An alien curiosity bloomed in my mind, compelling me to focus the entire weight of my gaze on the man. Not for a second did the half-orc look away.
“Get some rest everyone. We’ll be moving once the sun rises.” I dismissed the crowd, curious as well to hear what the half-orc had on his mind. I sheathed my blade, not taking my eyes off the half-orc.
The Adventurers slowly began to disperse, the majority simply collapsing where they stood around the fire, a handful of others walking to take shelter under nearby trees. I motioned for the half-orc to join me as I stepped away a short distance away from the fire.
The half-orc glided smoothly through the gloom, his eyes easily piercing the darkness around us as he approached without fear. Looking at his garb, I noted that he was one of the other Adventurers that I had enlisted once we left Coldscar, dressed in threadbare clothes without any armor at all.
“You disagree with what I have done?” My words came out harder than I intended as the half-orc approached, likely interference from the spirit that now shared my mind.
“Not at all.” The half orc's yellow eyes bore intently into mine.
“Personally, I found it too abrupt. There was not enough time for him to suffer.”
“And you think he deserved to suffer?” I cocked my head, watching him closely.
“He cost us millions of dollars. Tens, maybe even hundreds of millions.” The man scowled at me. “He should be fed into a fucking meat grinder, feet first. I don’t mean in-game either.”
“What’s your name?” I struggled to push the King’s influence away from my mind, feeling slightly sick as I stared into the half orc's eyes. There was something inside them that made me feel incredibly uncomfortable. Even for me.
“Carver,” he said with a fang-filled smile.
“Well, Carver.” My tongue tasted ash as I spoke the half orc's name. “I feel Micken’s punishment has been more than sufficient, given that he no longer has a stake in our Kingdom.”
“Because of him, there is no Kingdom.” Carver’s voice was flat as he spoke, completely emotionless.
I felt the spirit’s compulsion dig into my mind as it urged me to give into Carver’s bloodlust.
“And you think roughing him up or even killing him outside of the game is going to change that?” The half-orc was oblivious to the battle raging inside me, my eyes narrowing at him as I measured my words carefully. “All it’ll do is land you in prison and keep you far, far away from being able to play this game. Is losing the chance to play this game worth that much to you?”
A flash of concern and anger passed through Carvers eyes. “No. There’s nothing in life that’s worth losing the chance to play this game.”
“Then I suggest you watch what you say and think.” I pointed up to the sky. “Lest the game catch on and send the police to drag you out of your pod because it thinks you’re actually going to murder someone in Reality.”
Carver’s jaw clenched as he stiffly nodded his head. “You have a point.”
“There are going to be growing pains,” I soothed, feeling the King’s presence recede from my mind as I spoke, hopefully falling asleep for the night. “We will have much to learn in what it means to wage war in this game. There are going to be mistakes.”
“I understa-” Carver’s words were suddenly cut off as the bonfire behind him suddenly exploded, sending him sprawling forward against me.
As I instinctively reached to catch the falling man, screams and shouting echoed into the night as figures in the dark ran through our camp, attacking the half asleep Adventurers.
Shit! They found us! I couldn’t believe the other Adventurers had followed us so quickly! We had purposefully pushed deep into the forest to discourage any chance of pursuit. But after losing all our scouts, it’s not like we’d know if anyone was following us.
Pushing Carver off of me, I drew my sword as I raced towards an Adventurer that managed to cast a Light spell, giving us at least a small zone of illumination we could fight from. “They’ve followed us! Group up on me!”
“No, it’s not them!” Running quickly behind me Carver called towards me. “They’re all goblins!”
“What?!” I didn’t have enough time to fully process Carver’s information before spotting a pair of Goblins charging towards an isolated Adventurer standing by herself on the edge of the Light spell. As they ran, I noted that they were dragging a rather large net behind them.
Before I could shout, the Goblins leaped at the Adventurer, easily catching the woman in the net, their momentum completely knocking her off her feet.
“No!” I shouted, raising my hand at the pair of goblins as I ran, channeling one of the abilities the King’s spirit had granted me. A ball of crimson energy formed in the palm of my hand, before shooting forward and splashing against one of the goblin’s back.
Immediately the goblin’s flesh withered and rotted as the corrupted energy devoured the goblin’s life-force, sending it into mad convulsions as it fell to the ground. Wide, loping steps brought me into melee range with the second goblin, my blade effortlessly slicing through the rusty weapon it held, continuing straight through its body.
A massive fireball shot from the darkness, smashing directly into the Adventurer at my feet, almost instantly reducing the woman to ash. What few Adventurers I could see not caught in similar nets all froze at the display of power.
“Surrender!” A gravely, if high-pitched voice shouted in the darkness. “Surrender and be spared! Resist and you will die!”
A burst of light bloomed from nearby, illuminating a large, blue-skinned goblin dressed in a patchwork of leather armor and fur. In its hands, it wielded a massive bone staff, nearly as long as it was tall, complete with the skull of some unknown creature on its tip. The skull’s eyes glowed with fire and tendrils of smoke wafted from its outstretched mouth.
The ghost’s voice roared through my mind as it awoke from its slumber.
“We have waited far too long for you to leave your village! To have vengeance for those killed!” The azure goblin looked at me intently as it bared its fangs. “Submit now and we will be merciful!”
“We aren’t from Aldford!” I heard one of the Adventurers shout. “They drove us out!”
“We care not, the wars between your kind!” the Goblin hissed, a ball of fire beginning to grow in the mouth of its staff. “This is your last warning! Submit and live! Resist and die!”
“We aren’t from the village! We were attacked by them! We are here to restore the Slave-King’s Throne!” I screamed into the night, causing all the goblins nearby to pause, and turn their attention back onto me. “I seek to rebuild his fallen Kingdom and resume his rule!”
“You? A human, seek the Master’s throne?” the blue goblin asked in disbelief. “You tread dangerous ground, uttering words of blasphemy your tongue was never meant to bear!”
“I am telling the truth! I have found his tomb and have awakened his spirit!” The words flew out of my mouth as the ghost urged me to divulge all that had happened. “I bear his sword and armor and now he guides me in sea
rch of his lost crown!”
Shit, I didn’t tell anyone about that part…
“You openly admit to defiling a tomb of the Old Masters?!” The wizened goblin seemed to tremble with rage. “You are foolish beyond measure if you believe such lies will buy your freedom! If anything you say is true, I demand proof of your claim! Lest you and all of your followers be roasted on an open flame as we draw out your entrails!”
Proof? I panicked. How can I prove anything?
I felt the armor I wore constrict as I refused the King’s access into my mind. Damn it!
“As I thought.” The goblin seethed as the skull on his staff burst into flames. “A pretender, full of lies.”
“I rescind my mercy! You shall all di-”
Damn it! Everything I had worked towards over the last week was crumbling all around me! I have no choice!
“Wait!” I shouted, completely surrendering to the spirit’s will. I felt the mental barriers I had worked so erect, shatter as the King entered my mind.
“BEHOLD!” A voice that wasn’t my own erupted from my throat.
The orb exploded with brilliant energy.
Then everything went black.
Chapter 39
“…and that’s the entirety of our offer,” I finished, looking out towards the assembled crowd of Adventurers that had camped out on Aldford’s doorstep for the night. I wasn’t quite sure how Freya had spread the word through Real Life and managed to get everyone logged in at the same time but I was happy she did.
Having everyone ‘metaphysically’ present to absorb the information and ask questions in the moment was a much better arrangement than having a crowd of Adventurers logging on later to find themselves confused and alone while trying to absorb their new memories.
I had just spent the last half hour of the gray, cloud-covered morning, fully outlining the scope of our offer if any Adventurers wished to join Aldford, what we would expect of them as Citizens and what services we had to available if they decided to join.
Truthfully, it was an awful recruitment pitch.
I took great pains to empathize that joining Aldford in no way guaranteed safety, explaining both the Goblin raid earlier in the week, in addition to the attack by the Webwood Horror. I made sure that everyone knew up front that they would be expected to work hard to help make Aldford a success, to truly take it past being just a tiny little village, to an actual living and breathing town.
“For those of you itching to get yourself out into the wild, a few quick notes about the area.” I held up my hands hoping to keep everyone’s attention a bit longer. “You’ll find creatures ranging from levels two to five around Aldford here, with stronger creatures closer to level five if you head north and into Crater Lake. Next to Crater Lake there is the Webwood, a forest full of level seven and eight spiders which can and will poison you.”
“To the west of Aldford creatures range from levels three to six but truthfully we haven’t explored that area too well, so be careful if you go that way,” I cautioned the crowd. “About an hour away, south of Aldford is a huge patch of creatures ranging from level eight to level eleven, I highly advise not going there until you’ve chosen your base class or have a decent group with you.”
“Finally, we have reason to believe that there are Goblins of unknown levels somewhere east of Aldford, not including Graves and his followers. We don’t recommend traveling in that direction at all until you’ve bound yourselves to Aldford.” I motioned my hand towards the distant tree line as I spoke. “For anyone who is interested in getting their weapons sharpened before they leave to go hunting, please see our Smith Jenkins over by the grindstones. I will be over shortly as well to help out.”
“If you have any other questions or concerns, please come find one of my friends or myself. I urge you all to think about it carefully before making your decision. There is no rush to make it right at this second. Good hunting everyone and be safe!” I stepped off the crate I had been using as an impromptu stand while addressing the Adventurers, finding Freya, Helix, and Thorne standing nearby.
“That was well put Lyrian.” Thorne greeted me with a nod. “I don’t think anyone here is expecting a free ride, but it’s good to know upfront that they’re buying into more than just a place to rest their head.”
“It is more than a fair offer,” Helix agreed. “Better even than we had when first spawning in Sywn. All the Arakssi plan to join your settlement, myself included.”
“We’ll certainly be happy to have you.” I smiled at Helix, craning my head upwards to look at the towering Lizardman.
“I’m in too, if there was ever any doubt to that,” Freya said excitedly before a worried look crossed her face. “We’ll still need to deal with Graves, though. Until we’re sure that quest of his is no longer active, he’s going to be a threat.”
“Yeah…” I replied with a sigh. When we had started preparing for the Adventurers arrival I had assumed their arrival would be something easily resolved all at once and then we could all move on with other problems. Unfortunately, with Graves’s forces fleeing into the woods, they had turned that into a long term problem.
Part me of wanted to take off right into the woods now that the sun was up and hunt the man and his followers down before they fully regrouped and turned their attention back onto us. But unfortunately, pragmatism and a healthy dose of caution had us staying back.
Our first concern was making sure that the Adventurers successfully integrated themselves into Aldford and stayed true to their word. The last thing that we needed was a handful of them suddenly reneging their commitment to be law abiding citizens of the village and causing problems.
Judging by the relieved yet determined looks on the handful of Adventurers that already ‘bought in’ and received their Aldford citizenship, anyone who dared to step out of line would soon find themselves answering to a dozen angry men and women who were more than ready to defend their new home.
Our second concern revolved entirely around the issue of bodies and how many people we could afford to send out looking for Graves. If I counted everyone I completely trusted, the entire party, plus Amaranth, Natasha, and myself, we had a fighting force of eight that could reliably move and fight outside Aldford. Leaving only Aldwin, Donovan, Jenkins, and Shelia as a strong force to defend the village while we were gone.
The problem was, despite stripping Aldford nearly bare, we’d be outnumbered at least three to one, based on what we saw Graves escape with. On top of that, I didn’t want Graves somehow slipping in behind us while we were gone looking for him, and him easily taking Aldford while we were gone.
If it were only two against one odds, I would have considered going after Graves right away, confident that even without the element of surprise we’d be able to overwhelm his lower level followers. But three to one odds? That made me uncomfortable. There’d be little room for error, and we wouldn’t be able to count on using the terrain to the same advantage like we did yesterday.
We had to look at other ways at evening the odds, and with sixty adventurers to choose from. I was hoping to find a handful of people I could trust to take hunting for Graves. Adventurers like Freya, Thorne, and Helix.
In the meantime, however, I had sent Amaranth out to see if he could find and shadow Graves’s forces from afar. The idea being that Amaranth could move the fastest through the underbrush and even if he was spotted, no one would thin
k twice of seeing a prowling creature in the wild and trace it back to us.
“…we’ll find him eventually,” I finally said, my mind coming back to the present. “We just need to get everyone settled first.”
“Speaking of settled,” Thorne spoke up, quickly motioning towards the spot where Aldwin and Ritt had set up a table and a few crates. “How about we get ourselves signed up for this village and see about getting our souls bound here. Then we can see about helping the others.”
“Ah…” Freya replied hesitantly. “I still need to hunt a bit before I have enough…”
“Ssame,” Helix chimed in. “I only have a handful of sscrap leather and I am not certain how much the others I came with have either.”
“Eh?” Thorne frowned. “Nah, don’t worry about that. I have more than enough copper ore to buy in for the three of us.”
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