Dave opened his interface and pulled up his level.
Level 113
You have reached level 113; you have 511 stat points to use.
“You could say that.”
“How many stat points do you have already in your character sheet?” Deia asked.
Dave switched over to his character sheet, tallying it up. With his increased Intelligence, he could easily remember multiple things, his memory becoming almost photographic.
“One thousand, two hundred and ninety-one, which is the same amount as someone who is level 258.” Dave took a moment for his brain to understand what he had just said.
“Damn,” Suzy said.
“Looks like Josh might not have been joking about us being able to take on dungeons in Ashal,” Deia said. “I hadn’t realized how strong we had all become down here.”
All of them sat, lost in their own thoughts.
Dave spread out his aura detection skill, checking the aura of all those around him. Few were trying to hide it; some did it unconsciously. He used Malsour as a reference point, knowing that his actual aura was ten times what he was letting out.
Damn, we don’t look that much weaker. We’re all about a tenth as strong as a dragon. Dave had to wonder how powerful Malsour was compared to his fellow dragons. Knowing that Malsour had killed the undead Xelur Demon Lord at Boran-al’s Citadel made a hungry smile pass over Dave’s face.
People and guilds had been arguing that the Stone Raiders were dead as they hadn’t been seen in the longest time. They slowly grew in numbers and wealth but never showed themselves.
“Well, I think we’re going to give the rest of Emerilia one hell of a shock when we finish helping the Aleph,” Dave said.
Deia laughed and shook her head. “I don’t think there has been a group of Players this powerful so soon in the Player’s life cycle.”
“I foresee an interesting future.” Malsour smiled.
Chapter 3: Welcome To The Guild
Lucy, Florence, and a dozen other guild members were having conversations about the supply and logistics situation of the clan.
Many of the people in the room weren’t even using the same Mirror of Communication. They had taken them from the PKP, who’d had a bunch of them; being such expensive items, they targeted other Players who had them, using them as a status symbol.
Florence had, also, quickly bought a number of the smaller Mirror of Communications that were much cheaper than their larger and farther ranged mirrors, like the one Dave had secluded in his seeder. The Stone Raiders had discovered a large number of the mirrors wherever they were hidden and had the Exdar’s Traders sell them off. In fact, a number of trade agreements had been advanced by offering a mirror at reduced cost to a governing person. Beyond just using them for their ability to safely meet face-to-face with their subjects and other rulers, they used them to display their wealth and power.
Josh came through the door, walking over to where Florence and Lucy were talking about the next food and materials shipment.
“We’re going to need some more alchemy ingredients as well,” Lucy said.
“How are you looking for meat?” Florence asked.
“We’ve got an agreement with some hunters for grade-A meat.”
“Damn, that must be why that market terminal has been rating it as so expensive. Never had something so tasty.” Florence sighed. “Which brings me to those terminals. If we were able to use them and put them into every city and village, then charged even a one percent tax, we’d make a fortune. It would also mean that we wouldn’t need to use the wagons so much.”
“Didn’t you get the upgraded magical coding to improve their speed?”
“Ah, yes we have, though we’re going to need better magical beasts to pull them. The quada are now too slow. I was thinking of heading to Ashal or Per’ush to see what manner of beasts they have in order to increase our delivery speed.”
"You're by far the fastest distributors in Emerilia and you want to go faster?" Lucy looked amused.
“You should know—the faster we are, the better the profits will be upon reaching our destination. Oh, we had the arch mage come and see us the other day. It seems that they want to come into a trade agreement with us. Seems that we are the most reliable and consistent suppliers of fine materials that they have had the pleasure of working with. Most places don’t sell as many high items as we do, or have such a stock of them.”
“Is that so? I wonder if it has anything to do with the terminal you have in your guild headquarters and being able to get anything we’re selling in moments?” Lucy said with a wry smile.
“It might have something to do with that.” Florence tapped her chin in thought. “If I was to tell them that, they’d probably want to pull it apart! I know Bronx is always talking about the latest ancient artifact he bought and admired. He’s getting a lecturer’s spot at the mage’s college because of his knowledge, did you know?”
“I didn’t know that. Good for him.”
Josh cleared his throat as he moved beside the desk the two ladies were talking to each other across. Their interfaces glowed white windows off to the side.
“Ah, Josh! How is it going?” Florence dismissed her screen.
“Not bad. Planning out how to retake a housing complex that is filled with shambling mounds, cultists, and possibly a paladin.” Josh sighed, grabbed a chair and sat down. “So what did you need me for?”
“Well, Lucy and I have been talking,” Florence said, as the both of them smiled as Josh looked between them.
“I know that the Stone Raiders and the Golden Sabres are looking to become an alliance. Our guilds have worked together for quite a while now and I've been thinking that we should make it official,” Florence said.
“The proposal is that the Exdar’s Traders becomes a part of the Stone Raiders. Florence would take over my position as quartermaster, allowing me to look toward my support of the Stone Raiders instead of the supply situation,” Lucy said.
As well as your spies. Josh held his chin in thought.
There were a number of benefits. By removing the middle man, profits would increase. Some of the Stone Raiders had been training with the Exdar’s or using their connections to get into places they wanted to train.
As time had gone on, the Exdar’s had stopped being just regular Players and started to become another clan of E-heads. They were able to trade gold and other items directly for money, giving them a comfortable lifestyle on Earth, enough to afford pods. Hell, a number of them shared the same facility as Josh.
Josh’s pensive frown turned to a smile. “Hell, I already think of you lot as part of the guild anyway. I'll leave it up to you two to work out the details.” Josh stood and moved to Florence with his hand outstretched. Excited whispers and murmurs passed through the room.
Florence stood, finding Josh pulling her into a hug.
“Welcome to the Stone Raiders!” he said.
“Thanks.” Florence laughed as others whistled and cheered.
“Now, I’ve got a damned housing complex to clear out! Unless you have something else for me, I’ll get going,” Josh said.
“See you later. I’ll get Suzy. She’s better at this whole side of things,” Lucy said.
***
Josh disappeared from the guild hall and went back to his bedroom. He stood and stretched, waking up fully.
He sighed and rubbed his face. He had been in talks with Cassie about having the Golden Sabres join the Stone Raiders in an alliance, but it became clear that they hadn’t recovered from the betrayal of so many within their ranks.
Josh knew that it would be just a matter of weeks until the guild would dissolve. He didn’t know what they were going to do, but he did know that Cassie and her trusted personal friends were looking to join the Stone Raiders.
Guilds were falling and rising across Emerilia, many of them claiming to be the most powerful and Josh was looking forward to proving them all wrong.
A proud smile grew
across his face as he moved to the shower in his room. His guild had grown. It wasn’t massive like many other guilds—just under three hundred members. Nearly all of them were now E-heads. This had become their world in a way that Earth had never been.
He only had to look at Dwayne and Lucy’s lieutenants, Jules and Esa. Jules didn’t have legs back on Earth. Esa was barely making ends meet. Now they were both within E-head facilities, fully paid for and provided for by their in-game transactions. Emerilia had become their lives.
It was what had pushed Cassie and Josh apart. Being in an E-head facility, the pods they lived in would look after their bodies’ needs, thus not needing to log out for weeks instead of hours. Cassie, however, just had the regular headset, meaning every eight hours in real life, or twenty-four hours in Emerilia, she had to log off. She was also supported by streams and her own brand she had built up with playing other video games, taking her to meetings and events away from Emerilia. She was one of the best fighters and people paid a ton to see her fight and ogle her. Josh just wanted to live his life here and be left alone by the world.
Cassie wanted to tell the world about their relationship but Josh didn’t want to. He didn’t want to be dragged away from his new life to go to the same conferences, banquets, dances, and events that he had become wrapped up in as an investment banker.
Cassie saw that coming to the Stone Raiders would let her keep playing in a powerful guild. Josh made it clear that although people could sell some of their videos, there would be times that things would be guild business only. The Stone Raiders were fine with this as they made enough from the loot that they were selling that they were well supported on Earth.
Josh was not looking forward to talking to Cassie about not selling her footage because of the sensitive nature of the quests with the Aleph, Demons, and Beast Kin if she joined them.
The Beast Kin and Demons were stronger than ever but they still needed time to get themselves settled in to meet anything that might threaten them. The Aleph—well, the Aleph hadn’t said a damn thing.
Dave had told Josh that they had returned, in a private message, but it seemed that they were content to keep to themselves as the Stone Raiders cleared out and repaired their homes. As they went along, they were given resources per clearing out each area.
Josh pulled up the quest log.
Quest: Aleph Homecoming
You have restored an Aleph City to full functionality and returned it to its original owners.
Other locations have been made available to you. Based on the power supplied to the teleport pads, you can travel to the following locations:
Aleph Portal Factory x1 (Ability to fix portals in different locations)
Aleph Greenhouses x1 (Access to Herbs and Food)
Aleph Mining Facilities x2 (Repairs continue at faster rate)
Aleph College x1 (Knowledge on the Aleph areas you will be entering and different systems to repair)
Aleph Housing complex x1 (Increases in all areas)
Aleph Forges x3 (Access to weapons, upgrades, and automatons to buy for your own use)
Rewards: ???
Still, the rewards remained a mystery. The Aleph College was nothing that they had been expecting. The entire place was one massive scaled dungeon. It was half the size of the city Josh was standing in, but it had all manner of experiments that the Aleph had been working on and that had been altered with time.
He needed Dave to check over the remaining facilities since the repair bots would take weeks to finish the work. After finding out about the Aleph Engineer class, the crafters were pouring all their time into learning from Dave and working on the various facilities, yet there were still problems that they couldn’t understand. Dealing with the portal factories was largely left to Dave and Malsour. Crafters went with them but the concepts were too advanced; only a few were able to understand the two as they worked.
To get the portal factories operational, they would need to clear out the college. Although Malsour and Dave could access a wide variety of information through their Librarian necklaces, there were some records and materials that were too valuable to be kept as anything but hard copies. Therefore, capturing the college was a necessity, one that would challenge them like nothing before.
Josh turned off the shower and dried off, looking at himself in the mirror. “Ah, looking good, mate.” He made a pistol with his hand and pointed it at himself. His thin frame now had corded muscles covering it. He snorted at his own antics, putting the towel down. He hotkeyed his normal gear.
Leather clothes as black as night appeared. A hood that created shadows over the face, only allowing one’s eyes to be visible—not dissimilar to the hoods that Party Zero wore—lay behind his head.
He checked the two Demon’s blades in the small of his back and a familiar thrill filled him as his eyes turned black for a slight moment. The weapons were incredible, allowing him to cover himself in shadows. The more he killed with the blades, the faster he became. After a period of not being sated, the speed decreased back to normal.
It was one hell of a rush.
After checking his throwing blades and the modified crossbow on his back, Josh headed out of the room. The hall had Stone Raiders throughout it. They nodded and greeted him—some talking, others returning from their work or going out to it.
Josh meandered through, headed to where Kim was practicing different artillery spells with a few of her casters as well as showing other classes how to cast simple spells.
Emerilia rewarded those who focused on one class, but everyone was capable of casting magic and fighting with melee weapons.
“How are the trainees doing?” Josh walked over to her.
“Good, they’re barely trainees anymore. Everyone has at least an understanding of magic. Most are using it for enhancing their fighting styles. Looks like we’re going to have a whole bunch of spell swords,” Kim said.
“Well, that is sure to scare the hell out of some people.” Josh grinned.
Kim rolled her eyes and the corners of her mouth lifted up slightly. “So, when are we going to clear out that housing complex?”
“Once we have all of the other facilities cleared out, then we can deal with it.”
“I’m guessing we’re leaving the Aleph College for last?” Kim looked to Josh.
“Yeah, that place is huge and the scout guardians did not make it look simple.” Josh shook his head.
“What made you think that? Was it the level 350 Arch Lich? Or his level 200 plus helpers? Maybe the fact that he has been inside the largest repository of magical artifacts and information outside of Per’ush for centuries?”
“That might have been a factor.”
“Do we still have no idea where its damned soul box is?”
“You mean the phylactery?”
“Yeah.”
“No, we don’t have any idea.” Josh sighed.
“I really hoped that Shard wasn’t right this one time. How the hell could the Arch Lich make the entire college its lair?”
“Don’t know, but it would explain how it is able to find even the scout guardians. I’m going to get some breakfast and then check on the other facilities. Make sure that everyone is rotating. I know we’ve been down here a while, but I want everyone rested and ready before we head into the housing complex.”
“Will do. See you later.” Kim waved Josh off as she headed back out into her training square to educate her trainees.
Josh shuddered, thinking about the housing complex. I friggin’ hate spiders.
Chapter 4: Future Challenges
Alkao looked to the two councils: the Leading Council of ten—with seven Demons and three Beast Kin members—and the Governing Council.
The Governing Council also had ten leaders, broken down into one elected leader for each region in the Devil’s Crater (farms, city, forest, hunting regions, orchard, and crafters), then another for each military segment (magical, soldiering, and archer corps), with a final trading
leader.
The Leading Council made the major decisions, much like a president or prime minister back on Earth; the Governing Council looked to support the people, make and uphold laws, and do the best for those they represented.
There were six different brigades made up of 50,000 soldiers each, with nearly 200,000 Beast Kin and Demons who weren’t in the Devil’s Crater Army, or DCA.
Twenty people to try to guide the future of just over five hundred thousand Demons and Beast Kin. Alkao kept his nerves from showing as he opened the meeting.
“How are we looking with the farms’ harvest?” Alkao asked. It wasn’t official, but he seemed to have held the position as the leader of both Demons and Beast Kin. He saw more than one calculating look from both races. In their eyes, he still had to prove himself.
“The farms’ harvest has been better than I hoped. With the aid of the army, we are well ahead of schedule. We’re storing and preparing the foodstuffs but we’re going to need to expand our storage facilities,” a white tiger Beast Kin said.
“Good. If there are Earth or Dark mages and builders free, see if they can help. Food for the coming winter is our top priority,” Alkao said, holding the Beast Kin’s eyes.
“I will see to it, Prince Alkao.” The Beast Kin nodded.
“Good. How about the orchards?” Alkao’s gaze rested on a rabbit Beast Kin.
“We’re going to need help bringing in our harvest. It won’t be much, but it should help out. We’ve been building the greenhouses, but they are expensive due to the cost of clear glass. Some of the blacksmiths and other crafters have been working with glass silicate to try to make it cheaper. The way it looks, we might have one full-length greenhouse ready before month’s end, when winter will really kick in.”
“How many supplies will we need to get for the oncoming winter?” Alkao asked.
The Beast Kin representing farms looked to the rabbit Beast Kin who ran the orchards. “I’m not sure. We have enough for three, maybe four months with all of the supplies we have stacked up. I don’t know what that would be like if we were to do army operations,” the farms’ Beast Kin said. The orchards’ Beast Kin nodded in agreement.
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