The True Enemy Revealed

by Jason Cheek

  Once we got that misunderstanding out of the way, we got down to planning the future. I talked about BrokenFang Hold, what was being built, the additional two fortifications I was building to block off the entire valley, the massive Hobgoblin army that was reported to be headed our way, and the work everyone was doing to prepare for the invaders. Annoyance and incredulousness quickly changed to excitement at the possibilities this could open up.

  At the four hour mark, we took a break for food and rest, since the people of The World were looking exhausted. By then, the excitement of everything had somewhat run its course and now we were fighting off boredom as a group. The food consisted of salted Cuttle meat and a flask of mead that I’d managed to fill-up from the celebration we had in Darom after saving the townsfolk in the arena. I had a couple more tucked away in my inventory, but I kept that to myself as my in real life friends complained about the meat.

  Not that any of them had anything better to share out. I was usually the one cooking in games for the added buffs you could get from the higher level foods. If anything, this was the first time I hadn’t had a huge cooking level and specially crafted food. I’d have to make sure I got on the ball with that crafting skill, since I didn’t want to be eating travel rations whenever I took a break while on the road. Especially, now that I could actually taste the food I was eating.

  During this time, I was visited by Princess Reeva, Prince Lekroth, Councilor Fulrin, and Sir Hemmet. We discussed the future and my concerns for the city and the disturbing news I’d picked up from Randel Tericius the night before. About how the Iron Falcon Mercenaries had been seen heading north on the evening that the Princess had been captured. All of them were worried about the future as I laid out the plan that had been forming in the back of my mind. It was far from complete, but the broad outline gave them hope for the future. It was the best I could do given the current emergency before us, but I promised them, once the Hobgoblin invasion was defeated, we’d return to drive the Orc invaders back across the plains of Atoll.

  An hour later and we were once again heading north through the forest. The terrain had turned hilly as we neared the western mountain range. Looking at the map, it meant we were getting closer to the area where Domenic’s mountain fortress was located. I ended up spending the remaining hours talking with Helgath about spells and practicing my Water shaman ability.

  Most of the discussion was theoretical in nature, since I was trying to understand how to do the cleansing spell she’d used against Councilor Achronis. We also discussed ways to block the spell and disrupt a northern shaman from doing the same against us, while I had the basic concepts down, the level and experience of your enemy played a major role in being successful in blocking an attack. Helgath taught me the basics, but there was still so much to learn.

  The last thing I wanted to do was to be bleeding out of all of my pores, while trying to fight hordes of Hobgoblins. Somehow, I had to get this ability out to my people. Otherwise, our defenders could be incapacitated by simple shaman spells, while the rest of the invaders stormed our undefended walls. I didn’t share this fear with anyone else since there wasn’t anything we could do to defend against it as of now. Maybe, I’d be able to meet up with Hollysharp to get her take on this.

  An interesting sidenote that came up during our run came from Neristhana. She made it a point to ask me if I knew what had befallen Royal Investigator Rani Lamkin during the destruction of Telrain. When questioned further, she told me how she’d seen the woman following me into the city from her perch at the edge of the woods. I’d no idea why she would followed me, especially when it was basically a death sentence. I thanked her for letting me know and tucked that information away to research later. I had an odd feeling Rani was more than she seemed.

  The one thing about traveling long distances with nothing to do was that it gave you plenty of time to think. As I ran, I found my thoughts turning towards the contemplation of the technology that was used in the American Revolution. I know it sounds like an odd thought process to have, but I found it relevant for the situation at hand. It was a small group of innovative people fighting a large civilization with archaic processes.

  That’s similar to the current situation that the House of Kayden was now facing. They were a small group of people that produced weapons individually who were facing an invasion from a much larger civilization that used artisans and slaves to craft their gear and weapons. The only way we were going to be able to stand up against them was to change how things were being done, too.

  To fight the British, the American colonists had to completely change their agrarian principles. Instead of having artisans that individually crafted all of the tools needed for warfare, they had to come up with the basic concepts of standardization and mass production. Things like having barrels for muskets and cannons that were all the same size, so that bullets and shot could be used interchangeably. This required a limited level of mass production. A master crafter would create the forms needed and less skilled artisans could craft copy after copy of the same item.

  Before then, muskets were individually crafted and each could only fire its own specially crafted bullet. There was no mass production of muskets or cannons. There was no interchangeability of ammunition for artillery, consistent standards, or agreed upon quality. While not all of those concepts were something that could be introduced in The World, the basic concepts of mass production and standardization could be a game changer.

  While that wasn’t something we could exactly recreate in The World for high-end melee weapons, there were techniques I could introduce to mass produce iron arrow heads, bolts, caltrops, bodies for the double-barrel Hollysharp Specials, and possibly even basic armor pieces. The strength, attribute buffs, and quality wouldn’t be on par with a high-end suit of armor specially created by a master crafter, but it would give my people basic protection quickly. Currently, that was what we were in sore need of for the thousands of troopers that I’d recently acquired.

  I wasn’t going to fight using the same techniques and strategies that it sounds like were being used by the nobles. If I was going to have people fighting for me, they would be outfitted in the best gear that I could get them. Also, they would be backed up by as many rangers, mages, and healers as I could get them. I wouldn’t just have swordsmen and women, I’d have Spellswords. I’d have troopers that could hit from a distance and then be capable of fighting and surviving a melee confrontation.

  Don’t get me wrong, I knew it was a lot to ask for, but all my Kayden Troopers had to do was slowly incorporate those new skills into their daily training. In no time at all, I knew those low level abilities would grow to become truly deadly. In my heart, I knew this was the key that was going to allow us to survive the hordes being sent against us.

  The only problem I probably faced was making a believer out of my crafters. Luckily for me, standardization helped a bunch of other things too. Most notably it was a boon to engineering. Instead of crafting one machine with individual parts, you crafted each part to the required specifications. Once you had them completed, non-crafters or basic crafters could combine the items on their own. This also gave mass production the ability to easily repair broken components. So, if I could get Hollysharp behind the concept, then I’d have the rest of the engineers and crafters behind me.

  Not that I was particularly looking forward to that conversation. I’m sure the annoying pink turd would laugh her ass off at me, before actually listening to what I was saying. I could hear her now. “What the hell can a Half-Elf teach me about engineering and production?” With a sigh, I mentally squashed the thought. Just wait until I brought up the idea I had for making high-quality steel. I’d probably have to get Brargroud Caskstone involved in that conversation before she’d listen to me.

  Unfortunately, we didn’t catch up to the rest of our people until Thomas stopped to make camp. That was because our max speed was restricted by the people of The World that were traveling with us. I was ha
ppy to see that guards had been set and that they’d smartly challenged us. My Darkvision had burned through their lower level Stealth, but it was a good start for troopers that had never worked with Stealth before. They recognized us immediately and passed us through with a runner racing ahead of us to warn the camp we’d arrived.

  We’d barely made it into the camp, before Kenzie started bitching up a storm about not getting in on any of the action. The Cobra Kai twins laughed at her, saying that they’d fought through a swath of monsters when they broke the trail through the forest for the rest of the raid. They’d even managed to level up with a couple other Devil Dogs. That set the tone for the evening, which I quickly bypassed as I hurriedly set up my sleeping hides with Helgath and the rest of my companions. We basically made our own camp circle in the center of the camp.

  Seeing as Thomas had setup the camp next to a river. The first thing I did was get my Black Coral armor off and soaking in the water. That and cleaning it up the best that I could. The one good thing about the flames was that anything that wasn’t a part of the armor had basically been turned to ash. Supposedly, the Black Coral was supposed to be able to repair itself in water. At thirty points of durability left, my armor needed all the time it could get regenerating its damaged pieces.

  The rest of my time was spent washing myself down as quickly as possible in the freezing water. I swear there were chunks of ice floating by as we washed. By the time I felt reasonably clean, my teeth were chattering uncontrollably and I felt like a living Popsicle. As I stumbled over to my furs to warm up, Helgath slid into my lap while Neysa pressed her furry body against my back to help keep us warm while we shivered miserably underneath my blankets.

  Not being able to have a campfire sucked big balls on winter nights such as this, I thought, while wrapping my arms around Helgath’s frozen body. The worst part of holding her in my lap was the icy water dripping off her stringy hair to run down my chest. I had to clench my teeth to keep them from chattering. Thankfully though, our combined body heat slowly did its magic of warming us up. Unfortunately, I had too much to do to simply sit around, so, once the numbness left my limbs, I slipped out of the furs and got back to work.

  Collecting my armor from the river, I was happy to see that it had recovered a good thirty percent more of its durability while in the water. I swear Hollysharp was a miracle worker. I’d have to do something special for the little Gnomeling as a thank you for such awesome gear, I happily thought as I made my way back to my sleeping furs. My breath suddenly caught in my throat as I caught Fylreh’s golden eyes watching me from where she sat crafting replacement arrows. Instead of greeting me, she looked away as if she hadn’t seen me and went back to her work.

  With a heavy sigh, I continued to my sleeping place at the center of the camp. No sense in making things more awkward then they already were, I thought, as I sat down to eat. Wordlessly, I passed out cold trail rations to Helgath and Neysa and began to eat, while the rest of my companions pulled out their own rations and joined in.

  We talked about Hefe, his indiscretions, and my past relationship with the Chaos Storm guild leader. My ladies had a reason to be upset, but they relaxed as we talked. All of them understood how it was to be lied to and used by someone without honor. They were right to be concerned that our enemies knew exactly where BrokenFang Hold was located, along with all of our strengths and our weaknesses. To be honest, their concerns were valid and I shared them myself.

  I also explained that Hefe was a victim in his own right. His actions weren’t done to purposely hurt any of us. The Chaos Storm guild leader wasn’t anyone to be trifled with. She was smart, ruthless, and had no compunction about using her past relationship with me to bend my friends to her will. After our break up, most of my friends had been smart enough to keep their distance, but some, like Hefe, obviously hadn’t learned that lesson. While the decision to kick Hefe out of The Revenants wasn’t my decision alone to make, I promised them that I would do whatever was necessary to secure our lands and keep our people safe from our enemies.

  With that discussion finished, our conversation slowly turned to nicer things. As we relaxed and shared a beer skin together, Neristhana quietly talked with Ulia and Keela, while Rayne and Brenna were speaking together in hushed tones like two young lovers. Seeing my companions getting along so well together brought a smile to my lips. Absentmindedly stroking Neysa’s back, I completely missed the angry glare Helgath gave Fylreh as Krishna and Lyeneru joined our fire.

  Excitedly, Krishna launched into discussing about how best to rescue his guildmates imprisoned in their fortresses’ dungeon. I listened to him trying not to smile. It was obvious that he’d put a lot of thought into the best way to get into their fortress and rescue his people. While it was a pretty straight forward plan, none of the assholes knew we were coming. Besides, we had the numbers to overwhelm any resistance, especially since they were currently focused on attacking Domenic’s fortress.

  Krishna assured me that he’d been able to get in touch with everyone in the guild and that they would be ready to log in when the time came for the attack. He’d been keeping everyone updated on our progress and said that the entire guild was chomping at the bit to slaughter these assholes for what they’d done. The zeal in the Moon Elf’s eyes sent goosebumps down my spine. If the rest of the guild was this excited about getting their payback, these PKers were in for a nasty surprise.

  As we talked, the rest of my friends slowly trickled over to join in on the discussion. Thomas showed up last and just nodded as I laid out the basic plan we’d worked out with Krishna. With that said, I went ahead and gave everyone a detailed rundown of what happened in Telrain. When I came to the end of my story, Thomas’ only comment was that there was no way they weren’t going to be coming after us with everything they had.

  Not that any of the Devil Dogs were overly concerned about the threat. If anything, they seemed excited about the prospect of the coming battle. The only person who was acting all put out was Hefe. After hearing that I’d told Julie that he and I had been playing her this entire time, he was looking a little green around the gills. Not that I exactly blamed him. All of us knew how Julie liked her payback, but it was the only way I could think of to keep him in line.

  When I got done with my story, Unalia stopped me somewhat confused. She didn’t understand how the zombies had been able to de-level the Chaos Storm players. I reminded her about how the people of The World were able to de-level players if they killed them. Basically, their zombie pets functioned the same way. If they managed to kill a player, they lost a level, plain as day. Her main confusion, I found out as we talked, was wondering why we didn’t take over the city by using just zombies.

  It was a good point, which brought everyone else into the discussion. I assured them that there was no way we could have taken them out remotely by flooding them with zombies. A few fixed defenses and smart fighting would have taken our pets out easily enough. While all of the Chaos Storm members would’ve lost some levels, they’d have regrouped easily enough and were high enough to take the hit. If we could have gone in to direct our pets’ attacks, then Julie would have just destroyed our assault forces with her scroll of Meteor Strike and we’d have been royally fucked.

  By the time we finished skull session, it was nearly eleven o’clock. Saying goodnight to everyone, I excused myself and headed to my blankets. Helgath stayed up chatting with everyone, while Neysa curled up beside me to lay her head on my chest as I triggered the log out sequence. Within moments, I was back in my dark computer room with the bubbling lava lamps. Stripping off my gear, I began guzzling down my water glass as I took care of my business in the bathroom and headed to the kitchen for something to eat.

  Throwing a Hungry Jack meal into the microwave, I grabbed a beer and sat down at my laptop to do some research. The first thing I pulled up was information on The World’s classes, searching for Royal Investigator. There were a bunch of notes from the Alpha and Beta testers. I fo
und what I was looking for just as the microwave started beeping. Carefully holding the too hot pan on my fingertips, I hurriedly plopped the plastic tray down before my laptop, before I could get burned and read through the article.

  A few paragraphs later and I had a good idea who Rani Lamkin was. Basically, V-MMORG sent their Administrators into the game when they were keeping an eye on a situation. The people of The World knew of them as Royal Investigators, which was how they had the ability to enter into almost anywhere inside the game. For us players, they were digital investigators making sure players didn’t purposely break the game by using bugs.

  Hopefully, Rani didn’t hold it against me that I choked her out when I thought she was there to kill the Prince. I’m sure I’d find out one way or another if I was on her shit list or not once I logged back into the game. Officially, Admins couldn’t purposely fuck with you, but at the same time, you learned quickly not to piss any of them off. Otherwise, weird shit tended to happen to you. I mean, weirder shit than normal, I mentally corrected myself with a self-deprecating laugh.

  Whatever, I thought, taking a drag of my beer. There’s some shit you just couldn’t worry about. Besides, it wasn’t like there was anything I could do about it either way. Starting a new email, I began searching for information on the next technological innovations that I wanted to have introduced to my people. Pulling up information on mold casting, I began copying down the step-by-step techniques used from the seventeenth century on creating sand, clay, and even wood molds into the new message.