When Matt awoke, the first thing he realised was that he was lying on the floor, followed rapidly by the fact that his head hurt like hell. Putting his hands to his face, he immediately regretted it as his fingers touched his nose and set off a series of jagged pains reminded him of what had happened. Looking around blearily, he saw that he’d been left alone, apparently lying in a small pool of blood.

Gingerly getting to his feet, he looked around to see if they were just out of sight, when he saw note sitting on the table next to him. His headache made the words blur and hard to read, but after a moment things began to focus properly.

“I’ve been assured by my men that you have no lasting injuries, and took the liberty of having one of the men set your nose back into place. No need for you to go to the hospital and start making unnecessary paperwork.

August”

“How considerate,” he said bitterly as he crumpled the note and threw it towards the trash. He went to the couch and sat in silence, thinking deeply about how things had gone. As he ran through what had happened, he knew that he should have handled things differently; that he shouldn’t have ran up against August directly. But as the man had started closing in on him, he’d panicked and had needed to put something between them, even if it would cost him in the long run.

But he’d bought himself a few weeks at least, which would hopefully be long enough to find a more substantial solution. He needed to find a more permanent way to get him off his back, something that he couldn’t just walk over with money or his connections. The problem there was that any legal answer Matt came up with could be countered by some of August’s less than above board options.

Figuring he’d be better off taking his time and thinking things out more thoroughly, he went to see if he could log back in. Apparently he hadn’t been lying on the floor as long as he’d thought since he still had a little over fourteen hours to go before he could go and see what had happened. As he got up to see if anything had been posted online, the blood rushed to his head, making him wobble and almost fall back down.

“Or, I could go to bed.” He muttered to himself as he gingerly rubbed his temples. Taking a quick shower to clean him up, he grabbed a couple of aspirin and tried to get some sleep.

~~~~~~

“I swear it’s what I saw!” he said again.

“Are you sure? This isn’t another case of your ability to read being so bad it hurts is it?”

“I'm telling you it’s him it has to be!”

Most of them had died in the siege, but the Ardenvale council hadn’t spent so long working together without getting to know each other outside of Genesis. They were currently sitting in a private chat room, mourning their losses and planning out what to do with themselves now, when David, who’d been their best rogue and assassin, had brought up an interesting piece of information.

“You remember when you swore that a guy had the ‘Grand Maker’ achievement? We got all our money together and went to find them to have some gear made, only to find them working in a bakery.” Another said, getting a few chuckles from others in the call.

“And what could I have mistaken ‘Grand Genocide’ for?” David continued, ignoring them. The chat went silent for a moment.

“Okay fine, let’s say you’re right; let’s say you’ve spotted Maser. What do we do with that information? Do we sell it or go after him ourselves”

“David, did you get a good look at him? Could you give people a description to go off of?”

“I was too busy looking for threats to study faces, and someone took him out before I could find out much, but from what I remember he wasn’t a very high level.”

“That makes sense I suppose, if he started a new character. So do we want to try and make some money, or do we go on a hunt?”

~~~~~~

By the time Matt woke up his head was starting to feel better, though his reflection shows that his face was a lot more purple and swollen than he remembered. But enough time had passed that he could log back in and find out what the damage was.

When the game loaded up he found himself standing in the Ardenvale cemetery, along with dozens of other players who’d been killed in the battle. As he got his bearings, two pieces of information came to his attention. The first was that he’d lost both a rank of handle animal, and that his herbalism skill had dropped back down to two. The second, more pressing matter was that apparently the items he’d lost on his death included his jacket and pants, leaving him standing with just his shirt and underwear.

Racing towards the groundskeeper’s house, he opened the large chest that was kept by the door for this very reason. People had all agreed to contribute a small amount of their taxes to ensure that a stash of simple clothing would be kept at city respawn points at all times. People may have been unwilling to pay for roads, or to share medical bills, but no one wanted to be stuck walking around the city naked. They were nothing but simple white cotton item, but they did the job and that was all that mattered when you’d just woken up.

Properly clothed and awake, Jicker left the cemetery to see if he could go and get some answers. The fighting had definitely finished, with people once again wandering through the streets and shops open for business. A number of people were hard at work repairing some of the damage the siege had left, repaving the roads and restoring shop fronts. One thing also quickly became obvious, and that was that the Rising Moon had won. There was something about zombies walking through the city streets while being ignored by everyone else that seemed oddly disturbing, even if they weren’t doing anything.

With that in mind, he made his way towards the council hall in hopes that the guild had set up shop in the same place the previous rulers had. Sure enough, armed guards were patrolling the area that was now adorned with banners of the guild. The repairs around the area seemed to have already been completed, though the rockweed still filled a section of the wall, despite tools and axes littering the ground around it.

Approaching the main gates, his entrance was barred when a pair of guards stepped in front of him, forcing him to halt.

“Halt! No one is to enter the hall without permission from the council.” One said in a bored tone.

“So I take it we won the fight then?” Jicker asked the speaker, which got them to pause.

“You’re in the guild? I don't remember seeing you around anywhere before...” they asked suspiciously.

“I'm not in guild at the moment; I'm sort of, I don't know, adjacent?”

The other guard snapped his fingers suddenly and pointed at him, understanding dawning on his face. “That’s where I've seen you before! When the seeker patrol got wiped out, the boss was yelling at you and Oda! I take it by the pants you didn’t make it through the siege?”

“Something like that. I was hoping I could find someone to talk to about that, and maybe see if can track down the stuff I dropped. Can I come in now?” Jicker asked patiently.

“Hold on just a second, I should probably double check with someone.”

“No need guys, I can take it from here.” Gabe called out as he walked out of the hall in what looked like a Hawaiian shirt. “A couple of Mary’s zombies spotted you on your way over, so I figured I’d come and let you in.”

“Thanks Gabe, but more importantly, what the hell are you wearing?” asked Jicker, the brightly coloured clothing so at odds with what he’d seen of the guild so far.

“Hmmm? Oh these? According to Mary, I'm only slightly above useless when it comes to repairs and management of the city, so I've spent my time celebrating. I was just about to go and get a few more drinks when I got called out here. Now come on, there are a few things you need to be filled in on.”

Walking through the newly claimed building was a strange contrast to the old guild hall he’d seen. What he’d seen before were people in dark robes going silently about their business, there was now colour filling the hallways, people laughing and talking openly as they worked. Apparently no longer being shunned as outcasts, they’d dropped the dark and brooding image and were letting themselves finally relax.

The room Gabe brought him to had been done up in an almost identical fashion to the one where he’d first been introduced to the guild, if more brightly lit. The top brass of the guild were sitting around the room working, but on their entrance all work stopped suddenly, and several aides were ordered from the room.

“Jicker, good to see you came back to see us.” Mary said from behind a desk piled high with paperwork and forms.

“I felt I should come and see how things panned out. What’s with the fire hazard?” Jicker replied, gesturing to the stacks.

She sighed. “A million little things that need to be done after claiming a city, that all need to be signed by me personally. Insurance forms, business licenses, citizenships and everything else even vaguely affected by the change in ownership. But that’s not exactly why we had you called in here.”

“Sorry about this.” Oda said awkwardly as he stepped from the shadows.

“The people in the room at the moment are the only ones in the guild who know what were about to talk about, and we’ve all agreed to secrecy for the time being. I can tell you’re confused so I’ll get to the point, and we can take it from there.

Once we attacked the hall and you broke down the wall with that plant of yours, which will be another matter entirely, Gabe saw Oda take you out just as the battle began. After some serious questions about loyalties, Oda came clean with us, and told us about you.”

“What, exactly, did he say?” Jicker asked hesitantly, fearing the worst.

Oda sighed. “That you are, or were, Maser and that I’d known for a while. Listen I'm sorry about killing you but one of the council guys had the same skill I do and-”

Jicker held up a hand, interrupting him. “I get it, and I thought it would be something like that. So now what? Are you going to attack me, run me out of town or try and sell me to the highest bidder?”

There was silence for a moment, and then Gabe burst into laughter, quickly followed by the rest of the room, leaving Jicker looking around confused.

“God, I wasn’t sure how you’d react but I didn’t expect you’d be so matter of fact about it.” Mary said as she wiped a tear from her eye. “No, for better or worse we’ve pulled you into our little family here, and we don't turn on each other or sell them out. I mean, I’ll level with you, whatever drama you’ve got going on outside the game because of this is your own problem, and we won’t get involved, but while you’re logged in, we’ve got your back.”

“That’s...a lot better than I’d expected.” Jicker said, honestly surprised.

“Meh, pretty much everyone in the guild has been chased and attacked for committing fictional crimes in a fictional world. Yours are a little bigger than everyone else’s, but the ideas the same. But it does bring us to the main point, and it’s a biggie.”

“And that is?”

“From what Oda told us, he doubts the guy got a good look at you before you got taken out, so you might actually be in the clear. But until we know for sure... we’d like you to get out of town for a while.”

Jicker stood quietly for a moment as he processed what she’d said. “That doesn’t exactly sound like you have my back.”

“No it doesn’t and I'm sorry about that. While the city is ours now and they can’t attack us for a month, we’re still in a rough spot right now. We used up a lot of resources taking the city, and its going to take time to replace them, even if we can be more open about it now. But if word get out that Maser had been sighted in the city, we’re going to be drowning in adventurers with a score to settle. It’s lucky, in a way, that you’re not technically part off the guild, so they can’t try to get anything out of us about you. Well lucky for us I suppose, it’s still kind of a shit show for you isn’t it.” Mary said, looking unhappy about the situation. She wasn’t the gentlest leader, but she was fiercely protective over the rest of the guild, as long as they didn’t push her too far. That brought another thought to mind.

“The silhouwolves! Did they have many casualties?” Jicker asked quickly out of nowhere.

“What? Oh no they didn't have any deaths as far as we could tell, just a few scrapes here and there. Apparently there weren’t that many runners, so they stayed safe for the most part. Everything went fine on their end, though one of our people, Harrison, was apparently killed out there before the wolves could help him. A terrible shame really.”

“I'm sure they’re very upset about it.” Jicker replied, both of them doing their best keep straight faces and ignore Oda’s chuckling. The mood in the room lightened after that, but Mary’s tone remained serious.

“So we’d appreciate if you went out of town for a while, maybe a month or so? Just until things settle down and we can do some recon on what that guy actually saw.”

“Yeah!” Gabe said from the corner, lifting up a glass. “Take it easy for a while and cash in on your earnings from the siege! You were pretty involved right up until the finale, how’d you make out anyway.”

“I haven’t actually checked yet, I was a little busy finding some pants. Speaking of which...”

“I’ll have someone go and get your things,” Mary said with a wave. “Now come on, Gabe’s got me curious now as well.”

Opening up his menu, Jicker brought up his quest log, looking for the siege information, and finding that he’d completed another quest he’d forgotten about.

Ding!

Quest: The Secret Heart of the Mountain - Complete!

Reward: Improved standing with the Rising Moon.

Ding!

Quest: The Siege of Ardenvale - Complete!

Rewards: Player rewards their contributions.

Contributions made by player:

Recruited allies

Part of offensive

Defeated opposing forces - 23

Attacked gates

Opened gates - 2

Broke final defences

Calculating...Final reward ranking- A

A glimmer of golden light appeared in front of him, drawing his hand towards it. As he made contact with it, it flickered and twisted, folding in on itself until it became a small golden box, no bigger than an apple.

“I got an A!? But I barely did anything!” Jicker exclaimed as he looked at the object in his hands. The rewards you could get from an event like this varied massively, but to simplify things there was a graded scale ranging from D to S. Receiving a D was what you got for being present, but not actually doing anything, and you got a few coins at best. Getting involved in any way that wasn’t betraying your own side would earn you a C, which would usually give you the equivalent of a good quality weapon or piece armour. Larger contributions, like taking a key point would earn you a B, and could get you some magical items or better. Managing to get an A was usually reserved for the commanders in charge of large forces, or champions that had turned the tide of battle, and the rewards for that were sometimes enough to cause battles in the first place. It was unclear what the rewards of an S ranked reward would be, but since you would need to basically defeat a country single-handedly to earn one, they were only talked about as myths.

To Jicker, earning such a high reward for what he’d done seemed...wrong. When he said as much to the others, they disagreed with him.

“Let’s see,” Oda said as he began ticking off his fingers. “You got the wolves to help us out, which counts for a lot as these things go. You didn’t do all the work, but you were the one who technically opened two of the gates, and then there’s the matter of the plant that we’re still trying to get rid of while people keep sneaking off with clippings. Is it really that surprising? I got an A myself, and so did a couple of others, with Mary pulling off an A plus. So come on, open the box!”

You have received:

Six levels

1 wild stat point

Amulet of Natural Selection

The results were...surprisingly unimpressive. The levels were nice, though at this point it wasn’t actually worth much experience, but since it was a flat value that was his own problem more than anything. The wild stat point was good, since unlike a normal point it could be used on any stat he had and was promptly dropped into evolution, since every point there help him level.

“So?” Gabe asked excitedly. “What’s in the box?”

“A few levels, a wild point and an amulet.”

“That’s it? Mary got an entire set of gear out of her reward. I think you got ripped off.”

“Maybe, maybe not. What does the amulet do?” Oda asked curiously.

Jicker pulled out the amulet and had a proper look at it. A thin circle of jet black stone, it was attached to a fine chain of what looked like the same material. On to the face of the pendant were pieces of jade set in to form an image of an eagle diving towards a rabbit. As he handled it he felt a spark of energy jump from it to his hand, and quickly pulled up its information.

Amulet of Natural Selection

Item type: Jewellery

Grade: Unique (Soul bound)

Restriction: Dark Chemist class

This ancient amulet holds powers once forgotten.

Special: +20 Intelligence, mana cost of adaptation reduced by 20%.

Further abilities require the aid of a master to unlock.

“Well, its soul bound so for better or worse I'm stuck with it. And apparently I need to track down a master of my class to unlock it properly,” he said as he equipped it with a sigh. Soul bound equipment was usually top tier stuff, but with one key downside: it could never be gotten rid of. You couldn’t sell it, drop it or trade it away, and with the exception of divine intervention they couldn’t be taken from you. They often had a quest attached that would allow them to be removed of improved, but that was going to be difficult.

“Well that could be good, where’s the nearest one? I’ll give you a lift.” Gabe said, getting up from his seat. Jicker shook his head.

“I’d never even heard of this class until I ended up with it and I doubt you’ve seen one either. I’ve already done some searching around, and all of the teachers for my class have apparently vanished.”

“How does that happen?”

“Not a clue, but I'm trying to track down where they were last seen, so maybe I can get some answers there.”

“Well, we did want you to get out of town for a while, and there are worse things you could do with your time than try and track one down.” Mary suggested.

“Sure, I’ll just drop everything and go on a trip to god knows where to find someone that might not even exist.”

“...are you ok? You sound kind of bitter about this,” she asked with concern in her voice.

Jicker took a deep breath and cleared his head. “I’m fine, just some personal garbage. It just always seems that I’m being led around from place to place whether I like it or not, and it's starting to get to me. But you’re right I suppose, and it's not like I’ve got anything better to do around here.”

“I'm sorry about this, but I don't want to put the guild at risk at the moment if we can avoid it. Listen, while you’re travelling around, there’s actually something I’d like you to do if you don't mind.”

“Hmm? What are you after?”

Mary pulled out a sheet of paper and began writing out a list, talking as she did so. “Before we started preparing for the takeover, the guild was spread out all over the place. But when we went dark to keep the element of surprise, we lost contact with some of our operations. Now, I don't know where you’re going to end up going, but if you manage to swing by any of these places and find out what happened, I’d appreciate it.”

Finishing off the list and handing it to him, it became clear that the meeting was over and people began to file in and out of the room, including one person carrying a small bag holding his dropped items. With his gear collected and given instructions to leave town, Jicker didn’t feel like sticking around. His first stop was over to the academy to cancel his room and pick up a few bits and pieces he’d left there. After that it didn’t take long him to get to the city gates, which in their current state of repair were just a stone arch with a few people keeping an eye on things.

He was about to head out when a hand fell on his shoulder. Turning, he found Oda standing behind him, holding the reins of a small horse in his other hand.

“You know,” the assassin said. “You don't have to walk everywhere when you’ve got friends with resources.”

“I’ve already got plenty from the guild so far.” Jicker said.

“I didn’t mean the guild, I meant me. I still feel kind of shitty for stabbing you before, so I hope this can help make up for it,” he said, offering him the reins. Jicker looked at the horse, which was trying to eat a tree painted onto a sign post.

“Thanks for the offer, really, but I’ve never been that great a rider. So if I'm going to get myself a mount I think I’ll look for something a bit...smarter. Like, literally anything except that horse.”

“Hey that’s a bit harsh. It’s not that bad.”

“Oda, it’s currently trying to fit its head into a drain pipe.” Jicker said incredulously as he watched it.

“...Ok fine, I had a bet with Gabe to see if I could get you to take it. But seriously if you need anything, just drop a message and I’ll see what I can do. Good luck out there man, if it turns out that you’ve been spotted, you could be looking at a rough time.”

“I know, but Mary was right that distance is probably a good idea right now. Speaking of which, I should probably get some details on where I should go looking.”

Saying good bye, Jicker went into a nearby alley and logged out.

~~~~~~

His first realisation when he logged out was that his face still hurt, followed by the fact that the rest of him didn’t feel much better. Carefully getting up and heading to the kitchen, he grabbed a few more painkillers and raided the fridge for a few things that didn’t need to be prepared. After finishing off his makeshift meal, he sent an email to Sarah about getting information on his class trainers.

It was only a few minutes later as he was looking at some videos to kill time when his phone began to ring.

“Sarah hi, listen I was wondering if-”

“Oh thank god you’re ok!” she exclaimed loudly, cutting him off. “He was going to your house, and then he came back with a weird expression on his face and you weren’t answering your phone and-”

“Sarah, relax! Things were tense for a while, but right now everything is fine. Well, not fine but things are...stable.”

“Are you sure? Because I just got an order to put you through to the boss,” she said nervously.

“What on earth does the bastard want now?” Matt groaned, falling back on to the couch.

“You’ll find out in a second, so maybe rein it in a little?”

The connection died for a brief moment, the sounds of pipe music coming through as hold music began to play, before they cut out again.

“So, Mr. Harper, I didn’t think we’d need to speak again quite so soon after our little run in yesterday, but here we are.” August said in his usual smug tone.

“What do you want August?” Matt asked flatly, rubbing his nose as he said it.

“What I want isn’t the question I need answered. I thought we’d come to an ...Accord when we spoke, so I'm confused about this latest act of yours.”

“What are you blaming me for now?”

“I don't know why you think my memory is faulty, but I do recall you telling me you had blackmail material. Sending a reminder via anonymous email was unnecessary and honestly a bit tactless”

Confusion made Matt remain quiet and in his silence August continued.

“I admit though, the other pieces of data you sent over were a surprise. I didn’t think you had the skill or ruthlessness to dig up some of those old records. But the question remains, why did you send it? What do you want?”

“I didn’t send it.” Matt said quietly after finding his voice.

“Excuse me?”

“I didn’t send you an email. I haven’t even accessed the video since yesterday.”

August went so quiet that Matt wondered whether the line had disconnected.

“You’re sure? This email didn’t come from you, or from someone you’ve hired to help you?” August asked, sounding almost ... desperate?

“I don't even have your email address, and honestly I didn't want anything else to with you.” Matt replied. He waited for a response, then a laboured breath came through the phone.

“Then someone else is aware of our arrangement, what happened yesterday, and a host of other activities. And apparently they’re interested in you.”

“What?”

“Apart from the host of files attached to the email, there was a single line of text, and it gave a pretty clear indication of their intent.”

Matt licked his lips nervously. “What did it say?”

“’Continue the work or be held accountable. We will be watching.’”