Gryff Boxset

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Gryff Boxset Page 163

by Sloss, Marcus


  Vixor put on a winning smile and replied, “Next topic then shall we?”

  ∞∞∞

  Location: Warring Planet - Grim, City - Inquisitor’s Beacon

  “Joanie, I am afraid I cannot accept your resignation from the economic council,” Machew said. The tigerman sat behind a desk in a fancy chair in a tower that overlooked a city that housed a billion of his soldiers. The view was expansive and the rolling clouds on the horizon meant there would be rain. “You are the seventh notice this week asking to retire. If you were quicker you may have made the cut out the door. Now I simply have to stop the beings coming to me trying to leave. I cannot lose so many officers. For all that is holy Joanie, we are winning the war.”

  “Your eminence, I understand the tide of battle shifts our direction. I manage trade and there are many suitable replacements to step into my role. My husband made me agree to retire if the Harbinger appeared,” Joanie said and Machew cut her off.

  “Joanie, that flea is exactly that. A spec in the mighty universe that we are the kings of. We finally, after a hundred thousand years have retaken the number one slot from the Justicars. Our flying fortresses are meeting almost no proper counters and decimating strongholds that would have taken years to breach,” Machew said with a deflated sigh that transitioned into a low angry growl. “This is ridiculous that a single human has spooked so many of my officers. It is sad beyond reason. Thankfully it has only been you, non-combatant administrators. I will fucking rip out the throat of a general if they gave me this… trash.”

  Joanie opened her mouth and then shut it again.

  “Denied, get back to work. And Joanie, this is on a pile of your fired notices the moment this situation comes to a close. Now get out of my office,” Machew said and Joanie left in an anxious huff. “Darnice, send Warg in.”

  The rhinorc crossed the threshold the moment Joanie left. There was a solid forearm clasp and then Warg sat in the warm chair Joanie had shifted uncomfortably in only moments earlier. The big male sat relaxed and confident, something that did not escape Machew’s notice.

  “Your eminence, so good to see you,” Warg said with his best rhinorc smile.

  “Can the shit Warg. I miss dealing with your father,” Machew said and his expression soured. “Not many tigraws running top companies these days. I am still baffled you picked that form. Your father never got over it and every time we went hunting on my reserve he would bitch and moan. How is your father?”

  “The old man is living on a beach with his gay harem. The years of pretending to my mother are over and now I run his company,” Warg said while being direct and to the point.

  “TruthSayers have never been as profitable or as powerful. I will give you that. Those impressive stats are what got you a meeting with me. Now, what brings you to my desk?” Machew asked impatiently.

  “I am here because of this little trinket I managed to acquire a few weeks ago. Did you know the Justicars are holding a high-level alliance emergency meeting on Ashrini?” Warg asked while sending an orb across the desk towards Machew. The large tigraw gave a ‘so what’ shrug when Warg mentioned the Justicars meeting. “Ah, it is not just because you purchased dwarven slaves from Prox to build your awesome flying fortresses. Look at the orb I rolled your way.”

  “By the creator,” Machew said while inspecting the orb. His large cat eyes visibly widened. “You acquired this a few weeks ago as in the orb is new or you stole it because no one sells these anymore.”

  “New, from the source and witnessed with my own eyes,” Warg said with an evil grin of greed.

  “This came from that human claiming to be the harbinger did it not?” Machew asked. “I had a report cross my desk from some low-level council member. The idiot’s son was captured and his status was decimated from an emptied bank account. I let him keep his spot because he has been good to the company. He did not spook and try to retire either. That human can make these…”

  “Correct,” Warg said and caught the priceless orb the leader of the Inquisitors threw to him.

  “Alright, that is worthy information. What else do you have and what do you want for it?”

  “Right to the point, your eminence. I desire an alliance. My spy indicates the human achieved a second one…”

  “If the Justicars get ahold of him our offensive initiatives are doomed,” Machew said while bolting out of his seat to start pacing. The tigraw muttered, mumbled, and grumbled while Warg sat patiently. A few minutes passed by when Machew stopped pacing. “Temporary alliance on a provisional basis. The paperwork will be sent to your headquarters. And Warg, be grateful for that. The Inquisitors have not added a new alliance member in tens of thousands of years. The Justicars will be swarming him with spies. Do you have a plan?”

  “I have many potential plans, your eminence, but this situation requires delicacy. He is open recruiting on a non-warring planet,” Warg said and Machew froze.

  “Not good, but we can work with that. There will be a bloodbath the moment he steps onto a warring planet,” Machew said while biting a nail. The tigraw returned this pacing and muttering. “We save him and ally him.”

  “A wise strategy my lord, I could not have thought of a better idea myself,” Warg said while laying on the flattery.

  “Save the platitudes. I will notify my war council and a few key officers in this pile are going to be relocated as punishment,” Machew said with a wide smirk.

  “Dastardly delicious. Send him competent officers and solid troops! The Justicars can never counter the opening salvo of this new war front unless they wage open war on Thur,” Warg said.

  “Thur, never heard of it. Get out of my office, I have more meetings that will be far less useful than this one was. Give a full detail on your information to Darnice so I can present it to the councils and allies,” Machew said and Warg rose, bowed, and then left the room.

  ∞∞∞

  “Welcome to Thur. State your business,” the Thur customs agent asked Naxin.

  Naxin was a movant, his species was a mix of a troll and a rat. He had strived for years to be accepted into the Justicars. He was a low level of one thousand, four hundred and twenty two. He never dreamed they would accept him into the fold and he dreaded grinding more floors without a quality team. Movant’s were not known for anything special. They were ugly, small, and generally fairly weak in all battle aspects except for magic when properly floored. Which was the issue that Naxin always encountered. Others were prone to tell him he was too weak, instead of helping him build up.

  Well not anymore. Not anymore indeed. He was a Justicar now. He was sent to join a new company on some backwater world and report his intel to a bartender whenever he could. Three easy months and he would be relieved and given full status. Easy, and the first step was so simple he thought the recruiter was lying. The Awesome Adjective Adventurers were open recruiting and even paying upfront. The work ahead of him was a free shoe into the door for someone like Naxin who needed to check his initiation block.

  “I am here for flooring and to join up with an adventuring company. I saw an ad for Awesome Adjective Adventurers and the bonus was too good to pass up,” Naxin said with a whiskered smile and a jolly tone.

  “Perfect, we welcome new residents who have intended employment. Are you currently employed?” The custom agent questioned.

  “Nope,” Naxin replied.

  “Are you certain you do not work for the Justicars?” The guard asked seriously.

  “Of course, why would I ask to join a company if I was already in one,” Naxin said with a huff pretending to be offended; he knew no one would suspect a citizen at his level to be aligned with the illustrious Justicars.

  “Right, sorry lack of sleep on my end. Zoey got another one for Awesome Blanket Adventurers.”

  A female with stunning definitions and blaring red eyes walked towards Naxin. She wore a black robe with red trim. A black belt held a silver dagger on her waist. He waved a
t her and she sashayed her black hair while giving Naxin a gorgeous smile. It was at this moment the movant had never been happier. Coming to Thur was already looking like the smartest thing a being could do. The elvath stuck a hand out and he let her lead him down some stairs.

  “Where are we off to?” Naxin asked the elvath named Zoey.

  “Your interview. Another officer and I are going to determine how big your sign on bonus is going to be,” Zoey said as they descended down a spiral staircase.

  Down Naxin and Zoey went in the poorly lit confined space. Naxin wondered how far into the dirt they were going to go when they finally reached a landing platform that transitioned into a spooky corridor. There were cell doors on the right with open bars and private interrogation rooms on the left. Two big rhinorc joined them from a side hallway and panic started to set into Naxin.

  “Easy recruit. They are here to gauge your worth. They are not just big muscles, they are our inspection orb holders, well them and the boss. See, you are already here. Your name was Naxin correct?”

  “Yes ma’am, the orbs will show Naxin and my level is just shy of fifteen hundred. Proud of that one,” Naxin said and paused when he entered the room. There was a shaman holding a necromancy staff of at least legendary design. He never expected to see one in his life. The elvath pulled another staff off the shelf. “By the creator. I cannot believe my… Arg. What…?”

  The rhinorcs shoved daggers deep into Naxin’s kidneys and forced him to his knees. A gag was stuffed into his screaming mouth and a rotting snake bound him tightly. The events transpired in less than a second.

  “King Ptera is it my turn or yours?” Zoey asked the shaman.

  “Well, we both need a million floors worth of souls to unlock divine in these staffs. Such a shame I have to keep this precious beauty a secret,” King Ptera said to the elvath while tracing the souls trying to escape the weapon in his hand. “I keep telling you to go first. I will always have more floors worth of souls to suck out of prisons or political opponents later.”

  Zoey locked eyes with Naxin and smiled.

  “You are a Justicar and you should have told the truth. Then you would have been sent to their office on Thur to report your failure. Spoiler, none of you tell the truth to the customs agents with truth detecting orbs. Instead, you lied and were sent to us. And now I get to do this,” Zoey said to Naxin and drove a dagger into his eye.

  Naxin wanted to scream, he really did but found that he could not. The gag prevented his mouth from doing anything besides making guttural noises. Suddenly Naxin realized something. He was watching his body hit the floor as his soul was locked in place in the air. Oh, this was death he realized. His corpse gave a final exhale in defiance of the inevitable. The moment his body went rigid he was sucked from his soul’s stunned location. His soul was consumed in an anguished torment more diabolical than anything he could ever imagine. He heard one last monologue before he would scream for eternity inside a legendary necromancer’s staff.

  “That was the third one today. I sure hope the Justicars keep sending me idiot new recruits to consume. Gryff is going to be so proud when this staff brims with the souls of his enemies and I can guarantee my necromancy orbs double.”

  Naxin’s soul fought the staff's pull and lost. He screamed with all his soul’s power as his fibers were ripped apart and reconstructed over and over. The only consolation was there were dozens of voices in a chorus of unimaginable torture. A faint evil cackling laughter from Zoey was the last happy thing he ever heard.

  THE END OF BOOK 4

  CHAPTER 1

  I stretched from my bed with a tingling sensation that I was being spied on. Honestly, this wasn't new, or a surprise. There were constant flights of airships going back and forth from Riza Stronghold to Remi. Their flight path led them to within viewing range of my balcony. If a lovely lady of mine left the curtains open, exactly like they were right now, then gazers could see in.

  If Ptera wasn’t spying on me, then it was probably an Inquisitor or Justicar agent. I wasn’t foolish enough to ignore the fact I had made waves in the gaming verse. A legendary blimp, a Prox army being saved, and the rustling of feathers with my loud mouth would bring attention. Hell, I was certain half my new recruits were spies.

  “Good morning,” Nicole said from behind me, entering the room with a steaming cup. Her swollen belly caused her to waddle slightly. “Balcony or the mess hall?”

  I accepted her hand-off of the delicious Thur coffee with glee. Favorite part of my morning, besides the sex, was the black goodness.

  “How long since we started building?” I asked seeing a brewing storm on the horizon, the clouds cracking with lighting. The cool wind was soothing as the heat from the bed dissipated off my exposed body.

  “Oh geez, seven months, all you gotta do is look at your pregnant wives you goofball. Fall is approaching, evident by the final rains,” Nicole said, heading to the balcony. I pulled out two chairs to put around a little end table. “Misty, get the morning reports please.”

  “Still sleeping,” she grumbled from under the covers. “I’m going to a spare room for sleep. Gryff filled me so full it hurt to roll over and he kept me up most of the night. That’s what I get for waking him up for pregnancy sex.”

  Nicole sighed, giving me a disappointed look. I smirked with palms up. “What? The sex was great. If you slept with us you’d be tired too.”

  “It’s a big day, we all know that. Sit there and relax while I get the report from yesterday, you want a snack?” Nicole asked, leaving as I sat down.

  “You sure? I’ve got no problem getting my own breakfast.” My attempt to dissuade her was met with a stern glare and a ‘no wag’ of her finger. “Melon my dear,” I said with a drifting mind.

  My sips of coffee were slow, savoring the flavor of the drink. Seven months indeed. Almost a month had transpired back on Vin and the seven months here felt like it went by in a flash.

  Building a base took time, energy, and oodles of coins. Even with thousands of dwarves using magic and funds not being an initial issue, constructing hundreds of buildings was a tedious process.

  The main castle went smoothly since it was literally carved into the mountain face. The prior dungeon under them had deactivated and moved. The old tunnels and passageways were converted into living areas as my army expanded. Certain tunnels with the richest veins were cordoned off and mining commenced after extensive inspections. Riza Stronghold had turned out to be more than a simple dwelling.

  The area was a city. One that instantly became more populous than the nearest port town of Evrin. Riza Stronghold, or just the hold to the residents, needed markets, food processing, gear crafting, entertainment, training, tiers of dwellings, and the lists went on.

  This didn’t include the manufacturing that started on the original plot I bought further south. Down there was where all our airships were being created. The fact that Thur suddenly began exporting dirigibles was a big change to the economy. Additional planetary leaders wanted the kind that were not familiar. Especially on the planets where combat was allowed but rare.

  If the dvaren were not working, they were training and leveling. The brutal summer months in the central area of Thur forced those dungeons to be abandoned. The local area was teeming with adventurers eager to earn some loot or levels in the cooler northern sections of the planet. Which meant Stronghold Riza was a bit of a tourist spot for the local dungeon farming.

  I sighed seeing a new group of them arriving on the landing platform on the other side of town. A fresh batch of recruits, or those seeking glory against the local dungeons. The dvaren were no longer lowbies. They had grinded into the hundreds. Their crafting increased with them. While the news was great we’d hit a bit of a jam.

  Even with the mining, manufacturing, sea fleet fishing, and other generating sources of income; well, we’d out leveled the area. Not only that we’d hit a point where Thur could not sustain our growth. Especially
since we’d been buying slaves at every chance we could.

  After months of Ovaria traveling to slave markets, we were over eight thousand Proxy dvaren. We even went and started backfilling our army with Prox human, ogres, orcs, and shamans. If it was from my universe and purchasable, we made the leap. Regardless of the previous side, we were the red headed step child here in the Gaming Universe and that brought comradery.

  Me, I’d hit a funk. Sort of. I crested a thousand levels. Hurrah! 3217 in levels by grinding. Most of my levels went into my main three orbs. Kor hit three hundred. Between his level and my increased mana pool, I had him out a lot longer. My spear was over five hundred. I crutched on that orb with a passion. No matter how hard I tried to upgrade its tier, I failed to find a better version. My physical superiority was right next to my spear level; epic in the fact it was over five hundred.

  The last two slots were dependent on what the mission was. I’d swap from damage specific to controlling the fight, and then sometimes to utility. They were never solid and always based on the situation. Right now I had two escape orbs in case someone tried to assassinate me. A smokescreen and a blinding spell.

  As a whole, my forces had been grinding, grinding, and more… you guessed it, grinding. I personally dove into the caverns of Olixia in the middle of summer and spent two months killing what felt like a billion tunnel moles, bats, and bearkin. It was tedious, boring, filled with sweat, and so efficient we saturated the local market, and then the secondary markets.

  I’d taken a break about a week ago to prepare for this monumental day. My three lovely elvath were going to be mommas. The babies were nearly eight months old and healthily growing in the wombs. Since Zoey was probably swollen with twins there were C-sections planned for today. Unlike in Prox, there would be no mighty struggle for childbirth. Three babies would come out, and three mommas would be healed magically.

 

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