I stepped out of our house to see who else was up. It was still fairly early, the sun just peeking out over the horizon. I decided to get some work done so I could take a nap.

The first thing I did was entered World Editor mode. I was right in the middle of reviewing the changes that Kalli had made the night before when a system message popped up.

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE CREATED TWO TOWNS. WOULD YOU LIKE TO LINK THEM?

That was new. So far, the only thing world editor had been useful for was just that, world editing. The new system message opened up a whole new set of opportunities. I quickly selected YES.

I suddenly found myself flying much higher into the sky as the landscape grew small enough for me to see both villages I had visited.

PLEASE ASSIGN A NAME TO [VILLAGE A]

I was on the spot. Naming things was not my strong suit. Kalli had arrived in that first village long before any of the rest of us. Also, since it was just a system message, I decided that I didn’t have to tell anyone else about my naming conventions.

[Kalliville]

For some odd reason, I felt a large chunk of mana leave my body when I chose the name. It quickly refilled though, so I paid it little attention.

PLEASE ASSIGN A NAME TO [VILLAGE B]

I cackled gleefully as I came up with names. The second village was on a hill so…

[Mount Wendy]

Again, more mana was dumped into the name.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO LINK VILLAGES?

Of course. YES!

PLEASE CHOOSE THE TYPE OF COUNTRY YOU WISH TO CREATE.

DEMOCRACY

COMMUNISM

SOCIALISM

OLIGARCHY

ARISTOCRACY

MONARCHY

THEOCRACY

COLONIALISM

TOTALITARIANISM

MILITARY DICTATORSHIP

Looking over the list, I wondered if that was how the countries that I was familiar with had gotten their forms of government. Did the Queen of England get her crown because someone chose it from a system menu?

I scanned the list, trying to figure out what I was familiar with. The world builder system felt a lot like certain types of video games I had played in the past. Of course, this system didn’t come with any advisors. Unless wanted to consult Aya for a tutorial that was.

Deciding to go with something that sounded fun, I chose [MONARCHY]

CHOOSE TYPE OF MONARCHY

There were countless options for monarchies. Some rulers had limited power while others had all of the power. Depending on where in the world I was, the leader had a different title.

I chose one that I both liked.

[EMPIRE].

GREETINGS EMPEROR MURPHY. WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO CALL YOUR EMPIRE?

Again with the names. It wasn’t like they mattered. The world editor tool was just a mini-game after all. My primary goal was to make the villagers’ lives better, not to run a government.

[MELTOPIA]

The instant I finalized the name, I knew I had made a mistake. My mana was gone in a flash. Kalli’s cries of concern soon escalated into a grunt as the World Editor sapped her mana through the tether.

The world editor continued to suck on my mana as it regenerated, keeping me hoisted up in the sky like a human mana battery. I watched helplessly as a line blazed agonizingly slow across the map from Kalliville to Mount Wendy. Every so often structures grew from the ground in the form of wayposts along the path.

Just when I thought I could hold out no longer, the lines connected and it was gone.

NEW EMPIRE ESTABLISHED. WELCOME TO MELTOPIA. ALL HAIL EMPEROR MELVIN THE FIRST.

What the hell was that? A voice shouted through group chat.

All hail emperor Melvin. Voices rang out in chorus from the first village in guild chat.

Ugh. Kalli groaned from our house.

I panted a bit as the World Editor slowly lowered me to the ground. Everyone was gathered near the entrance to the village so I made my way over to them. When I got there, I realized that a paved road had appeared.

This must be the glowing line I saw connecting Kalliville to Mount Wendy.

Wendy turned to glare at me. What did you just say?

I threw up my arms defensively.

Oops. Don’t worry. It’s not like anyone else can see the names.

We all just saw that you declared yourself emperor of something called Meltopia. Wendy grumbled. What part about me precisely is supposed to look like a mountain?

Joe leaned over and whispered in my ear, “You don’t want to answer that one bro.”

Hearing the villagers from Kalliville in guild chat reminded me that I hadn’t invited the new villagers, so I made a trip around the village inviting everyone. I was soon forced to mute guild chat because the villagers from the two villages had a lot to catch up on and were chatting constantly.

Since I had woken Kalli up, I decided to make her some breakfast. I was hungry too, so I grabbed myself a plate. She was still panting when I got back to our house. What did you just do? And what is Kalliville?

I laughed nervously as I tried to explain.

I called the first village Kalliville. You were there first and I felt it was fitting. I think I made the dark lands into an empire.

She nodded happily and informed me, I saw everything. Our connection is so much clearer since I made the vow. Look at my core. It’s changed.

Forgetting about breakfast, I set the tray down and sat next to Kalli, probing her with my mana. Her core was larger than it had been but that wasn’t the thing that stood out. The red star that was her core was suddenly swirling with light energy, a tether of shimmering energy streaming into it.

Knowing where the mana was coming from, I looked inside of myself at my own core. Kalli laughed and informed me, Sorry, I peeked. Your core changed too. This is awesome.

Kalli’s mana had swirled around my core, making red streaks through the white orb that gleamed with power. A flaming tornado of Kalli’s mana fed into my core at a constant rate.

I guess we really are bound together now.

She beamed at me, proud of her work. So, Mel, what did you bring for breakfast?

I grabbed a plate containing waffles and blueberry muffins and set it down next to Kalli.

I just made something simple and sweet. I can change it to something else if you like.

Kalli smiled, picking up a muffin. Simple and sweet works.

We ate in silence and, after breakfast, we both started to nod off.

All too soon, Stefanie poked her head in the door and said, “Um, guys. Can you wake up? We need you.”

I blinked repeatedly, trying to get my eyes to accept the light. Slightly grumpier than I was, Kalli sat up, disheveled hair falling across her face, and barked, “Don’t you knock?”

Stefanie adopted her trademark defiant look and replied, “Oh, I did knock. The question is, do you answer? The answer is nope. Now, as I said, we need your help out here. We are going to let you lovebirds sleep on the wagon. Some of us didn’t stay up all night screwing.”

Kalli turned beet red and stammered, “That is not what we were doing. Melvin and I have never…. I have never…”

“That’s not what it sounded like to me.” Stefanie chirped with a giggle as she left us to get ready.

We dressed in silence. Kalli was mortified that our friends thought we were having sex. I could feel it emanating off of her. Fortunately, she didn’t feel strongly enough to stop sleeping with me. We both craved that closeness.

Stepping outside, we saw everyone gathered together. I walked over and asked, “What’s up?”

Thiora looked up as I approached. “Greetings Emperor Murphy. We have been talking and decided that it is probably best if you make haste to the other villages before you help us improve our lives. With the road you just constructed, traveling back and forth from towns you have visited should be a lot easier.”

I glanced at the rest of the group to find them all nodding. Joe pointed out, “If we plan things right, we should be able to cure the villagers and do some basic quality of life improvements in a single day. The villagers can escort us to the next village while we rest.”

“I am going to be exhausted if we do it that way.” I protested. “What will we do if we get attacked?”

Joe grinned, obviously having thought of that. “We are going to divide the group up into two teams. Builders and warriors. Kiki, Run, and Stef are going to be on team warrior. They will defend the wagon along with the villagers and make sure we get from town to town safely. You, Kalli, Wendy, and I will be on team builder. We will sleep while we travel and spend a day in each town healing people and fixing it up. I acknowledge that most of that work falls on you and your unique skill set but you seem to be up to it.”

Seeing a flaw in the plan, I asked, “If you sleep, who is going to power the Mecharriage?”

Joe looked conflicted. He looked back at Kiki and muttered, “Kiki has the most mana so she will be able to power the wagon. The villagers will wake us up if…”

Kiki cut him off and groaned, “I’m not going to do anything. Sheesh.”

Wendy folded her arms and spoke in a low voice. “You’ll have to forgive us if we don’t trust you yet. You did just try to feed Melvin to a dragon.”

Trying to change the subject, I asked, “Aren’t we missing someone?”

Joe sighed and replied, “Yeah. Its Raverly. He’s being an idiot right now. He wandered off a few days ago and hasn’t come back. I tried calling him in group and guild chat but he’s ignoring us. He gets like this sometimes. Probably off sulking about something dumb.”

We put our plan into motion. Two more villagers joined us for the journey, giving us a total of four guards. I made a little nest for Kalli and me at the back of the bus and snuggled in beside her.

Congratulations. You have reached level 27

Congratulations. You have reached level 22

Leveling up at the same time with the new double oathed connection floored both of us. We lay side by side panting and moaning as the dream began without us. If monsters had crawled out of the closet to attack us at that moment, we likely would have ignored them in our bliss.

Finally sitting up, I looked around. “Is this your dream or mine?”

Kalli let out a contented sigh and replied, “I don’t recognize this place so it must be yours. Also, the sky is blue.”

Even though I admired using the sky to tell which world we were in, I still didn’t recognize the location. The two of us sat unattended in a park overlooking the rolling waves of the ocean. It wasn’t until Kalli gasped that I looked at her for the first time. She was tiny. She pointed at me with a chubby finger and announced, “Mel, you’re a baby!”

If Kalli was anything to go by, I was more of a toddler than an actual snot-nosed baby. Well, in toddler me’s defense, I may have had a snot nose if dreams didn’t filter that sort of thing out. In any case, I was way too little to be talking back and forth the way I was with Kalli.

We looked around at what seemed to have been a long-forgotten memory. A young woman made her way back to me through a crowd and handed me an ice cream cone. Not wanting to be rude to my girlfriend, I handed it to Kalli. She beamed at me and tried a slurp. From the expression on her face, I knew Kalli could taste it.

The young woman turned out to be my mother who sat back, leaning against a tree, and said, “It’s such a lovely day today, isn’t it?”

I didn’t say anything, worried that a verbal reply from baby me might spook my dream mom. She continued, “Your father is out there somewhere on one of his adventures. He told me stories about other worlds and magical adventures that he’s been on. Also, Melvin, do you remember the bedtime stories that I tell you? They’re true. All of them are true stories. Magic does exist and you are the heir to one of the most powerful men of all time.”

She sighed heavily as she snatched Kalli’s ice cream, causing the redhead to look like she wanted to cry. Taking a lick and handing it back, my mother announced, “One of these days, the next fairytale is going to be all about you. You are going to be the one that they write the stories about.”

My mom stared out over the ocean for a while before she spoke again. “Melvin. Your father is the one known as…”

“Hey. Wake up you two.” Wendy shook us from the dream right when my mom was about to reveal who my father was. “Something strange is happening.”