had already been targeted to seek out FAE for cooperation. However, FAE could only handle so much right now and many of these guilds were stubbornly trying to get a better deal than Segur secured for Hope of Rejects. Quickly, Red Crushers and Templar Fall learned of the details and tailored the deals they were offering to be much better than what FAE offered. This made Xeal laugh as he had been troubled at how to turn down all the guilds who were seeking cooperation with FAE, but now most that didn’t have a major grudge with Red Crushers or Templar Fall took their deal to avoid stagnation. Red Crushers and Templar Fall didn’t know that the deals they had made would come back to bite them, as they would cause major losses for their guilds, so long as the deals were active. The crafting system was still new and players, other than Xeal, could only guess at how it would evolve, and how to properly balance things. The deal he had given Segur was actually his bottom line as it would just barely allow for a profit of only two or three percent. The copy of the Red Crushers and Templar Fall deal that Xeal got his hands on would likely operate at a five percent loss. To make matters worse, they were signing up with over 50 guilds, which would cause that five percent to get out of control, fast. It would take them months to realize it as the start of any resource deal always started with the resources being provided and the final product being delivered later. The wording on the deal Red Crushers and Templar Fall made basically gave them a month before deliverables were due. Xeal was looking forward to seeing just what things looked like in two months’ time.

However, it was still a fact that this move allowed for Red Crushers and Templar Fall to secure a large base of resource collectors for them to utilize. It also pacified the other players towards their actions, while FAE simply seemed to be indifferent to their plight. The next step that Red Crushers and Templar Fall took was to start targeting the major guilds that were unaffiliated with a workshop, by poaching any crafting player or decent combat player they could. This included Rising Oblivion and FAE, as both were their prime targets. FAE lost crafters by the thousands as they quickly accepted the better deal offered by Red Crushers and Templar Fall, who willingly paid the severance fees, while Xeal smiled at the free money. He could do this as Red Crushers and Templar Fall had only taken his underperforming crafters who were likely to be cut loose eventually anyways, as he had long since locked down any crafter he deemed to be top quality with generous contracts that rewarded them as they perfected their craft, with deals like the one he had given Lily. Still, he wouldn’t lie about how losing over 10,000 crafters had caused his operation to have to adapt quickly. It did so by increasing the other crafters’ daily materials, in turn letting them improve faster. Many crafters had started to jokingly encourage one another to jump ship so that they could have more materials to work with. Rising Oblivion on the other hand was hurting as they had failed to secure their crafters at all, and the few they had were gone by day 290, leading them to reach out for a meeting on day 291 with Xeal. Xeal had agreed to meet with Friva when he first logged in that day, as his time was extremely precious right now, as he had only made it to level 67 in the middle of day 289, and needed to keep grinding nonstop if he wanted to reach his goal. At this point, his party had their team work down, and outside a wind pun here or there from Vento, everything was going great. Vento was able to anticipate Takeshi’s, Amser’s and Xeal’s moves almost all of the time and adapt to use his wind magic to suppress the monsters each engaged, making the job of pinning down the extra members of each herd much easier. Xeal was also pleased with the progress he was making at smithing as he was now only losing 400 gold a day on his endeavor, and was about to hit steel rank any time now. Honestly, he shouldn’t have even tried to work with level 50 designs at this skill level if he was a normal player. Normally, to do a halfway decent job with a design of that level, a silver ranked smith was needed. No, though Xeal was able to produce a passible quality item on every fourth or fifth attempt, he was still wasting more materials than any self-respecting smith would allow. It was just like throwing money at a problem and hoping it fixed itself. He could only do this thanks to the extremely generous rewards the prince’s quests gave. Everything considered, things for Xeal were going great. Ignis’ and Clara’s teams had both successfully unlocked the two minor cities they had been questing for. This opened up two more locations for FAE members to operate out of. If it wasn’t for Red Crushers and Templar Fall taking aggressive actions, everything would be perfect.

ED year 1, days 291-292.

As Xeal prepared for his meeting with Friva that was scheduled to start shortly, he reviewed the status of everything in the guild. While the drop in crafting players had created a hole that needed to be filled, other operations were continuing as normal. Red Crushers and Templar Fall had left his guild alone out in the field. Xeal suspected they were trying to weaken his position before going in for the kill. That, or they had an agreement with other workshops that they would work to keep FAE from being able to grow uncontested, or solidify the other guilds in Nium around them. Either way, it was a troubling issue as FAE could not afford to become a tyrant who ruled by force as it would push players to leave for other countries once they reached level 80. At the same time, he needed to find a way to stop Red Crushers and Templar Fall from continuing as they were as it would have the same result. While it may not be an issue in the short run, once war broke out players would be an essential element to the kingdom’s forces. A player’s ability to come back to life three days after they died made them invaluable, as it meant you could suffer a complete wipe and replenish your forces three days later. In war, this was a fearsome ability that made NPCs run in terror when an army of players approached. It was also why imprisonment was the only effective way of dealing with players. However, unlike players who were imprisoned due to a crime, prisoners of war would be free upon resurrection, so long as they didn’t commit a war crime as defined by the system. This meant that once captured, many players would look for a way to kill themselves rather than stay locked up. This made items that resembled cyanide capsules quite popular among players during war times. Still, that was years off and right now Xeal needed to ensure FAE weathered this storm and the elite players from Red Crushers and Templar Fall don’t leave the kingdom. This was the main source of Xeal’s headache from the current situation. He wished he could simply remove the issue by force like he had with the rogue players, as most of them would have left the kingdom after level 80 anyways. Unfortunately, this situation involved many of the players that played vital roles in Nium’s successful unification of the continent in Xeal’s last life. He could see Nium still succeeding with his knowledge and ability to nurture more players if the kingdom lost just Red Crushers’ or Templar Fall’s elite players, but not both. It was then that Maxwell knocked and informed Xeal that Friva had arrived.

Sighing, Xeal made his way to the room where the meeting would be held. It was a small office that was tucked away to the side of the main hall that looked like it was more suited to be used as a broom closet, but it still had just enough space for a small desk with a chair on each side. Xeal had decided to hold the meeting here as his guild headquarters was still just over a week away from completion. Thankfully, none of the crafters who had been tasked with its completion, or the fort in front of Darefret’s mine, had been lured away as FAE was the only guild in any position to develop their crafts at this stage in ED. As Xeal entered the room, he found Friva sitting in the chair closest to the door, nervously fidgeting with her hair. As she noticed Xeal, she quickly stopped and tried to act like nothing was wrong.

“Friva, it is nice to see you again, though I wish it was in better times.”

“Same to you Xeal, though you seem rather calm, all things considered.”

“Panic helps no one but your enemies.”

“Are you really only 18?”

“Ah, so the major workshops have started to spread my age around to shake the trust others have in me. Yes, I am only 18, the same age Alexander the great was when he rode out to victory against the Athenians.”

“How can an 18-year-old be so composed and build a guild like FAE?”

“Ah, well, for my composure, I will only say that I am predisposed to be so, and for how I have been able to build my guild so successfully, I would say simply, results. Younger players like myself and my friends don’t care about someone’s age, just their ability. The players who have joined FAE are largely younger players hoping to make a career out of ED and all they see is someone who stands at the top currently, offering to help them grow. I really must thank Abysses End for attacking me when they did, as it allowed my guild’s abilities to be showcased for all to see.”

“Yet you are sitting back while Red Crushers and Templar Fall suffocate the rest of the kingdom.”

“If you think I am content to simply watch things play out, you are mistaken. The issue is, I have no justification to act. Furthermore, while most have not yet realized it, Nium can’t afford to lose the elites from the two guilds. So, any actions I take must be measured and calculated, or I may win the battle but lose the war.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Red Crushers and Templar Fall are acting solely to hinder my guild’s ability to develop freely. They may be doing so by indirect methods that seem to ignore my guild, but the result of their plan, if successful, will be the same.”

“Then why are you doing nothing?”

At this Xeal smiled before allowing Friva in on a portion of his plan to deal with the situation. The portion of the plan Xeal shared gave Friva a good bit of food for thought, but did little to ease her guild’s situation. When she pressed Xeal about taking actions, such as forming alliances with other guilds that were holding out against Red Crushers and Templar Fall to counter their aggression, Xeal just shook his head and explained how that would simply play into their hands. If he were to tie FAE to any guild, he would need to be confident in their ability to stand against the test of time. Right now, in Nium, outside of Red Crushers and Templar Fall, only Night Oath qualified. Any other alliance would simply open more avenues for FAE to be attacked from, including the betrayals that Abysses End orchestrated frequently in his last life. By the end, Friva was disheartened at Xeal’s willingness to simply standby and watch the startup guilds like her own be suppressed. The only thing that was agreed on was that Friva’s guild Rising Oblivion would sign the same deal Hope of Rejects did.

“So, you’re saying, other than a resource agreement like what you signed with Hope of Rejects, you won’t do anything?” Friva sounded dejected as she spoke.

“No, I am saying that what I plan to do is act according to my guild’s best interest. I understand your plight and believe me, I wish I could simply tell them to stop and have everything return to normal. However, as Jingong learned the hard way, NPC rulers don’t take kindly to players enforcing their own rules,” Xeal calmly responded.

“Couldn’t you bring this to the prince’s attention and ask him to do something about it?”

“That has already been done. The whole situation is being closely monitored by the kingdom. Make no mistake, if Red Crushers or Templar Fall harm the kingdoms interests, Prince Victor will act.”

“I see.”

“I’m sorry, but if I take the actions you are hoping for, it would simply play into their hands as it is what they would expect. If anything, they are likely stressing out at my inaction.”

“At least my guild now has a decent avenue to exchange our materials for usable items. Well, I suppose I should leave now. Let me know when you’re ready to make a move,” Friva wore a bittersweet smile as she spoke.

“I will, and for what it is worth, I wish I could do more. I hope your guild is able to weather this storm.” Xeal extended a hand to Friva, helping her stand before he walked with her as she left his home.

With Friva gone, Xeal pulled out the advanced return scroll he used to return to the capital last and returned to the plains to continue grinding with his party. He would spend the remainder of his login jumping back and forth between grinding in the field and grinding in the royal forging room. He was pleased when he finally reached steel rank and watched his success rate improve to where every third or fourth item was passible. This dropped Xeal’s daily losses to around 350 gold a day. Still, he knew he had a ways to go as he logged out, feeling exhausted from the almost nonstop work he was doing in ED.

Morning October 22, 2266.

It was just another morning run for Alex and his ever expanding group. He was leading a group run to the park where they would do some light physical conditioning before a release run back to his parents’ house. They had just started to use the park’s equipment to exercise when around 30 guys wearing baggie clothing with bandanas covering their faces showed up and started to surround them. Alex didn’t like the look of things so he instantly yelled for everyone to run home. Alex had a feeling that friends of the four idiots he had had an altercation with had tracked him down. How much they knew was still up in the air, but one thing was for sure, the situation wasn’t good. Especially as the group of men started to give chase. Luckily, baggie clothing wasn’t ideal for running and Alex could tell only a few of their pursuers were in good shape. Unfortunately, the few that were in shape were catching up to the slower runners of his group that were quickly running out of steam. Jessica, Lauren and Anna were in the back and would be the first to be overtaken as things currently were. Alex’s mom, Nicole and Sam weren’t much farther ahead either. If something didn’t slow their pursuers down, things were about to get ugly. Alex made his choice and turned to face the faster guys to give the others the chance to escape. What surprised him was when Dan, Fred and his father did the same. Further surprising Alex was that Ava and Mia had turned to fight as well, a second after the others. Alex wanted to tell them to keep running but he knew there was no time for him to do so. He just had to hope things would turn out okay.

Quickly Alex charged past Jessica, Lauren and Anna who were only five feet in front of the nearest pursuer. Steadying himself, Alex caught the guy by surprise with a palm to his lower jaw that sent him to the ground. Quickly he stepped forward and swept his leg as the next guy came up with his arm pulled back for a punch, sending the guy rolling on the ground. Alex hoped that the others could finish the job as the next guy gave him no time to think before Alex had to react. Taking a low stance, Alex used his body like a spring, bringing his hands together as he landed a double palm hit to the next guy, launching him backward into the fourth and fifth guy. Adrenaline pumping, Alex pushed forward, kicking the three stunned guys in the head, sending them off to dream land, before recentering himself in the moment he had, due to the next group having hesitated to approach after watching five guys go down in the span of a few seconds. That moment was all Alex needed as he stepped into his next opponent’s guard, turned his back into his chest, and flipped him over his shoulder while checking on his friends. He could see that while they wore looks of shock on their faces, they had ensured that each of the guys Alex had taken care of stayed down. Dan and Fred stepped past Alex, one on each side, to help Alex handle the next wave of five guys who were coming at Alex as one. Both Dan and Fred took hits but stayed on their feet as Alex took down one guy after another. Ava, Mia and his father had started to take the role of ensuring the guys Alex downed stayed down. After the 20th guy went down, the last ten simply ran. It was only a moment after that that red and blue lights came into view, telling Alex that help had arrived. Alex took in the scene around him. Dan and Fred both had busted faces but wore smiles as they gave Alex a thumbs up while they struggled to stand. His father looked like he was still trying to process what had just happened as Ava and Mia still had their bloody fists up, watching to ensure the guys on the ground stayed there. As Alex looked at himself, he was covered in blood, both his own and that of the guys he had dismantled. As his adrenaline wore off, he could feel his body yelling at him for pushing himself further than it was ready for. Still, he felt that a few days of rest and some muscle recovery supplements was all he would need to feel fine.

A total of five squad cars pulled up as ten officers jumped out of their cars, shouting for everyone to put their hands up. Alex and his friends all complied with the officers’ orders as the few men on the ground still holding to their consciousness just groaned in pain. Shortly after the officers arrived and secured the scene, ambulances started to arrive and paramedics started to check over the men on the ground. The whole scene was surreal to Alex as he had never experienced such brutality outside of Eternal Dominion in his last life. Part of him was relieved that he was able to react so calmly to the situation, while another part of him was worried about how easy it had been for him to strike back with no concern for the lives of the men he sent to the ground. Finally, after a while, the rest of his group had returned. It had been his mother who had called emergency services the moment they had turned the corner to find Alex’s group missing. Sam and Nicole had complicated looks on their faces as they looked from the opposite side of the police tape at Alex, Fred, Dan, Ava, Mia and Mr. Bell sitting cuffed on the side walk. The officers had yet to get the whole story and more were arriving every second, creating more chaos. Finally, a half hour after everything had started and playing 20 questions with multiple officers, Alex’s group was released from their restraints and cleared by the paramedics on site after some minor first aid.

When they finally made it back home, Alex’s mom started to lay into Alex and his friends over their actions. Specifically, the fact that Alex had already had an altercation with some possible gang members and he hadn’t informed anyone that wasn’t involved. Mrs. Bell was completely wound up over the whole situation, especially since ten of the guys had gotten away. The fact that they had shown up during their run told her that they had at least done some scoping out of Alex, or the twins, over the last few days. She was worried about them trying something while they were all logged in to Eternal Dominion. It took Alex a while to calm his mom down, but finally, after an apology about keeping the prior altercation from her and some hugs, she finally dropped the subject for the time being. It was then that the conversation turned to the group talking about what they had witnessed and how the heck Alex had been able to do what he had done. They said it was more like watching him in ED than reality. All Alex would say was, just like the last time, he simply reacted without thought. After pestering him for more for a fair bit, they gave up, allowing Alex to avoid answering too much as he was sure that telling them that it was largely due to playing ED for a couple decades and his brain just processing things at an accelerated rate and remembering his moves from in game. His actions were actually sloppy to himself as while his mind knew what to do without him even having to actually think about it consciously, his body hadn’t developed the muscle memory of his last life. Originally Alex had planned to wait until they were in Colorado to start everyone in martial arts and dancing lessons to replace the morning runs but now, Alex felt it would make sense to move the morning exercise indoors. He would need to find a few good locations that would open early to serve them a few times a week that had some good trainers as well.

When Alex, Sam and Nicole finally made it back to the apartment it was already 5:45 and they only had 15 minutes before they were due back in ED. So they skipped the shower and just grabbed some quick food before logging back in for the day. While they ate, Alex sent a request off to Background Inc. to locate either a dance instructor willing to open their studio for an hour from 4:20 to 5:20, or a martial arts dojo willing to do the same in his area. Furthermore, Alex asked them to see about setting it up to start tomorrow and said he would pay whichever would take his group of 13 tomorrow 4,000 credits as an inconvenience charge. He quickly received a response that they would look into it and would have options for him by 4:00 in the afternoon when he was available again.

ED year 1, day 293.

Xeal spent from midnight to the early evening continuing his grinding routine with his party. Between that and his forging, when his scheduled time for his date with Dyllis came near, he was really feeling the effects of a 17-hour day. However, this was just his second official date with her and she was the one in charge of the evening’s events. Xeal had no idea what she had planned for the date and was looking forward to enjoying their time together. However, before Xeal met up with her, he had an errand to run so he stopped by a jeweler to see about commissioning something special. Once he was done there, he made a few more stops to prepare for the evening and returned to his mansion, where Lady Dyllis would retrieve him soon.

When Lady Dyllis arrived, Xeal had dressed in the formal wear that Maxwell had prepared for him. It was times like these that Xeal was happy that ED’s designers didn’t go full medieval accuracy as he would have died to be seen in the formal wear of that time period. While ED’s setting was loosely a medieval fantasy world, its formal wear would have been more at home in the 18th or 19th centuries. Xeal was wearing a black suit with vest, covering a white shirt and black tie, finished off with black shoes. Lady Dyllis was dressed in an elegant deep blue dress that flowed as she walked. Her beautiful blond hair was brushed back as she wore the jewelry that Xeal had given her at the banquet where their courtship became official. The smile she had on her face was infectious and Xeal couldn’t help but be happy when he saw her.

“You look lovely this evening, my lady,” Xeal said, while giving Dyllis a slight bow with a smile.

“Oh, stop it. We both know you hate all the etiquette and niceties, even if you use them so skillfully,” responded Dyllis while being coy.

“While you are right, you really do look wonderful tonight. I especially enjoy seeing you wearing my gift.”

“Why thank you, though I feel like the set is missing one piece still. Also, you clean up quite nicely yourself. I think I like this look on you the best. Now we need to hurry as the carriage is waiting.”

“As you command, my lady.”

“Now you’re just making fun of me.”

Xeal just smiled as he walked arm in arm with Dyllis to the waiting carriage, assisting her in before following her in and sitting next to her.

“You know it’s just us in here. We could get away with so much if you wanted.”

“Dyllis, is everything alright?”

“Why of course it is. I am here, sitting next to a wonderful man who I adore, and adores me back, as we head out for an enjoyable evening together.” Xeal could feel the tremble in Dyllis’s voice.

“Dyllis, you’re acting a bit strange. Please, just share what’s on your mind with me. I want to help.”

“Xeal, you’re about to become a viscount. That will have you stand at the same level as my father. I know you were pushed into this arrangement by him, and while I am happy about our courtship, I worry that you will call it off once you can do so without issue.”

Xeal turned to Dyllis, took her hand into his own, and smiled while looking at her as he responded.

“Dyllis, while I won’t lie and say I didn’t try and avoid this courtship, I would be a fool to end it. Besides, I have grown rather fond of having the privilege of using you to make every other noble lady turn green. Most importantly, I love seeing you smile too much. I know you have been quiet and non-confrontational for the most part. I thought you were just being measured due to Enye being around, but now I feel like you were afraid to lose me.”

“Do you really mean all of that, or are you just saying what you think will make me happy?”

“Dyllis, while I will not say that my feelings for you have reached the point of love yet, I have accepted that you and I are tied together for better or worse.”

“But you don’t love me.”

“Love is not something that happens overnight. That would be lust. And while lust can lead to love, I prefer it the other way around. I want to fall for you, not your body. Dyllis, you are a wonderful woman and I can see myself caring for you every bit as much as I do Aalin and Gale, but our time together has been too short for that. I can definitely say that I like you and see us headed in the right direction. Heck, this conversation right now just brings us a step closer in my eyes.”

“Really? You mean it?”

Xeal could see bits of water forming in Dyllis’s eyes as she looked at him.

“You’re wonderful, Dyllis. I really do like you and enjoy your company. I am happy that you are opening up and letting me in. This is how trust is built, which leads to the ability to truly know one another, allowing love to blossom. At least that’s how I see it.”

Dyllis took a moment to compose herself and clean up the moisture that had threatened to ruin her makeup, before turning and snuggling into Xeal’s side for the rest of the carriage ride until they finally reached their destination. As Xeal stepped out he knew exactly where they were, the royal theater. Dyllis smiled as she led Xeal to the noble’s entrance that led up to the private boxes reserved for attending nobles. In Xeal’s past life, even though he was an honorary viscount, he had never qualified to use one of these boxes as only those with hereditary titles could reserve them and they were always full at show time. Once they had climbed the stairs, Dyllis led Xeal to a small balcony that overlooked the stage where performers were preparing for the show.

“So, what do you think?”

“It’s wonderful. I must say, being up here will be a new experience for me.”

“Good, now let’s get comfortable. The waiter will be here soon to take our order and once the show starts, we need to be quiet. Noble or not, the theater has no issues removing anyone who disturbs the performance.”

Xeal and Dyllis settled down next to each other at the bar-like table that came out from the edge of the balcony inward to them. The waiter arrived and took their order before leaving to fetch them their meal as they sat and enjoyed watching the musical while holding each other’s hand.

Evening October 22, 2266.

When Alex awoke from ED, he instantly took note of the message he had from Background Inc. about options for the following mornings exercise options. Using the information that he had provided, they had narrowed it down to three options for him to decide between. Two were dojos and one was a dance studio with an instructor that specialized in swing dance. As Alex thought of his group and the interests of the group, he decided that dance might be the better option for tomorrow and leave one of the dojos for the next day. Looking at both, he had to hand it to Background Inc. They had found one that specialized in Kendo and one that was based around Aikido. Both would teach valuable skills that would help train the brain further. Quickly Alex replied to Background Inc. to see if they could arrange for the dance instructor to host his group the next morning, and see if he could get the other two scheduled for the following two mornings so they could see if each were a fit, before making a commitment for the next few months. After that message was sent, Alex noticed the other message he had received from a police captain named Ned Ward, asking him to come by the station around 4:30 PM. So, he let Sam and Nicole know and both said they were coming with him. So, they all got ready and Alex let everyone else know that he had been called in to talk with the police again.

When Alex arrived at the police station that Captain Ward had instructed him to go to, he walked to the front desk where a slightly overweight officer sat. Once Alex explained why he was there, the officer picked up his phone and called someone to escort Alex to the captain’s office. When Alex entered Captain Ward’s office, Captain Ward, who was a six-foot-tall muscular man with short black hair and brown eyes, stood and shook Alex’s hand before inviting him, Sam and Nicole to take seats to talk about the current situation.

“Alex, I have been looking over the report from this morning’s incident and the incident back on the 15th. It looks like you and your friends are being targeted by a local gang that go by The Razors. Now, luckily, this gang is only known for minor issues. The fact that one of them pulled a gun on you on the 15th was out of character for them.”

“So, is that why none of them pulled a weapon this morning?”

“Yes. In fact, none of them were armed with anything but a few pocket knives.”

“So why are they after me?”

“Well, one of the four guys you confronted is the younger brother to their leader. Though none of them are talking, I believe that they were just there to scare you into not testifying.”

“Ah, the idiot who pulled the gun is the younger brother.”

“Exactly. My working theory is that he had a big head and thought he was untouchable in his brother’s turf. Those four are still awaiting trial as all but one pulled a knife, and the one that didn’t won’t flip. However, we can’t hold the twenty who caused issues this morning past the night, though a few will be in the hospital for a few more days.”

“So your saying to watch my back.”

“Yes, and also, would you like a police guard for the next few weeks in the buildup of the trial?”

“When is the trial scheduled to take place?”

“If they don’t accept a plea bargain it should start the fifth of next month, and we don’t expect it to last more than a day or two.”

Alex thought about the captain’s offer as he contemplated his options. In the end, he simply asked that they just increase officer presence in the areas around where everyone lived, and to have someone stop by at each location at 4:00 AM to ensure that everyone got out of their house fine. He also asked for an officer who would be willing to join them for exercise each morning, explaining how he had made arrangements for his group to move indoors due to the morning’s incident. Captain Ward was impressed at how quickly Alex had adjusted his plans to avoid further issues and said he would see if anyone wanted to show up to free dance and martial arts lessons early in the morning. Both Sam and Nicole only voiced a concern here or there, about things like how Ava and Mia were moving in a few days, and what if someone needed to leave during the middle of the day, or if there was a break in at night while they were all playing ED. Alex and Captain Ward addressed these by agreeing to set up a dispatch speed dial for each and have an officer within a few minutes of each residence. Again, it was emphasized that other than the guy that pulled the gun, this gang didn’t have a history of murder. A few stabbings had occurred, but the worst that was on record was when a victim had to spend a few weeks in the hospital from being beat up. Captain Ward didn’t believe that The Razors would go too far over a few of their members going away for less than ten years. With everything settled, Captain Ward saw them off and Alex took Sam and Nicole home, stopping for food on the way back as they called and updated everyone to bring them up to date on the situation.

ED year 1, days 294-295.

Xeal was able to reach level 68 early into day 294 as he continued his accelerated leveling campaign. Of his initial budget of 10,000 gold for forging, he was already down to around 4,800 gold remaining. However, Xeal was pleased with his progress and knew that he was improving each day and just needed to reach the breakeven point that reaching silver rank should do. Beyond that his party had decided to take on one of the minor bosses on the plains today. It was just an advanced form of the fury bull called a wrath bull, and the main difference was it hit harder and had three times as much health. It also was surrounded by ten herds made up of fury bulls and sharp cows that had to be taken care of without alerting the wrath bull. Xeal watched as Amser pulled the first group away from the others by attacking the fury bull that led a group of five sharp cows, towards where Xeal and Takeshi waited in ambush for them. Once Amser rushed past the small slope, Xeal stepped out and met the fury bull’s charge with a piercing thrust. This single action caused massive damage to the fury bull as its own momentum was used against it. However, it also cost Xeal’s sword to lose a full ten percent durability, and if he didn’t watch it closely, he could easily watch it drop below 60% and force him to find a smith capable of repairing it as a steel smith like himself could only do recovery maintenance on a weapon with above 60% durability left. After getting the fury bull’s attention, Amser and Takeshi unleased their own skills to add to the damage on the fury bull that was currently dealing with a heavy injury debuff. Once they had piled on a few attacks, the five sharp cows arrived and they switched to playing the distraction for the sharp cows while Vento, Aalin and Gale played support and ranged damage. Thanks to a successful initial strike, the fury bull went down easily and Xeal was able to switch to taking down sharp cows one at a time. Finally, his group succeeded in finishing off the herd and were ready to repeat this exercise once more before taking a break to refresh their skill points. This time it was Xeal’s turn to lure the herd and Takeshi’s turn to land the first strike. They kept repeating this with Xeal hopping back and forth until all the surrounding herds were taken care of, leaving just the wrath bull and his herd of ten sharp cows.

As Xeal prepped to take down the boss, they went over the plan once more. Unlike the normal herds, this fight would require that the wrath bull be pulled as far away from his herd as possible and killed before any of the sharp cows were injured as it would attack anyone who hurt one of its herd, over the one attacking it. Additionally, its attack stat went up by 15% for each sharp cow killed within a hundred feet of it. Xeal knew that he would need to be able to isolate the wrath bull and to do so he would need to pull it to one of the few distinct areas of the plains map he was currently in. It was little more than a hole in the ground, but it was just deep enough that the rest of the wrath bull’s herd would lose track of it, leaving it alone. The issue was that Xeal would have to lock the wrath bull into a combo chain and keep it pinned while Amser and Takeshi kited the ten sharp cows in a circle just outside the view of the hole. After some scouting, Xeal confirmed everything was as he remembered it from his last life and the hole was a simple 15-foot-wide circle just big enough to keep the wrath bull from easily escaping and still allowing enough room for Xeal to barely move around in. With the plan in place, Xeal took off to attack the wrath bull.

Xeal struck the wrath bull with a piercing thrust to ensure it entered a rage before dashing off as fast as he could with it right on his heals. Xeal took more than one charge attack from the wrath bull on the way to the hole, but as he was expecting them, Xeal was able to use these attacks to launch himself further away from the wrath bull, roll, and come out of the hits running. Still, Xeal was worried as he was taking more damage than he liked. He had been following the advice he received from the mist form of the dragon he was marked by to focus on increasing his charisma, figuring that as long as he raised it to where it was even with his MP stat, he would be good. Still, it wouldn’t be until level 74 that the two stats would be equal and Xeal was lamenting the fact that he had not been gaining any dexterity or strength each level. Finally, with just over half his health left, Xeal reached the hole and did an about face, to face the wrath bull. In the moment before his piercing thrust connected with the wrath bull, Xeal could see Amser and Takeshi herding the sharp cows as Vento finished the chant of a spell that would ensure the wrath bull couldn’t stop itself from falling into the hole with Xeal. Aalin and Gale were focused on support, with Xeal feeling a general buff and heal land on him just as Vento’s spell increased the wrath bull’s charge into Xeal’s sword. Xeal felt his feet leave the ground as he and the wrath bull fell into the hole, while Xeal’s sword was still embedded in the neck of the wrath bull. When they hit the bottom, Xeal found himself under the massive form of the wrath bull as his sword became buried to its hilt into its neck.

Xeal knew he was in a bad situation the moment he landed as he had expected to be pushed into the far wall of the hole, not the bottom like he was. He knew exactly what went wrong as the only thing that made sense was Vento’s spell had been slightly misplaced and caused the wrath bull to lean forward too much. Now, not only did Xeal take massive damage that had him sitting at under 20% health, but he had a broken leg debuff as well. Luckily, his sword had stayed above 70% durability, if only barely, and the wrath bull had a heavy bleed debuff to go along with its own broken leg debuff. Still, Xeal needed to get out from under the bull and figure out how he was going to handle the fight with only one leg and no hope of any healing for at least 30 seconds. Even though the wrath bull was only a normal boss monster that a skilled player could handle, Xeal knew 30 seconds would be enough time for it to kill him if he couldn’t evade, or block. As the wrath bull lumbered to its feet, Xeal held back a scream as his broken leg felt the weight of his foe press down on it. Quickly, in a single motion the moment he felt the weight of the wrath bull leave him, Xeal used his embedded sword to pull himself to his feet and using his good leg leap back, removing the sword and allowing the wrath bull’s blood to pour forth. The moment that Xeal had landed on his good leg the wrath bull charged at him. With a quick roll to the side, Xeal was just barely able to avoid the charge and return to his feet. However, due to his broken leg, the maneuver had cost some HP. Xeal took the next moment to understand the situation a bit clearer and found that, while he would lose health for movements affecting his broken leg, the wrath bull was constantly losing health faster than its natural recovery could keep up with. The next 30 seconds were a blur for Xeal as he just did whatever he could to keep from being pinned down by the wrath bull, and when Gale finally came into view, he was down to under five percent health, whereas even with its own injuries, the wrath bull still had over 70% health. To make matters worse, its natural healing was starting to overcome the bleeding effect. At its current rate the wrath bull ‘s health would drop just below 60% before starting to rebound. Xeal knew that he needed to switch out with either Amser or Takeshi so he could stay still long enough for Gale to use a mending spell on him. Luckily, his health had recovered to above 15% and Vento had started to send spells at the wrath bull while Aalin continued to buff Amser’s and Takeshi’s speed and stamina to make sure they kept out of reach of the sharp cows that were chasing them.

“Vento.”

“Yes, Xeal.”

“I need you to use your wind runner skill and switch out with either Amser of Takeshi so they can relieve me.”

“Wait, what?”

“My leg is broken. I can only hold on for a minute at most and Aalin and Gale can’t switch roles temporarily. Now move!”

“Got it.”

Vento took off as fast as he could while Xeal kept doing everything he could to stay alive with the assistance of Gale’s healing spells. Every second felt like an eternity as Xeal used every bit of focus he had to dodge and counter attack the wrath bull while waiting for relief, until finally arriving by landing on the back of the wrath bull, Takeshi buried his katana deeply into the wrath bull next to the wound that Xeal had inflicted, which was still causing the bleed effect. This action caused the wrath bull to switch its target instantly as the progress it had made in recovering from its wound had been undone. Quickly Gale tossed Xeal a rope which he grasped as she pulled him out and went to work on mending his broken leg. As Xeal laid still for the ten seconds it took for Gale’s spell to complete, he surveyed the surrounding chaos for the first time since he fell into the hole. Amser was easily keeping five of the sharp cows contained, though her health was slightly below the halfway mark. Meanwhile, Vento was running like a mad man as he hurled spells behind him almost at random, only taking the time to ensure he wasn’t throwing them in the general direction of anyone in the party. Xeal had to work not to laugh at the poor man as he continually made missteps that made him look like a complete amateur. Xeal decided that he needed to ensure that all magic classes took some time to learn how to kite properly after seeing how bad Vento was doing. If Vento simply kept calm, he would have been able to kite the sharp cows for at least a few minutes before his MP ran out. Instead, he was just wasting his MP recklessly, which might cost them before this fight was over. Unfortunately, he was too far for Xeal to yell at him to calm down and think.

Finally, Gale’s spell completed and Xeal rushed off to relieve Vento, receiving one more heal along the way bringing his health up to 20% as he reached the frantic spell caster. Quickly Xeal went about striking each of the sharp cows, drawing their attention as he yelled at Vento to go support Takeshi. Xeal wished he could watch Takeshi take down the wrath bull as he knew it would be an entertaining and insightful match. Just from the time Xeal had been out here grinding with him he could tell that Takeshi had been a disciplined and honed fighter from day one of ED. Xeal had been paying attention to everything Takeshi did and how he did it since he had secured him as a vice guild leader, hoping that he could use the information in nurturing more players to become elite. The hard truth that Xeal came to accept was it was the same as leading a horse to water. Only those who truly wanted it and could commit to the necessary work would succeed. They had to have a thirst strong enough to drive them forward. Xeal had long since learned how to develop an average player into a decent player with minimal effort from his last life, but he had never been able to watch a future tier 8 player develop like he could now. While he couldn’t say for sure that it was true for all tier 8 players, the one thing that truly made Takeshi stand out was his absolute discipline. Yes, he had talent. Yes, he had skills, but so did almost every player who reached tier 7 in Xeal’s last life. The one thing that Xeal kept coming back to when it came to Takeshi was his absolute discipline and dedication to perfection of himself. This trip had been invaluable to Xeal as he watched what a true expert was and where he needed to reach. As Xeal handled the sharp cows, he was honing his movements like he always did, adding in small variations to his normal footwork that he had picked up while watching Takeshi while grinding together. Just this simple change had made a major difference in the number of hits Xeal was taking from the sharp cows while he played the distraction.

Eventually a loud cry could be heard from the hole where Takeshi battled the wrath bull, signifying it going berserk, which was the signal for the final move of this battle. Xeal and Amser nodded to one another as they both darted for the hole, leading the herd of sharp cows with them. Just like when Xeal had trapped the wrath bull, they stopped just before the hole as Vento threw down a rope to Takeshi on the opposite side, extracting him just seconds before the first sharp cow reached the point of no return, while Xeal and Amser took a step back, falling straight into the hole and using their weapons to dig into the edge near the side of the hole. Then all ten sharp cows charged straight into the hole, pelting the wrath bull one after another as they fell. Vento unleashed his strongest spell directly on top of the pile of monsters to finish things off. When the dust cleared, the wrath bull was dead and the sharp cows were in terrible shape as Xeal, Amser and Takeshi all jumped down to finish them off before they could recover. It was just past midnight when they finished collecting the loot and Xeal was getting ready to return for another round in the royal forging room when he received a message from Friva asking for a meeting urgently. So instead, he went to his mansion to meet her in the office there once more.

When Friva walked in she looked like she was falling apart mentally. She was having issues even keeping her hands still. Xeal could tell something major had happened, he just wasn’t sure what. Quickly he offered her a seat and had Maxwell prepare tea for them as he worked to calm her down. Slowly he was able to get her to relax slightly, but it still wasn’t a pretty sight as she looked defeated sitting in the chair just sipping her tea. She no longer had the look of a leader and Xeal worried that if her guild members had seen her like this, nothing she could do would restore their confidence.

“I thought I really knew what I was doing, you know? I did my research and discovered that this continent was the one that would have the smallest presence of the major workshops. I thought, hey, it was a perfect chance to go independent and show all those who didn’t think I could lead that they were wrong. So why, why did it still go so wrong?” rambled Friva.

“You probably have me to blame. I have stood out too much and in doing so, now every major workshop with ambitions of being on top is looking my way,” Xeal said consolingly.

“So I should blame you. Perhaps if I were to start attacking your guild things would get better.”

“Ha, not likely. All you would accomplish is a hastening of your guild’s fall.”

“Perhaps that is exactly what I need.”

“Excuse me?”

“Tyelk has found a backer of some kind and my spies report that they know how to bind a defeated guild to them. Right now, Red Crushers has started to squeeze us, and to make matters worse, NPCs have started to not wish to deal with us.”

“Ah, your main city is the same as Red Crushers, and if I am not mistaken, it falls under Marquess Mercer’s influence. You really should hate me. I didn’t even think about that till just now.”

“So this is all due to you pissing off a noble house, and since I’m friendly with you, they want to get rid of me as well.”

“Not entirely, as I’m sure Tyelk has had it out for you since before this all happened. Still, it is troubling. If the Mercer house is moving then things may be a bit more complicated than I would like.”

“So is there anything you can do to help me?”

“Hmm, let’s see what we can come up with, though I doubt you will like it.”

“If it keeps me from falling into Tyelk’s hands I’ll take it.”

Xeal and Friva spent the next half hour discussing various options and started to build a plan to move forward. The one thing that was clear to Xeal was that the situation had degraded for Rising Oblivion far too quickly, and if what her spies were saying was accurate, two weeks from now would be too late to act. So with a rough outline, Xeal agreed to request a meeting with Prince Victor to ensure everything went smoothly. With that, Xeal decided that he would be best served by taking his in-game rest now and waking up to meet with Prince Victor first thing in the morning. So, he sent his party a message informing them that a situation had come up and he needed to rest, before turning in for the night.

When Xeal awoke the next day, he had Maxwell arrange a meeting with the prince while he spent more time grinding in the plains and working in the royal forging room. Finally, in the early afternoon, Xeal was able to meet with the prince and discuss the new information that Friva had shared with him and his plan moving forward. Prince Victor didn’t take the possible involvement of the Mercer house well and promised to do his own investigation to confirm if they were truly pulling strings to manipulate the adventurers behind the scenes. Other than the need to confirm the Mercer house’s involvement, Prince Victor had no major issues with Xeal’s intentions and approved the plan.

Morning October 23 to Evening October 24, 2266, and ED year 1, days 296-299.

When Alex and his friends arrived at the dance studio in the morning, they were greeted by Officer Chen who had arrived before them. She was dressed in simple workout attire with her long black hair pulled back into a pony tail. After they finished introductions, and learning that she would be joining them for morning exercise until the situation with The Razors was concluded as their official assigned officer, they entered the dance studio. Inside was a single tall, middle-aged man who had a fit figure and blond hair with blue eyes and would have likely been attractive if he didn’t have a major receding hair line. He introduced himself as Samuel Fredholm and quickly started to teach the basic rock step and triple step. Once they all were able to at the very least do those halfway decently, he had the women take turns with one of the men to practice as there were ten women and five men. Sam and Nicole paired with Alex, Ava and Mia took the instructor, Dan had Anna and Lauren, Fred had Amanda and Jessica, and Mr. Bell had Mrs. Bell and Officer Chen. Once they had spent some time learning how to lead and follow with the basics, Mr. Fredholm taught them how to turn and move into the open position, followed by a few basic spins. By the time the hour was up, everyone had worked up a decent sweat, and at the very least, could make a clumsy attempt at all of the basic moves that they had been shown. Before leaving Alex, arranged another lesson for the same time on the 26th with Mr. Fredholm. In the evening, Alex took Nicole out for a quick date where they simply walked the pier and grabbed a bite to eat as they enjoyed a quiet moment together.

The morning of the 24th, the group found themselves in their first kendo lesson. This lesson was much different than anyone other than Alex expected. During the first lesson they didn’t even touch a shinai. Instead, it was learning all the etiquette that was expected inside the dojo from Sensei Sano who would be the one teaching them. Sensei Sano was a thin and shorter man with short black hair and brown eyes, that carried himself with honor. Alex had to warn Fred and Dan a few times to stay inline as they were getting exhausted just switching between the shizentai (standing) and seiza (seated) positions, as well as learning how to properly bow in each. After a half hour of just working on that, Sensei Sano allowed them to learn how to properly treat a shinai and a dozen other things that would be seen as rude in the future. Alex appreciated the man’s patience as it was not only Dan and Fred who were having trouble keeping track of everything. Even Alex, who had learned a bit of kendo from a friend in his last life, had forgotten, or hadn’t known, most of the minor details that were gone over. By the time they left, after a quick cleaning of the dojo area they used, they hadn’t even touched a shinai but, they had still gotten a work out in just switching between standing and sitting as they learned the proper ways to do both when in the basic postures. Alex had arranged for the group to return on the 27th to resume their lessons in the basics of kendo as they worked up to learning proper sword techniques. That evening was quiet as Alex, Nicole and Sam enjoyed a quiet meal together before returning to ED.

During his next three logins, Xeal continued his grinding towards tier 5, reaching level 69 while doing so. He also talked to Takeshi about Kendo, learning much of what to expect as everyone continued to learn the discipline. His work in the forge continued to improve as well. Now he was only losing around 300 gold each day from his work, and his funds that were set aside for his forging was sitting at 2450 gold. He knew that he was going to run out of funds in less than two weeks at his current pace as he had failed to cross each threshold for profitability quick enough. Still, at his current rate, he just needed to find around another 4,000 gold and he should be able to reach silver rank before he switched his focus from leveling to preparing for the next tier up challenge.

ED year 1, days 300-301

Xeal made his way to the newly completed FAE headquarters building that stood five stories tall and formed a box around the two-acre courtyard in its center. This was where the opening ceremony that Prince Victor had been so adamant about Xeal holding would be held. His guild members who would be in attendance would mostly do so from the interior, standing at the windows that looked down on the courtyard. Inside the courtyard would be Xeal and his vice guild leaders, along with the invited nobles, including the king and queen, thus security was tight in the lead up with a few level 250 plus royal guards present, ensuring that only a fool would attempt something during the event. Everyone present in the courtyard was expected to be in full formal attire and Xeal had ensured that all his vice guild leaders knew what to expect.

Xeal had finished his final check on everything and was ready to begin when the noble guests started to arrive. Unlike the banquet that was held for the nobles to meet Xeal, this was a much smaller affair and only a hundred or so nobles would be present. However, not all of those present would be friendly to him and his guild as it had been confirmed that the Mercer house’s heir Hugo would be in attendance. Still, Xeal was happy to see everything coming together and was ready to get the show over with so he could return to progressing towards tier 5. Slowly, over the course of an hour, nobles arrived, until finally King Vincent Vidfamne and Queen Eleanor Vidfamne arrived with Prince Victor and Princess Enye in tow and took their seats in a set of four thrones that denoted their status and roles. The king taking the largest center right seat, with Victor seated to his right in the third largest seat, and the queen on his left in the second largest, leaving Enye on the queen’s left in the smallest of the thrones. They were situated on the stage that had been set up directly behind a podium that Xeal would stand at to welcome everyone before the speeches took place. Xeal had a smile on his face as he noticed that Enye had received the gift he had Maxwell deliver, as it hung from her neck and ears. The jeweler had outdone himself with them as the gem that had been atop the tower had been cut into smaller pieces in a way that it highlighted the purple elements of the gem. Then he had crafted an elaborate princess style neckless and a matching earrings set using the smaller gems, with enough left over for a few more future projects. At first the jeweler had called Xeal insane for breaking down such a large and valuable gem, but relented when he said he had no use for a paperweight and he had no intentions of selling it. In reality Xeal didn’t want such a dangerous conduit sitting around for years before it could be of use and knew it would be a perfect gem to use in a courtship gift for Enye. The smile she wore when she looked towards him was enough to tell him just how pleased she was with the gift. Xeal was able to see the bitter look Hugo had on when he noticed the jewelry, as he was sure he knew what they signified. Sadly, only a few others knew the true significance of the jewelry at the moment and he would have to wait a fair bit before it was safe to announce it to the public. Once all four of them were seated, King Vincent commanded all those present to stand, as the whole courtyard had knelt the moment they entered, showing them the respect that royalty demanded.

With everyone present it was time to start the show and so Xeal took the stage, welcoming and thanking everyone for taking the time to celebrate the completion of FAE’s guild headquarters. After giving a short speech about the importance of the cooperation between the kingdom and adventurers, highlighting the role guilds like FAE play in ensuring a prosperous relationship, Xeal handed the floor over to Prince Victor. As Xeal stepped to the side, joining Aalin and Gale to the right side of the stage, Prince Victor came forward to the podium. Once there he took a moment to survey the crowd and his surroundings before speaking in a firm and commanding voice one would expect from a future ruler of a nation.

“To all those present, I appreciate you taking the time to be here this day. Today we open the first of many guild headquarters in our nation. These establishments will act as a hub for us to request a great many things of our newest subjects. I can only hope that most will uphold our kingdom’s values the way Baron Bluefire and his guild FAE does. I must say, Baron Bluefire has exceeded all my expectations. When our lands were first visited by this wave of adventurers almost a year ago, I, like many of you, had my concerns. It is individuals like Baron Bluefire who show us that these adventurers are a vital part of our kingdom’s future. I would like to take this moment to make known that for their deeds and actions, my father has decided to bestow the honorary title of baroness to Lady Aalin Oceanwind and Lady Gale Rosekeeper, raising their status to nobility for life. Additionally, Baron Bluefire will be raised to the rank of hereditary viscount for his services to our kingdom, with emphasis on the returning the border fort between us and the Kingdom of Paidhia to our control. His actions are the pinnacle of what an adventurer should strive to be. That said, there are those whose actions have shown the exact opposite intent. It is with reluctance and prudence, but we have acknowledged a grievance of FAE’s committed by the guild Rising Oblivion. A deal was not honored and as such FAE has been cleared to act in a manner to recover their losses. No others are to interfere with this matter until FAE has acknowledged the grievance has been satisfied, and no actions are to be taken inside of a settlement without guards on hand to act as guarantors of public safety. I expect all noble houses to cooperate with this decree and comport themselves with honor.”

As Prince Victor paused for effect, Xeal took a moment to read the crowd. He could see the surprise on many of the nobles faces and the confusion on his guild members faces as they tried to understand what this meant. However, the single face he was concerned with simply had a wide smile plastered on it, telling Xeal all he needed to know.

“Now let us move away from the heavy side of affairs as today is a day of celebration for FAE and the kingdom. Now, Baron Xeal and Ladies Aalin and Gale, if you would please approach my father the king to be raised and welcomed into nobility officially.”

Xeal, Aalin and Gale, as rehearsed, approached the king and knelt before him as they gave their oaths of fealty and were bestowed their new ranks in court. With that taken care of, the rest of the opening ceremony went by with little of note occurring, other than several more nobles giving speeches, including Dyllis’s father Viscount Weawen.

Once the ceremony was over, Xeal didn’t instantly act on his authorized grievance. Instead, he had his vice guild leaders go about coordinating actions with the local leaders in all settlements that Rising Oblivion had a presence in. Under normal circumstances, Xeal knew that this would take days for these leaders to come to an agreement, destroying any opportunity of catching Rising Oblivion by surprise. However, for what Xeal had in mind surprise was not necessary. While they took care of that, Xeal returned to grinding.

Shortly after the opening ceremony was complete, news of Xeal’s rise to hereditary viscount and the official grievance status FAE had on Rising Oblivion spread quickly among the NPC nobility as well as players. The members of Rising Oblivion were caught by complete surprise as they came to terms with the fact that they not only had to deal with Red Crushers and Templar Fall harassing them, but now FAE was going to be joining in to make their lives difficult. Many members of Rising Oblivion started to contemplate leaving the guild to avoid the whole situation. In a particular room inside a certain residence, a meeting was being held by three individuals.

“So you’re saying that we should use this to damage FAE by forcing them to a game of attrition with Rising Oblivion?” questioned Tyelk.

“I don’t know. The whole situation seems off,” contemplated Drezar.

“You two need my house’s support if you wish to remove FAE from power. They already have the crown prince in their corner and my house is one of the few that has enough influence to rival his,” Hugo said forcefully.

“Still, it makes no sense. Xeal and Friva seemed to be on good terms. Even if she had gone back on a deal, why would he attack her?” asked Drezar.

“He is ruthless, like a true leader should be. He is a worthy foe” Tyelk stated confidently.

“Not everything is as simple as you seem to want to make it,” sighed Drezar.

“All you accomplish by over thinking things is unnecessary complications,” countered Tyelk.

“You’re both right, so just listen to my plan,” Hugo said with authority.

Hugo went on to explain to both of them exactly what he wanted to do, and how he was planning to accomplish it, and what he needed from them. Both hesitantly agreed as neither of them liked the way Hugo was going about things but, it was clear that he wasn’t open to their ideas and they were in too deep at this point to abandon their cooperation. So just like that, the plan to move forward was decided and both Red Crushers and Templar Fall both stopped their actions against Rising Oblivion until further notice.

Morning October 25 to Evening October 27, 2266, and ED year 1, days 302-308.

On the morning of the 25th, Alex and his group made their way to their first aikido lesson with Sensei Kikuchi. Sensei Kikuchi was in his early 50’s and stood at five foot six, with salt and pepper hair that just covered his ears. Like the first lesson in kendo, the group learned the etiquette of the dojo for their first lesson. This time things went smoother as much of it was similar to what they had learned the day before. The rest of the lesson revolved around teaching the proper warm up and stretching exercises that would be performed every lesson to avoid injuries when they started to learn techniques. Overall, the group seemed far more receptive to aikido than they were to kendo. By the time the lesson was over and the dojo was clean, Alex felt more relaxed than anything, as it had basically been one long stretching session. When Alex talked to Sensei Kikuchi, he brought up having a few of his students come to the next lesson as he was concerned about having 14 novices sparring with each other. He said the next lesson would have each of them learning the basic stances and techniques, which would involve them each being taken to the ground and taking their sparring partners to the ground in a controlled manner several times. Alex readily agreed, even offering to pay any that would show up 200 credits for their trouble, at the same time hoping that he could snag a few into FAE as instructors in ED.

While the concept hadn’t completely caught on yet, in Alex’s last life teaching martial arts to a guild’s members had been extremely common. Only, Alex had been trained by mixed martial arts and singlestick practitioners in his last life, and neither of those experiences had anywhere near the discipline and etiquette that kendo and aikido had. Alex had hoped to secure several instructors once he moved to the Colorado area, as he didn’t expect many of the better senseis to be interested in Eternal Dominion, or money. These were individuals who embodied their martial art style and discipline. The fact that neither Sensei Sano or Kikuchi had altered their lessons to make them more enjoyable or exciting for a beginner spoke volumes about their character. Both knew that this was an audition for a lucrative contract that would last at least until the end of the year. Alex was actually impressed at the fact Background Inc. had managed to get the two of them to agree to make time for him in their busy schedules. These thoughts dominated Alex’s mind that morning as he showered, ate and took care of a few minor details that required his attention before returning to ED.

That evening was a simple errand night where they took care of necessities that living required, such as food and toiletries, including a certain test that had prompted an awkward moment in the store. Alex had been grateful for self-checkout as it had made it far easier on them. Then they enjoyed a nice simple meal before turning in for the night and logging into ED.

The morning of the 26th saw the group returning to the dance studio for their second lesson in swing dance. Mr. Fredholm was enthusiastically teaching them as they reviewed what they had learned and taught them a few more moves to mix things up. Sam and Nicole both enjoyed taking turns being Alex’s dance partner as they flirted openly as they danced. Ava and Mia both had tried to get Sam and Nicole to let them have a turn with no success, as both girls had started to become a bit more possessive as they started to think that they really were pregnant. It didn’t help that Nicole had needed to spend some time this morning dealing with an upset stomach, which instantly made her think it was morning sickness. Sam had just kind of chuckled nervously as both of them had still not started their time of the month. If they hadn’t made a firm decision to wait until Halloween to find out, both girls would have already taken one of the tests that they had picked up last night. When the lesson ended, Alex met with Mr. Fredholm to discuss making this a regular thing until the end of the year, with every Tuesday and Friday being reserved for their group. Mr. Fredholm asked if it would be possible to shift things over to starting around 6:00 in the morning as it would be easier for him. Alex thought about it as it wouldn’t be the worst idea if his group shifted their logins. Still, he wasn’t ready to commit to the shift without taking the time to understand exactly how it would affect everything. So, Alex told Mr. Fredholm that he would need to look at how shifting the schedule would affect things before he could commit to anything. So, for the time being, they agreed to keep everything on the current schedule.

That evening was a full night as Ava and Mia had gotten into their apartment during the day and had a few deliveries as their furniture came in. They had invited all of Alex’s friends over for an apartment warming party from 4:10 to 5:30 PM. It was also Sam’s date night with Alex and he had no intention of treating the party as their date. So, he had agreed to stop by for the first half of the party before he and Sam would go off for some alone time. As the three made their way to Ava’s and Mia’s apartment which was inside the same building as theirs, just a few floors up, Alex walked with Sam and Nicole each on an arm. They had never been above the ground floor where their apartment was and as they ascended, they started to wonder what kind of neighbors they actually had. One of the downsides to their current lifestyle was how it caused you to become disconnected from the real world. Alex knew that once they had kids, it would mean a major shift in lifestyles as if he didn’t make adjustments, his kids would grow up knowing their father as a ghost who just popped in from time to time. Not to mention that someone would need to be available to take care of the child at all times, forcing them to rotate who was online at any given point. Alex had a moment of realization as he walked with his two possibly pregnant girlfriends what being a father would mean for him. He knew that if they were, then he would need to try and accelerate a few of the products that were still years away from being even looked at. Such as maternity VR chambers that were designed to accommodate the needs of pregnant and nursing mothers. This included features like speakers that were set up to play music to the developing fetus while the mother adventured in ED. Alex decided that he should make good use of the influence he now had as a major stock holder in “VR Life Pods” to push them to develop a maternity chamber based off what he remembered about the few he had bought for members of Twilight Sky that had needed them. Even though he had never used one, he still remembered a fair bit of the design of a few as he had been part of the team tasked with deciding which version to go with for his guild in his last life.

When Alex knocked on Ava’s and Mia’s front door, it was a few moments before they answered and opened the door. Inside was a small studio apartment that was only 600 square feet. Their furniture consisted of a loft queen bed that had a desk nook under it, a couch, and a few giant cushions that passed for seats. Their kitchen had a short bar that was around the height of a normal dining room table and a pair of folding chairs leaned against the wall. The one thing that all their furniture had in common was it was all pink. Alex felt very much like he was in a college girl’s room as he took in the sight before him, before Ava and Mia pulled him onto the couch, taking the opportunity to sandwich him between them.

“Hey, knock it off,” called out Sam.

“But you two haven’t been sharing,” whined Mia.

“Yeah, you wouldn’t even let us have a turn dancing with him,” whined Ava.

“He’s not a toy,” Sam shot back.

“Oh, I don’t know, he looks pretty fun to play with,” Ava said coyly with a mischievous smile.

“You two are being terrible,” sighed Nicole.

“We haven’t gotten to have any time with him in days,” countered Mia.

“It’s not fair. We know he is your boyfriend but, we want some of his attention as well,” protested Ava.

“Yeah, how is anyone supposed to believe that he is dating us if we don’t get our hugs and kisses,” added Mia.

With that both Ava and Mia gave Alex a kiss on his cheek, just as another knock came at the door.

“Well, I guess our fun is over for now,” sighed Ava.

“Yeah, we need to play hostess now,” sighed Mia.

The twins made their way to the door, opening it to find Dan, Fred and Amanda there, completing the guest list. The eight of them enjoyed playing a variety of quick party games while they talked about events in ED. The biggest news was the continued fall out from Jingong’s collapse and the workshop’s desperate attempt to avoid a complete dissolution. Alex had still not heard from Background Inc. on how the acquisition of properties was coming along and he wondered what was going on as it was well known that Jingong was looking to liquidate excess assets, yet he had not received news of any successful acquisitions. The first of the month was when Jingong would start to lose their elite players if they were unable to pay them. Still, he had to trust in their ability to get the best results as he would simply be in way over his head if he tried to get involved directly. As 5:00 rolled around, Alex and Sam said their goodbyes before heading off on their date. Alex took Sam to a local driving range where he rented a couple of golf clubs and the two of them enjoyed hitting golf balls for an hour before stopping for some food and returning to the apartment and getting ready to return to ED just after 7:00 PM.

“Alex.”

“Yes?”

“Is everything going to be fine?”

“Sam, what are you talking about?”

“You have all of these big dreams and you are taking on so much. What happens when life throws us a curveball?”

“We take our best swing and hope we hit a home run.”

“How are you so calm? Nicole and I are probably pregnant, you have three more women who seem to be trying to join us in your bed, Abysses End is playing the long game from what we can tell, and it seems every major gaming workshop wants a piece of you in ED. Yet you just act like it’s another day and nothing out of the ordinary is happening.”

Alex could feel the unease in Sam’s voice as she looked to him for assurance.

“Sam, I love you, but it is just another day, just like tomorrow will be another day. Each day is just that. It’s when we let what tomorrow holds overtake us with what the next day will bring that we lose track of the here and now. Right now, I have a wonderful woman whom I love in my arms. What business do I have letting my mind travel anywhere but the here and now?”

“I love you too.”

Sam snuggled into Alex’s arms as he held her there, letting her feel his warmth for a good while.

Saturday the 27th saw everyone back at the kendo dojo with Sensei Sano, and after a review of the etiquette and some warm ups, Sensei Sano finally allowed them to touch the shinai and started them on Kendo Suburi (Practice Swings). Once he had demonstrated each swing, Sensei Sano observed and corrected each for proper grip and control of the shinai, as well as their coordination with their feet. By the end of it, everyone was starting to get the feel for the motions. With the lesson complete and the dojo cleaned, Alex respectfully discussed continuing the lessons as they currently were, with the next being on the 31st. Sensei Sano agreed that they would be fine to continue as they were for a bit longer but, soon they would need to interact with other students who had more experience to grow. Alex knew this was true as other students could help each of them perfect their skills through correction. Unlike Sensei Kikuchi, Sensei Sano did not wish to disrupt his disciples’ daily schedules to have them attend the dojo early in the morning with them. So that left Alex with the option of shifting their kendo practice to the late afternoon or early evening in the future, further complicating his scheduling issues. That evening Alex, Sam and Nicole enjoyed a nice meal at his parents’ house. Alex took note of how Sam and Nicole both had grown closer with his mom over the last few months as they interacted more like daughters than her son’s friends now. Anna still let her disdain be known for their choice to move forward with their nontraditional relationship.

During these three days, Xeal had not been slacking off in ED as he continued grinding and forging. He had successfully reached level 71 and had reduced his daily losses to 200 gold. However, his fund was down to around 300 gold. Xeal knew he needed to find another source of funds to use on himself without touching his guild’s general crafting fund that continued to slowly grow. This was especially true after Red Crushers and Templar Fall had helped him remove over a quarter of his crafters, the vast majority of which were the less profitable ones. Without the more troublesome crafters dragging it down, the fund had jumped from a one percent daily growth to a two percent daily growth, which in turn had solved the issue of where to pull funding from for the garrison for the fort that was almost complete. Additionally, with the guild headquarters completed, it had allowed Xeal to shift the crafters who had been focused there to the town that was being built at the fort on the border with the kingdom of Habia. Specifically, the battle arena that his guild would use for training with the mirror shards that created doppelganger opponents that Xeal obtained from defeating the shadow warrior. He was excited with the possibilities that training with them would bring his guild’s elite players. Everything considered, his guild was growing quickly and soon it would be time for his guild to make its next move.

As Xeal had continued his grinding, his guild had not been idle. His administrative team led by Taya had been hard at work ensuring that when they took action against Rising Oblivion, that everything would go smoothly. Xeal had laughed at the obvious passive resistance they had run into as the bureaucrats under the Mercer house created needlessly tedious paperwork for FAE to complete and submit for review. Said paperwork had been kicked back several times for even the slightest of errors, just as Xeal had expected. While the Mercer house couldn’t openly contest the prince’s declaration, they could obstruct its implementation through indirect means. However, there were limits to this, and finally it looked like FAE had successfully gotten through the obstructions and Xeal planned to start the operation after his tea time on day 309. If everything went well, he would deal a major blow to the Mercer household and make substantial progress in securing Nium’s foundations.

While FAE had been ramping up for a confrontation with Rising Oblivion, Rising Oblivion was experiencing extreme internal chaos. Initially, Rising Oblivion had started to hemorrhage players who were not locked in by contracts. At the same time, the ones who were contracted started looking at their contracts for ways to get out. None of them had believed that anything good was left now that they were in the crosshairs of not only Red Crushers and Templar Fall, but now Fae had joined the list of enemies as well. None of them could understand what had gotten into Friva’s head when they learned she had forcibly ended their dealings with FAE. Yes, there was a hope that by doing so it would appease Red Crushers and Templar Fall, but it was more likely to isolate them. That was why when Red Crushers and Templar Fall ceased all suppression, those who had been unable to flee rejoiced as it meant they had a chance to come out of the situation okay. Then, when an influx of unknown players and a sudden increase in funds had arrived, they had been stunned. Many players who had fled at the start were regretting giving up so soon and the opinion of Friva had done a 180 as players began to think she had planned all of this. The Rising Oblivion that had emerged from the chaos was at least twice as strong as the one before. Hope had replaced the dread that had gripped its members as they looked at the impending war that was inevitably coming.

During all of this Xeal had been more concerned with the discussions he was having with Takeshi on the various Japanese martial art styles. Through these chats Xeal learned that Takeshi was training in several different sword martial arts, with kendo and kenjutsu being his main focuses. Through talking with Takeshi, Xeal gained a greater understanding of what to expect moving forward in kendo, as well as ideas for future training of new guild members. Xeal became determined to recruit several martial arts masters for his guild. He also learned that Takeshi’s reason for playing Eternal Dominion was due to a desire to temper himself through true battle. Xeal had laughed when Takeshi had thanked him for setting up a scenario where it was assured that he would get to face off with many experts as the major workshops tried to take control of the guild. He also promised that he would ensure that he did everything he could to ensure that all the major workshops failed in their attempts. Amser had just shaken her head at Takeshi’s excitement and commented that all she cared about was that FAE didn’t become that which it faced. Xeal had laughed as he asked her what she meant by that as he had every intention of establishing FAE as a top-class workshop. She clarified to say that she didn’t want FAE to become arrogant and overbearing, with little regard for the average player’s plight, ignoring an individual player’s major shortcomings as a person simply because they were an excellent player who increased the workshop’s profit margins. Xeal could hear the bitterness in her voice as she talked, and looked at her as he told her that was why he needed players like her around, to act as a voice of reason in case he ever did start to slip down that path.

FAE and Rising Oblivion were not the only ones experiencing turbulent times. Almost every player in the kingdom of Nium was watching and waiting to see how things would play out. This was especially true for the members of Red Crushers and Templar Fall, who were standing by to act once the dust settled. Tyelk and Drezar both wanted to ensure that they were in prime position to capitalize on any opening. With Hugo Mercer’s backing, neither worried about the fallout from their actions inside the territory his family’s influence ruled. As long as they saw an opportunity, they would cripple FAE and move in to replace it as the kingdom’s dominant player force. Still, neither of them could understand why it was taking so long for FAE to act. Sure, Hugo had done some minor obstruction in order to give himself time to set up his plan but, FAE had already gotten through that and now Rising Oblivion was just growing stronger each day. If they didn’t know that the main reason for Rising Oblivion’s new strength was due to their actions, they would be concerned about their own safety. However, they had been sending players who belonged to the other major workshops that weren’t struggling to establish a base in Nium to join Rising Oblivion, bolstering their strength. As thing stood now, half of all major workshops had taken this chance to strike a blow against FAE, with plans for the war that would break out for the guild itself once players started to reach level 80.

ED year 1, days 309-310

Xeal sat in his garden with the four lovely noble ladies who were courting him, just after they had been served their tea. Aalin and Gale were both wearing the new jewelry that he had acquired for them as official courtship gifts now that their status allowed for them to be recognized by the court as suitable matches for him. The annoyance of having to be discreet about their dates was over and to celebrate, Xeal had wasted no time in making it known that both ladies were in a relationship with him. This had been especially crucial as Victor had warned that other houses might try and secure Aalin and Gale to build better relations with FAE now that they were nobles. For Aalin Xeal had gone with warm orange gems that resembled the color of a nice warm fire in a fireplace that you could simply cuddle up to and enjoy a lazy day in the winter. The gems were cut in trilliant style and crafted into a pair of studs and an elegant charm that was framed in white gold as it hung on a white gold chain around her neck. For Gale he had gone with deep green gems that one could lose themselves in just admiring the purity of the color. Each gem was cut in trilliant styles as well with her charm acting as a holy symbol as well. The charm was designed around a falcon clutching the gem with Nordic symbols woven into the background. Both sets looked wonderful on the pair and as Xeal looked to see, Enye and Dyllis were both wearing the sets he had given them as well, he couldn’t help but smile.

“Xeal, I must ask, where did you find such spectacular gems? My royal jeweler hasn’t seen such a high quality or quantity of Musgravite before. When my mother learned of its value she about fainted from shock,” question Enye with admiration in her voice as she admired the gift.

“Ah, but that would ruin the mystery of the gift. Just be assured I obtained them through luck and nothing more. Besides, I believe that it is a necessary move to quiet the dissenters before they can even speak once our relationship becomes public,” Xeal said happily.

“Wait, you got Enye a super high-priced gem? Does that mean ours are more than they seem?” questioned Gale with a curious look in her eye as she looked closer at her necklaces.

“No, Enye’s is the only one that is so valuable that she needs an army to protect it. She will be the first wife when everything is settled. As such, everything she receives needs to be better than what we get, or nobles will whisper. Honestly, it’s brilliant. By giving her a priceless item like those jewels, he has given himself the ability to be as extravagant as he wants with us so long as he is just as extravagant with Enye. Such a gift will forever shine as the only thing that anyone would point to when they compare our public treatment. So do not be jealous of Enye, or berate Xeal for the unequal treatment as it has given him much greater freedom to shower us with affection in the future. Though that is only once it is known that he is courting Enye. Right now, my set can just barely be considered more valuable than each of yours. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if others questioned which was truly the most valuable one. This might lead to some minor issues as members of the court begin to question if Xeal understands the propriety of his courtships. Luckily, until we are wed, this will only be seen as a minor issue and may actually help lessen the pressure the Mercer house can apply to force our marriage.” Dyllis said in a thoughtful tone while smiling.

“Ugh, have I mentioned I hate all the BS that goes with nobility?” groaned Gale.

“Yes, but that is our life now, at least in part. Fortunately, once Xeal does marry us, our titles will be relinquished as we enter his house and accept his name and status,” input Aalin.

“You seem to think that will lessen your attention. Trust me, with how prominent Xeal will be once he marries me, it will be quite the opposite. So, you should simply accept your fate and get used to the court if you still wish to marry Xeal,” piped up Enye.

“I believe Aalin is referring to the scrutiny. Once they are married to Xeal, their actions will be more known but smaller details will be overlooked by many,” supplied Dyllis.

“Honestly, I’m just happy he has managed to avoid growing this table any further,” sighed Gale.

“Yes, I must say I am surprised. I would have thought it was assured that you would have added a few more noble ladies by now. I had thought Lady Johanna might have found her way here by now but, it looks like she now has her eyes on your vice guild leader Casmir that you sent to train under her uncle,” chuckled Enye.

“Ah, very good, I’m glad that plan is working,” Xeal said with a wide smile.

“Wait, you planned for that?” questioned Aalin.

“Of course. I knew whoever was sent over would end up in the crosshairs of Johanna as it is a situation where a noble title is a forgone conclusion if he is competent. Casmir was the only valid choice other than Takeshi, who is needed elsewhere. Clara would have been pissed at me if I sent Amet and Nanami (Anna) would have murdered me if I sent Ignis,” Xeal said while sipping his tea.

“True, now let’s get the serious topics out of the way so we can go back to enjoying our time together,” Aalin said with a helpless look on her face.

“Ah yes. Let’s see. My brother has agreed that the dark elf you rescued can be handed over to your care. She is still weak, but she has improved greatly since you brought her to us and she should be able to act as a great protector, at least at night. Also, he says you are to accompany the future expedition into the dark elf lands when and if the kingdom decides to take action,” said Enye in a bored tone.

“Excellent. Also, whether the kingdom launches an expedition or not, I will have to assist Ceclie in taking her revenge. Now, did the other dark elf prisoners prove of use?” Xeal followed up.

“I do not have any info on that. However, my brother has been in a good mood so I would say things are going well,” Enye said, clearly done with the topic.

“We also have the release of the four rebels, who you took care of in my father’s territory, happening in four days,” added Dyllis, to shift the topic.

Xeal held in his laugh as he could tell Enye didn’t care for the whole situation with Ceclie, and Dyllis was doing her best to divert away from the topic.

“Oh, did they all find a country to take them?” asked Xeal with curiosity.

“All but the one. We are actually still deciding where to send him,” answered Dyllis.

“Why not force him into the dark elf lands?” quipped Gale.

“Gale, that would be beyond cruel and unusual. The dark elves would eat him alive in the most sadistic way possible,” Aalin said, while holding back a laugh at the thought.

“You’re right, it would be too good for him,” Gale said with a smile.

“Hey, we shouldn’t hold to much of a grudge against him. He did give us an opportunity to stand out and attract more players,” joked Xeal.

“Yes, but that also led to all the other headaches we have been dealing with, especially the three back home and the fear of more trying to join,” grumbled Gale.

“Ah, yah, still, we need to do something with him as if he just restarts, he will be able to hide in the shadows,” commented Aalin.

“Exactly. If only there was a way to infect our other enemies with his stupidity,” commented Xeal.

“Hmm, I could see if my brother has any ideas,” suggested Enye.

“That would be for the best as any involvement by us would just be counterproductive. Still, it looks like Abysses End really does have a long reach,” sighed Xeal.

“Now onto the heaviest of the topics. When are you going to take action on your grievance against Rising Oblivion? Also, what is your plan?” inquired Enye.

Xeal started to explain the actions he was about to take, as well as what he hoped to achieve, with the ladies for the next half hour. After they had finished with that subject, they moved on to lighter topics, enjoying their time together. As it came time to leave, Xeal made sure to give each lady a kiss before heading on his way to set things in motion. Enye was a bit overly enthusiastic when it was her turn for the kiss, but Xeal just smiled at her and let her enjoy herself. Finally, Xeal left to make his first true move now that the board had been set and all the players had arrived. To do so he teleported to the outpost of Eaglefeather where Rising Oblivion had started out of and had a guild outpost. When he arrived, he was met by a dozen level 20 to 40 guards who would be in charge of observing Xeal’s actions, as he had sent a message before the tea time with the ladies, that he would be making a move in the outpost, to the local baron. With the dozen guards in tow, Xeal made his way to Rising Oblivion’s guild outpost to ransack it solo. As a level 71 player, Xeal knew he could handle the few dozen players between level 15 and 25 that should be in this outpost on a normal day and that is what Xeal acted like he expected to find as he charged in. So, when he found a few dozen level 40 and up players, it was no surprise to see him turn around and run. The members of Rising Oblivion on the other hand wanted to ensure Xeal didn’t escape and gave chase. It was then that hundreds of players streamed out from the surrounding area to join the chase. In all, Xeal had close to a thousand players, ranging from level 40 to 55, chasing after him, all of whom seemed excited at the prospect of killing him. In their excitement of Xeal falling into their trap, they failed to see the smile on his face as he led them out of the outpost and into the wilderness that surrounded it. He led them by the nose into a cave system, meant for players between levels 10 and 40, that went underground for miles as it acted like a maze. Xeal could only laugh to himself as every player failed to ask why they were able to keep up with a level 70 plus player as he fled from them into what should be a dead end that posed no threat to them. Around 30 minutes after Xeal had arrived in Eaglefeather, every member of Rising Oblivion in the outpost, minus a few hundred left to guard against him using a return scroll, was in the caves chasing him. It was only after he had gone deep enough in the caves that it would be difficult for the players to find their way out quickly that Xeal lost them, hid, and used his advanced return scroll to escape and meet up with Takeshi and the rest to continue their grinding. The main difference today was he wouldn’t be going to the royal forge while recovering between fights today.

Meanwhile, all of Rising Oblivion had been mobilized to Eaglefeather as they believed they had Xeal trapped and feared the rest of FAE showing up to rescue him. Even Templar Fall and Red Crushers had mobilized most of their elite players covertly to play support as they believed that today was the day that Xeal would suffer his first of many death penalties. The forums were filled with Rising Oblivion’s members boasting about how they were going to kill FAE’s guild leader and send a message that they weren’t easy to mess with. Many of FAE’s members wanted to act, but guild leadership forbade it, insisting that Xeal knew what he was doing and to trust in him. At first this was met with complaints and discontentment, but as the hours passed and Rising Oblivion had yet to find Xeal, the mood started to shift and Rising Oblivion’s members were the ones growing frustrated as FAE’s members realized that their guild leader was leading all of Rising Oblivion and their supporters on a wild goose chase. None were more confused about the state of things than Hugo, Tyelk and Drezar, as they had solid intelligence that the item that Xeal had used to jump around so frequently when he hunted the players targeting his lower-leveled members was no longer in his possession. They couldn’t understand how he had escaped, other than by using a return scroll. They even started to believe that there was an unknown exit to the cave system that only Xeal had known about, or found. Finally, after over 20 hours had passed, Xeal had taken the time to travel to Autumndale for rest as no players but FAE members could visit the city, and very few did as only those above level 60 had any business there regularly. This meant that while Xeal stood out, no enemy players would pass on his location and he could relax as he read the results of his little prank to start the game. From what he was reading, the leading theory was that he had logged off and was waiting for things to calm down before returning. This had led to Rising Oblivion having 500 level 40 and up members setting up to blockade the cave system until he showed up, even if it took weeks. This was met with mixed results on the forums as many laughed at Xeal for being trapped, while others laughed at Rising Oblivion for failing to catch Xeal and allowing him to tie up so many first rate players. Xeal simply laughed as he started his rest before logging out for the day.

Morning October 28, 2266.

Alex, Sam and Nicole enjoyed a lazy morning on Sunday as with their new training routine, Sundays were a stretch at home day meant for recovery. As Alex checked over his messages, he found one that had come in the last night from Background Inc., about the Jingong acquisitions he had initiated and what he found astounded him. He had expected to get three, maybe four properties, in different countries, allowing him to set up satellite locations in each to attract local players into his workshop. Background Inc. had completely exceeded his expectations by securing a deal, just waiting on his approval to acquire 15 locations around the world. As Alex looked over the details, he found that all but the one Bold Soul was based out of in southern China that housed 10,000 players, and one in Japan that housed 5,000 players, they were all small locations that housed between 100 and 1,000 players in countries that didn’t have a large VR gaming industry. Where most workshops would have overlooked these locations thinking that they were not worth their time, Alex was ecstatic to have the opportunity to acquire the locations. They represented a vast untapped resource of players, many of whom would become experts in their own right once they were introduced into ED. Due to satellite internet being a mainstay for most of the less developed world starting in the 21st century, many developing countries had developed without laying down ground cables except in the cities. All 13 of the other locations were in areas like this where it would be years before the general population could play ED, and over a decade before most of them were. The main issue before Alex was figuring out how to best utilize these locations, as the way the Jingong workshop had was as pipelines to find players to send to their other locations. Alex didn’t have the facilities to develop that many raw talents at this point, or anyone he trusted that could manage these locations. If he went ahead with the transaction, it would balloon his overhead costs and his quick estimates told him it would take most of the extra income the guild was currently generating to pay Background Inc. to handle each of these locations. Alex had to smile at how well they had tracked his finances as they knew exactly what he could afford and not stagnate completely as they positioned themselves to maximize their profits.

Alex discussed the opportunity with Sam and Nicole as he worked through the pros and cons himself, ensuring that they knew that financially it was feasible, but it would make things a bit tight in the short term. They talked about what it would mean for the players currently using the properties as a home that wouldn’t be allowed to stay there any longer. Both were kind of put off about the whole thing when they realized that by FAE taking over, more than 20,000 people would find themselves evicted within the next few months as Background Inc handled the legal requirements in each country to prepare the locations to be ready for the January 1st launch date when FAE would announce its workshop’s creation to the world. They also agreed that having over a dozen locations up and running around the world would elevate the reputation and public perception of the workshop. Really, the only issue was the eviction of the current residents and how that was going to be handled. Alex wanted to say everything would go fine, but he doubted that as people were unpredictable, and if anything could be counted on, it was a few causing major headaches for years to come over a perceived injustice. Still, as long as Background Inc. handled it, FAE would be able to distance itself slightly. After a good bit of discussion, Alex came to the decision to add in a 10,000,000 credit fund to help relocate each of the displaced people. That was only 500 credits per person, but it was the limit of what he could afford as things currently stood without setting his workshop’s financials back drastically, or dipping too deeply into his own. Also, in most of the areas that he was working with, 500 credits was enough to live off of for a few months at the very least.

With the decision made, Alex replied to Background Inc. with his acceptance and sent a message out in the guild leadership group explaining the situation and what it meant. After a bit of activity in the group addressing several of their concerns, Alex returned to enjoying his time alone with Nicole and Sam as they watched a web series while stretching before eating. By the time 6:00 AM rolled around, Alex had received a reply from Background Inc. letting him know that they were moving forward as directed and that all 15 properties would be ready to open by January 1st. Alex smiled as he returned to ED to execute the next step in his plan.

ED year 1, day 311.

Xeal awoke in an inn in Autumndale, ready to carry out the necessary actions of the day. It started with his party returning to the plains to continue grinding sharp cows, fury bulls and the occasional crazed wolf pack. That went as usual as the six of them worked to perfect their skills. Even Aalin and Gale had shown vast improvements since they started this grinding slog. Xeal could see flashes of potential in both of them, which excited him as it meant that there was hope for them and the rest of his friends to reach the skill level of elite players in this life. At the same time, Xeal felt guilty over saddling the rest with city expedition quests and other guild business while he leveled almost single mindedly, having replaced forging with his actions against Rising Oblivion for the time being. Speaking of which, once his party reached its first rest period, Xeal used an advanced return scroll to return to Autumndale before teleporting to Eaglehorn city where Rising Oblivion’s only guild hall was located. Once there, while wearing a hooded cloak to hide his appearance from anyone without a decent identification skill, all of which were extremely rare before tier 5, Xeal made to the local viscount’s keep. Xeal then used the prince’s mark to get an audience with Viscount Lennox, the local ruler of the city. Xeal also knew that the viscount was a member of the Mercer house’s faction and would not be inclined to be helpful for what Xeal was about to do. Still, either way, he knew his plan and how to move forward. Xeal only needed to wait a few minutes before an old man with a hunched back and a bald head that contrasted with the well-groomed white beard on his face walked in. Xeal knew this was Viscount Lennox and it was time to see if all the points he had been putting into charisma would pay off as Xeal removed his hood.

“Ah, Viscount Bluefire, what do I owe the pleasure of your presence to?” Viscount Lennox said while trying to hide his obvious displeasure.

“Viscount Lennox, you and I both know you are anything but happy to see me. Now, let’s be honest here, obviously my movements in Eaglefeather were leaked well beforehand, leading to me needing to evade the members of Rising Oblivion that were waiting there for me. I dare not accuse you or another noble of interfering with my actions, as I have no proof to disprove that I don’t have a leak on my end. However, I can tell you that if I suffer a repeat today, I will have proof it is you as you are the only person that knows I am here right now and about to make a move. Not even my vice guild leaders know what I am about to do. So now I would like a single guard to escort me to the Rising Oblivion guild hall to observe as I take action.”

“Viscount Bluefire, I do not appreciate what you are insinuating. As a noble of the kingdom, I would never take action against one of the kingdom’s orders without just cause.”

“Nor did I say you would Viscount Lennox. I am simply frustrated that my prior actions cost me a single use item and wasted my time and energy. I am simply letting you know that I don’t care if the Mercer house is pressuring you, it would be a mistake to act against me today. You can even tell them that I know and warn them that if they continue to hold a grudge against me over Lady Vanessa, it will only bring them losses”

“You truly do know this game too well, Viscount Bluefire. It really is a shame. If you had simply gone along with their wishes, you could have had such an easy life. I will not interfere as you are right, it would be suicide and I quite like my neck attached to my shoulders. That being said, you shouldn’t expect an easy time until you accept the Mercer house’s offer.”

“I am well aware of the consequences of my actions Viscount Lennox. If I wished for the easy road I wouldn’t be where I am now.”

“Still, I would advise you that you are making a mistake, Viscount Bluefire.”

After spending a few minutes just staring at one another, Viscount Lennox sighed before calling for his guard captain to go with Xeal. Xeal handed the captain a cloak to hide his presence as they moved through the city.

Xeal arrived in front of Rising Oblivion’s guild hall and found that it was only sparsely populated, as most of their members were still blockading the cave system Xeal was supposed to be hiding in, waiting for him to give up. The forums were full of players calling him a chicken for not showing himself in over a day in ED time, while other players were making fun of Rising Oblivion for wasting so much manpower just holding down a single player. Xeal knew it was only a matter of time before no player would be willing to keep an insignificant cave on lockdown indefinitely. Xeal also knew he needed to act then while Rising Oblivion still had most of their elite players distracted. Then a window opened and Xeal simply walked up to the side where it opened and slipped inside like nothing was weird. Once inside, Xeal found himself alone as he closed the window before moving along a hallway to a specific room that no guild should ever leave unguarded. Inside was a token that normally would be housed at a guild’s headquarters inside a vault-like room once they had one. However, as Rising Oblivion, like every other guild other than FAE, had yet to obtain a real guild headquarters and was still using an economical guild hall as their de facto headquarters, Xeal’s task was easy. Especially since no alarm was raised that would have activated the barrier that most guilds had to rely on early on to secure the guild’s authority token.

The guild’s authority token was an item that every guild had and it was one that no member of the guild could hold onto as it would drop from any bag after one hour. The only sure-fire way to protect the token was for the guild leader to perform a safe logoff as it would remove the token with them. This was to ensure no guild fell while the guild leader was unable to make a final stand as they had the most to lose if their guild fell. It was also normally a crime to take another guild’s authority token as in doing so, you essentially subjugated the whole guild and created a subordinate guild until terms were reached. For the members of the subordinate guild, they had two choices, leave and be barred from joining any guild for a full year in ED due to gaining the deserter status, or wait it out until terms were reached with the conquering guild. If terms failed to be reached within 90 days, the conquered guild would be disbanded and all assets transferred to the conquering guild. This included the guild leader who would be forced to join their conquerors by force unless an arbitrator who wasn’t always neutral deemed the conqueror’s demands to be unreasonable. That said, simply taking the token was not enough to conquer a guild. Xeal would need to hold onto it for at least a full week before anything other than the member withdrawal clause would kick in. Still, it would flip the nature of this fight and very few players would even see it coming. As Xeal looted the token, a system announcement went out to all members of Rising Oblivion.

(Warning, your guild’s authority token has been taken by Xeal of FAE! Your guild has one week to recover the token or become subservient to FAE! All members who withdraw will be labeled as deserters and be barred from joining any guild for one year!)

As the announcement finished, every member of Rising Oblivion was shocked to the core. Most of them were trying to figure out what a guild authority token was, and they weren’t alone as even their vice guild leaders were trying to figure it out. If they only knew that most guild leaders weren’t aware that once a guild had a guild hall, a token was automatically generated and placed in a secure room in the center of the guild hall, they might have felt a bit better at that moment. It was an easy message to miss amongst the announcements and it could be mistaken as a piece of decoration if one did not look closely at its description. It was almost like the system wanted players to miss its existence altogether. There was a flurry of activity that took place on the forums as players tried to figure out exactly what they needed to do to resolve the situation. All the players who had bolstered Rising Oblivion’s ranks were at a complete loss of what to do as they were never meant to be long term members once the clash between FAE and Rising Oblivion played out. Many of them began to reach out to their actual workshops for advice on how to move forward as those very workshops tried to figure out exactly what this all meant.

While this chaos was in full swing, Xeal slipped out of Rising Oblivion’s guild hall using his advanced return scroll. When he arrived back to the plains where his party waited, he found Amet, Ignis and Clara waiting for him as well. Xeal smiled as he handed the guild authority token over to them for transport back to his guild headquarters where it would no longer drop and return to Rising Oblivion’s guild hall automatically in another 55 minutes. Once they had received the item, all three of them used return scrolls to leave and complete the trip. Once the token was secure, Clara arrived in Eaglehorn and approached the cloaked captain letting him know he was no longer needed as Xeal had already left after achieving his goal, and walked off. The captain was taken aback by the fact that Xeal had sent another to inform him that the task was done, as he had been expected to get some information on what he did, perhaps even run some interference on the way back, if possible, by Viscount Lennox’s orders. Instead, another cloaked individual had approached him and left before he could get a word in. The captain was at a loss of what he was going to tell the viscount as he knew this would make him angry.

A few hours later in a nondescript room, four individuals were gathered as they tried to understand what had happened.

“How could you leave your guild’s authority token unguarded?” questioned Hugo in outrage.

“I didn’t even realize such a thing existed. Did either of you?” Friva answered while shaking her head.

“That’s neither here nor there,” Tyelk answered while dodging the question.

“Imbecile. I’m sure your members are working to locate yours as we speak. The real question is how Xeal was able to get in, find it, and take it without anyone seeing him,” Drezar said, casting an accusatory look at Friva.

Before Friva could defend herself, Hugo interrupted them as he did his best not to yell.

“Enough. I had assumed you all knew of them already. With that said, Friva, what is your plan to retrieve your authority token?”

“We know that FAE must store the token inside their guild headquarters or it will return automatically to my guild hall, thanks to Drezar examining his token. So, with that knowledge, we can either try and find it using stealth, or launch a full-scale assault,” offered Friva.

“As that bastard used stealth, I believe he would already have counters in place and I can’t lend any of my house’s retainers without risking blatantly exposing my involvement. Which would be disastrous as it would give the royal family the edge they need to sanction my house and generations of work would be wasted. No, the only option is to overwhelm FAE when they least expect it,” Hugo said with his hands balled into fists as his knuckles turned white.

“My guild will have no part in any assault,” stated Drezar.

“Coward,” retorted Tyelk with a hint of scorn.

“We all need to do our part or Viscount Bluefire and FAE will simply wait us out and reap all the benefits. Now pay attention and I will tell you what you each will do,” said Hugo, leaving no option but to obey.

Hugo spent the next hour explaining down to the minutest of detail exactly what he expected them to do. Each had a crucial role to play in the plan that he dubbed operation ‘FAE Tear Down’ and he expected each to simply do as they were told. The room was silent once Hugo finished answering all of the questions the guild leaders had to ask. Each guild leader looked at the other as they sized each other up and took stock of what they would be doing for the next week in ED.

While Hugo had been busy laying out his master plan, the forums had become full of players talking about what the discovery of guild authority tokens meant for the future of guild wars. There had even been a few guilds that had been blindsided in various ways due to this new knowledge. This included guilds who had theirs taken, guilds who took others and watched it disappear from their inventory an hour after they took it, and even guilds who secured it only to have the local guards show up demanding it be returned and receiving sanctions for taking it. In all, the forums shared enough knowledge that most players now understood that simply taking a guild’s authority token was harder than it seemed. While the average player simply found this intriguing, the major workshops were terrified at just how flawlessly Xeal had pulled his move off. This was especially true for those that had their satellite members currently aiding Rising Oblivion against FAE. After several of them had discussed options, they had come to an agreement and sent orders to their players in Nium to seek an audience with Xeal regardless of any orders that Rising Oblivion put out. This is what led to a group of ten cloaked players arriving at FAE’s guild headquarters where Taya was currently the only vice guild leader available, as she had a workspace for her tailoring inside their headquarters, that Xeal had ensured was made to facilitate her role as the main interface when necessary for the guild. Xeal had been happy with how well she had been developing her diplomatic skills and had rewarded her with a nice bonus in the form of a few crafting books on tailoring that were only available to him thanks to his connection with Enye. She had been ecstatic when she received them and had stopped complaining about being stuck at headquarters all the time since. However, when she was called to deal with the ten cloaked players, she wanted to yell at Xeal for the headache she was about to go through.

An hour later, after she had gone through and verified all ten of the players backgrounds, Taya messaged Xeal informing him of the situation and asked him what he would like to do. When Taya received his reply, she wore a complicated smile. She informed them that Xeal would arrive in the next few hours to meet with them as she led them to a waiting room and asked one of the NPC staff to bring them refreshments while they waited. The ten players had a range of reactions to the news that they would need to wait even longer as they had already been held up over an hour just simply getting into a waiting room. Some were offended as they believed their background demanded immediate attention simply because of who they represented. Others were simply relieved that Xeal was going to take the time to meet with them as his reputation was one of not caring about one’s backing before taking action. Among these ten players was one that Xeal was very familiar with as he had already had a good relationship with him before his workshop decided that they wished to distance themselves. Geitir was beyond annoyed at his workshop’s current state and the fact that he had been forced to act as the spokesman for this meeting. He had turned his back on Xeal as he watched FAE grow into a true power house as his leader continued to become more subservient with each passing day. It was just as Xeal had warned, Eternal Valhalla was now nothing but a door mat for the major workshops to step on whenever they pleased. Finally, Xeal arrived to meet with the players and the first thing he noticed was Geitir.

“Geitir, it’s been a while. I hope you have been well.”

“Xeal, we both know why I am here.”

“Yes, and I wish it was under better circumstances, but sadly, fate is not so kind today.”

“Huh, indeed. Now I assume you know what I am here to request.”

“Judging by the crowd behind you I would say that you have been pushed into negotiating with me to try and convince me to return Rising Oblivion’s guild authority token.”

“Yes.”

“Sadly, that will not be happening.”

One of the nine players behind Geitir stood at that and yelled.

“You’re making a major mistake! You are going to create a grudge with several major workshops if this continues!”

“I thought the point of having a spokesman was to avoid stupidity like that? Geitir, would you be so kind as to tell your friends just how much I fear major workshops.”

“You don’t.”

“Exactly. Now I also understand that looking for trouble with them is just stupidity. However, when they go out of their way to make trouble for me, I can’t simply let them have things their way or else all I will become is a piggy bank for them to tap into whenever they like. Now I assure you all I do have a proposal for you all to take to your leaders. It is really quite simple. You all joined the wrong side thinking that you could weaken my guild while you bided your time until you could take my guild from me by force. Instead, I have put your workshops in a bind. Now you want me to act like you didn’t move against me first. Fine, but you must do one thing first.”

“What are your terms?”

“Geitir, all they need to do is deliver both Red Crusher’s and Templar Fall’s guild authority tokens to my guild and I promise that when I negotiate with Friva that I will allow all members of Rising Oblivion to withdraw once more.”

This single statement caused an uproar in the room as only a few of the players present could hold their tongue at Xeal’s statement. Geitir just shook his head as the group devolved into chaos, slinging threats left and right about how their workshops would not stand for this and Xeal needed to learn his place. Finally, one of the two players who had stayed calm throughout the whole group’s tantrum spoke up.

“Quiet, all of you!”

As the player stood, she removed her hood revealing a rather plain appearance with brown eyes and long straight brown hair. She didn’t have any of the flare that most players added in character creation, such as entrancing eyes or wild hair colors, and her frame was the definition of average. Inside Eternal Dominion she could blend into the scenery and pass as an NPC, if not examined closely, effortlessly.

“Geitir, you can step aside. I see now that you and your workshop’s leaders have really managed relations poorly. Guild leader Xeal, my name is Kate Astor and l am here to represent Fire Oath’s interests.”

Fire Oath was another of the five super tier workshops and Xeal knew that with them involved things would just become more complicated.

“So, Fire Oath is involved in all of this as well.”

“No, we have yet to take action in this matter as we deemed it unnecessary before now.”

“Then why are you here?”

“We are here as a favor to some of our affiliates who have a vested interest in how things develop moving forward. With that said, are you really ready to create a lasting enmity with so many workshops just to prove a point?”

“I created nothing that did not already exist. Clearly any workshop who instructed its members to join Rising Oblivion while it fought with my guild has already show me enmity. If they do not pay a price, they will simply continue to attack me from the shadows.”

“I see. So, is there no deal that can be brokered besides forcing the major workshops to go back on their word?”

“Ah, you are talking about the agreement to not attack one another and to cooperate for the most part before level 80 is common. You are mistaken. At no point did I call for an attack on either Red Crushers or Templar Fall. I simply stated that I require their guild authority tokens if you wish for me to simply allow all of the players who joined Rising Oblivion to leave without a cost. Also, if I see a mass exodus of elite players from either of those guilds, all deals will be off.”

“So you expect Tyelk and Drezar to both willingly hand over their tokens to you.”

“No, I expect this whole event to become a lesson for all players to learn from.”

“Very well, I can report that I attempted to reason with you now, though I would suggest learning how to make friends before it’s too late.”

“Friends can be nice, but they can also hold you back. I would say you yourself are seeing that simply by the fact you are here right now exposing your existence for nothing.”

“You are sharp. It’s a shame that you don’t qualify to deal directly with us.”

“Ah, just watch the show for a few more months and see what happens.”

“Hmph, you over estimate your ability to survive that long.”

“How about we make a bet.”

“Why would I do something so distasteful?”

“It’s fine to be afraid, after all you are watching what happens to those who bet against me right now.”

“Fear has nothing to do with it.”

“It’s a pity, after all I was going to wager my guild.”

The room went silent as Kate turned around to look at Xeal with eyes full of shock.

“You’re bluffing. You would have to be a fool to risk such a thing even if you were 100% sure of your success.”

“Oh, so long as you can offer something of equivalent value, I’ll do it.”

“And just what do you value your guild at?”

“Hmm, two billion credits.”

“You’re insane. No guild is worth that.”

Xeal simply smiled as he looked at Kate as the room watched this exchange go down.

“It’s fine, you don’t have to play. You can simply let the upper echelon know that you gave up a chance, however slim it might be, to obtain my guild.”

“Ha, how would I even hold onto it until my guild could secure its foundations to arrive here and merge into one guild?”

“I come with my guild. Yes, that’s right, I am also offering myself in the deal, free, no pay due for the rest of my life.”

“Interesting, and I suppose I would have to risk myself as well.”

“No, the credits would be enough.”

“Do you even have any idea how much two billion credits is? No workshop just has that much just laying around.”

“Ah, and here I thought that two billion credits was just what Fire Oath needed to operate for six months.”

Kate froze as she knew that he was right and it would take less than a month to shuffle things around to gather the funds. The issue was it would hurt Fire Oath’s ability to operate for years after if they lost. Also, she wondered just how much Xeal knew as he had to know that she was a board member just to offer such a deal to her, but how did he know? All of the board members in-game identities were not publicly known and most played like they were just regular players in the lower echelons of the guild. Only the chairman acted as part of leadership in game.

“What do you wish to bet on?”

“My bet is I can hand Rising Oblivion a map directly to where their token is located in my guild’s headquarters and let them have a clear path to the room and they will still never recover it.”

“You’re insane. They will simply flood the room until there is no way for you to keep them away from the token.”

“So, do you accept the bet? Two billion credits against my guild and myself?”

“I will relay the offer to my superiors and see if they wish to accept it.”

Xeal handed her a contract for the bet that stated the terms of the arrangement.

“Very well, I look forward to hearing from you. Also, if they accept, you will need to be the one to sign the contract. So, if they lose and fail to pay, you will be the one the system holds accountable.”

Kate looked disturbed for a moment to hear that, but looked unconcerned as she left, ordering the rest of the players to leave as well. Several grumbled but none of them spoke against her calling the meeting to a close. Xeal watched as Geitir left with his head down and all of the positivity and energy he once had was nowhere to be found. Xeal took this opportunity to reach out once more to him and offer him a chance to escape the mess his workshop had become. Only time would tell if he would accept the offer. Meanwhile, he was smiling on the inside that an Astor had taken the bait. While the leadership of Fire Oath was still obscure in this life, in Xeal’s last life, almost all of their innerworkings had been exposed. This included the Astor faction that was led by the five Astor family members who owned a quarter stake in the Fire Oath workshop. Kate Astor was one of them and had been known as a ruthless negotiator and Xeal knew that what had just happened was just the opening act of her routine. Had he let her leave before he drew her into a bet that would secure what she was really after, he was sure she would have found dozens of ways to put him at a disadvantage. This included moves in the real world that he could not afford with his satellite locations prepping for launch. Instead, he hoped she took the bait and sat down at the game board he set up for them. In the meantime, Xeal returned to his continued grinding.

Evening October 28, 2266.

Shortly after the meeting in FAE’s headquarters, several other meetings were taking place outside of Eternal Dominion. All of these meetings were about the same thing, how to deal with Xeal and FAE. Inside one of these meetings, Kate could be heard discussing how everything played out and her recommendations. This included the details of the bet Xeal offered her.

“So you’re saying that we could secure the first guild bonus if Rising Oblivion succeeds in recovering their guild authority token?” questioned Unknown 1.

“Yes, but I feel like it is a trap and two billion credits is nothing to laugh at,” Kate said in a concerned manner.

“Is having the guild bonus even worth that?” unknown 2 skeptically inquired.

“No, but if I may be bold, acquiring Xeal may be,” replied Kate.

“Then why not make an employment offer?” unknown 2 asked while looking confused.

“The lowest we could secure him for would be in the hundreds of millions a year,” an exasperated Kate answered.

“What!? That’s insane! Even our best players don’t crack ten million. Why is some new on the scene player worth so much!?” unknown 2 responded in outrage.

“He’s not. However, my sources have informed me that he is just an 18-year-old kid who went from being broke to worth over half a billion credits just since the launch of Eternal Dominion. So he is unbuyable and has shown he is a real wealth generator in game. Just going over the information we have extrapolated from the crafting players that joined Red Crushers and Templar Fall, his guild cycles through over a hundred thousand gold every day in game. It seems he is even able to make a minor profit from them as a whole to run his guild with. This bet would be for life. He would have to play for our guild for free so long as he lived. If he continued to produce like he does, he could very easily earn us more than two billion credits,” Kate stated matter-of-factly.

“What would you say is the current value of his workshop?” inquired Unknown 3 calmly.

“Somewhere between one and four billion credits,” Kate responded without hesitation.

“I thought you said he was worth less than a billion credits?” shot Unknown 2.

“His workshop is not just him, it takes into account all of its members who are contracted. So there must be several other assets and players,” Unknown 1 said while giving Unknown 2 a hard look.

“Yes, just looking at the core teams that are receiving regular pay, FAE would wipe the floor with us based on levels. Still, most are still rough and in need of polishing, but when you look at the crafting and the ties to the royal family of Nium that his guild has developed, it becomes extremely hard to estimate the total value. If this was just about obtaining the guild bonus I would say we shouldn’t even entertain this wager. However, while losing two billion credits will hurt and the clause that the loser can’t take action against the winner for a year in ED will make things difficult, we have more to gain than lose by taking the bet,” concluded Kate.

This kicked off another round of back and forth between the leadership of Fire Oath. Finally, after over an hour, the single person present who had not spoken silenced the room.

“Kate, accept the bet. We will make the preparations to pay should we lose. I too think this is a trap, but it’s one that we can profit from even by falling into it. Now let’s make sure we are ready for whatever happens,” declared Unknown 4 with enough authority that the rest of those present nodded and accepted the decision as law.

Alex awoke in the late afternoon and he, Sam and Nicole went straight to work prepping for Sam’s parents who were due over for dinner. Alex was in charge of doing the dishes as Nicole cooked her beef bulgogi and sides for dinner and Sam was tidying up around the living room as they waited for Mr. and Mrs. Carter to arrive. Alex could tell that Sam’s nerves were high over the test they would be taking in a few days and had to help her relax a few times already in preparation for her parents to be over. Finally, the knock on the door came and Sam answered it, leading her parents in as Nicole put the finishing touches on dinner.

After pleasantries were exchanged, they all sat around the living room and kitchen bar area to eat and visit. Sam told her parents about them going to the dojos and dance hall for their daily exercised now. When the topic turned to the events of Monday, it was Alex’s turn to explain what had happened and deal with Mrs. Carter’s ire about her daughter being in danger. Thankfully Sam had informed her mom after the incident to avoid a repeat of how things had gone with Alex’s mom. Still, Mrs. Carter was avid about her daughter’s safety and was concerned about how much time they spent in ED that could be used by an assailant to sneak up on them. It took Alex a good bit to dissuade her fears, but she still insisted that it would be better if someone was always offline to watch over them. Alex could tell she was trying to get him to ask her to spend time over to help with that, but he wasn’t going to bite. Disappointed, Mrs. Carter continued to talk about the events of the week as Mr. Carter just enjoyed the food and let his wife have the floor. It was almost time for the Carters to leave when the topic turned back to Sam.

“Samantha, you have been quiet tonight other than at the start.”

“It’s nothing, mom. It has just been a long week and with everything going on, I’m a bit mentally out of it.”

“If you say so. Still, I miss being able to see and talk to you every day like we used to. The house is so quiet without you there and you’re going to be moving to Colorado in a few months. It’s like I’m never going to see you again.”

“Mom, you can always come and visit. I’m sure Alex would have no issues putting you up a few times each year. Besides, you could always start playing ED and we could get together in game.”

“I don’t know. When you start having kids, I might just have to move in with you.”

“You sound like Alex’s mom now. Relax, we will be fine on our own.”

“I knew it.”

“Knew what?”

“You are pregnant.”

“What are you talking about? No, I’m not.”

“Sam, I’m your mom. Normally you would have made a comment like you’re not going to have kids anytime soon. That and you have been acting off all night. Now Nicole, are you expecting as well?”

“Mom, neither of us are pregnant.”

Mrs. Carter just gave Sam a look that said she wasn’t buying it. Sighing, Sam continued.

“At least not officially. We’re just late and think we might be.”

“So it has already happened. Well looks like were moving to Colorado.”

“Mom!”

“Sam, you’re my only kid. If you think I’m going to just sit back as you start a family of your own and not be there, you’re funny.”

“What about dad’s work?”

Mr. Carter cut in to respond.

“I’m an actuary. I can work from anywhere that people attach a value to human life.”

After a quick look at her father that told him he was not helping, Sam turned back to her now slightly smug mom.

“Alex, help!”

“Sam, you’re not going to win this one. Just accept it or I’ll let the Juns know when I get home.”

“Mom, why would you even joke about that?”

“It’s no joke. If you’re both pregnant, they need to know even if you all don’t want them to know.”

Alex knew he needed to step in.

“Sam, drop it. You’re not going to win this one. As for the girls being pregnant, for all we know it is just a scare. We will know for sure by Thanksgiving, so please wait until then to start planning your move to Colorado or shouting it to the high heavens.”

“Are you ready to be a father?”

“Nope, but no one really is until they are.”

“Good, now let’s go honey. We will have to make plans to have a big Thanksgiving with all three families there.”

It was Nicole’s turn to cut in.

“Mrs. Carter, leave my parents out of your plan unless you don’t want us to attend.”

“Nicole, they’re your parents. They deserve to be there when you announce if you’re pregnant.”

“No. Even if we are pregnant, we’re not going to tell the whole world any time soon. Once my mom finds out the whole world will know.”

The conversation turned into Mrs. Carter and Nicole going back and forth on telling Nicole’s family. Alex just shook his head as they went around in circles until he had to step in.

“Look, it’s up to Sam and Nicole on who they want to know, and when, if they are pregnant. If you want to be welcome at our home in Colorado, don’t push the issue with Nicole and her parents. Yes, they will know if she is pregnant, but only when she is ready to tell them. If that is when she is in labor, then so be it. It might be a wakeup call for them and help to get their heads out of their asses.”

Mrs. Carter took a step back at the force Alex put behind his words as he made his stance clear. After a bit of an internal struggle, Alex could tell that Mrs. Carter decided to just drop it for today and after saying their farewells, the Carters left the apartment.

ED year 1, days 312-313.

When Xeal logged on, he was met with a message from Kate stating that Fire Oath would accept the bet. He replied for her to meet him inside his guild headquarters to sign the contract in a half hour, which he used to go over the guild reports. In them Xeal found that the loss of crafting players had yet to be recovered, but as a whole everything was still on pace for reaching guild level 35 by day 330, and running smoothly. When Kate Astor arrived, she was led into a waiting room that Xeal entered shortly after. Xeal looked over the contract that Astor handed him and laughed as he could see a few slight changes that most players would miss as it was just a slight change in wording that tilted things in favor of Fire Oath. After calling her out on it, Kate looked disappointed, but simply shrugged and commented that you couldn’t blame her for trying. The main thing she had tried to slip in was that she could observe the room for the entire week. With everything settled, Xeal and Kate signed the contract in which she was the collateral for the two billion credits. The contract also locked the reset option of the account until the fulfillment of its terms, so neither of them could escape by restarting if they lost the bet. Xeal then handed over the map to where the token was being kept to Kate. As she examined it, she took note that all Rising Oblivion would need to do would be to rush into the basement from an entrance on the side of the reception hall and go straight into the first room. It was extremely close to the entrance and as long as they followed the path that Xeal outlined, any FAE member who attacked them would either have to be killed five times as punishment, or be kicked out of the guild. Xeal had already sent a message to his whole guild letting them know about the little game he was playing, instructing them to just ignore Rising Oblivion’s struggle.

Xeal didn’t linger as he left to start his grinding for the day as he knew that everything would be fine. He couldn’t wait for the major workshops to learn what true despair was as they learned just how futile their efforts would be. Kate passed a copy of the map to one of her contacts within Rising Oblivion and within the hour a scout team was inside of FAE’s headquarters, and had sent a message from just outside of the room with the door open. They stated that the room was pitch black past the door and no light sources were able to penetrate the darkness.

Rising Oblivion Scout team-

Karik looked into the darkness before him knowing that he needed to step in there to discover what awaited all of Rising Oblivion when they launched their full-scale assault. He knew he was likely to die, but that was his team’s job. Between the six of them, he hoped that one of them would last long enough to provide something useful beyond it’s a dark room. As he stepped into the darkness, he felt like he was stepping into a jell-like substance as he passed something like a membrane. Once his body was completely engulfed in the darkness, he instantly found himself in a familiar white room that told him he had died and the system was counting down to his mandatory logout in another hour of real-world time, which was part of why he had been chosen to be a scout. As he had been unable to warn them, Karik was sure that the rest of his team had suffered the same fate.

Xeal-

As the six players met their fates, Xeal received a message letting him know that six players had been taken care of. He would receive several messages along these lines as Rising Oblivion continued to test his defenses against various different tactics, from a bum rush to a slow creep using light-based protection spells, even launching attack spells into the darkness. Regardless of the method, they could not figure out what was causing every player who entered to die instantly and so they had withdrawn to reevaluate. All of these missions had occurred without any approval from the leadership of Rising Oblivion as the true hands behind the scenes was the various major workshops looking for an out for their players. They did this by using players who were hoping to earn their favor as disposable pawns. This whole situation was just another major headache for Friva as she now had Hugo sending messengers to her demanding an explanation of why she wasn’t sticking to the plan and the major workshops demanding she support their probing attempts.

It was during this chaos that the bet between Xeal and Fire Oath became known to the major workshops who hadn’t had a representative present to meet with Xeal. The speed at which they did a 180 on retrieving Rising Oblivion’s authority token was instantaneous, as doing so meant Fire Oath getting the first guild bonus. Instead, they began putting pressure on Drezar and Tyelk to hand over their guild authority tokens to Xeal. All of this was happening behind closed doors where very few players knew what was happening, so when the show they were all expecting to play out didn’t, the forums went crazy as they tried to figure it out. Xeal simply smiled as he knew this meant that Geitir had at least taken part of his advice to share everything that occurred in the meeting with the other major workshops. Now he could only hope that he would take the rest of his advice and join FAE in the near future. Still, Xeal knew that Geitir would need to handle several issues in the real world before he could separate from his workshop.

When Xeal returned to his mansion at the end of his log out, he was met with two messages. The first message was from Dyllis informing him that the leaders of the rebellion that he had put down had been released, with Martelli, Atius and Djimon all being sent off continent to various countries who had agreed to accept them, and Tenbris had been released into the kingdom of Habia territory. The second was a request for a meeting from Drezar and Tyelk. Xeal was laughing at just how well things were going when he received the letter and quickly sent a reply by a messenger that he would happily meet with them on ED day 314 when he first logged in at midnight.

Morning October 29, 2266

When Alex and his group arrived at Sensei Kikuchi’s aikido dojo, they found Sensei Kikuchi with 13 other aikido students behind him. Alex smiled as he approached and bowed respectfully to Sensei Kikuchi, thanking him for his and his students’ time before they began. Quickly everyone changed inside the dojo’s changing rooms and bowed to the picture of Morihei Ueshiba, who was the founder of aikido, when they entered the matted area of the dojo to show respect. They then lined up with the other students in the seiza stance and awaited the lesson to start. Once all of the greetings and stretches were complete, Sensei Kikuchi paired off everyone, leaving Alex to spar with Sensei Kikuchi. The lesson that day was all about the first teaching Ikkyo (elbow control) and it involved a good bit of time being controlled to the mat for everyone in Alex’s group. As the sparring continued, Alex had to make a conscious effort not to slip into the mixed martial arts he still retained from his last life. Sensei Kikuchi smiled each time Alex almost countered but stopped himself.

“For one so young, you show discipline by resisting what you know. Why do you not unleash your skills?”

“Right now is not about what I know, but what I wish to learn.”

“True, but humor me.”

Sighing, Xeal dropped out of the aikido stance he had learned last lesson and took what for him was a more natural stance. His feet were shoulder width apart with his right foot back and both hands in fists at his cheek level. As he did so, Sensei Kikuchi motioned for the others to watch and they paused their sparring to form a circle.

“Ah, mixed martial arts. Now let’s see what you have.”

Alex and Sensei Kikuchi circled each other looking for openings as each tried to gain the advantage on the other. Eventually this led to a grapple that both Alex and sensei Kikuchi struggled to turn into a throw. Finally, Sensei Kikuchi managed to lock Alex’s wrist before using a series of moves to take Alex to the ground, pinning him to the mat. Sensei Kikuchi quickly released Alex and they went at it again and again for a total of five rounds, each of which Sensei Kikuchi got the better of Alex after a bit of grappling. After the fifth pin, Sensei Kikuchi called an end to their spar and motioned for the others to return to the lesson.

“I must say, you fared better than I would have expected, but you move like your mind knows the moves but your body doesn’t.”

“That is a fair assessment. My flexibility is greatly lacking for me to replicate my motions in Eternal Dominion in reality.”

“Ah, yes, the new void that the world is slipping into.”

“I take it you don’t approve of the VR game’s lifestyle.”

“For most I do not. I know you and your friends are just that, but you are seeking to better yourselves here in reality as well, so I appreciate your drive. It is why I chose the students here to help today that I did. Each of them has talked about giving Eternal Dominion a try as several of my other students have already done so.”

“Ah, you are watching as your students cut aikido out of their lives and fall into the virtual world.”

“Yes. It is painful to see so many fall off the path completely.”

“True, though hopefully they are remembering your teachings and keeping themselves healthy in the real world as it is easy to neglect your physical needs if you’re not careful.”

“Is that why you have sought me out?”

“Partly, but mostly I believe that learning from masters in reality will only help us in Eternal Dominion. I like to think of it as our time in game can be treated as visualization training. We just need something to visualize first.”

“You fight unarmed in game.”

“Not usually. However, there are times when I may have to and I would rather have the skills needed when that time comes, than not. We are also learning kendo from Sensei Sano.”

“I am aware. We sensei’s do talk with one another, even if we practice different styles and methods, as there are only a few of us in the area. It is interesting to see a group such as yours taking up several disciplines at once. Though I must ask, what is the third one you are all training?”

“Swing dance.”

“Swing dance? Hahahaha…”

After a good 30 seconds of laughter, Sensei Kikuchi finally calmed down.

“I must say, I did not expect that one. I must ask why?”

“Simple, it is a good exercise, and like martial arts, it helps develop quick thinking and reactions.”

“Very good, now let us continue.”

With a smile on his face, Sensei Kikuchi continued to spar with Alex for the remainder of the lesson until it was time to clean before leaving for the day, with their next lesson set for the 1st of November.

ED year 1, day 314.

When Xeal returned to ED, he made his way to a meeting room inside his guild headquarters where both Tyelk and Drezar were waiting for him. When Xeal entered the room, he found that both looked rather annoyed to be seated in front of him. Tyelk looked like he wanted to punch the next person to look at him while Drezar was massaging his temples like he was fighting a headache. Xeal took the seat across from them and started the conversation.

“I assume you are here due to external pressure forcing your hands?”

Tyelk responded first with anger.

“Bastard, you did this, didn’t you?”

“Did what exactly?”

Sighing Drezar cut in.

“What my associate is trying to say is that you caused the major workshops to move behind the scenes.”

“I have done nothing but provide them with a way out of their predicament.”

“You turned them on us!”

“Tyelk, shut it and let me do the talking! Now let’s just drop the who and the why and move onto the what. In this case, what is to be done once we hand over our tokens if we choose to do so.”

“Oh, I do believe you will do so quite happily, I might add, as the only thing that I will require once you do so, is for your guilds to sign a contract that you will do a few things. First, you will not interfere with other guilds growth outside the normal struggle for resources. Second, your guild will answer the call to fight should the kingdom go to war. Thirdly, you will sell out Hugo Mercer as a conspirator in the current plot you are involved with once it fails.”

“We would be signing our own warrants if we did so.”

“Not when I tell the prince that it was all a plan to expose Hugo. At that point each of your guilds will actually gain ground in the kingdom. Especially if everything goes well and the Mercer house is forced to tread carefully to avoid implicating the whole house in the son’s schemes.”

“Do you know what the scheme involves?”

“Not in detail, but I would assume it involves your guilds and Rising Oblivion attacking my guild in full force after you manufacture a grievance that Hugo would get his father to recognize. After that, you would all start attacking FAE’s interests outside the capital to force me to acquiesce to your demands.”

“Ha, I wish it was that simple and well thought out. No, if we follow his plan, our goal would be the dismantling of your headquarters brick by brick. An act which I feel would be suicide for our guilds’ future inside the kingdom as the prince would not stand by while such destruction was carried out.”

“Indeed, I must say, I underestimated his viciousness. I must say that it seems his goals are more in line with forcing the prince’s hand than achieving victory for your guilds. After all, he probably expects the royal guards to intervene almost immediately as my guild headquarters is technically on land leased from the king and part of the king’s estate. He’ll then use that as justification for sanctioning the prince over a misuse of the kingdom’s soldiers. Interesting. Though both your guilds would suffer immensely, he would likely force the kingdom to compensate you and you would come out ahead overall, likely at my expense as well. It really isn’t a bad plan if that would be how it plays out. Sadly, I have my own methods to ensure your guilds failed before the royal guards could even be ordered to take action if Prince Victor felt so inclined.”

“BS! You’re just blowing smoke at us!”

Tyelk cut in before Drezar took back over.

“Have you not read the scouting reports that we were forwarded? Whatever is going on in that room is obviously beyond the current players ability to deal with.”

“You are right. Even I would be helpless against it if it was in your hands.”

Tyelk and Drezar both just shook their heads and they continued going over how Xeal wanted them to act and how to expose Hugo enough that the accusations would stick. They went over the details of Hugo’s plan and Xeal ensured that he wouldn’t be blindsided even if Tyelk and Drezar were trying to lead him into a trap. After everything was done and they had made an agreement, they left and Xeal smiled as he prepped for the next stage of the plan. It wouldn’t occur until noon on ED day 315, so Xeal spent the rest of that login prepping and grinding reaching level 72 in the process.

Evening October 29, 2266

Alex awoke next to Nicole who was just coming to from her own session in ED and smiled at her. It was another date night for them, and for this one Alex had a simple but enjoyable walk along the beach planned. Quickly the two of them got ready, and after greeting Sam and giving her a quick goodbye before heading out. Sam went up to Ava’s and Mia’s apartment to have a girls’ night while they went on their date. When Alex and Nicole made it to the beach, the weather was a comfortable 75 degrees Fahrenheit and a cool breeze could be felt as they walked in the late afternoon, early evening sunlight.

“I think I’ll miss this the most when we move to Colorado.”

“I know. The beach is one of the best parts of living here, but it will be alright. We will find new places to enjoy walks together.”

“Yes, but I won’t get to take our kids to play at the beach.”

“Nicole, it will be fine. Once things calm down, we will come out here at least once a year if you want.”

“Alex, are things ever going to calm down? You just seem to take more and more on as time progresses.”

“I can see what you mean, and yes, things will get harder before they get easier. I am the focal point for too many things right now. Until I can hand things off to others, I am stuck. Just be thankful that Background Inc. is handling most of the minutia for me.”

“I know. It’s just that everything is happening so fast. Sam and I are likely pregnant and if we’re not, we want to be. Our whole relationship is anything but normal and it just seems to grow more complicated as time moves forward. Are we really ready to bring a kid in to this mess?”

“Nicole, it will be fine. No, we are not ready and I doubt we ever will be. That’s not how life works.”

“Then there is the whole issue of my parents. How am I supposed to tell them that both Sam and I are carrying your children?”

“We just do and they can deal with it. Our happiness is based on ourselves, not others.”

“Are we going to be happy? How are we going to take care of two kids and still play ED enough to run the guild?”

Alex could tell that Nicole was getting worked up and he quickly pulled her in for a hug and a deep kiss, looking into her eyes as he drew back slightly to talk.

“Nicole, calm down, everything will be fine. Yes, adjustments will have to be made, but we will make it work. I promise we won’t fail and you won’t be your parents any more than I will be my parents.”

“How do you know just how to reassure me so well?”

“I just do.”

“Alex, promise me that you will always look at me like this.”

“I can’t do that as I will likely see you in many lights, especially once I see you holding our child. What I can promise is to always look at you lovingly.”

“You’re being a brat, you know that.”

“Only cuz you like it. Now let’s enjoy the rest of our time before we have to head back.”

Alex and Nicole enjoyed the rest of their walk, picking up a quick meal from a street vendor before heading home ahead of Sam’s return from the twin’s apartment and enjoying a bit of couple time together, before logging back in just after 6:00.

ED year 1, days 315-316.

The first thing that greeted Xeal when he awoke was a message from Kate Astor demanding a meeting with him. Xeal almost wanted to deny her simply because of how she had demanded the meeting, but he simply smiled as he knew just how pissed she must be. So, he accepted the meeting and told her he would be available in a half hour. Once he had taken his time with his normal start of login tasks, Xeal made his way to a room within FAE’s guild headquarters where Kate was already impatiently waiting.

“It is a surprise to see you so soon, miss Astor.”

“Cut the crap, you broke our deal.”

“I assure you I have done no such thing.”

“Oh, then why is every other major workshop talking about the bet we made?”

“Hmm, considering that the only one in my guild who knew of the wager was me and I have not told anyone that you accepted the bet, I don’t know. Perhaps one of the other nine who came with you for the first meeting has spread the word.”

“BS. Everyone of their workshops are directly tied to Fire Oath and would benefit greatly from the success of the bet.”

“Still, casual comments can be made recklessly and lead to misunderstandings. I mean, who would have ever believed Fire Oath would risk two billion credits like that?”

“This was part of your plan from the start. Even if we didn’t accept you would have given them the map.”

“Now why would I do something like that?”

“Damn it, we played right into your hand. I should have never handed over the map as by doing so it created the question of how it was obtained.”

“You’re right. Had you never handed over the map no one would have thought you took the bet, but the real mistake was taking the bet. I will admit Fire Oath accepting it was outside my expectations as it was clearly a trap, yet you did. Why?”

“Ha, if you will cancel the bet, I’ll tell you.”

Xeal took a second to think about the offer as he would be removing himself from the slight danger he was in, but losing an opportunity to obtain more wealth than he could have hoped to gain at this point. Still, it could also help him avoid creating a true grudge with Fire Oath.

“I don’t believe that the first guild bonus was that enticing to Fire Oath broken as it is. No, they were more likely after me. With that said, I don’t believe it would be in my best interest to form a long-standing feud with Fire Oath, so I will accept the termination of the bet on two conditions.”

“Okay, and those would be?”

“One, Fire Oath formally recognizes Free Art Expo as a workshop in reality and welcomes us into the networking world they have established without making us subservient to them. Secondly, Fire Oath signs a crafting partnership with us where we are responsible for supplying the workshop with goods and they supply us with raw materials.”

“I see. You take care of two of the biggest issues your workshop faces and we avoid a major financial hit and still profit, depending on the exact details of the crafting agreement. The only issue I see with this is the lack of a presence in the real world to be seen as a real workshop.”

“On January 1st, FAE will have 16 locations in 16 different countries up and running.”

“You’re insane. Setting that many locations up from nothing is impossible for an upstart like yourself to do. It would require a small army of business experts just to fine decent locations for each of those branches. In a year you will be lucky if two are still operational.”

“True. I must really thank Jingong for all their hard work in establishing all of them, especially those that are serving extremely remote locations that would be beyond all but the biggest workshops abilities to get started.”

“You didn’t.”

“I didn’t what.”

“Ha ha ha ha ha…”

Kate started laughing uncontrollably for a good few minutes before she calmed down.

“Damn, that’s good. We were wondering who threw them a life line. It turns out it was you taking them to the cleaners. I must say, your representatives were very thorough in getting everything they could from them for a measly 100,000,000 credits. Still, you have given them a month we all tried to deny them.”

“Oh, I wasn’t aware that all of the major workshops were standing by for them to completely collapse. Though it would have likely been cheaper to acquire everything once they defaulted and the banks took over.”

“Yep, we would have gotten twice what you did for the same price, though you wouldn’t have had a seat at that table, so I can’t blame you for moving when you did. Plus, it’s not like that will save them, though it might give them time to sell more and perhaps hold on to enough to reemerge in five or so years as a major power.”

“Ah, so that is why I was able to get so much out of them. Still you’re right, it won’t save them. So where does this put us? Do we have a deal?”

“You would really give up two billion credits just to gain access to the industry and a trade deal?”

“Make no mistake, the deal we would sign would see the majority of raw materials be sent to my guild to the point where we would be essentially your crafters. With that comes a few caveats, like you won’t side with any force that opposes the kingdom of Nium on this continent.”

“I see. That might cause some issues as we already have a decently sized crafting branch guild.”

“Around 20,000 crafters, all of whom are struggling to progress due to a lack of materials and skill. Of them, only around 1,000 are of any consequence and even they are suffering as they will be removed from the main guilds once level 80 becomes common place. In the end, like every other workshop, you will set up your crafters in a separate guild, denying them the best bonuses as they will be reserved for your main guild to ensure optimal growth.”

“Yes.”

“Such a waste of talent. My intention is to fold all 20,000 into my guild directly as I am using the extra slots my guild has for crafters. It’s why I need to make deals with other workshops to succeed in developing them as it takes over 100 players per crafter to successfully develop them under normal circumstances. This should be especially true once they start to require rarer materials to advance further.”

“I see. You bring up some good points. However, how would our contracted crafters work?”

“I assume you’re referring to the ones who have a real-world contract with your guild? For them it would be like a sub-lease where they are trained by us but paid by you, and once they start to generate a profit your guild would get a certain amount of kick back that would normally be part of their pay.”

“What part of the profits do they normally get to keep?”

“We have two different contracts in my guild, flat and production based. For the flat contracts they have a certain quota to hit each week and we pay them a flat salary regardless of how much extra they put out, based on their crafting level. Then there are the straight per item rate where they keep 80% of the profits once they pay off what we invested in them. I would assume that your contracted crafters are on a flat deal, which would mean the 80% would go to your guild once they pay off what we invest in them.”

“I see, that should be agreeable. I will take your offer to my superiors and see what they wish to do.”

“Very well, I will expect you to be here on ED day 317 at 12:00 AM to accept or reject the offer, ready to tell me the reason Fire Oath took the bet in the first place as well. Any point after that and I’ll think your trying to have your cake and eat it too.”

“Understandable.”

As Kate Astor left, she had a smile on her face as she had successfully negotiated a deal that she thought she could easily sell to the higher ups and provided them a way to avoid a two billion credit hit. That was 10,000 elite players pay for a year that she just secured by canceling the bet as well as ensuring that the other major workshops would back off. The opportunity to build a relationship with FAE and possibly benefit from the crafting focus that the guild was taking just added to her possible accomplishment if her guild took the deal. Meanwhile, Xeal was ecstatic at the possibility of having one of the super tier workshops become his supply chain as they would be able to get their hands on resources normal guilds had no chance of securing. He just had to ensure that he made Fire Oath completely dependent on FAE for all of their crafting needs while ensuring his guild got the better end of the deal. Luckily, with what Xeal knew about how the game would develop, he knew exactly what to do to make it seem like Fire Oath was getting the better deal while securing his own guild’s future. The rest of his session was uneventful as he continued to grind for levels.

Morning October 30 to Evening October 30, 2266, and ED year 1, day 317.

In the morning it was another swing dance lesson, where they continued to learn more of the basics as Alex simply enjoyed spinning Sam and Nicole in and out of his arms. It was actually slightly difficult to not turn the class into a flirting session with each as he tried to be courteous to the others. Still, everyone was having fun, including Dan and Fred, as they danced. In the evening, Ava and Mia came over at Sam’s invitation for some socialization as they had confided in her that it was a bit lonely now that they had left Abysses End’s dorms and were living on their own. The group exercise was nice but they were missing the relaxing downtime they used to enjoy. So Sam had insisted that they come over a few evenings every week to have dinner and watch a web series or something as a group. Nicole and Alex agreed that it could be a good thing and would be fine so long as they still gave the three of them some space as well.

During Xeal’s next login, Kate returned with an agreement that Fire Oath would recognize FAE upon the opening of their first location in the real world, and that once players reached level 80, they would merge their crafting section into FAE once a suitable deal could be arranged. It had listed the requirements that they saw as necessary for a deal to be reached and Xeal saw no major issues with the framework they had put forth, so he signed the deal that had the stipulation of should Fire Oath fail to fulfil their end of the deal, then they would be on the hook for the two billion credits. Kate then informed Xeal why Fire Oath had taken the bet and he had to laugh at the fact that securing him was their main reason. With that out of the way, Xeal did a quick check in with Tyelk and Drezar, confirming that they were still a go for the show on day 318. With the bet officially canceled, he went ahead and shifted the location of Rising Oblivion’s authority token, laughing at how easily Ceclie had been able to handle her duty as guard. Honestly, all she had done was sit down in the middle of the room and cast a spell that drained the life force of anything that entered the darkness into herself, healing her as it did so. The main issue was she had to sit still in a meditative state to use it, but as she was a tier 7 class, her spell had been an instant kill for anyone under tier 5, which covered every player in the game right now. Add in the bubble shield that she cast around herself that only a tier 6 entity could even have a chance to break and you had something that no current player would have a chance against. If she wasn’t still weakened and allergic to sun, she would be enough to subjugate every guild in Nium right now. The rest of Xeal’s login was spent grinding and on a short date with Dyllis, where they simply enjoyed a walk around Autumndale as things were a bit to hectic in the capital at the moment. Before returning to his mansion, Xeal sent out an order for Taya to begin a mass sell of goods that FAE’s crafters had stockpiled since Templar Fall and Red Crushers made their moves. This single action would cause prices to drop significantly and Xeal had to warn the prince about it and promise that FAE would buy enough of it back that it would stabilize the market after it served its purpose. Prince Victor had been hesitant at first, but agreed to allow it after Xeal let him in on the details of the plan.

ED year 1, days 318-319.

It was time for everything to play out. The major workshops had gotten confirmation that Fire Oath and FAE had canceled their bet. Red Crushers and Templar Fall were willing to acquiesce to their demands as long as a single attempt to avoid needing to surrender was made. Hugo was furious that it had taken this long for all three guilds to get everything in order for his plan, but now it was the time to act and all of the pieces began to move while Xeal sat in his dining room enjoying a light lunch to start his login. The capital Nium city was oddly quiet around FAE’s headquarters that afternoon as both players and NPCs seemed to know something was about to go down.

Friva stood next to Drezar and Tyelk as they walked out of the final meeting before there was no turning back. Hugo had been explicit that everything must go perfectly or his hands would be tied and he wouldn’t be able to help them. His father had just declared the recognition of a grievance against FAE for Templar Fall and Red Crushers, stating that the sudden dumping of goods on the market had cost them and the kingdom a great deal due to all of the deals they had signed with the other guilds, all of which were excited at this development as it profited them greatly. With the grievance recognized, Tyelk and Drezar were free to coincidentally assist Rising Oblivion by just happening to launch an attack at the same time as they did. With that taken care of, the order was sent and over 250,000 players descended upon the capital with FAE’s headquarters as the destination.

Hugo took a seat to enjoy the show that was about to play out. It had taken more time than he liked and the idiots that he had to work with had made a mess of things along the way. Still, after today he would no longer need them and would happily watch as things blew up in their faces. Even so, he would offer them an out so long as they signed a contract that essentially made them subservient to his house. In his mind the royal family was making a mistake not bringing all of the new adventures under their control before they grew too powerful. Now was the time to do so as they were still too weak to resist and a few gold coins was enough to make them drool over. Unfortunately, the kind of contract he had in mind was outlawed currently, but if everything went to plan, this event would change that. As Hugo watched the first players come into view, he raised his glass and toasted to the future, when a voice was heard behind him.

“Honestly, I thought you would have been harder to ensnare like this.”

Hugo turned to find Xeal leaning against a wall looking smug.

“Come to watch as your guild falls into ruin?”

“Oh, is that what you think is about to happen? I must say, you certainly don’t understand just how out matched all of those players are.”

“Ha, even if your whole guild arrives here, they are no match for three guilds at once. You will be outnumbered and unable to resist as they dismantle everything that you have built.”

“Yes, and then when the royal guards step in, you will use that to implicate the prince and sanction him on the grounds that he is inviting civil war. Really, I must say, you think too little of Prince Victor. Perhaps if you took some time to think, you might realize that the prince isn’t a fool and knows better than to interfere with these events.”

“Ha, then at least I will have the pleasure of watching your guild fall, and don’t think I am a fool either. I know that you and Princess Enye are in talks of courtship. The rest of the court might be willing to ignore your attempts to lay claim to what is mine, but I will not.”

Hugo’s face had turned red as he talked about Enye and Xeal.

“And here I thought you were just mad that I turned down Lady Vanessa.”

“Ha, my sister failed the family. Honestly, I am quite enjoying watching her deal with that idiot the queen forced onto her.”

“Such a shame. she really does care about your house, though I know not why with how you treat your women.”

“Ha! All a woman is good for is producing heirs with the best blood possible. That is why Enye is mine as no other bloodline is worthier for my house than hers.”

“Yes, and once she bears you an heir your family can make a claim for the throne should anything happen to our dear prince.”

“Exactly. Wait, no.”

“Ah, it’s okay. Look, the show is about to start.”

As Hugo turned his attention back to the street below, he was surprised to see around 100 players stream out of FAE’s headquarters just before the massive army reached it. Each of these players were covered in a thin translucent black colored aura that made one feel dread just by looking at it. Hugo turned pale when he looked at it.

“How is that possible?”

“Oh, are you speaking of the tier 7 barrier that they are covered in? Weren’t you aware of the refugee I picked up on my last task for the prince?”

“What are you talking about?”

Xeal was enjoying the sweat that was beading down Hugo’s face at this point as he knew that the army below could attack those 100 FAE players all day and never break through that spell. Still, the 100 players would still be overwhelmed in time as they would still take a point of damage with each attack at the very least. Even the best of them only had around 20,000 HP and there were more than enough players to overcome that amount in a matter of moments if they stayed composed, but Xeal wasn’t about to allow that. The next moment, an illusion of a terrifying monster with countless tentacles and eyes rose from within the courtyard of FAE’s headquarters, causing most of the players charging at the 100 members of FAE to faint, while the FAE members were unaffected. This was due to the same shielding spell that protected them as it also marked them as an ally to Ceclie who was behind both spells. When the army of over 250,000 saw they only had a fifth of their number still standing and the FAE members charging, they routed instantly. As they did so, Xeal looked over at the now unconscious Hugo and smiled as several NPCs materialized out of the shadows to collect his unconscious form. Xeal smiled as he hoped the show had been enough to sufficiently tie the Mercer house’s hands.

With the show wrapped up with only a few player casualties on the attacker side and a street now covered in unconscious players, it was time for Xeal to take care of the aftermath. Quickly he had Taya buy up most of the items that were still on the market, restoring the prices to a level that was close to its original level. While Taya did so, several thousands of FAE members entered the street to collect the unconscious players before they could recover and escape, as they would make excellent collateral in the staged negotiations. Still, with so many players, FAE only took the highest leveled ones and those that were known to be part of leadership. So, of the roughly 200,000 players, only around 5,000 were taken as prisoner, with the rest being carted off the street to recover, while out of the way and under the watch of the city guards.

It was two hours later when Tyelk, Drezar and Friva arrived for a short but meaningful exchange. Drezar and Tyelk handed over their guild authority tokens once Xeal signed the contract saying he would do as promised by the contract. Once they had signed the contract stating that they would stop targeting small guilds, answer the kingdoms call if ever called upon in a reasonable manner and to testify truthfully on Hugo’s involvement in this plot, Xeal returned their authority tokens and freed the 4,000 or so of their members that he was holding. With that out of the way, he dismissed them and turned to Friva as Tyelk and Drezar left disgruntledly as two royal guards escorted them to testify.

“Well, here we are.”

“Yeah, my guild is in shambles and even if you let me keep it, I doubt it would recover.”

“We knew this would happen when you agreed to the plan.”

Friva shook her head before responding.

“It’s still hurts to see it in such a mess. Still, you’ll take responsibility, right?”

“Of course. You and your core will be welcomed and I’ll make sure you all are set up well. Feel free to develop yourselves as you see fit, once we get you situated in your new city, vice guild leader Friva.”

“Still, I wish you had been a bit harder on those two.”

“It would have come back to bite us later. As things stand, they can still come after us as we can’t be considered a minor player, but they will ruin their face if they do so anytime soon.”

“I know, you have already made things clear to me. So now that my guild and workshop are defunct, what should I do with my headquarters in the real world?”

“Hmm, I’ll have my people get to work on converting it to be a satellite location for FAE when we officially announce our formation in January. Until then, just keep running it as normal and see if you can’t secure a few more promising talents.”

“So that’s it, I sign this paper and Rising Oblivion is no more and all of my members have 96 hours to clear out before everything left becomes FAE’s.”

“Yah, it is as simple as that.”

Friva signed the contract and Xeal smiled as he was happy to have this episode behind him, allowing him to focus on reaching tier 5 and the next quest the prince had for him without the looming threat of the major workshops for a while. Once Xeal handed Friva off to Taya to get her acclimated to her new role, Xeal spent the rest of that login grinding with his party, reaching level 73 by the end of the login.

Morning October 31, 2266.

Today was the day as Alex, Nicole and Sam awoke. It was time to find out with relative surety whether or not they had a couple of little ones on the way. Alex could see the nerves on both of their faces as they opened the box containing the tests.

“Both of you need to relax. Nothing is going to change right away when you take that test, one way or another.”

“Easy for you to say, this is a big deal.”

“Sam, it will be okay.”

“How are you so calm about this?”

“Sam, if we are pregnant, it’s not like we are going to be strapped for credits, and if we aren’t, well, then we aren’t.”

“What about how this is going to affect our time from the responsibility of raising a child?”

“Sam, I love you and Nicole. If either of you are pregnant, it will be fine. We have each other and I’m sure there will be a few grandparents who will be more than happy to help out.”

“See, don’t stress it. We will have several months to do that if we are.”

“Ugh, my mom has probably already started looking at places in Colorado to move to and has already queued up a whole truck load of junk to throw at our kid. Why did she have to call it on Sunday night? Now there will be no hiding it from her ‘til I’m ready.”

Nicole grabbed Sam’s hand and pulled her into a hug before speaking.

“Look, I’ll go first, but I want us to reveal it together.”

“Fine, let’s just get this done with. Plus sign is pregnant, minus sign is not pregnant, right?”

“Yes, let’s do this.”

Nicole and Sam took turns in the bathroom as they took the test, while Alex couldn’t help but pace back and forth while he waited, as both girls laughed as they watched him show his nerves. In his head he was realizing that this was really happening and that this time around his whole life would be different and there was no going back if they were. Finally the time for the second test was up as Sam and Nicole held hands and showed the results. Alex froze as he stared down at a pair of plus signs.

Thanks!

Thank you to all of my patrons on Patreon, especially my knight tier patrons: Ottojanius, Jim Hall, Benjamin Griner, Rowan, Carl Benge, Clayton Flores, Nathan Ross, Matthew Nichols, Timelesschief, Christof Köberlein, Benjamin Grey, Casey, Daniel Sifrit, Fiedems, Michael Jackson, Tim Bartlett, Jason Bryant, Jeffrey Iverson, Jacob Shaw, FatManJiuJitsu, James Vierra, David Peers, Vladimir Prokop, Kyle J Smith, BobsNemesis, Roman Smith, Derek Morgan, William J Dinwiddie II and wayne lyons.

Thank you to all of my readers, especially everyone who left me a review/rating on this and my other books. It really makes my day reading how so many of you enjoyed my story.

Preview

ED year 1, day 320.

Xeal awoke to find Maxwell awaiting him with a letter in hand once he left his room. Inside the letter was a summons from Prince Victor for Xeal to be present at the palace at 6:00 in the morning. Xeal knew this had to deal with the aftermath of the failed assault on FAE’s headquarters. As he had been expecting a summons, Xeal had already told his party to take the current login off. Instead, Xeal made his way to the capital’s training center to spend the morning facing off with the doppelgangers that the mirror shards he had held onto created until it was time to meet with the prince. When 6:00 rolled around, Xeal found himself seated across from Prince Victor who looked tired but happy.

“Xeal, you really know how to make things move.”

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing your majesty?”

“Drop the formality. Now that you have put the Mercer house in a difficult position, they can’t put nearly the pressure they used to on the royal family. Soon yours and Enye’s courtship will be announced and once you become an earl, the wedding will be held. So, as my future brother, please treat me as you would your family when it is just us.”

“Alright Victor. It seems you are in a good mood so I apologize, but now more than ever you need to be cautious. An enemy that is cornered is dangerous as they can act erratically and cause deadly injuries in a last attempt at life.”

Victor let out a sigh that morphed into a yawn halfway through before continuing.

“Yes, I know. I just want to enjoy the moment as it is, even if it will be fleeting.”

“So, what happens now?”

“Now, in all likelihood, Hugo will be disinherited and his younger brother will step up to be the next head of the family while Hugo lives out his life in a remote territory. The Mercer house will need to prove their loyalty and will have to spend at least a decade carefully, after which they will likely return to their current status and resume their plans to rise in power.”

“So it will be business as usual once everything is said and done. Hugo takes all the blame while the Mercer house has to step carefully and nothing changes.”

“Hopefully, there is always a chance that they make an unexpected move to try and avoid the loss of influence from this event.”

“I take it this will all play out shortly.”

“In a few hours, which is why you are here now. I wanted to ensure you wouldn’t add in any surprises this morning when Hugo is put on trial.”

Xeal smiled as he replied to Victor.

“Surprises, what ever could you mean?”

Victor just chuckled as a servant brought in his breakfast with a portion for Xeal as well. The next few hours were spent talking and going over what to expect and how to act in the following proceedings when the inevitable counter accusations came from Hugo. Then it was finally time to move to the throne room where the trial would take place. As Xeal entered this room for the first time, he took note of the opulence of the room with red drapes and marble floors. Marble columns lined each side of the room except the back where two thrones sat on a raised floor in front of a half dome wall and ceiling with beautiful art work that told the first king’s story of founding the kingdom of Nium. The throne that the king would sit upon was covered in gold and jewels and sat much higher than the small one covered in silver and a few jewels that sat to its right for the queen. Atop the columns sat a viewing area large enough for a few hundred people that was manned by several guards dressed in fine armor and wielding pole arms with swords hilted on their waists. The center area of the room was around the size of a basketball court and would be where the trial would play out shortly. Victor quickly led Xeal to an area to the right of the throne area where Princess Enye was already standing alone with a few other nobles Xeal recognized but whose names escaped him. Enye gave Xeal a smile that he returned before taking up the position Victor directed him to. It was about 15 minutes later that the room started to really fill up, with the viewing area on the second floor filling up as well as the left side of the throne where Marquess Mercer and his house were standing alone. Finally, after everything had calmed down, the arrival of King Vincent Vidfamne and his wife Queen Eleanor was announced and the whole room, save for the guards charged with the king’s and queen’s safety, were down on their knees. Once the king and queen were seated on their thrones, the king ordered all present to rise and for the accused to be brought in.

As Hugo Mercer was walked in with his arms chained behind his back, his gaze was scanning the room until it landed upon Xeal. Hugo focused on Xeal with pure hatred for a few seconds before he was brought into the center of the room and forced to his knees. Once he was on his knees, he looked upon the king with a look that said he was just ready to get this farce over with. Sighing, Prince Victor stepped out and began speaking to those present.

Afterword

Five books down, this was where my budget was set to run out if these stories weren’t selling at all. Make no mistake I would have kept publishing, but the cover art would have become something that was a reusable one and other corners would have likely been cut to save money. Instead I am working to turn my books into audiobooks before the end of the year and have even added another editor to my process to ensure fewer typos and grammar errors make it through.

This is also the last Afterword that I will be writing before I become a full time author. It feels amazing and weird to think of what life will be like for me moving forward. I hope to see you all back for book 6 which is by far the longest yet!

As always, if you feel I have forgotten something feel free to reach out to me on Facebook through my page or join my group. I am only one person and sending a message to my Facebook author page is the fastest way to get me to see it as I don’t get alerts on my personal page when non-friends message me for the first time. That said I will not answer personal questions like where I live even in a general fashion, please keep it to my story. If you would like a weekly extra that is not plot necessary but is canon, I publish shorts on my Patreon, the first four of which are currently available to my $1 patrons who will get another one every four weeks while my $5 patrons get one each week.

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Thank you again for reading my story and I hope you return for the next instalment of Alex’s tale. If you enjoy LitRPG and GameLit books check out the following Facebook groups. Both are great and have helped me get my stories out to you!

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