As their forces marched down the main street of the city, the mood of the populace rapidly changed. They could no longer ignore the assault, or shrug it off as someone half baked attempt at an attack. Shops closed as they approached, children being dragged inside homes away from the advancing dead.

Compared to how things had been less than an hour beforehand, the city had fallen silent, no one willing to interfere with the coming fight. The army on the other hand, thundered through the city, shaking the ground as thousands of undead stomped forwards in lockstep, crushing market stalls and dropped items underfoot.

The guild members themselves were moving along at the centre of their forces, and Jicker had found himself in amongst them. They didn't have the emotionless stance as their undead minions, but a heavy feeling of serious and determination. Everyone travelled in silence deep in thought about the consequences of victory and defeat, and their preparations for what was to come. Mostly.

“The dead come marching 10 by 10. Hurrah! Hurrah! The dead come marching 10 by 10. Hurrah! Hurrah! The dead come marching 10 by 10. The rotting one stopped to-”

“Gabe! Shut the hell up! You’ve been singing garbage for the last half an hour!” Mary shouted at him.

“I'm just excited okay? We’re almost done after all this time!” he answered.

“Then wait until we're actually done.”

“...The dead come marching 10 by-” he began again, louder than before.

“Right, give me that!” She said, grabbing a spear from a soldier beside her and doing her best to stab upwards at her brother. Gabe had remained mounted once they’d entered the city, riding Princess over the heads of their forces. He’d been riding low to avoid being shot out of the air on their approach, but it also meant everyone had been trying to put up with him. In addition he now had to flail around in his saddle to avoid being stabbed by Mary, who had reached the end of her patience a long time ago.

While it was hardly professional to have to of the leading members of the guild randomly attacking each other, it went a long way to relieve the stress that had been building up. People stopped staring ahead with dead eyed expressions and began to laugh at the sibling's antics, some even making bets with each other if Gabe would end up getting injured. But as they rounded the final corner and came to face the council hall, the mood became serious again as they looked at what they were up against.

Sitting behind the market square, the hall struck an imposing shadow against the setting sun. Where most buildings had been damaged or outright destroyed during the upheaval, and again by the more recent Earthwyrm attack, the hall had not only survived, but had been reinforced. A steep flight of stairs rose up to a set of thick stone walls and a heavy, barred wooden gate, sealed against any intruders. Behind those stood a waiting battalion of golems, made of best material the council could afford at the expense of their taxpayers. While the main building itself had been strengthened to resist further damage, it was only these outer defences they had to worry about, but that didn't mean it’d be easy.

As Gabe flew up to have a better look at the defenders arrangements, Princess dropped suddenly, narrowly avoiding a sudden blast of flame coming from inside the walls. As they landed heavily near the rest of their forces, Mary turned to address the guild.

“We’ve seen that going in by air isn’t viable, even if we could get people in properly, so we need an entry plan people. Arcus, how long would it take to move the node up here?”

Arcus scratched his head. “Maybe six hours or so? And that if I can get some people to help break down a few buildings to get it here.”

She nodded. “If we can’t do anything else, that’s our plan. Anyone got a better one?”

“Can we just break through normally? They’re not as tough as the city walls.”

“But they do have the best people sitting back to reinforce them.”

“Well, if we got a heap of skeletons and made a ramp...”

Jicker tuned them out as they began to rattle off ideas, each less useable than the last. Slightly bored, he went to go sit down and wait for things to be resolved when his stomach grumbled; reminding him he hadn’t eaten in a while. Walking away from the group, he moved past the zombies that had gone still while they waited for new orders and went to inspect what remained of the market.

When the guild had approached, the merchants had picked up what they could and left, abandoning what they couldn’t carry rather than risking their lives. Looking around he saw several stalls of fabrics and clothes, one that had been selling mirrors and another apparently offering to sharpen blades. Most of people products had been taken when the stall were abandoned, but he eventually struck gold with a baker who’d emptied the till but left a number of still warm pies where they sat.

Carefully picking one up, he happily bit into the crisp pastry and the savoury beef beneath before turning back and almost tripping over, dropping his meal. He looked down angrily to see what had caused him to stumble, thoughts of avenging his dinner in his mind. A small weed was sitting amongst the flagstones of the market square, and had pushed several of the surrounding stones up and away as it grew, which had cost him his footing. He was about to uproot the plant when he stopped himself, realising just how childish he was being. But as he looked at the greenery in front of him, an idea struck him and he hurried back towards the walls, thoughts of food forgotten.

~~~~~~~

“Are you sure this is the place?” Gabe asked, looking down below them.

“It’s the right spot, but it looks like things have been...busy.” Jicker replied, taking in the view.

When Jicker had gone back to Mary and told her his idea to get inside, she was all for it, but in practice it was a different story. The idea had been to alter a plant so that it could weaken and break the walls as it grew. The problem was that he couldn’t get it to grow once he’d made the changes, and he couldn’t make it affect the walls while he worked on it.

With no other ideas being considered workable in the timeframe they had, some people had been dispatched to make way for the node, while Jicker and Gabe would go and see if they could get some advice from Molta on the plants. Though after the third time Gabe had landed to pick up snacks, investigate a weird sound or just stretch his legs, Jicker had a feeling Mary was trying to keep her brother occupied until they could get to the council.

The ground they flew over had once been manicured lawns and pathways, but apparently things had changed. A sea of vines poured out from the greenhouses and covered the area, rising up and covering several of the nearby structures.

The vines gathered into clumps in random places that, on closer inspection, turned out to be skeletons that had been grabbed and crushed by the vegetation.

“Are you sure it’s safe for us to be here right now?” Gabe asked as Princess shied away from one them.

“It’s safe enough,” Molta called to them as she stepped out from her greenhouse. “Until you tell me what you’re doing here at least. Who are you?”

“What do you mean? Don't you remember me?” Jicker asked.

“I remember you Jicker, but that’s not what I meant. Are you with the attackers?” she said, gesturing to one of the broken skeletons. “Or are you with the council now?” Again she gestured to one of the clumps of vine, but from the trails of dried blood covering the vines, he doubted it contained an undead soldier.

“I can understand why you destroyed our soldiers, but did the council attack you? That seems like a pretty strong reaction by them against their own people.” Gabe asked, doubt flashing across his face.

“They came to demand everything I had that could be used to help against the siege, and didn’t want to take no for an answer. Apparently they’re taking a stance of “if you’re not with us you’re against us”. When the skeletons showed up later they started hacking at the vines so I dealt with them as well. Now, which side are you with?”

“We’re with the invaders.” Gabe said, bringing Princess up a few meters in case they had to escape.

Molta grunted dismissively. “I figured that, just wanted to know if you were going to lie to me like some of the others here. Now, what do you want?”

“I was hoping to get your help with something,” Jicker said, then continued quickly as the vines started shifting at Molta’s feet. “Specifically, I was looking for advice on growing certain types of plants?” he asked hopefully.

The elf paused, and the plant life at her feet did the same. “Why?” she asked bluntly.

“We want to use them to invade the council hall and control the city.” Gabe said before Jicker could reply, who turned to look at him in shock.

Molta chuckled. “Honesty like that’s in short supply these days, though I think you should warn your ally’s before saying something like that. But while I can't claim to care about the council after what they tried to pull, why should I help you?”

Jicker tried to think of what he could trade for her help but came up blank. “I thought you’d be more interested than this, but I guess it's fair. What do you want?”

She snorted. “What do I want? I'm an old woman, what I want is to be left alone.”

“Heh, unfortunately I can't really give you-” Jicker began before Gabe cut him off excitedly.

“Oh, I can do that! Ahem,” he began sitting up straight and putting on a more official voice. “I, Gabe of the Rising Moon guild, swear that upon our victory, you will be given this area as private land and be exempt from the actions of the city unless you directly jeopardize our safety and work.” he finished proudly, before turning to Jicker. “Mary had me memorise that speech so I wouldn't start promising things we couldn't deliver, and i doubt she wants to attack here if we can avoid it. So, Ms. Molta, can we get your assistance?”

She was silent for a moment, and then nodded with a smile. “It’s a deal. You can land your...horse; over there and then we’ll go inside and talk.”

~~~~~~

The inside of the greenhouse was quiet, everyone else who normally worked there having left, probably about the time the plants had risen up and started breaking through the windows. They made their way over to where a few chairs sat around an upturned table, trying to avoid stepping on the plants as much as they could. Jicker found it disconcerting to feel the greenery flinch underfoot, as if he’d stepped on a dog's tail.

“So let's get down to specifics here, what do you want to know.” Molta asked, sipping from a cup of tea she’d pulled from somewhere.

“Well, I need to figure out what sort of plant can grow through stone quickly, specifically to break down the council’s walls.” Jicker replied, keeping an eye on Gabe who’d gone over and started poking what looked like a flytrap.

“I can point you in the right direction on that I suppose. What have you tried so far?”

“I put a plant next to the wall and tried to accelerate it, but it just sort of sat there.”

“Okay, but what did you actually do? What did you plant, what fertiliser that sort of thing?” she asked gesturing for him to expand on it.

“...Magical stuff?” he said awkwardly.

“Care to narrow that down at all?” she said with amusement in her voice.

“Look it's kind of hard to explain, but Ii need you to promise not to tell anyone else about this."

Deciding it probably wouldn’t hurt to let her know, Jicker gave her a brief rundown on his adaptation ability. He gave her a brief run through of his adaptation ability and how it worked, and asked for her opinion. Whatever reaction he was expecting from her, it wasn’t for her to slap her hand down on the table suddenly and burst out laughing.

“I knew there was something off with the plants you gave me! There was no way something like that could grow around here without me knowing, even with the upheaval! That’s been bugging me ever since you first gave them to me. For a while I thought you were some master herbalist who’d been sneaking around under the radar, but this makes far more sense. Now, considering what you’ve done so far I think your best bet would be something with deeper roots, but that not the real issue.”

“Then what is?”

“A wall, while durable, isn’t exactly known for having much in the way of nutrients. But I think I've got some stuff here that might help you there...” she said, trailing off as she got up and went to look through a cupboard. While she spent a few minutes searching for whatever she was looking for, Jicker did his best to help Gabe pull his hand out of flytrap that was currently trying to digest his fingers.

“Here we are!” Molta exclaimed, handing him a small steel bottle. “I made this up a while ago for working in areas that couldn’t support the crops people needed. It’s a type of fertiliser, but calling it that would be understating it. Pour some of this on the wall next to the plant and stand back, and it’ll grow like nothing else!”

“Thank you for this, how much do you want for it?” Jicker asked, putting the bottle in his pack. She waved him off.

“Don’t worry about it. I spend far more than what that’s worth trying to get a hold of plants that I haven’t seen before, and I’m sure that whatever breaks the council walls will qualify. Now you two should probably go, before I'm accused of helping the enemy and the college tries to fire me.”

“Don't you have tenure here?”

“I said they’d try, not succeed. Now off with you.”

~~~~~~

Things hadn’t changed that much when they returned to the guilds forces, though there were a few piles of bodies near the walls that were slowly growing as both sides took potshots at each other.

“Your back then, “Mary said as she spotted their approach. “Any luck?”

“Apparently we have an answer, so get ready I guess? I'm not sure how this will go exactly.” Jicker answered before heading towards the base of the wall.

Grabbing a clump of grass from one of the nearby garden beds he went to work and activated adaptation. As the influx of information and options hit him, he did what he could, trying to focus on Molta’s advice and give it an impressive root system. Worrying that the council would kill it off before it could make enough of an impact, he reinforced it as best he could, having it pull in minerals to protect it. It was a quick change compared to some of his other works, but telling a plant to grow wasn’t exactly difficult.

Ding!

Adaptation has become permanent. Note- all plant changes are 50% more likely to become permanent-scales with level of herbalism.

Type: Modified grass.

Do you wish to name this plant?

“Does anyone have an idea of what to name this stuff?” he called to the guild, having been caught unprepared and not expecting this change to stick.

There was some muttering from a few people until one person called out. “How about Rockweed? It breaks rocks, so...”

“Good enough for me. The name will be Rockweed.”

Name accepted. Creator will remain unknown. Now applying changes to plant.

Herbalism level has increased by 2! Current level: 3

Note: Created plants will spread naturally if planted in suitable environments and cared for.

The grass in his hand had thickened and turned a dull grey colour in the process, its roots hanging down almost to the ground. Carefully placing it at the base of the wall, he grabbed the bottle they’d been given and poured some onto the wall. A thick yellow slime, it had an eye burning smell as it seemed to sink into the stone work, leaving only a faint residue. But that was apparently more than enough for the rockweed, with the plant suddenly buried its roots into the ground and began to cling to wall, growing at an exponential rate. It was only when the plant had grown several feet high and a dozen wide that he remembered Molta’s advice to get clear of the plant as it grew.

Sure enough, as he fled back to the group, the first cracks began to show, sharp popping noises coming through as the wall began to split, unable to handle the pressure of the roots rapidly spreading through it. As the wall began to break apart, Jicker saw that it held length of rebar, an unusual sight addition for construction in Genesis, but not unsurprising. But while the iron bars may have helped reinforce the wall against normal attacks, they seemed to do the opposite for the rockweed. Fine roots began to attach themselves to metal and greedily start drinking it in, dissolving the bars as they watched. The leaves of the plant however, became wider, their colour dimming even further as they grew, the iron being put to use.

In less than five minutes, a section of wall more than fifty feet across had given way by the time the rockweed had run its course, having used up all of the fertilizer it had been given.

“Okay people, we’ve got out entrance!” Mary yelled out, breaking the silence that had fallen as people had watched the plant grow. “This is what we’ve been working for, so let’s make it count!”

Both the dead and the guild began to move forwards in a mad rush, people on both sides of the conflict firing off abilities in rapid succession. Shields and auras were deployed, rays of energy were fired and all manner of weapon techniques were used in the chaotic battle. With the elite of both sides all fighting in such a small area, the golems and the undead were reduced to little more than scenery, being cut down at random as collateral damage by the true fighters.

Jicker, for his part, had gotten closer and was now crouching under a section of the rockweed, looking for targets. The rockweed, he’d found, made for good cover, as all of the metal it had pulled in had left the leaves as hard as iron, and just as heavy. Several random projectiles had come his way, only to break apart on striking them, yet leaving the plant intact.

Soon enough, the courtyards defenders fell to the guilds superior numbers and the council themselves emerged from the hall, taking the field. These were the best the city had, masters of their fields with even the weakest being a match for a dozen of the guilds warriors. Once the council had been NPCs, but now they were players from every background, from mages to monks, holy priests to assassins, craftsmen and berserkers, each having agreed to unite and rule the city.

While one of these councilmen demand surrender from the Rising Moon, another scanned the battlefield as they talked, studying the opposition. It was this person who managed to spot Jicker in his hiding place, locking eyes with him and a strange expression appearing on his face.

Suddenly, a sharp pain struck him from behind, and he saw his hp rapidly fall to zero. He wondered what weird skill or spell the player had cast on him, until he turned to find Oda standing over him, with Jicker’s blood still dripping from his knife. Jicker, unable to understand the betrayal, tried to say something, but the blood rapidly feeling his lungs denied him the opportunity.

“Sorry, I’ll explain later.” The assassin said, cleaning off his blade and returning to the fight without looking back. Before Jicker could do anything else, a cold feeling gripped him and things faded to grey, leaving him looking at a message he hadn’t seen in sometime.

You have died. You will lose 1 level and 2 skill levels, based on remaining character level, chosen at random. You will now be locked out of game for 24 hours, at which point you will be able to respawn at the nearest designated respawn point.

~~~~~~

Removing the headset, Matt raged internally, not knowing how to react. He’d trusted Oda, considered him something of a friend, only to be literally stabbed in the back. He tried to figure out why he would have don't it, some way he could understand or justify the attack, a way to process what had just happened. Perhaps that was what the person who’d been looking at him had been doing? Matt thought to himself, that they’d been forcing his allies to-

Suddenly, a memory sprang up in his mind, of something Oda had said to him some time ago.

“At higher levels, I can also see skills, stats and achievements.”

Oda had said True Sight was a hard skill to get, and Sarah had backed up those claims. But a person who was strong enough to help control and rule a city would definitely be capable of earning the skill if they worked at it. If that was true, and another person had been trying to see his skills...

As if on cue the phone rang, causing him to jump.

“Hey Sarah,” he said after he saw the caller id. “I was just thinking about-”

“He’s on his way to you,” she said in a panicked voice, cutting him off. “I don't know what you did but you need to run, get out of town until he calms down enough to be reasoned with.”

Matt took a shuddering breathe, a million thoughts going through his mind. “It’ll be fine Sarah; I’m not going anywhere yet.”

“You don't understand, he’s furious! You need to-”

“Thanks for the warning. Goodbye Sarah,” he said ending the call. He wasn’t sure of the exact trigger of the visit, but it had been a while since he’d heard from the company, so it could be any number of things. But everything was set up, and this was as good a chance as he was going to get. Grabbing a beer from the fridge to help settle his nerves, he sat down to wait for August’s arrival.

~~~~~~

To say there was knock on the door would lead to confusion, as the hammering sound made it clear they were coming in, and Matts only choice was whether he wanted the door to be able to close afterwards. Unlocking the door, it immediately swung open as a pair of Augusts people pushed their way inside, followed by the man himself, dressed in his normal business suit.

“You know Mr. Harper,” he said as he closed the door behind him. “Maybe it’s possible you’ve forgotten some of our little talks, what with how busy you’ve been playing with your new friends. But I seem to recall having been very clear on my opinions of you interfering with my businesses.”

“So what, I’ve cost you a few million again.” Matt replied blithely. He knew it would cost him, but he had to push things down the right track if this was going to work. What he didn’t expect, was for August to swing a punch suddenly, striking him in the face. He’d never been much of a fighter in real life, but it’d happened enough in Genesis that he knew that his nose was broken. Dropping to the floor in both shock and pain, he clutched at his nose trying to stem the blood that was pouring freely.

“Stand him up,” August ordered, as each of his men grabbed an arm, forcing him back to his feet. “Is this all still just a game for you? I suppose I can see how you’d make that mistake, but I can assure you that to me, this is quite serious.”

He continued, pacing as he removed his jacket. “You have cost me some money, or you will do after your work as spread out, and there’s not a lot I can do about it this time. I doubt you even fully realise the potential of plant that pull and process metals out of dirt, but I can assure that others do. Thanks to the news feeds of your friends little siege, there’s already a bidding war for samples of this “Rockweed” you’ve put together. Even I can’t tell where the ripples of this will end, but the mining industry will never be the same.

But the real thing that bothers me isn’t the money, it never was. No, this was about control. For years, I’ve been locked out my own game, forced to work by proxies to try and accomplish anything in what is my own damn property. But I could manage, I thought to myself, since after all the business was doing well, and that was what I wanted.

Then other companies started forming inside of my own product, and due to a few legal loopholes, not only weren’t we entitled to anything they did with it, but they could sue us if the system ever went down. For not being able to make money in our game! We had a blackout that shut down our systems for a few hours, and we lost almost a hundred million in lawsuits, with the government claiming a few themselves.”

August looked away, apparently lost in his memories. The men holding on to Matt had either didn’t care or were payed enough not to, continuing to hold on to him until their boss said otherwise.

“So after that, I decided that I would get back my game one way or another. Thousands of bribes and favours, hundreds of dummy companies, but eventually I started to buy back my own game. Do you have any idea how it makes me feel having to try and purchase land I created from a twelve year old running around with a sword?” He turned suddenly to Matt staring into his eyes. “And then you happened. All of my careful planning wiped out in an instant, entire landmasses I’d worked so hard to buy land on now no longer existing. My first thought to was to have you killed, and right now I'm somewhat regretting not following through on that thought. But then in the fall out, I saw it. Millions of opportunities to not only reclaim what you’d cost me, but to gain even more. The companies I fought with were broken and struggling to regain their footing as the hundreds of new entrepreneurs fought over newly discovered resources.

And that’s when it hit me, to have you work for me. Turn that unbridled chaos in the direction of opposition and be ready to claim what was left afterwards. And if it got more players back in the game then so much the better. But the plan would only work if you went along with it, but that wouldn’t be a problem in your situation. Or at least I thought as much, until you sprang those roaches of yours on the world. An entire resource, untapped and unclaimed, that shook several markets almost to the point of breaking. And now you’ve done it again, in a way that will be impossible to hide. It’s difficult to capitalise on your actions, if they don't just upset an industry, but pull it apart entirely. Anything to say for yourself?”

Matt looked at him before snorting and spitting some blood on the floor. “Do you know you monologue a lot?”

August walked up to him and buried a fist in his kidney, drawing a low gasp of pain from Matt that would have sent him to the floor again if he wasn’t being held up.

“Hilarious, anything else, Mr. Harper.” He asked casually.

Matt looked him in the eye. “How about smile, you’re on camera.”

August paused. “Excuse me?”

Matt tilted his head towards a small camera mounted in the corner of the room. “I had a couple of security cameras put up a couple of days ago. Seemed like a good idea, can never be too careful with your safety and all that.”

August raised an eyebrow. “Let me guess, the police are on their way here?”

Matt shook his head, wincing as he did so. “Please, as if you don't own every cop for a hundred miles in every direction. No that footage is set to be sent to every news network I could track down around the globe, and will be if I don't keep sending a signal to cancel it. And before you ask, yes there are back ups, encryptions, the works. The security people who set it up for me said it was over kill, but hey, I had some money to burn.”

August expression turned more serious. “They’d ignore it; they always do with spam like that.”

“You’re right,” Matt said in agreement, confusing August further. “And with your reach you’d easily be able to bury the ones who decided to with the story. But that’s not the point.”

“And what is the point?”

“A guy like you, claiming businesses left and right, running up against the government to get things done tends to make a few enemies. Now I’m going out on a limb and thinking a few of those people, maybe other businesses or government agencies, might have the power to make some things stick, would love a plausible reason for digging through your business and holdings. You wouldn’t have done anything illegal over the years would you?”

Augusts face went through a number of colours, turning from red to pale and back again so quickly it can have been good for his heart. But eventually he calmed himself down and spoke in this normal steady and almost friendly voice.

“So if you do down, I’m coming with you? Clever, not the choice I’d have gone with, but not entirely ineffective. I guess for now were at something of an impasse, since I don't really want to go to prison, and you don't want to be dead. Answer me this, how long do you think it will take before I track down your footage and destroy it?” he asked.

“A few weeks, maybe a few months if I'm lucky. I paid for the best I could get, but you’ve got some good people working for you,” he shrugged.

“Yes, I do, though I'm going to have words with the people who were supposed to be monitoring your home. Well I suppose this means you’ve bought yourself a bit of freedom, at least until it’s done. Then you’ll be right back where you belong.”

“And then it begins again, until I find a way to get clear of you for good.”

“So now what? You’re going to go on a bender with your new found freedom, maybe try going to the press?”

“I figure I’ll go to bed then check out how the siege panned out, maybe get to work on a few new ideas for creatures I had.”

August furrowed his brow. “You’re going to keep playing? Even while I don't have your life in my hands?’

“You wanted to gain control of Genesis but I just wanted to make it interesting for people to play again. It’s why I caused the upheaval in the first place, and while I hate you and pretty much everything you stand for, I signed a contract. It may have been in distress, but I still believe in that goal, so yeah I’m going to keep playing.”

August looked at him, honest surprise on his face, before nodding to his two guards who dropped him, sending him stumbling to the floor.

“How very noble of you, I suppose. Well I guess we’ll be heading out then, though I should mention a rather large flaw in your plan for our meeting.”

“What’s that?” Matt asked curiously, looking up at him.

“When you’re already holding blackmail against someone of them being violent, there’s nothing to stop them doing this.” He said, before turning sharply. A large and well made leather shoe rapidly came into focus as it filled Matt’s field of view, followed by pain that seemed to fill his whole body.

“Have a pleasant evening, Mr. Harper,” were the last words he heard before he blacked out.