Maxwell

I was laying on a bench that one of the villagers had made at some point with a nice cool cloth on my head. Teleporting this many people so many times was draining whether they were handing me their mana or not. Rowena was giving them a tour at the moment, but I knew it wouldn’t be long before they came back to bother me.

Part of me was glad to be back though. The trip had been… I’m going to say positive over all. I was still in the air about Lapis. The dragon in human form was likely going to be the death of me, but that was tomorrow me’s problem.

“My Lord!” Since I didn’t recognize the voice, it had to be one of the newer NPCs that had joined the village recently. I groaned before I sat up and looked at the man. He was dressed like one of the guards.

“What is it?”

“There is some outside the gate that wishes to speak with you. She says you share a mutual friend.” I scratched my chin, wishing elves could grow beards, before I nodded. It was like Razz, but it might be someone else. A small voice even suggested it might be someone related to Aurora, but that would be foolish.

I got up then teleported to the gate. I immediately spotted the redheaded woman leaning against a tree outside the wall. She had either a dagger or something else on her waist. Glancing around, I didn’t spot any obvious traps or ambushes. We were ten meters from the wall. Which was fully patrolled now.

Teleporting down, I walked out to meet the woman. “Hello. You wished to speak to me.”

Her calm expression was replaced with a glare, but she took several breathes and calmed down. “Sorry about that. Anyway, I am Kaga.”

“You already know me, but I’m Maxwell.” I glanced down at her wrist and found a tattoo. So, she was a player. A human from the looks of it. Lapis went through my head reminding me that just because they walked on two legs didn’t mean they weren’t some sort of monster.

“Yes.” She rubbed her head, messing up her hair in the process. She seemed at a lost to what to say, so I waited. I had to admit that I thought she was cute. I sort of had a thing for redheads. It was sort of a stereotype, but most of the redheads I’d met were like flames. You had to be careful not to be burned. Kaga coughed. “Listen. I’m here for Aurora. She met some other players and realized that she sort of put her foot in her mouth. She knows that you probably won’t forgive her, but if you’re willing, she’d like to make a deal with you.”

I narrowed my eyes. This was unexpected. I had pegged about a two percent chance that this person was here on behalf of that vampire chick, but to find that was actually the case, was disconcerting. I knew I was frowning. Aurora had cost my village a lot of good people. They might only be NPCs, but in this new world, they might as well be real people.

“I’m not sure what to say. You likely know what she did just the other day.”

Kaga nodded. “I know. Aurora was being stubborn and thought as most of this as nothing more than a game. One she was trapped in. Add on to that, the only anchor that was keeping her mildly sane died in her dungeon, the grief sort of got to her.” She coughed and leaned against the tree. “Listen. She’s willing to give you some compensation if you help her with a… quest, I guess. One that you originally agreed to do.”

“Heal the demon?” I asked with a raised eyebrow. “I thought he died?”

“That’s correct, but unlike the real world this is a game. There are ways to bring people back. She wants your help in this matter.”

I crossed my arms. Bring a demon back to life. Normally that would be a big no-no. Demon generally meant evil and end of the world type things, but I knew demons were a playable race in this game just like humans. Without knowing the lore, there was no telling the true situation.

“I’m not saying no, but I would like a while to think on it. First though, exactly what do you need me to do?”

“Aurora is limited in her range of actions. Unlike you, she’s basically trapped in her dungeon. There doesn’t appear to be any solution to that. She needs someone competent to lead the party.”

“Why not you or the other players she’s found?” I asked.

“My situation is almost as complicated, but yes. I would like to accompany you when we do go. We need a full party, no just one or two people.”

Another dungeon or something similar than? That would require a full party. Or even worse, it might be a raid level event that required fifty to a hundred people to complete. If that was the case, I’d rather not bring NPCs, if they died, it would be permanent. I sighed and nodded. “Alright. Let me think about it.”

“Understandable. I’ll return in… three days, how’s that?”

“That’s fine.” I would need to consult Rowena and the Jade Collective. It might be a good idea to talk to Razz as well. Crap. I still had to deal with his inquisition that was coming up. That meant another battle that we might not be ready for. I glanced at Kaga. I wondered if she would be able to help. “If Aurora wants to fight something while we debate this. A large force from the goblin capital is coming to deal with Razz’s village. We’re in an alliance as you know so if something happens to him, it might delay the quest as you call it.”

Kaga narrowed her eyes at me before chuckling. “Alright. I’ll let her now.”

Before I could say anything else she had already started walking back into the forest. My eyes might have lingered a bit too long on her shapely butt, but that was a secret I would keep to myself. I rubbed my head and turned to head back into the village. I had some things to take care of. Mainly, I wanted to make sure Lapis hadn’t eaten anyone. She’d vanished as soon as we got here.

Returning to the village center, I spotted Rowena. I ran up to her. “Hey! Glad I caught you. How are the new arrivals?”

Rowena drew close and covered her mouth so no one could see. “They are much more versed in the game than us. The contract covered a lot of stuff, I just hope it was enough.”

“Hey. You went over the contract as well.” I wouldn’t have done this without her go ahead. That she was having second thoughts worried me. “Have they done something that was cause for concern?”

“No. Nothing yet.” She sighed and pulled back. “Sorry. They were just so skilled in how they set up their teams and got to work that it threw me for a loop.” She shook her head. “Its fine. Its fine.”

“Alright. I really hope so since I have a year long contract with these guys. To break it early will not only be expensive, but dangerous since they know where we are now.”

“You’re right. I’m good.” I nodded then grabbed her shoulder. “Trust me. You’re the only one that I trust with my life.”

“Thanks, Max.”

I squeezed her shoulder gently then took a step back. “By the way, did you see where the blue hair one that looked like a child went?”

“No. She gave me a serious do not approach vibe.”

“Yeah. That was wise.” I pulled her close again. “She is a fucking dragon.”

“A drag… How’d you manage to get one of those?” she asked shocked.

“She’s not really under my control. I slammed into her nest while teleporting and she found me interesting. Let me tell you that its already caused more headaches than I cared for, but there have been some benefits.”

“Alright. I’ll keep my eyes open.”

I nodded and pulled back again. “So how’s the village?” A lot can change in two days. Several buildings that I had queued were constructed and waiting for people to be assigned to them.

“We’re doing well. We got a lot of work done, but there is always more. The transfers were the same as always. Displaced with nothing but death waiting them.”

“Got it. I’m going to grab lunch and go through all the new information. Let me know if you need me for anything.” I was hungry after the teleporting trek here. Plus, going through everything would be best when sitting down. I’d walked into a tree once when I had gotten too engrossed in the menus.

“You got it. I’ll also go about finding them a good chunk of land for them to set up their guild base.”

I gave her a thumbs up then moved over to the canteen. I grabbed the communal meal for the hour, a soup with some dried meat, before I found a quiet place to work. I could have gone to the manor, but I found I enjoyed the sounds of the village at work. Maybe it clear what I was working for.

Pulling the menu up, most of it was the same as the last time I looked. A few values had gone up, with the material resources being quite a bit higher. The golems were really pulling their weight. I opened the Nation tab, and was given a stark reminder that I had a National Power to choose still. I quickly tabbed on the screen since it felt like the menu was mad at me with the blinking red text.

Treasures of Nineth Heaven – Generates a resource of Random (Level 4- Level 7) value inside your territory.

Ships of the Night – Create a portal of Trade with a random city in the world. (City will be accepting of your race, ideology, and theology).

The Great Path – All creatures move with a bonus inside your territory.

The Unspoken Truth – Reveals a hidden mystery of the world within fifty kilometers of the center of power.

I had to lick my lips. All these were awesome. I would be lying if I said I didn’t want all of them. After a long debate and a quick message over to Rowena, I decided to go with Ships of the Night. A bit of personal curiosity went into the decision as I knew I could replicate spells generated by these system messages. If I could replicate the portal for this, then I might be able to boost our strength tenfold overnight.

A ghostly building appeared in my vision. Much like the other structures, I would need to place where I would want it to go. I had finished my meal anyways, so I jumped up and went searching for a good location for the almost temple like structure. The label claimed that it was for trade only, but as a lord I had to consider the city that it connected to falling to enemy hands and becoming hostile.

Eventually, I settled on a site a bit outside the main village, including the planned expansion. It still placed the portal well within the walls. I would order a fort and walls to be built around it later, but for now, I would have to settle for my commander issuing orders to patrol the area.

Once I had the portal positioned as I liked, I clicked build on the menu. The ground bubbled before it burst as blue and black material flowed like water out from a spring. The liquid spread until there was a nice flat platform. The liquid then flowed up into a multifaceted ring that floated seemingly at random. I couldn’t help but watch with rapt attention. This was a truly magical scene.

The rings began to spin until there was a thrum as a transparent sheet of energy formed in the middle. The ring was easily large enough for a carriage to fit through with some extra space. The bottom section of the ring went into the platform making it flat for anything coming through. It was amazing to say the least.

Walking over to the portal once all the magical effects were over, I reached up to touch the portal formed in the center of the rings. A jolt of energy tossed my hand back not to mention giving me a tingling numb feeling in my hand. A message sprang into my vision.

Only Envoys and their caravans may use the portal. Please register your Envoy. Envoys will be protected for twenty-four hours while through the portal. Should Envoy attack any host city members, they will forfeit protection and be rendered up able to travel back through the portal. After twenty-four hours, Envoy will be pulled back through the portal.

Interesting. At least that meant an army wasn’t going to march through and take over. They would be pulled back through the portal after twenty-four hours. It looked like envoys were protected from harm as long as they don’t raise their hands against the host. I would have to make sure my diplomat was a patient person.

A timer hovered over the portal, so either the recipient of my portal was debating what the situation was, or it couldn’t be used continuously. Either way, I had six hours until anything new would happen with the portal. After the guards I had ordered for arrived, I left to get back to work on other matters.

Frist, I assigned people to the new structures. I was still in the process of making the city self-sufficient. It would still be a long time before I could have people creating their own businesses and such. Though, I looked forward to that day. While I was gone, Rowena took the liberate of assigning most of the new arrivals to the guard. Other than a few that I felt I couldn’t afford to let remain in the guard, most stayed.

Going through everything that I had missed in just two days took nearly eight hours. I really had to find an advisor or a Second that I could trust to manage the city while I was gone. Rowena was good and thorough, but at the same time, she was a player. She wanted to be out adventuring in this new world, not stuck babysitting my land.

I sighed and looked up to the sky. Evening was getting close. I only had about twenty minutes until the timer on the portal wound down and less than an hour before the new arrivals got here via the portal. I really had to figure out a protected way to get them down. A one way portal would be best.

“One thing at a time, Maxwell. One thing at a time.”