Lucy, Florence and a dozen others were talking to one another in an open office area within the Stone Raiders guild house.

Josh walked through the door, walking over to where Florence and Lucy were talking about the next food and materials shipment.

Many of the people in the room weren’t even using the same mirror of communication. The PKP had a bunch of them, being such expensive items, they targeted other players that had them, using them as a status symbol.

Florence had quickly bought a number of the smaller Mirror of communications that were much cheaper than their larger and further ranged mirrors like the one Dave had secluded in his seeder. The Stone Raiders had found a large number of the mirrors wherever they were hidden, having the Exdar’s Traders sell them off. A number of trade agreements had been advanced by offering a mirror at reduced cost to a governing person. They used them to display their wealth and power, not only to advance their ability to safely meet face to face with their subjects and other rulers.

“We’re going to need some more alchemy ingredients as well,” Lucy said.

“How are you looking for meat?” Florence asked.

“We’ve got an agreement with some hunters for grade A meat.”

“Damn, that must be why that market terminal has been rating it as so expensive. Never had something so tasty,” Florence sighed. “Which brings me to those terminals. If we were able to use them and put them into every city and village then charged even a one percent tax, then we could make fist over gold. It would also mean that we wouldn’t need to use the wagons so much.”

“Didn’t you get the upgraded magical coding to improve their speed?”

“Ah, yes we have, though we’re going to need better magical beasts to pull them. The Quada are now too slow. I was thinking of heading to Ashal or Per’Ush to see what manner of beasts they have in order to increase our delivery speed.’

“You’re already the fastest distributors in Emerilia by far and you want to go faster?” Lucy looked amused.

“You should know, the faster we are the better the profits will be upon reaching our destination. Oh we had the Archmage come and see us the other day, it seems that they want to come into a trade agreement with us. Seems that we are the fastest suppliers of fine materials that they have had the pleasure of working with.”

“Is that so? I wonder if it has anything to do with the terminal you have in your guild headquarters and being able to get anything we’re selling in moments?” Lucy said with a wry smile.

“It might have something to do with that,” Florence said, tapping her chin in thought. “If I was to tell them that, they’d probably want to pull it apart! I know Bronx is always talking about the latest ancient artifact he bought and admired. He’s getting a lecturers spot at the mage’s college because of his knowledge did you know?”

“I didn’t know that, good for him.”

Josh cleared his throat as he moved beside the desk the two ladies were talking to one another across. Their interfaces glowing white windows off to the side.

“Ah, Josh! How is it going?” Florence asked, dismissing her screen.

“Not bad, planning out how to retake a housing complex that is filled with shambling mounds, cultists and possibly a paladin,” Josh sighed, grabbing a chair and sitting down. “So what did you need me for?”

“Well Lucy and I have been talking,” Florence said the both of them smiling as Josh looked between them.

“I know that the Stone Raiders and the Golden Sabres are looking to become an alliance. The Stone Raiders and Exdar’s Traders have worked beside one another for quite a while now. Our two guilds working as a single entity in most situations. I was thinking that we could make it official,” Florence said.

“The proposal is that the Exdar’s Traders becomes a part of the Stone Raiders. Florence would take over my position as quartermaster. Allowing me to look towards my supporting Stone Raiders instead of the supply situation,” Lucy said.

As well as your spies. Josh thought, holding his chin in thought.

There were a number of benefits, profits would increase as it wouldn’t be taxed by the Stone Raiders and then the Exdar’s, they would give it just a single tax. They had already been working closely together that some of the Stone Raiders had been training with the Exdar’s or using their connections to get into places they wanted to train.

As time had gone on the Exdar’s had stopped being just regular players and started to become another clan of E-heads. They were able to trade gold and other items directly for money, giving them a comfortable lifestyle on Earth. Enough to afford pods. Hell, there were a number of them sharing the same facility as Josh.

Josh’s pensive frown turned to a smile.

“Hell, I already think of you lot as part of the guild anyway. If you need me to sign anything you’ll have it. I’ll leave it up to you two what you decide how to go about it all,” Josh said, standing and moving to Florence with his hand outstretched, excited whispers and murmurs passed through the room.

Florence stood finding Josh pulling her into a hug.

“Welcome to the Stone Raiders!” He said.

“Thanks,” Florence laughed as others whistled and cheered.

“Now I’ve got a damned housing complex to clear out! Unless you have something else for me, I’ll get going,” Josh said.

“See you later. I’ll get Suzy. She’s better at this whole side of things,” Luzy said.

***

Josh disappeared from the guild hall and back in his bedroom. He stood and stretched, waking up fully.

He sighed, rubbing his face. He had been in talks with Cassie about having the Golden Sabres joining the Stone Raiders in an alliance but it became clear that they hadn’t recovered from the betrayal of so many within their ranks.

Golden Sabres was just barely keeping up the veil that they were a functioning guild. Josh knew that it would be but a manner of weeks until the guild would dissolve. He didn’t know what the Golden Sabres were going to do, but he did know that Cassie and her trusted personal friends were looking to join the Stone Raiders.

Guilds were falling and rising across Emerilia. There were a number that were saying that they were the most powerful.

Josh was looking forward to throwing them off of the assumed top.

A proud smile grew across his face as he moved to the shower in his room. His guild had grown, it wasn’t massive like many other guilds, just under three hundred members. Nearly all of them were now E-heads. This had become their world in a way that Earth had never been.

He only had to look at Dwayne and Lucy’s lieutenants, Jules and Esa, Jules didn’t have legs back on Earth. Esa was barely making ends meet. Now they were both within E-head facilities, fully paid for and provided with their in-game transactions, Emerilia had become their lives.

It was what had pushed Cassie and Josh apart. Being in an E-head facility, the pods they lived in would look after their bodies needs thus not needing to log out for weeks instead of hours. Cassie however, just had the regular headset, meaning every 8 hours in real life, or 24 hours in Emerilia, she had to log off. She was also supported by streams and her own brand she had built up with playing other video games, taking her to meetings and events away from Emerilia. She was one of the best fighters on Emerilia and people payed a ton to see her fight and ogle her. Josh just wanted to live his life out in Emerilia and be left alone by the world.

Cassie wanted to tell the world about their relationship but Josh didn’t want to.

He didn’t want to be dragged from Emerilia to go to the same conferences, banquets, dances and exposes that he had become wrapped up in as an investment banker.

Cassie saw that coming to the Stone Raiders would keep her relevant. Josh made it clear that while people could sell some of their videos there would be times that there were things that was guild business only.

He’d told Cassie this and she’d brushed it off.

The Stone Raiders were fine with this as they made enough from the loot that they were selling that they were well supported on Earth.

Josh was not looking forward to talking to Cassie about not selling her footage because of the sensitive nature of the quests with the Aleph, Demons and Demi-humans if she joined them.

The Demi-humans and Demons were stronger than ever but they still needed time to set themselves up to take on anything that threatened them. The Aleph, well the Aleph hadn’t said a damn thing.

Dave had told Josh that they were back in a private message but it seemed that they were content to keep to themselves as the Stone Raiders cleared out and repaired their homes.

As they went along they were given resources per clearing out each area.

Josh pulled up the quest log.

Quest: Aleph homecoming

You have returned control of an unknown Aleph City to the Aleph and returned it to full functionality.

Other locations have been made available to you. Based on the power you have returned to the city and your group’s skill level you can travel to the following locations:

Aleph Portal Factory x1 (Ability to fix portals in different locations)

Aleph Greenhouses x1 (Access to Herbs and Food)

Aleph Mining Facilities x2 (Repairs continue at faster rate)

Aleph College x1 (Knowledge on the Aleph areas you will be entering and different systems to repair)

Aleph Housing complex x1 (Increases in all areas)

Aleph Forges x3 (Access to weapons, upgrades and automatons to buy for your own use)

Rewards: ???

Still the rewards had remained a mystery. The Aleph College was nothing that they had been expecting. The entire place was one massive scaled dungeon. It was half the size of the city Josh was standing in but it had all manner of experiments that the Aleph had been working on and that had been altered with time.

He needed Dave to check over the remaining facilities. The Repair bots would take weeks to finish the work. After finding out about the Aleph Engineer class, the crafters were pouring all their time into learning from Dave and working on the various facilities. Yet there were still problems that they couldn’t understand. Dealing with the portal factories was largely left to Dave and Malsour. Crafters went with them but the concepts were too advanced that there were only few that were able to understand the two as they worked.

To complete the Portal Factories’ work, they would need to clear out the college. There were missing gaps of knowledge that were stored in the college. While Malsour and Dave could access a wide variety of information through their librarian necklaces, there were some materials that were not kept in the Aleph’s repository but instead kept in the College.

To fix the portal factories, they would need to take the College which was not going to be an easy task.

Josh turned off the shower and dried off, looking at himself in the mirror.

“Ah, looking good mate,” he said, making a pistol with his hand and pointing it at himself. His thin frame now had corded muscles covering it. He snorted at his own antics, putting the towel down. He hotkeyed his normal gear.

Leather clothes as black as night appeared a hood not dissimilar to the hoods that Party Zero had which created shadows over the face, only allowing their eyes to be visible, lay behind his head.

He checked the two Demon’s blades in the small of his back, a familiar thrill filling him as his eyes turned black for a slight moment.

The weapons were incredible, allowing him to cover himself in shadows, the more he killed with the blades the faster he became. After a period of not being sated the speed decreased back to normal.

It was one hell of a rush.

Josh checked his throwing blades and the modified crossbow on his back.

He headed out of his room, the hall had Stone Raiders throughout it, they nodded and greeted him, some talking others returning from their work or going out to it.

Josh meandered through, heading to where Kim was practicing different artillery spells with a few of her casters as well as showing other classes how to cast simple spells.

Emerilia rewarded those that focused on one class. But everyone was capable of casting magic and fighting with melee weapons.

“How are the trainees going?” Josh asked, walking over to her.

“Good, they’re barely trainees anymore. Everyone has an at least understanding of magic. Most are using it for enhancing their fighting styles. Looks like we’re going to have a whole bunch of spell swords,” Kim said.

“Well, that is sure to scare the hell out of some people,” Josh grinned.

Kim rolled her eyes, the corners of her mouth lifting up slightly.

“So, when are we going to clear out that Housing complex?”

“Once we have all of the other facilities cleared out, then we can deal with it.”

“I’m guessing we’re leaving the Aleph College for last?” Kim looked to Josh.

“Yeah, that place is huge and the scout guardians did not make it look simple,” Josh shook his head.

“What made you think that? Was it the level three hundred and fifty ArchLich? Or his level two hundred and seventy plus, helpers? Maybe the fact that he has been inside the largest repository of magical artifacts and information outside of Per’Ush, for centuries?”

“That might have been a factor.”

“Do we still not have any idea where its damned soul box is?”

“You mean the phylactery?”

“Yeah.”

“No we don’t have any idea,” Josh sighed.

“I really hope that Shard wasn’t right this one time. How the hell could the Arch Lich make the entire College its lair?”

“Don’t know, but it would explain how it is able to find even the scout Guardians. I’m going to get some breakfast and then check on the other facilities. Make sure that everyone is rotating. I know we’ve been down here a while but I want everyone rested and ready before we head into the Housing complex.”

“Will do, see you later,” Kim said, waving Josh off as she headed back out into her training square to educate her trainees.

Josh shuddered thinking about the housing complex.

I friggin hate spiders.

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