“Look, I didn’t mean it like that, okay? I’m a little frustrated about some things going on in real life and then you up and get married in here, cutting down on some of my stress relief. None of that is your problem, but I got my panties in a knot and acted out. I seem to have hit a nerve with you there and for that I am sorry, okay?” Karen met his eyes, obviously sincere.
Sighing, Alburet nodded, “Okay. Sorry for jumping down your throat in return. Having had to put up with stare downs and eye fucks from inmates for years makes me sensitive in that area. We good now?”
Karen extended her hand, “Truce.” Alburet shook hands but Karen clamped down on his hand as they shook, “Fluff is off limits to you, right?”
Alburet felt his anger start to rise again when she clamped down, but it evaporated as she asked about Fluff. “I feel bad for Fluff. She was interested at one point and I shot her down. She did ask if you liked women awhile back, though. So you might have a shot if you play it slow and cool. Now kindly give me my digits back,” Alburet said as his hand was now limp in hers.
Karen’s smile grew, “She did, huh? Good, good, I’m happy to hear that. Oh and yeah, sorry.” She released his hand before they began to walk into the fort. “So, any advice on how to move forward with seducing her?”
“Don’t try, that’s my advice. Be there for her. Give her hints that you’re interested, but do not press. She says Lilith is helping her somehow, so just give her some time. Who knows, by next month she might ask you out.” Alburet chuckled at the idea of timid little Fluff cornering Karen against a building to ask her out.
When they caught up to the others, Gerald and Marysue had just gotten their quests from the same sergeant that had been there before. She turned her eyes to the others questioningly, prompting Alburet to speak up. “Sergeant, we have completed two of the missions you set out for us the other day. We have killed the gnolls required and raided some of their camps. Considering their strength though, we brought reinforcements this time.” Alburet jerked his head at Gerald and Marysue, “If all goes well today, then in the next couple we should be attempting to slay the Head Shaman of the gnolls for you.”
Lips pursed, the greying sergeant nodded, “Admirably done then, Alpha Company. You have proven yourselves capable to this point, but I will warn you that the Shaman is a dangerous foe.” Her voice was firm as she spoke, making sure they knew the seriousness of her warning.
“Yes, ma’am,” Alburet replied. “We know this, which is why we’re taking steps to become better acquainted with our enemies first.”
“Very well, then. Here are your rewards for your efforts thus far,” She set out a pouch of coins for each of those who had finished the quests already. “Best you teach the others the right ways to deal with the gnoll’s peculiar traits.”
Quest completed: Kill fifty gnolls
Receive: Twenty gold and increased rep with Stormguard guards
Quest completed: Clear five encampments of gnolls
Receive: Thirty gold and increased rep with Stormguard guards
They each picked up their gold as Alburet concluded the conversation. “Yes, ma’am. Thank you, ma’am.” He snapped a salute, which was repeated by the others.
“Are we supposed to be a military like guild?” Gerald asked as they exited the gates.
“Not so much, but with sergeants and above treating them with the respect due their rank does seem to help.” Alburet shrugged, “I just want to see all of the NPCs treated right. For those of us who are immersed in the game for such long periods, it will behoove us more than most to do so. You can’t just log out if you piss someone off, after all.”
“What exactly are the rules of the guild going to be?” Marysue asked as they walked towards the tree line in the distance.
“Basically just a few simple ones. First, treat your fellow Alpha Company members with respect. You don’t have to love or even like them, but you should treat them fairly. Secondly, treat the NPCs as real people. They are as real as we are while we’re immersed for these long lengths of time. Thirdly, comport yourself with dignity so as to not besmirch the name of the guild. That’s about it. We can flesh them out as needed once we have other members. Gerald, I’m willing to make you second in command since you have experience with large groups of people. Marysue, Fluffball and Karen are all going to be officers. Everyone okay with that?” Alburet looked over at them as he asked the last question.
Karen just nodded, along with Marysue as Gerald grinned slightly, giving Alburet a thumbs-up. Fluff shook her head, “I don’t think I should be an officer. I’m not good at confrontations.”
Karen tapped Fluff on the shoulder lightly, “He wants to make sure those of us in the guild at the start, have the power to deal with those that come after, Fluff. Take the title. If worst comes to worst then you can get me to help you, right?”
Fluffball chewed her lip for a moment then nodded, “Okay.”
“What about me?” Stacia asked, her voice a touch disappointed.
“That is an interesting issue, Kitten,” Alburet replied. “I don’t know how people will react to my wife being an officer. That kind of thing always causes issues in similar situations on the other world. If it’s something you are strongly wanting, then yes, you can be an officer, too. However, we should check to see if the same problem occurs that does when we group you. And we still need to group up,” Alburet sighed as he sent invites to Gerald, Marysue, Karen and Fluffball. “Okay, hang up on the edge of the trees for a second.” He summoned Tiny first, greeting the taciturn destroyer, then summoned Bob.
Bob looked around, smiling at Karen, Stacia and Fluff. “So how was the wedding? Did you go for round three, Karen?”
Karen shook her head, “Not on a wedding night. That would just be wrong, Bob.”
“An Imp has to have dreams,” Bob said slightly defensively.
“It was a wonderful day, Bob,” Stacia said with a grin at the imp. “Did ya find a succubus for the days away?”
“No,” Bob replied morosely, “struck out four times. Worst two days off ever.”
Alburet chuckled, “Too bad.” He turned his attention to Stacia. “Stacia, demon form so I can get two of you, please.” She did as he asked so he could use his Copy Ability on her, “Okay. All my demons are ready to go. Let me just check something real quick.”
He tapped open the guild tab, setting Gerald to second in command, followed by adding Fluff, Karen and Marysue as officers. He then tried to add Stacia and got an error message. “Kitten, it won’t let me add you as an officer. It gives the same error message as when we tried to group you while in demon form. Likely means if we did add you, it would kick you once you transition. Which is funny, because your name is still on the guild list currently. I’ll need to let Vicky know about the issue later.”
Stacia sighed, “Okay, master. Ya will let me join you in any meetin’s though, right?”
“Any objections?” Alburet asked.
Gerald pursed his lips slightly but didn’t say anything while the others all shook their heads. “Okay, then. Let’s get going, shall we?” Alburet said and they started into the woods.
“You still need to tell us about the whole marriage thing,” Karen reminded Alburet.
Alburet began to tell the tale of Stacia appearing before him as a succubus. By the time he’d finished his tale they had slaughtered their first camp of gnolls. “So that’s how that all happened,” Alburet said as they looted the corpses. “Which reminds me, though,” he chuckled as he pulled stuff from his bag. “One for Stacia, one for Fluff and finally one for a pain in the ass,” he finished, handing the last potion belt to Karen. Each had been fully stocked with potions before he had put them away. “Minor health potions, they only return 10% of your hit points. But this way you can use them quickly in combat.”
Stacia smiled as she put hers on, making Alburet dismiss her copy before resummoning her to see if the belt would duplicate. It didn’t. “Ah well, it was a bit much to
ask,” she sighed before giving Alburet a quick kiss on both cheeks. “So, nice when ya husband buys ya things, even if he does it for all the other women he knows, too.”
Karen laughed, “Better be careful, Stacia, or he might want a harem.”
“Nay, he already told me otherwise or I would be lookin’ for promisin’ extras already,” Stacia grinned with a wink at Karen.
“One wife who can become multiple all by herself is enough, thanks,” Alburet said, shaking his head. “One day married and already I feel like she’s poking at me deliberately.”
Gerald shrugged, “I would only want a single wife as well.”
Marysue seemed thoughtful, “Hmm, two or three husbands, though, does have a certain appeal.” Her eyes flickered to Gerald, who had stopped walking, his face showing his shock clearly. Giggling, she shook her head, “I’m kidding, Francis.”
“Francis?” Alburet asked.
Gerald’s face went blank while Marysue quickly stumbled over her words, “I meant Gerald…”
Karen chuckled, “It’s easy sometimes to fall into real names when you know the person so well. No harm done. We won’t call you Francis, Gerald.”
Gerald nodded, his face still blank as his eyes flickered over the others, “Thank you.”
Alburet shook his head, “Okay. Now that we’ve derailed that train and made sure it was on fire, why don’t we get back to slaughtering gnolls?”
For the next four hours, they blazed a trail of destruction through the gnoll encampments. Gerald finally called a halt to the slaughter, “Marysue and I need to get going. We’ll turn in the quests tomorrow, but we want to drop off the letters at City Hall tonight. Meet up at the portal guild tomorrow at noon?”
“I can’t tomorrow,” Karen sighed. “Day after, though, we can try the cave, if that’s okay?”
“I can’t then,” Fluff said quietly. “I could the day after that, though.”
Everyone agreed to meet up for the gnoll cave in three days, with other arrangements for hunting over the next couple of days by those who could make it. Gerald and Marysue said their goodbyes, leaving the trio in the woods.
“Shall we also call it a day? We can show you the guild area attached to our home,” Alburet said.
“Can we kill gnolls for another hour?” Karen asked. “I’m so close to a level.”
“Me, too,” Fluff added.
They went back to killing gnolls. Less than an hour later, Karen and Fluffball both leveled to seventeen, getting congratulations from the others before everyone used their Homestones. Alburet and Stacia appeared in the small patio area between the two doors.
“Now we know where our new location is exactly,” Alburet chuckled. “Shall we make some tea and invite them in after we show them the other side?”
“Aye, asthore,” she took the key and went into the house while Alburet stayed in the alcove waiting to meet the ladies.
Karen and Fluff arrived a few minutes later, coming from opposite directions. “Glad we were still grouped, made finding you via the map so easy,” Karen chuckled.
“Let me tell Stacia you’re here, she’s making tea for after we do the walk through of the guild side,” Alburet opened the house door to find Stacia coming towards him. “They’re here.”
“Aye, good timin’,” Stacia hugged the duo before leading them to the other side. Unlocking the guild door, she led them inside. The tour went quickly as there wasn’t a lot to see, really. “So, we be havin’ to outfit the place. It be somethin’ to do before ya all end up here, like me asthore.”
“Asthore?” Fluff asked.
“Treasure, it be from an old tongue tha’ me family recalls fragments of,” Stacia replied. “He be thinkin’ me callin’ him master all the time might set a bad precedent, so asthore be what I be callin’ him in public.”
“He has a point,” Karen added. “Master on the other world is a term not used as it has a lot of negative connotations, outside of a fringe part of society. Oddly though, Mistress isn’t as frowned upon.”
“Yes,” Fluff put her two cents in. “Like most things, if females do it it isn’t taboo, but if it’s a man then it is. Like same-gender sex, two women and the world just nods, two men and the world goes mad. Put a woman in leather with a whip and people line up, put a man in a similar outfit and people start screaming.”
“Truly, tha’ be a mad world,” Stacia opined. “Next ya be tellin’ me tha’ there be no set way to know which way to take ya life. Iffin ya should be a defender or a priest or somethin’ else.” The trio all looked away and Stacia frowned, “Ya be pullin’ me leg.”
“We aren’t, Kitten,” Alburet soothed as he put his arm around her. They led the other two into their new home. “The other world is a chaotic mess. We don’t have firm rules there like there are here. No visible gods to appeal to, either.”
Stacia boggled, shaking her head as she got the kettle of tea and glasses, bringing them out to the chairs in the front room. She handed out tea as she continued the conversation, “Then how do ya know what to do?”
“That is the trick,” Fluff muttered. “We don’t, mostly. Most of us just barely get by trying to figure out how to survive. Even in the wealthiest nations many still live in abject poverty. I notice there are no beggars on the streets here.”
“Why would there be? Everyone who has a class can find employment with tha’ class. Oh, but iffin ya world does nay have classes…”
“Yeah, a cluster fuck is what it ends up being. In the other world, I teach fighting techniques to those that will pay me,” Karen said. “As such my life isn’t horribly bad, and yet I want to come here more than I want to do that there.”
“I draw pictures, take photographs and make art. Yet even I want to be here more than there,” Fluff commented in her usual soft tone.
Alburet was stone faced as he stayed silent, looking away from the other three. “I can’t say. I am sorry, my NDA prohibits me. Excuse me, please,” he set his glass down and walked out of the room.
They all watched him go, Stacia more shocked then the other two, but being the hostess she stayed seated to keep their guests company even as she worried about her husband. “Sorry about tha’, even I not be knowin’ what his past in the other world be.”
Fluff’s voice was even quieter than normal as she spoke, “I think he’s the test case they brought into MindBlown. There’s a rumor going around that they were bringing in someone to test very long immersion on. As he’s the only one immersed at the moment, it would seem that it’s him.”
“Why him, though, and why an NDA that says he can’t talk about his past?” Karen huffed.
Shaking her head, Fluff shrugged, “I don’t know. My friend there won’t tell me anything about the test case, either. I even volunteered for it, and they picked him instead.”
“Who would we ask for information?” Stacia asked. “I be wantin’ to know all I can about me asthore.”
Chewing her lip, Fluff sighed, “I’ll ask my friend, but she wouldn’t tell me before so it doesn’t look good.”
Karen huffed again, “Fuck, now I really want to know. Ugh, I hate not knowing things. Why don’t we tie him down and tickle him until he tells us? That would be okay, right?”
“That would break the NDA and probably get him banned from the game,” Fluff replied.
Stacia sat bolt upright, her face going white, “Tha’ be nay allowed then. I will nay be havin’ me husband taken from me.”
Karen sighed, “Fine.”
While the women talked Alburet shut himself into the bathing room in the master bedroom and sat down on the tub lip. “Fuck,” he cussed softly, “they’re friends and I can’t tell them. Hell, even a wife and I have to keep secrets from her, such bullshit.” He felt his anger rise at the injustice of it all. He noticed his clenched hands when his knuckles popped. He grabbed his Mindstone and sent Victoria a message. Holding the stone, he sat with his eyes closed, taking deep breaths to calm himself. Once he got his anger che
cked, he opened his eyes to see his message icon flashing.
Message from VictoriaAI:
You can tell them you were a guard, but not anything about your real name or the incident that landed you in prison. Nothing else at this point. We aren’t even a full month into the game yet, Alburet. I will see about getting you permission to tell Stacia more, but not yet.
He thanked her before putting the stone away. Taking a few more breaths, he went back towards the front room. As he got closer he could hear the women talking.
“I be worried for him,” Stacia was saying. “He be havin’ nightmares some nights. Horrible ones from the way he jerks awake in a cold sweat. I be wonderin’ if his other life be the reason why.”
“He once said he was ex-law enforcement,” Fluff replied. “They’re kind of like the guards here, which means he dealt with all sorts of criminals.”
Forming the Company (Alpha World Book 2) Page 22